Kentucky Wildcats

So of course here in central Kentucky, the sun rises and sets with the Kentucky Wildcats, especially the basketball team. And if you don't live in Lexington, you may be surprised to hear that the Lexington Herald-Leader (the local daily rag) has not one, but TWO, sports sections. There is the section called the Sports section. And there is the other section, also know as Section A, which contains the front page. Most of the time, however, when you look at the front page, the lead story is about the basketball team or the coach or which bowl game the football team is going to, or speculation about a bowl game, etc. Unless some current or former politician has been indicted, convicted or "exonerated" for a crime, or the son of a former governor has just shot his girlfriend, the lead story will be about the Wildcats. The latest murder on Race and Sixth will be down at the bottom of the page.

And last Saturday the Kentucky Wildcat basketball team, at that point undefeated, had just been ranked #1 in the country, and was about to play SOuth Carolina (which I think was ranked #7 or something...not sure), when President Obama phoned Coach Calipari to congratulate the team on their #1 ranking. So all these talented and coddled basketball players got to talk on the phone to the President. They were pleased; it was all over the TV and the newspaper, and then they got ready for their basketball game against South Carolina.

Guess what. They lost. I watched most of the game. They missed lay-ups; they missed free throws; they fouled; they couldn't pass the stupid ball. John Wall, the freshman who is (or was) expected to be #1 in the pro draft this year, had a terrible game. It was pitiful.

And according to the local news, the letters to the editor, and the word on the street, guess why they lost? It's Obama's fault. It's all his fault. Nobody else's.

I suppose the current snowstorm and arctic air rolling across the state is his fault, too...

Angels and ministers of grace defend us...

Cheers

Sarah's visit and Martin's birthday

I do have the best kids anybody has ever had. So there.

Sarah has been here most of the week, and it's been lovely, as she was here to work, rather than for a holiday. She has worked almost non-stop, but it's been nice, because we weren't always on the go doing holiday stuff. She went to Louisville yesterday for a meeting/conference with a client of her firm, officials, etc. Today we had a SSI hearing for Martin. It was also his birthday, and he got some neat presents, phone calls, a ridiculously huge meal at Bella Notte, things like that, and THEN we got to watch the KY Wildcats' first loss of the season (I think) which of course came on the heels of their being voted the #1 team in the country. So it goes...

I've been cooking. Sarah and I watched Julie and Julia the other night, and she mentioned that she'd never had Boeuf Bourguignonne (I think that's how you spell it...beef burgundy, at any rate). So I made it, and we had it for dinner yesterday. It was seriously good. I also made garlic soup, the "potage" you get at a lot of places in Perigord. Need to write down the way I made it, as I think I have figured out how to do it well, and it's sort of a combination of several recipes I've found. This stuff fits into the category of "cucina povera", or "poor people's food". It's made from local and readily available ingredients (garlic, water, duck fat, leftover bread, an egg, vinegar...), and is basically great. Tastes like the "terroir". Cheap to make, filling, nutritious...

The beef burgundy isn't far from that, either. It's a stew made with whatever kind of beef is around, cooked (flavored of course with things like garlic, herbs, onions, a carrot, celery...) for a LONG time in a local red wine, with onions and mushrooms added. How to feed a lot of people well without spending a lot of money? hey, folks...

Before she leaves, I need to get out the duck breast prosciutto I've made; we may have that with a first course tomorrow with the rack of lamb I bought. HOWEVER, I do not plan to eat the lamb, however wonderful it is; sorry folks, I'm allergic to lamb, and it seems to do bad things to me.

So there...

Cheers, Lillie

animals

So this car full of guys pulled up the driveway this morning, and we could tell the dogs didn't know who it was. They wanted to know if they could buy one of the white chickens out in the henhouse. I said I'd have to discuss it with Jim. That's a new one, though. I've had people ask about buying eggs (this time of year, there aren't any), but never wanting one chicken.

So I went out and checked. There are 20 guinea hens he has free-ranging, and it looks like he's had his incubator at home working overtime and there ARE eggs being laid, because there are various kinds of birds out there under heat lamps (babies), quail, pheasant, chickens, unidentified species, and there's still that gigantic turkey out there. Every time he builds another aviary, the just gets more birds...I'm staying out of it.

So I checked on the mushroom logs while I was out there (no mushrooms, at least no shittakes, or is it shitakke or shitake...you know what I mean). And then I checked on the pond. oops...it never occurred to me to worry about the goldfish. At the house on Nicholasville Road, I always wintered the goldfish (it had a pond out back) in a wading pool in the basement. Until one year I forgot to bring them in before the pond froze. And they survived anyway. It is clear that many of the ones here did NOT survive. And there's a dead frog floating in the pond, too.

Is the term "dead livestock" an oxymoron?

