And Flights of Gravies Sing Thee To Thy Rest

On the eve of my third turkey-less Thanksgiving, I have one thing on the mind–gravy.

Year 1, I didn’t think ahead and went without. Year 2 I bought a mushroom gravy from Whole Foods, which was so excellent that even the turkey eaters added it to their mashed potatoes.

But because of my recent surge in culinary endeavors, store bought gravy just will not do this year.

I’m planning to do a gravy test Wednesday night (hence the “flights of gravies”), to try out a few recipes and bring the best to Thanksgiving dinner the next day. Hopefully you can freeze gravy.  Here are the contenders:

Vegetarian Gravy from allrecipes.com (tipped off by Mom):

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup vegetable oil

- 1/3 cup chopped onion

- 5 cloves garlic, minced

- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

- 4 teaspoons nutritional yeast

- 4 tablespoons light soy sauce

- 2 cups vegetable broth

- 1/2 teaspoon dried sage

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, nutritional yeast, and soy sauce to form a smooth paste. Gradually whisk in the broth. Season with sage, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, stirring constantly, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until thickened.(Prep time, 10 minutes; Cook time, 20 minutes; yield 2 1/2 cups.)

Roasted Shallot Brown Gravy from Whole Foods:

Ingredients:

- 4 to 6 medium shallots, peeled

- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

- 3 tablespoons unbleached flour

- 2 1/2 cups vegetable stock

- 2 tablespoons dry sherry or brown rice vinegar

- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Place shallots and thyme on a piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with a little olive oil. Gather up corners of aluminum foil to enclose shallots and place the packet in a pie pan.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until shallots are soft when gently squeezed. Let cool.

Transfer to a blender or food processor, sprinkle flour over shallots and process 1 minute. Add vegetable stock, sherry, yeast flakes, salt and pepper, and blend for an additional 1 to 2 minutes to thoroughly combine. Transfer mixture to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat while whisking constantly until gravy thickens. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Vegetarian Cashew Gravy on About.com:

Ingredients:

- 2 cups water

- 1/2 cup cashews

- 2 tablespoons cornstarch

- 2 tablespoons onion powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Place all the ingredients in a blender and liquify.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the gravy, stirring constantly, until thick.

Add more water if the gravy becomes too thick.

The Master Craftsman

Below is a profile of Harvey Copeland, a master craftsman from Sarasota, Florida. I wrote this story a little over a year ago, as a writing sample for NPR.

Keep in mind that Harvey’s story is still looking for a print home to receive the professional and artistic recognition he deserves. . .

Enjoy!

Harvey Copeland- Carver of Fiberglass, Maker of Magic

A long driveway—neatly strewn with crushed Milwaukee Blue empties and flanked by  naked female mannequins—leads to the back door of Harvey Copeland’s house. An overweight Welsh Corgie, Charlie, comes running out of the garden, along with Harvey’s wife, Karen, wearing a fluorescent green, pink and yellow printed housedress.

“Harvey told me you would be coming,” Karen greets me. “He just didn’t say that you were coming today.”
Harvey Copeland sits at the kitchen counter, his head down, leafing through the catalogue of a local craft store. The linoleum floors are weathered with decades of comings and goings, offset by pristinely organized countertops. Masons jars are displayed on the wall; Copeland’s pipe and silver lighter are pushed to the side and a curious black cat named Phantom curls up in an out-of-place plastic bin. Charlie excitedly shuffles in and out of the kitchen before settling down, as if he wants to listen to what Harvey is about to say, too.

As we begin talking, Copeland keeps his head down, and throughout the afternoon he seldom lifts his head to make eye contact. CNN blares in the background, and the voice of Barack Obama and fiscal experts mix with Harvey’s voice, clear and precise but soft, with a hint of a drawl from his native North Carolina.

Harvey Copeland is a master craftsman: an expert wood and fiberglass carver, and one of a handful of artisans in American who can restore fiberglass.

At age 11, Copeland began woodcarving as a means to pay his way through Boy Scout summer camp. Copeland, who taught himself, makes his work sound so easy, saying, “you just do it, you just pick up a hatchet or a knife and you go for it.”
But to call Copeland simply a woodcarver or a craftsman is an incomplete description. Copeland became these professions, and more, when his career took an offbeat turn. Copeland began working for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, headquartered in Sarasota, Florida in the 1960s, and in addition to craftsmanship, became responsible for constructing illusions for the public’s imagination.

