Friday, August 31, 2007

Living On Holiday

I read this phrase somewhere a long time ago, liked the sound of it and decided to go for it.

Now I know I got to have a few responsibilities, but can’t they be making the travel arrangements, packing the suitcases, get the travelers checks ? Can’t these be the things I got to do. But noooooooooooo, I gota work, I gota bring home a pay check, I gota do some house work and cook a few meals. I don’t mind, really I don’t.

I actually got it made and come real close to living on holiday. One thing that keeps me in the holiday mood is Mardi Gras. I get to do something Mardi Gras related all year round. Yesterday I bought 100 nerf footballs at the Dollar store. I got to have something to throw Mardi Gras Day.

I have been enjoying Mardi Gras to the max for the last 15 years. That’s how long we have been celebrating the Mystic Fish. It’s fun getting everything ready for the parade and reception and the party the night before. The golf tournament is fun as well.

But a few years ago things changed and now I get to fool around with Mardi Gras all year long, or as much as I want.

A few years back I was invited to join one of the older more established organizations. We have meetings (drink and eat) all year round. So whenever I’m around these guys it’s all about the parade. Who’s gonna ride where, what do the floats look like, how much money do I owe for my bad behavior from last year. You know, important stuff like that.

A couple times a year I go down to Mobile and visit my friend who builds the floats for KORs. It’s a lot of fun to check out the floats as they are being rebuilt, my favorite is when the building part is done and they all get a coat of white primer paint. It’s as if the floats are all covered with a very even blanket of snow, it’s something to see. Totally abstract to what you see on the streets.

There is so much involved with my year long love affair with Mardi Gras and really the best part is spending time in Mobile with all my friends and family.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Sushi, Sisters Of Mercy and Sake Bombs

Happy Birthday! Do you remember the Christmas show for Frosty the Snowman, one of the kids put a hat on him and he came alive and Frosty said Happy Birthday! Well the clock of life ticked once more for “Little Lady”, otherwise know as Stacey. And together with our new friends who run the local Sushi Bar, we all said Happy Birthday!

That’s kinda of what it was like last night at Wasabi. Wasabi is the only place in Atlanta where we eat sushi. This isn’t a rule , it’s just the way things work out. And yea, I know there ain’t nothing southern about Sushi, but come on, good is good, and this shit is good. They also make you feel at home, you know, that home where you mother makes sushi.

Tonight we about had the place to ourselves, which is rare, it is usually crowded. But that was cool for a change, we could hear each other and the music. I can’t think of nothing better then eating good food, listening to Sister of Mercy and hanging out with Stacey.

Nhan runs the place along with Jennifer and we always eat very well there. So tonight after Little Lady got home, she said she wanted to go to Wasabi for dinner. For her Birthday dinner that is.

On Wednesday it’s half price wine. Now That’s really good for two reasons. First, Little Lady likes wine, white please. And, two, these guys have a couple good wines that become even better at half price.

Anyway, we don’t really know these guys all that well or anything. We eat there and say hey and all that, but we haven’t really gotten to know them. Until tonight, that is.

So we were about done eating, it was another great meal, and no kidding this is good, someone has worked very hard to get seafood so fresh we can enjoy it in this capacity.

The place is not crowded , but it has gotten very loud and we realize the Chef is working the other side of the counter, so to speak. Tonight Nhan is happy, and having drinks with the customers, something I encourage all business owners to do every once in awhile.

He makes his way to our table and he knows our faces as semi-regulars. So he sits and chats, finds out it’s Little Lady’s Birthday and ask for three Sake Bombs. So we all drop a shot glass of warm sake in a half glass of cold beer and drink it down. We chat more with our new friend Nhan and suddenly, as if he just remembered something he ask Stacey, it’s your Birthday? He then calls for three more Sake Bombs, looks around the restaurant and then ask for eight Sake Bombs.

And so it goes.

Happy Birthday Little Lady

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

It’s a small world

Happens all the time. I meet someone and as we talk we find some common connection. I mean something like, same hometown, mutual friends or something like that. I don’t mean something esoteric and to hell with Kevin Bacon and 6 degrees, this happens often and the divide is small.

So my next door neighbor rents his house. The folks who own the house lived there not to long ago and we are friends. Anyway, neighbor that rents is also a friend and he is always doing home improvement projects to the house. Just recently he bought a real nice motorcycle. He keeps the motorcycle and other thing in the basement of the house. The door to the basement was old and loose in the frame so he decided to replace it. The old door was homemade, put together with 1 x 6″ lumber and painted white. I told him I wanted that door when it came off. Next day old door is leaning against my workshop door, thank you very much.

The bottom of this door was rotting away just beautifully. Not to much but enough to add a nice rugged look to it. So I took off old hinges and broken hasp and sanded the table down to where it was smooth but still had some white paint left on it. I then built an apron and attached 4 legs made of 4 x4″ post, just 17″ long as needed for a coffee table. I put a clear coat on it for protection and clean up and priced it $300 and took it to the market I was working that weekend.

Well low and behold here comes the neighbors that own the house next door. Out for a Saturday morning farmers market. Hellos are exchanged and we’re chatting and I’m talking with other customers. Next thing I know the neighbors are asking about the door that is now a coffee table. I tell them I got it off a trash pile in the neighborhood and worked it into this. They are thinking about buying it, I start laughing and have to tell exactly where it came from. They think this is great, didn’t know their tennant was replacing the door and buy it from me. I gave them a $50 discount considering where the door came from.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Fried Oysters

Fried Oysters.

Truly one of the best and most simple of dishes. Just put a bunch of Oysters in a zip-lock with panco, flour, salt and pepper. Red, White and Black pepper. The Oysters don’t need anything to get the fry mix to stick. Just throw them in a bag with this mixture. Then drop them in a cast iron skillet with vegetable oil heated to 350 degrees. When the Oysters float, let them keep floating till they are a golden brown. Get’em crisp and make a good tar-tar or some kind of tricked up sauce to dip them in.

oysters

So that’s what we did tonight. Fried Oysters and Gumbo made last Friday. Gonna make some pimento cheese soon. MF says my Grandpa used to have homemade “puhmenahcheez” with his Gumbo, all the time. I don’t remember. Bet it was good stuff.

