Category Archives: friends

Louisiana

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Cajun weekendToday I’m kicking off Cajun Week for no other reason Cajun wedding weekendthan this past weekend some friends and I drove a looooonngg way to Cajun country for the wedding of another friend’s daughter — and had such a blast we’d turn around and do it again in a second, despite the seemingly endless marathon of driving on the Natchez Trace. Since I still can hear the zydeco music and taste the andouille sausage, I’m sharing with you all. First, can you guess where we were? This is the view out of our eighth-story casino-hotel window, looking toward the lake for which this town is named — or maybe it’s the other way around. Anyway, the restaurant pictured is a very cool and tasty downtown eatery just around the corner from the breathtakingly beautiful Catholic church where the wedding was held. Sadly, I don’t have any Cajun prizes to give away to the winner, but you’ll have the satisfaction of proving you know your Louisiana geography. And please come back all week — I’ve got upcoming posts on Cajun food, decorating and wedding styles along with all the gambling tips I picked up in my (brief) career as a high-roller. You don’t want to miss it!

History

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Historic reenactmentsThere was drama — literally — in downtown Florence, Alabama, Mountain Tom Clarkthis week as volunteers donned costume and reenacted the infamous story of Mountain Tom Clark. A renegade Civil War deserter, Clark returned to Florence near the end of the war and with a gang of fellow thieves and outlaws pretty much held the town hostage through robbery, murder and general mayhem. After a particularly grisly murder at a nearby plantation, Clark finally was caught. But before he could come to trial, an unruly justice-seeking mob dragged Clark and other gang members from their jail cells and lynched them — and a legend was born as rumors and Local historysecrets swirled. Who exactly was in Clark’s gang? Did prominent business people have any connection to the outlaw? And where were the men who were supposed to guard the jail on the night of the lynching? Hmmm…. will we ever know the truth? More than 140 years later, we’re still fascinated with the story. Local historian and head of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library local history/genealogy department Lee Freeman (in T-shirt above) has spent countless researching the Tom Clark story and trying to separate fact from fiction. This past week the library sponsored a reenactment of Clark’s capture and arrest. Lee wrote the script and costumed volunteers played the roles of key characters in the story, with much of the action reenacted in downtown Florence on the exact spots where the story originally happened. About 30 of us trooped along at twilight, following Clark’s murderous path around town that culminated in a jailbreak so authentic that during one night of the reenactment, concerned citizens called the police to report a violent fight in the middle of the street. And no wonder it was so convincing — many of the Shoals’ best actors were involved, such as my friend Anna Gibson (above) as Mrs. Blair, mother of the city marshall who captured Clark. But Mrs. Blair had another claim to fame and she charmed our group with tales of how she smuggled necessary goods from Nashville, Tennessee, back to Florence during the Civil War. Other actors played Florence merchants, the mayor, a member of Clark’s gang, Clark’s wife and children, the Confederate-veteran marshall who arrested Clark and the outlaw himself. One of the actors was even descended from the character he was playing — I love the South! The reenactment was great fun, and it was wonderful to see all ages there soaking up some local history.

Interior Decor

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Childrens' roomsDid y’all have a great Labor Day weekend? Lots of cookouts and Home decorpicnics and getting together? Bet you didn’t have as much fun as I did — I spent the whole weekend (and I mean the whole weekend, from Thursday morning to Monday afternoon)babysitting my 17-month-old grandson, Capt. Adorable while my daughter and son-in-law went to DragonCon in Atlanta.  And besides all the incredibly good New housessnuggle time I got with the Captain — and the chance to watch endless episodes of Sid the Science Kid, my new favorite TV show — I fell in love all over again with my daughter and son-in-law’s house. When my son-in-law, a high-school art teacher, got tenure this past spring, they New housedecided it was time to move out of their apartment and into a real house. Frugal young family that they are, they had a budget and were determined not to budge from it. Their must-haves: A big fenced-in backyard for the Captain, three bedrooms, two baths and good storage space. It took awhile, but they found it — and under their budget. It was cute and in a good neighborhood and had a fantastic backyard. The bad news? Total square footage was less than their apartment. However, after living in it for a few days, I can attest that this house seems so much bigger than it actually is. The secret is a combination of design and decor. I love the archectural details that make this compact space live bigger: The soaring ceilings, the tiled entry way, closets tucked away in unexpected but efficient places, the big airy windows. It would have been so easy to have let this be a cheap and boring house, but no. And the kids have done everything they could to enhance the feeling of expansiveness — they added white beadboard to the eating area, knocked out some useless kitchen cabinets to create more open space and used paint to their advantage with the Captain’s bed- and bathrooms in bright oranges and yellows and the other rooms in soothing and calm neutrals. Adorable!

