ORGANIZATION ON SPEED

 WASTE NOT WANT NOT

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth but I was born into a family where food was important and plentiful. The spoon may have been wooden but the meals felt as if they were prepared for royalty.

Meals were so important it was not unusual for us to sit eating one meal while talking about and planning the next one.

In the 1950's and 60's my Mother was a trained Home Economist with her own mid-day TV show extolling the virtues of "waste not, want not" in the kitchen. Today you'd be hard pressed to find a " Home Economics" class in the curricula of most high schools in our country yet when I was in high school "Home Ec" was taught, but only to girls. The boy's equivalent was "Shop" where we supposed to learn how to be men.

However a course called "Family Living" was a co-ed offering and one considered a "crip" course.  As a high school senior who had completed all my required courses I still needed one more elective. I figured "Family Living" wasn't going to hurt my GPA or harm my planned senioritis social life. 

As it turned out I really got into the class, did the work  and I aced every exam. I was clearly Mrs. Jesse's pet and I walked out with a solid "A". The big plus: I learned how to do laundry, properly make a bed, make cheesy grits and most importantly: Mrs. Jesse's personal mantra "A place for everything and everything in it's place" a tenet I have always strived for but have fallen short of way too often.

My family will attest to the "everything in its place tenet". Just ask them about the alphabetized spice rack

or the "everything in its place" utensil drawer. 

Having completed all my requirements and passed all my exams the only thing left in high school was the graduation ceremony. I wasn't going to be Valedictorian, I had partied a little too hard senior year but I was expecting some recognition. During the past four years I had already been chosen "Best Thespian" " Best School Spirit" and c'mon, as a tall, lanky string bean I even managed to letter in Track & Field. At the designated time in the awards portion of the ceremony Mrs. Jesse stepped up to the mic "This year's recipient of the Home Economics Award is Ricky Shaver (don't laugh I went through the first 18 years of my life being called Ricky, but let me tell you that moniker was quickly dropped as soon as I got to college!)  So there it was, I had won the Home Economics Award, an award that up until then was given only to GIRLS!  Stunned and stuck to my seat I felt my ears turn hot and the red of embarrassment rise to my face.  After what seemed an eternity I pried myself out of my seat, stumble to the podium, accepted the award from Mrs. Jesse, mumbled some sort of thanks then tail tucked between my legs somehow got back to my seat to the sounds of silent applause.

Today, I'm proud of that award. I am good at home keeping and I have had a successful career as an award winning and widely published Interior Designer. I've embraced my feminine side.

I'm as comfortable in my suit as I am in my apron and I'm so proud of the audible applause from family and friends when they down to one of my well prepared meals.

So with memories of this award and my own Mother's scolding " Waste not, want not" I offer this easy and economical one pan recipe.

SUNDAY NIGHT CLEAR THE FRIG ONE PAN SPAGHETTI SUPPER

This recipe was in spired by a video I saw on MarthaStewart.com, ONE PAN PASTA and demonstrated by Linda Scala Quinn.  I decide to use everything appropriate that was about to go bad including some sad but still flavorful basil. So follow what I have done here or watch the video at https://www.marthastewart.com/978784/one-pan-pasta.  The only thing I changed besides the ingredients was the cooking time but that could have been because I used a pound of pasta and lots more veggies than shown in the video.

Everything gets dumped in a skillet, uncooked and that includes the pasta.

After that I think the most important direction is to never leave the stove and keep stirring the pot.

THE GALLERY

Photo from the Tenement Museum New York City

TREASURE HUNTING FOR HISTORY

 A CASE FOR FLEA MARKETS

The first page of the questionnaire began normally asking name and address, age and education, all the statistical information necessary for placing me in the appropriate pigeonhole within their demographic pie chart. On the second page the inquiries moved from statistical to aspirational.  What are your goals? What is one word to define your personality? What is your most positive trait? What is your most negative trait?  What makes you happy? I suppose I should have written something obligatory like "my family" but I didn't.  I wrote down the single word "travel". Maybe because we are in the midst of a pandemic I have been feeling the claustrophobia of containment. Traveling has always been in my blood. Wanderlust, oh wanderlust! Then I thought about it again. This is why I use a pencil on crossword puzzles and questionnaires. I erased "travel"; it wasn't sufficient. I rewrote: "traveling without guilt". There, I said it. First of all, I'm no naturalist. I don't go on vacation to commune with Mother Nature. If going on vacation means having to pack hiking boots and a pup tent; count me out. I need the amenities of a pool not a body of water with unknown creatures floating below. I want room service not a hibachi with roasting vegan wieners. That leaves me with urban travel as my ultimate preference but I have my rules.  There's no emphasis on tourist magnets, no ten best things to do in Copenhagen, and no list of every cathedral or museum. My to do list looks very different.

Obviously if I go to Paris I'm going to include the Musee d'Orsay on my itinerary.

The same goes for Bilbao. The Guggenheim is going to be on my list but I have my own selfish guilt free adventures for getting my history lessons.

I choose to get my regional history lessons from a more accessible source. You can find me at little flea markets or walking through local antique districts whether here or abroad.

I'll spend pre-travel time researching where and when the local flea markets are scheduled to happen. I'll change flights and hotel reservations to coincide with a good market. Our last trip to Italy had to be rearranged so we could go to Arezzo's flea market that happens on the first weekend of each month year round.

We've been known to search out flea markets in the south of France and have even arranged special trips to purchase items from the flea market in Isle Sur La Sorgue. 

