Top Five Friday: A Derby of a Day!

And it's run for the roses / As fast as you can

Your fate is delivered / Your moment's at hand

It's the chance of a lifetime / In a lifetime of chance

And it's high time you joined / In the dance.

~ Dan Fogelberg, Run for the Roses

D

erby Day.  Tomorrow’s race in Louisville, Kentucky marks the 138^th year of what is known as the Greatest Two Minutes in Sports.  For the owners and trainers and jockeys, it really is all about the horses.  For some of the fans, it is all about the betting.  But for most of us, it is all about the party.  And by that I mean the hats and the booze.

Tomorrow I will be attending a Derby soiree that a couple of my friends throw every May.  I learned my lesson last year and arranged to spend the night this year with a friend who lives only a mile away.  My host makes the best (read: potent) mint juleps EVER.

Can’t make it to Louisville for the May madness?  No worries ~ throw your own Derby 'do!  Here are the top five things you will need.  Come on ~ it’s high time you joined in the dance!

The Hat

Come on Dover!

Think Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. (One of these years, I am so getting a Derby costume made modeled on her black and white get up!)  Whether it costs $30 or $300, all women at the party must wear a hat!  The bigger the better.  I have seen some hats that cost as much as a small car.  But you don’t have to spend like  an oil magnet. I bought my tres chic black with white polka dots and feathers for only $30 and it is huge.



And you, Miss, are no lady!



Gents ~ you can wear a hat as well ~ aka Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind.  But only if you are outside!  If you go inside, even if it is only to mix your lady friend another julep, you should remove your chapeau.

The Edibles

If you are a Derby purist, then you already know what to serve: Kentucky Hot Browns, chicken or crab salad, cheese grits, and pecan pie.  Pretty much, if it’s Southern, it’s acceptable.  You will need run for the roses yourself after eating such richness, but hey, it’s only one day in May!  I’ve picked some of favorite recipes for you.  Kind of like a top five within a top five! 

          Kentucky Bourbon Burgoo

           Delmarva Crab Cakes

           Hominy Grits Soufflé

           Chocolate Pecan Chess Pie

           Butterscotch Pecan Tart (because you can never have too many desserts!)

The List

Well, you are throwing this party because of the Derby.  So you really need a list of all the horses.  You can find them all here. 



Running for the Roses!



Make it fun: have all your guests who would like to participate put in $5, $10, or $20; whoever picks the top three gets the pot.  If someone picks two out of three, give them a really nice bottle of bourbon.  One out of three might get you a cookbook of Derby recipes or a set of shot glasses. (I get mine at Marshall’s ~ a set of 6 for $4!)

The Music

Before the race begins and after the thrill of it is gone (so to speak), you should have a great playlist playing in the background.  Your favorite metal bands or rap artists will simply not do!  Of course, no Derby Party is complete without Dan Fogelberg’s Run for the Roses – half country, half folk.  But you can’t play one song on repeat the entire party!

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “She’s going to say bluegrass ~ oh no!”

First of all, what the hay-bale is wrong with bluegrass?  Seems appropriate, considering the grass in Kentucky is blue.  Anyway, listen to Alison Krauss or the Avett Brothers, and then tell me you don’t like bluegrass. 

If it were my party, however, I would be playing zippy classical music (Ode to Joy, etc).  I know ~ classical music should be imbibed on its own, not relegated to background noise.  Trust me, you will be too snookered excited for that type of concentration.  Plus, think how especially appropriate it will be when one of your elegantly dressed guests shouts rather raucously: “Come on, Dovah! Move yah bloomin’ ahss!”   



The real winner and
crowning glory of the Derby!



And you thought the Derby was an American invention!

The Beverage

Last but definitely not least ~ the mint julep.  It is my theory that people who claim to hate mint juleps have never had a proper one.  While everyone and his brother have a fiercely held opinion as to when to add the mint, the best way I have imbibed it is when the mint is crushed to almost a pulp to release the mint oil.  Also, use crushed ice ~ not cubed.  A simple sugar syrup (a Southern beverage staple).  And of course, copious amounts of Kentucky Bourbon (I prefer Maker’s Mark).  There are many recipes online ~ here is one of then, with a little history to boot.  I don’t know how my friend Stephen makes his, but as I mentioned, they kick like a Derby winner!

Here’s to fast horses, smooth bourbon, and really big hats!

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Are you throwing a Derby party or attending one?  Share recipes, experiences, or your picks in the comment section or on your Facebook page!

Growing More than Organic Food: a Weekly Series on Hobby Farming

Children have more need of models than of critics. 

