Morning!

Well, first off I’m doing my tiny bit to help to Rootz so I can worry less, and many thanks to those here who helped start that ball rolling.

Second, I bought a 99 Miata and there’s something about that top down wind in your hair (while still getting ~28 mpg) fun in the sun that really decompresses me.

Sitting on my front porch with a cup of coffee or tea and being very still while watching the hummingbirds work over our hanging baskets is great therapy too.

Hugs to all the FDL family, decompressing is good from time to time!

Morning everyone — the peanut is having a poptart and milk, and watching Shrek, and I’m getting the coffee pot going now. It’s another dreary, rainy day here…what’s up with that?!?

Looking forward to the discussion (and the recipes) today. :)

Good Day all

Lovely day here in Maine

Love you all, grateful for you all

OS

I sorta suck in the cooking department. Decided to use some fresh garlic for the first time in some simple chicken divan recipe this week. Two cloves was just way too much.

Gonna have to see how some fresh garlic does in my already kick ass spaghetti sauce next time I make some.

A song for a Saturday Morning…

Story of a Life

written by Harry Chapin and performed by…

Well, the birds are singing outside my window, not a bad way to wake up. As for gardening, well…maybe next year. If it weren’t for day lillies my yard would be a bit lacking in color. I’ve spent my extra time on painting my house inside and out instead of yard work.
Nice to know I can come to FDL for early morning chat and information. Thanks!

I tried a recipe from Jamie Oliver for grilling a whole salmon on the BBQ. Wow! Take the salmon and remove the scales, Get a big piece of foil - twice the length of the fish. Double it over, then put a layer of thinly sliced lemon down and the fish on top of the lemon. Season the fish inside and out with salt and a little pepper. Put some fresh basil inside the fish, along with some lemon slices. Then add another layer of lemon slices on top of the fish, and seal up the foil.

Put on the grill for about 25 minutes, then flip over and grill for another 25 minutes. (This for a 3.5 pound fish - bigger fish, more time.) Take it off the grill, let it sit for 5 minutes or so, then open it up and serve with delight. Also with a nice white wine - pinot grigio works great!

[All from memory, but I think that’s right.]

[ added by Moderator at the request of the original commenter : For the grilled salmon @ 8, don’t use foil. Instead, wrap the salmon in two sheets of newspaper (or four, if it’s large). Fill it as describes, then wrap it up and tie it all together with string. Moisten the newspaper all around right before you put it on the grill, and the moisture in the paper will give the salmon a slightly smoky flavor and keep the paper from burning.

Sorry for the glitch - and if a moderator wants to go up and correct the recipe above, I’d be forever grateful. :) ]

grrr…comments hate my links:

spaghetti sauce = http://mywebpages.comcast.net/zamboni/sauce.jpg

I listen to Nick Drake, especially the album “Pink Moon.” Or Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” Or I play a computer game. Or my partner and I make love and stay in bed too long afterwards, pretending our loft bed is floating above the world.

None of it, even the sweetness of my lover, keeps the devastating turns of the world away long enough.

Oh, that garden photo brings back memories. My mother and I had an “English garden” section in our suburban back yard in Portland, Oregon. Creating and maintaining the casual, chaotic organization of an English garden was the single hardest thing we ever did in that yard.

20 years later, my partner wants a yard and to do the same thing. I’m resisting.

Being a Saturday morning, I thought about sharing my recipe for pancakes, originated by Cook’s Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen — a truly great resource for recipes and cooking tips. Being lazy, and looking out at the miserable soup that has descended on Washington, DC, I’ll share a salad recipe instead.

Orange, glazed walnut and Parmesan salad
(Serves four)

Salad:
One head Butter lettuce (approximately 1 lbs)
2 Blood oranges (You can substitute navel oranges if blood oranges are not available)
1/2 cup Shelled walnuts (Use either whole walnuts or walnut pieces)
1 tablespoon Butter
2 tablespoons Sugar
2 tablespoons Orange juice
2 ounces Parmesan cheese (in whole block, to be shaved thinly)
10-12” saute pan
10-12” sheet of aluminum foil

Dressing:
1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil (Needs to be a light, somewhat fruity oil)
3 tablespoons (Fresh squeezed orange juice it must be fresh squeezed, and again, blood oranges are preferable)
3-4 drops Balsamic vinegar
teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon Coarsely ground pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the dressing first to allow the flavors to fully develop. Pour the fresh orange juice, cumin, pepper, and balsamic vinegar in a non-reactive bowl. Slowly pour in the olive oil, using a whisk to stir and emulsify the oil and vinegar mixture. After you’ve added all the oil, taste and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside in a refrigerator until the salad is ready to serve. Don’t dress the salad before you serve it – the butter lettuce will wilt.

Pull out the core of the lettuce. Pull head apart, removing any browned or damaged leaves. Rinse and drain lettuce completely. (I use a salad spinner, but washing and draining with a colander works well, especially if you blot dry the leaves with a towel.) Place drained lettuce in refrigerator and allow to cool.

Peel the oranges, and carefully remove any of the pith (white material on the inside of the skin) from the slices. Once all of the pith is removed, pull the oranges apart and set aside the sections.

Shave approximately 2 ounce of very thin slices off a block of Parmesan cheese. The slices should be very fine – almost translucent. .

Melt the butter in the saute pan over low to moderate heat. When the butter has melted completely, and is foaming (but is NOT brown), place the walnuts in the pan. Toss or stir the walnuts so they are completely coated with butter.

