Vicki Lane's Blog, page 502
March 6, 2012
And So It Begins . . .
Seduced by the mention of Seeds from Italy over on my friend Louise's blog, I placed an order -- Pomodoro Costoluto Fiorentino and Pomodoro Cuor di Bue (Beef Heart tomato,) Cima di Rapa (or, more prosaically, sprouting turnip top,) a lovely Lemon Leopold sunflower, Black Tuscan Kale, Chioggia beets, cucumbers, green beans . . .
I can hardly wait!
March 5, 2012
March 4, 2012
Coq Au Vin
This is what we had for supper Saturday night before Carolina trounced Duke. Coq au Vin is traditionally made with red wine -- and a fair amount of bacon.
My mother used to make this but I don't have her recipe so I kind of combined several.
I don't have a lot of counter space and the various components of the dish were stacked here and there.
I used two of our chickens -- there were eight of us and I love leftovers.
We also had roasted asparagus, new potatoes, and a green salad. My friend Susan brought an amazing Key Lime cheesecake...Coq Au Vin
IngredientsI/2 pound thick-sliced bacon or hog jowl, cut into one inch by quarter inch pieces20 pearl onions, blanched and peeled, or 1 large yellow onion, sliced1 chicken, disjointed, or 3 lbs chicken thighs and legs, with skin6 garlic cloves, peeledSalt and pepper to taste2 cups chicken stock2 cups dry red wine (pinot noir, burgundy, or cabernet, or merlot)2 bay leaves4 inch piece of celery Several fresh thyme sprigsSeveral fresh parsley sprigs1/2 lb button mushrooms, trimmed and cut in half1/2 cup brandy 2 Tbsp butterChopped fresh parsley for garnish Method1 Blanch the bacon to remove some of its saltiness. Drop the bacon into a saucepan of cold water, covered by a couple of inches. Bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes, drain. Rinse in cold water, pat dry with paper towels.
2 Brown bacon on medium high heat in a dutch oven big enough to hold the chicken, about 10 minutes. Remove the cooked bacon, set aside. Keep the bacon fat in the pan. Brown onions, remove. Working in batches if necessary, add chicken, skin side down. Brown the chicken well, on all sides, about 10 minutes. Halfway through the browning, add the garlic and sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.
3 Add the chicken stock, wine, and herbs. ( I made the celery and herbs into a bouquet garni, wrapping them with string as in the picture above.) Add back the bacon and onions.. Lower heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, or until chicken is tender and cooked through. Remove chicken and onions to a separate platter. Remove the bay leaves, herb sprigs, garlic, and discard.
4 Add mushrooms and brandy to the remaining liquid and turn the heat to high. Boil quickly and reduce the liquid by three fourths until it becomes thick and saucy. Lower the heat, stir in the butter. Return the chicken and onions to the pan to reheat and coat with sauce. Adjust seasoning. Garnish with parsley and serve.
Serves 4-6.
March 3, 2012
A Message from Eddie
Vicki is still recovering from the effects of helping family and friends celebrate Carolina's historic defeat of Duke -- at Duke. She'll be back tomorrow, no doubt.People are so silly -- a houseful of grown men (and women, who always have seemed to me to be the more sensible sex) screaming as men in baggy shorts bounce a ball and try to throw it through a hoop.
It only proves the infinite superiority of cats -- as if there'd ever been any question.
March 2, 2012
March 1, 2012
SIBA
A little birdie told me . . .
Under the Skin made the SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) long list."The SIBA Book Awards were created not just to recognize great Southern books, but to give southern readers an enviable list of books to enjoy, read, buy, and give as gifts. As of this time, the SIBA Book Award remains one of the most far-reaching and high-profile awards for Southern literature."
But wait, there's more! Also on the long list is Naked Came the Leaf Peeper by Brian Knopp et al (call me Al -- I wrote Chapter 4.)
My friend, past NC poet laureate. Kathryn Byer Stripling's Southern Fictions is there under Poetry.
and my friend Amanda Kyle Williams is there too with The Stranger You Seek!
To see all the nominees -- Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Young Adult, Children, Cooking -- go HERE.
