It was a night for Texas in Annapolis when we hosted a Texas barbecue complete with Shiner Bock
Served in a wheelbarrow
And wine, too.
And flowers in big tin cans.
And to top it off we had Texas weather - 98 degrees in the shade and humid. Despite the weather, we had fun!
Today was the best day yet in the pre-Christmas season. All boxes were shipped out yesterday, a lot (not all - never, ever all) of laundry was washed, folded and put away - and I had a whole day to putter with my 10 year old. We drew knights, we made lunch, we made granola and tonight we made ginger people dough from The Pastry Queen cookbook which my parents were nice enough to send me - thanks mom and dad! I don't have a evaluation of the ginger cookies yet - we'll make those tomorrow, but I am crazy for the granola in this book. It was so much fun to make and it's delicious. Each recipe makes about 14 cups, so I found my cellophane bags and designed tags on photoshop elements, and tied them on with the brown and white baker's twine that I love so much. The photograph on the tag is a box of vintage ornaments that were at the antique show in Round Top last April. It was a treat to find that one in the archives. I desaturated the color a little so that the photograph would allow the text to show up, and I sent my kids out to deliver these to the neighbors. It was a fun, easy project and allowed me to exhale and enjoy the moment. I think it was the first day in weeks that I didn't feel like I was behind. I have to acknowledge those moments because they don't come around all that often. Oh - and tonight while making the cookie dough, we watched the original black and white "It's a Wonderful Life". I don't care how sappy it is, that's one of my favorite movies. In fact, I bought Jimmy Stewart postage stamps yesterday at the post office because I love it so much. I hope that these last few days before Christmas are slowing down enough for everyone to enjoy this magical season.
Edited to add: It's fifteen minutes til game time. Go Navy! Beat Utah!
Lookie, lookie at what was waiting for me when I arrived home! My parents and some good friends are on their flight from Texas right this minute - and they sent this in anticipation of their arrival. If you haven't tried Blue Bell Ice Cream (from my home town!) then I feel sorry for you. It is heaven in a carton. And look at these flavors:
This is my LIFE. Day 5. and 6.
This really is my life. On any given afternoon there's a good possibility that there's a skateboard or three on my front walk. Three live at my house full-time, and there are often another three or four boards 'visiting'. This picture was taken yesterday afternoon while all of the skaters were busy taking a nacho break.
Apparently skating makes one not only very, very sweaty - but also quite hungry.
On another note:
When I looked at this stack of cookbooks in my kitchen, I realized that they said something not only about what I like to cook, but where I've lived and what's important to me.
The Tex-Mex cookbook may be the most authentic source for honest Texas mexican food recipes that I've ever seen. Coupled with the recipes are great stories of the people, the restaurants and the lore that make Tex-Mex not only a cuisine, but a integral part of the Texas mystique. The legends behind the margarita, the nacho and tejano music all contribute to this book. It's a winner.
Magnolias Southern Cuisine is from Magnolias restaurant in Charleston, SC. Both times that we lived in Charleston, Magnolias was one of our favorite destinations for a special night out. I've never been able to order anything other than their shrimp and grits - and I'm happy to report this recipe is in the book. In fact when I open this cookbook, it automatically falls to that stained, worn page.
The Barefoot Contessa is the go-to girl when cooking for a crowd or for the family. The pecan bars in the first BC cookbook may be the most wonderful sweet thing I've ever made. Shortbread cookies plus candied and carameled pecans plus chocolate equal heaven! Every thing I've made either of her books has been a wonderful success - and not due to any stellar effort on my part. Her recipes are just that good.
And the Stonewall Kitchen book reminds me of our time in Maine where I'd regularly visit the Stonewall Kitchen headquarters in York. The recipes in Harvest reflect the seasonal offerings of our part of Maine and were the first place I found a recipe to cook fiddleheads. The baked goat cheese salad is spectacular and worth every single calorie.
Our past and present come together in this stack of cookbooks - and they give me an opportunity every now and then, to cook a meal that's also a memory.