And a note to any other grandparents contemplating days of move-in babysitting: Line up visits from friends and family. I could not have made it without help from so many people who brought us food and new toys and drove over just to visit us. Thank you!!!

Labor Day Weekend

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Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend with family and friends ... and some ice cream! Grandson Capt. Adorable, 17 months, sure enjoys his.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend with family and friends ... and some ice cream! Grandson Capt. Adorable, 17 months, sure enjoys his.

Food

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End-of-summer saladIf you don’t have your Labor Day weekend menu plannedEnd-of-summer food yet, consider these two quick, easy and extremely wonderful salads. My friend Sherry Campbell, director of the Shoals Commercial Culinary Center in Florence, Alabama, that’s part of the innovative business incubator Shoals Entrepreneurial Center, made these salads for us during a recent cooking class — and we all gobbled them down and asked for more. The class focused on end-of-the-summer fresh and local ingredients and simple recipes for entertaining. Her menu included chicken roasted with figs and port wine — yum! Check out the Culinary Center at http://www.shoalsec.com/.

End of Summer Supper Salad

Cook 1 pound unshelled raw jumbo shrimp* in 3 quarts boiling water until pink. Rinse shrimp in cold water, cool and shell. (If holding more than 10 minutes, chill in refrigerator.) Bring water back to boil and add 1 1/2 pounds trimmed green beans until tender-crisp, about 3-7 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water and drain again. Meanwhile, whisk together 1/3 cup rice vinegar, salt and fresh pepper to taste, 1 tablespoon coarse or Dijon mustard and 2 minced large garlic cloves. Whisk in 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil until dressing is thick and add a thinly sliced half medium sweet onion. Toss shrimp and green beans with dressing. Arrange sliced tomatoes around edge of platter and mound salad in middle. Sprinkle with fresh basil, scallion slices and fresh lemon juice. Serves 4. *You could also use chicken or tofu in this recipe. You’d cook the chicken, of course, with your preferred method — the tofu can be used right out of the package.

 

Italian Panzanella

Whisk together 1/4 cup each red-wine vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil. Season with coarse salt and ground pepper. Add 2 cans rinsed and drained cannelloni beans, 3 cups cubed country bread, 1 pound plum tomatoes cut into smaller pieces, thin slices of English cucumber, thin slices of red onion and 4 ounces diced provolone cheese. Toss, cover and chill 2-8 hours. Just before serving, stir in fresh basil. Serves 4. Note: Sherry also used bell peppers and celery when she prepared this. “Just use up whatever fresh veggies you’ve got,” she said. “That’s the whole idea.”

Home Decor

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Home Decor

My friend Susan Cantrell and her daughter-in-law, Freda ShoppingBrewer, have opened the most wonderful store in Sheffield, Alabama. Called Upscale Resale, it’s a furniture and home-decor consignment shop — but it’s so much more than simply a place to find a fantastic bargain. Both Susan and Freda are so creative and imaginative — there are delightful surprises everywhere you look: A basket of shells, an old door used to highlight hanging shelves, a row of colorful bottles that catch and reflect the light. Consignment shoppingAnd Susan and Freda emphasize the frugal use-what-you-have approach that helps you appreciate what you’ve already got. “We’re eclectic and a little bit funky,” Susan said. “We Furniturelike to think that along with recycled furniture, we have unique investment items that will go up in value for the home — items you will not find at large import stores.  Also, we do think it is a great idea to recycle what is already available on the planet.  Remember: Reduce, reuse, recycle!” This is the place to find a whimsical painting that’s perfect for your kitchen, a pottery bowl that just fits on your coffee table or a simply chic chair that brightens the living-room corner. Or, do what I do and go to Upscale Resale for some conversation and relaxation — a visit always cheers me up and inspires me to actually decorate instead of arrange. Upscale Resale is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Call the store at 245.381.7773 for more information.

Home Decor

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Home decorMy friend Evelyn wowed us the other night when we Decoratingarrived at her house for our monthly book-club meeting and discovered she’d been busy redecorating. Our jaws dropped — I mean, literally, I stood there with my mouth open. Before, Evelyn’s living room was a cozy and comfortable gathering spot, but she said she wanted something completely different — and she got it. Now the room is rich with color and texture and looks about a million times bigger with the emphasis on those gorgeous windows that really you didn’t notice so much before. Evelyn used a professional decorator, with she and her husband, Steve, picking out the oh-so-soft sofa themselves. She said she learned to trust the decorator — many times the decorator would pick something out and she and Steve would think, “Uh, that’s just not going to work,” but once the room came together they understood the vision. I believe this is my new favorite room. Ever.

