BirchLane.net
April 2006Monday 30
Tags. Fascinating article over at Strobist on Flickr and tags and getting recognition, featuring in Part Three Sara Lando, who was once featured in an issue of BirchLane.
Sunday 29
Baptism.
Saturday 28
Honey-Thyme Chicken.
Giving Chicken a Sweet Touch
A Texas chef fries his bird with honey and adds
an herb sauce for a 'global Southwestern' mealBy CHARLOTTE KAISER WEINBERG
April 14, 2007; Page P9 The Wall Street JournalTHE CHEF: Stephan Pyles is a fifth-generation Texan and 24-year veteran of the restaurant industry. After learning the ropes at his family's truck-stop cafe, Mr. Pyles trained at the Great Chefs of France program at Robert Mondavi's Napa Valley winery in the 1980s. He has had 14 restaurants, the most recent of which is an eponymous eatery that opened in November 2005 in Dallas's Arts District.
KNOWN FOR: Though schooled in nouvelle cuisine, Mr. Pyles gained acclaim as a champion of Southwestern regional fare at restaurants like Routh Street Cafe and Star Canyon. At Stephan Pyles, he combines the ingredients and techniques of the Old World (Spain) with those of the New World (Central and South America) into what he calls "global Southwestern" cooking.
THE MEAL: Mr. Pyles's fried chicken and whipped sweet potatoes were longtime favorites on the menu of his now-defunct Dallas restaurant, Baby Routh. He still teaches the dishes in his cooking classes and occasionally offers them as specials at his current restaurant. "I was raised on my mother's fried chicken, and this would be my last supper," he says. The chef suggests serving it for a Saturday dinner with a chilled soup or fresh salad to start, and a traditional dessert like peach pecan crisp with cinnamon ice cream.
Honey-Fried Chicken and Thyme-Mint Cream
For honey-fried chicken:
1 chicken, 3 to 3 1/2 pounds
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons raspberry or other fruit vinegar
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons cayenne powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
Vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to tasteFor thyme-mint cream sauce:
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
11/2 cups heavy cream
11/2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon reserved marinade
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste• Cut the chicken into 8 pieces (breasts, drumsticks, thighs, and wings), and place into a large resealable plastic bag, reserving the backbone and neck for stock if you like. Stir the honey and vinegar together and pour into the bag over the chicken and toss to coat evenly. Seal bag and let chicken marinate for at least 2 hours and no more than 12 hours in the refrigerator.
• When ready to cook the chicken, preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Combine the flours and cayenne in a wide shallow bowl and set aside. In another wide shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs and buttermilk.
• Remove the chicken from the marinade and drain on paper towels. Strain the marinade and reserve 1 tablespoon for the sauce, discarding rest. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, season with salt and pepper, and dredge in the flour-cayenne mixture, coating thoroughly.
• Pour oil to a depth of 1 inch in a large heavy skillet, and heat over medium-high heat until temperature registers 300 degrees on a candy thermometer; cooking at a low temperature will prevent the honey from caramelizing too quickly and burning before the chicken is cooked through.
• Working in batches and starting with the dark meat first, gently drop the chicken pieces into the hot oil for 5 to 6 minutes on the first side until browned. Turn the pieces and continue cooking, adjusting the heat so that the chicken browns evenly on both sides without burning. Turn once more and cook until well browned, and tender when pierced with a fork. The dark meat should cook for about 15 minutes, and the white meat about 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a metal rack set over a baking sheet as done and keep warm in the oven while making the sauce.
• To prepare the sauce, very carefully ladle the hot oil from the pan into a pot (and discard once cool). Pour off the last of the oil from the skillet, leaving any bits on the bottom. Deglaze the pan with the white wine over medium-high heat, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the chicken stock and reduce the liquid by half, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the cream, mint, thyme, lemon zest and reserved marinade, and reduce until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5 to 6 minutes. Strain the sauce and season with salt and pepper. (Yield: 1¼ cups.)