~ Carolyn Coats

I

 t has been nine months since I moved back to my childhood home.  Appropriately so, as it has been a time of growth, change, and preparation for the next phase of my life.

Originally, I moved back to help my mother care for my aging father ~ a move I hoped would be temporary as his health improved.  All in all, my father’s health is good for an eighty-eight year old.  And to be brutally honest, moving back in with your parents after living on your own for over a decade is. . .ahem. . .challenging.

Psychology will tell you that a child is not fully accepted by her parents as being an adult (read: having a brain) until she either reaches thirty-eighty or becomes a parent herself.  Obviously, Dr. Psych has not met my parents!  I do not have any children, but I am almost to the age mile marker.  But one would think to hear them speak to me that I am still thirteen!   This has made my dreams for the house and the land more difficult to realize.

I was tempted to give up before even getting started. 

However, living a sustainable lifestyle and eating food I have grown myself is something I am passionate about.  So my plan is to plow ahead (pun totally inteneded) and see far I get ~ one planting season at a time.  With that in mind, I am starting this weekly series on hobby farming ~ a series that is about personal growth, joy, change, challenges, and heartache as much as it is about sustainability, organic farming, and home-grown food.

I hope you can join me on my latest adventure.  I could sure use the positive company!

Next week: pictures of the first phase of the garden.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Do you have aging parents?  What are some of your challenges in caring for them?

Modern Baroque in Manhattan: A Review of Gramercy Tavern

He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton;

he who does not cannot be otherwise. 

~ Henry David Thoreau

A guest post from gourmand Trid Morgan.

I

 taly ~ the land of Michaelangelo and Raphael; Pucinni and Verdi; fresh made pasta and aged parmesan.  For five years, I lived in the heart of culture and learning and beauty.  I was at home there, amidst the dusty archives of the Vatican Library, touching ancient manuscripts unseen by most people for thousands of years.  It was a Baroque life, filled with drama, and far from bland: exciting, tragic, cathartic, and redemptive ~ all in the modern city of Rome!

And then, I woke up.  In New England.  The land of chewy clam chowdah, boiled potatoes, and pot roast.  In suburban America, I encounter some people who are content with meat that comes from a cow factory, and vegetables that look and taste like they have been in a crock pot for weeks.  What happened to just simply. . .braising? 

I endured this steady diet of mediocrity and synthetic and non-nutritious food for as long as I could.  Then my health ~ both spiritual and physical ~ began to suffer. 

If you are what you eat, I was becoming a mechanically-separated bowl of goulash!

How was I to cope, a Baroque man living in the middle of modern suburban America?  I needed somewhere to escape; some way to get back to the timeless life I led in Rome. 



photo courtesty of Evgeny Litvinov



So I took the train to Manhattan, to immerse myself in the Opera and the art museums.   And I found a Baroque paradise ~ a place where the art of hospitality is not a forgotten relic, but a modern jewel.  Where food is no longer just food, it is an event.  Where dining is an experience for all five senses.

Gramercy Tavern.

There is NOTHING, really . . . let me emphasize . . . NOTHING like reading Augustine’s Confessions in Latin while eating a perfectly roasted Berkshire baby pig with the seasons freshest ramps as prepared at Gramercy Tavern!

Have you tasted a slice of apple pie that reminded you of your own grandmother’s recipe, but refined to an unimaginable level . . . they have it at Gramercy Tavern.

Hospitality that does not rush you, that respects you, that pairs wine with every course . . . a hospitality that hearkens back to a more genteel age?  Only at Gramercy Tavern.

Detail is something that doesn’t escape me. 

I go crazy over the slight nuances of Augustine’s rhetoric, the forcefulness and expressivity of Catherine of Siena’s words.  I have spent hours upon hours gazing at Raphael’s St. Cecilia, and Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa, looking at every facet of these masterpieces, trying to reconstruct the intellectual concepts in the minds of both artists.  All this has affected me in the most positive way, but not necessarily in the most modern way.  Rome was formative in the sense that even daily life was lived around Baroque detail. 

Our food shared the vibrant colors of tapestries, tastes were well proportioned, and who could ever forget the intense chiaroscuro of flavors in prosciutto from Norcia.   The exuberant beauty of the baroque churches was supposed to spill over in its own way, into the dining room and onto the dining table….and it did.  

As art in the form of painting can reveal itself to be an imitation of the beauty of Creation; a balanced course, composed of the harmony of various different flavours while respecting the integrity of ingredients shows the chef as one of those rare persons, a true artist.  At Gramercy Tavern, my Baroque aesthetic of detail is fulfilled.

