Hand Me Downs

So friends, my computer is still having some sort of conniption about letting me post pictures, which makes me a lackluster blogger. If you can bear with JUST my words for now, I’m going to get back to the blogging anyway.
Kenny and I are having a “get the house in order” day after being out of town for a week. Kenny was playing on a project in Athens, and I had the wonderful gift of a week out at the Portico, a wonderful farm/study center/haven that our friends Lee and Leslie Moody have. I stayed in the lower level of their house, which backs up to the woods. When I woke up, I got dressed, walked out the back door and made the ten minute walk down the trail in the woods to the church. The church, also part of the Portico, has been converted into a performance space and library. I had a big table in the library and the space to myself all week. So, I’d go in, put some coffee on, get out some greek yogurt with honey and sit down at the table. All of my notecards, all of my notes, my laptop, everything right in front of me. And no internet. So I had all day to stare at the notes, move them around, think about them, and use my imagination. Hard work. I’m not kidding. Work I love, but hard work. Hard to do for more than a few hours at a time. Then, a walk, or some visiting with Leslie, or a field trip to Clare’s farm with Rachel.  At Clare’s, we played with the young’uns, ate her just-harvested beans, and walked down to the beautiful cob house she’s been building.  . More soon. Somehow, the computer lets me put CLARE’s pics up, which is good, as hers are lovely!   

I’m feeling refreshed, creative, healthy.  It’s good to have dirt under your feet, it’s good to make stuff, it’s good to have good conversation.  Yes indeed.

More soon- I’ve gotta go DO some stuff, but want to tell more bits of the week.

It’s late, my brain is still on. Tried sleeping for 45 minutes or so. There’s a firefly (I said lightning bug first- how much more poetic, firefly- best, lightningfly?) in our bedroom, courting the green flashing light on my phone. I’m grabbing a legal pad and a Uniball and seeing if I have anything to say. I love the idea that maybe, just maybe, I’d write something that somebody a hundred years down the road could use. Got an amazing hymnal this weekend- I’m writing out of it, and just charmed.
Forgive the lack of pictures. Some stupid malfunction. Words, words for you- just not quite the same in Bloggyland. I’m blogged out- onto pen & paper, friends. I hope you’re sleeping.

Excuse my long-between blogs- it’s just so PRETTY out.  I’ve been in the garden, painting the house- you know.  

I wanted to share a picture with you, but I missed my chance as I ran for my camera.  A baby katydid.  Have you ever seen one?  Tiny, fragile little thing- so pretty.  It was the size of half of my pinky-fingernail.  

When I was little, I heard endless repetitions of “who did it?”  ”KATY did it”.    I would yell “I DID NOT.”

If you’ve read my posts about LaToya and Narnia, you’ll know that Kenny and I spend Thursdays with our small group from church reading with our reading buddies from the KIPP school here in the neighborhood.  They have just graduated their first class of eighth graders on to high school, and have done themselves proud.  Congratulations, KIPPsters and teachers.

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/charter-school-s-first-eighth-graders-ready-take-world

The little kids across the street often ask if they can come pick a carrot.  And I say yes, of course!  I love watching their eyes light up as they learn little things about how food grows.  The roots pull the nourishment in, the worms make it crumbly and richer…

I was weeding today and the young’uns came over.  I decided today, we strike a deal.  No more of this “giving away carrots” business.  

“How about this- we make a trade.”  They were intrigued.  ”You pull fifteen weeds, I trade you a carrot for your work.  It says in the Bible that a worker earns his wages.”  They were overjoyed.  I got some weeds pulled, they earned some carrots.  

How many lessons can a garden teach?  New ones every day.

There are days I’m happy to use Bank of America, and days I’m not happy.  But this is pretty great.  If you bank with B of A, you get free admission to tons of museums around the country on the first full weekend of every month.  Including the Frist and Cheekwood Botanical Gardens here in Nashville, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Bronx Zoo in New York City, The Phillips Collection in DC and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.    For those of you (us) who travel, this is a major treat.  Bank of America, stay solvent.  This is very good.

http://museums.bankofamerica.com/

Still Life with Teapot and Fruit, 1896
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903)
Oil on canvas

Lucky, lucky, blessed, blessed, Katy.  Tomorrow, after a couple of months of whining, the East Nashville Farmer’s Market begins again!  A couple of months ago I realized I was out of my homemade pesto.  And the frozen blueberries from last summer.  And most everything else.  There’s still a little frozen Red Russian Kale from the garden that I never quite worked up to using…\

This is the most delightful time for me.  Fresh everything, grown here, in middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky.  Food my neighbors gave grown, nourishing and gorgeous and waiting for me.  It’s the beginning of season, so strawberries, lettuces, early garlic…  Well, here’s their list:

Strawberries, kale, lettuce, onions, beets, arugula, collards, broccoli, cabbage, parsley, radicchio, asparagus, honey, eggs, milk, cheese, beef, chicken, pork, lamb, breads, pastries, jams, cakes, and flowers.