* * *
Spicy Whipped Sweet Potatoes
Yields: 5 cups
Active preparation time: 8 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes2 pounds sweet potatoes (about 2 large potatoes), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
8 ounces russet potato (about 1 medium), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
6 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 tablespoon pure chile powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature• Combine the potatoes in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain well and transfer the potatoes to a food processor. Add the maple syrup, salt, cayenne, and chile powder. Process for 1 minute while adding the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. If not serving immediately, reheat in a pan, stirring often, and serve.
NOTE: I used Chicken Breasts and I baked them. Also; next time I am going to try mashing the potatoes in stead of whipping.
Friday 27
In Remembrance.
The word, which is often translated simply as prayer,
means literally 'wish-path' (Tibetan: smon-lam).
It is not a request to an external deity,
but a method of purifying and directing the mind.
It acts as inspiration by arousing the mind's inherent desire for good,
which attracts the fulfillment of its aim.Thursday 26
Cream in the Bottom of The Coffee Cup and Wrestling with Angels.
I wonder if there is
Cream in the bottom
Of the coffee cup
Wednesday 25
A Passionate Woman. Today I photographed art (paintings and sculpture) at two homes in New York City.
Tuesday 24
Miraculous.
by George BilgereThey sit around the house
not doing much of anything: the boxed set
of the complete works of Verdi, unopened.
The complete Proust, unread:The French-cut silk shirts
which hang like expensive ghosts in the closet
and make me look exactly
like the kind of middle-aged man
who would wear a French-cut silk shirt:The reflector telescope I thought would unlock
the mysteries of the heavens
but which I only used once or twice
to try to find something heavenly
in the windows of the high-rise down the road,
and which now stares disconsolately at the ceiling
when it could be examining the Crab Nebula:The 30-day course in Spanish
whose text I never opened,
whose dozen cassette tapes remain unplayed,save for Tape One, where I never learned
whether the suave American
conversing with a sultry-sounding desk clerk
at a Madrid hotel about the possibility
of obtaining a room
actually managed to check in.I like to think
that one thing led to another between them
and that by Tape Six or so
they're happily married
and raising a bilingual child in Seville or Terra Haute.But I'll never know.
Suddenly I realize
I have constructed the perfect home
for a sexy, Spanish-speaking astronomer
who reads Proust while listening to Italian arias,and I wonder if somewhere in this teeming city
there lives a woman with, say,
a fencing foil gathering dust in the corner
near her unused easel, a rainbow of oil paints
drying in their tubeson the table where the violin
she bought on a whim
lies entombed in the permanent darkness
of its locked case
next to the abandoned chess set,a woman who has always dreamed of becoming
the kind of woman the man I've always dreamed of becoming
has always dreamed of meeting.And while the two of them discuss star clusters
and Cézanne, while they fence delicately
in Castilian Spanish to the strains of Rigoletto,she and I will stand in the steamy kitchen,
fixing up a little risotto,
enjoying a modest cabernet,
while talking over a day so ordinary
as to seem miraculous.Monday 23
Today. For days I had been thinking this was the day. Today. April 23. Why?
There are things to be said. No doubt.
And in one way or another
they will be said. But to whom tell
the silences? With whom share them
now? For a moment the sky is
empty and then there was a bird.
—Cid Corman
from "There Are Things to be Said"Sunday 22
Lemon Salmon and Spinach Pasta. Susan came over for dinner and I made this:
Recipe:
1. Cook about 3/4 pound salmon. Cool. Cut into bite size pieces.
2. Cook some fettuccine or farfalle (I used farfalle.)
3. Melt 4 teaspoons butter in large skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil. Add 2 cloves garlic (minced), 1/4 cup minced onion, 1/2 cup shredded carrot, 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel, 1/4+ teaspoon red pepper flakes---cook approximately 7 minutes. Add 1/4 cup white wine and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Then add 3--4 cups baby spinach--cook.
4. Add salmon.
5. Serve with Susan's salad and red wine.
Susan made a sumptuous salad:
Earlier in the day Danielle came over and we went for a beautiful walk.
