Month: September 2010

Bluff Park Art Show – B’ham AL (previous pics here)
Fall Pilgrimage begins in Natchez
National Banana Pudding Festival in Centerville, TN
Reelfoot Arts & Crafts Festival, Tiptonville TN
National Storytelling Festival, Jonesborough TN
Red River Revel Arts Festival, Shreveport

I picked up this brass chandelier for $15 at a sale and couldn’t decide whether to cover it in moss (next time!), newspaper (time after that!), or rope/sisal – so…

I would have taken more pics, but all it took was a lot of hot glue and three different weights of rope / sisal:

I’m going to ask Av to hang it from one of the branches in this tree to make it an outdoor chandelier (I saw that idea in a magazine somewhere…) – can’t wait to see!

The State Fair of Texas is going on right now and the Big Tex Choice Awards have gone out for the eight dishes named best new foods at the fair.


Now, I grew up in a small town with a small fair.  And I would have never-ever bought food from a fair vendor (not counting the Lions Club concession stand, which offers food by/from local businesses).  But at the Texas State Fair, it’s kind-of a thing to eat ‘fair food’ and there especially, to eat *fried* fair food.


So the eight new Big Tex best foods?


Deep Fried Smores Pop Tart
Fried Lemonade
Fernie’s Fried Club Salad
Texas Fried Frito Pie
Fried Texas Caviar
Deep Fried Frozen Margarita
Fried Chocolate
—-and—-
Fried Beer


(the fried club salad has the most calories, with 1021.)




Just the words ‘Frito Pie’ make me hungry!  Frito Pie is a ‘thing’ in Texas – you just open a bag of Fritos, add chili and cheese…yum!  And it’s perfect Friday night football food.  For 1-1/2 years in elementary school, I left Alabama and lived in Texas.  I loved it there.


I had long hair, lived in a pink house (I know! Pink! What is that!?) with pretty roses around it, could walk home from school, had a sweet dachshund named ‘Winnie’, took piano lessons, belonged to 4-H, and oh-gosh-what-else…


I had gigantic wings in my hair!

This past week, my friend Larry was in town from Houston.  He loves art environments as much as I do (he also has the *fantastic* site, Narrow Larry’s World of the Outstanding which covers not only art environments but architecture (he’s an architect in ‘real life’)), so I called Joe and Hilda Minter and made arrangements for us to come visit and show Larry a really great time.  


He *loved* it.


Well of course, I took him to Niki’s West first and filled him up on catfish and fried green tomatoes and ‘nana puddin, then we were off to see some Dionicio Rodrigues art for a surprise (more about that later this week), and the best-ever thing was spending time with Joe and Hilda for a tour:

I visit Joe and Hilda often; over 250 pics from their place, African Village in America, is here in my Flickr set.

I stitched these two photos together in Photoshop and they’re not perfect, but at original size it’s a better idea of the scope of things inside:

and outside:

This is going to be good.  It’s the first annual Birmingham Restaurant Week this week, and 40+ establishments in town are doing prix fixe menus at $10.10, $20.10, and $30.10.


Just a few of those participating: Bottega, Dreamland, Highlands, Jinsei, Little Savannah, Ocean, Veranda, Bottletree, ChezFonfon, Dodiyos, 26, Nabeel’s, Rojo, Sol y Luna, Brick & Tin…


We had a terrific supper at Veranda about a month ago: soft-shell crawfish for an appetizer along with a crab and corn savory beignet, Fudge Farms pork tenderloin, steak (I don’t remember the cut), dessert was a cornmeal peach cake, and a peanut butter / chocolate concoction.

When the lighting is better for pics, Veranda’s food looks better – these are from previous visits:

Chef Tom Robey came to Veranda from Commander’s in New Orleans where he was sous chef, and the dining room manager, Stan Reynolds, is also from Commander’s.


Thank you, Brennan family.


Well, as part of B’ham Restaurant Week, Veranda is doing a $30.10 prix fixe:


FIRST COURSE
House Made Boudin Balls with Bacon Braised Onions, Pickled Peppers & Jack Daniels Creole Mustard Honey


or


Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash & Granny Smith Apples, Baby Greens, Dried Cranberries and Sweet Onions Tossed in a Shallot Hard Cider Vinaigrette


SECOND COURSE
Seared Gulf Shrimp over Late Summer Corn & Okra Maque Choux with Jack Daniels Brown Butter


or


Colorado Lamb Shank with Smoked Crimini Mushroom, Tasso & Sweet Potato Hash, Mirliton Slaw & Natural Jus


THIRD COURSE


Fig & White Chocolate Bread Pudding, Jack Daniels Caramel & Chantilly Cream


—
Av took me to Brick & Tin last week for lunch and it was pretty good – especially the breads the sandwiches were on (I read somewhere that you can buy just the bread from them, which they bake fresh on the premises).  Gorgeous ceiling:

L-R: New Orleans (salami, capicola, mortadella, provolone & olives) and field pea salad, Brisket, and a slice of multi-layered caramel cake which at first I thought might be a mille feuille (wasn’t) or a mille crepe (wasn’t) but wasn’t a traditional multi-layered caramel either.  Hmmm…

—
Many, many other cities do restaurant weeks: New York, Philadelphia, Austin…  It seems as though restaurants in New Orleans get together often, like The Coolinary during summer (three supper courses approx. $35) and the Papa Noel promotions in December.  Tom Fitzmorris has a list of the summer specials going on right here.  I’ll go with Ralph’s on the Park.

Back in 2005, we were in Benoit MS and saw the Hollywood Plantation / J.C. Burris House / “Baby Doll” House.  It’s the only antebellum structure in Bolivar County, and is constructed of heart cypress.


It was called the Baby Doll house because that’s where the 1956 Tennessee Williams movie had been filmed (I Netflixed it once and can only remember Karl Malden being flaky about his too-young wife) based on the TW 1946 play, ‘Twenty-seven Loads of Cotton’.


I’ve read that the reason it survived the war is because Judge Burrus knew the invading Federal officer while he attended UVA. It was also used as a Confederate hospital and headquarters for Confederate officers, including General Jubal Early.


John Wilkes Booth is also said to have lived here for about ten days after shooting President Lincoln (but he was supposedly sixty other places, too, so…).


When the filmmakers for Baby Doll came out to Benoit, they promised the home’s then-owners that in lieu of a fee for shooting, they would make some renovations to the home. Years later, people would come out to the house and actually take pieces of the house as souvenirs from the movie. 


The home was placed on the 2001 list of endangered places by the Mississippi Heritage Trust.  It’s been under restoration for a few years now, and looks *so* much better now than in the pic above.  Here it is.