I could cry with joy.  Strawberries out of season are a sham.  Asparagus is an annual happening- and then you wait again.  A few years ago, we joined a CSA- community supported agriculture, where we received a half-bushel of produce every week.  We shared it with Matthew and Alice Smith and still had plenty to spare.  Every week we received whatever was growing, which often included things I had never eaten, let alone seen.  The good folks at Hill and Hollow were kind of enough to give us a guide with our basket- a few recipes to kindle the imagination and get us familiar with kale, collards and garlic scapes.  

Alice told me a story a bit ago about finding a vegetable in the frozen section of an international market and asking an employee what to do with it.  He said something to the effect of “You wouldn’t know how to cook it, what to do with it.”  I was so proud to hear that Alice bought the whatever-it-was anyway and learned.  Alice gets amazed that God has made such an amazing variety of foods, all different and appealing to all of our senses.

 I could babble on, but there’s a whole market season for that- more to come, I’m sure.  To whet your imagination, here’s a list of good sites for recipes and general food-fantasy.  Happy wandering.  I hope this season finds you enjoying vegetables you’ve never known!  Amazing all of the creations, inventions under the sun.  

East Nashville Farmer’s Market

What Geeks Eat

French Laundry at Home

French Women Don’t Get Fat

Hill and Hollow Farm

Animal Vegetable Miracle

River Cottage

For those of you who love House and can’t get enough Hugh Laurie, may I introduce you to the madcap comic team of Stephen Frye and Hugh Laurie, best known for their show Jeeves & Wooster.  Wooster (Laurie) is a dimwitted young English gentleman, forever getting into and out of scrapes via his much clever manservant, Jeeves (Frye).  They also had a show called Frye & Laurie later on, and crazily enough, Stephen Frye was recently taping a show on an adjacent set to House, MD- here’s hoping they give Frye some confounding illness so that he can share frames with Laurie again.  Thanks to Eric & Emily Bryan for first introducing us a coupla years ago.  Good times.  If you live in Nashville, you can check out copious amounts of Jeeves & Wooster at the Nashville Public Library.  

Nope, not a birth ann0uncement, but one of our favorite breakfast dishes ever.  Although it is fun to say ” let’s have babies for breakfast” and “that sure was a good baby”.  This is a picture of somebody else’s, as the computer is having conniptions with the picture of mine- but looks just the same!

We first had these at the gracious table of Robert and Louise Tucker on beautiful Orcas Island, Washington at Woodsong Festival, one of our favorite places and times.  

When I came home, I found the recipe in Marion Cunningham’s The Breakfast Book, a wedding present to us from Charlie and Andi Ashworth.  Andi is the author of Real Love for Real Life, a really wonderful book on caring and hospitality.  It’s largely out of print, but can be found.    Oh, now OUR dutch baby is ready, and it can’t wait!  Enjoy!

Dutch Babies

 3 eggs, room temperature

½ cup milk

½ tsp salt

½ cup all purpose flour

2 tsp. melted butter

2 TBSP lemon juice

powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 450.  Butter one 12” skillet or four 6” skillets with ovenproof handles.

Break the eggs into a mixing bowl and beat until thoroughly mixed.  Add the milk and blend well.

Sift the flour and salt onto a square of waxed paper.  Lift the waxed paper up by two corners and let the flour slowly drift into the eggs and milk, whisking steadily- or sift it in.  This avoids lumps.  Blend until smooth, then add melted butter and blend until smooth.

Pour into the skillet(s) and bake for 15 minutes.  If you make the bigger one, you may need to add an additional 10 minutes. 

YOU SHOULD BE VERY CAREFUL HERE.  AS OBVIOUS AS IT SOUNDS, DON’T GRAB THE HANDLE OF THE SKILLET WITHOUT A POTHOLDER.  IT’S INSTINCT.  I SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE.

Sprinkle the lemon juice over the pancake and dust with powdered sugar.  Serve immediately.  (Maple syrup’s nice, too.)