Today

It’s Monday and I missed yesterday. Don’t matter.

If your a peaceful soul, peace will come.

Joseph Arthur, http://www.josepharthur.com/video/ja-slideaway.html

Get passed the Letterman intro and listen

A Southern Christmas

Was the Friday before Christmas and all through the South, a whole lot of folks were running their mouth.

The stock car races were done and not a soul could care, not even the guy with a mullet for hair

The hounds were asleep up under the bed with dreams of big bones in their tiny little heads

Big mama was pissed and Daddy was drunk and he fell asleep in the back of his truck

When out by the outhouse came a big stink, made Daddy stand and try real hard to think

Away from this scene he had to dash, he thought Big Mama was kickin his ass

Daddy ran and he ran and then fell in the snow, how long he laid there he didn’t know

When he did stand up he said “where did ya go?” he thought he was huntin a buck and a doe

But what he did see were some tiny deer and a little fat guy looking kinda queer

He was quite confused and he lay back down and for hours didn’t hear another sound

He dreamed and he snored and though of Exgirlfriends, he could not remember, were there eight or ten?

He thought of their names and made a list, there was Nancy and Patty and Betsy and ….

It took him a minute but he came up with others, there was Lisa and Sally and somebodies mother

He was dreaming of them and it made him real happy then his dreams turned dark and he thought of his pappy

Poor pappy was laid up in the county jail, just a waitin for someone to go his bail

Daddy didn’t have a nickel or dime to his name so poor pappy just lay there going insane

I forgot when I started that this poem was so long, I thought I would rewrite it, boy was I wrong

I guess what I really wanted to say, hope you all have a good Christmas Day!

‘Tis the Southern Season

Like I said a few post back I love the Holidays. There is nothing better than having all your work done, all your shopping done, all your driving done and being able to spend about three or four days, doing nothing but sit around with family and friends that drop by.

I remember Christmas as a little kid, that would have been in the 60’s. I remember my Mom and Dad didn’t have any extra money and I remember never being disappointed.

I remember the year my brother and I got bikes. His was green and mine was blue. I remember when my sisters got a little bitty, blue, stereo. This was my introduction to pop music and whatever my sisters listened to was what I listened to. Today we all have a similar taste in music.

When I was growing up parenting was a lot different then now, we just didn’t get to deep into heavy subjects. I think that was a sign of the times and a southern thing. That’s not to say my folks were not the best parents a kid could have. They may not have said it, but I learned it from their actions.

Like I said, there was no extra money and my Moms best friend was her banker. I can still remember his name, Ronnie Harrison, God bless his soul. That made no difference. We, my brother and sisters, learned what was important. Each other. And we learned through watching our parents how to handle our problems. Face them, fix them and move on. Nothing ever was a problem for long around our house and I think that attitude has served me well.

So I can’t wait to get to Mobile and see everyone, it will be the first time in a while we have all been home for Christmas at the same time. I can’t wait to wake up Christmas morning and do it the way it is always done. No matter who is at Roper Street that year, someone will be elected, or told by Mom to pass out the gifts, once we got them all out we take turns opening them, one at a time.

But for me the best part is after the gifts are all open and it sinks in, there is nothing I have got to do for the rest of the day but sit and visit. This feeling really hits when I smell the sausage cooking for Christmas breakfast. Just like it has been for as long as I can remember.

Southern Smarts

Two business men in NY are sitting down for a break in their soon- to-be new store. As yet, the store isn’t ready — only a few shelves are set up.

One says to the other, ‘I bet any minute now some tourist is going to walk by, put his face to the window and ask what we’re selling.’

No sooner are the words out of his mouth when, sure enough, a curious hill-billy from the south walks to the window, has a peek, and in a Southern drawl asks, ‘What’re y’all sellin’ here?’

One of the men replies, ‘Oh! We’re selling assholes here.”

Without skipping a beat, the southerner says, ‘Well, I see y’all’re doing really good, you only got two left!’