Friends — and Bad Poetry

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Bad poetryDo you see that huge guffaw of laughter coming out of my Campoutmouth in this photo? Trust me, it’s there. And do you also see that strange look on my husband’s face, almost as if he were embarrassed about something? Trust me, he is. We were at the annual — or whenever we can get everybody together — Wild Drunken Brawl that our friend on the left organizes. And don’t worry: It’s not wild, the drunkenness is overstated and no brawling is allowed. Instead, we all gather at a beautifully peaceful farm near Manchester, Tennessee — which most of us claim as our hometown — and spend the evening reminiscing around a campfire. We Photo by Kris Lowrancelucked out this past weekend with unusually cool and clear August weather and had a fantastic time. Since most of the crowd also graduated in communications from nearby Middle Tennessee State University, our trips down memory lane include our shared college days. One of my friends who was attending her first WDB brought with her a copy of Collage, the MTSU literary magazine that most of us worked with at one time or another. For this particular issue, my husband John Pitts (he wasn’t my husband then, although we were friends and did date sort of off and on) had done an interview with Steve Martin, who performed at MTSU  just when he was on the verge of greatness — an interview which still reads well today, decades later. However, also in this Collage was a poem my husband John Pitts had written, and that’s what we’re looking at in this photo. It did not read well decades later. I can’t really describe this poem. There was a lot of angst and beer-drinking and something about some woman and lonely nights and even though we called for the author to give us a reading around the campfire, he quickly declined. I can’t imagine why. And of course this gave me an idea for a book: A collection of bad college poetry. It’s gotta be a bestseller.

Shoe Shopping

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Shoe shoppingBelk shoe saleAre there any words more dear to a woman’s heart than “shoe sale?” There’s just something about a sea of markdowns that we cannot resist. This past weekend some friends and I were in Birmingham, Alabama, for the funeral of another friend’s Shoe shoppingmother. After the service, we needed some therapeutic girl-time, and there’s no better place than a sale at Southern department-store icon Belk. It’s definitely the place to be, female-wise. My friends were on the hunt for specific  shoes for upcoming weddings and christenings and I’m always open to the siren song of possibility — “I don’t really need these 4-inch purple snakeskin platform sandals or these bright turquoise-and-yellow pointy-toe flats but you never know when they might come in handy.” That is, I was open to possibilities of expanding my own personal shoe options until somehow, from many miles away, my husband felt the cosmic vibration of me being in the middle of a shoe sale and called to forestall any impulsively major purchase. How does he do that???

Books and Fudge

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Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel SocietyIf you have time to squeeze in one more summer read, make it “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” a delightful history lesson, love story and entertaining read all in one. Did you have any idea that the British island of Guernsey was occupied by the Germans during World War II? It was news to me. In a gentle peeling away of layers of secrets, this book chronicles the occupation and its aftermath and the island residents’ courage and human spirit to endure. Plus, it’s written in one of my favorite literary styles: A series of letters. I love reading books that make me feel as if I’m peeking into the characters’ real lives — that all this is really happening and we readers get to watch it unfold naturally. Plus, who doesn’t love the vicarious thrill of reading other people’s letters? The story of the writing of this book also will move you. I won’t spoil it for you, but the authors were passionate about their subject and about getting the book written and in readers’ hands.

And there’s still more to this story. My four-woman book club chose this a couple months ago. In this group, the hostess chooses the book, leads the discussion and usually gives out favors related to the month’s read. My friend Cheryl was hosting for “Guernsey,” and she went online to find out more about the island and get some ideas for favors. Jackpot! She found Guernsey Cream Fudge from Channel Island Confectionery Ltd. and ordered a variety of flavors for Guernsey fudgeus. I’m telling you that this is the best fudge I’ve ever had. It’s different, probably, from what you think fudge should taste like — this is smooth and creamy (but not soft) and literally melts in your mouth. It’s rich without that too-much-sugar-and-butter aftertaste. Plus, Cheryl struck up an e-mail correspondence with the fudge folks, who sent us much more information about the German occupation and their own family’s experiences during the war. They even invited our book club to Guernsey for a visit! Since the four of us have a hard enough time organizing our monthly meetings, that probably won’t happen, but it was nice to be asked — and, when you read the book, you’ll see that that’s exactly how things unfolded in the story. Anyway, order some fudge at http://www.guernseycreamfudge.com/ — and read the book.