ticking time capsules
My friend from college is coming to visit. My first time seeing him since he is a she. I’m rather nervous about the whole affair.
Taking a class through work. It is apparently equivalent a graduate level class. (I didn’t know that when I signed up.) I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed since most of the rest of the class are practicing scientists or scientific technicians, and I didn’t even take college level chemistry.
Work is taking more of my time than I’d like, and my studio is taking less.
midnight movies
Saw the Forbidden Zone, which was, at least viewed 25 years later, a bit too intentionally “wacky” but still quite visually interesting. The black and white cartoon/ turn of the century stage set look mixed with music by Danny Elfman (who also plays Satan) It contained weird rascist/ sexist imagery which seemed to be intentionally over the top but???
When Hervé Villechaize first appeared on screen as King Fausto of the Sixth Dimension, Jacob yelled out “that fucking suicidal midget!.” It is possible that he was slightly intoxicated. (I mean Jacob, not Tattoo.) The continuously topless Princess and her dancers were a crowd pleasers. I liked BustRod the Servant Frog best. There was also the Jewish wrestling champion grandfather, light bondage, fighting women, shoot ‘em up classroom scenes, weird blackface dancing, surreal midget sex, and through the underwear fucking and butt fucking, oingo boingo music, sort of, and oh! and the gateway to hell is through a basement doorway which culminates in a colon slide.
Also Saw Wet Hot American Summer. Mostly not worth writing about but worth watching, particularly if you, like me, grew up in a household where you had to sneak to watch movies like Porky’s and Meatballs.
Big Lebowski is next week and Bubba Ho-Tep is after that.
recap of new orleans trip 1 week later
Visited New Orleans. It was nice to sleep on a mattress which did not have duct tape covering it to prevent the springs from slicing me open in the night.
Left work on Monday at normal time, went home and packed, left Seattle at midnight, arrived in New Orleans at 9 am. Tuesday. That was one LONG day.
I went to visit my grandma. I rescued her by catching the lizard that had taken up residence in the towels in her bathroom. I released it outdoors.
Saw my sister play softball in city park. Was banned from all future games.
Went on many bike rides with my dad. Got sore arms and ass from the racing bike shape of the bike I borrowed.
Saw more mall time with my mom than at any other point in the past year. Also experienced the culinary delight that is Chalmette Chinese buffet and Mississippi pizza buffet.
Visited Jenny who is large with pregnancy. She is extremely petite and so when the baby started kicking you could practically see the foot coming through her stomach, alien-style. Saw the sonograms and listened to Rebecca’s heartbeat with a stethoscope. I’m still not entirely used to this idea.
Visited Catherine and baby Callie, who was a bump last time I saw her and is now nearly 3. Callie is amazing and smart, although a rather messy eater, she did use chopsticks. Saw the attack rooster that resulted from one of the Easter chicks they raised last year.
The rooster is beautiful and more than knee high and is apparently indestructible. I believe tales of cockfighting and hog dog rodeos to be vastly overstated since no one at all responded to the flyers she distributed offering this rooster for free to anyone who would come catch it. Catherine, in an attempt to reclaim the backyard and the early hours of sleep, has tried giving the rooster away, calling a trapper ($400,) a broom handle which only caused several weeks of squeaky crowing, benadryl, and varying doses of rat poison. The next attempt is apparently a cast-net and a.22. His temperament is not being improved any by the repeated assassination attempts.
Went riding around the nighttime city in the cab with Johnny.
Visited my granny and paw paw who each discussed their opinions on the show Will & Grace. Mrs. Gerry & Mr. Woody were also there although Mr. Woody could hardly walk with his back outage. As a result, it looked like he was leaning in joe cool poses all night.
Met A-Ben and Rick at the Balcony for the high life. Forgot to bring up all the things I’d intended to talk about because I was having such a lovely time. Johnny joined us later.
Visited Aunt Sophie and Kittie. Visited my grandma and GiGi again.
