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.

Dia Beacon, New York

On our last trip to New York, just a couple of weeks ago, we made a day trip to a museum that is about 80 mile north of the city. The place is called Dia Beacon and it is the Dia Foundations Beacon N.Y. location. They have a location in the city and this location we visited houses their large format and site specific pieces.

So we got up Sunday morning and I must say, I was a bit hung over. The first thing I did, while Lisa and Stacey got ready, was go out and get a slice of pizza. Joe’s Famous, known for it’s hangover curing powers. That slice and a bacon, egg and cheese croissant did the trick.

Then it was off to Grand Central Station to catch a train up the Hudson River to the Dia Beacon. This was quite a train ride. The Hudson is a mighty river and the train ran right beside it for most of the trip. That would be one hell of a commute everyday, it was beautiful. It was a good time of the year to see the colors of the trees as they changed for the season. The river itself is something to see, at one point we saw an old castle that had been built in the middle of the river. It was nothing but a shell, but you could tell exactly what it once was and it was very cool looking, just sitting out in the middle of all that water.

Click on this link to the Dia to learn more and to see the art on display. We were not all that happy with what was on display, but that didn’t ruin the trip for us. There was some art we enjoyed and the building it was all in was great. It had been a box spring factory and around 2002 Dia moved in. It is a huge space with tons of natural light. Acres and acres of old hardwood floors that show the wear and tear of the years as a production plant.

I think the train ride there and back, as it was getting dark were really the highlights of this trip. To bad we don’t have more train service in America, I would love to be able to hop on a train down to Mobile or over to Birmingham. I guess the demand just isn’t there. Instead we all just hop in our car. So sad.

Southern Lit

I remember my Mom taking us to Fairhope when we were kids. My cousin used to take her kids, our god children, but Dauphin Island is a lot closer to them now.

My Mom would load us into whichever car someone in the family had given us and she would take us “over the bay”. We would swim from the “beach” at the foot of the very large “Cement Pier”. I remember lots of time spent at the “Cement Pier”

Then when I was in High School I remember taking dates to eat at a restaurant on the pier. So I have a history with Fairhope. Swimming at the pier. Eating at the pier. I remember a guy catching a Sheep-head fish at the end of the pier. My little brother and I watched as this guy reeled in this very angry fish. My wife, what’s her name, went to Fairhope High. So did her twin brother, what’s his name.

I think the last time I was in Fairhope was about 7 or 8 years ago and I was hanging out with a chef friend of mine. We were just loafing, checking out antique stores and stuff. I remember how we thought the guys who ran one of the shops thought we were gay, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Well now days Fairhope is an artist colony. Lots of writers. Probably lots of other artist as well, but I only know of the writers. Sonny Brewer comes to mind first. Then I think of Frank Hollon, some folks think he’s the funniest writer in the world.

We were there the day after Thanksgiving looking for another meal. We were actually visiting with Staceys’ brother and his family. Man did they feed us. We had pork roast, we had black-eyed peas, we had greens and cornbread and best of all we had gumbo. My sister in law made it and I think it was her first time. She went to her Paw Paw to learn how to cook it the way he did and man did he learn her. To top it off, she added the left over turkey, that along with sausage made for a very good gumbo. It was an excellent second Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving = Southern Food for the Heart and Soul

Down to the deeper south for the holiday and a really good meal. My family has been preparing and eating basically the same meal longer then I’ve been around. My Moms family had a maid named Ida when she was a child and Ida cooked most of the meals. It was no different for Thanksgiving. The main thing I remember was the dressing. It was so good and seasoned with sage. She taught my Mom to cook, including the Thanksgiving feast. My Mom taught anyone that wanted to learn the same recipes. The dressing is simple, like all the dishes for Thanksgiving, but if ya want it to taste like Idas and Moms, you gotta do as they did. Today I bet there are ten or so people in my extended family that can prepare that dish just like Mom learned to.

This year my Dad cooked most of the meal. That’s not unusal, Dad does a lot of cooking these days. The dressing was good and tasted just like I remembered it tasted. The rest of the meal was made up of other family recipes. My grandmothers spinach cassrole, rice and gravey, turkey of course and a new twist on sweet taters. Dad stuffed hollowed out orange rinds with the sweet taters and then topped that with a pecan, burbon, butter sauce and baked it for awhile. Man that was a good dish. It was all good and I ate two plates of everything and then took a plate home for a midnight meal.

We had a good time, it is always fun to get together with the Loud, I mean Hartley family. We ate, drank and sang songs about eating a plate of red beans and rice twice. We all agreed that was a good idea.

This is just the start, we have a extended holiday season this go ’round. After Christmas we have Mardi Gras to look forward to. Mardi Gras comes early this year, Feburary 5th. Most folks don’t like it this early in the year and wish it were later in Feburary, which sometimes it is. I think I’m gonna like it early but we will have to see.