Many years ago a friend made “puhmenaccheez” from scratch. All the ingredients came from a jar or can. But it was good.

Today you gotta roast your own red peppers, make your own mayo, get the best cheddar there is and then you got a good “puhmenahcheez”. It ain’t that much work and it’s really worth it. I will post a recipe soon.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Gumbo

Many Cajuns add potato salad to their gumbo and eat it with or without rice. Have you ever heard of this? I only recently have, I’m not sure where , but I’ve heard of this. We haven’t ever tried it, probably should.

Gumbo is one of those things. Either ya know it or ya don’t. You can cook or ya can’t. Look at all this on gumbo :

  • Gumbo, a spicy, hearty stew or soup.
  • Gumbois another name of the vegetable okra, also known as bhindi or lady’s fingers.
  • Gumbo, a particularly sticky form of clay till. Gumbo (mascot), the mascot dog of the New Orleans Saints
  • Dr. John’s Gumbo, an album by Dr. John
  • Gumbo, the clay-rich and hard to work soil of Southern Manitoba
  • Gumbo is the surname of the family in the comic strip Rose Is Rose.
  • Comic Gumbo is Japan’s first ever free weekly manga magazine.

Now to me Gumbo is a lot of stuff, some of the things from the list above and some stuff that makes “my gumbo”, “my gumbo” well that would be “our gumbo”.

Let’s see, gumbo defiantly means Mardi Gras. Gumbo also means 30 minute roux or 2 beers consumed slowly. It also means the “holy trinity” of celery, bell peppers, and onions. It means you better have a lot of homemade chicken stock on hand. Gumbo means at least double the recipe, dumb ass. Christmas Gumbo means oysters and chicken.

Gumbo is best after a few days, whenever I make it I try to not pay attention to it, just ignore it and cook it and put it away for a few days and then eat it. I usually have to have something else to eat while I cook the Gumbo , so as not to think about eating the Gumbo I am cooking.

Here is a loose outline for 50 cups of Gumbo. You know what you like , so work it in to this recipe, sausage, chopped chicken, crab bodies are great cooked down in Gumbo. My Grandma Hartley used to always have crab bodies in her Gumbo. I remember Grandma Hartley had Gumbo often. I bet she had it on the table at least 2 days a week. It was regular at their house.

3 lbs shrimp cleaned

2 cup celery

4 cups onion chopped

1 cup bell pepper chopped

2 gallons fresh chicken broth (or use what ya got, slacker)

salt / pepper

2 cups roux ( take cup of Wesson oil and a cup of flour and cook it in a cast iron dutch over or heavy duty stock pot for about 20 - 30 minutes or until looks like peanut-butter, cook it hot but slow)

So do your roux and as it finishes add celery, onions, and bell peppers and cook til onions are clear, about 15-20 minutes.

Then add hot chicken stock and simmer for about 45 minutes.

Then add shrimp, oysters, chicken, sausage or whatever ya want and cook for another 20 minutes.

At this point you can always think about adding something like file, crab boil, or Zatarans is good.

You have got to let this cool for a long time uncovered and stir it every once in awhile otherwise it will “sour”.

So put it away for a day or two and when ya go to serve it, cook some rice to layer the Gumbo on.

You could just serve it on tater salad.

Monday Report

So another weekend, another Monday morning and time again to decide what to do this week. Work-wise, that is. Will I start on the king-sized bed that’s been ordered by the brilliant couple that ordered the shutter table? Will I paint another picture with a wine theme, per another request? Will I finish reading one of the three books I have started. I am about done with Sonny Brewers book about an old mans struggle with his spirituality? The name of the book is The Poet Of Tolstoy Park. All you monkeys down there in South Alabama should read it. Or should I finish the Walker Percy novel, The Moviegoer? I am not enjoying this one as much as I thought I would, it’s a bit to wordy. I could start on a painting I have been commissioned to paint. It’s for a guy, who among other things writes books. His latest book is named “zing”, it’s a book on idea spotting. He wants me to paint a large picture of 3 light-bulbs in a row, I think it will work well with my painting style.

So as you can see I got a lot of projects to choose from. That’s not all I got on my plate, but I really couldn’t list all the things I need or want to do. I think I’ll start the week with a bowl of cheese grits and a crab-meat omelette.

Eugene Walter said “I’ve had a great life, and it all happened because I didn’t plan any of it”. That’s gonna be my plan also.

Here is a link to the Mobile newspaper, a short piece on the book we use to find all the great hole in the wall places to eat in the southeast. A Southern Belly, by John T. Edge. http://www.al.com/living/press-register/index.ssf?/base/living/1187169849212160.xml&coll=3

Talk to ya tomorrow.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Monday Report on Wednesday

Today, Stacey went up the street to the Mexican Grocery Store for shrimp ceviche makings. She was getting a couple pounds of shrimps, about 7 or 8 limes, 2 oranges, a few tomato’s, couple of onions, a few peppers and cilantro. The peppers were probably poblano and they are whole roasted in a skillet with the tomato’s and garlic. Right now, as we speak I can hear and smell the peppers and tomato’s roasting in olive oil. And it is a good thing.

She, Stacey that is, will blanch the 2 pounds of shrimp we have just cleaned. She will rough chop the peppers and tomato’s, add all this together, squeeze the limes and oranges over the mixture, cover and refrig for 24. Hell yea. It’s good with avocado.
ceviche

But that ain’t the best part. While she was there, she spied this woman buying a large amount of tamale fixings. Stacey commented to the guy who owns and runs the store ” I wanna go eat tamales with her”. So he gave Stacey the ladies name, Maria Hernandez, and phone #. But we’re gonna call him and just let him order for us, since Stacey thinks the tamale maker only speaks Spanish.

Here is a good book, if your looking for something to read. Milking the Moon, by Eugene Walter as told to Katherine Clark. I read it years ago and am gonna read it again. Soon I am gonna write a little something about Eugene Walter. I do remember it was an enjoyable and easy read. But I am partial to stories about Mobile and the monkeys who made it what it really is.