Your To Be Read list is in danger of growing longer.
February 29, 2012
Long Time Gone
Leave it be, she said when Corley went to haul it off,Thinking to spare his mama some pain.
Directly after the snow melted, he'd brought his team around,
Hooked the big gray mules to the front bumper.
It ain't no trouble, Mama. I kin haul it down to Allen's-
Leave it be, she said, I told you, Leave it be.
Over fifty years ago, that was, the March that big snow came.She'd waded at sun up through the high-piled drifts
To find her man laying across the seat,
An empty jar of white likker on the floor board,
And him, her man, frosted with rime ice..
Dead as a hammer.
He always was bad to drink, or so the neighbors said,But she pretended not to know and he wouldn't bring it in the house.
That last night, in all that snow, he'd stepped out to his car for a little sup,
Turned on the engine to get the warmth of the heater . . .
Another sup, and another. . .
Inside the house, she blew out the last lamp.
And all the while the wind blew and the snow fell . . .
Smothered to death, is what the neighbors said,
Once snow covered up the tail pipe and the motor still running . . .
They shook their heads, whispering,
And her in the house, not but a few steps away. . .
She lived another twenty-some years, watching that car rust,While the house fell to pieces around her.Corley tried his best to keep the place up but she'd have none of it,Leave it be, she'd say. I told you, Leave it be.
This was inspired by an incident from Sheila Kay Adams's book Come Go Home With Me... I'm not done with it -- it may need to be a short story.
February 28, 2012
February 27, 2012
Evening Light Elsewhere
And speaking of elsewhere . . . Cathy Cole of Kittling:Books blog interviewed me yesterday and is reviewing Art's Blood today. Pop over and leave a comment if you will. All you mystery readers out there will find lots of inspiration at Kittling: Books.
February 26, 2012
Light in Darkness
Originally I resisted reading The Hunger Games trilogy, thinking that it had to do with teenage vampires or zombies or such. I was wrong.I've been immersed in this dark world for the past few days and am reporting back to recommend this compelling, well-told story -- highly, highly recommend!
Set in a dystopian future, in a place that was once the USA but is now a highly repressive authoritarian society, the trilogy takes its name from a yearly ritual designed to keep the twelve different districts of the country ever aware of the power of the central government.
Every year each district must send a boy and a girl to compete in the deadly Arena in a fight to the death where there can be but one winner. It's a kind of mash-up of Roman Circuses, the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, and our present-day reality shows.
And it's the story of Katniss, a young girl chosen to represent her district in the Games. The first book focuses on the fragile alliances she forges during the game -- always knowing that eventually she must kill or be killed.
I raced through the first and second books, caught up in the ever-shifting alliances and dilemmas. One truly surreal moment came as I was reading Catching Fire, in which the government is bombing a district that had seemed rebellious. The radio was on and I suddenly realized that the words on the page were being echoed by NPR -- news from Syria of the bombing of Homs -- and that the dystopia wasn't as far removed from reality as one might wish.When I came to the third book, I began to slow down -- partially because I didn't want the story to be over but mainly because there was so much to think about and so many possible outcomes. I found myself trying to anticipate what choices the author had made.
When I finally allowed myself to finish reading the last book (standing outside in the cold on Sunday morning while at the other end of her leash Willa dug holes in a flowerbed,) I was completely satisfied with the ending.
I don't want to say anything that would be a spoiler but I will say that I think this is a wonderful book, dealing as it does with heavy matters such as the corrupting influence of power, the strength of propaganda, the nature of love and loyalty, the nature of courage, the joy of small things . . . I could go on and on.
The books are brilliantly visual; the author's world-building skills are amazing. I kept imagining the trilogy as a movie and, indeed, there's one coming soon. But I already doubt that any movie could do full justice to this complicated dance of love and loyalty, right and wrong, life and death.
Yes, it's a dark story, to be sure. But a story that's shot through with light, with beauty, and with moments that answer the question of what it is to be human.
As Pat predicted in the comments on a previous post, I haven't picked up another book to read yet -- my mind is still too full of this world, these characters, these moral dilemmas.
