A Rose By Any Other Name

There's a ton of stuff I want to write about but it's going to have to wait until I have a little time (ha...we'll see) this weekend.

So, I'll leave you with this to chew on:

QB and I had a discussion a few weeks ago about the fact that macaroni and cheese is not a vegetable...but it is a standard daily "vegetable" featured as such on home cooking and soul food menus everywhere (everywhere in these parts, at least). 

So, what do you think?  Is mac and cheese a veggie?! 

(I sorta think it is.  haha)

Mac and Cheese "boutiques" are popping up...it's not a bad idea.  It takes the powder packets in a box to a whole new level.  Read about it here!

4 Cheese Mac N Cheese with roasted garlic & slab bacon

heaven.

 (Found this picture by Plaid Ninja here.) 

Chère printemps...

Dear Springtime, 

you are dearly missed!

I would be more than happy
to trade my mittens for an afternoon on the porch
listening to chatty birds and people traffic,
swap the socks on my cold feet 
that pad across the hardwood floor
for walking barefoot on the cool grass,
or even a t-shirt and sandals
instead of a coat with a scarf wrapped around my neck,
(that's layered over a sweater and heavy pants
that's over a pair of tights to keep my legs warm),
and I'd give you a night bundled up in a blanket
for a bottle of grape Nehi with a red-striped bend-y straw,
flying a kite in the breeze
and
warm sunshine causing a resurgence of freckles
on my nose.


I'm juss sayin'.

Welcome and Unwelcome Guests

Oh jOy!  

 A SnOw dAy!

QB woke me up early on Friday morning, smiling and said, "Look outside."  I opened my bleary eyes and saw the most beautiful sight!  Yay!  Snow! 

 (that was my POV from under the covers)

We were off from work anyway because our plan was to leave for Arkansas that morning.  In the end, we decided it was too risky to travel, especially because the winter storm was covering every inch of our route.

So, we laid there for a while watching the snow accumulate.

Then it was time to bundle up and go for a walk in the snow!  

There was also a dual mission:  breakfast!  

(QB took the one above)

a view of our front yard from inside, above; and from the outside, below.

a view of our street:

As we made our way to the front yard, a little girl came up to QB and said, "Happy Snow Day!!"  She was looking for her dog, who as soon as he heard her voice, came bounding out of the snowy bushes.  She wished us another Happy Snow Day and ran back down the street. 

Snow is a very big damn deal in the South, dammit!

Wow! It was so pretty.

I haven't ever seen it snow like this in a long time and QB says the last time it snowed like this in Jackson was about 1997. I was delighted because usually it doesn't last long and it kept going to beat the band.

We made our way to the corner and down the street.

It was fun to see kids outside laughing and playing, making their snowmen, throwing a few snowballs and parents taking pictures.

 We stopped by Eudora Welty's house just for fun.

 

 

We were halfway to the grocery store when my phone rang and our friend and neighbor Katie asked if we wanted to go on a walk in the snow.  It was such a great idea and I felt bad we hadn't called her, so I let her know we were already out but please come and won't you have breakfast with us, too?  We walked back a little ways to catch up with her and headed on to the grocery store.


We got our provisions and were on our way back when we stopped and talked to a neighbor.  Low and behold, our friend, gorjus was out walking around, too.  He was heading to the grocery store for the very same reason we were, so he got an invite to join us for the snow day breakfast.  We got back to the house and began to get things moving.


gorjus decided to run home quickly and get his yellow stone ground grits - and I made a special request for him and QB to snatch up our friend and g's downstairs neighbor, Andi!   


It was funny to me how we amassed quite a group in a short amount of time.  I imagine if we'd taken another lap through the neighborhood, we would have collected more friends to add to the breakfast table.  I love having impromptu gatherings and what better way to spend a snow day with good friends.  It's so much fun when friends stop by out of the blue to visit - it's a fun surprise!

So, we went to town on breakfast.  Sweet potato pancakes with Delta Cane syrup (of course), Country Pleasin'  Cajun Andouille sausage, sauteed red and orange peppers, garlic cheese grits and sliced strawberries and bananas.  Yum, yum.

(Have to get a gratuitous cheese shot)

We also had coffee and Katie whipped some heavy cream and added some orange liqueur to it.  That was so good!!  Hot Apple cider with whiskey was another tasty beverage option.

Look at our feast!  We had a great time and ate ourselves into a stupor.  

The good, sleepy kind.

 (thank you, gorjus, for the cheese grits demonstration)

It doesn't get any better than that!