Got to hang out with Angie all day at jazz fest. Saw Buckwheat Zydeco and before that a bit of a woman playing a fiddle, though I was preoccupied with my food at the time. Had the world’s longest and dumbest text messaging “conversation” with my sister while trying to find her in the crowd. Saw Emmy Lou Harris and Bonnie Rait. Both were amazing and also hot. I would love to look nearly that good at their respective ages. Walked to meet Angie’s mom through an impromptu brass band on the corner outside the jazz fest.
Felt like I was in high school being dropped off by my dad and picked up by Angie’s mom, who seemed to not remember ever having met me.
Had manicure and pedicure with my mom and sister and it is sort of bizarro world because for as long as the polish lasts, I temporarily feel like the sort of woman who has things like manicures and pedicures as part of their “lifestyle”
Had lunch with my mom, sis, two aunts, and cousin in continuation of the “ladies who lunch” theme of the day. Lynne & little Becky stopped in to say hello.
Went to the wedding at the catholic church near my grandma’s and the reception at the Carrollton. Saw Becky & Ryan, got to visit with Stacey A and Ronnie and Stacey’s family briefly. Didn’t dance much at the reception. Saw lots of people from a long time ago. Family friends I hadn’t seen since age 12 or 13 which all required the same prerecorded conversation. Saw my first grade teacher, Becky’s eighth grade boyfriend and his wife. Etc.
Lon & Emily came over for dinner. We sat outside on the porch through the brewing of the thunderstorm. I miss thunderstorms. Mrs. Gerry & Mr. Woody, Nanny & Uncle Charlie came over for dessert.
We all discussed the latest priest accused of molestation who worked at our parish while my cousin was an altar server there.
Alec cancelled on lunch because of a “bad poyboy” incident the night before, so I never got to see him or the gallery where he works during daylight hours. Had lunch with my grandma instead. She took me next door to meet the nuns who moved in next door after my aunt and uncle died and the family sold the house. She told me all about having the nuns write to the city about trimming the oak tree branches hanging in the power lines. Apparently the response time from the levee board is faster for nuns than for a layperson. The nun told me all about a time Ronnie Lamarque’s business partner gave a large donation and asked the sisters to pray for his horse, Risen Star, to win. It did. My Aunt Penney asks the sister to pray for her when she goes to the casino. She makes donations from her winnings. Then I heard the nun’s views on Mel Gibson and the Passion. I got a tour of the house, which used to be Auntie & Uncle George’s and is now a convent with a chapel. It didn’t look as different as I’d expected. The best part was the painting of a Madonna on a serpent, which had been painted by one of the departed sisters. Anyway I got blessed and was on my way, but perhaps I should have asked for the sister to pray for me to win the lottery or something.
Visited James and met the huge puppy Harry, whose form of greeting is apparently to nose your butt and then walk between your legs. The garden district house remodel he and sandy have been doing for years is finally taking shape. I’m sort of envious of their house. I scanned New Orleans real estate prices for the rest of my visit. I’m sort of shocked how much prices seem to have increased, with out any sort of discernable increase in available jobs or educational quality or significant decrease in crime or taxes.
Had dinner with my sister and grandparents. Spurred by the pope’s decree that priests should deny communion to American politicians public ally supporting or practicing any beliefs contrary to the catholic church (mostly, I think, regarding abortion) argued the definition and role of the catholic church. Particularly re: birth control and child molestation. I argued that the catholic church as an institution caused more harm than good and that my mom was not a catholic at all if she believed that birth control was a personal right. I further argued that is was unconscionable for her to give her money to a cause which thwarted so many of her belief systems. No opinions were changed.
Spent five hours at the D Day museum. My parents tried to show me the “eerie” similarities between the beginning of WWII and today. ummm. Visited with my sister’s dog Guinness, a puppy that found his way into my heart when he followed me home from the quad all the way to King’s Palace one day long ago. I’m still so glad they gave him a good home when no one answered the “found puppy” ad in the reveille.
