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New Year’s Foods For Good Luck
December 30, 2016
— 1 Comment
Glückschwien
The tradition of eating black eyed peas on New Year’s Day is common in the south. Strict traditionalists eat collard greens and pork with the peas (in a dish known as Hoppin’ John)to symbolize wealth, folding money and coins. The use of black eyed peas in a ceremonial meal to assure good fortune and fertility dates back to Sephardic Jews who have eaten them at Rosh Hashanah for centuries. The Sephardic tribes believe that eating symbolic foods like pomegranate, squash, and dates on the new year will usher in good fortune and abundance for the year. The black eyed pea has been cultivated for over 5,000 years. They arrived in America with African slaves and were grown in the new world as food for slaves and animals. Eventually they made it onto the master’s table.
Some say that the symbolic meal eaten on New Year’s Day is the one eaten by emancipated slaves on January 1, 1863. There are many variations on the proper way to serve and eat this fortune enhancing meal. Some say that the peas eaten without pork and greens will backfire and ruin your year. I hope this is not true because I am a nice vegetarian girl who will always skip the pig part. There are other cultures where pigs are symbols good luck and abundance. In Germany a traditional gift of a Glückschwein or marzipan pig is gifted and eaten on the new year to keep the money flowing. Some say this is because a pig roots forward. Some folks think the eating chicken or lobster on New Year’s Day will bring ill fortune due to the fact that these animals scratch or feed going backwards. Why take a chance? If you really feel like lobster or chicken you can wait for January 2nd. Lobsters aren’r kosher anyhow.
There are a few specific beliefs which may take the superstition too far:
- You cook them with a new dime or penny, or add it to the pot before serving. The person who receives the coin in their portion will be extra lucky.
- You need to eat exactly 365 peas on New Year’s day. If you eat any less, you’ll only be lucky for that many days. I guess on leap years, you need to eat an extra one. If you eat any more than 365 peas, it turns those extra days into bad luck.
- Some say you should leave one pea on your plate, to share your luck with someone else (more of the humbleness that peas seems to represent).
- Others believe if you don’t eat every pea on your plate, your luck will be bad.
I don’t eat the greens or count the beans, but I do like to make Texas caviar for the occasion. My mother was from Texas and this was the dish she used to make. I think she put bacon in it. It is served cold, and does go well with cornbread, another good luck food. Cornbread represents gold. You can choose the tradition that suits your tastebuds and your beliefs. Just skip the chicken and lobster for a day, gentle readers. You never know..
Texas Caviar
Listen To Mikhail Baryshnikov
December 26, 2016
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Bryshnikov speaks
I was at the Metropolitan Opera on the 4th of July, 1986, the day after Misha became an American citizen. He danced in the ballet Giselle, and leapt into the air with what appeared to be the greatest of ease, but was the result of a lifetime of training. He was young and stunningly talented. American Ballet Theater gave the people an outstanding show, starring the rock star, movie star, ballet star who came to us as a gift from Russia “with love”. The crowd went wild and threw hundreds of roses while giving a standing ovation after the performance. The audience showed how deeply his presence, and now his citizenship, was appreciated in New York. It was an exquisite moment in history to witness. He made his stage debut at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1967, featuring in a production of Giselle. He was born in Riga, present day Latvia. He was trained in ballet in Riga and St. Petersburg in his youth. He defected from the Soviet Union in 1974 after a performance of the Kirov Ballet in Toronto. He moved to New York and became the director of American Ballet Theater.
I was also lucky enough to see him on stage in Paris in the 1990’s when he was dancing to his own choreography in the White Oak Project. His leaping had been somewhat subdued, but he chose younger dancers for his company who could still hit the very high leaps. His own style had only mellowed and perfected itself then dancing his own creations. He has performed around the world with many different troupes. His talents and achievements are legendary. His training by and defection from the former Soviet Union made his gift even sweeter. Now his birth land of Latvia is voting to confer Latvian citizenship on their famous son. He has applied for it and the parliament is scheduled to take it under consideration. It would be ironic and odd if he were to need to defect to Latvia once his dual citizenship has been conferred.
Last week it was Prince Charles of the British monarchy warning us that he feels a 1930’s vibe. Now Misha tells us he is feeling a cold war. We should take heed, gentle readers. Experience and history are talking to us.
