Basketball and Nashville, Tennessee

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Oh, my cookies (as almost-2-year-old grandson Capt. Adorable says with his precious little Capt. Adorable-grin) — I love Bracket Time!!! When NCAA men’s college hoops action starts, I am glued to the TV. I mean, I’m even okay with Survivor being preempted — and you know how sacred I hold my weekly Survivor-watching. Not jumping on the Bracket bandwagon? Not sure what all the fuss is about? I know — I sort of feel that way about all those football bowl games. But read this article by Sports Illustrated writer Michael Rosenberg and you might give it a try: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/michael_rosenberg/03/17/ncaa.tournament. And then click on over to my weekly newspaper column at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100319/ARTICLES/3195000  for why I choose basketball over football, every time. (And you know I have to say that very quietly since Alabama is pretty much totally football country and basketball is what you do to fill the time until spring practice starts.)

And while you’re clicking, I want you to go here —  http://goop.com/newsletter/74/en/. But first let me explain, because you’re right that GOOP is the much-maligned newsletter sent out by actress Gwyneth Paltrow. As much as I loved her in one of my all-time favorite movies — The Royal Tenenbaums — her newsletter makes me cringe and laugh and spit out my coffee all at the same time. She writes — and I assume it’s actually her doing the writing — as if we all can hop jets and fly over to London for some bargain shopping or we all have famous friends who can give fashion and entertaining advice or as if we all have the time to Gaze Out At Nature and Contemplate Life. Sigh. Maybe I’m just jealous. Because, as Liz Lemon says, “I want to go there.” But this one time, GOOP gets it right. Apparently Gwyneth recently spent some time in Nashville, Tennessee, and the latest “Go” edition of the newsletter has some great food and music suggestions and some lovely things to say about my fellow Tennesseans. For the most part, she eschews the patently tacky tourist places and sends you to authentic Nashville — including the patently tacky tourist places that make Nashville what it is. Go to Nashville. Gwyneth and I both insist.

Recipes

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Although I’ve never liked any kind of meringue pie, I adore meringues — those crunchy bits of pillowy slow-baked egg-white goodness. Maybe it’s because my maternal grandmother always had a reused (I don’t think we would use the word “recycled” 40 years ago) coffee can full of them when we’d drive up from Tennessee to visit her and my grandpa in southern Illinois. I assume that with her Depression-honed frugalness, she made them from leftover egg whites — although I don’t remember her making anything especially yolk-centric. Anyway, to keep me from embarrassing her by buying four containers of store-made meringues at once, Younger Daughter has perfected her recipe and technique for homemade meringues. They’re so much better and better-for-you than store-bought. Her great-grandmother would be proud.

First, separate three eggs. The easiest way is to let the whites drip through your fingers into a bowl. Discard yolks or save for another recipe.

Add 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar to whites and beat until soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon at a time while beating until  stiff peaks form and it’s glossy.

 Then fold in 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract and some grated vanilla bean. Put half egg-white mixture into a plastic gallon food-storage bag and cut one of the corners off. Squeeze dollops of the mixture onto a parchment- or wax-paper covered baking sheet. For chocolate meringues, add 1 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder and mini chocolate chips to remaining egg-white batter and repeat. Bake at a low temperature — 225 degrees — for about one hour. They’ll be yummy but still a bit chewy. Then turn oven off and let sit overnight or for several more hours to dry out. Just remember to take them out of the oven before turning the oven on for something else. I’m just saying. Anyway, I could eat a whole pan of these at one sitting. They’re really easy and fun and have no fat in them whatsoever. And I still can taste the grandmother-love in them, along with daughter-love. That is one powerful combination.

St. Patrick’s Day

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Irish things I like:

1) Pretty much any sort of food that has any sort of Irish connection. Particularly if it’s chocolate and/or fried. Or bread. So I hit the jackpot this year at Kalou’s Corner Market and Cafe in Huntsville, Alabama, which was celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with these treats. Who could resist a shamrock-shaped chocolate-covered chocolate brownie? And then there were two intriguing types of Irish beer bread — rye and cheddar. This bread was moist, dense, light and tender all that same time — and my bread-loving family did not let a crumb go to waste. Details at http://www.kalousmarket.com/

2) Guinness beer, but only for the first two or three sips. That’s about all I can handle.

3) McGuire’s Irish Pub in Pensacola, Florida. This is my favorite Irish pub ever. Okay — I know that you know this is the only Irish pub I’ve ever been in. But it’s still my favorite. It’s on my must-go list every time I’m anywhere close by. This is the place that’s papered in customers’ dollar bills. McGuire’s has its own brewery and serves wonderfully fresh-tasting beers,ales, porters and stouts. And for my dollar bills, the best dishes are on the appetizer menu — boxtys (fried mashed potatoes), seared fresh tuna over mashed garlic red potatoes and the Irish Bleu Chips, which is homemade potato chips with blue cheese. And if you detect a theme of fried and mashed potatoes here, you are so right. Check it out at http://www.mcguiresirishpub.com

4) Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. I knew this was a memoir of a boy’s Irish childhood, but I didn’t read it until recently because I mistakenly thought it was sweet and heartwarming and sentimental — sort of the literary version of “Oh Danny Boy.” It’s not. It’s spare and harsh and ugly — and I couldn’t put it down. You won’t be able to, either.