Saturday 21
Mrs. Massachusetts and Murphy's Law. Today I drove to Seekonk, Massachusetts to photograph the Mrs. Massachusetts Pageant. Soon after arriving, I learned that two photographers were mistakenly hired and then, minutes later, both my strobes broke. But I took a deep breath and read from my book of affirmations:
When you feel defenseless do not rush about trying to met the situation head on with some outer action. Become quiet, and work inwardly to attain an uplifted state of mind. Then observe circumcision by using your "no" power of the mind to cut off fear. When you no longer feel fearful, you are well on your way to achieving successful results in what you had thought was in "impossible" situation. I take only the good from each experience. I let the rest go. I am not hypnotized by present circumstances, events or situations. They too, shall pass. I begin now to recognize a better set of circumstances as possible for me. My progress is swift and joyous. Yes, I mentally accept and claim my highest good now. Lord, I am ready.
I withdraw my strong thoughts and feeling from negative appearance in every form. I do not dwell upon problems, my own or those of others. I do not try to explain them even if they temporarily appear. I let them go, and begin again y reflecting upon the lavish blessings that are my heritage. I invite greater good, even lavish abundance, into every phase of my life now. As I give it my attention, I attract it. In this expectancy, I rejoice and give thanks.
No. No. No. I do not fear this situation. No person or event can keep from me that which the universe has for me now. My good cannot be withheld from me in this situation. My good cannot be taken from me in this situation. All obstacles and barriers to my good are now dissolved quickly and in peace.
~Catherine Ponder
As I meditated upon these affirmations, I remembered that when I photographed events at Hearst Magazines I had simply a camera and a flash; soon I felt at peace.
Mrs. Worcester upon learning she is the new Mrs. Massachusetts.
Friday 20
@7:25 this morning. The Lower Mill Pond. Easthampton, Massachusetts. Sepia version here:
Thursday 19
Toasted Ravioli. Daryl and Kiley came over for dinner and I made Toasted Ravioli:
STEP ONE: While your oven is pre-heating at 400, take your cooked four cheese ravioli and brush with Italian Salad Dressing.
STEP TWO: Dust your cooked four cheese ravioli with a mixture of bread crumbs and Italian Seasoning (I used parsley, mint, basil, and a few other things). Cook for 8--10 minutes.
STEP THREE: Take your ravioli out of the oven and dab each ravioli with a bit of Mild Salsa (I used one that had corn in it!!!). Put back in oven for about 5 minutes. Serve. We had this with Baked Salmon (which had been marinating in white wine and grapefruit juice) and salad. Between steps Two and Three, I showered and changed shirts.
Daryl and Kiley relaxing after dinner:
Wednesday 18
Turkey Meatloaf. Susan came over for dinner. I made Turkey Meatloaf, Twice Baked Potatoes, Broccoli with Garlic, White Wine and Red Pepper Flakes.
Turkey Meat Loaf
1 Package Lean Ground Turkey
1 or 2 Carrots finely grated
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2-3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 cup catsup
1/2-3/4 cup salsa
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2-3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
some parsley and dash or two of marjoram
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grate carrot, add lightly beaten egg, then add all the other stuff and mix. Form as a loaf in a baking pan. If you like, put a few strips of bacon on top--or some catsup. Bake for about one hour, maybe a bit more; cut a slice off and make sure it is no longer pink in center. Hey, that's one of the fun things about being the cook; you get to taste everything first! Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes and salad--and red wine. And music. And love.
Tuesday 17
Susan's House. Dinner at Susan's tonight.
Monday 16
Bruce and Nadine.
His name, too,
was Bruce.
Bruce Severy.
He lived in Santa Monica.
A poet and lover of life;
an admired teacher;
a friend--a friend
and yet we had not
talked in years and
this morning I read
of his passing. Bless
him and his family
and his many friends.
Oh, we would mail things
to each other; he would send
his latest zine or chapbook,
or pages and pages of poems
in progress and I would send
him the latest issue of BirchLane,
Helena's exhibition catalog, and
photographs I would send, too--
but we hadn't talked in years.
Damn.
.
