One year we are going to Punxsutawny just to get in on the action. But until then I watch the Punxsutawney Phil ceremony video stream on the internet. It is all just so goofy.
The seer of seers, the prognosticator of prognosticators said six more weeks of winter! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Does that mean the polar vortex is coming back?
Vietnamese food is very popular in D.C. I had never had pho, which is a noodle soup dish. Matt took me to Pho Nom Nom to give it a try. It was good. Really, it was. But I don’t think pho is great. It is not something I would go out of my way for. I much prefer the Sapporo noodles at Ren’s Ramen or the northern Chinese noodle soups at A&J’s Restaurant. Just my opinion.
January has come and gone. In the middle of the month Matt had surgery to address the continuing issues with his foot so we have been a little absorbed in that process. But here are some highlights:
Geeze, it’s cold out there. We complain that we never get winter here any more but this year, we are getting way more than we want. Snow and the polar vortex have made January interesting and miserable. It convinced me that I would never live in a place where it got very cold and stayed cold for months. No to International Falls, no to Alaska, no to the Arctic. I suppose if there was snow all the time and groomed cross-country ski trails, it might help (I’m talking about you Vermont) but even so, when it is below zero, I don’t think even cross-country skiing would get me outside. There is a point at which it is just miserable.
We have had a series of snow storms and that has been consistent for weeks. On January 3, we got five inches and I went out into the yard with my skis for a go around. By January 7th, the temperature had dropped to single digits and the back door window actually frosted over.
On January 15, Matt had surgery to cut a nerve to his great toe, doctor speak for big toe. His saga is incredible. Three years ago, Matt jammed his toe into the sand while boogie boarding at the beach. He has been in pain to the point of being unable to walk normally for almost three years now and no one can figure out why. Five doctors later, we came to the conclusion that the last best option was to just stop the pain completely and cut the nerve to the area. It helped a lot but not completely. There may be more surgery ahead.
With Matt on the DL, I get to shovel snow. I don’t mind since it is good exercise but I have been doing a lot of it and this time it was cold in the extreme, single digits again, with a wind chill of freaking cold! So Matt kindly paid some guys to shovel the driveway after the last storm which dumped another five inches. I fed the birds instead.
There have been animal tracks all over the yard. Rabbits, of course, and squirrels but most interestingly, something canine. We think it was a coyote. I went out and took a look. It came over the fence, went straight for the rabbit hole, dug into it and there was nothing left but a few pieces of fur on the ground. Then it walked away and hopped over the fence. It came back again a few days later and checked under the shed, which is where I think the rabbits hide, but I saw no sign of dead rabbits this time. I took pictures of the tracks but by then the snow had blown enough that they were not clear. Matt has seen a coyote and that is the only animal that would jump a six-foot fence and kill a rabbit. We don’t think a fox could make the leap. Perhaps it could be these were not fox tracks and they sure were not dog tracks. We plan on getting a motion sensor camera to see what goes on out there at night.
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I have always loved “Gone with the Wind.” I am not sure why. I have seen it dozens of times. I keep it on hand in case I need to watch some mindless drama. Mostly, I love watching Vivian Leigh. She was radiant in that movie. She progresses from the young love struck and willful girl with flashing green eyes to a sad and lonely mother who has lost her child. Her eyes are dead in the last scenes.
In between she secretly drinks, pouts, survives, and acts horribly to everyone she loves. It is easy to see her as selfish. But I have always thought of her as a survivor. She did what she had to do. Some of her actions were spiteful. But more often than not, she did what she thought was necessary to save her land and her family’s heritage, even if in the end it meant marrying that awful Rhett.
That is what makes it so hard to hate her. She is not completely evil. There is some moral underpinning to her actions. She even takes care of Ashley and Melanie in her own strong way. She can pick cotton if she has to. She can marry a fool and run a business too, and at the same time give Ashley something to do. When I watch the story, I am like Rhett. Why on earth does she fawn over that weakling Ashley Wilkes? She is so much better than he is. But then, that may be why she fawns. She wants him to accept her and give her some legitimacy. If he loves her, she is not the selfish, self-centered woman everyone says she is. She is worthy. But in retrospect the only person who gives her legitimacy is Melanie because she sees something there. She understands that Scarlett has to do what she does.
Oh, I could go on. What got me started on this was that I opened my Bradford Exchange plates commemorating Scarlett’s costumes. I bought them almost 20 years ago. I did not buy the whole set because after two plates I decided it was lame. I just checked on Ebay, and they are actually worth something. I put them on the wall in my closet. Then I got on-line and bought a few more to add to my set.