NEW YORKERS (Bless their hearts) SHOULD NOT MESS WITH SOUTHERNERS !…

Thanks Danny!

Southern Circle

So here’s a good one. Two guys walk in a bar. Just kiddin, but this is funny.

I gota friend who calls me every now and than with materials I can use to build furniture from. Lumber, old shutters, all kind of stuff.

About four or five months ago he called me and insisted I meet him at a antique market that had just gone out of business. It was near his restaurant and he had worked with the folks that ran the market. They had left some stuff behind and told him he could take what he wanted. So he calls me and tells me there is neat shit I need to get. Well it took a few days and a few phone calls for him to get me to meet him. When I did I wasn’t really excited about most of the materials. Some cool stuff, I just didn’t know what I would do with most of it.

There were 2 vegetable cart made of wood and on casters. There was a rolling, metal ladder. The kind a airplane mechanic might use. There were also two, 3′ tall old cast iron post . Looked like they might have been old diner counter stools, without the seats.

Well I took it all and dumped it outside at my shop and haven’t thought much about it. The iron post are very cool and I have tried to use them in a custom job, but the right job hasn’t come along yet.

So the other day my friend that had hooked me up with this stuff called and wanted a bed made for his wife for Christmas. Oh, sorry, that would be Hanukkah.

Anyway we designed a bed using the iron post and the lumber from the veg carts. He made me give him a huge discount since he “gave” me the materials.

I wonder if he had this planned all along. I will post a photo when finished.

Southern Culture

I love the holidays. I love music and I love the great friends I am so lucky to have. That being said I had a lovely day Saturday.

Stacey and I joined some friends for lunch and a concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The Orchestra was joined by the ASO Gospel Chorus. It was a wonderful show. The chorus was made up of singers from local choirs. It was obvious that a lot of work had gone into this concert and that the chorus loved what they were doing. That love for their art and the skill of the ASO, together, resulted in beautiful music. I am very happy we were invited to join our friends, it was a great day. I plan on doing it again next year.

Events that bring us altogether are what life is all about for me. It’s not the event, it’s the friends gathered. It’s not always a happy event, sometime we come together to mourn. A friend we have lost or someone who is suffering, is a time when we all need our friends around. Most are happy times and like I said it doesn’t matter why, lets just get together.

Southern Sundays

I love it when Sunday morning last til about 8:30 or 9 p.m. I like to start those days with a large plate of grits and eggs, bacon, toast, jelly and juice. Read the New York Times and maybe something else. Watch t.v. or a movie and end the day with a large plate of eggs Benedict. I haven’t had a day like that in a while. I am due. Been working way to many hours.

I finished the tailgate cocktail table. I built the undercarriage and painted it black. I distressed that and put a protective clear coat on next. I sanded and cleaned the part of the tailgate to be the surface. I painted the word FORD on it and distressed that once it dried. I then clear coated the top a few times. Here’s a photo. Remember you can click on photo and enlarge it. Then you will see the licences plate is Alabama and from 1959.

I am also working on a large order for a bakery/deli. I am building a bread unit, about 23′ of counter top made from antique pine and 17 table tops 24 ” square. These are for the lunch and coffee area and will also be made from antique pine. Finished with paste wax. The counter top will have to be finished with something more durable. This is a fun job. Big stuff, the bread unit is about 10′ wide and 8′ tall. A metalsmith will finish the unit out with steel. I will take photos.

JK

I’m not sure where I ran across a copy of Talk Stories, I think it was in the airport. I am sure that I noticed the authors name as someone who had written for the New Yorker Magazine. By the the time I was getting the New Yorker in the mail Jamaica Kincaid wrote full length pieces and not very often. But I remembered her name. She had written a piece about gardening. I think it was about a seed catalog that she used.

