Julia Slaughter

Archive for September, 2009

Yesterday I woke up and opened the door to let the dogs out and I braced myself for the worse. I was prepared for the heat to wrap itself around me like a damp hot towel, and instead I was pleasantly surprised when cool crisp air welcomed me. I stepped out in the cold dark morning  in my bare feet and night gown and reveled in that feeling that perhaps Fall is finally here. I drove to work with my windows down and stopped by Starbucks to indulge myself with a Spiced Pumpkin Latte, which sounds horrible but is absolutely delightful! It’s deliciously Fall, in a way that can only be eclipsed by the smell of freshly baked Pumpkin Bread.The five day forecast promises more of this Fall weather, and I refuse to look past those days in case there’s an Indian Summer lurking around the corner.

I love Fall, like some people seem to love Spring. I long to go home and open the windows and let the fresh air in to touch all the dark and shadowy corners that have been untouched since Summer set in around me. I long to fire up the oven and make Pumpkin Bread and warm soups and stews with savory smells. I wish I had a hammock and I would spend the day in the dappled sunshine, reading and napping to my heart’s content. I just love this time of year.

I think for other people Fall is the threat that Winter is coming, but for me it’s the promise of Winter. I love Winter too. Of course I live in a part of the country where Winter is pretty mild, there’s no snowstorms to keep us home bound, in fact there’s hardly any snow at all. (Every few years we get an inch or so.) Fall and Winter bring some of my favorite holidays – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and of course Mardi Gras.

Sadly, I’m at work so instead of getting to enjoy this beautiful Fall day, I’m sitting at a desk day dreaming but in my heart I’m in a hammock with a book in my hand, dozing off.

Before I roll up my sleeves and get into this, I should tell you – I’ve never been to England, or anywhere else where they have teatime in earnest. I’ve always liked the way it sounds though. I imagine lovely teas with dainty sandwiches and small but decadent desserts, served on beautiful and elegant dishes. I don’t know that I was much on Tea Parties when I was a little girl but as I’ve grown up to appreciate food and the insight it offers to different cultures, I’ve always thought it would be interesting to participate in tea time.

Over the weekend, I got my chance as there was a celebration at the Shamrock, Rose, and Thistle Tea Room. Ironically I drive by this little gem several times a week and I had no idea where it was until Saturday! However, it’s a lovely little building set back off a busy road and when you pull back into the parking lot you feel like you’re crossing a threshold where all of life’s problems are left behind, it’s lovely.

The table I sat at was beautifully set, but I was thrilled to notice that each place setting was very distinctive and though they weren’t all uniform there was a certain beauty in the mismatched place settings. I liked my place setting the best!

We tried an iced tea and a hot tea, and sadly I’ve already forgotten the name of the hot tea. For the iced tea we had a white tea called Strawberry Seduction. We got it sweetened and I was pleased to discover despite the fact that we were in the South, it wasn’t Southern sweet tea where there is so much sugar in it that it almost overpowers the taste of the actual tea. It was light and refreshing, absolutely wonderful.

Just as we were settling into our teas, they brought out the tea fare or as I liked to call it – the Tower of Treats!

On the bottom level, they had scones – a traditional raisin and pralines and cream for the other two. I went for the traditional raisin with the lemon curd on it, it was amazing. I felt that the scones were heavier and more dense than biscuits, but in a wonderful and pleasant way. I also used the lemon curd on it and thought that was amazing! I loved the light lemon taste and the gentle creamy texture.

I sadly cannot tell you what a single of the savory sandwhiches were in the middle were, I should’ve been paying closer attention I suppose. There was a quiche with broccoli and cheese which I passed on (I’m not one for broccoli) but my companions found delightful. There was one sandwhich with Roast Beef and Cream Cheese on it, that I tried and enjoyed. There was a third sandwhich which had three pieces of bread and colorful spreads in between each layer. I think one of the layers was something with a beat. The flavor was so delicate I couldn’t really place it. The final tier was desset, and I’m a total loss for what I ate! There was something with puff pastry and a delicate shell with some sort of mousse in it. Quite frankly, I could’ve just had scones and been perfectly satisfied. (Clearly since I paid very little attention to anything else!)