Drain any excess butter from the pan. Turn the heat of the burner to high. Add the two tablespoons of sugar to the pan and toss or stir the walnuts until they are completely covered. Allow the walnuts and sugar to caramelize in the pan for approximately two minutes. Add the two tablespoons orange juice to the pan – be careful, as the juice may splatter when you add it to the very hot pan. Toss or stir the nuts in the juice, and replace on the heat. Allow the juice to boil away. When the juice has boiled away, stir the walnuts in any remaining syrup, and remove to the sheet of aluminum foil. (You can use a baking sheet, but it means one more utensil to wash.) Allow the candied nuts to cool.

Assemble the salad just before you’re ready to serve it. Place the larger leaves of lettuce at the outside of the plate, and smaller leaves on top towards the center. Next, place sections of oranges on top of the lettuce, arranged in a pinwheel pattern. Sprinkle the candied nuts evenly over the plated salad. Place the thin slices of cheese on the top of the salad. Finally, pour the dressing over the salad, and serve immediately

Christy, I once had a great cookbook called “Chez Martha Rose” that included recipies and stories from the time she lived in Paris. I think it was her. It was a gem. Unfortunatly many of the good ones burned up in the housefire we had 2 years back, the ones we salvaged are all wrinkly and smokey but we simply couldn’t part with them!

Old sow - does your screen name refer to the old sow whirlpool?
http://www.oldsowwhirlpool.com/

Yowzers — Peterr’s salmon and scory’s salad: I think we done died and gone to Heb’n!

Christy: …the peanut is having a poptart and milk…

My daughter used to prefer toaster strudel. They’re more like pastry, and they come with a little packed to frosting so you can write things or draw pictures with the frosting. We always used to write or draw something having to do whith what we were interested in at the time.

Ahhh rain. I’m jealous. We’re expecting temps in the 90s for the next 5 days and dry, dry, dry. Weekend projects will be indoors for entirely different reasons. Christy, you have to share your diet tips, although I’m sure that chasing around after a three-year old is probably equivalent to an hour of bike riding. As for me, I continue to enjoy the fireflies in the evenings. I walk over to a nearby meadow and watch hundreds of them float effortlessly above the prairie grasses. Very soothing.

err, that’s “packet of frosting”. arrgh.

We are in rainy season here in Florida too. Best time to get them seeds in the ground. Last weekend I planted a bunch of sunflowers and African daisies and today I’m going to throw out some zinnia and Johnny Jump ups. I’m still working on them damn weeds in the lake. Friends have lent me rakes, triangle cutting tools and every other tool known to a home on the lake. What a nightmare. I am going to be looking for a home off the lake real soon. The only thing is I will miss all the lake creatures.

Here’s a pic of the weeds and a recent storm…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9.....189998533/

morning all,

the orange, feathery mimosa and violet roses of sharon continue to bloom, now joined by a line of crepe myrtles. although the great magnolia has run its course, the gardenia are asserting themselves in the front beds. when the air hangs heavy in the evening, its scent is a riot of honeysuckle, jasmine, gardenia, mimosa and god knows what else.

summer has begun her overstatement. blueberries are fat and dark, and the “deer apple” tree has fruited prodigously. the little, black “sweet ants” are in the weeping willow again.

we foolishly planted fescue in the side lot this spring, but the rain was so plentiful that we now have a lovely green carpet: just right for the extended game of croquet planned for tomorrow night when our dear friends come in from brooklyn.

Mary Jane at 12 — I sense a browse through ABE Books to see if I can locate that particular title. It sounds awfully fun. I love her Mediterranean and Provencal cookbooks as much for the atmosphere as I do the recipes. I’m like’s Jane’s mom — I devour a new cookbook like a novel. And one about living in Paris sounds lovely…

ccmask at 18 — oh, how lovely! I don’t think I would have the heart to move away from a view that nice. Maybe you can find some nice, young teenager to pay to take out the weeds and stick to some iced tea on the porch?

Christy, I just came in from TRYING to work in the yard. It’s already too hot to be out and there are way too many mosquitoes. So much for taking my mind off the world’s problems.

Morning all.
Someone help me out in the memory dept. Remember how President Clinton single handedly brought the verb “parse” back into common usage after it’d been in the “long out of use but still in the dictionary” pile for so long? I remembering reporters saying they had to scramble to their dictionaries to look it up.

The same thing happend with the verb “poring” a few years ago, but I can’t remember the occasion. Anyhoo, it turns out that a person is “poring over” books, papers, etc., not “pouring over” them. This was news to most people, including myself (which means very little since I’m no grammar or vocab geek by any stretch).

Anyways…anyone remember the occasion when the “poring over” thing blew up a few years back

http://www.websters-online-dic....._over.html

Christy — a three year old and and English garden? Wow. You’re a brave, brave and ambitious woman! (But we know that already.)

Bon matin les amis.

I was lucky to win a Mediterranean cruise and received as part of the gift package one of the most gorgeous and useful cookbooks I have in my collection.

