Maddie at Christmas

You may remember last Holiday season we had a stray dog show up. She was beyond sweet, but with a house full of cats, she was not a good mix. The power of the Internet came into play. I sent her photo to Virginia, it was forwarded to Vermont, sent back to Virginia and forwarded to a neighbor who just happened to be looking for a new dog. We drove our Bunnymellon to Virginia where she became Cris and Maria's Maddie.

This summer we saw Jason and Neville, who sent us to Cris and Maria. Jason said Maddie was a ball of energy and he shared some photos. Evidently, Maddie is a bit hard to photograph due to her bounding energy. 

It seems that most photos of her are just a blur.

We took a famous "video" of the future Maddie as an introduction for her prospective owners. The video was about a minute of my feet, as even then, Maddie was hard to photograph.

For Christmas, Teddy and the Halloweener cats sent Maddie a little present. I think their Christmas joy was motivated by the fact that they were joyful Maddie was no longer in such close proximity.  It's a cat thing.  Finally, we were able to see a calm photo of Maddie, with her Christmas gift. She is no longer skin and bones, but a healthy and wildly happy dog.

It was a great present.

Happy New Year

It just wouldn't be New Years Day without black eyed peas and collards.  Plus, you will need some pork to cook the greens and collards.  And you need some cornbread and a bit of potato salad. So now I will be rich in 2016.

A few words about dinner.

Not to bitch and moan in the new year, but it is really important that we begin to expand the food on our tables.  If that means spending a bit more to shop with local farmers, then so be it. In an attempt to streamline our food consumption, we have let corporations take over.  Instead of producing more food, they have severely limited the food we see in the grocery store.  Yet all around the country, in back yard plots and small farms, people are planting seeds they have saved for generations.  Take a look at today's cornbread.

In a grocery store, one can fine dozens of different "brands" of cornmeal, but the corn is either yellow or white. In the most gourmet of establishments, one might run across an occasional bag of blue cornmeal. But what about cornmeal from the 1800's?  Our cornbread was made with an old dent corn produced in when Native American corn cross pollinated with white settler's corn. The result is Bloody Butcher Corn, a bright red, amazingly moist, with a truly beautiful texture unheard of with store bought meal.

In the hills of West Virginia, the corn was a staple and on many farms it still is.This corn was grown and ground at Hawthorne Valley Farms, just up the road from here. Like most families who grow the corn, the seeds originally came from ancestors who passed them down from generation to generation.  These farmers are seed savers and for the rest of the country, they often make the excess seeds available to others.

Our pork came from just down the road.  The Jennings Brae Bank Farm is run by young farmers who will quite literally put the food on our tables in the future...and now. They put a lot of the meat we eat on our table already! Once again, the meat we get from the farm bears little resemblance to the meat you find in a grocery store. Truth be told, you will find the prices of meat from a local farmer to be quite close to what you might pay in the grocery and the quality will be remarkable.

And now a personal plug. In late October as the weather looked like it would be getting colder (who knew it would be 72 on Christmas Eve) we set out make up a batch of Fire Cider, an old remedy for snifflily ailments.  Everyone has a different recipe, but mine went something like this.

Fire Cider

In a sterilized quart jar add...

1 sliced orange (or lemon, lime or whatever citrus one might have)
1 thumb sized piece of turmeric, sliced
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
4 habanero peppers, pricked with a knife
6 whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon of honey 
Bragg Organic Cider Vinegar to fill the jar.

Put a plastic lid on the jar and shake. Let sit on the window sill for 3 to 4 weeks. Strain out solids and store in a glass jar.

The few times we have found that little scratch in the back of the throat, we have taken a spoon or two of Fire Cider and felt much better.

Today when we were looking at dinner, we though about vinegar for the greens and remembered the Fire Cider.  While we have used it for medicinal purposes, we found it was a perfect accompaniment for greens.  The spice was great, the floral citrus undertones offered a complex contrast to the greens.

We do love to make things with multiple uses.  Fire Cider, healthy and tasty!

 So, once again, Happy New Year.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading our blog and checking in on our rambling life here in the hollers of West Virginia!  We don't tell you nearly enough how much we cherish your support and friendship.

Finally, if you are looking for a few easy to keep and thoughtful resolutions may we suggest...

Find and befriend a farmer.

Try new food.

Put something up, like Fire Cider or jam.

Read more books.

Enjoy life!

Again, thanks to all of you!

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing a joyous holiday season to all our readers.  

We don't tell you enough how much we love you! 