Because at Gramercy, the attention to detail is exceptional.  The tastes are expertly curated: from the antiques of the dining room, the jubilant floral arrangements in the Tavern Room, to the freshest ingredients for the Cuisine.  Michael Anthony, executive chef of Gramercy Tavern, and pastry chef, Nancy Olson are exceptional artists!

No matter what religious or political background we may come from, there is one thing that can be found, or rather, should be found in all human experience, the desire for beauty. 

Food is medicine. And if that is true, then Gramercy Tavern has become my favorite clinic.  It has healed me ~ both body and soul.

~ Trid Morgan

P.S. you must try the Smoked Trout!

Trid Morgan is the pen name of a displaced Renaissance gourmand.  After earning his PhD in Rome, he now lives a short trip from NYC. He escapes to Manhattan to bask in the sun of culture and beauty as often as he can, and enjoys the serene silence of the sea.  He sees the inestimable value of the past in order to illuminate the present, and thus, the fascination with all things . . . Baroque. 

The 2012 Blogathon Begins: Writing to Help Others...and Ourselves

Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts,

to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences,

to give artistic expression to what we are living,

and to store significant events in our memories.

Writing can also be good for others who might read what we write.

~ Henri Nouwen

W

 riters, start your pens!  Or your computers.  Today, the 2012 WordCount Blogathon begins.  I went back and looked at my posts from last year ~ out of 31 possible posts, I wrote only 10!  That is pretty. . . .sad.  But I refuse to become discouraged!  One can only go up from the pit!  And so I write!

Writing is a great gift. First, it is a gift we give to ourselves.  As the 20^th century theologian Henri Nouwen said, it “can help us. . .get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts.”  I have often faced an emotional, psychological, financial, or relational crisis ~ large or small ~ and helped myself tremendously by expressing my frustrations, grief, or disappointments on paper.  Not that the problems all went away, of course.  Some did but only because when I was finished writing about them, I saw that the reality wasn’t as tragic or insane as I first believed. 

Sometimes writing helps us to let go, gives us permission to grieve.  Death of a loved one, of a dream, a relationship, a hope, of a grudge even.

Beliefs have been changed by writing.  Once you lay something out on paper, in black and white, you finally see the impossibility and lunacy of what you thought to be true.   And sometimes you are forced to accept the truth of something you once thought could only be insanity.

Writing also helps commit things to memory.  Memory is a tricky little muscle, prone to bribes from other sources of the brain that try to cook the books.  (Yes, I’m talking about you, Mr. Limbic System!)  Easier to thwart his corruptive ways if you can write down exactly what happened, what you felt right then; and then go back and re-read what you wrote and add new insights.

But our writing can also help others.  It can serve as a warning (don’t do what I just did!),  entertainment (did you hear about the….?), spiritual guide (this way to peace and serenity), informative (news – national or family), or understanding support (I know how you feel/I’m right here with you).

And our writing does not have to be Pulitzer material to be any of those things.  Something as simple as writing down who is in what pictures, what date it was taken, and what you felt about what you were doing that day will help you remember what you may one day forget, as well as put more colourful threads in the fabric of your family life. 

Sometimes the audience we reach is “out there.”  More often than not, the audience is right here, bent over a keyboard or a pad of virgin lined paper, scribbling out a trail of breadcrumbs that we hope will lead us back to ourselves.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Why do you write?  Have you ever solved a problem just by “writing it through?”

Abbey's 57th Poetry Party!

Poetry is just the evidence of life.  If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. 

~ Leonard Cohen

I

 t’s another Poetry Party at Abbey of the Arts! This month’s theme: the center and the edges. You are invited to write a poem and then post the image below (with a link back to Abbey of the Arts) and an invitation on your blog, Facebook page, and Twitter.

(C) Christine Valters Painter

Can’t wait to see you at the party!

My contribution below ~ a little dark, I’ll admit.  It was one of those days.

Oremus pro invicem,

Mikaela

So often I’ve come to the door seeking sanctuary,

a place to shut out the silence

of pain;

and to forget

the utter loneliness

Of being human

and other.

“Knock and it shall be opened.”

But the door is locked

By some unseen part of my past --

Unmet needs

Hurts unhealed

Unloved lesions left by

Hearts unfeeling.

Does it really matter?

The door remains shut

Dark, cold,

And silent.

Outside, unimpeded,

The rain berates my shivering skin.

If only another would raise

The unyielding iron

And gain access;

Or shout for the inside to open up.

I’ve screamed until my lungs bled

And the chords shattered on shards

Of despair.

But only my pain thunders

back to me

As tears streak the windows.

