Hummus: Keeping Your Herbs in Check

Having fresh herbs within arm's reach is one of the best parts of summer, but don't turn your back for a minute!  Your basil will get woody; your dill will get flowery.  Those two love being clipped, so they can send out new growth.  Hummus is one way to use a lot of those herbs in between other delicious recipes.  You will need a food processor for sure.

I keep the basic ingredients for hummus year round, but adding fresh herbs in the summer makes something very simple sing.  One slight difference is that I never have tahini, so look elsewhere for a how-to that includes the tasty sesame seed paste.

3 cups cooked garbanzo beans, or 2 cans
juice from 1/2 of a lemon (Add as much as you want!)
2 garlic cloves (crushed and minced)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 to 2 teaspoons sea salt
¼ cup water reserved from the can of beans
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil*

*Below are the modifications I make to the basic plan.   I hold off on the olive oil because I use sun dried tomatoes packed in oil.   Some of the oil comes with them, so I eyeball how much of the other olive oil I should use to make up for the difference.

If you want to add Parmesan cheese, skip the salt.   You can adjust the salt to taste at the end of the blend.

Give two handfuls of sun dried tomatoes a rough chop and add them to the bowl.

Add a teaspoon of dried pepper flakes.

At this point, I add either dill or basil because those are the two that always need clipping.

If you are adding fresh dill, you can snip it with scissors.

If you are adding basil, you can do a quick chiffonade.

All of this goes for a spin in the food processor.  Add as much of the herbs as you want.  A spatula will help you scrape down the sides, so everything gets blended.

Hummus is a treat that's easy to share, so you may as well make a second batch while you've dirtied up the bowl of your food processor.  

Dreaming of Summer's Meat and Three

I'm starting to reminisce on last year's summer garden.  We had such great luck with tomatoes and peppers that I could just cry about it every time I'm in the produce section of the local markets.  Tomatoes aren't fit for consumption until after July 4th; I only eat grape tomatoes from the grocery store to carry me through the winter.  Sure, I use canned tomato products for soups and chillies and such, but I turn my nose up to any tomato larger than a grape after the season ends in the fall.

You'll know you're almost to the Farmer's Daughter when you see this beehive.

Last year we had the sprawlinest yellow pear tomato vines you ever did see.  We didn't stake, cage and trellis our plants at all the right times...and when we got those vines off of the dirt...it was on.  Those yellow pears could have easily trapped passing garden enthusiasts, if they stayed in one spot too long.

We picked those plants up at the Farmer's Daughter on 17, along with some black cherry tomatoes that had already been started by people with more patience than I have.  Being an heirloom, I didn't have high expectations for the black cherry, so I didn't leave her enough room.  She was gorgeous, a sight to behold.  She also produced fruit well into the fall.

Black cherry tomatoes in my McCarty pottery bowl from Merigold, MS.

Jalapenos and Hungarian wax peppers.

During the summer, there are so many wonderful sides, the main course doesn't have to me so, well, main.   I have a simple recipe for you that you can use when your seasonal fruits and vegetables take up a lot of room on your plate.  Get ready for Perfect Pan Roasted Chicken Thighs!  You'll need a cast iron skillet, skin-on chicken thighs, salt, pepper and oil...and a day where setting your oven to 475 F for about 18 minutes of cook time won't put you flat out on the kitchen floor.  In addition to the directions in this recipe, I trim down the excess chicken skin; there will be plenty left for the fat to render.  

Also, I highly recommend buying some handle mitts.  Cast iron is heavy, and I can never get a safe grip using a tea towel and my small hands.  I tend to burn oven mitts, so slipping a mitt on the handle works better for me.  If you don't have your family's cast iron, Le Creuset's enameled cast iron will put you in the poor house, but you'll still want to make a spot in your bed for your precious cookware...it's that awesome.  In the list of items-to-grab-on-your-way-out-of-your-burning-house, your Le Creuset will be in your top ten.  (T.J. Maxx sometimes sells this brand, but the sticker is still shocking, if you are not independently wealthy.)  If you frequent Cracker Barrel, they usually carry Lodge cast iron in their store shop, but I haven't tried that brand yet.

Bruce's Complete Sweet Potato Pancake & Waffle Mix

I can't remember when I discovered Bruce's Complete Sweet Potato Pancake & Waffle Mix, but it was a very good day.  It's possible that you've seen the small bags of it in your own local grocery store; those bags are too small.  You need to go a size up.  If you are unable to find it in your usual haunts, you may want to try a Fresh Market before arranging to have any boxes mailed to you out of desperation.  

While you are shopping, you may also want to pick up some pecans or walnuts.   And that banana that's going south on your kitchen counter, you can add that to the mix as well.

Bruce Foods Corporation is based in New Iberia, Louisiana.   Tabasco sauce is from the same parish, but something tells me you already know all about that pantry item. Please enjoy watching those sweet little bottles winding their way through the factory.