Say It In Latin: A Posteriori And A Priori
December 22, 2016
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The Latin phrase a posteriori refers to the process of inductive reasoning. It means “from what comes after” or a proposition based on experience. A close relative, also used in philosophical arguments, is a priori, which is knowledge based on previous understanding of the concept. It means literally from what comes before. A priori can be a mathematical equation, or any other agreed upon fact deriving from the agreement. It would be correct to call the statement “It is cloudy outside.” a posteriori because I looked outside and can see the fact that it is cloudy now. The statement, “Cumulous clouds are the harbinger of rain.” is an assumption based on scientific agreement, and therefore is a priori. We agree on the definition of cumulous clouds without the need to experience them directly. “That bow is red” is another a priori belief. We all have agreed on what red is (except the colorblind).
A posteriori is based on empirical evidence, direct contact with the facts. A priori is based on logic previously accepted as sound. On the surface it might seem that a posteriori is the only valid way to defend a position. I have learned from my studies of ancestry and history that both methods can fail miserably. My grandmother thought she knew her birth year, but there was no certificate. Later in life she forgot, and then nobody really knew, or bothered to look it up because it did not matter. She had no way to remember her own birth, so her a priori birthday was a year off the real date. Many “facts” in records from the past have been recorded incorrectly. Census records that list step mothers as natural parents, step children as children, and other errors can throw a wrench in the works for investigators trying to follow a lineage.
Be careful, gentle reader. Logic and truth are tricky subjects. Check your logic, and double-check your data before you make any big conclusions. Caveat emptor.
red
Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2017 Is Greenery — TIME
December 8, 2016
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The Pantone Color Institute has spoken: at a time when it seems everybody is in need of some hope, the bright “greenery” should help provide some as the 2017 Color of the Year. The idolized color authority announced its choice of the shade Pantone 15-0343 (generally called “greenery”) on Thursday. Pantone chooses a color each…
via Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2017 Is Greenery — TIME This is the green that will lead 2017. Greenery will sprout in the spring of the year, bringing brightness, merriment and cheer. Despair not, lose the fear. Pantone Color Institute is here to perk up our year.
Carved Copal Art By The Cruz Family of Oaxaca
December 7, 2016
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I had the pleasure of meeting Agustín Cruz Prudencia and his nephew Jesus at the Tucson Botanical Gardens yesterday. The copal wood carvings they brought to Tucson for sale are lively and brightly colored. I fell in love with the figures instantly. I am officially on restriction from buying any art, but I could not pass up the chance to own a piece of their stunning work. I was in a pinch for time, but made a choice to buy the frog that is happily decorating my living room now. It goes with all the art in my house, and yet has a unique quality that makes it stand out. It will be a prized momento from my encounter with these incredible craftsmen.
They are Zapotec from a tribe that lived, and still lives in a remote part of the state of Oaxaca. Agustín’s father moved his family to the capitol city of Oaxaca in order to make a living by selling his art. They now have a workshop that employs about 15 family members carving and painting the folkloric figures. The super fine painting is done without stencil or straight edge. They develop the ability to create super intricate geometric patterns by eye, by hand. The apprenticeship to learn this craft takes a long time. It is easy to appreciate all the fine work that goes into each piece. With both delicate carving and intricate paint designs these little characters pop with personal style.
They are going home for Christmas to be with their family. They will be celebrating with banana leaf tamales and other special seasonal dishes. They are very proud of their culture and cuisine, and rightly so. Both of my new young friends had spoken their native mother tongue as children, but have lost the ability to speak it after years in the city. They suffer from heavy discrimination against indigenous tribes in the city, so speaking it is dangerous. They still understand their mother tongue when they hear it. Their elders dressed in traditional clothing, and those members of the tribe in remote mountains still do. Modern Zapotec life as an artist is complicated, and includes borders and customs. I am glad they made the effort to bring this unique folk art to Tucson. I hope the sale works out very well for them so they will return. If you are in Tucson this weekend you can make a purchase at the United Nations Association of Southern AZ on 10 and 11 December. They have gifts in all price ranges for all art lovers.