We have now come to the end of the season of excess. From Thanksgiving to Christmas we eat too much, we drink too much, we party to excess, we visit, we laugh, we argue, we get in touch with our families for better or worse. We try to be good during the season, we try to be better people. Our lives are magnified during these weeks–we want to be good and live large.
Then comes the new year and the Bacchanalia, the excess that we lived in food and drink and merriment, comes to an end. At least some of us look and say that was fun, but why did I engage in all that excess? Why did I do that?
Our celebrations are not new. They are tied to ancient Rome and the Saturnalia celebrations which occurred around the winter solstice During Saturnalia, there were public banquets and gift giving. Slaves were permitted to be more lax around their masters and they were even treated to feasts. Indeed, the winter solstice has been a source of celebration for many civilizations. This need to engage in some kind of seasonal celebration seems to be part of the human condition.
Recently, I read an excerpt from Frederick Douglass’ memoir about how slave owners treated slaves over the holidays. In sum, slaves were given a vacation for the six days between Christmas and New Years. But there was a catch. Most slave owners encouraged their slaves to drink to excess over the holidays. Douglass theorized that this was a way to quell rebellion. The slave, exhausted from having lived in excess for days, was glad, even grateful, to get back to work.
As I pondered the season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I wondered if perhaps we too needed this time of excess to fuller appreciate our routine lives. Maybe we need a period of living beyond our normal selves. Then, the new year comes and we look back with enough awareness to think about how we might do better this time. Or maybe we look back and say, I sure am glad to get back to my life. We have a little more appreciation of our normal day.
In retail, January is for white sales and selling organization. They tell us, it is time to get our lives in order. After all that excess, we are perhaps more willing to admit that yes, we could use a little more order around here. Yes, we could use a bit more discipline. It might not last long. But it points us in the right direction and it is a little harder to feel like you need a break, because you just had weeks of celebration.
So grab this post-Bacchanalia haze to do something positive. Before you know it the February doldrums will be here.
Be more like the Pope, more tolerant and less judgmental.
Be more like a dog, happy for every moment, every day the best day.
I needed a break. So a few days after Christmas, we drove to North Carolina to spend a few days contemplating the ocean, resting, and not doing anything in particular. We did just that.
The trip down took 10 hours because I-95 is nothing less than Satan’s punishment. A miserable black hole where your life gets sucked into interminable traffic jams for no apparent reason except that there are too many cars and not enough lanes. it took us 3.5 hours to get to Fredericksburg, a drive that should have taken maybe 1.5 hours.
We were well behind schedule so we had to stop in Wilmington for dinner. I got on the phone and started looking up barbecue joints and found raves about Jackson’s Big Oak Barbecue, home of the authentic Eastern Carolina style barbecue. Their motto? “We ain’t fancy but we sure are good.” Amen, brother. Carolina style barbecue sauce is our favorite. What does that mean? It means a thin, vinegar based sauce with lots of spices. It is nothing like the ketchup thick, tomato, sugar sweet stuff they use in Memphis and beyond. Rather than a thick consistency, Carolina BBQ sauce is thin and it permeates the meat as it cooks giving it a flavor that makes you pucker. Well, we went right for it and had pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw on top. The coleslaw had a mustard based dressing that just set off the BBQ sauce. On the side, we had hush puppies and collard greens. Lord, you should not eat this stuff every day but for a treat, there is nothing better than a hush puppy done right. Matt was so enthusiastic he then ordered ribs to see if they would be as good. Well, the sauce has been thickened and that kind of killed it for us. I got the banana pudding for dessert, made fresh every day. That was a fortuitous stop and I am pretty certain we will see them again.
By the time we pulled in and got unpacked it was late and we were exhausted. I slept ten hours the first night. The next few days we did not do much of anything except rent movies from the Redbox and look at the ocean. I cooked some dinners, one day we had stuffed cabbage, one day we had buffalo half-smokes with a black-eyed peas salad.
We watched “The Conjuring,” which I did not think was all that scary. We watched “Stories We Tell,” a documentary about family perceptions and hidden lives. We tried to watch “Anchorman.” I must confess, I did not find it funny and we turned it off after about 20 minutes. I knew I would not like it but so many people told me to watch it. Yeah, I’m not a big fan of Will Ferrell. Sorry. We watched “Admissions” with Paul Rudd because we love Paul Rudd who I do find very funny and charming.
On New Year’s Eve, we did the things we like to do. I cooked a dinner of lobster sautéed in butter and olive oil served over a black truffle pasta with roasted asparagus and a salad with baked goat cheese. Add to that a little champagne and caviar and viola, great New Year’s Eve dinner. We watched the movie “Up,” because we love Mr. Frederick, Russell, Doug and Kevin. This movie makes me laugh and weep and sigh. It is truly one of my all time favorites. If I am sad, I watch it. If I want to laugh and be happy I watch it. The sky was kind of clear and using my ipad, and my 3-D star map we looked at the constellations and the stars.
