Month: December 2011

These are pics that Av and Leslie and I made in 2002 when we visited the covered bridges in Blount County, Alabama (I was playing around with b&w film).  The most impressive one is this one, Swann Bridge, built in 1933 — it’s the it’s the longest, at 300+’, of all the surviving covered bridges in the state.

All the covered bridges in the county have been closed for a couple of years, and restoration has just begun.

With the decking up, what is truly remarkable is that there is virtually no rot or decay on unpainted wood that has spanned the river for almost 80 years. Friedberg said that the heart pine wood they used came from trees that had grown slowly for hundreds of years. To get wood that is comparable, the company will have to special order it and have it treated.

“You can’t just go to Lowe’s and get this type of wood,” he said.

In downtown Florence…

2011 would have been the 100th birthday of Tennessee Williams — above is a pic I took of the first home he lived in, in Columbus, Mississippi.  In the NYT article about it, the first paragraph is this:

“DO you know what Spring Pilgrimage is?” asked Brenda Caradine, the chairwoman of the Tennessee Williams Birthday Celebration in Columbus, Miss. “It’s when you Yankees come down South to see our antebellum homes and we take back your money.”

…and the last paragraph is this:

“The entire country still needs Tennessee Williams as a voice for kindness,” said William Gantt, director of the Southern Literary Trail. “His work continues to champion outcasts, and his compassion for them will make him relevant forever.”

Tennessee Williams lived in Mississippi until he was seven, when his father got a job in St. Louis.

His obit in the NYT read in part, “He wrote with deep sympathy and expansive humor about outcasts in our society. Though his images were often violent, he was a poet of the human heart.”


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‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ will be 65 in 2012, and Warner Brothers will be releasing the movie on blu-ray including with three minutes of film that was thought lost until the ’90s “that had been trimmed from the film at the insistence of the National League of Decency and to avoid running afoul of the Hollywood Production Code.”  This version will also include “five documentaries, commentary tracks, Brando’s screen test, a Kazan movie trailer gallery, and a 40-page booklet.”


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In 2005 I went to Benoit, Mississippi and photographed the Baby Doll house where the film, based on his Twenty-Seven Loads of Cotton play, looked like this:

It has since been restored and (wonderfully) looks like this today.

I made eggnog fudge last week — wonderful!  One of the big plusses about this recipe is that with white chocolate added, it stays nice and white after cooking (sometimes without it, eggnog fudge can start to look a little darker in the pan) and of course has that nice flavor.  I wasn’t sure about adding marshmallow creme because that seemed like cheating somehow, but with all that chocolate it was sure to lighten up the density.  Oh, and pecans added a nice bite.  This is an amalgamation of several different recipes I consulted:

Makes an 8×8 pan — 40-48 pieces
Ingredients:
3/4 cup eggnog
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup white chocolate morsels
1 7oz jar jar marshmallow creme
2 cups chopped pecans

Cooking Directions:
Prepare an 8×8″ baking dish with buttered parchment paper, or tin foil.

Stir together constantly the butter, eggnog, and sugar with a wooden spoon, and bring it up to a boil with a candy thermometer inserted in the pan (this is a perfect job for a heavy Le Creuset pan).

Take the mixture off the heat once the mixture reaches 238* which is soft ball, or fudge, stage.

Now that the pan is off the heat, immediately add the white chocolate, marshmallow creme, and pecans.  Stir very well.  Once the chocolate has melted and everything is very well incorporated, pour into the prepared baking dish, then set that aside to cool.  Once it reaches room temperature, you can put it in the refrigerator to finish setting.  Cut into small pieces as this is really rich.

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For this recipe I used our traditional brand, Barber’s — but I also bought a container of egg nog by Southern Comfort (which is not listed on their website, but it has a FB page)

The Atlantic found a little story about a young man who wrote to Nelle Harper Lee in 2006 asking for a photo; instead she wrote him a short note of advice:
“As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don’t think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, “I’m probably no better than you, but I’m certainly your equal.”

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Last week I mentioned that Leonard Knight, the visionary artist behind Salvation Mountain, was taken to long-term care. If you know Leonard and would like to write (no visits right now), the address is Eldorado Care Center, 510 E. Washington, El Cajon CA 92020. Sadly, Leonard’s caretaker, Kevin Eubank, passed away this week. Kevin’s last video, updating everyone on Leonard, is here. Sad, sad, sad.

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Honeysuckle Southern Inspired Gelato in Atlanta makes some of the most wonderful-sounding signature flavors: Moon Pie, the Kang (toasted banana ice cream with ribbons of peanut butter caramel), Mint Julep, and staple flavors: peanut brittle, divinity, sorghum, bourbon, rum raisin, bourbon pecan, and sweet tea. Oh yes!

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Scott Peacock’s holiday menu (which I found via Google, had no idea he was doing features for BHG) here.

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The Washington Post’s slideshow of Gehry’s Eisenhower monument in Washington.  Article here.

My friend Cindy always puts on the very nicest Christmas parties!  This year, not only did we get together for our usual fun (and a terrific cookie swap — I made my pistachio and cherry Mexican wedding cakes — everything everyone else made was fantastic as always but one of the really fun things was white chocolate peppermint popcorn balls) but we did a craft — Christmas trees!  All the girls made Christmas trees for their homes, and…well, since we’re Jewish…I made a forest tree with moss at the base and super-snuggly warm yarn at the top.

I think these are the ones Cindy and Darlene made:

It’s just a styrofoam cone, glue or straight pens to keep everything held onto the cone, and yarn:

…and here are all our trees! Mine’s on the second row with the moss at the base — loooved the moss, but it made the biggest, shaggiest mess everywhere when I was putting it on.  My favorite is the lighter green one with the pom-poms on the same step, but really they all turned out so great!!