I know growing up in New Orleans there were places that had high tea, but I was too young to appreciate that kind of thing, I wish I had taken advantage of those places now. I wonder if there are places like this all over, but I just never noticed them until now? I also wonder how authentic my tea experience was. I did like the slogan of Shamrock, Rose, and Thistle – British Tradition with a Southern Accent. If you’re ever in my neck of the woods – you should check them out!

http://www.shamrockroseandthistle.com/index.asp

As I may have mentioned a few times, in July I went to Comic Con and while I was there I was dragged, practically kicking and screaming, by my friend Rod to see the Eastwick panel. I never saw the movie, the Witches of Eastwick, and I am a reluctant fan of witches at best. Vampires and Werewolves I’m always willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but witches have to win me over before I’m willing to spend any of my hard earned money on them! I don’t really know why I’m that way, but I am…

Anyway, Rod announced that we were going to see the Eastwick panel for ABC’s new show and I rolled my eyes. He went on and on about how great the movie was, and was grievously wounded when I admitted that I had never seen it. When they announced that they were going to show us the entire premier and they dimmed the lights, I counted myself lucky that we only have an hour to go before the panel is over, and then – it got me. I don’t know when it happened but suddenly I realized that I wasn’t just tolerating the show but I was enjoying it.

The characters are well played by their perspective actresses and actors. I have to admit that Paul Gross, who plays Darryl Van Horne, stole the scenes that he was in and afterwards he stole the panel every time he talked. I suppose that he’s following in big footsteps since his role was played by Jack Nicholson in the movie but I think he owns the role completely when he’s playing it. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Eastwick starts in earnest tonight on ABC, I can’t remember the time exactly and I guess it would vary from time zone to time zone, but if you get a chance check it out.

I was born and raised in New Orleans, and even now that I’ve moved I still consider New Orleans to be my hometown. “Do you know what it means to Miss New Orleans?” brings tears to my eyes, more so today than when I moved almost fifteen years ago. I love the City That Care Forgot, the crazy politics that pit crooks and klansmen against each other, the food,the music, the style that is completely unique to the city.

I’ve lived in different places along the Gulf Coast and I’ve grown to appreciate the unique charm and flavor that each provides, Pensacola where the white beaches permeate the whole community with a laid back beach attitude and Mobile with its proud history and beautiful pageantry. However, this time of year despite the places where I’ve visited or the places I’ve called home I start day dreaming about some place I’ve never really been.

I live in a part of the South where it’s green pretty much year round. In the Winter I’m grateful that the highways are lined with green instead of the blues and greys of my friends in the North but in the Fall I long to see the leaves change. We have a tree or two, here or there that will blaze to herald the Fall but for the most part, it’s just green and in September, on the first day of Fall – it’s still hot. (Today we’re expecting highs in the upper 80′s)

A Picture of Fall Leaves from Sleddogmusic.com

Every year I promise myself that I’m going to back up my car one weekend and drive North until I find Fall, beautiful brilliant colors to mark that Fall is here. However, I haven’t managed to pull it off yet, it seems like there’s always too much to do, but today I’m looking at the heating rising off the asphalt dreaming of the colors of Fall. I’ve also been poking around blogs reading about things like apple picking and fall baking, and I look forward to the smell of Pumpkin Bread coming out of the oven soon.

As I may have mentioned before, I was really excited to see the footage for James Cameron’s Avatar at Comic Con. They showed over 20 minutes of footage and it was amazing! Well today I realized that I merely provided a link to the trailer when I could actually post it here. I can’t wait to see it! It’s only a mere three months away!

I am in a book club, we’re a small group, there are just three of us but we all share a love for books. I like the way we talk about books, as a group we aren’t into dissecting the writing or the grammar but we like to talk about the characters and the stories focusing on what we liked rather than what we didn’t like.

Mr.Fitzwilliam Darcy

Last month I got to pick and selected Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, so I suppose it’s inevitable that the conversations turned to Jace. I was fascinated and intrigued to see that my friends were cheering for Jace and Clary, just the way I was. As the discussion went on and on somehow comparisons were made from Jace to Jane Austen’s Mr.Darcy and my friend Lisa wanted to know what it is about men like Jace and Mr.Darcy that makes women like them so much. I have contemplated Lisa’s question for days because frankly of our triumvirate, I am the one with the most dating experience and I have come to this conclusion – Mr.Darcy has gotten a bad rap.