I'll search maps and look up local sites to see if a city has a vintage or antique area to explore. That's how we found the Porta Portese in Rome known for its vintage finds.Our daughter has caught the bug. There was absolutely no way she couldn't have since we dragged her around San Antonio to antique stores when she was only ten days old.

There's so much history of a region you can get from a local flea market or a vintage shop with the added bonus of there being no stanchions to hold you back or a uniform guard to shush you.

You have vendors who can detail the provenance of a painting or an antique piece of china and you don't have to sign up for a guided tour or hire a docent to shuttle you around.

I can lose myself at the Marche aux Puce in Paris or the bi-annual Divine Treasures sale in Lake Mills, Wisconsin.

I can touch a piece of art glass or look through a pile of vintage photos without being scolded and best of all I can buy it and take it home with me. Try that at your next trip to the Rijksmuseum.

This is how I learned how to detect a new piece of Fiestaware from an original.

It's where we discovered the beauty of Murano  glass and English silver and bone fish sets.

There's certainly a lot to be said for the perusing of the masters but give me a booth at a flea market filled with vintage letter sweaters, a kid's drum and an LP filled with Hula music  and I'm a  happy, guilt free traveling anthropologist doing my best at uncovering all the history I need.

THE GALLERY

Un Regard Oblique, 1948
Robert Doisneau, photographer
Represented by the Weston Gallery

TABLE SETTINGS

           "Animals feed themselves; men eat; but only wise men know the art of eating."

                     Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin - The Physiology of Taste 1825

Setting the table.  It's an ordinary task, one performed perhaps thousands of times in one's life.  Like making the bed or taking a shower, it's one of those everyday tasks repeated almost without thinking, a ritual that has essentially lost its meaning not to mention creativity or flair.

Okay I admit I have wolfed down my breakfast or lunch standing over the kitchen sink and that for many meals I resort to grabbing a plate, a fork and a wrinkled napkin out of the drawer however I love any opportunity to put on a show.

For a holiday, a birthday celebration, a picnic or when company comes over for dinner I love laying the table in a special way.

I collect - well actually hoard -  all manner of dinnerware, flatware, glassware and table linens and I love to put them to use.  

Hand in hand with my hoarding of table ware, another nerdy interest of mine is reading about the social history of table utensils and manners.  An entire shelf of our library is dedicated to my collection of vintage home keeping and etiquette books.

Recently I was looking through one, the 1921 edition of HOW TO SET THE TABLE FOR EVERY OCCASION by Sara Swain Adams.  This thin volume is an entertaining snapshot of the history of  American home dining or at least what one woman thought it should be.  There are topics such as Directions for Serving by Maid or Butler (say whaaat?) or Various Ways of Announcing a Meal (huh?).  One chapter that caught my eye was titled Laying the Table for the Family Dinner.  

The diagram accompanying the text features a service plate, napkin flanked to the left with a salad fork, fish fork and meat fork.  To the right of the service plate a butter knife, bullion spoon, fish knife and a meat knife.  Then there is a Champblanc glass (a champagne flute, even I had to look that one up), cider cup and water tumbler.  Finally, each place setting is accompanied by individual cellars of salt, pepper and of all things, paprika!  What family is the dear Ms. Adams laying this table for, the Windsors of England?

Thankfully that book was written a century ago and life and lifestyle have changed dramatically in many ways.  I don't think many families have butlers or maids that serve them their meals and anyway I'm not writing this for those folks.  Now I'm not suggesting you pull out the china, crystal, silverware and freshly pressed linens (if you even have it) no, but on special occasions it's self-satisfying to dine at a well laid table.  It doesn't have to be fine or upscale just thoughtful.

One of my favorite tables is laid with mismatched plates, flatware and glassware.  For any table setting considering the menu is key, there's no need to place dinnerware or utensils, which will not be used, on the table.

If the event is particularly informal say a picnic or backyard barbecue instead of napkins I use oversized dishtowels or tea towels that I refer to as "lapkins".

Even a weeknight takeout meal can be elevated with very little effort.  This convenient and  more casual event can become special with thoughtful and creative ways to set out the needed tableware.

When entertaining a larger group bundle flatware into colorful pots or canisters, gather napkins in a basket or simply stack them together along with the plates.

For our friends in Italy dining al fresco may happen almost every evening but still it is made special not only by the food and wine served but also because of the panache and attention given to the table setting.

The most important point is to make the meal special and do it with flair.

With all this in mind go out and make that table sing!

THE GALLERY

BYE BYE 2020

LOOKING AHEAD 

No one can deny that the past year was a perfect storm of Covid 19 pandemic complete with lockdowns, isolation and unfortunate deaths, election confusion and outcome denial, too many needless Black Lives wasted at the hands of improperly trained or untrained police or fellow ignorant humans who do not understand that we are all One.

But 20/20 in ophthalmic terms means the clarity or sharpness of vision.  I’d like to think that the year 2020 with all its adversity and set backs, heartaches and heartbreaks has brought us, the human race, some clarity which will carry us into a brighter future.  My hope for the coming year is a better understanding of each other, a calming of tempers and a future filled with health and prosperity.

Perspective also has to do with visual acuity.  Without perspective we lack the ability to see a situation or idea from a different point of view.  I wager we have all suffered from a  lack of perspective from time to time, I know I have and way too many times I’m embarrassed to say.  The year 2020 has given me time to develop my sense of perspective, to use another optically related term, I have had time for reflection.  Reflection engenders change and many times change is good.  Among the many losses of 2020 was the loss of Representative John Lewis who is notable for saying “get in good trouble, necessary trouble”.  Let’s hope 2021 brings about good change, necessary change.

Happy New Year!