Sunday Drive: Chopin, Waltz in C Sharp Minor

 

-----

The Pork Boys Do Mardi Gras, 2023

True to his Cajun roots, M. P. naturally went all out with our Mardi Gras feast on Tuesday evening.

Le Menu

Galliano (aperitif)

Champagne

Devilled Eggs

Grits and Gumbo (chicken & sausage)

Roast Turkey Breast with Cream Gravy

Cornbread and Rice Dressing

Maque Choux (corn casserole)

Mashed Baked Potatoes

Homemade Biscuits

Kings' Cake

Coffee

M. P, found some purple silk damask and just hemmed up the edges to make this beautiful tablecloth for Mardi Gras.

Everybody knows - don't they? - that purple, green, and gold are the Mardi Gras colors.  The candles are deep purple.

M.P. has been practicing a fleur-de-lys napkin fold for some years now,
and isn't it fabulous?  You may not appreciate how fabulous it is until you try it.

Gumbo is normally served over rice, which Louisiana produces plenty of; but un vrai Acadien knows that it's mighty damn good over potato salad, too.  M. P. and I have furthermore discovered that gumbo and grits are a lip-smacking sensation.

The turkey breast was melt-in-your-mouth tender and juicy.  There's a whole 'nother half not shown here.  Most will be frozen for later use in sandwiches, soups, casseroles, etc.

Cornbread-and-rice dressing, left; maque choux, right.

Mashed baked potatoes, a new invention of M. P.'s.

Luscious cream gravy made from the turkey drippings.

The soup course was chicken-and-sausage gumbo, one of my favorite things.

The Pork Boys love devilled eggs.  But with the high prices these days,
we can't afford to make a full dozen.

From the noon position:  baked mashed potatoes, maque choux, devilled egg, turkey and gravy, dressing, biscuit and butter..

M. P.'s third attempt at making a Kings' Cake (a coffee cake) succeeded nicely, and he had big fun decorating it.

Here's my piece - and guess what?  I got the fève!
(It's partly sticking out at bottom.)

M.P. ordered this little glass angel some time back just for our Mardi Gras cake.  In olden times, it might have been a bean or a pecan.  The one who gets it in his cake is the king of the party.  An amusing custom.

-----

Sunday Drive: Bacharach Medley, The Carpenters

Karen and Richard Carpenter perform live on the Ed Sullivan Show from Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, where they were giving a concert for wounded Vietnam veterans, November 8, 1970.  The Carpenters' first big single, "Close to You," had been a smash hit nationwide in the summer of that year.

I vaguely recollect that this medley of Burt Bacharach tunes was included on one of their albums that I used to have.

-----

Waitin' for the Weekend

-----

The Pork Boys Do Valentine's Day, 2023

 Le Menu

Pink Champagne

Vichyssoise

Boeuf Bourguignon

Parsleyed Noodles

Chips de Navet

Haricots de Lima with Tomatoes and Sausage Bits

Homemade Croissants with Sesame Seeds

Chocolate Mousse

Coffee

M.P. outdid himself again, working all day long in the kitchen to whip up a little feast of our favorite foods.  Certainly it was a dinner to remember:  tres delicieux et tout a fait fabuleux!  I tell you what, boys.

M.P. printed and cut out the Victorian valentine cards for decoration, using artist's pinking shears - a charming touch.

Our new red-and-white china from the dollar store 

was perfect for the occasion.  Clockwise from noon:

turnip chips, lima beans, boeuf bourguignon and noodles, 

croissant slathered with butter.  Not pictured:

a bowl of scrumptious chilled vichyssoise.

Mousse au chocolat --

alas, we forgot the whipped cream!

-----

Valentine

Pianist Jim Brickman and country music star Martina McBride teamed up on this lovely song in 1996.  Here's wishing love, joy, and peace to all my truckbuddies.

-----

Sunday Drive: Up, Up, and Away

Balloons are trending this season, so this song by the fabulous 5th Dimension seems appropriate just now. I remember hearing this on the radio in the summer of '67, and it's been a favorite ever since. I took my mom to see them in concert about ten years later; they put on a fun show. 

-----

The Pork Boys Do the Holidays

This is just for our reference: pics of our All-Holiday meal on January 8th, making up for having missed Christmas, New Year's, and Kings' Day dinners on account of M.P. being sick in bed for two weeks with a dreadful cold.

 

New 7-foot Christmas tree with rotating star.

Three Cajun Red Ducks stuffed with jambalaya - this was for our Yule dinner with all the kids and grandkids on December 18th, before M.P. got sick.

The ducks cut up and placed on a platter for serving.

Our All-Holiday table setting on January 8th.

Appetizer:  chicken livers wrapped in bacon, en brochette. 
A favorite tradition of ours.

M.P.'s fabulous Cream of Green soup, with homemade croutons.
Ingredients per M.P.:
green onions, potatoes (just one thinly sliced), sauteed in margarine a short time,
then chicken bouillon, and green beans cooked for a bit. puree all and add a bit
of sour cream while pureeing. rewarm in pot adding a lot of dill, S&P, and more sour cream to taste.

Dinner:  from 5 o'clock, a piece of spinach-stuffed porkchop; buttered schoolhouse roll; piece of sugared butternut squash; and very cheesy potatoes au gratin.

Almost forgot:  a helping of pistachio fluff topped with maraschino cherries.

Our grand Christmas and New Year's dessert every year:
Chocolate mousse cake topped with raspberry sauce.

-----

Waitin' for the Weekend

-----

Poets' Corner: Jabberwocky

Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898)

Jabberwocky

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

      The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;

      Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree

      And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

      And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

      He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

      Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

      He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

I memorized this poem in 7th grade; my father used to enjoy hearing me recite it.  I can still recite it today, nearly sixty years later.

-----

Sunday Drive: Widor, Toccata

Widor's magnificent toccata, played in celebration of York Minster's newly refurbished organ by Assistant Director of Music Benjamin Morris.  You can have a pleasant musical reverie while listening to this performance and admiring the many scenes of the cathedral's beauty, inside and out.

 

For Cody

1950 - 2005

-----

Waitin' for the Weekend

click here to see full photo (NSFW)

A Song for You

Just because.

-----