We do.

Go-To Ice Cream -- With a Christmas Twist

While we have no qualms with making overly complicated recipes, we do love a simple no-brainer.

Ice cream is in my families blood. It has always been a favorite treat -- or on occasion, a favorite supper. Ice cream books have two full shelves in the cookbook collections and they keep growing. We know one weird ice cream trick after another.

For years, our go-to recipe was a simple no-cook recipe from the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Book.  Face it, they are kind of experts. While one didn't cook it, it did have eggs in the base, and there are folks who don't eat raw eggs. Their recipe made fantastic ice cream, but it was best eaten on the same day it was made.  Not really a problem, but not good for any advanced preparations.  (The longer it sat, the more ice crystals it formed, so it lost a bit of creaminess after a few days.)

This summer, we embarked on an even easier recipe.  It does require an ice cream freezer, but it only takes minutes to prepare and you are done.  No cooking.  Just freezer time.  In the middle of summer, that can take way longer than the ice cream freezer's anticipated freezing time, but in winter, one has ice cream in just under an hour.

The base is made with one can of sweetened condensed milk and a cup of heavy cream.  It is easy, because you can keep sweetened condensed milk in the pantry, and you can pick up a 1/2 pint of heavy cream, so no measuring.  Simply add a cup of flavoring, give it all a spin in a blender and add to the ice cream maker. In our summer favorite, we added a cup of Hershey's Chocolate spread.  Nutella also works, as do chopped fruit. 

For Thanksgiving, we added a can of pumpkin and a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice. Everyone wanted pumpkin pie, but when the pie was done, the ice cream flew out of the freezer. 

"Hey, this would be good WITH the pumpkin pie!"

Well yes it would. So here you go.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 pint (1 cup) heavy cream
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Put all the ingredients into a blender and mix till well incorporated.

Pour into an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's directions.

Enjoy.  

Take Six Girls

I know what you are thinking -- "Not another f-ing Mitford book!"

Fine, we are a bit fond of the Mitfords, I cannot lie.

I will chalk it up to being an only child. I am fascinated with large families. Bear in mind, I do not now nor have I ever wanted a large family or any sort of sibling. Growing up there were my things and more of my things and I liked that immensely. But there is something very mysterious about large families, especially one with 6 girls.

No, the Mitford sisters were not sharing a single room, their family was loaded. But something about that sisterhood made for a strange and often tragic competition that boardered on psychopathy. Laura Thomson has put together a group biography of the sisters that offers and unusual in site into their personalities. It is rather like taking the them, fully formed and stuffing them into a single room. It offers up a much different view than seeing each sister from their own point of view.  Lord knows, many of them spent their entire lives rewriting their personal history.

If you have yet to jump into the abyss of Mitfordom, Take Six Girls is a great place to start.  You get an enticing view of each of the sisters, giving you room to decide which of the girls you might like to take a look at in more depth. Trust me, there will be great depth no matter which sister you choose. If you have read them all...even I don't think I have read them all...Thompson delves into the beginnings of family rivalry, to shed new light on the tumultuous gang.

If you have never read about the Mitfords, Take Six Girls is a fine beginning. If you love the Mitfords, it won't be your last.

Schubert's Winter Journey -- Anatomy of an Obsession

I have been trying for months to write about this book. It is, without a doubt, the finest book of the year, maybe the decade. This will be rambling, because every page sets off an explosion of thought and emotion and understanding and wonder and question and what more could one ask for?

First off...screw that Dos Equis's guy, Ian Bostridge is the most fascinating man in the world. I have followed his career from his early days at Oxford.  In life, one can be extremely intelligent, extremely talented, or extremely attractive but rarely does on hit a trifecta.  Ian Bostridge began singing as a child.  He went on to write his dissertation at Oxford on the significance of witchcraft in England from 1650 to 1750.  He kept singing. He taught political theory and history. By the time he was thirty, he became a full time singer. He is regarded by many as the finest lieder singer to grace the side of a piano.

In 2011, his writings about music were compiled into the book, A Singer's Notebook.  It has a truly wonderful short essay on Bob Dylan. He chides classical singer to learn a thing or two from Dylan's colored singing style.

Generally, I couldn't care less about lieder. When I got this book I didn't immediately think, "Let's go put on some Schubert."  I bought the book because Bostridge's writing is always interesting, in fact, for me it is more interesting than his singing (again, only because I never thought much about lieder, but I do love his Noel Coward!).