‘Mediterranean the Beautiful Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from the Mediterranean Lands’ by Joyce Goldstein

Its coffee table format and loaded with incredible photos and of course authentic local recipes that will make it feel like you are there, absorbing the sun, surf and sea salt.

http://www.abebooks.com/servle.....&nsa=1

Food&Wine has a nice selection of Joyce’s recipes here;

http://www.foodandwine.com/art.....-goldstein

~~~

Eggplants are in season so its off to make some baba-ganoush. My spin is grilling the eggplant on the BBQ and of course the herbs fresh from the garden. In lieu of bread I like to lightly toast a batch of pita bread cut into large triangles.

http://www.recipesource.com/mu.....oush1.html

Ah, gardening. Here in Maine, with humidity at 81% and temps in the 80s today, I’m hoping to get outside this am before it gets too hot and spread some mulch.

Up here, one can grow great stuff as long as it doesn’t take too long. Healthiest damn weeds I’ve ever seen.

In the back of my mind is the thought that we may be moving. Hubby’s job not going so well. I’m looking forward to someplace with less humidity. A good friend tells me the Northwest is a good bet.

Any other ideas? I’m not good with humidity!

Scory at 23 — when you add in the fact that we really don’t have the climate for it, so I’m approximating with plants that do work in our hot, humid summers (but are hardy enough to survive our cold winters)…let’s just chalk it up to some form of garden insanity. LOL

here’s what i’m eating out of my garden so far :

mesclun (too much!)
loads of parsley and basil
my first grape tomatoes yesterday
zuccinis from my giant (compost boosted)plants
green onions

and the tomato plants are flowering and fruiting like mad. the cayenne peppers are huge this year as well. h/t to global warming

Oh, I almost forgot - that’s an absolutely stunning photo of the garden you have posted up there!

christy:

congrats on your weight loss. how’d you do it?

I live by the sea in So. Calif., and lately it’s been too hot to cook. I did broil some salmon basted with Japanese Miso dressing and served it alongside some couscous. My husband liked it (but he’ll eat anything).

As for escape from the realities of our world, I have to read fiction. I just finished “Heartbreaker” by Susan Howatch. It’s the first book in a modern setting I’ve read in years. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

I also reach for a netflix for additional escape. Just watched “Indochine” and found it to be one of the best films I’ve ever seen. Not light fare, but quite worth the watch.

Am trying to focus on quiet and positive things after having another manic episode last night. Need better meds.

Have found some lovely green spaces nearby as part of going on longer walks for my health. That new habit is going well. In one direction is a small lake, in one a woods with a small brook, and in the third a long walk under a canopy of trees leading to town.

Christy, do you have Clementine in the Kitchen?

My garden has been neglected recently due to paying work and impending vacation. The neighborhood cats had sent me a thank you note for building them a 4′ x 8′ raised bed litter box. The “litter box,” as I now refer to it, is growing sunflowers, cilantro, 4 types of hot peppers, tomatoes and basil.

Welp, I’m gonna repair to my fave Greek cookbook again for an idea for all you vedge-gardeners. Warning: though the recipe says “Serves 4-5,” this must mean “4-5 big plates piled high with nothing but” . . . which, come to think of it, wouldn’t be bad a-tall. Yummy as leftovers too.

BAKED SUMMER VEGETABLES (BRIAMI)

1 lb. zucchini
1 lb. aubergines (eggplant)
1 lb. potatoes, peeled [or not, if you use little new ones]
2 onions, sliced
2 green peppers [seeded]
1 1/2 lbs. tomatoes
1 1/2 cups olive oil
Salt and pepper
Parsley, chopped [I substitute dill and mint, and plenty of ‘em]

Scrape and wash zucchini. Slice all vegetables in 1/2-inch pieces. Arrange in [LARGE] baking pan. Add olive oil and one cup hot water. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and parsley. Cover and bake in moderate [350] oven for 1 1/2 hours. Uncover for the last 30 minutes. Serves 4-5 [*g*].

Hey Christy,

For a great summer treat, my husband and I put whole garlic cloves in foil with a little bit of olive oil and salt, and put them on the grill. When they are done they can be spread like the consistency of butter on a thick slice of Italian bread. They can be eaten just like that, or topped with chopped tomatoes and basil. Delicious!

As for gardening, we have three kids, so we wish to do more than we ever do. But we wistfully watch our retired neighbors add more and more each year to their gardens, and we know that some day we will have the time also!

Christy — believe me, I understand. I can’t make Washington, DC into Portland, OR no matter how much I want to. I’m not seeing delphinium, hollyhock, bearded iris, and tea rose in my garden future. WV isn’t much different from DC, if I correctly remember my Sunset zone guide to American gardening.

Lotus, for some reason I wandered back to the bottom of the last thread and saw what you wrote about your friend who was dropping out of her professional and personal life. Sounds like A-plus top quality major depression. She needs medicine, a good shrink, love, and support of many kinds. Time is of the essence, it can be dangerous. We have this stuff throughout the family, just kind of wait to see who gets it next.

It’s brilliant and hot here in Chicago. I’m also a gardener in a big way (Q: How is a gardener like a Cubs fan? A: Both start saying “Wait til next year” in April.) In 14 years I’ve managed to turn my entire yard into garden — the front in perennials, the back in native plants — with no lawn whatsoever. People marvel at how I can maintain it, but the secret is that I spend a lot less time on my garden now than I used to spend mowing the bloody grass. I use landscape fabric and mulch to keep down the weeds, but the real answer to controlling weeds is getting a lot of plants well established as quickly as possible, so the weeds simply can’t compete. There are usually a few puny opportunists hidden here and there under my flowers but they’re easily extirpated during my strolls through the garden. Also, give your flowers a good organic food so they can outmuscle the weeds. I use foods from Gardens Alive! which are pricey but unbelievably effective.

