Month: November 2012

After dropping off all my pies Thanksgiving morning, and having Thanksgiving lunch, by the time we got up to Huntsville to spend the holiday with Wade Wharton, I just could not get in the zone to eat one more bite of turkey.  Instead, we found City Cafe Diner there with what seemed like hundreds of things on the menu. And Shug found a girl to flirt with in the next booth.

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The Dallas Observer sends its (English) reviewer to Red, Hot, and Blues who reviews ‘Memphis-style’ barbecue there.  Of his observations:
Memphis has decided that taking cornbread and deep frying it, then for some reason calling the product of this unholy carbohydrate marriage a “hush puppy,” is a legitimate contribution to the cuisine of the United States of America rather than the worst idea since Avril Lavigne covered a System of a Down song.

…and asks, “Why do you hate beef, citizens of Memphis?”

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The Gwinett ‘Folk Art House’ has been moved.

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YesYesYes Julian Fellowes (who does Downton Abbey) was nabbed by NBC to write and produce The Gilded Age, a drama that NBC describes as an “epic tale of the princes of the American Renaissance, and the vast fortunes they made – and spent – in late 19th-century New York.”

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Artist Charles Simms Jr. of New Orleans passed away this month.

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Only if you can bear awful news on the artist of the beloved Cadillac Ranch.

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The Alabama Folk School is having a ‘from scratch’ weekend, where you can learn: Rhythm Guitar from Scratch (Joyce Cauthen), Fiddle from Scratch (Jim Cauthen), Ukulele from Scratch (Charlie Hartness), and Sock Creatures (Nancy Hartness) February 15-17.  Bluegrass and Gee’s Bend week is April 15-18.

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The Boston Globe writes: A Yankee in Nashville makes Southern food with lines out the door, about Michael King of Monell’s.

“The response is always that they remember [the experience],” King says. “Then when the food comes out, they’re like, ‘Oh my God, stop already.’ ”

…and…

The only truly consistent menu is the weekend country breakfast ($13.27), an enormous draw. The place was jammed one Sunday with the after-church crowd. Classic Southern biscuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls, and coffee arrive first, with fried apples, cheese grits, hash browns, and corn pudding close behind. Before you can fill your plate, and certainly before you can start digging in, another batch of food is set down: pancakes, scrambled eggs, and a towering meat platter with smoked sausage, bacon, and country ham. Finally, perhaps the most amazing skillet-fried chicken you may ever encounter — something King says may be scoffed at north of the Mason-Dixon Line, but remains a staple of the Southern breakfast. Monell’s serves this fried chicken at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

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WAFF in Huntsville did a feature on Wade Wharton and his art:
http://waff.images.worldnow.com/interface/js/WNVideo.js?rnd=662744;hostDomain=www.waff.com;playerWidth=630;playerHeight=355;isShowIcon=true;clipId=8021267;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=overlayWAFF-TV: News, Weather and Sports for Huntsville, AL

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Bottle Tree Beverage Company (as in Cathead Vodka) has now come out with a chicory liqueur.

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http://8tracks.com/mixes/1185654/player_v3_universal

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Hatch Show Print in Nashville did pieces for the new Alfred Wertheimer book on images of Elvis, coming out in January, by Taschen.

Since both boys love trains, we took them to Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum in Jackson, Tennessee when we were in that part of the state.  There were real train engines there which was the big draw for them (including getting to ring the bell):

…and of course the museum had a shop:

Casey’s home:

The crocheted bedspread was made by Janie, Casey’s wife:

Wow at this bathtub:

What I liked seeing most was this paper shelf edging:

If you grew up liking Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House as much as I did, maybe you remember her mentioning how Ma would save brown wrapping paper, and:

She folded them, and she showed Mary and Laura how to cut tiny bits out of the folded paper with the scissors. When each unfolded her paper, there was a row of stars.

Ma spread the paper on the shelves behind the stove. The stars hung over the edges of the shelves, and the light shone through them.

Many thanks to this site for mention of this passage above (and has many excellent varieties of shelf edging), and this one, for her own examples.

On the other side of the parking lot from the museum and home is a large building with a restaurant, soda fountain, and ‘old country store’:

…with this inside at the ice cream parlor so of course — their sign states that it was handmade in the 1880s and they think that of the 75 or so built by the company, only three remain.  Doing a little research, this is by the American Soda Fountain Company in Philadelphia which was founded by men including John Lippincott in 1891 (so maybe the 1880s date isn’t correct?). Not sure how they know how many remain. A lot about the how-to of soda fountains here.

A video of one of the America Soda Fountain examples up for auction this year, with nice detail:

Ninfa’s in Houston — the restaurant on Navigation in Houston — is credited with…well, actually Ninfa Rodríguez Laurenzo who was the original owner and ‘Mama Ninfa’, with developing the fajita. Fajitas thus were made at restaurants all over Houston, then Texas, the US, and now you can get them at a chain in Abu Dhabi.

Mama Ninfa, the world thanks you.

There are fresh chips and salsa plus Ninfa’s green sauce, which is different from salsa verde:

We got the Migas Divorciadas (Eggs Scrambled with Crispy Corn Tortillas, Beef Fajita and Pico de Gallo, with a Black Bean Tomatillo Sauce):

Desayuno Mexicano (Grilled Skirt Steak with Guajillo Sauce, served with two Over Easy Eggs, Roasted Potatoes and Onions):

…and the Homemade Cornbread, with Egg Topped with Chili con Queso, which the boys ate mostly.  We always share everything among us, so they have lots of options and try so many new foods that way:

This was one of the best meals I’ve had all year.  Still thinking about this beautiful, delicious food, and it was just all so perfect.  The boys were in such a great mood that they decided to dance outside:

I *love* taking the boys to Texas and imbuing them with Texas-love.  I have it — I left Alabama and lived there for a couple of years (lucky enough that I was there for 4th grade Texas History for Social Studies, which…can you spend a year coloring pictures of bluebonnets, and practicing hero worship of Sam Houston, and not not have Texas stamped on your heart?).  A tummy-full of Tex-Mex is just a beginning.

Going to the Iron Bowl — the Alabama v. Auburn game — is something I have wanted to do all my life, so I was *so* tickled when we got tickets to go this weekend.

My college team is the Troy Trojans where I went to school, but I transferred and graduated with both degrees from a school so small we didn’t have a football team! I probably should have taken the BBA I got and continued graduate school at Alabama to get my MBA there, but if I had college to do all over again, I would have gone to Ole Miss, gotten my BA in Southern Studies, then my MA, carried some art courses along and gotten my PhD in art history at UT-Austin.  And all that would make me museum director somewhere fantastic with a serious visionary art collection.

Oh, wait. We’re talking about football.  Well, all that would have made me a Rebel and a Longhorn, and that would be okay too. Av and I would have the best spot in the Grove.

Av graduated from the University of Virginia, but they’ve lost so many games, there’s no bowl game for us to go to this year.

Above, a view of campus from the top of Bryant-Denney (yes, that’s where we were sitting. At the top. We had the worst seats but the best time!).  Roll Tide!

I’m back! We had a nice Thanksgiving and hope you did, too!  Posting regularly again on Monday…been busy and can’t wait to share.  Thirty-one pies this year!

See you Monday!