©30 April 2012 – M. D’Eigh

Top Five Friday: Preserving Our Memories

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. 
~ from The Wonder Years

T

oday I begin my foray into hobby farming.  The down and dirty part: walking the property, gathering estimates from country boys with work boots, easy grins, and mellow accents, filling the beds with aged compost and soil, and transplanting veggies and putting in direct-sow seeds.

This will leave little to no time to search the vaults of my grey matter for a list of five very important items you will absolutely need this weekend.  But I didn’t want to leave you orphans!  So I cheated.

Since it is Preservation Week [what, you didn’t know!? My bad!], @YourLibrary has some great articles about preserving books, digital photos ~ even fabric!  And I know everyone has at least one box of slides sitting around.  I have more one, I fear.  Not to mention a projector screen, and even the huge clunky projector!

Preserving family items ~ whether they have been passed down for generations, or just last year ~ means more than just taking care of material possessions.  It means preserving memories.  It is one reason why I journal and encourage others to do so.  Even if it is only journaling in scrapbook or photo album.  Someday, you will have trouble remembering.  Capture it now, while the moment is still fresh. 

Otherwise, that bed that George slept in so many times will get donated and your children and grand-children will miss out on that awesome family story!

The Basics: Archive 101

A great place to start your preservation research. Has a list of resources and links to help as well.

General – Preserving Your Treasures

A quick and dirty list of things to do and watch out for.  Follow the link for How To Care For…and it takes you to another page of external links such as The Henry Ford Museum, and PBS for a video from “The History Detectives.”

Preparing for the Worst

Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods.  How can you preserve family heirlooms against accidents?  This page has another webcast that you can access to learn more about protecting your past against Mother Nature’s future fury!

Slides

This one is a top five within a top five!  The only thing I would add to this list is to find a reputable company that can transfer or convert your slides into digital files.

Fabrics

This was a webinar on how to preserve, store, and display textiles.  There is a session recording as well as presentation slides.

Have a great weekend digging in picture boxes.  I’ll see you next week!

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Do you have boxes and boxes of slides or pictures?  Do you scrapbook?  What items have you preserved that are precious to your family’s memory?

WordCount's 2012 Blogathon Begins Next Week!

Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: 

I wanted to know what I was going to say. 

~ Sharon O'Brien

M

 ark your calendars: May 1st is the beginning of the 2012 WordCount Blogathon!  I participated last year and had a blast ~ even though I didn’t post all 31 days.  I have signed up again this year and hope to post at least 23 days out of the 31 ~ that’s one post a day, not counting the weekends.

It’s a great writing exercise and you get to “meet” some really talented and supportive writers!  Registration is still going on ~ sign up today and let the fun and madness begin!

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Top Five Friday: In the Quiet Green - Five Ways to Celebrate Earth Day

Every time I have some moment on a seashore, or in the mountains, or sometimes in a quiet forest,

I think this is why the environment has to be preserved.

~ Bill Bradley

A

 pril 22nd is Earth Day.  An appropriate time to announce that I will be starting a weekly series here on my adventures in organic farming rather than starting a new blog for just that topic.  There is an art to farming and gardening ~ especially if one wants to actually produce food! 

But one need not start an organic farm in order to celebrate Earth Day and all that is green and reusable.  Here are five things to do to help preserve our national green this weekend ~ preferably out of doors and off the roads!

Read Up!

You know I will always recommend reading.  I have one whole room in my house dedicated to books!  My favorite nature author is John Muir.  Mother Earth News also has some great articles on sustainability and organic farming.  This one deals with GM (genetically modified) crops and this one talks about why we are seeing a decrease in the bee population, which not surprisingly, relates back to GM crops. 

Another great book is Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Create a Kitchen or Herb Garden

Starting out small is good.  Less room for mistakes.  Not that I expect I won’t make mistakes, but they hopefully will be on the small scale.  Begin with a few containers on your patio, desk, or porch.  It’s too late in many zones to sow seed for some veggies ~ although I did just receive my direct sow seed packets ~ and too early to plant seedlings in others. 



from 123rf



Here in Virginia it’s hit or miss.  There is still time for one last nasty frost.  So I’m waiting and spending the time continuing to read (see point #1) and prepping the ground so that once it is time, my plants will have a fighting chance of growing healthy and strong.

A great blog to read for gardening advice: Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden.

Plant a Tree

There are many places that are giving away free trees.  Take them home and give them lots of love and a good mix of organic matter, soil, and compost.  Just don’t forget to plant them!  I, uh, sadly did that last year.  Mea culpa!