Anyway I found this book and found a beautiful voice. Talk Stories is a book of 77 short pieces that Jamaica Kincaid wrote for the New Yorker column, “Talk Of The Town”. She wrote the column from 1974 til ‘83. I love the way she wrote these columns. It was almost as if you were reading a list, a list written by a very good writer. At the time she began writing Talk of the Town, I think she was just starting to write. So this is how she cut her teeth, learned her chops if you will.

I had been reading the New Yorker and the Talk column for years before I found her book. Looking back, not one other Talk writer was able to do what she did for that column. She made the most mundane events, political rallies and such, sound like a fun day in the city. She always wrote in the “we” voice, I don’t know why, maybe she was told to.

I quit taking the New Yorker about a year after the war. I am so tired of hearing about how we botched that effort to hell and back. I guess that is the same reason I don’t listen to NPR’s show Fresh Air as much as I used to. Both of these vehicles were once a great source for information into the arts, science and current events. Not so much these days. I look at it as another casualty of the war.

Anyway if you get the chance check out this book Talk Stories. It’s good stuff.

Southern Condiments

There is a South everywhere. And usually those Souths have flavors distinct to it’s culture. I remember chutney since I was a little kid. We didn’t eat it at our house, but I always saw it at the store and I think my grandfather ate it. As I got older, I remember seeing it at farmers markets, flea markets and anywhere handmade country crafts were sold. Chutney is probably something that has been prepared in southern kitchens forever. There is probably a type of chutney connected to the south. I don’t know much about it, I just remember seeing it around.

Chutney is originally from South Asia. It has made it’s way around the world bearing many different names. It’s called relish some places and it’s called salsa others. It is usually made to be eaten fresh using local ingredients. A chutney made in our South would have been prepared to be stored. Usually, fruit, sugar and vinegar are cooked down to a reduction.

I guess what I am trying to say is people are all the same. Everywhere. They just make their chutney a little different than you and me.

This is how Stacey does it. She uses Kumquat (usually JoAnn’s) . It is great with everything. Cheese, grilled meats, toasted breakfast breads. Hell, it probably tastes good on ice cream. Stacey took this photo of her latest batch of Kumquat and Jalapeno Chutney. Her recipe follows. I also found an article on Chutneys in the December Gourmet. On page 156 there is a recipe for a Kumquat Chutney made with ginger. We have been using ginger around this house a lot lately.

Yield - 2cups Long Shelf Life

1 1/4 pound Kumquats sliced 1/8″ thin (do not peel) (can take seeds out - I don’t)

1 Jalapeno - julienne

1/2 cup Rice Wine Vinegar

1/2 cup Sugar

Salt

Combine Vinegar and Sugar in a non-aluminum pan and bring to boil.

Bring to boil until all the vinegar has evaporated. Once the sugar begins to take on the slightest hint of brown, add the kumquats and jalapeno. Toss until kumquats begin to turn limp (about 3 to 5 minutes).

Season with salt (to taste. Allow to cool. Store in air tight container.

Happy Birthday,from the Southside

Last night we had a Birthday party for my oldest sister. My other oldest sister told me she was the oldest now that she turned 49. I really didn’t know she was 49 and I didn’t know one could be older then a person at some point of their life and then have the younger person somehow become older then the person who was once oldest. But Pam said so, so I believe it. The person that was once my oldest sister would not lie to me, would she?

Anyway the important part was the party and all the good stuff we had. We all started with cocktails of course. Ginger and Mary Ann’s. For these drinks you take 2 jiggers of bourbon, 1 jigger of fresh ginger juice, poured over ice in tall glass. Add Limeade til glass is almost full and top off with a little sparkling water, mix well, drink many.

We also enjoyed a very large party tray of assorted meats and cheeses, with a loaf of fresh baked ciabatta bread. We had Italian meats such as, Capicola, Prosciutto, Sopressata and Salami. The cheeses we had were, Gorganzola Dolce, Pecrino, Taleggio and a blue cheese from the Basque region.