Went with my sister to True Brew to see my cousin’s comedy routine. Made several embarrassing phone calls in an ill planned attempt to drag people out to play one last time before I left town. Ended up feeling kind of like that omnipresent asshole with the cell phone. (My apologies to those of you who received the calls.) My sister was mortified when one of the comedians ended up being a former coworker who developed bit into his routine about how he wanted to sleep with her.
Had a Purple Haze at the Red Eye.
Packed and prepared for the red eye flight back home the next day.
notables of what i ate in new orleans 4/20-4/28, AKA the really important stuff
tuesday:
teddy’s roast beef poboy
mom’s red beans & rice
nectar cream snowball from city park
wednesday:
french toast
real sweet tea
chalmette chinese buffet
cherry icee
thursday:
unagi bento at ShoGun
stuffed coconut snowball on harrison
pizza buffet
miller high lifes
friday:
crawfish bread
crawfish beignets
softshell crab poboy
oyster patty
crawfish monica
mango freezee
pecans
saturday:
unremarkable wedding food
no wedding cake, no "Metallica" grooms cake
sunday:
BBQ shrimp
boiled crawfish
crawfish monica
chocolate peanutbutter pie
strawberry shortcake
bluebell ice cream
monday:
fried banana sandwiches on french
world’s crappiest “salad”
popeyes chicken, beans & rice, dirty rice, coleslaw, biscuits
donut
heavenly hash ice cream
tuesday:
fried shrimp and sofshell crab platter with fries and hushpuppies
purple haze
bluebell banana split
wednesday:
beignets
zimmer’s shrimp po boy
Stuffed Artichoke Variations
INGREDIENTS
artichoke(s)
breadcrumbs
one egg per artichoke
parmasean cheese (green can ok)
parmasean or romano cheese (not canned please!)
golden raisins
pine nuts
crushed garlic
olive oil
bacon fat or anchovy paste or extra olive oil
one lemon per artichoke
PREPARE ARTICHOKE(s)
trim thorns from leaves with scissors
steam each artichoke until bright green
dunk in cold water to stop cooking
using your fingers to hold the center leaves of the artichoke open, use a spoon to gently scoop out the spiny “choke” leaving the “heart” intact.
use water to rinse the center of the artichoke of all spiny choke debris
place artichokes upside down to drain excess water
PREPARE STUFFING
add to bowl and mix:
breadcrumbs of any sort (if purchasing them in a can, i buy the italian seasoned ones. one large can will usually be enough for 4 small artichokes. loosely cubed stale french bread will also work if you add your own desired seasonings like parsley, oregano, sage, salt, pepper)
add about one scrambled egg per artichoke
parmasean cheese (this is one of the only recipes where i’ll use the stuff in the green can. but use a LOT of it)
golden raisins
pine nuts
crushed garlic (optional)
olive oil
bacon fat/ anchovy paste/ more olive oil (optional)
mix together until a loose moist consistency is formed. it should still feel somewhat crumbly. you don’t want it to be doughy paste.
STUFF IT
beginning with the outer layers of the artichoke use a spoon to peel back leaves and force stuffing down into the artichoke. proceed around the artichoke spiraling upward and inward. when you reach the center leaves, hold them open and pack the center, all the way down to the heart with stuffing. mound the stuffing all the way to the top, level with the tops of the center leaves. when you are finished it should look like a fat flower. drizzle with olive oil. squeeze a lemon over the artichoke. garnish with a lemon slice over the center stuffing mound.
COOK IT
bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees (F) until breadcrumbs have thoroughly browned.
remove from oven and sprinkle some good cheese (not from the green can here) either parmasean or romano over the leaves. bake again very briefly until the cheese wilts and melts but does not brown.
it is easier to make several of these at once than one at a time. they refrigerate and reheat well in either a microwave or foil covered in an oven or toaster oven.
EAT IT
remove from oven and let cool. eat by pulling leaves and using your teeth to scrape the stuffing and bit of heart from the leaf edge. discard tough part of leaves. eat main portion of the heart and center stuffing with a fork.