Consignment Stores

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When you’ve got spring fever but the weather isn’t cooperating — we’re back to winter here in northwest Alabama — then the solution is to go shopping for a little warm-weather cheer. But if your budget isn’t cooperating, either, be smart and do your perk-me-up shopping at your favorite consignment store. You may get lucky and find such spring-like treasures as these light and airy wooden windows lightened up with bright and happy blooms. Or what about some light and breezy white wicker furniture with soft green and yellow accents? (Note the papasan ottoman transformed into a coffee table with the addition of a clear glass top. Clever!) I especially love the collection of pastel-colored vintage coffee mugs shown off in a pale-green wooden tote. See? For just a few dollars, you can add some spring details to your home decor and have money left over for a spring-break trip to the beach. You know that these photos are from my favorite consignment store — Upscale Resale in Sheffield, Alabama, owned by my friend Susan with display assistance by my Younger Daughter. It’s like walking through a magazine spread. C’mon over and see for yourself!

Spring

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I am not a fan of Spring-Forward Sunday. For one thing, I’m pretty much a lazy person and when we’re off Daylight Saving Time and it starts to get dark at 5 or 6 at night, it’s quite easy to put the ol’ pajamas on and call it a day — literally — by 8 p.m. But in Daylight Saving Time, you’re sort of compelled to keep going until 10 p.m. or so. I mean, isn’t that why Daylight Saving Time was invented — so we’d have more time to do work? Whose bright idea was that???!!! And when I was a young mom, I dreaded the spring-forward time change that wreaked havoc with those lovely early bedtimes. However, now that I’m Grandma Ka-kee and treasure every moment I can spend with my almost-2-year-old grandson, Capt. Adorable, I say the more daylight, the better. That just gives me more playtime to hang out with the Captain in his backyard and his ultra-cool new playground equipment his mom and dad got him for an early birthday present. It’s got slides and a climbing wall and a fun underneath space for hiding. Plus, it offers the chance for scientific exploration, such as “Why has rainwater gathered in this little hole and I wonder what would happen if I put my finger in it?” And when it’s spring and nice weather, you can also have your  snack of yogurt-covered blueberries outside — definitely worth giving up an hour or two of sleep!

Food

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Seems as if spring brings out new products and new versions of old favorites — and of course anything that screams “junk food made into something totally healthy and environmentally conscious” gets my attention. Such as the new Chocolate Cheerios. Did you get a sample this past weekend with your Sunday newspaper? We did, and along with most of America as soon as I started munching on my handful of chocolately goodness, I was hooked. What’s not to like? You can feel good about your Cheerios warm-and-fuzzy nutrition plus you get the thrill of feeling as if you’re sneaking in more than your alloted one small square of chocolate a day. I love cereal that doubles as a snack — maybe I love it too much. (Reese’s Puffs, I’m talking to you). And if you add milk to your morning bowl, you get the added bonus of chocolate milk. Score! Chocolate Cheerios for the win. I wasn’t as impressed with Multi-Grain Pringles, but maybe that’s because I’m not a fan of Pringles in general. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for fake and processed anything as long as it tastes good — I’m willing to down a few empty calories in return for satisfying deliciousness — but Pringles doesn’t deliver in the yum category enough to offset the fat and zero nutritionals. I thought the new Multi-Grain version might improve my opinion, but, no. The nutrition stats aren’t any better and the taste is cross somewhere between rice crackers and Wheat Thins — and not in a good way — with that heavy greasy Pringles after-flavor thrown in. I’ll pass, thank you very much. And speaking of good-for-you-and-the-earth junk food, we also gave Sun Chips’ new compostable bag a try. The verdict? Well, I can only take FritoLay’s word for the breaks-down-in-14-weeks claim, but if it’s true, that’s a good thing and I say we need more of that, please. I’m always sort of skeptical about Sun Chips since the nutritional stats aren’t any better — and in some cases, worse — than regular potato chips but the ads sort of make them appear all healthy and natural. And I’m glad that one plant in which Sun Chips are made is solar-powered but there’s still all the energy used in distribution and transportation so what about all that, huh, FritoLay??? On the other hand, the new bag does make a fun crinkly sound and as long as Steps Are Being Made in the Right Direction, who am I to argue?