And then there are the dead moles. Molly (the cat) loves catching moles; I just watched her chase a really big one across the driveway. It got away, though. Now she's got a mouse out there. I think she may be the reason we don't have all that many mice in the house this winter.

To spring...

It may be a Miracle

The weather is better, the sun is actually out, AND the Christmas tree has disappeared. The living room is one of the rooms we've had closed off during the deep freeze here, and it was simply too cold in there to even walk through. Another one was the dining room, and all the Christmas junk is gone from there, too...WHEEEEE...

Maybe my bones will be better when it's a bit warmer. There are lots of birds out flying around in packs and chirping all over the place. And the snowdrops are blooming out front. Maybe I'll even manage to get my ticket to Texas...

I think I will feed Phil some of that cured salmon, although I suspect he won't like it much; too much fennel. And I haven't done anymore with my charcuterie book because the kitchen has been too cold. This week will be different. And Sarah arrives on Friday for nearly a week--hearing in Lexington and a client in Louisville--so will be here for Martin's birthday.

Cheers, Lillie

more on weather, more on food

The deep freeze up here seems to be breaking. It actually got up to 30 degrees today. I went out without Mary Ann's fur coat, just with two sweaters and my Harris tweed blazer, and survived. Maybe all the snow and ice on the drive will melt tomorrow...which means that just maybe the boys will quit driving the Buick so I can have it back. Not sure why exactly I am the one who seems to drive the Volvo when the weather is bad (it's a 1994 sedan I bought from Brenda 10 years ago...still runs like a top but it's hard on my back, and I'm the one with the bad back...), but that's the way it's been.

My duck breast prosciutto that is curing in the pantry (aka laundry room) isn't ready, probably because it's been TOO COLD in there, as it's been in the 30's lately. The boiler system can't cope that far away, and we keep it closed off when the weather is frigid.

The kitchen is almost warm enough to start thinking about some more of my charcuterie projects, like sauerkraut (I bought a cabbage to try that with), sausage (I bought casings and a sausage stuffer, just need to take the plunge and try it...).

On the other hand, it's not yet mid-January, so the brief break in the weather could be brief.

Cheers, Lillie

food, despite the weather

So I got this Charcuterie book for Christmas. I asked for it, actually. I've made this cured salmon, and am making duck prosciutto. Now my project is sauerkraut. The prosciutto is hanging in the pantry, which has been in the 40's for awhile; it's been there over a week and is clearly not yet ready. It's seriously too cold...

The cured salmon is ready, not sure whether it will be worth a damn...

Made some sausage, after a fashion, today. Bought myself a meat grinder attachment to my Kitchenaid mixer. Also bought a sausage stuffer for the mixer. Need to figure out how to actually make the meat grinder gizmo work before I start trying to stuff sausage with it. Bought sausage gizmos (the casings) at Critchfield's the other day.

Will keep you posted...

The pork filling for tacos I ground today turned out okay. Not great, but okay.

And part of my problem is that the kitchen is, shall we say, too cold, e.g. COLD.

Cheers, Lillie

weather

The weather in central Kentucky still stinks...so there. I think it's been nearly two weeks since the temp was above freezing. Normally this is fine; however, it is so ridiculously expensive to actually warm any of this house, I'm getting sorta worried about it.

The kitchen is far too far away from the boiler system for the boiler to keep it anything near warm, and that heat pump in the kitchen doesn't actually work when it's this cold; most days it's been in the 40's in the kitchen, and I can't face cooking when it's that cold.

For some strange reason, the heat pump just outside the back porch seems to be working pretty well, so the back porch (which in some ways acts as a sun room, at least when there's sun, which has been rare lately) has actually been more or less warm...and the den we've kept warm by keeping the wood burning stove in there going. It's ALMOST 68 degrees....whee!!

All the pipes in the cabin are frozen, as we didn't get the below-floor heater out there turned on before the deep freeze set in. I decided that the best strategy is to just wait it out and hope nothing bursts.

The pantry (the room with the pantry, washer and dryer, etc...) has been in the 30's for awhile. I am making duck prosciutto, and it's hanging in there, and NOT curing at a rapid rate, I might add.

Normally I really like cold weather, but all my joints hurt, and it's too cold to cook in the kitchen, so I'm not cooking, and I gotta admit, I'm ready for it to break. Cold and snow is good, but this is a bit over the top.

So there...

Cheers, Lillie

various problems

So I managed to FINALLY send out my Christmas letter (didn't send one last year, what with surgeries and all sorts of problems), today, I had had the sense to at least re-name it something like holiday season 2009-2010. But then after I had everything addressed, sealed and stamped, I realized I had made a big mistake in the letter. The url for one of my blogs is seriously wrong. PIA...