Shutter table is coming along just fine.

All is well, thanks. Hope the same for you.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

N.Y.C. Day 2

So we checked out Sunday morning and dropped our bags at Lisa’ apartment. Then we took the subway uptown to the MOMA to see the Richard Serra show. Stacey and I had seen his work about 5 years ago in Bilbao, Spain. We wanted to see the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry. The museum was new and all the rage, I am not sure I knew who Serra was at the time.

Well the show blew us away. These huge, beautifully rusted sheets of steel that had been twisted and fashioned into simple, organic, flowing sculpture. Talk about abstract, what the hell did this stuff mean. Why did he do it? I’m glad he did it, but why?

It was beautiful and like I said before, I would like to live in it. Just put a roof over a few of the pieces and add a little plumbing and I’m there. The show consisted of some of his work from the last 40 years and there were other pieces besides the large steel sculptures, but they are by far my favorite.

The MOMA has just had a huge renovation and addition job. The new, outdoor sculpture garden had a few of Serras’ huge pieces on display. I tried to take a photo showing part of a sculpture and some of the apartments that over looked the garden.

aparments outside MOMA
Stacey and Lisa were picking out which one they would like to live in. I decided I would live in the garden and they could both keep an eye on me.
garden at MOMA in nyc
We spent hours checking out the Serra show and the rest of the museum. There was a lot to see, five floors of art and the garden and we gave it our best shot. But our dogs started barking and we needed to get off of them. So we headed back to Lisas’ hood and had some Margaritas and some good Mexican food. We met Richard Marx, he waited our table and was really nice. It was starting to rain so we hurried back to Lisas’ place and got our bags then got a cab, then got a plane, then got another cab and were in bed by 12:30. We were tired. Stacey took Monday off and we took it easy for the day.

From what I’m hearing Belize got smacked hard and it might be a while until Stacey and I can make that trip, but the rooms are paid for so you can count on a report as soon as we can get there.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

N.Y.C.

So Stacey and I have been planning to go to Belize for about a month now. We were going to leave Saturday the 18th. Well, seems Hurricane Dean has plans of his own. We had to postpone that trip and by the path of Dean it may be a while before Belize is ready for visitors.

Things have a way of working out. It’s always been that way for me, just let it all unfold and deal with it.

I had heard about the Richard Serra show at the MOMA and knew it was only there until September 10. We decided to go Saturday morning and return Sunday night. This is how it all unfolded…

We started like we always do before we go to New York, making a list of restaurants we wanted to visit. After expanding that list to about 10 we started thinking about a place to stay. My cousin Lisa lives in a really great apartment in a really great neighborhood. If it wasn’t the night before arrival we would have planned on staying with her, but not cool calling the night before and asking, hey we’re coming to town tomorrow and we were wondering…….

So we got up the next morning, used Priceline.com and got great room. 60 Thompson is a boutique hotel located at 60 Thompson St. The rooms start at over $300 a night and we lucked into one for half price. We didn’t know at the time about the Roof Top Bar and Sun Deck.

We had been in touch with Lisa and of course she offered to put us up for the night. She was at the beach and wouldn’t be back until about 9 p.m. So it was good we had a room to throw our bags in and to use as a home base while we checked out our SOHO neighborhood.

One of the restaurants on our list was Lupa. This is part of a group that has about 5 restaurants in N.Y.C. It is billed as a osteria romana and is one of the many restaurants under the Mario Batali umbrella. At the time we didn’t know this was was one of his places. We just found it on the internet and I remembered reading good things about it. So this is where Stacey and I headed after checking in and checking out our hotel, which by the way, was very nice.

Check this out for a degustation. Stacey ordered a caraf of Sauvignon Blanc and me a Italian style beer brewed in Brooklyn. This is what we ordered and we asked the waitron to bring it all at once. A cannelli bean and tuna salad with olive oil and mint leaves, a plate of coppa cotta, escarole salad and sweetbreads and fried artichoke.

The cannelli beans and tuna is just as it sounds, a very simple dish, which is the norm for this place. You have the beans mixed with tuna which was probably from a can, which if you have ever had a can of tuna in olive oil imported from Italy, you know how good this can be. Add small, whole mint leaves, mixed and served in a bowl, and that’s it. More is not needed. It’s perfect just these 4 ingredients.

The salad was maybe the best plate on the table, and again very simple. Escarole greens, red onion slice very thin, toasted walnuts with just oil and vinegar dressing. On top was a generous amount of grated Pecorino cheese. Pecorino is one of my favorite cheeses, it’s hard and great as a replacement for any dish calling for parmigiano.

The coppa cotta was beautiful, sliced, house cured meat. Laid out on a long thin serving tray. Places like this are all about curing their own meat and they offered about 4 different choices. This to was sublime.

I haven’t had sweetbreads in a long time and don’t get the chance to eat them in the U.S. very often, so I had to have them. They were fried with small artichoke hearts and served with lemon wedges. Again, simple and wonderful.

After that we just strolled around and tried to walk it off as they say. Whoever “they” are. SOHO was good for walking, so many neighborhoods in N.Y.C. are so crowded it’s a pain to walk around. Tons of art Galleries and lots of vendors selling original art on the street. Then back to the hotel.

We hang out in the room for a few and then like always, realize where we are and head out again. This time straight up to the Roof Top Bar. Two $18 cocktails each and we are back on the streets. But let me tell you the roof was cool. I have never been on a roof top in N.Y.C. and in SOHO the buildings are not as tall so the view was great, even at only 13 stories. It’s a nice place to have $18 cocktails. Check out the photo we took.

View 2 from Roof Top Bar

So we’re footing it around the city and Lisa calls, she’s back and ready to go. We meet her in the lobby of our hotel, which is only about 10 blocks from her place. We sit and chat for a minutes and then up we go for a good view and more cocktails. We were charging the drinks to the room and they automatically add 20% tip, so when we checked out the cocktail bill was more than the room itself. Thank you, thank you very much.