Bruce was also a photographer
in the Dakota Photo Documentary Project,
a high school English teacher,
and held a Master of Fine Arts
in Creative Writing from Bowling Green University.
.
Interesting:
.
"Bruce Severy, the only English teacher in Drake High School in 1973, submitted Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five to his superiors. Receiving no answer, he used it in his course as a "lively contemporary book." A student's objection to it, led to a school board meeting where a local minister dubbed the book "...a tool of the Devil." The school board, after hearing some long and impassioned rhetoric, and deciding they didn't really need to actually read the book, ordered it burned.
The objections to it were: Objectionable language", "Criticizes government actions", "...is an indictment of war", ...is Anti-American", ...is unpatriotic" "Young people may refuse to serve in future combats after reading about the horrors of war...". Vonnegut's comment was that: "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre."
Bruce's wife writes:
It was as he would have
wanted - he was at home,
it was peaceful and quiet,
he was in no pain,
his beloved sister Janet was
with us, and he was in my arms.We will be having a Memorial service for Bruce
at 11:00 AM on Saturday, April 21, 2007
at Gateway Christian Church 11760
Gateway Blvd, Los Angeles, CA.
This is where Bruce and I first met,
at the beginning of the Lenten season in 1999,
and where members of both of our families
have attended for many years. Bruce has always
considered the Minister, David McAllister,
to be one of his best friends
and Gateway to be his spiritual home.Bruce was a wonderful, kind, caring man
-- a loving, loyal and devoted father,
husband, brother, and son - a brilliant teacher
and story-teller through his poetry,
and my best friend. I shall miss him
more than I can express - I expect that we all
will miss him. "I met Bruce because I was first a friend with his first wife, Jan, a student and graduate of Mt Holyoke College. Jan and I were good friends when Betsy and I lived next to the campus and once Jan took me to the Opera in New York City. Flash forward: they have a house in Santa Monica and a few years later they are divorced but not before they came to visit Betsy and me (and Danielle) in Northampton (There are photographs of us all standing on the top of a mountain!). Sigh. Life is short and unpredictable. Note to self: Bruce, you saw Cindy one month ago and still have not written her, John and Pat!!!
I took Nadine to the vet today. It has been a little bit over one year we have been together. I thought it was time for a check-up. Plus, she has been very vocal the past few weeks; I thought (wrongly) this might be due to me spending time with Susan, out of the loft. Although the blood work results will not be back till Wednesday, the doctor said she has both a heart murmur and a hyper thyroid--thus the increased vocalization; and likely surgery. And her teeth need to come out.
Here she is playing for the camera Sunday morning:
Sunday 15
Snow. And then rain. And this Susan read to me:
He prayeth well who loveth well
Both men and bird and beast;
He prayeth best who loveth best
All thing both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
~Coleridge
Saturday 14
A Wedding and An Exhibition. Today I booked my first wedding through Brookview Studios and was asked to exhibit my photographs during Easthampton Arts Walk in September.
Friday 13
Dinner with Susan and David.
Thursday 12
Love Stories. Today a friend told me a love story. A story about his grandmother and grandfather. A story of fate. A story of two young Russian women, recent émigrés to America, taking a trip to an art school in New York City to watch the young men draw and paint and sculpt and with one young man on young Russian women fell in love.
Wednesday 11
Memory.
The moments of the past do not remain still. They retain in our memory the motion which drew them toward the future, towards a future which has itself become the past, and draw us on in their train.
Tuesday 10
The support of a local network of prospering artists. That is what is written on the Eastworks website at the living link. I never noticed the statement before, but today I couldn't but help think about how true and how powerful: the support of a local network of prospering artists.
Monday 09
Many Things. When I looked at this photograph of Nadine all I could think of was that she must be thinking, "It's already Monday?"
After three wonderful days spent with friends and family, today I worked on my Business Plan, which I promised to Susan (and my niece Nina and sister-in-law Debbie) I would have completed sometime this week; I also worked on Heather's website, Becca's album, and picked out some photos for my new website--in addition to working on editing the photos of the art collection and spending time in meditation.