Your post reminds me that the underlying psychological draw for gardeners is the same as that for progressive activists — it’s the hope. When we sit in the winter with our books and plant catalogs and imagine the glories of the summer to come it’s the same as when we talk of a world that’s just and a country that truly cares for its citizens. Maybe we won’t ever achieve the perfect English garden or a perfectly fair world, but there’s always next year, and we’re going to keep hoping no matter what.

Oh please can I join up and chat about food and gardens? We just finished saturday morning breakfast here–high above our garden which is one floor below us and very green and lush without any flowers ata all because I don’t have time to plant or keep it up. I love gertrude jekyll, and also have many books on shade gardens and children’s gardens which I hope to put into practice before my kids are in highschool.

Breakfast was corn pancakes from Fields of Greens–I make them in advance and freeze them in small lots so my daughters can eat them before camp. Home made blueberry jam and home made apricot jam, and home made dried cherry scones from Fields of Greens (made with one third white whole wheat for a little extra flavor).

I, too, love Jamie Oliver–my husband and I call it the “all things pancetta” cookbook. My best dish from that is the asparagus bundles with rosemary and anchovy inside, wrapped in proscuitto and grilled and served with a grilled lemon. Fantastic! Cold soups are also good, I make a quick beet borscht sometimes with beets, orange juice and ginger served with greek yogurt. We just got back from a trip to san francisco and I had some amazing salads there and have become a convert to mint in everything–mint, nectarines, proscuitto and mozzarella and arugula? Perfection. Mint, arugula, lemon juice and smoked trout? cool and sophisticated.

aimai

Oceanbreeze @ 34

My mother remembers to the year — 1971 — when she really put me to work in the yard. I was ten. Old enough to handle a spade, a hoe, and a rake, and docile enough not to complain. You may have a window of opportunity with your kids!

i am off to use my little tractor to move some dirt and stone. i have been landscaping this year after building my dream house (i have the hole in my hand where the nail went thru to prove it…). it’s good therapy to vent lots of anger in the world. then i am off to a ned lamont appearance this afternoon and hand out bumper stickers (actually authorized by ned). this site is one that keeps me very informed so i can counter the laziness in responses from some of my peers. it’s easy to stay with joe, so they say. my skin crawls when i hear that. thanks for all you have done to fortify me and keep me going.

Thanks, egregious 37. Wishing you peace and calm, dear.

Yes, as a struggler with chronic depression myself, that’s what S’s “break” sounds like to me too. But she’s doing such an effective job of hiding that we who care can’t find, much less influence her. Her sis is going out there to start seriously beating the bushes, but S is so smart (and street-smart) that I don’t hold much hope for K’s success. Awfulness, and so out-of-the-blue . . .

I have to say that I have gardened by profession my whole life. I have gardened in Pennsylvania and I have gardened in Oregon. I MUCH prefer gardening in Oregon than Pennsylvania, and we can grow way more stuff here too. Except good corn and peaches. I do miss them.

I haven’t mowed the grass for three weeks, and it has to be done this weekend. Actually, the grass is fine — it’s the weeds and alfalfa and sumac sprouts that are raggedy. We had two days of serious rain last weekend, which was the most moisture we’ve had all year.

In my little rose garden, the perennial violas have taken over the ground cover. They love shade, and as long as they get enough water, they are very hardy and robust.

mornin Christy…beautiful pic….we are finally getting a break from the rain here in Ft Lauderdale. But I am not complaining because it keeps the water bill down (which is usually high, thanks Jebby) and there has been tremendous wind shear so all those nasty tropical waves aren’t developing, they are just dropping lots of rain.

A couple of other story-filled cookbooks. “Flatbreads and Flavors” is by the husband and wife team of Alford and Duguid, who travel the world to research their subject.The book has lots of stories and lovely photographs of not only flatbreads but all the good stuff that goes with them,including the people they meet along the way. They even met while traveling and often take their small children along. All of their books are beautiful.
My favorite Diana Kennedy is “My Mexico” which includes vivid intimate descriptions of places and people all over Mexico. Both great books to plan a trip around, or just excellent armchair traveling.
Now I’m off to the great outdoors.

Well, around my neck of the woods we have been having what my pappy called “brilliant, blue-eyed days.” (On such days, I also remember, “Rise and shine! It’s time to be about!)

Since it’s summer time, those of us in the academic end of things are unemployed. Oh, sure, you can stretch your paycheck over 12 months instead of 9, but why kid yourself? Alternatively, you could call it “annual retirement.” Regardless, things slow wa-a-a-a-y down.

The past few weeks have been focused on getting an academic article finished on economic problems with people getting their day in court, particularly in other countries. If you think lawyers are too expensive here in the USA for the average citizen, consider that if you sue the government or a private company in almost every other country in the world and lose, you might have to pay their lawyers too. But who can write all the time? (Except for Christy and Jane, of course . . . .)

For some reason, the rest of this won’t post, so I will divide this comment….

So part of each day has also been spent in the garden, attacking the laurel edges surrounding our place (laurels are absolutely indestructible, so being kind to laurels is completely unnecesary), pulling dead limbs out of trees, and creating some new flower beds as well.

Pansies and petunias and daisies provide some real hope in a world that is exploding and imploding, both at the same time. And here comes another rose!

aimai @ 38

if you like asparagus, try this:

Roast asparagus

One lbs asparagus
One lemon
One Tbsp olive oil
18″ piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil

Rinse and prepare the stems of the asparagus to your preference. (I won’t get into the theological debate on peeling v. breaking.)

Zest the lemon completely. You can peel the lemon skin and very finely chop the zest, or use a microplane grater if you have one. Once the lemon is completely zested, cut the lemon. Set aside both the zest and the lemon.

Place the asparagus in the center of the foil. Sprinkle the lemon zest over the asparagus, then drizzle the olive oil over the asparagus. Roll the spears to evenly distribute both the oil and the zest. Fold the foil around the asparagus, but not too tightly, and place on a grill or on the middle rack of a 350 degree oven. After ten minutes, open the foil packet and check the asparagus for doneness. It should be bright green, and bend slightly — not as much as steamed asaparagus. If not done, return for a few more minutes of grilling or roasting.

When done, squeeze the lemon over the asparagus spears. Serve immediately as a warm dish, or chill to use in cold asparagus salad.

You could easily add other herbs to the foil packet.

This has become my favorite way to prepare asparagus. Simple, fresh, and reduces the use of butter (which I love, but as I pass my mid-40s, is not my friend for many reasons).

That’s outside. Inside, I have been working to reduce the mountains of boxes stuffed with the detritus of my former life in the extra bedroom that we have euphemistically called the “storage room” since my wife and I moved into this house a few years ago.

Going through those boxes yields hidden treasures — yesterday, my long-missing and treasured copy of the stunning book, The Family of Man, as well as a lovely picture of my Mom (who passed away 10 years ago this fall) with my brother and me and boxes of reel-to-reel tapes containing music that I recorded before CDs and even before cassette tapes.

And among the reel-to-reel magnetic tapes I came across a deeply mysterious one in my mother’s handwriting, with a date 50 years ago: “For my sons, if anything happens to me.” My Mom had some bitter years and a lot of sadness early on. What can be contained on that?

And will the magnetic particles even retain their orientation, or will the tape be impossible to decipher?

And do I really want to know what it contains?

Well, I think I’ll put off listening to that until next month, after taking off to the “boonies” (as my pappy called the outdoors) for a long, long camping trip. After all, I’m retired again this summer.

P.S. I realize as I have written this that I am being careful not to be too specific. No city. No state. The least possible amount of identifying information.

Why’s that?

Because unlike what may be contained on that old reel-to-reel tape recording, this message is likely to last forever. And with the data-mining and Internet interception projects of the US Government, as well as private companies doing the same, it might be reassembled with other information for everything from interference with my civil liberties to identity theft.

In this increasingly open and connected world, we have to think about people who will will abuse that openness and can do us harm. And some of them are in the highest levels of our own government.

That’s sobering and deeply worrisome.

Christy that IS quite the striking photo up top. You’ve got quite the eye. The Kludge household is ‘notsomuch’ recipes, gardening and the like. I will echo that I for one sure appreciate the Lake environment. What a cool collection of folks.

At another site, a thread asked about ‘most reliable media (news). There a folks posting from across the spectrum. Even subtle questiioning of C&L w/o questining the ACCURACY/AUTHENTICITY. So, my first listed media was C&L, then I stuck in alJazeera link. This site allows post-posting editing, so upon reflection, I recalled that the most dependable way to access info is your local library/librarian. I ended w/”Thank a librarian today.” IIRC there’s a couple folks around the Lake who are librarians. Isn’t sharkbabe LOC? Anyway, thanks to librarians, and helping keeep info accessible and ‘free’.
——
Someone above mentioned the relationship b/t a garden and the Cubs. As it happens, I began my affair with the Red Sox in ‘67. (What a year, in many ways besides baseball…). Being summer bring to mind baseball. I have a link to the box score of my first visit to Fenway (’69). Some might recall my little vignette regarding how my Dad brought me along with him into the voting booth. He also brought me to my first Fenway adventure. He also passed along a love of quotes. In that spirit I have Annie Savoy:

“I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn’t work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there’s no guilt in baseball, and it’s never boring… which makes it like sex. There’s never been a ballplayer slept with me who didn’t have the best year of his career. Making love is like hitting a baseball: you just gotta relax and concentrate. Besides, I’d never sleep with a player hitting under .250… not unless he had a lot of RBIs and was a great glove man up the middle. You see, there’s a certain amount of life wisdom I give these boys. I can expand their minds. Sometimes when I’ve got a ballplayer alone, I’ll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman to him, and the guys are so sweet, they always stay and listen. ‘Course, a guy’ll listen to anything if he thinks it’s foreplay. I make them feel confident, and they make me feel safe, and pretty. ‘Course, what I give them lasts a lifetime; what they give me lasts 142 games. Sometimes it seems like a bad trade. But bad trades are part of baseball - now who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God’s sake? It’s a long season and you gotta trust. I’ve tried ‘em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.”
——
You have built it; we are here.

My cookbook collection numbers about 150. I figure, to my wife’s chagrin, that the book is worth hanging onto if it has even one good recipe. (The deal is, I can never comment on her shoe collection.) I’ve instructed the family that when I die the should cremate me, but I want the cookbooks buried.

Here are five I’m fond of, four probably available via Amazon marketplace (i.e. used.)

The New Orleans Cookbook, by Rima and Richard Collins. Recommended to me years ago by some natives of New Orleans. My only complaint is that I can’t try the crawfish recipes.