Gotta eat again. We decide on a place we had never heard of until our internet search the night before. The name is Kuma Inn, and the Chef’s name is King Phojanakong. It was only a short cab ride from our hotel. Check out their cool website. They advertise themselves as a Pan Asian Tapas Bar. This was our degustation.

Sierra Nevada beers, pork wasabi shumai, steamed edamame with thai basil lime sauce, Chinese sausage with thai chile lime sauce, seared ahi tuna in a thai chili miso vinaigrette, shrimp shumai, whole fried dorado and pan roasted ocean scallops with bacon, kalamansi and sake.

The shumai dumplings exploded in your mouth. Lisa said the chinese sausage was as addictive as crack. The WHOLE fried dorado fish was a work of art. Scored and deep fried and plated to look as if the fish was swimming on the plate, so we were told. It was a great meal, in a tiny upstairs restaurant that seats only 28. Bet Lisa goes back real soon.

After I went downstairs and checked out the Bulgarian Nightclub, for about 30 seconds, we said goodnight to Lisa, as she was headed to some friends birthday party. Stacey and I walked home which was just what we need after those two meals. Went to sleep with the very loud bass sounds of the bar one floor below us. Good thing we are only staying one night, it’s loud and we can’t afford the cocktails.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Fay Jones

I have my sister to thank for turning me on to Fay Jones. She has lived in Arkansas, on and off for the last 25 years or so. I never thought much about this awesome state until I started to visit my sister and her family. They have taken Stacey and I to many great places.

Two of my favorite places to visit are the chapels Fay Jones has built, both are in rural, wooded areas. One is named Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs. The other, Cooper Chapel in Bella Vista. The great thing is they are open to the public and last time I was there it was free.

Fay Jones died in 2000. He had a very long, distinguished career. He attended the University of Arkansas for two years before becoming a Navy Pilot during WWII. He then earned his Master of Architecture from Rice in 1950. He taught for a few years at the University of Oklahoma, then served as a fellow at Taliesin West under his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright. He returned to the University of Arkansas and spent many years teaching and running a private practice. He designed 135 residences, 15 church’s and chapels. He also designed gardens, fountains and commercial projects.

The chapels we have visited are two of the most incredible places I have ever seen. Jones learned from Wright that using local materials and incorporating the structure with the natural landscape were the most important elements of design. Simplicity is also something they both practiced.

It is easy to see these three elements in each chapel. The materials are wood and glass mostly. The chapels tower towards the sky and come to an apex like the tall trees surrounding them. The transparency of all that glass lets you see straight through and allows the chapels to blend seamlessly with surrounding trees, bushes and natural setting. It is something to behold.

Stacey and I have been fortune enough to have attended a wedding at Thorncrown. A friend Stacey worked with invited us. Approaching the chapel at night, with the light just pouring out was quite a sight. Then sitting there during the wedding and listening to a young lady play Pachelbel’s Cannon on the organ was a religious experience.

It has been way to long since I have visited these beautiful places. I am telling you here and now, before the year is over I am going to go eat at James at the Mill, in Johnson Arkansas, spend the night at the Inn at the Mill and visit both chapels. I an going to visit another chapel my sister has taken us to. I can’t remember as much about this place as far as facts go, but I can see it clearly in my head. It is a stone structure, much different from Mr. Jones chapels. It was built by a man for his wife. I think she ask him to build it for her. I remember it was small and tall and had a organ in the loft. It was also on a beautiful piece of property. I will learn more about the chapel and report again after our visit later in this year.

A year or so ago, I was hired to build a mailbox. Funny thing is, I had been thinking of building one for myself. I wanted to do something in the style of these chapels. So when I was ask to build one, I told my client my ideas and she was all for it. Here is a photo of it.

mailbox Another one of Mr. Jones creations that I want to visit is the Crosby Arboretum in Picayune, Mississippi. Click on it and check out another wonderful structure by Mr. Jones. This is the Pinecote Pavilion. I love this mans work and I refer to them as structures because of their airiness and openness. Are these even words? If not they should be, just to be used to describe some of Mr. Jones work.

So this will be a great trip. Three chapels, the Pinecote Pavilion and eating at James at the Mill. I will tell you more about this restaurant and it’s chef/owner Miles James after my next visit. I hope he is still there.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Crossing the Line

So like I said, checked out of the Alluvian Hotel and headed toward Marvell, Arkansas.

We are looking for Shadden’s Grocery and we ain’t grocery shopping. We are bar-b-que shopping. Between our map and our guide, “A Southern Belly” by John T. Edge, we have no trouble finding it.

Shadden’s is on a two lane, very busy Highway 49 and is actually 4 miles outside of Marvell, proper. Eighteen wheelers seem to be flying by as we pull into a parking lot in front of an old, I mean old, white house. There is no mistaking where you are, as there is a menu, hand painted about 10′ x 4′ hanging on the side of the house.

The large trucks are pulled off the side of the road and the truckers are all inside. Most folks seem to be ordering chopped pork sandwichs. As the nice old lady takes orders and heads towards the back to put in those orders, she turns and ask if any one else wants a chopped pork sandwich. Stacey and I raise both hands and the nice old lady laughs and ask if that means we want two each. Yep, two each we tell her.

I grab a cold beer and we sit at one of the four toppers. Half way thru my beer, our sandwiches are handed to us in a brown paper bag. We tear into the bag, unwrap a couple sandwiches and take a bite at about the same time. We sit and chew for a second and then look at each other and we both say “coleslaw”. That’s a good thing, creamy slaw on tangy bar b que. The perfect yen yang of the food kind.

We each finish one sandwich. I grab our other two and we hit the road, saving those sandwiches for later. For now we are headed to Helena, back towards the Mississippi River.