New Year’s Day, January 1, 2014.
We woke to a cloudy, cold New Year’s Day. I was determined to go into the ocean. It was in the mid-40’s outside and the water was just COLD! I donned my bathing suit and flip flops. Matt put on his swim trunks and we walked to face the water. The wind was blowing and it was really cold. But I took off my sweat shirt and pants and made a dash for it. Matt cannot run so he took pictures while went in. It was not a polar bear plunge. It was more of a run in and out as fast as I could because yikes! it was cold and my feet and legs went numb. Then it was Matt’s turn. He can’t run so he walked in and splashed with water. YAYYYY!!!!!!!!!
Okay that woke us both up. Now it was time for breakfast. We love eggs benedict. I made it with smoked salmon and lemony hollandaise. It was yummy.
We had been watching a weather front coming so we decided to pack it up and drive home a day early. We managed to get home in 7.5 hours, which is how fast you can travel the distance without any traffic.
Matt and I agreed not to exchange presents this year because we bought a new television. And then he bought me little things anyway. It was nice of him but it brought back memories of my mother and how she slowly changed Christmas over the years.
When we were kids she bought lots of presents and we decorated the house with fake holy, a tree, lots of lights and Christmas cards from family and friends taped to the pantry door. As we got older, she seemed to lose interest. By the time I was in high school, and she was about the age I am now, she really stopped caring. If we were going to decorate and have a tree I had to make it happen because I was the only one still living at home. My dad not really participate at all so he was no help.
As for presents, she would hand me money and say go buy gifts and make sure you get something for yourself. I went shopping and then wrapped all the gifts, including my own. Hey, why not? She insisted she really had everything she needed and she did not want presents. We bought them for her anyway, usually clothes we thought she needed and maybe a knick knack. She tried to be excited but more than anything she just fussed about how nothing fit and she didn’t need that new blouse or sweater anyway. What she had was fine.
As I was facing Christmas this year, I began to think that I might be arriving where my mother was. First, like my mom, I have come to the point that I just don’t need anything. One hundred and fourteen catalogs arrived in my mailbox in one week, selling all sorts of trinkets and googaws. As I leafed through them, all I could think was–have it, have it, have it, don’t need it, don’t need it, don’t need it. There is no longer the allure of objects, or jewelry, or anything else they are selling. If I am interested in something, usually having to do with cooking I just buy it for myself.(I bought cheesemaking kits this year.)
Then there are the traditions of Christmas. There was an article in the paper recently written by some young mother who confessed that she and her friends were killing themselves trying to be everything at Christmas–baking cookies, decorating, buying presents, sending cards and trying to keep up generations of traditions. They felt that if they did not do all of those things, somehow their kids would suffer and where were the spouses? I just thought, man, you need to relax! Stick to the priorities. Figure out what is worth doing and forget the rest. All that stuff does not bring true meaning to Christmas anymore than a giant diamond wedding ring ensures a good marriage.
I think that I have sorted through everything that is important to me and have concluded that I like the tree and outdoor lights. That is really what matters to me. So I have reduced my decorating inside to putting up a tree. I have an entire collections of Santas and snow men that I used to display. Now I don’t take the trouble. It just disrupts my house, it takes time to put them up and take them down and in the end, what difference does it make? Does it make Christmas any more special? Honestly, I don’t think so. I think that for my mom, it was not the decorating that was important, or even the gifts. She wanted us to be at home making noise and laughing. That was what mattered to her. The rest was just piffle.
Is it nice to give presents? Of course. And really, isn’t giving so much better than getting? That sure is how I feel. But somehow Matt and I carry on without exchanging gifts. Some years we do buy presents for each other, it depends on how we feel. When I am inspired I might buy presents for my family, or even strangers through organizations that set up gift giving for those in need. I have no set plan. Mostly, I prefer that we just enjoy each other with some good food, some good wine and lots and lots of talking and laughing with people we love.
Christmas celebrations and packing up for the beach. On Christmas Eve we had oysters cooked in a champagne sauce and then went to Janice’s for her annual Christmas Eve party where we laughed our fool heads off.
On Christmas day,Matt’s mom Barbara and her friend Mary over for dinner. I cooked lamb shanks with oranges and olives that I served over spinach fettuccine tossed with pesto. Afterward, we visited Matt’s aunt and her family.
On Friday we packed up for a trip to the beach in North Carolina.
I spent the week getting things done. I have been writing recipes for Manna, the local food bank. I have also been creating recipes for myself. This week I worked up a curried cauliflower dish which will follow in another blog post. We also had crepes with cheese and vegetables, and stuffed squid with an apple curry sauce (from Cucina Italiana). We spent December 21 at a party eating authentic Bolivian food, which was fantastic by the way. On Dec 22 we had dinner at Matt’s dad’s.