The Manhattan Chili Co Southwest American Cookbook, by Michael McLaughlin. Why anyone selling chili would include the word Manhattan in their company name, I don’t know, but this book has some damned fine chili recipes in it.

Cuisine Grand Mere - Traditional French Home Cooking, by Marie-Pierre Moine. A great “retro” look, and honest, homey, recipes from the folks who gave us the word and concept “cuisine.”

Good Cheap Food - Miriam Ungerer Don’t be put off by the title. Emphasis on the “good.” Recipes from all over.

And finally, a book you probably cannot find anywhere: Yemenite and Sabra Coookery by Naomi and Shimon Tzabar. I’ve never actually used it, but how can you throw away a cookbook that includes recipes on the same page for Locust (start with 2 kgs. locusts and a hot oven), and Geed (Ox or bull penis)?

Incorporate all the humus/manure you can deal with into your soil. Get the Better Homes and Gardens Flower Book (the big one) Create an irrigation system w/ those little tubes (not the internet variety) you can get in garden stores that carry water everywhere and are an enormously fun project to put together. I had a huge garden so gorgeous it looked embarrassingly almost like those hideous Kimball paintings of English gardens.

Age intervened, the pleasure:effort ratio shifted and I moved to a smaller place. But what fun while it lasted!

Kludge, I’d never heard of Annie Savoy before, so many thanks for introducing us — wotta hoot!

Not a recipe, but under the “good news” clause, I scored a 3-foot-high Elmo for my 2-yo peanut at a garage sale for 50 cents! I imagine that if you account for gas and search time going to all the garage sales this morning, it’s more expensive than just buying one at Target, but it still feels like good news!

On cookbooks: I’m a big fan of Joy, mainly for the “theory” sections. I also have an ancient “Cordon Bleu” cookbook that they’ll have to pry from my cold, dead hands. But by far the best is the now out-of-print In My Kitchen by Paul Bocuse, a collection of simple recipes (I mean that: no recipe is more than a dozen ingredients, and most weigh in around half-a-dozen) that really are sturdy enough for everyday cooking. Sort of the same spirit as Jacque Pepin’s current cooking show on PBS—which here is on Sunday mornings, and is much, much better than the Talking Heads shows.

Cathy –

I can see how as a gardening professional Oregon would be much preferrable to Pennsylvania.

But, IMHO, there are good peaches in Oregon — from the Rogue Valley, and certain parts of the Willamette Valley. I try and bring a box back to DC each year from my August visit, along with blackberries and Marionberries.

On the other hand, we could never get our peach trees in Portland to do anything.

Way to go on the weight loss Christy.

I have a sunflower that the top bud has turned directly away from the sun. It’s a little disturbing actually. Where did I go wrong?

I live in a cottage in a former Methodist summer camp. It’s a challenge to garden with a very small plot, and even less sun. Last year I was able to get that English garden look, and I wasn’t trying for it.

I wanted a variety, but with such a small area it didn’t leave many options. I bought some tall perennials, for the back, a lot of herbs, and I bought a wide variety of annuals to fill in. The trick for me was to go to all the different garden centers in the area, and buy a single 4 or 6 pack of the different annuals and not full flats. Mixing the herbs with drastically different foliage also helps.

This year I did the same thing, only with not as many annual herbs.

lotus:

Thanks. You gotta rent this sometime:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094812/quotes

Kludge @ 51 isn’t that from “Bull Durham”?

This sat am segment is a great take me away respite.
Our lives are dominated by working to put food on the family & home drudgery duties leaving so little time & energy left over for those life is good pursuits. When I was bitching about not being able to work on my favorite project loves, a well-meaning 80 relative who knows we are work overloaded said, “Oh, you don’t have time for that.” Oh my, I wanted to shake that sweet woman. She really was trying to make me feel better but it felt like Lucy yanking away the football at the last moment. Living in such a precarious, stress filled world, it’s even more important to carve out time for all things that keep us not just sane, but sustained.

For those of you who don’t know about The Family of Man, one place to start is here:

http://www.moma.org/research/a....._1955.html

The book came from an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955. It traveled around the world and is now on permanent display in Luxembourg.
http://www.luxembourg.co.uk/clervaux.html

One of the many haunting images is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.....ther02.jpg

Mind you, many in the artistic and progressive communities have been critical of The Family of Man:

“It is an awesome exercise in naivete, oversimplification, and sentimentality.”

And this:

“What is disheartening is to see the agency (Museum of Modern Art) which claims to preside over the artistic values of photography tumble so easily into vulgar ideological postures.”

http://elmo.academyart.edu/study/ph101/Required reading/Jay.htm

Sure, sure. Undoubtedly the critics are right. The exhibit and book are too optimistic. Too positive.

But so are gardens.

Sigh.

Last night Organic George and I enjoyed an amazing new dish — Pork Tenderloin with Pomegranates and Orange, served with a lovely Pinot Noir, from a great new food/wine book — PERFECT PAIRINGS, by Evan and Joyce Goldstein. To die for! Can’t wait to try other recipes/suggested wines from the book.

Abysmally hot here — 105 degrees and thunderstorms predicted, *with humidity*. This is southern Cal… and this is NOT supposed to happen here.

As for our heirloom tomatoes: they’re suffering from overfertilization and excessive kindness. More leaves than ‘maters, alas.

Love all you guys. Carry on.

Oh, and just a reminder for everyone, Colleen Rowley will be on Howie’s Blue America this afternoon at 2 pm ET/11 am PT. She’ll be here to chat. :)

scory-
When I was 19 and 20, summer jobs were very few and far between and my college let out late in the summer compared to the rest in the area. So the only job I could get was at the local produce farm picking fruits and vegetables. Talk about hard work! Anyway, in September we picked peaches and you have never tasted anything as heaven on earth as a tree ripened peach grown in Pittsburgh.