Helena is kind of desolate. We pull in to town, take the main street til we have to take a left or a right. We choose right and drive past some very cool buildings. Most are closed. The ones that are open are almost vintage looking. They are in good repair but old. It’s like we are on a empty movie set. One building has a old Buster Brown sign. Then you hit the end of this street and looking to the left you see a large outdoor stage. We are hardly seeing any signs of life, except an old lady pulling a rope with a cardboard box tied to it. Just dragging her box down the street.
Lady in Mississippi - pulling box
We were looking for Bullock’s Cafe, and it was right in front of us. Man it looked rough. Now Stacey and I are not shy and we will eat anywhere with anyone, but this place made us stop and think for a second. So what we decided to do was go in the liquor store we had just passed. I always feel comfortable surrounded by liquor. Also there was a giant bar b que pit on wheels out front, just smoking up a storm.

We went in and ask the little old man behind the counter what he was cooking and could we buy some, whatever it was. He said we would have to talk to the guy working the drive-up window. The guy finished up at the drive-up and turned to take care of us. He was a stout man kind of dressed like a cowboy with both the cowboy hat and a six shooter on his hip. Actually I think it was a 9mm, but what’s the difference?

After talking with him a few minutes, we learn he’s the Sheriff. No kidding. Anyway, he was very friendly and we chatted with him about the city and told him it looked kind of empty. He agreed. Told us the city had two large festivals which were what really keep the city going. One was a Delta Blues Fest the other was a Bikers Fest. He showed us his bike out front. It was a Honda gold-wing or something like that, but he told us all sorts of bikers come and filled up the town for the weekend. He showed us the racks of ribs on the smoker. Said he didn’t really sell them. I think they were for a family party or something, but he said he would sell us a rack if we wanted.

Well since there was really nowhere to eat them, and we were there to try Bullocks, we ask him if they would “welcome us” there. That was my way of asking, is it safe. He said they would love the business, so down the street we went.

This place is a juke joint. A pool table right in the middle, a small bar and a few tables pushed to one side. Christmas lights draped here and there. Cora is there, just as Edges book said she would be. Just us and Cora.

No sign of food, so we ask and she rattles off what she has. We start to tell her what we want and she just hands us a plate and tell us to follow her. We go behind the bar, thur a door into a narrow, tiny kitchen. It has a huge commercial stove taking up almost the whole kitchen. Pots and pans every. She shows us everything in the pots and tells us to help ourselves. So we pile it up, fried chicken, mashed taters, gravy, rice, peas, beans, it’s all there. But it’s all cold. To bad because you could tell it would have been really good. I guess we could have ask her to warm it up or something, but instead we picked and ate what we wanted. I think we were both thinking of our sandwich from Shaddens.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Oakleigh

When I was 12 years old my mom and dad bought a house in the Oakleigh Garden District in Mobile, Alabama. The year must have been 1974 or 75. I remember the day we moved in. My brother and I had a bedroom with 12′ ceilings. There we three doors, one fireplace and no closets, and that was just our bedroom. We played a air hockey game and couldn’t believe our folks had bought a house like this. This house was built in 1896 and they have been taking good care of it for the last 35 years or so. If you didn’t grow up in a house like this or in a in-town neighborhood then you might not know what I am talking about.

I am attracted to old, rundown, industrial neighborhoods. I love old stuff. Always have, always will. It is something that has grown not diminished over the years. Since we moved into that great old house, I have lived in really old places. Except when we bought a brand new house in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Atlanta, I have lived in old places.

For years we lived in the Castleberry Warehouse District, in Atlanta. That was a lot of fun. We explored 100 year old warehouses that were empty. We explored the railroad tracks. There were about 8 tracks that ran between our warehouse loft and downtown Atlanta. We live there in the mid-eighties, not a lot of others lived in that area yet.

Anyway, I think what I’m talking about is growing up in old, downtown environments. As small as Mobile was, living downtown made it very different. I met all kind of different people and I lived in all kinds of different places. Went to Atlanta and did the same thing.

Now we live in a house built in 1917 in East Point, a suburb of Atlanta. We are slowly renovating it. So far we have finished the kitchen, one of the bathrooms and one of the bedrooms. The livingroom is good but, we still have a bath and two bedrooms to do. It’s slow work but it’s worth it.

Someday I want to build a house. I plan to use lots of old salvaged parts. Some of the materials I have stored away, some I will look for when I start and let what I find lead me in the design of the house.

I make my living building furniture from old salvaged wood. It seems just about every other house around here is either being torn down for new construction or being renovated. That means lots of antique pine for the taking. It’s on the way to the dump and builders are happy for me to take it. The furniture I build is either finished in a distressed paint or stained. It all looks old when I finish with it.

Lately I have been painting pictures. I use the same approach to painting as I do with furniture. I like to make them look old. I will paint the picture on plywood and when I am happy with it I take a sander and blowtorch and rough it up a bit. It’s a lot of fun to make a living this way.

So you can see “old” is a big part of my life. I know the reason I like old stuff, old neighborhoods, ect. is because of that house my mom and dad moved us into way back when. I think watching them work so hard to fix it up, and watching others doing the same, I new it was a labor of love. And has become the same for me. My parents have done a beautiful job with their house, it is the place where everyone gathers a few times a year for some really cool occasions. I will tell you about some of these events sometime in the near future.

Mississippi

I’ve been to Mississippi and I like it.

Not long ago Stacey and I spent a few days driving around the central Mississippi area. We didn’t know for sure where we would go, but we had a book written by John T. Edge on places to eat in the southeast. The name of the book is ” Southern Belly” and a new edition has just come out.

Edge is one of the folks responsible for the Southern Foodways Alliance. He has become a leading advocate for the promotion, preservation and documentation of southern culture. Food is his specialty. This book will lead you from one great place to eat then another, nonstop. We were also lucky enough to find a few things on our own, such as the Alluvian Hotel, in beautiful downtown Greenwood Mississippi, what a cool town to spend the night in.

First of all we headed to Mississippi from Tuscaloosa Al. We had just left my sisters home in Hoover, Alabama. We were going to find us some tamales. That’s right tamales in Mississippi. We are headed to Clarksdale, straight across the state, looking for Oscar Orsby. Oscar set up shop on the corner of 4th and Yazoo St. He’s there every Friday and Saturday from noon til ten. The tamales are good and so are the hotdogs. The tamales are not what we are used to, they are smaller and drenched in a not to hot red sauce.