For the first time this season, I was able to visit the Anne Arundel County Farmers Market, and I wasn't disappointed. It's one of my favorite things to do for so many reasons. First of all, I think it's important to support our local farmers, bakers, crafters and gardeners. Second; although I don't practice what I preach all of the time, I love eating what's in season. I find that it's a great way to continually change your menu depending on what's available, and third - I just like the atmosphere.
When we lived here before, the market was well attended on Saturday mornings, but there have been some marked changes in the five years since. Now there are two uniformed officers directing traffic (!) and keeping order. The number of vendors has increased, but most of the old faithfuls are still there. It's the most wonderful cross section of people - family farmers with two or three generations of family working, and bakers with sugar-encrusted scones that melt in your mouth. The First Baptist Church is still there - with their hanging scale with the scoop bowl underneath to measure your green beans or cherry tomatoes. And the gardeners with their zinnias, black-eyed Susans (our state flower), and giant sunflowers are still there. When we lived here before, an enterprising farmer had a section of his table covered with small plastic bags with water and tadpoles in them - and a sign attached advertising "Seed Toads". Needless to say, I took some of those home - as much for the enterprising idea as anything else.
Today's bounty is shown above, and I was really limited only by what I could carry. The array of vegetables and fruit (including peaches and early apples) is especially choice right now. First on the agenda is slicing the cucumbers oh-so-thin and combining them with vinegar, onions and salt and pepper. My MIL made those when we were in Ohio a few weeks ago, and Carey couldn't get enough of them. It brought back memories of when I was growing up in Texas, and they were a summertime staple in my mom's and both of my grandmothers refrigerators. Only Gramma called hers "the icebox", and I remember everytime I ever opened her refrigerator door, that somehow it seemed colder than anyone else's refrigerator. It smelled cold and metallic, and the cartons of milk, and buttermilk sometimes shared space with ice cold coca cola in small bottles. It was the coldest and best coke I ever tasted.
I'll be thinking of grandmothers - both mine and my children's - today when I slice up my cucumbers and onions, and when I add salt and pepper and vinegar. It will be bittersweet - a reminder of how quickly times fly, and how the smallest things spark the memories that are weave through our lives and join our generations.
Summer continues to fly by around here - but there have been moments of calm respite scattered thoughout the chaos. Thursday I was able to visit the Aquatic Gardens in DC with artist extraordinaire and all-around-fun-companion, Becky. These gardens are an incredibly beautiful and peaceful spot in the middle of DC! The water gardens meander throughout the park and showcase lotuses (lotii? - what is the plural of lotus anyway??) in various stages of growth. The colors range from the creamiest white to a deep rosy pink - and the flowers float above the enormous leaves like balloons on a string. They leave behind pods that look like they'd be more at home on a cactus in the desert Southwest than a water garden, and they shelter frogs who serenaded us with deep-throated songs.
The only other folks there besides the grounds and maintenance crew were a couple with an enormous camera and tripod taking photographs. Someday, I'll see if Becky will let me post her painting - it is beautiful. She has a true gift for taking what she sees, filtering it through her artistic vision, and ending up with a work that makes you think that that's exactly how that scene should look. She's like the BASF of artistry (remember the commercials: "We don't make the lightbulb, or vcr, or engine, or whatever - We make it BETTER.) Well that's a day of painting with Becky!
From there it was off to the DC Flower Market to select fresh flowers for a Retirement Party. After being told by one of the owners that the best selection is at 4:30 am, I was happy to find what I did at 12:30 pm! And quite frankly, I don't care how good the selection is at 4:30 am - I just don't see that happening. Ever. I was looking to get a casual, summer feel for this arrangement - and I liked what I ended up with. The hydrangeas came from my garden, and they didn't have the longevity of the other flowers, but initially it worked.
