Deep Fried Kudzu • Page 523 of 527 • Twenty-plus years of documenting the South's vernacular art, visionary environments and traditions....plus modern art exhibits, Faulkner and Eudora, and This Week's Various. Welcome.

March 29, 2005August 9, 2017

New Hot Fudge Pie Recipe

Each year, we make around 25 pies each Thanksgiving and Easter (as long as it doesn’t fall during Passover) for a local church that feeds the hungry in its neighborhood. This year, I made buttermilk coconut pies, key lime pies, pumpkin pies (okay, I just like pumpkin, even when it’s not Thanksgiving~!), and hot fudge pies.

Hot Fudge Pie:
1 stick butter
1 cup self-rising flour (I always use White Lily)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1-1/4 cup sugar
dash of vanilla
1 egg
sweet milk as needed
1 pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350*. Melt the butter in the microwave but let it sit out so that it cools to almost room temperature. Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the butter and the egg into the dry ingredients. Add a dash of vanilla. Add whole milk as needed to make a mixture that is easily able to be stirred – meaning that it’s not thin, but it doesn’t easily ‘glop’ together. Pour into pie shell and bake for 45-50 minutes. I wouldn’t advise baking it until it’s incredibly firm, just cooked through until it maintains a good consistency, which you ought to get at 45-50 minutes. It is wonderful hot, and really good at room temperature.

March 28, 2005August 9, 2017

Tchotchke, Bagel, Lox, and Tsimmes

A couple of days ago, I gave each doggie a bath, and while they were still sparkly-clean, took these pics…..
Bagel:

Lox:

Tsimmes:

…and here is our cat Tchotchke looking at us from inside, mid-meow:

March 27, 2005August 9, 2017

More scarves!

I know it’s too warm outside to be wearing scarves, but…..I really like these! Next week I’m going to learn how to make something else, like a pillow cover, but for now I am really enjoying these.

The image above is my second completed scarf, made with Karabella “Barbados” using size 13 needles.

This scarf above is made with Karabella “labyrinth” using size 9 needles. It is taking a long time since the needles are so much smaller than the 13s and 15s I’ve been using. I’m calling this one my “Santa Fe” scarf because of the colors.

This scarf is my fun scarf. It’s made with Berroco Suede, and Crystal Palace Yarns “squiggle” (which is a really good name for it!). I’m knitting these together on size 13 needles. I think I’ll have enough to make two or maybe even three scarves with the amount of each that I bought.

March 25, 2005

Walker Evans and James Agee Exhibit in Montgomery

Yesterday, we visited the Walker Evans and James Agee ‘Let Us Now Praise Famous Men’ exhibit at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. It was excellent, excellent. I was especially happy to see that the curators used a quote from the book, one that I think is especially important:

It seems to me curious, not to say obscene and thoroughly terrifying, that it
could occur to an association of human beings drawn together through need and
chance and for profit into a company, an organ of journalism, to pry intimately
into the lives of an undefended and appallingly damaged group of human beings,
an ignorant and helpless rural family, for the purpose of parading the
nakedness, disadvantage and humiliation of these lives before another group of
human beings, in the name of science, of ‘honest journalism’ (whatever that
paradox may mean), of humanity, of social fearlessness, for money, and for a
reputation for crusading and for unbias which, when skillfully enough qualified,
is exchangeable at any bank for money (and in politics, for votes, job
patronage, abelincolnism, etc.); and that these people could be capable of
meditating this prospect without the slightest doubt of their qualification to
do an ‘honest’ piece of work, and with a conscience better than clear, and in
the virtual certitude of almost unanimous public approval.

Prints of even more of Walker Evans’ work can be purchased through the Library of Congress Photoduplication Service.

March 25, 2005August 9, 2017

Hotel Talisi

We spent one night this week at the Hotel Talisi in Tallassee. This is one of my favorite hotels – not because of the rooms – but because of the hotel’s unique charm.

Hotel Talisi downstairs lobby, Tallassee, AL

This is the hotel lobby, which includes a big-screen television, an old telephone switchboard (btw, there are no phones in the guest rooms), and this Steinway piano from the late 1800’s.

Hotel Talisi - this is the room we had on 1st stay Tallassee, AL

This is our room – it is one of the rooms that hotel folklore says is “haunted”.

Hotel Talisi - this is the room we had on 2nd stay Tallassee, AL

This is the room we had last time – each of the rooms is a little different, and decorated with little tchotchkes throughout. The window unit isn’t very charming, I know, but if you can switch your mindset to enjoy the entire experience rather than focusing on things like wallpaper that needs to be replaced or the general worn-ness of most everything, it is really one of the most unique hotels to stay in.

Besides, where else can you get a **real** hotel key anymore?

This is the upstairs hallway. Isn’t it so great?!

March 23, 2005August 9, 2017

I can knit!

My first scarf!

Last Wednesday, one of my friends taught me to knit – I have been wanting to learn *forever* – and guess what? It only took about ten minutes for me to get the hang of it, and with the help of my trusty Knitting for Dummies book, I even finished my first scarf in three evenings. Now I just have to get back to the knitting shop for more yarn and I will be a scarf machine!