During the school year I hide from the news in my real job, chorus singing, primarily classical and opera. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work in the summer, when my groups go on hiatus, and my voice teacher does too, leaving way too much time to follow the news. We start up in late August, and I am really looking forward to it this year.

Since peaches are coming in, I will be making this dish.

3 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
3 cups blueberries
1 lb peaches, peeled and sliced

Bring to a boil the balsamic vinegar, sugar, and 1 cup blueberries, cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly. Add a grind or two of pepper. Pour over peaches and remaining blueberries. Sugar to taste. Let stand at 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Found on Epicurious.com

I make a version of this every year, and every year I forget and have to get a new version. Peaches here are really good, but the blueberries have been less so this year.

Mmm, real peaches. I haven’t found a good one locally since I moved to Florida. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been visually and/or olfactorally seduced by a display in a store or stand, only to bring some home, bite into one, and find the same old meally, dry, dull story.

What I’d give for some real Georgia Belles (aka Belle of Georgia, properly pronounced something close to “Bella Jowja”). Incredibly sweet and juicy white peaches — if you ever run across ‘em, buy a pile, not for my sake but for yours.

Eye candy garden books:
Tasha Tudor’s Garden & The Private World of Tasha Tudor

Last night I browned some chicken thighs in a large saute pan, added carrots, leeks and fresh thyme (plus salt and pepper) and sauteed a few more minutes. Deglazed the pan with some white wine and a little chicken broth, and simmered for 25 minutes. To finish the sauce, I added a little cream and fresh parsley.

It was delicious, but I love anything with leeks.

Favorite cooking magazines: Fine Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated.

In Marin County, Northern California, we have dense fog this morning and 58 degrees. It’ll “burn off” by noon, and be in the 70’s until dark, then back with the fog, our natural air-conditioning.

Instead of spending hours on the web, reading the news and political blogs (Firedoglake is my first destination every morning) and then sending emails to everyone I know trying to wake them up to the mess in the world, these days I am taking a Photoshop Class and playing with editing the many pictures from my daughter’s recent wedding, or being an artist, I am spending hours every day at my easel, listening to books on tape, usually mysteries.

My new favorite flavor of the summer is Vietnamese Coriander. In my area I can only grow it as an annual. It has a intense, fresh flavor, reminds me of a strong cucumber.

The aroma is intoxicating, and it works well across the board. Fresh in salsa, great wrapping it around cubes of meat and grilling in kabob baskets, fruit salads with ginger and pineapple sage, and grilled cheese.

You know what one of my favorite lunches is, especially in hot weather? Just a good ol’ Fuji apple, quartered, cored, and slathered with peanut butter. Such a nice dance of texture and flavor, and it holds me all the way to suppertime. Who’d a-thunk?

Good luck with Photshop Linda B. It’s the most creative tool I’ve ever worked with.

As solace for the hot and humid weather here (this morning it was 72 degrees at 6:15am with 97% humidity; 80 degrees now with 80% humidity), each morning this week I’ve been enjoying a handful of blackberries straight off the bush. This is my first summer at this new home and the plethora of berries is an unexpected blessing. Even better, the many birds have plenty of insects to eat so they haven’t even touched the berries yet!

scory 60

Yes. I guess I figured it was ‘universal’ knowledge. The link I slapped up in reply to lotus is in fact “Bull Durham.”

Kludge’s are renowned for sloppy results. Not intentionally misleading…

Lotus, it sounds like your friend is having it bad. Withdrawing and feeling blue is one thing, but leaving legal cases hanging is very serious.

Depression is not well understood — it’s a psychological process that triggers significant changes in brain chemistry, which is why drug interventions can often be effective. But the interplay of mental health and neuro-transmitters is not well understood, and the effects of the SSRI’s and other drugs even less so.

A friend recently reached a conclusion of a legal nightmare — he was sued for divorce, even though he wasn’t married. He won the case, but it was very stressful. He took Wellbutrin for a while, and was very pleased with the results. This is a SDRI (selective dopamine reuptake inhibitor), which affects the brain differently than SSRI’s (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). Another non prescription option is 5-HTP, a precursor chemical for serotonin. Wikipedia has really comprehensive entries on all of these things.

Back to the psychological basis seratonin levels. On the NewsHour some years ago Paul Solman reported that Alpha CEO’s will have twice the serotonin levels of Beta Junior Executives. But the individuals with the highest seratonin levels are Eastern Yogis in meditation. This is a round about validation of the power of prayer, and the value of religion. Feeling powerless brings on depression; feeling powerful and in control energizes us; feeling connected to the higher powers in the universe maximizes our potential.

Sorry to disrupt this reverie, but I do think that After The Hamdan Decision…What To Watch For In The Capitol is a fascinating DailyKos diary on a seminar yesterday with

Admiral Stansfield Turner, former Director of the CIA

Mike Posner, the President of Human Rights First

David Cole, Professor, Georgetown Law Center, Legal Affairs correspondent of the Nation

David Wise, author, “The Invisible Government,” and many other books on intelligence.

Pssst! Over here! It’s me, al-Scooter.

We’re on our weekender. When my wife found out we had internets access from our room, she forbade me to bring my laptop so I wouldn’t spend the whole trip pounding the Refresh Comments button. She’s in the shower now, so I sneaked down to the hotel business center to check FDL.

Unbelievably great stuff from you on Plamesuit and from Jane about Ned!!