Now tamales may not be the first thing you think of when you think Mississippi, but they are everywhere in the delta region. Story goes, the Hispanic labours came from Texas during harvest season and of course they would make tamales, with corn being so plentiful. So when they left after harvest season the local African Americans who had starting eating and preparing them with their coworkers continued to make and started to sell them on the streets to make extra income.

Next we head for Greenwood. When we get to town it’s getting kind of late in the afteernoon so we start looking for a spot to spend the night and I tell Stacey, I got the feeling there’s a great place for us to stay in this town.

We drive towards the downtown district. By checking out the old buildings and the size of the downtown area, I know we are gonna find something good.

Well, we turn the corner and there sits the Viking Range showroom. I had read recently the story behind the Viking Company. I remember one article, in the New Yorker magazine, about their first customer. She lives in N.Y.C. She had lots of trouble with the frist stove, but spent years working with Viking getting things right.

Right across the street sits the Alluvian Hotel. A cosmopolitan luxury boutique hotel right in the middle of small town Mississippi. Stacey went straight in and got us a room and then walked across the street to check out the Viking showroom. It’s all a big deal and worth a weekend trip to the hotel and cooking classes at Viking. Viking has lead the way in the revitalization of Greenwood and it’s something to see.

Stacey and decided to order room service and enjoy some wine we had with us. So we sat in bed, ate gourmet food and drank wine, not bad. The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel. They laid out a southern breakfast fit for king and I ate like one.

We checked out and hit the road. Headed for Marvell, Arkansas.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The Poboy

For as long as I can remember a poboy sandwich has been one of my favorite things in the world.

My first memories are getting poboys at a little shop right off the highway, just before you reach New Orleans. The name of this joint was Ruby Lamas. It was in the ninth ward, but Katrina wiped them out. I would stop there with my parents and whoever else was going to New Orleans with us that day. Usually it was one or more of my siblings. But this place had the best. I still remember them to this day and that was at least 30 years ago.

It had been years since I have had even a decent poboy. And it wasn’t because I wasn’t trying. Stacey and I like the beach and whenever we are at one we are looking for fresh seafood. I can’t tell you how many time we have been disappointed with a seafood meal at the beach.

Well that’s all changed. I can get the best shrimp poboy right here in little old East Point, Ga.

About 3 years ago I was standing in line to vote, talking to a neighbor. She introduced me to a another young lady in line with us as one of our “new” neighbors. The young lady informed me she had just move here from Baton Rouge, La. My first question was, “I bet you love good food” A few minutes later she was telling me about a new seafood shop right around the corner.

I had seen them fixing up the old gas station and noticed it was a “seafood market”. But for some reason I had yet to stop by. Well, my new friend said they had really good poboys. I knew, being from Baton Rouge, she new what she was talking about.

So I voted and went straight to this shop. It is run by a Vietnamese couple from my home town of Mobile, Al. Since it was my first visit, I didn’t chat these guys up right away. No, first things first, I went home to eat. I have never been the same.

This was by far the best poboy I had ever eaten. It is made on a bun about 6″ long. The bread is good, not to hard and not to soft. Ketchup, tartar, pickles, lettuce and tomato are layered with 8 to 10 large fresh fried shrimp. The sandwich is not huge, but for a 6″ bun that’s a lot of shrimp. And at $4 each it is cheap.

Needless to say Lee, Kim, Laura and Jaybird have become my good friends and we are on more then a first name basis. I am in there 3 or 4 times a week. I have sent everyone I can think of up there for a poboy and tell them to let ‘em know Tracy sent you.

I have gotten to know everyone up there and take them a cold six pack every now and then. I can’t believe Kim and Lee, the owners are from my hometown. It really is a small world.

There is lots more to the shop than just the poboy. They have a buffet of southern foods and it’s also delicious. Sometimes I have something other than the poboy, but not often. Lee drives to Mobile once a week to get fresh seafood. But I am sure some of it comes form local distributors. Like the Snow and King crabs they offer.

I am sure there is a really interesting story behind Kim and Lee’s life and maybe one day I can sit with them and learn more about them. Til then I’m just gonna keep eating.

Washington Seafood Market 1765 Washington Road 404 768 2914

Tell them Tracy sent ya.

Monday, August 13, 2007

monday report

Going north on I -85 towards Atlanta, exit 114 Georgiana, Kenkades Bar b que, right next to the B.P. station. “howlin good” so says the sign.

The sound of the trains, at night, in mobile on Roper st. One day I will figure out how far it is from the tracks to the bed I spent years sleeping in, listening to the trains. The squeak of the steel on steel, along with the whistles and horns, and then Atlanta and all the tracks.

Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O’Toole. Great read on New Orleans.

So another week, another weekend. Stacey and I went to see the Kingsized Orchestra. Big Mike and his always wild shows. This was a tribute to the King. Elvis that is. He died about 30 years ago on august 16. Mikes been doing this show for years.

He has 11 musicians, 4 or 5 dancers, 3 backup singers and a midget dressed like Elvis. The band is really good. Lots of horns and a great guitar player. Big Mike doesn’t dress like Elvis. He is not an impersonator

Friday, August 10, 2007

Corn and Pea Salad

It’s really hot. When we cook of course it gets even hotter. So we do anything we can, for these few weeks each year when we get the 100 degree days, to keep it cooler inside.

One thing we try do do is cook less, cook less inside that is. We can cook all over the place around here. The front porch has a one eye gas burner ready to go at all times. Also on the front porch is a small grill that gets really hot and is just the right size for meals for two people. The backyard has both a grill/smoker and a large open pit fireplace for outdoor cooking. We use all of these to cook with. We also try to eat stuff that is prepared, and not cooked, not in our house anyway. So here is a salad we’ve done for years. I think it is Staceys’ grandmothers recipe.

We are down with the fresh and local scene, but ask most any chef and he’s gonna tell you there’s a few things that he uses right outta the can. This is one of those recipes.