Speaking about new stuff, I had to get a new cell phone recently. And if your cell phone is an extension of your personality and a reflection of who you are, then I am in deep trouble. Read more about it in my weekly newspaper column, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20100312/ARTICLES/3125006

Cooking

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Don’t these vegetables look gorgeous? I went to an Oriental-cooking class earlier this week and watched amazed as the chef produced piles of perfectly chopped and consistently shaped fresh veggies. I would have snapped the actual cutting but his knife was flying so fast I didn’t want to get in his way. He made it look easy, but I’ve taken a knife-skills class and let me tell you that it is not. I guess experience is the key, though. Our teacher/chef — Justin Letson, chef de cuisine at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Muscle Shoals, Alabama — did show us an easy trick for julienning peppers: Cut off the ends, then make a slit in the pepper and sort of unroll it as you use the knife to cut out the core and membranes. Then pop out the stem and cut up the end, too — which I wastefully never did before. So simple! And the resulting Lemon Stirfry with LoMien was delicious. And pretty. Our class was at the Shoals Culinary Complex in Florence, Alabama — a kitchen incubator that’s part of the Shoals Entrepreneurial Center, http://www.shoalsec.com/facilities/SCC_index.html — and this class was so popular that director Sherry Campbell is scheduling a second one. Maybe I’ll go to that one, too — best stiry fry ever!

Restaurants

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Next time you’re in downtown Tupelo, Mississippi, and you need a sandwich or coffee or just some friendly conversation, head into Cafe 212 on West Main Street. These photos show the coffee-shop part — you know it’s the most important to me! The lunch area is through the door and toward the front — it’s really the first thing you step into from the street —  and it also sports a fun and quirky vibe, with delicious fresh salads and sandwiches as well. If you don’t want to sit at one of the vintage recycled tables, you can hang out on some comfy retro couches or enjoy the best sidewalk dining in Tupelo. And don’t forget to admire the works by talented local artists. Finally, you know that bathroom style always is one of my top criteria for judging a restaurant — and Cafe 212 has a great one. The women’s room carries out the eclectic theme with an exuberantly painted mirror and an old curio cabinet/desk doubling as storage. Visit http://www.cafe212tupelo.com/ to learn more about this Tupelo treasure.

Shopping

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My friend Susan has a consignment store in Sheffield, Alabama, that’s full of  treasures you just want to take home with you. Susan also has hired a new part-time employee with a wonderful creative eye for display and a stylish flair for vintage fashion. Okay, that employee is my Younger Daughter, but still! Susan and YD make a great team and visiting Upscale Resale is like browsing through a fun and funky antiques shop . I love the way YD has put together these retro looks with coordinating gloves, hats and handbags. Makes me feel all Jackie-O and Audrey Hepburn. I just missed the white-glove era but I (barely) can remember my mother tucking a pair, along with a floral cotton handkerchief, into her purse as she’d get ready for church on Sunday mornings. I think I remember that, anyway. I’ll have to ask her if she ever wore or took gloves to church when I was little or if I have completely and totally made that up — which is entirely possible. What I am sure of, however, is that a pair of white gloves is the perfect accessory for this lovely plum-colored spring suit with the pleated skirt and gorgeously tailored jacket. I can just see this at church on Easter Sunday, can’t you? Upscale Resale is at 2613 North Jackson Highway in Sheffield. Phone number is 256.381.7773. It’s open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  In addition to vintage clothing and jewelry, there is furniture, art work, home decor, glassware, books, holiday items and all sorts of things. You’ll love it!

Art

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Need something to do today? Go to the Jerry Brown Arts Festival in Hamilton, Alabama, to see some great folk art and handcrafted work. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the former Wal-Mart building that’s on Hwy. 43 on the south side of town — ironic, really, since Wal-mart is sort of the antithesis of slowly made and homegrown quality art pieces. But there you go.  Named for ninth-generation potter Jerry Brown, who’s known for his traditional techniques and his signature facejugs, the festival is an eclectic mix. You’ll find pottery, photographs, paintings, jewelry from simple to statement-making, handbags made out of recycled textiles, fabulous knitted garments and whimsicals such as wind chimes and “sculptures” made from cast-off household items. One of the most stunning booths was that of metalsmith Robert Taylor, of Birmingham, Alabama. Working in the Roycroft style, Taylor creates true works of art that look to me as if they should be in museums instead of somebody’s living room. Another artist who resonated with us was Clay Paradiso, of Columbus, Mississippi. Her architectural photographs of Mississippi churches and byways are so lovely, and we were especially taken with the miniature gift boxes she makes out of art paper, maps, sandpaper, corrugated cardboard or whatever other supplies she can find and then packages with themed embellishments that make the whole box a present in itself. But don’t take it from me. Go see for yourself. Admission is free and the drive is peaceful. Visit http://www.jbaf.org/ for details about the festival and http://www.jerrybrownpottery.com/ to learn more about Jerry Brown himself.