I called Ron and Jiyoung Dailey about a week or so ago and told them they should put Bodin on a train and let him come up for First Friday this time because it was all about fly-fishing and duck decoys. So everyone came up and we had a fine First Friday. Bodin met Ron Duel, an 80-year-old master fly-tyer. When I told Ron that Bodin was coming all the way up from New York City to see him tie flies, he said he had a book with a fly-tying starter kit in it and a book that tells you how to tie and that he would bring it for Bodin!
And this morning, Bodin tied his first two flies.
The rest of the afternoon we ate and sat around the fire. Reese is a little pyro and spends the day finding things to throw in the fire. I'm worried about him.
Scott Frush came up from Albany with Brewster's doppelganger dog...Chloe. She looks exactly like Brewster in miniature. That's her hiding behind the chair. Just imagine Brewster's face and you've got it.
I fear this photo doesn't really do justice to how pretty this cake is. The top is gilded in edible gold and it absolutely glistens in the sunlight. Raspberry coulis on the side.
It is a flourless cake that I am entering in the Chocolate Lover's Delight Contest at the Pember Library & Museum. At one time I made a version of this I called Warm Chocolate Tarragon Cake...back when I could obtain tarrragon extract from Zabars. For some strange reason (that I think has something to do with psychotropic powers that tarragon extract may have) Zabars no longer carries it in their vast extract section. I can't find it anywhere on line, either, giving more credence to the above mentioned psychotropic issues (Mexican tarragon is Tagetes lucida. A strong Tagetes lucida tea is said to produce similar closed-eye-images as Peyote or a very mild state of euphoria and has been used since pre-Hispanic times with many of its properties ascribed to this plant, known as Yauhtli in the Nahuatl language.)
That's all very well, but all I know is it's very nice in cake with chocolate.
I had a batch of my own "tincture of tarragon" that I had brewed up with some nice 90 proof vodka. But it is nowhere to be found, alas. Lost in the move. Will have to do another batch next summer...
Death by Chocolate...my way
10 ounces semisweet couverture chocolate (in this case Caillebaut 71%...Valrhona or Scharffenberger will do just fine, thank you) chopped into small pieces
1 stick plus 1 T sweet butter, cut in cubes, room temp
1 cup water
1 cup sugar (split into 3/4 C + 1/4 C)
6 eggs
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 10-inch round cake pan with buttered parchment. Bring the water to a boil and add 3/4 cup of the sugar. Simmer five minutes to make a simple syrup. Remove from heat.
2. Whisk the chocolate into the syrup and then whisk the butter until it is all melted and smooth.
3. Beat the eggs with 1/4 C sugar. Fold in the chocolate mixture until incorporated. Pour into prepared pan.
4. Bake in a water bath for 45 - 50 minutes, until the center comes clean with a toothpick. Remove from oven and cool completely on rack. Invert onto a plate and then onto serving platter. Dust with edible gold powder or powdered sugar.
hough in no way am I a COLLECTOR collector of Rockwell Kent, I have, for a very long time, picked up a piece or two of his work along the way, rummaging through junk shops and the occasional estate sale. I have most all of his original books and a few of the classics he illustrated...Moby Dick, Canterbury Tales, Leaves of Grass.... I have a few nice prints, a litho, all signed...and the plate at the right (and whoever stole the collection of six Vernon Kiln Moby Dick plates from me -- may you rot in hell!)...and I have continued to enjoy them as much now as the day I found them.
I have always wanted to visit SUNY Plattsburgh where he left a large portion of his artistic estate (other than the bulf of paintings which went to The Hermitage in St. Petersburgh...long story.) And yesterday we did. As a holiday gift to Mark and Patty, Bill and I hosted them to a daytrip up to Plattsburgh for lunch and a visit to the Rockwell Kent Gallery at SUNY Plattsburgh. (and then back home for dinner) .We drove up through the snowy Adirondack peaks to the frozen shores of Lake Champlain and had lunch at a nice little sandwich place there and then found the gallery.
It was worth the wait and the two hour drive. His work is as stunning as ever and even more so in person.