I caught some of the sound bites of Valerie Wilson on CBS Radio News while we were driving yesterday. Articulate, self-possessed and perfectly clear, she is. I pity the fool that crosses her.

Goota get back to the room before I’m missed. Hope this works again tomorrow for Sunday bird blogging. Let’s hope Democracy Boy doesn’t blow the world up before then.

Thanks, -ck-. You’ve detailed why FDL is hands-down the best anti-depressant I’ve ever encountered (and that’s most of them). How I wish I could get my friend S here.

Good Morning all…

My hobby is making synthetic furballs for ceramic cats.

Balsamic vinegars of every type are crowding supermarket shelves but what to choose? Wish there a lick version of scratch & sniff so I wouldn’t waste money. I’d love some tips from making your own or purchased brand suggestions.

See? Even undepressed al-Scooter proves the point.

I don’t own any land so I don’t have a prayer of gardening anything. But I got a catalog for fruit trees and bushes in the mail and I drool over that.

I’m not much for annual flowers. I figure that if I’m going to plant, fertilize and weed something that’s going to die anyway, it better throw down some food.

I read somewhere that some poor woman tried to put a garden and a couple fruit trees in the back yard of their developer-community McMansion and the HOA wouldn’t let them! That’s so…well, American, actually. :-(

Good cookbooks to take out of the library: The America’s Test Kitchen (Cook’s Illustrated) cookbooks. They don’t have lots of recipes; they focus on making a few recipes very well. I just copy what I want.

Let’s hope Democracy Boy doesn’t blow the world

hmmm . . . Democracy is like frogs; young democracies are like frog eggs and tadpoles.

and contrary to what Democracy Boy thinks, spreading frogs around with firecrakers does not make them thrive and prosper.

Hey there, ofg! Been meaning to tell you that your description yestiddy of your socks rolling up and down on their own as you first tasted cappucino sent me over the back of th’ chair again. Another 707 moment, yessirree-bob!

I’ve been lurking here for over a year but the past few Saturdays have been a siren song luring me out of the closet; mention of the Chelsea Show, Harry Chapin, gardening, good food & good fellowship are just too strong to resist.

How ‘bout I call myself “Waccamaw” in homage to FDL & a lovely dark lake & river in southeastern NC near where I was reared. Have absolutely no idea whether this will get thru’ due to never having done it before but, what the who!

Christy - I had the awesome joy to visit the CFS last year & it will be one of the best memories of my life. After seeing the David Austin Roses booth that covered a huge area I ordered four bushes from their Texas branch to plant at the beach. Followed their suggestions re. selections but they are having a bit of a fight against salt laden ocean winds & deer munching. Your recipe for Chocolate Zucchini cake is totally yum; have been munching on a batch for the last week - wonder what it would be like with a bit of ground ginger thrown in? So much for my diet, thank you very much!

Re. music - Harry Chapin’s daughter Jen is playing an outdoor concert in a small, nearby town tomorrow nite which I wouldn’t miss. FDL & its readers bring to mind one of my favorite Carrie Newcomer songs “Festival of Friends”. For books, have you ever read the “3000 Mile Garden” about the correspondence between two American & English authors/gardeners? A wonderful read.

‘Ta for all you do to help bring a little sanity into a world that seems sadly lacking in that precious commodity at the moment.

Needing cheering up (unfortunately) seems a common theme these days.

Well,

“I am he as you are me and we are all together”
re: depression and connectedness/power

and

“Sitting in an English Garden waiting for the sun”
re: topic photo
—–
I Am the Walrus
J. Lennon
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/beatles/i am the walrus_10026521.html

Morning, all…

Since I’ve been going to the gym regularly, to get off the 60-some pounds that Zoloft packed onto me in a three year period (gives new meaning to the phrase “fat and happy” - or, my take, which was, it’s a good thing this stuff works on depression, ’cause being fat IS depressing), I’ve gotten hooked on HGTV’s Landscaper’s Challenge - so many great ideas (none of which I have implemented, but still…).

We live on almost 6 acres, about half of which is wooded. Right now, the wild raspberries are bursting with fruit. I spent about an hour last evening picking, and it was only the drenching humidity and heat that made me stop. Tomorrow is my mom’s birthday, so we’re having her up to celebrate, and I think I am going to do a raspberry tart. If the blueberries are plentiful enough, I may make it a raspberry/blueberry tart.

Our labs love blueberries, and will eat the low-hanging ones right off the bush. Who knew dogs liked blueberries???

With a wedding being planned for next May, which my daughter wants to have here at home, outside, I am obsessing about the landscaping. We’ve never been big on a lot of formal garden-type stuff, preferring to do nore natural stuff, but now I have to think about this in a whole new way. Was lying in bed this morning, thinking about how we could arrange tents, etc.

Love this Saturday morning post - what an inspired idea!

Christy - congrats on the weight loss! I’m making good progress on my own excess poundage, and now, with the prospect of a mother-of-the-bride dress to buy, and pictures to last for all eternity, I am inspired to work, work, work on that last 25 pounds!!

Just back from being walked by the spaniels, we’re expecting triple digits in Fargo today so–for us–an early start.

Flower gardens range from lush to stunted…dry, dry, dry around here. Our old neighborhood is blessed with tall trees, so my garden’s mostly hostas these days, with annuals for color. And herbs. The oregano has faithfully grown back season after season. Maybe because the winters are getting less and less cold?

Right now, I’m in love with basil, for all the obvious reasons. And tarragon. Sprinkled over an organic chicken I’ve spritzed with olive oil, add in new potatoes and baby carrots and slow cook.

Christy, I love cookbooks full of story, too. Because we do our Christmas Eve ethnic dinner every year, I’ve acquired cookbooks for virtually every country in Europe with a few from SA and North Africa/Middle East. Part of the fun.