I admit that Mr.Darcy is a bit of clod, but I don’t really think he’s quite the literary bad boy that he’s made out to be. His time was a time when there was a very definite class system in place, a class system that people lived and died by. I mean really think of all the drama that surrounded Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles and that was in 1990′s, Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in the 1800′s.

Here we have a man who takes honor and responsibility very seriously, and when he meets our heroine he is practically engaged to someone suitable who was picked out by his family. (Well actually his future wife IS family, a cousin which was a pretty common place event for that time period as well.) He’s in the company of a friend he is dearly devoted to who is kind and very easily influenced by the people around him, and who Mr.Darcy clearly feels like he has to look out for. Can we really blame him for not immediately recognizing the finer points of our Miss Bennet?

Okay, so Mr.Darcy rises above all of his preconceived notions and falls for Miss Bennet and she, rightfully, crucifies him for being such a clod. Now any other man in the face of the telling off that he gets, would slink off with his tail in between his legs and never be seen my any Bennet or friend of Bennet again. However, our honorable and noble Mr.Darcy doesn’t fuss or fight, but he sets about making things right. (I could also point out that Miss Bennet wasn’t entirely right in all of her accusations but Mr.Darcy doesn’t quibble over these things he is a man of action.) So really, how does any of this translate to him being a bad boy? Clod, absolutely, but not a bad boy.

Jace, who I absolutely adore is a bad boy. He is sneering and rude to Clary when he meets her. He’s later seen canoodling with some pixie chick, and rumor has it he’s done alot more than canoodling. He is a fierce warrior with a ton of redeeming qualities but really can you trust him with your heart? I’m not so sure.

So Jace, beautiful and redeemable but bad boy; Mr.Darcy beautiful, akward, but merely a bit of a clod and really how can you not love someone like that?

My "To Be Read" stack of books

I keep a stack of books “To Be Read” and despite the fact that you can see my list in the Now Reading  section of my website, I couldn’t resist snapping a quick picture of them.  I feel real anxiety if I don’t have at least one book in the stack, because what if I finish what I’m reading and the bookstores are inconviently closed? What would I do? (I know that sounds so silly!) I take at least three books with me if I go on vacation just in case between plane rides and hotel rooms I end up knocking out more than one. Yes it’s true, I am a book loving fool.

I have a confession – I am a food blog junkie. I’ve never really got into reading blogs, in their infancy I would find someone interesting, read along for a while and then inevitably they would stop updating or they would go somewhere that I couldn’t follow and I would stop reading. I haven’t really paid much attention to this whole blogging thing since the late 1990′s, which is ironic I suppose since now I’m writing one.

I was first called back into blogs by some of my favorite authors – George RR Martin and Neil Gaiman offered a unique window into their world and their lives through their blogs. (Even though GRRM maintains that his is NOT a blog.) I look forward to Neil Gaiman’s updates on his beehives with genuine interest. I admit that sometimes George RR Martin dips into politics which I find rather dull, I do like hearing about his travels with his wife and following along with one of my favorite series.

I don’t remember how it happened but one day I stumbled across a food blog and I felt like I had found buried treasure. I liked seeing real pictures of food that people had cooked, not super beautiful glamor shots that make me feel inadequate when my food doesn’t look like the picture in the book. I liked real recipes that acknowledge that perhaps after a full day at work I might need a recipe that can be prepared in under an hour.

Many food blogs are all linked together and so from that first blog, I went on to another site, and then another. I loved seeing what different people were cooking, and I was fascinated when I found food blogs written by people from other ethnic backgrounds. They use exotic ingredients I’ve never heard of but the bowls of shimmery green soup are intriguing.

I suppose it was a natural evolution for me to start reading food blogs, I’ve fallen in love with Ruth Reichl’s books about food. I love that she tells you something touching and personal and then punctuates those stories with recipes from her personal kitchen. My mouth waters at the way she describes food – it’s wonderful. She really made me start paying attention to what I was eating, not just how it tasted but the textures and the experience of what I was easting.

I’d like to tell you that at some point in time I’d venture to share my recipes and pictures of my concoctions here with you, but the truth is – that’s not really the way I cook. I usually start with a base recipe and then I twist it around until I’m no longer even bothering to measure anymore. I could never tell anyone how to make my Crawfish Pie, I merely get into the kitchen and make it, I need someone else to follow behind me and write down what I pick up and put in there.

Now that I’ve started this it’s really got me thinking…I wonder what’s for dinner?