Sunday 08
Easter Sunday. A beautiful day: church with Daryl, Danielle and Mike; supper with them at Betsy's and John's house; and then time with Susan.
Saturday 07
Early Easter Dinner. Of course our Dad (here pictured in an old photograph) was not there but
but in spirit he was with us. At Michelle's house we all gathered and as I said grace I could not but feel that Dad was present--his spirit, his light.
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world; Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
~John 8:12, NIVFriday 06
Soup. Daryl and Kiley, Danielle and Mike, and Susan came over for dinner tonight. I made this:
Thursday 05
Visualization. Such an important concept; isn't it? Visualization.
It's made from a single piece of paper, with no cutting.
Asked how he manages to create something so complicated without the help of a computer, Kamiya pauses to consider. "I see it finished," he says finally. "And then"--he stares off, as though visualizing the imaginary object--"I unfold it. In my mind. One piece at a time." Jennifer Kahn, "The War of the Origami Bugs," Muse 11, no. 4 (April 2007): 10.Wednesday 04
Passion. I want to write about the art I have been photographing this past week.
Tuesday 03
See Under:
By any other word would smell as sweet."
~From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
[Jump to the quote in the text of the play]"It is at the edge of the petal that love waits."
~William Carlos Williams"Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you." ~ ~Richard B Sheridan 1751-1816
"Gather the rose of love whilst yet is time."
~Edmund SpenserI'd rather have roses on my table
than diamonds 'round my neck.
~Emma GoldmanMonday 02
No Vanilla Ice Cream. The people who own the restaurant in the building where I live are smart marketers. I believe this to be true because of a two recent promotions: a week-long price fixed menu coupled with a subtle, yet dramatic, statement of belief: "We have no vanilla ice cream."
It is a vision. A vision that holds a business together. A vision that provides continuity amidst turbulence. A vision wide enough to allow for opportunity. A vision that does not require exhaustive analysis. It is sketched, over time, from a deep knowledge of the restaurant's internal capabilities, traditions, and values. And the only way to make the vision real is through superior execution and creativity. That's the key.
And that's what I noticed as soon as our wonderful waitress greeted us. She said (and perfectly executed what she said): "We have no vanilla ice cream;" as if to suggest: "Bruce, Susan, Dennis, Debbie, we are not your ordinary restaurant. There is nothing vanilla about us. We are more like coffee and chocolate. Sensual. Loving."
Too many restaurants expend enormous energy simply to reproduce the cost and quality advantages their competitors already enjoy. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it will not lead to competitive revitalization. Strategic vision as exhibited in this restaurant provides consistency to short-term action while leaving room for reinterpretation as new opportunities emerge. It captures (cooks, delivers, and satisfies) the essence of winning--of success; setting a target that requires and deserves personal effort and commitment: "We have no vanilla ice cream."
This strategic vision requires a restaurant to be more inventive, if you will, to make the most of limited resources. It implies not playing a game better, but fundamentally changing the game--devising novel approaches to customer satisfaction. For smart marketers the goal is not competitive imitation but competitive innovation.
Peter Drucker has said that the way to grow a business is through marketing, "because its purpose is to create a customer." But if marketing is everything and everything is marketing, as I believe it is, then marketing demands love; for love is truly a matter of constant giving - a matter of acting for the benefit and satisfaction of others; and what better, more pleasurable, way to grow your business. No vanilla ice cream becomes a branding and positioning statement; "There is nothing vanilla about our restaurant. Nothing vanilla because we love you."
A restaurant that takes a means-ways-ends approach to strategic planning assumes everybody is responsible for its prosperity. Its success rests on its ability to exploit opportunities as they arise, on its ingenuity, on its capacity to learn, on its determination and persistence. A restaurant's identity is what distinguishes it from another and is measured in the eyes and stomachs of its customers by what they receive--their perception of what they receive. Positioning is what the restaurant does in the minds and stomachs of its customers. There is, in fact, nothing vanilla about positioning and nothing vanilla about my favorite restaurant.
And no rats:
Sunday 01
Palm Sunday.