Oh!  I almost forgot to mention the UN-welcome guests that have shown up at our house this weekend, too!

For the past couple of weeks, there is a black and white stray cat that has been sitting on the fence outside our bedroom window.  It's safe to say he's a tomcat with all the yodeling and crooning he does.  Lately, there's been another kitty coming around, too, and they've become quite intimate apparently.

There's a hole that they have climbed into at the back of our house

and have proceeded to get quite cozy underneath our floors - holy cow, what a swan song!!  They are so damn loud.  The last thing we want to be is a kit-kat knock-em-up halfway house.  Feral felines!    

Someone stopped us on our snow day walk and asked if we'd seen a black and white neighborhood cat.  Yes, we've, uh, seen him quite frequently in our yard.  She wanted to make sure he was alright in this weather.  Hmmph!  I secretly thought to myself a few hundred evil things I'd like to do to him, what with the Vegas act he's been staging under our house lately!!  

Those cats have got to G-O.

Weekend Road Trip?

Will it be a no or a go?  

Can't tell with these winter weather reports 

and freezing temperatures!

We may not be
going anywhere!

(Brrrrr!)

Just the Two of Us

Over the weekend QB and I made a recipe from our fun new(lywed) cookbook called  Cooking for Two: Perfect Meals for Pairs by Jessica Strand given to us by QB family friends.

Now, suffice it to say that I cannot keep mentioning every single wedding gift we received because they are all fantastic.  Many are lovingly used each day and we think of the people who donated to the cause and thank our lucky stars for your kindness.  The nifty PUR water filter is just one example (you know who you are - ha!).  No name dropping here...

Moving right along.  Lately, my taste buds have clamored for scallops in a fierce sort of way and the front cover of this book has great upsell value.

We took a stab at the seared scallops on a bed of fresh English pea and mint puree.  

We started out with frozen peas 

(I'm not a huge fan of peas in the first place 

because the canned kind have a funky taste to me

and I avoid them like the plague.  

I have now seen the light.)

The peas were cooked for about a minute.

We chopped up the freshest mint we could find at this time of year (...) and stuck it in a blender with garlic and salt & pepper to taste.

 

You guessed it:  it got blended right up. 

Look at the pretty specks of mint!

Now at this point, I realize the sight of the photo above might lose a few people.  Granted, you'll no doubt come up with a few analogies about what this looks like. Nooope, just keep it to yourself.  I get it.

The truth is, it smells - and tastes - really good and fresh. (trust me)

We then got the pan ready for the scallops.  

Instead of using lemon juice, QB wanted lime - it was a good judgment call.  

 There was some remaining flavored olive oil in the pan from sauteing some mushrooms, we threw in a little hot paprika and let that heat up for a minute.

 

Look at it!  Just look at it!

  

Next time we should get fresh scallops.  The ones we got were frozen and just fine, for convenience's sake, but it made me wonder about getting better.

Mine didn't turn out the pretty brown like the picture (whose ever does except show-offs) but it was still delicious!!  The smell in the kitchen was wonderful.  

We served the scallops with sauteed mushrooms and raw red bell peppers - good flavor combo.  The butter from the scallops ran into the pea mixture and that was GOOD.  QB made a note to add more garlic to the pea mixture next time.  I must concur.

A Friday Frame of Mind

A post with a little Friday randomness for you.
 

I'm excited to report that my first article in DeSoto Magazine, "The Age of Canaletto", is out on newsstands in North Mississippi.  You can click HERE and "flip" through the pages to read it - or at some point come over to my house to get one because my Mother might very well pick up 50 copies like she did when there was a feature story on my film!  haha  (She has been instructed to pick a few up, in other words.)  The article is on page 26.

Why have I just now heard of this?!  Better late than never.

This is a really cool site I want to explore and play with at some point.  Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt started this project five years ago:  hitRECord.Org  It might be a great outlet for my finished film - and for others of you who enjoy music and film!  You can get a special JGL tour and see the space they set up at Sundance - oh man.

Next week in NYC, more specifically, at the Museum of New York City, The Division of Tourism, Mississippi Development Authority and Southern Foodways Alliance are partnering to bring a discussion about The Great Migration:  Southern Cooking in New York City.  John T. Edge will be moderating the discussion.  I am very resentful towards the sweetest supervisor in the world because she's going and I'm not!!  :)  Ah well, whaddya gonna do?

  (I honestly can't remember where I found these photos online.  Shame on me.)