Corn and Pea Salad

1 can (15 1/4 oz) Del Monte White Whole Kernel Sweet Corn

1 can (15 oz) Le Sueur Very Young Small Early Peas

1 medium sized white onion chopped

1/4 cup of Mayonnaise (or to taste)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix - Cover and Chill for at least 2 hours

That’s it. Great with burgers, ribs and dogs.

Enjoy !

Thursday, August 9, 2007

The South, the Beautiful South

I am happy to see the South and Southern Culture so so celebrated these days. I say these days, but I think it’s been in the works for awhile now. Groups like the Southern Foodways Alliance, Slow Food, Society for the Revival, Preservation of Southern Food and Chefs like Linton Hopkins and Tony Seichrist are all about promoting and preserving the ways of the new south.

Along time ago, I drove a limo for a hotel in Mobile, Alabama. I was driving a minor T.V. star from England, around the Garden District, per her request. I remember her telling me how the British considered writers from the south the deepest, darkest and their favorite. That has always stuck with me, as it was the first time I ever thought to be proud of who I was and where I was from.

Now this was not something profound. No, it was just a little something I keep with me and think of from time to time. It’s something I think about whenever I might be looking for something to read. I will go to my bookshelf today and be drawn to the large tomes on southern literature. I know if I grab one of those I have a broad choice. There is a great difference between a Eudora Welty story and a James Baldwin story. But, both give me buckets full of southernness. And each with really different views on life.

Now days it is so great to see how it’s all so cool again. Eugene Walters ? Who would have thought my Moms old friend would leave such a mark. A mark that can be traced all over the world and end up in Mobile, Alabama. Hell, Frank Stitt is one of the best Chefs in America and he is from the city of Cullman, Alabama. He has three restaurants in Birmingham.

Ya know we are gonna have to talk about this again at a later date. I mean there is just so much to say and it is also the theme of this blog, the South.

These thoughts got in my head today when I read an email from a friend, who is a gentleman farmer here in our beautiful south. He ask if I had read a book by Sonny Brewer. One thought led to another and by the end of the day, I had borrowed, from my local library ”the Moviegoer” by Walker Percy and ordered “The Poet of Tolstoy-Park” by Brewer from amazon.com.

Monday, August 6, 2007

The Shutter Table

I was hired recently, by a very brilliant couple, to build a dinner table for their beach house. The table is to be built using antique shutters. This couple, lets just make up a name for them, lets call them Chris and Julie, already have a couple pieces of my work. Like I said, they are brilliant.

Chris and Julie found a table made from shutters in a store here in town. It was imported from far,far away, so I was happy to be able to tell them about the shutters I had. They are from a plantation home about 1 hour east of Atlanta. The nice lady who gave them to me told me they were original to the house, which was built in the late 1800’s.

So this was great. These guys are gonna get the style table they want and have it made from a local product, not such a “fresh” product, but local all the same. It’s fun when I can build something and be able to tell the customer where the materials came from. People really seem to appreciate it.

So here are some photos. I just knocked the pegs out and removed about 4 nails and took the thing apart. It was easy to get the pegs out, I was surprised. shutter inprogressYou can see how rough they are, but after I have sanded them, they already look better and the finish Julie has come up with is gonna look great.

shutterThe table is to seat 8 and will comfortably, when it’s all done. I have had these shutter for 5 years or more. Just holding on to them, waiting for the right job. I have more shutters and more ideas of what I might do with them.

We are gonna do a plain square post for legs. And how’s this for timing, this past Saturday morning at the farmers market, a friend came over to say hi and introduced me to a guy that was with him. I got to talking to this guy about my furniture, which I had a few pieces of at the market. When he learned I was building from salvaged wood he ask if I might be intrested in some post from a building he was renovating in downtown Atlanta. He told me the post were about as tall as me and 6″ square. I didn’t have to ask. I knew this building was well over 100 years old. Tomorrow I will go pick up this wood and get the low down on the building. Like how old, what was it used for before he got it and the address. Then I will really have more local, antique, awesome materials to build from. And they will make great legs for Chris and Julies table.

Later I will show you the finished product and let you know about the large posts I hope to get tomorrow.

The Monday Report

Now thats Report as in Colbert Report, thank you very much. I accept your apology.

So, this is very regular, kind of routine if you will. I am not used to much routine. I guess the only time I lived a life of routine as an adult I was sick and it was only for about a year. So writing this blog everyday is a chore. But, I enjoy it very much. I like chores like this one. Do something creative, do it today, and every weekday, but, you can take all day getting it done. That’s good for me. Like, if I need to do a few loads of laundry and have all day to do it, no problem.

dirty birdAnyway, sometimes I am going to give you the Monday Report. I will tell you about our weekend and add some random thoughts. Maybe not every Monday but maybe.

So, Friday early a.m. and I am loving life. I am painting pictures and building furniture from one of the many things I have in my workshop. This time I take a door which is a small door, 53′ long by 30′ wide. I build a base with four legs made from old piano parts. I paint the base white and distress it. I paint the door 5 different colors of green and trim it in black paint, distress it and clear coat it. It looks great on the base.

I smoked 2 big rack of ribs and got some slaw from the seafood joint up the street. Then my sister arrived later in the afternoon, with her husband and their son, Scotty Mike. We chowed down on bar b que and had cold beers. Some of of us had lemonade and some of us had tequila. Fun Fun - then sleep.

Saturday, Stacey took our guests to the Georgia Aquarium. They had a great time seeing all the fish. I went to the Morningside Organic Framers Market. I sold the coffee table I had made the day before.

We then met on the front porch and had shrimp poboys for the seafood joint up the street. They are the best poboys I have had in my life and they cost $4. I have to buy Paul one every time he beats me at golf, which has been often lately.

Then Scotty Mike and me and his dad went and played 9 holes of golf. That was nice. A golf course is one of my favorite places in the world.

Then home, get cleaned up and lay out food, fill the ice chest and light the grill. Have way to much of everything, and over serve our guest, break some bones and call it a night. Sunday morning and some of us are hurting.

Random thought - check out Garden & Gun magazine. I especially like their philosophy on the South.