Rehab

My poor pink lawn flamingos.   The pair is weathered and faded.   One even had to have reconstructive beak surgery.   I plucked them from the front yard when I was repainting the screen door a couple of weeks ago and tossed them behind the house until I could figure out where I'd stashed my pink spray paint.   Well, I found that can in a shopping bag in my truck this week, and today was a perfect day to perk those ladies up.   For company, I recommend Pandora's Little Feat Radio using The Band for variety, but that's every day.

If your ladies are in a similar state, you will need 4 black buttons, a tube of Liquid Nails, one chopstick or cotton swab, painter's tape and the spray paint of your choice.   And a dry day.

First, plant the pair somewhere that a little runaway spray paint won't ruin your perfectly manicured lawn.   Wipe them down with soap and water.   Let them drip dry for a bit, and then massage them with a dry paper towel.

Meanwhile, get the eyes ready.   I put my black buttons on top of some flat abalone shell buttons.   Yes, they are delicate, and I imagine I'll have to replace them soon.   It's okay.   This is where the Liquid Nails comes in.   A spare chopstick will help keep it from adhering to your skin...mostly.   Please read all of the warnings before using it.   Also, keep it away from children.

Next, tape off their beaks with the painter's tape.

Shake your spray paint.   Shake it some more.

Spray those birds.

Let them dry.

Let the eyes continue to set while you give the birds another coat.

Drying time again!

Remove the painter's tape.

Glue the eyes to your birds' eye sockets using the Liquid Nails.

Leave them alone a little longer.   Get yourself a cold drink.

Replant the pink ladies in a conspicuous location.

Ain't Nobody Bad Like Super Chikan

A while back, I posted some links all about Super Chikan and his gee tars.   Yesterday we were able to catch Mr. Chikan performing with his Fighting Cocks at the Richmond Folk Festival.   

Roseanne Cash was headlining, but I was not close enough to the action to share any photos.   She opened with "Seven Year Ache" and closed with "Ode to Billy Joe" with solid performances of familiar tunes throughout.

We also were lucky enough to get up close and personal with Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas.   You can catch them here, thanks to someone else's camera work from another festival appearance.

If you tune in to the Kennedy Center website on 10/15 at 6 PM, you can see 

Mr. Williams and his Cha Chas performing LIVE in DC.   If you're in town, it's a free event.

If you need a little more zydeco, I can't resist sharing this Sesame Street bit.   Aaaaaa EEEEEE!

But back to Super Chikan and his all-female backing band, The Fighting Cocks.

You can visit his website.

Loved his shoes.

Check out  Mr. Chikan and La La.

Play that thang!

Our Little Lights Shine

The tomato vines are thinning out as summer draws to a close.   The other tell-tale sign that another season is on the way is eighth grade's open house.   I enjoyed meeting new students and parents.   It was also nice to visit with parents who were coming around again with the younger siblings of students past.

My Mojo

I had my stack of summer reading and my freshly laminated Blues Trail Map and Po' Monkey's poster to share, but I forgot my mojo and specimen jars at home tucked away in a roomy Partagas Black label cigar box.

A paper doily from The Gallery Restaurant in Merigold,MS.
A white egg shell from the Delta State University Campus in Cleveland, MS.
A silk flower petal from the Chinese Cemetery in Greenville, MS.
An admission ticket from Stax Records and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN.
An admission ticket from Po' Monkey's Juke Joint in Merigold, MS.
A flying insect from a lily pond on Highway 444 near Duncan, MS.
Soil from Dockery Farms in Cleveland, MS.
A butterscotch hard candy wrapper from the parking lot of K&W Cafeteria in Burlington, NC.
A golf tee from Waynesville, NC.
and rocks from-
     Hebrew Union Temple in Greenville, MS
     Little Zion Graveyard in Greenwood, MS
     the site of the '27 levee break in Greenville, MS
     Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Gardens in Ruleville, MS

It's the last rock that I want to talk to you about today.   I picked up that particular rock on the day that I forgot to bring my camera with me, so you'll have to enjoy photographs of the garden using other links.

Most of us associate Fannie Lou Hamer with the moving speech she made to the 1964 Democratic National Convention's Credentials Committee, so moving, in fact, that President Johnson felt that her words would keep him from being elected to serve a second term.   He countered with an "emergency" news conference to interrupt the broadcast of Hamer's testimony, which was aired in its entirety on most evening news programs.   We think of Mrs. Hamer as a brave advocate for civil rights who told of her own life's struggles in Ruleville, Mississippi.

Gil-Scott Heron's tribute to Mrs. Hamer

And Ruleville is where you will find her today, laid to rest in the town she loved so much.   Few of us will ever be in a position to address the nation and the world.   But not all revolutions are televised.   I want to talk about another aspect of Mrs. Hamer's life.   Maybe you know someone like her; maybe you are someone like her.   While working to change the way that America treated her citizens, Hamer wasted no time being of service to others in her community.   She was a conduit for basic resources and necessities for the people of Ruleville.   Mrs. Hamer was in the business of caring, being about her Father's business, she might say.