Everyone around here is naturally stoked about the Superbowl this weekend.  QB and I are looking forward to the party and the food.  I married a man who could give one about football just like me.  Happiness! 

I'm one of those girls who a. didn't have any brothers b. my dad never watched sports on TV, he was a Discovery Channel/Wild Kingdom sort of guy c. the only football terms I recognize are "touchdown" and fumble" d. the game confuses me.  e. honestly, I may offend people when I say this but I just don't get the big deal.  Yes, I'm from the South.  Yes, I grew up in Mississippi where football is part of one's religious denomination and my church like so many others had a Superbowl party each year (but I never went).

Admittedly though, I'm sorta curious about the Superbowl this weekend.  But that's all you're going to get outta me!

I MUST SEE THIS FILM - 

Anyone who is a female creative might be interested in watching the trailer.

And the cool Trolley Stop Market is coming to Memphis soon -  opening in mid-April and it will be very much like Jackson's Rainbow Co-op with a cafe serving breakfast and lunch. 

I want to live in a place that has trolleys.  They're so much fun.  Sometimes (no, all the time) I really miss Memphis and Trolley nights Downtown...

 Cheers to the weekend! 

memphis, mississippi remix

Over the weekend, I pulled out the script for my short film memphis, mississippi (yes, in lower case).

I previously mentioned that the DeSoto Arts Council awarded me a small grant to help finish my film. God Bless Brian Hicks and the DeSoto County Historical Foundation and Museum for their assistance with the grant!

A HUGE “Thank You!!” goes to them.

It was an exciting moment getting the grant, because I began to think, will this thing EVER be completed?! The answer is YES! If you could only see the grin that I can’t wipe off my face.

Click on the following link to snoop around the film’s MySpace Page, which includes a synopsis, production pictures, blog posts and more pictures. You can also read what I wrote a long while back when we were about to wrap production.  What a time - and oh, how far we've come!

As I was saying, the script was pulled out of my film box, a little yellowed but intact (it's only been since 2007, but I've moved a couple of times since then). It’s going to accompany me as I watch the DVDs of footage, make lists upon lists of the scenes and snippets I want to use for the new and final cut.

When we first shot it, it was a straight-forward narrative and now, in hindsight the dialogue doesn’t hold up so well (as is often the case) and I’d like to infuse it with more Southern Gothic edge and experimental details.

So, once the film is complete, I’ll be donating a finished copy to the museum along with footage of the town of Hernando and DeSoto County and a slew of production pictures that capture the area during a time of transition and growth. There will also be a community premiere, Q&A with cast and crew (only 5 of us), a speaker or two, film workshop(s) and a music showcase (I'm excited about that part).   A date still needs to be set and confirmed for the dedication and event.

So that’s what I’ve got planned or, rather, to plan.

Needless to say, there’s a lot to do!

Imagine Our Surprise!

Our weekends are always the time we enjoy cooking together. One of the best scores from our wedding registry is a terrific waffle maker from our friend, Nate.  

Needless to say, we've been experimenting with waffle recipes over the past few months, which has been a lot of fun - whole wheat, whole wheat with nuts and bananas, regular with fruit - you get the idea.  

Sometimes we eat them without syrup and just top them with fruit and other times we use our favorite syrup, "Delta Cane."  QB picked up this syrup some time ago at our local grocery store chain, McDade's, formerly the Jitney Jungle No. 14, famous for being the place where Eudora Welty bought her groceries.  

The Delta Cane syrup is a good bit thicker than regular syrup, with a consistency akin to molasses.  It also has a bit of a sorghum flavor, too, which is the clincher for me.  

Look at how the sunlight illuminates the syrup bottle.  Can't you just hear the angels sing?  Ha!

We think it hung the moon.  

So, imagine our surprise when we eventually looked at the label to see where it was made (because somehow I just had a feeling it wasn't from these parts):

At least it wasn't made in Milwaukee. 

It always makes me giggle on the inside when we use it!  Then it makes us both crave real sorghum molasses with hot buttered cornbread.  **drool**  I'll be visiting French Camp for work soon and will definitely get sorghum then.  They make it  there the traditional way each October.


I looked at the Griffin Foods website and it looks like they put out some good and interesting products - open since 1908 and still run by the Griffin family.  The "Sizzle Toppers" sound really good - haven't ever seen them around here but I also haven't paid attention.   You can order online, though!  

I'm going to have to try the Bleu Cheese Butter recipe and it suggests you top it with either Peach Pepper or Mandarin Orange Pepper Sizzle Toppers and serve with pork tenderloin.  Can we handle that?!