[left: "Godspeed" 1931 woodcut / upper left "T" illumination R. Kent / right: Rockwell Kent "Our America" series charger Vernon Kilns (from the Young-Foote Collection)]
It was the fulfillment of a lifelong wish to see this collection and it did not disappoint. And it was made all the more sweet by the company with which it was shared. Now to plan a trip to The Hermitage...
The peonies have begun. I don't ever remember them smelling as sweet as these do. I suppose I was accustomed to tree peonies at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which had no scent whatsoever.
The woods are rife with phlox, purple mostly.
And on an entirely separate subject: I have had an interest in Rudi Gernreich (he of "topless bathing suite" fame) for some time now because of his deep involvement with the early Gay rights movement and his relationship with Harry (Hay). So recently, when a friend was looking to see if there were any copies of his topless bathing suit around, or any examples of his fashion work, I went looking on EBay to see what was around.
Turns out the only place to find Rudi's bathing suit, at least, is in museum collections. he was that important. But in my meanderings, I came across a set of...place mats. No one was bidding on them. I got five of them...for $10 + shipping. And I have to say...they're really quite splendid...very usable (easily cleaned with the wipe of a moist towel). And I am nothing short of thrilled to own an "original" Rudi Gernreich. And, just looking at them, they are pure Gernreich: clever, witty, practical really. The "profile" of a set of utensils on the surface, in secondary colors (well, except for the yellow fork)...perfect. And they are even "signed"...
Went to the meeting with the representatives from Senator Gillebrand and several other representatives from elected officials offices about appropriations for the Pember Museum & Library this morning. This is the project that Patty, the Pember executive director, and I have been working on, and it went very well. The mayor was there; all the elected officials showed up. Anyone walking in the front door of the Pember cannot fail to be impressed with this jewel, and has to be struck with the fact that this is nothing less than a National Treasure. That's my project now...to see if we can't get it declared a "National Treasure." Stay tuned. [A postscript: the United States has no such designation. Japan has a "Living National Treasure." But in the U.S. it's an "Historic Site" like our house. No National Treasures.]
And in the middle of setting up for the meeting, I came across a book about the namesake of our house, Lemuel Haynes. It's title (which I used above) is Black Apostle To Yankeeland: Egalitarian Catchcolt Who Overlived his Caste. Written in 1972.More on that in a moment.
Haynes was a preacher of some note back in the early days of the American colonies. In fact, he was one of the many people who answered the call to arms of Paul Revere. He was an indentured servant from the age of 5 months (!!) until his adulthood, when he proved himself to be a scholar, and was educated as a preacher. One of the early claims to fame of Lemuel Haynes is that he is "the first person of Negroid blood to be ordained as a clergyman in the Congregational Church" according to this book. We have also heard that he was the first African American pastor to any white congregation in the United States, as well.
The book begins with a Title Glossary, in which terms such as "black," "apostle," Yankeeland" and "egalitarian" are defined for the reader. The most interesting word, to me, in the title is "catchcolt" which the author defines as "a colloquial Yankee expression describing a young horse of accidental breeding by an unidentified stallion with a straying mare; a child born out of wedlock." The body of the text of the book goes on to describe Haynes' "lineage" in this manner: "The boy was conceived in a clandestine tryst of a blueblooded girl and a black bondsman in West Hartford, Connecticut. The father's name is lost to history in miscegenation opprobrium. The mother's name, although known, is to this day adamantly policed by scions to shroud the blot [sic] on the family escutcheon. Thus born nameless, the child was called in a moment of anger by the woman who bore him a "Haynes," with the intention of dishonoring the family under whose roof the delivery happened. Friends gave him the first name of "Lemuel" to signify any unknown king of Massa."
Wow. Where to begin, right? There's a whole lot to think about in those sentences. The book claims a copyright date of 1972...but that sure doesn't read like 1972 English to my ears..."miscegenation opprobrium"..."caste"...and "the family escutcheon". Indeed. And the "catchcolt" term is entirely new to me. And I find it particularly interesting applied to Haynes as the offspring of a caucasian mother and African-American...or "Negroid"...father, as the book would put it.