The song that's most associated with Mrs. Hamer is represented in the garden.   You will find the following words spelled out in metal there: "Let Your Light Shine."  Lots of people came together to work alongside Mrs. Hamer, but don't forget the power of one person who wants to bring some light into the darkness on behalf of others.

And if you are a teacher, advocating for children with a variety of needs is what you've been called to do.   And sometimes you will feel like you are alone with a nub of a candle in your palm.

My favorite Delta moment,  by far, was an impromptu one.   We were spending the morning with a friend of Mrs. Hamer's, Dr. Edgar Smith.   Standing at the front of the tour bus with a microphone, Dr. Smith read a letter from Mrs. Hamer that was written to him and his wife thanking them for their support and remarking on her own deteriorating health.   Hearing the letter was like opening a portal to the past and catching a glimpse of a remarkable woman.

After we was finished, from the back of the bus came a woman's voice.   Someone asked if Dr. Smith would lead us in a verse of of "This Little Light of Mine."   And he did.   To sing that song with Dr. Smith while travelling through Mrs. Hamer's Mississippi while surrounded by so many inspired, compassionate educators was a moment of delicious serendipity.

If you want to sing along, here's Bruuuuuuuuuce and Odetta with their versions of the classic.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Mr. Charles McLaurin, a "foot soldier for justice."   Mr. McLaurin met Mrs. Hamer through his affiliation with SNCC, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.   We had the pleasure of meeting Mr. McLaurin and hearing his story at Delta State University.   You may use the following YouTube video to see and hear him for yourself.

The Warmth of Other Suns

There is plenty of information out there for you to explore regarding Isabel Wilkerson's gorgeous book, The Warmth of other Suns.   I won't get too caught up in telling you what you may already know.   This title was recommended to us on the last day of The Most Southern Place on Earth, the seminar at Delta State that is the cornerstone of this blog.

I have to admit that books over 500 pages do not call my name when I'm at the library.   It's terrible for an English teacher to say that, I know.   It's the truth.   I favor non-fiction for the bulk of my free-choice reading, so Wilkerson's book had that going for it.   Also, my generous aunt and uncle sent me a birthday gift card to Barnes & Noble, so there wasn't a good reason not to buy it.   When it arrived, I found that the paperback cover was made out of that material that feels just right against my fingers...you know those Vintage books.   Man, it is a chunk!   I got started right away.

What is it about?   In short, the Great Migration.   Wilkerson spent 15 years of her life preparing this book for you, and it shows from the very first page to the last.   Her style is musical, flawless.   If you read the first page, you will know what I mean.   And the first page will beckon you to the second and so on...the book practically reads itself.

You will take it with you wherever you go.   You will sit with it in your dentist's office and find yourself in an orange orchard, a cotton field, a rocketing train, a cramped apartment, a buzzing casino or in the front seat of a 1949 Buick Roadmaster.   You will carry Warmth with you in your car and hope for stand-still traffic, an impromptu parade of very small turtles or a bridge opening, so you can sneak a few more pages in.   You will stash it by your bedside at night, so you can grab it when the sunshine returns the next morning.

The book is anchored by three African American southerners who were part of the Great Migration.  The three were chosen to represent the three main routes travelled by those who chose to leave their homes in search of a different life.   All three of these individuals were alive when Wilkerson was conducting her research for the book, so they told her their own stories.   Additionally, information gleaned from countless other interviews and hours of further research is woven into the telling of their tales.

You won't see a single stitch left behind by the author.   If I didn't know better, I would be inclined to believe Wilkerson if she told me that she grew the book with an enchanted seed that was planted in Delta dirt and left to grow on her kitchen windowsill.

Maybe you already know all there is to know about everything.   Well, I don't,   And you should read the book anyway, even if you think you do.   Your eyes will be opened to the basic complications of even planning to leave the South, particularly for sharecroppers.   You will also find out about the hardships folks faced once they arrived in other places.   Jim Crow had a broader reach than these Southerners could begin to imagine.

I certainly don't want to divulge any of the particulars to you, since you are going to read the book for yourself.   I would recommend visiting Wilkerson's website and nosing around.   Liking her on Facebook is also worth your while as she has links to related resources and thought-provoking, contemporary issues.   I don't want you to miss this one though, so I'm giving you the link right here.
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Right before I started typing this entry, I took a slice of tomato pie and fig tart to my neighbor, and just now, he came by to hand me a Tom Collins as a thanks.   I'm telling you because I'm pretty sure the magic from this book had something to do with it.   If your fig tree is ripe too, here's the recipe I started with, but the filling I used was simply wild cherry jam made by my boyfriend's mom, sliced figs, honey...and a touch of sea salt never hurts.   Don't skip the lemon zest in the crust though.   If you make it without the marscapone cheese, that means you can have some vanilla ice cream on the side.   I think I've shared the tomato pie recipe,  but here it is again in case your garden tomatoes are taking over your kitchen counters.   And how about some music while you cook?