We sipped Processo and white wine and had a really good time celebrating Kim’s birthday. To bad she wasn’t there. Wish she could have been there so we could have told her “We love you and Happy Birthday”. Maybe next year.

About last night…..

Last night we ate at the Feed Store again. It was as good as the first time and we got a chance to speak with the head chef. The guy is passionate about what he does. He ask what we ate and as we told him he gave us a little background on each dish.

We had Crab Cakes with Shrimp and Andouille sausage, with a sweet potato Aioli. We have had eight dishes so far at Feed Store and this is the only one Stacey says was just O.K. It was good, and reminded me of a dim sum dish. It is also the only dish not prepared in-house.

We also had a Duck confit with Pomegranate BBQ Sauce, cracklin chip, which I missed, and cornbread and slaw. Another great dish, it was like pulled duck in a really good BBQ Sauce.

The fried Calamari with homemade Pepper Vinegar and crystallized Ginger was real good. There was no dipping sauce and none was needed, it was already drizzled on the Calamari, as in “Pepper Vinegar”. There was a nice pile of Crystallized Ginger which went great with a bite of the Calamari.

We tried the Panzanella, it’s like the classic day old bread salad with a homemade vinaigrette. At the Feed Store they take a small cornbread muffin and deep fry it. That’s right, deep fry it. In the mean time, and this is what the chef said, he’s got a pot of Ham Hocks that have been cooked down. Once that’s done he pulls the meat off and mixes it with his vinaigrette. It was like a fine french wine with hints of dirt and dung. So he takes this Ham Hock Vinaigrette and tosses it with lovely mixed greens. Nice and fresh. With tomatoes. This salad is especially good. I bet one could do something like it at home.

The waitress talked us Stacey into a IceBox Apple Crumb delicious as shit desert. It, like the rest of the meal was really, really good.

Tree Man, Only in the South.

Check this guy out. He was at Serenbe Sunday. Word is he is part of a large, annual festival, the Renaissance Festival. I guess he some how fits in with jousters and people speaking like Shakespeare. He was very cool and spooky, the way he moved. You could see his eyes and he would stop and just stare at you for a second. There were a lot of people around and everyone got real quite. My friend commented on how everyone kinda whispered. Some of the kids were really scared and some loved him. There were lots of photos taken.

I think you to can hire him for you kids birthday party. This is his web site http://toddkeyjuggles.com/walkingtree.html Check out the video of the Treeman in action.

Southern Changes

The other day I tried being a king for a while.

Then I tried being a queen for a while. I wore sun glasses so no one would recognize me.

I was doing a good job at being a queen when I almost put my foot in my mouth. I knew I had to be careful or I would really get into some trouble.

Well it wasn’t long before I was tired of being a women so I became a dog. Now that was fun, I chased a squirrel and bit it. Then I went out of town and left myself with the dog sitter. She rocks, and is very sexy.

Well all good things come to an end and I just decided to be Tracy, again.

So So Stupid

I had been fighting with my computer for about two days. It had gotten hold of something and was acting up. I called my geek and e-mailed my other geek for help. Both had the same advice, run hardcore anti-everything security checks and clean it out. Well I have been “cleansing” for about three days now and there are still problems. But the really bad part is for the first two days I didn’t know I could run Foxfire without any problem. My regular Internet connection was so slow it was as if time had stopped, again damn-it. Hence erratic post last week. Yea I could have posted all week and didn’t realize it.

But, I gotta tell you I got a lot of work done. Cleaned and organized my shop, which is a never ending task. I also painted three new paintings for the Serenbe Artist Bizzare, which was yesterday. I also made a tray from a tree that is falling apart in my neighbors yard. Check out these photos, the first is the part of the tree that has fallen, it’s shaped as if it were a large piece of bark from a tree but it is actually part of the tree itself. The second photo is the finished product. I sold three of these yesterday. If you click on photo that will enlarge it.