Friday, August 3, 2007

A kitchen full of old stuff

Once when I was in high-school, I went to a house that a guy had built from old materials. I thought it was really cool. Then about 10 years ago, I started to sell furniture I built from old materials. So, it was only natural for me to use old materials when I renovated our kitchen.

kitchen

So I slowly started throwing out parts of the old kitchen. One year the dishwasher broke, so I ripped it out of the counter and threw it in the front yard. Little by little, I did this to our whole kitchen and then started putting it back together.

I built cabinets from cabinet grade plywood. The cabinets that were to be hung on the wall got old windows for the doors. These old windows had four panes of glass per window. Each pane of glass was about 12″ square. They were nice size windows which made for big cabinets.

Another cabinet was one that started on the floor and was about 6′ tall. We use a old french door for the door on this cabinet. On top of that, I sat a barristers box case, just a single unit, it was almost the same width of french door cabinet. These cabinets were on a wall along with 2 sets of floor cabinets.

In between the 2 floor cabinets sits a Roper gas stove. It’s a vintage Roper stove with 4 burners on a stainless steel top and an oven. A broiler, storage and a warming drawer underneath. It is stove white with a stainless steel top. It looks like a old chevy. There is also a new stainless steel refrigerator next to the french door cabinet. Above the stove is a vintage Icee clock.

Across from all that is an island. The island has a bar which runs the length of the island which is 12′ long. Starting from one end it has, a cabinet for cookie sheets and the likes, then a stainless steel front dishwasher, then a very old french style farmhouse sink. This old farmhouse style sink was here at the house when we moved in. Just sitting out in the back yard. I used a restaurant style faucet and it’s working out well for us. Next after the sink is a cabinet of 3 drawers and then a pull out cabinet for a garbage can. Next to that is a large under cabinet. On the bar and for counter-top on right of sink, I have used antique pine salvaged from a cotton mill in Carrolton, GA. The mill was built in the 1850s. This is hard, old wood. I also used it for the counter-top along the wall.

To the left of the sink, I used a piece of rock maple butcher block. The piece I had was large enough to cut a 6′ x 2′ piece for the whole counter top. So we use the end of the counter-top, next to sink as a chopping block.

kitchen1

I have painted all the cabinets RED and distressed them. The old windows look great like this. The walls are to shades of blue. The color scheme is much like the colors in the old Icee clock.

I was in a bind about what to do about the floors. We had moved the kitchen from a corner of the room, out to the middle of this room. And this 1 room used to be 2 rooms. So when we pulled the crap off the kitchen floor, we found pine running the opposite of the oak flooring in the other part of the room. Well about that time a builder who sometime calls me to pick up lumber he has, called. Said he had 2 pickup truckloads of wide plank flooring. It was excellent wood and all mixed up. Random lenghts and widths, from 4″ up 10″ wide. Some of it was oak, some pine, some cherry, some mahogany and some hickory. It was perfect and it was free. So I sent off for some fake antique nails. I nailed it straight to the floor. The end.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Figs

It’s that time here in East Point. The figs are getting ripe and this year we have found a new tree that has black figs on it. They are not like any fig I have seen. They are not real large and are rounder than other figs I get. Inside they are more red than other figs.

figsWhat Stacey and I do is walk the hood and look for trees we can raid. We have a few regulars.
One gives us a medium size fig with a pale yellow color. Another gives us figs just like our tree at home. I think they are a brown turkey figs. Our other tree, we have two, gives us a small purple fig.

They are all very good and we eat them many ways. I think my favorite is as a stuffing for chickens or even better, Cornish Hens. We cook a regular Thanksgiving stuffing and add the figs. Man is it good. We had some last night.

Another good way is to split them in half and gently push a small chunk of blue cheese into the center of the fig. And you can’t go wrong if you wrap a fig in bacon and broil it. It works well if you cook the bacon half way and let it cool. Then wrap the fig and fix the bacon in place with a toothpick and broil ’till the bacon is finished. This way the figs don’t over cook and turn into a sugar bomb.

Figs were not a big part of our lives until we moved to this house in East point. Right away we embraced the figs growing at our new house and were very happy to have them. Over the years we have perfected many good ways to enjoy figs. And theres always a new way to try.

We like them so much we have found trees all over the hood and we use them all. Some figs come ripe before ours do, so we eat off those trees a few blocks away before we start harvesting ours.

Now in the bible it seems Jesus didn’t much care for figs.
“Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he was hungry.
“And when he saw a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it, but leaves only, and said to it, Let no fruit grow on you henceforward for ever.”
And presently the fig tree withered away.
“And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon has the fig tree withered away!”
–Matthew 21:18-20

Man, I got to tell you - I am so glad my figs haven’t withered.

Rosenbaum house

There is a house in Tuscumbia Alabama designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was built in 1939 in the Usonian style. Stacey and I toured this house not long ago and it was a really good tour. The guide was very informative and had tons of knowledge on many different aspects of the whole project. She told us the house was commissioned by the Rosenbaum Family. The lot was a wedding gift from the grooms Mom and Dad, who lived across the street.

House
At first, Wright did not want to do the job. After a few years of getting nowhere on the idea, Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum went to see him, and he finally agreed to design the house.

The two strangest things the guide told us was Wright never visited the property or the job site. And it was the only house he ever agreed to do a addition to. So in 1948, Wright designed the additional wing.

Mrs. Rosenbaum lived in the house until she passed in 1999, then it was purchased by the City of Florence. The house was in very poor condition by this time and the city stepped up and put out hundreds of thousands of dollars in to renovating it. Funny, the original house cost approximately $40,000 to build in 1939 and the addition cost in the $70,000 range.

frank-loyd-wright-001.jpgIt was restored to the original state after the addition. I was amazed at how much plywood was used. It was used for lots of the cabinets, used in the ceilings and was prevalent in the kitchen. It was also used for a bunch of furniture Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the house. Check out the photos. The guide told us plywood was hot at the time. It was the newest, coolest material and he loved using it for this project.

We had no idea that Frank Lloyd Wright designed a home in Alabama.
Wonder why he never went to the job site ? Wonder why he agreed to do an addition to the home ?