I found the galvanized vase at an estate sale, and bought the spider mums, sunflowers, yellow freesia and the blue thistle-looking flowers at the Flower Market. I had the willow sticks at home - they've been used a gazillion times and have probably been packed up and moved by Navy movers at least 6 time. (You can imagine how popular I am with Navy movers. . . )
For the same party, my 12 year old daughter decided that she wanted to contribute something too. We found the beautiful strawberries at Trader Joes, and on her own, she came up with the platters below. She has a chocolate fondue and mold kit that she uses every chance she gets, but this time she just melted the chips in the microwave. She did use the small pointed-tip bottle from her kit for the white chocolate and for the words on the platter. Again - this was all her idea and was executed without any help from me!
Can you read her writing on the platter? Happy Retirement Capt. Dawson on the bottom platter and on the other platter: Navy and the N star logo. Not only were the platters pretty, but the strawberries were delicious!
In case you think the boys weren't around during the week, here are a couple of action shots from a pool party/cookout Thursday eve:
Carey made sweets for the sweet this morning! She used a metal heart cookie cutter with a clothespin for a handle. They were adorable. There's a giant mess in the kitchen, though - and she seems to have disappeared!
We are due to have another dinner for 20 plus tonight, and I thought I'd share my secret weapon - neverknowntofail menu and the means to accomplish it.
First the menu:
Now - run, don't walk to your nearest hardware superstore and get yourself an electric smoker. This one cost us about $69 dollars 6 or 7 years ago, and has paid for itself many times over. Then either find a friend in Texas who can send you this brisket rub seasoning mix or go here and order some for yourself. I haven't ever found a spice rub as good as this one, and it's worth the shipping costs to have it sent to you. Their steak rub and fajita rubs are excellent too. There's magic in these two items - the rub gives the brisket the flavor that you get when you find one of those small authentic barbecue shacks where the proprieter and the inside of the restaurant are equally smoky - where everything is served on sheets of waxed paper or red plastic baskets lined with waxy tissue and where the last items tossed into the order are two slices of white bread and a dill pickle spear. The smoker gives you the ability to replicate the hours in a smoke house that produces the can't-cut-it-because-it's falling-apart texture. And - it's so easy!
The night before the dinner, pull out your briskets (we're using three big briskets tonight because we're feeding midshipmen and they're bottomless),and rub them with generous amounts of the seasoning. Your hands should be bright orange when you're done with this step. If they aren't, go back and put some more seasoning on. Cover the brisket with plastic wrap and place back in the fridge overnight. The morning of your party, bring your briskets to room temp and prepare the smoker according to the directions that came with your smoker. That's an easy process that basically involves spraying oil spray on the racks that fit inside the smoker, lining the water bowl with foil, then filling it with hot water and hardwood smoked chunks that have been soaking in water. We bought a bag of hardwood hickery chunks - again at the hardware store - several years ago, and are just now at the point of needing to buy more. Since you use only a small quantity each time you smoke, the bag of chunks lasts a long time. Plug your smoker in to a convenient outlet outside, and set the temp to medium-high temp. Place the briskets on the racks, close the lid and go do your thing. That's it! We typically allow 8 hours for a full smoker. We'll take them off between 4 and 4:30, and then throw the sausage links in for a hour or so. When they start to plump up, we pull them off, turn off the smoker and go enjoy the party.
I make a simple baked beans recipe, and I buy the pre-shredded cole slaw mix to further simplify things. I have hamburger buns and pickles in the event that people want to make a barbecue sandwich, and a barbecue sauce to go with it. The best and most authentic sauce around is this one. Sometimes you can find it in bigger supermarkets or specialty shops, but if you can't, by all means, place an order. I have a great triple chocolate brownie mix that I get in industrial size packaging at Sam's Club, and several caramel, chocolate, and butterscotch sauces to add to the brownies a la mode. I even pre-scoop the ice cream and put the scoops into muffin pans in the freezer, so that when it's time for dessert, I am ready.
This menu allows you to do everything before the party, so that you're not frantically cooking as guests arrive. You can be ready with a cold longneck in hand and some Lyle Lovett or Guy Clark playing in the background. I promise that your guests will love this dinner - and in the unlikely event that everything isn't gone by the time the party's over - this menu is great as leftovers!