At first glance, this is a book that makes bibliophiles drool. It is printed on heavy paper, beautifully bound, interspersed with photos,and set  in a lovely Fournier font. The book is five hundred pages of Bostridge's obsession with Schubert's song cycle, Winter Journey. He has been performing the songs for thirty years.  He writes,

"My own way to Winter Journey was eased by great teaching and by personal idiosyncrasy."

As a lover of the personal idiosyncratic, I was hooked. Bostridge admits that lieder is a niche calling in the niche of classical music, so why write it?

"In this book I want to use each song as a platform for exploring the origins; setting the piece in its historical context, but also finding new and unexpected connections, both contemporary and long dead -- literary, visual, psychological, scientific, and political.... By gathering such a disparate mass of material I hope to illuminate, to explain, to deepen our common response: to intensify their experience of those who already know the piece, and to reach out to those who have never heard it or heard of it."

While I don't love lieder, I do love art and poetry and music and history.  Bostridge's lyrical writing on what drives an artist is sublime. With all its beauty, this is an obsessive, intense, and often obtuse journey into the mind of an artist's obsession. Be forewarned, but do not be discouraged.

Chinese Five Spice Goji Berry Cake

This has been one of our go-to cakes for several years, but we never posted the recipes before. Probably because, each time we have tweaked it a bit, deciding what we liked best with the flavor combination.  The batter is a very basic sweet cake that resembles a Jewish honey cake. The Chinese 5 spice gives it a kick and the bittersweet goji berries offer an interesting counterpoint to the cake.

Unlike most cakes composed with hearty dried fruit, like orange peel, the goji berries are a bit on the tender side, so we do not advise soaking them for any length of time.  Pour your cup of cool tea over them as you begin the recipe and you will be just fine.

As for the Chinese 5 spice, we use a freshly ground mix which is a bit more coarse than most of the ground spice one would find in the McCormick isle. If you can find a fresh grind fine, but don't sweat it.

We use honey to sweeten the cake.  We use our own farm honey.  Any light honey should work.

For some unknown reason, we began making this cake with self-rising flour and we have kept to it. If you use self-rising flour, remember to use a fresh bag as the leavening can grow stale.

Chinese Five Spice Goji Berry Cake

3 1/2 cups self-rising flour plus 1/2 cup for dredging fruit
1 tablespoon Chinese 5 spice
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 large egg
1 cup honey
1 cup strong tea plus a bit extra
1 cup dried goji berries

 Prepare a Lucinda's Wood Baking Box, by lining with butcher paper.

Preheat oven to 300F.

Brew about 2 cups of strong tea.  Allow the tea to cool.  In a small bowl, pour the cooled tea over the goji berries.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, egg, and honey. 

In another bowl, add the 3 1/2 cups of flour and the tablespoon of Chinese 5 spice and whisk to blend.

Saving the tea, pour the liquid off the goji berries and measure out 1 cup of the tea, discarding any extra.

Add the flour/spice mixture and the tea to the creamed butter, alternating between the dry and wet ingredients until fully incorporated.

Take the remaining 1/2 cup of flour and generously dredge the soaked goji berries.  Fold the dredged berries gently into the batter.

Pour the batter into a prepared Lucinda's Wood Baking Box.

Bake for 90 minutes, until firm in the center.

As you can see in the picture, we let this one go a bit too long, hence the crack in the top... but it tasted just fine.

Famous Food Friday -- Tanaquil Le Clercq

Tanaquil Le Clercq 
with Corrado Cagli, Vittorio Rieti, and 
George Balanchine, by Irving Penn photo ©

Tanaquil Le Clercq is a legend. Not in the modern sense of "legend" but in that old-world, truly remarkable, lager than life, sadder than death, extraordinarily gorgeous, muse to many kind of legend.

First, and foremost, she was a dancer.  An extraordinary, ethereal dancer.  At the age of 12, she was offered a scholarship to the School of American Ballet by George Balanchine.  At 17, she would help launch the Ballet Society that would later become the New York City Ballet. At 23, she would become Balachine's fourth or fifth wife, depending on who's counting. 

When Le Clercq was 15, Balanchine asked her to be his partner in a dance he created entitled "Resurgence" for a March of Dimes charity benefit. He would play the role of Polio and she would be his tragic victim, paralyzed by the dreaded affliction. The dance might hardly be remembered if not for its prophetic nature.