Copal carvings
Oaxacan folk art
Oaxacan folk art
Oaxacan folk art
Copal carvings
Copal carvings
Copal carvings
Copal carvings
Copal carvings
Copal carvings
Cruz family carvers
folk art from Oaxaca
Copal carvings
my new frog
my new frog
Alcohol Advent Calendars
December 1, 2016
the ginvent calendar
I am impressed with the creativity and packaging of these specialty advent calendars by Drinks by the Dram. They are partnering with Masters of Malt to bring customers a unique way to celebrate the season. They are offering 24 different drams of spirits to cheer up the recipient who opens each day with anticipation. Alternately they sell Christmas crackers, a British thing, also filled with spirits. The crackers include a bad joke and a party hat, all that any reveler needs to crank up a holiday fiesta at the office or anywhere.
The chance to taste test exotic and rare spirits is a very festive idea. I like gin because of all the variance in the botanicals used. Each gin has a particular blend of herbs that creates that flavor profile. I have tried a few expensive gins, and have thought the extra cost was worth it. I think it would be fun to be guided like this for 24 days to try 24 new kinds of gin. We don’t have a traditional gift exchange around here because we are trying to go minimalistic with little success. I am tempted to buy it for myself. Which spirit would you choose, gentle reader? The most expensive collection is $156.57 worth of fancy whiskey. They also offer the customer a chance to build you own calendar by combining spirits. This is a special way to make the season bright with delight. Cheers!!!
the armagnac advent calendar
Twenty-First Century Schmutzli
November 30, 2016
— 5 Comments
Krampus
I am a big fan of both Schmutzli and his Austrian cousin, Krampus. These characters are Christmas symbols that teach children the value of obedience to parents. They appear on 6 December, St Nicholas Day, to deliver small gifts like oranges and nuts. They also scare the devil out of all the kids by giving each one an accurate description of their discipline problems. The list of behavior to correct is provided by the parents ahead of time. In the past the home visit might include placing the child in a bag to kidnap him for infractions on the list. My Swiss friends had this happen in their youth, and reported that it was truly scary. Santa gets drunk as he travels from home to home because he is offered some spirits along the way. One of my friends was at the end of the route in her small village. She said Santa was always drunk by the time he came to her house, and she was always afraid of him.
How does this differ from our department store Santa that asks kids what they want? Well, first of all, they only ask the parents what they want out of the situation. The threat of Schmutzli’s terror is intended to root out all that bad behavior before 25 December. On Christmas Eve the baby Jesus is supposed to fly through the child’s window and leave gifts. Baby Jesus gets through all the windows just like our Santa gets down all the chimneys, no questions asked. Kids who reform themselves in those 24 days they have to redeem themselves will be rewarded by Jesus.
I think it is a practical system. Now that Schmutzli has been calmed down for modern times, he just represents winter. In Austria I don’t think Krampus will ever be diluted. He is more adored than St Nick. He is still a horned pagan kind of archetype. He jumps out at you on the street in Vienna to scare you just for fun. Have you met either one of these guys?
Krampus
There’s A Natural Mystic
November 29, 2016
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Things are not the way they used to be. I wonder what Bob Marley thinks about the recent elections legalizing recreational weed in many states. Bob died young, and it must be noted he died from lung cancer. He may have used too much. Peter Tosh did some serious lobbying for legalization in the states before he passed his last spleef. He and some of his friends were shot at home by an associate who was a house guest. Something went terribly wrong there, for sure. Bunny Wailer and Beverly Kelso are the only living members who survive from the band. The three young musicians, Bob, Peter, and Bunny took their stage names and formed a ska band that evolved into the pioneer sound in reggae. Jamaica was a rough place to grow up, and they were well acquainted with persecution. They were believers in ganja as a religious sacrament. They believed everyone has a right to grow and smoke it regardless of the local laws.
Arizona has legal medical, but in the last election rejected recreational use by a slim margin. With our long border and popular pathways for smugglers I think our state actually supports the Sinaloa cartel by keeping the black market open for their crappy product. They are not nice people, and I do not like my state to enable their business activities. I believe we need to grow our own and shut them out of the weed market in the United States. In that respect I am all about patrolling the borders to close the loopholes and corruption that keeps the flow of Mexican dirt weed running. If they focused on keeping the dirt weed out at the border, they would, as a side effect, keep the most undesirable of all persons out, the sellers of that drek.