I read an article about chocolate helping to ward off cardiovascular disease. Chocolate has been found to lower the risk of heart attack or stroke by relaxing your blood vessels, i.e., lowers blood pressure. The recommendation was to add a tablespoon of unsweetened chocolate (not dutch processed) to your coffee everyday. So I started doing that. Hey, why not a little chocolate everyday?
I also drink a small glass of beet juice twice a week. That is all I can stand because I hate beets. I hold my nose and gulp it down followed by something, anything sweet. There have been several studies that show beet juice increases oxygen uptake and also lowers blood pressure. This was all the rage at the last Olympics. They have also tested this on cyclists. So I gulp down the terrible stuff. (For me, beets taste like dirt. I just cannot get past that taste.)
Then I add kale to my breakfast shakes because aside from being a superfood, it helps with blood vessel function. I bruise easily and it is supposed to assist with blood clotting. (If you are prone to clotting problems, for heaven’s sakes, stay away from kale!)
All these home food remedies may have worked. When I swim I usually spend 15 laps just warming up and getting my lungs working so that I am not sucking for air. This week, I swam like a fish. I had no problem with breathing or fatigue. Or maybe it was just in my head and I was having a good day. It is hard to say. But if I have a choice between pharmaceuticals or supplements and foods, I’ll take the food. There is no harm in them. Except for those nasty beets. Yuck! (And no, family, I never ate my mom’s pickled beets.)
There are three sports that I wish I could watch regularly but are not on American television–curling, rugby and sumo wrestling. ESPN used to have a half hour Japanese sumo wrestling show, which we watched regularly. But that has long since been taken off the air. So I sit around wishing and hoping. I joined the email list of U.S. Sumo and every year they have a tournament and every year I can’t go. Well, a few days ago, I got an email that said they were coming to D.C.
I shouted to Matt who was in the other room, “We have to go and see sumo!!!”
“What?”
“SUMO!!!!”
So I bought the tickets to the Living Social event. We started off at Ren’s Ramen in Wheaton for their delicious Sapporo-style noodles. This small restaurant seats maybe 30 people. It is always packed but we got there just in time to grab the last table. It was miserable out and that comforting bowl of noodles and broth and veggies and meats was exactly what we needed. I also tried the amakaze, a hot fermented rice drink, non-alcoholic. It tasted like warm liquid rice pudding. I had two.
Now we were fully prepared for the sumo demonstration and sake tasting event. The two sumo wrestlers were Kelly, a 435 pound American and five time American champion and Byamba, a 365 pound Mongolian and three time world champion. He had spent time on the sumo circuit in Japan and was on his way to superstardom but at 20 years old decided to move on.
In my humble estimation, Byamba was awesome. He was far smaller and he won every match, even twice picking Kelly up and throwing him out of the ring. He was simply magnificent. You could see why he is a world champion. He did not want to lose. If you know nothing about sumo, I don’t think I can explain it here. But it is not just two fat guys pushing each other. Think of it as two bull elephants trying to push each other off balance and out of the ring. There are techniques for forcing your opponent off balance, and for bringing them down. They expend a tremendous amount of power. Sweat was streaming off them as they tried mightily to move the other colossus. The host explained that usually the sumo wrestler will have one match a day and it might last a few seconds. These guys were doing three demos a day with five matches at each demo. That is a lot of effort. Then they entertained us by pretending to wrestle with some audience members. And Byamba still did not want to lose. He tossed every guy that tried to move him. He finally let a woman beat him. And look at him. The face of an angel.
Here are some photos of the action:
This was one miserable day. It snowed, then sleet and freezing rain fell. Unfortunately, I had planned to put up the Christmas lights. Matt is still not agile enough on his feet to venture out into the snow and ice so we could not do our usual over the top lights this year which requires a ladder and lots of time and energy.
I decided I would put up whatever I could in two hours and that would be it. i could cover a couple of bushes, maybe get something hung around the door. When I started it was snowing. Then the ice started falling. So I had to stop to shovel the sidewalks and get some ice melt out. Matt helped with decorating the door and we finally got it together. I was soaked and frozen by the end. But no matter because we were on our way for Japanese Sapporo-style noodles and a sumo demonstration.
It snowed again. My exercise today was shoveling the driveway.
For dinner we had tuna stuffed piquillo peppers and lentils with spinach.
After the noodles, we went to the 9:30 Club to see Matisyahu on his annual Hanukkah tour. It was not his best show. In fact, he seemed kind of distracted. Oh well. I guess I have seen worse.
THE FEISTY BLOG 