Visit a Sustainable/Organic Farm

You can look up local farms in your area here and here.  It is a great way to meet the people who grow your food, and learn a bit about how things are done.  Some farms are part of an organization that encourages people to volunteer at farms to learn more about the agraiein life. 

If P. Allen Smith’s farm was closer to me, I would go there in a heart-beat, as he is the guru of all things green.  Actually, he’s a Renaissance man: in addition to gardening and farming, he cooks, paints, writes, designs, builds, chops wood – I don’t know, he may even sing or play an instrument. 

And he’s good looking.

That is just wrong.

Buy Fresh, Buy Local

This is the mantra of the Piedmont Environmental Council ~ love them! ~ and it is a great economy booster.  You use less gas driving there, and you help create a vibrant and sustainable community.  Plus it’s fun!  Especially if you live in a great small town with cute downtown areas filled with boutique shops and chatty owners and salespeople like I do.   

And of course, we can all start small by carrying around reusable bags [they come in such cute patterns now too!] and not using the plastic ones; buying less items with plastic containers, and donating our gently used items to Goodwill, Salvation Army, or St. Vincent’s.  One woman’s trash is another’s treasure ~ really! 

I haven’t read it yet, but I just saw an interview of Edward Humes, the author of Garbology, where he talks about how much trash we actually produce and ways to reduce it.

Happy greening!

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What are some other ways you plan to celebrate and preserve our beautiful, bountiful planet?

The Discovery of Awe

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

~ Albert Einstein

Y

 esterday,  I stood gazing up at the sky with about a thousand other people on the National Mall, waiting for a glimpse of the Discovery.  It was a perfect day ~ sun-drenched, temperatures in the low 70s, and a flirty breeze.  I walked around with my smarty-pants phone at the ready, talking to chatty strangers and an occasional co-worker.  We were all excited, wondering when and where the shuttle would appear, and whether we would be able to see it without binoculars.



And then someone shouted, “There it is!”  And we turned as one towards the Washington Monument and saw it ~ this giant 747 with Discovery riding on its back like a large bug.  It quickly disappeared behind the trees; some people started running towards the Smithsonian Hirshorn Museum to see if they could catch another glimpse; others looked a little confused and disappointed. What that it?  That’s as much as we’re going to see?



The Discovery shuttle flies over Washington, DC (C) 2012, M D'Eigh



The seers in the group [those with short wave radios, or WTOP playing on their phones] assured us that it was just flying over National Harbor and would be back.  To just be patient.  Wait for it. It would appear again.



And then there it was ~ flying over the Capitol rotunda, over the White House, and back around the Washington Monument and over the Hirshorn.  It made this circle three times.  And each time, I snapped blindly away, the sun was in my eyes.  As well as tears.  Because Discovery was saying goodbye. 

And I hate goodbyes.

But the tears were also because of awe.  Awe that we, mankind, had gazed at the stars for a long time, and dreamed of reaching them.  And then we did.  How amazing is that?!  We imagined what it would be like and then we did it.

Last Saturday, I attended a lecture co-hosted by The Saint Cecilia Group and the John Paul II Fellowship.  It was the first in a series of talks that explores the relationship between art and faith.

During Saturday’s lecture titled The Healing Power of Art: The Role of Art in Reaching the Wounded, Dr. Andre Leyva, the President of Montgomery Clinical Services in Gaithersburg, Maryland, mentioned that we have become immune to beauty, even blind to it.  We walk around with our heads bent over our smarty-pants phones, and never see the beauty that surrounds us. 

We are unmoved.

And thinking about the exhilarating rush of seeing the Discovery fly overhead, the tears stinging my eyes as its retirement brought to mind loved ones who were also growing older, I wondered. Is it really as bad as that?  Have the majority of us lost the ability to lost our breath at brilliant sunrise or sunset?  Do we no longer feel anything when a parade goes by?  Does the thought of a Puccini opera make our eyes glaze over?

Have we forgotten how to be in awe?

There is no doubt that a crisis is brewing.  Certainly, it is a challenge to reach a generation who has never known what is like to live without the constant hum of technology. 

But standing amidst that crowd of excited Discovery watchers, and seeing all the subsequent Facebook statuses and tweets about it, I have reason to hope.  Yes, we had our smarty-pants phones out, but it was because we were aware of being part of something historic.  Something amazing.  Something awe-inspiring.

Beauty is not dead yet, and neither is our sensitivity to her.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

Did you see Discovery with your own eyes yesterday?  How did it make you feel?  Do you think it is more difficult to be sensitive to beauty with all the technology we have?  Or does the technology put us more in touch with beauty?