I think it is a business and taxation decision that will soon convince the whole country to legalize cannabis. I am surprised it has taken this long to come to this point. I doubt that the Wailers are proud of our progress toward equal rights and justice. We know how that war on drugs has damaged our equal rights in America. What we need is a war specifically on Mexican dirt weed rather than on Americans who smoke. The winds of change have arrived. There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air.
Young Wailers
#MeatlessMonday For Everyone
November 28, 2016
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The fad of #MeatlessMonday is a trend I happily embrace. My home is meatless every day, and folks sometimes ask me how to become a vegetarian. I always reply that by slowly converting, finding meatless meals that satisfy and please, anyone can eat less meat. I know that plenty of people view a meal without meat as a sacrifice. This is where the #MeatlessMonday fad shines brightly. The great display of recipes on display every Monday clearly demonstrates how tasty and appealing vegetarian diets can be. #MeatFreeMonday is the UK version. I have been trying vegetarian recipes in my kitchen since 1969, and every week these hashtags yield new ideas for my menu planning. I appreciate the recipes from around the world and the new uses for ingredients I eat frequently. This is my favorite living cookbook, appearing weekly on twitter.
I use Pinterest to store recipes and keep them in order. Although I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian, I have a board that is vegan because we go lightly on the dairy and eggs. Most of the food we eat is vegan, but we still include the dairy and eggs for variety. My partner eats meat when he is outside the home, which does not bother me. His consumption of meat is extremely low, and has no ill effects on my health or happiness. His meat eating situation is between him and the animals he eats. He is happy to take a vegetarian lunch with him to work every day from home. I know sometimes he brags to his work colleagues about how they would never know his chili, or lasagna, or other dish contains no meat, and he makes them try it. His coworkers share the meat dishes in their lunch boxes with him , so I guess it all work out in the end.
What is your favorite vegetarian dish, gentle reader? I could not possibly choose just one.
raw taco salad
Healing Through Hedonism
November 22, 2016
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- vinegar face
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- helpful staff
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- blackberry ginger balsamic
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- perfect gift
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- Alfonso’s
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- lunch
Without further ado I dedicate the rest of 2016 to pure pleasure. If politics is the malady, happiness and personal fellowship is the remedy. The election will not dominate my December. The inauguration and the results will come soon enough for me. What I do best is cook and entertain. The drudgery of politics not only bores me, but usually astounds me with the futility of it all. I have spent some time trying to change the political horizon during my life, but I now look upon all that time as a monumental waste. I could have been just living my life in the most pleasurable way possible at the time. This investment would serve me better than taking time to convince others to participate in political causes. Being happy and free is where it is at.
When I use the word hedonism I mean only fun. I do not mean overindulgence to the point of ruining all the good times. This common mistake has given fun a bad name. Addiction is perhaps the shadow side of hedonism, but it is not pleasurable. Fun is only fun when it is well managed. Well executed pleasurable pursuits provide stimulus to all the senses and a feeling of time well spent. It can be a week in Thailand or a walk around the block. The difference between the ordinary and the hedonistic is attention to detail. Wear what you want, see what you like to see, eat what delights you, linger over what intrigues you without trespassing on the pleasure of others. Travel to your own happy place. This will require that you get to know your own true preferences, which will naturally change over time. Self care for a teen is different than it will be when that person turns 65. We must evolve with our own best interests in mind.
My good friend and neighbor and I have opposing political views. We never need to talk about politics at all. If we do we joke about how crazy people are. We have much in common, including an interest in cooking and cuisines. To celebrate Heidi’s birthday we visited one of my favorite stores in Tucson, Alfonso’s Olive Oil, for a tasting of their vast selection. It was a blast for me to introduce her to this wonderland of flavor and my great pleasure to buy her first bottle to start her own specialty oil and vinegar collection. We tasted all over the store for a long time before she came to a decision. She wisely selected the classic best unflavored dark balsamic vinegar because she can infuse it herself if she wants. The vinegar she chose is exquisite, deep, complex, fruity….everything you want in a vinegar. I was happy to buy the gift, but more happy to introduce her to someplace she did not previously know. Then we had lunch, also very good. The balsamic birthday will go down as a complete success with little effort or expense on anyone’s part. It was all about the discovery.
I suggest you look into your heart and decide what makes you happy. Just do that, gentle reader. Start with that.
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