It's so cold here; we're in a serious deep-freeze. Hasn't been above freezing for awhile, and it's not going to be again for a good week. Pipes are frozen in Martin's cabin. I now have a thermometer in the pantry (next to the kitchen) as I am curing duck breast prosciutto in there. It is 33 degrees Fahrenheit in there. The heat pump in the kitchen (it's so far from the boiler pipes that heat from the boiler does no good in the kitchen anyway...) doesn't work most of the time when it's this cold outside, so most of the time it's about 45 degrees in the kitchen. I won't discuss rooms like the bedrooms. The back porch (lots of glass, a heat pump) is for some reason almost comfortable most of the daylight hours. It's almost WARM in the den, as I have been keeping a fire in the wood burning fireplace insert almost all the time. The frugal streak in me has actually quit worrying about how much trouble I have to go to (and how many starter sticks, etc. to use) to get it going again when it goes out. Fortunately, we seem to have a good supply of wood, as we lose big limbs and/or trees whenever there's a nasty storm.

Some days it's too cold to cook in the kitchen, but fortunately we don't seem to have any frozen pipes in the house (thanks to all the cellars...). It's supposed to be nasty cold for at least another week. We might as well be in Michigan...

So there...

Cheers, Lillie

exploring eastern Kentucky

So we're a whole lot closer to the stereotypical eastern Kentucky than I thought. I realize that US 68 (the highway we're on) goes basically east/northeast. I was feeling housebound this afternoon and decided to go in search of another covered bridge, one in Fleming County. We're in Bourbon County; the next one up is Nicholas County; and Fleming County is just past that one. Soooo, I went to Carlisle (maybe 10 miles up the road) and got on US 32 toward Flemingsburg. I was INSTANTLY in Appalachia...narrow roads, steep ravines, decrepit barns, trailer houses with junk piled all over the place outside, old cars rusted out, lots of tiny churches (none Catholic, few mainstream Protestant, rather think Holiness, 4-5-6 hour services with one lay preacher after another, snake handling...). I FINALLY got to Flemingsburg, which is a cute little town with actual schools and a hospital, etc. This had taken forever, and I never did make it to the covered bridge I was looking for. Instead, I headed back, and too the first road I found that would dump me out on US 68, an actual highway...

Happy New Year, everyone...

New Year 2010

So there is disagreement about whether the decade ended last night at midnight (whenever that was) or whether it doesn't end until midnight December 31, 2010; I'm hoping it ended last night, and that saying good riddance to a rotten decade (one that seemed to last at least 25 years...) is appropriate. On top of the obvious (9/11, Dubya, the elusive Papa Cheney, wars, market crashes....), there were the deaths (Daddy, Frank, Sidney, among others...), rotten treatment at jobs (me, Martin)... There were good things, too (weddings, most notably Sarah and Aaron's, and Aaron seems to be willing to put up with me, no mean feat...). Overall, though, I'm hoping 2010 will be GOOD...

Having said all that, we did the usual New Year's Eve celebration: the Curtz's came over for dinner. Unlike some years ago (say, about ten), we did NOT toast in the new year in Kentucky. Rather we started with France (at 6:00 p.m.), England (7:00 p.m.), Iceland maybe next...and gave up before we got out of the Atlantic, e.g., before 10:00 p.m.

I did better with the meal this time. Almost everything was actually ready before they got here. Champagne with gravlax (cured salmon) I'd made. The veal scaloppini (can't spell it) dish I made up with white wine, shallot and bleu d'Auvergne sauce, new potatoes and broccoli. Cheese--Roquefort, Brie and Gouda--and a VERY English two desserts: pears poached in red wine and Canneles. Was disgustingly pleased with myself for getting so much done ahead of time.

A New Year resolution (in addition to my plan to become a charcutiere...more on that in a bit): will use, e.g., USE, the silver we have. It's sitting there in drawers all the time. My mother's set of sterling probably didn't get used more than 20 times in her lifetime, if that many. Mary Ann did get hers out at Christmas, but she'd set the table about a week before Christmas and you couldn't eat there (a bit of a problem at 6416 Curzon, as they had only one table for eating) until Christmas Day, and I don't think she used any of it any other time. I do use the stuff more than that, and it is a bit of a pain to clean, but I've made a resolution to get the stuff out and use it...so there...the serving dishes, too.

My other resolution is to become a decent charcutiere; I got this book on Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian somebody, maybe Polyan. Ruhlman is a prolific food writer and Brian is a chef. So far I'm working on fennel cured salmon and duck breast prosciutto. Bacon and things are next (sorry, Aaron, I won't try to feed it to you...). Eventually I am going to have to come up with some way to smoke stuff, but I plan to postpone that at least until the weather is a bit better. Right now it's January 1, wretchedly cold outside (and inside, too, in some parts of the house), and unlikely to improve greatly for quite awhile.

Am also coming down with an acute case of wanderlust. Be warned, Phil Crowley...

Happy New Year; Bonne Annee...

Lillie