In 1956, at the height of career, Tanaquil Le Clercq contracted polio and was paralysed.  She was 27- years-old.
Jerome Robbins choreographed one his most famous ballet's for Le Clercq. Afternoon of a Faun, taken from a Debussy prelude, is still being preformed. In 2013, Nancy Buirski completed a documentary Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq. It is one of the best sources for footage of Le Clercq dancing.

After her paralysis, she became an author penning the autobiography of Mourka, a cat Balanchine taught to "dance." 

In 1966 she compiled The Ballet Cook Book featuring stories and recipes featuring a who's who of the world of ballet from Sir Frederick Ashton to Vera Zorina.

It has become one of the most collectible cookbooks on the market. Always a holiday treat, here is Le Clercq's family recipe for eggnog.

Great-Great-Grandmother Blackwell’s Eggnog 

12 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups bourbon whisky
3/4 cup St. Croix rum
1 quart heavy cream, whipped

Beat egg yolks and sugar until light and sugar has melted completely. Add whisky and rum and continue beating 3–4 minutes. Stir in the whipped cream and mix thoroughly. Place in refrigerator and chill until ready to serve.

Even the poet, Frank O'Hara found Le Clercq to be a muse.

 Ode To Tanaquil LeClercq
 

smiling through my own memories of painful excitement your wide eyes
stare
        and narrow like a lost forest of childhood stolen from gypsies
two eyes that are the sunset of
                                             two knees
                                                            two wrists
                                                                            two minds
and the extended philosophical column, when they conducted the dialogues
                in distant Athens, rests on your two ribbon-wrapped hearts, white
         credibly agile
                            flashing
                                        scimitars of a city-state

where in the innocence of my watching had those ribbons become entangled
        dragging me upward into lilac-colored ozone where I gasped
                 and you continued to smile as you dropped the bloody scarf of my life
                                                 from way up there, my neck hurt

            you were always changing into something else
            and always will be
            always plumage, perfection's broken heart, wings

            and wide eyes in which everything you do
            repeats yourself simultaneously and simply
                                            as a window "gives" on something

it seems sometimes as if you were only breathing
       and everything happened around you
because when you disappeared in the wings nothing was there
       but the motion of some extraordinary happening I hadn't understood
the superb arc of a question, of a decision about death

          because you are beautiful you are hunted
                 and with the courage of a vase
                         you refuse to become a deer or a tree
                 and the world holds its breath
                         to see if you are there, and safe

                                                  are you?

                     

Cats, cookbooks, ballet, poetry -- who could go wrong. If you are fond of ballet, do check out Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq.   PBS ran it several years ago and I think it might still be out there to download. I suggest making a big bowl of eggnog and gathering for a screening.

Requiescat in Pace -- Kitty Carlisle

We lost our Kitty Carlisle today. She had been sickly for some time.

As you may remember, she showed up here right after I moved in.  Having two cats from D.C., I didn't want another one, but she was undaunted. She stayed close by all through the winter. The first warm day, I sat out in the sun. She climbed up in the chair and kissed me. That was it.

After numerous trips to the vet to make an outside stray and inside family member, she was still listed as "Cat" in her file. The vet asked me if I was ever going to name her. That day I heard that Kitty Carlisle had died. Cat and Kitty shared a lot of attributes so she became Kitty Carlisle. She was always regal, she always carried herself as though she was far superior to you, however, she never made you feel bad about your shortcomings.  She was a lady till the end. 

She will be missed.

Delicata Squash

Delicata squash have become a fall favorite, but still very hard to find in the backwoods of West Virginia.  Last year, we set about seed saving from the delicata we bought in D.C.  We carefully saved the seeds and this summer, we started a tray of plants in the greenhouse. 

They were beautiful plants, but the weather outside was not cooperating.  Finally, we got the plants in the ground.  Many of them died during the very process of planting them!  They went into the ground in one of the worst dry spells we have had in West Virginia.

Undaunted, we watered every day, but watering isn't the same as a nice, gentle rain shower.  Still, a few of the plants thrived. (OK, they didn't exactly "thrive" so much as they survived, but one takes what one can get.)

Just as the fruit started to gain in size, the weather decided to cause more problems. After warm weather, the temperature decided to plummet for two nights.  Just two, in the middle of a mild October.  So we set out covering the squash for two nights to try to save them. 

The leaves got a bit burned from the frost, but I think we might actually get one or two from the effort.  In all of our canning, we made a batch of Blueberry Chipolte Ketchup.  Out favorite way to serve the delicata squash is to cut it into long strips, like fries, and serve them with the ketchup. 

Next year, more seeds earlier in the year!