I am just beginning to delve into the book, but a passage on page 25 was of particular interest to me and Bill:
Indeed, this is the house Bill and I bought. We had been under the impression that the house was built in 1793, not 1767. So this was a surprise. The reference to "Mrs C.W. Halderman, Jr, of Philadelphia" bore out what we already knew...we bought the house from her son.
Tyler Morey, our 23-year-old neighbor, stopped by about two weeks ago, asking if he could tap our maples for sugaring. We agreed, so long as he would show one of us how he does it and knock on the door when he comes by to do it so one of us could go with him and learn about it.
So this week, he came by and we tapped the maples on our land. And I'm here to tell you, it was hard work. Not so much the setting of the lines (more on that in a moment) but the trudging up and down the hillsides where the maples are...nature's StairMaster!
Tyler has promised us a gallon of the final syrup. Even now, we've been to the local sugarhouse, Rathbun's, and we bought a half gallon of their syrup. A half gallon of grade A medium amber maple syrup! I don't think I've ever had that much maple syrup in my personal possession, ever. And now we can look forward to a whole gallon...maybe more since I've been helping out.
I've been out with Ty two days now. We've tapped eight trees on our property, six of which have never been tapped before, which Ty promises me means sweeter syrup (I can't even imagine sweeter maple syrup.) And we tapped trees surrounding our fields, on other people's land, across the street, and the stand down by the Congregational church. In all, 500 taps. He is placing 55 gallon drums under the multiple tree taps, and 15 gallon drums under single tree taps. He tells me that when the sap starts running, one of those 55 gallon drums will fill up in half a day!
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Earlier, I stopped by the Pember Library and Museum, here, to get a library card. I've been meaning to do this for some time, and my old friend, Carol, wrote me this morning, suggesting a book. She asked if we had a library and I said that we had one of some note, actually. The Pember.
It is a very lovely Victorian building, inside and out, sheathed, I'd guess, in local slate (Granville is, after all, the "colored slate capital"). The library is on the first floor and the Pember Museum is on the second story. It is a very small version of one wing of the New York City Museum of Natural History and is based on the private collection of Franklin Pember, a wealthy man from the area, circa 1860. There is also a nature preserve connected to the museum.
I got my library card, donated a subscription to Paper Crafts Magazine to the library (thereby eliminating any late charges for books I check out for a whole year!) And then I decided to take a look at the museum on the second floor. I'm so glad I did!
I got into a conversation with a woman who was sitting at a desk. I asked if Pember had collected all the specimens himself. Apparently he had. I spoke about how I had moved here recently from New York City and how the Natural History Museum there was one of my favorites. I mentioned another book that Carol had recommended to me...Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, and The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles (an incredible place, a marvelous book)...and somewhere along the way of this conversation, I mentioned that I had been a grantswriter and from the back of the exhibit room a forlorn voice rose saying "Please! I need your help!"...or something like that.
And this lovely woman comes over and introduces herself. Before I knew it I was sitting at her desk, surrounded by stuffed birds, animals and objets de curiosité. Patricia Wesneris her name and she and her husband have recently bought a house in East Greenwich (pronounced green-witch hereabouts) and we discovered we both had beehive ovens...and it was like Old Friends Week. We got along like a house afire.
She was writing a proposal to be submitted to the NYSCA (New York State Commission on the Arts) and she said there were things in the grant that she just didn't think applied. As an example, she read a portion about the requirements of her board. The want diversity, but when you are in a county and a town that is 97% white, how do you diversify? Her board is mostly women, she said...and I, half kiddingly, said "Well I can offer you a white, gay man." And she said "Yes!"
So, pending a formal invitation of course from the board, it seems I will be joining the board of the Pember Library and Museum. At least I hope so...I can't imagine a more fun way to "tap into" this community. My grantsmanship and development skills can be put to use and I think I can make a contribution.
And on top of that lovely happenstance, I think Pat may well become a friend. We both have similar houses and are both just starting in them (they have a larger house and more land). Her husband is an architect who specializes in historic restoration! How perfect is that!?