Over the years, Copeland built 22 circus shows for the company. For nearly 15 years, Copeland taught at Ringling’s Clown College, working under Bill Ballantine, an artist, illustrator and writer who literally ran off and joined the circus and who became so skilled and innovative in clowning that he served as the dean of Clown College from 1969-1977. Copeland said teaching was the most memorable part of his career, because “we didn’t know what the hell we were doing, we just did it.” Copeland and Ballantine, both illustrators and sign writers, reintroduced “pure color” to their students, creating the brightest shows in Clown College history. Building circus sets and props would not be complete if Copeland did not build tricks, and he built them all, by hand, the universally known illusions.

During the last half century, Copeland has worked with and befriended circus legends, entertainment world moguls, aerialists, clowns and contortionists, proving that a man can build a career and create a life based entirely on illusions. Copeland told me about working closely with Lou Jacobs, a master clown for Ringling Brothers for over 60 years, and the admiration Marcel Marceau and Jacobs had for one another:

“Lou Jacobs met Marcel Marceau, and they had wanted to meet each other for years and they finally met at the van Wezel theatre in Sarasota, and both these 80 year old men cried when they met, because they had such admiration for one another. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in that one.”

But Copeland is a fly on the wall. He has little to no credit attributed to his name. A dusty Ringling Brothers clock in his studio is the only memento that Copeland displays from his time in the circus. His home and studio are a testament to his own work, filled to the brim with decades of carvings. A thin pink file envelope, labeled “HARVEY,” includes a modest collection of newspaper clippings; five at the most, of Copeland’s work in Sarasota- his set design for Twelfth Night, mailbox design and an enormous fiberglass orchid. But Copeland is the frontrunner, the go-to man when it comes to fiberglass carving and mannequin restoration. Saks Fifth Avenue recommends him by name as the only man you should trust with mannequin restoration.

Well into his eighties, Copeland still spends his days in his backyard studio. He’s currently working on turning JFK half-dollar coins into rings, using coins from 1964; the last year pure silver coins were minted. Copeland’s humor is brash, and he wears it on his sleeve. Copeland asks me if I “know what the finger is,” and shows me a wooden walking stick that he is carving, a hand with a middle finger sticking up.

With Copeland’s advancing age and declining health, the question of longevity comes into play. Who is going to carry on the tradition of an already nearly lost art? According to Copeland, it doesn’t look good:

“These modern designers don’t know how to design, they draw something on the back of an envelope they do something and call that a design and they get several thousands of dollars for it.”

(Photos from ralphpucci.net)

Fresh Fruit Friday (on Saturday)

The Lemon

As we move into the winter months, and closer to the peak of the cold and flu season, the lemon seems an appropriate and beneficial fruit to highlight for the first installment of “Fresh Fruit Fridays.”\

Lemons are high in citric acid, and perhaps the most beneficial fruit in the citrus family, because of their high level of antioxidants and their ability to fight off germs and bacteria.

Lemons can also relieve indigestion and stimulate the liver. Believe if or not, lemons contain a significant amount of calcium, as well as folate and potassium.  Lemons contain beta crypotothanzin, a carotenoid that fights heart disease and is believed  to help prevent cervical cancer.

The following recipes—a vinaigrette, couscous, and juice—feature a significant amount of lemon juice. Keep in mind that when juicing lemons, the Vitamin C dissipates quickly, and should be consumed within minutes of juicing. Lemon juices sold in supermarkets usually are enriched in Vitamin C to counter this depletion.

Lemon Couscous with Fresh Parsley, from Spices of Life (page 26) by Nina Simonds (full of recipes that specifically target ailments)

Ingredients:
1 ½ medium lemons
6 cups water (or amount indicated on the couscous package)
3 cups quick cooking couscous
1 tablespoon fruity virgin olive oil
1 ½ tablespoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the lemon peel in strips. Bring two cups of water to a boil. Add the lemon peel and cook for a minute to remove the bitterness. Drain, and blot dry. Mince finely. Squeeze the juice from the 1 ½ lemons and set aside.

Bring the 6 cups of water to a boil in a large pot of casserole with a lid. Add the couscous and cook for a minute, stirring with a spoon or a fork. (Or follow the cooking instructions on the package.) Cover and remove from the heat. Let sit for 10 minutes. Fluff the couscous lightly with a fork to separate the grains.

Add the olive oil, lemon peel and juice, salt, and pepper, and stir with a fork to mix. Let the couscous sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then add the parsley and fluff with a fork. Taste for seasoning, add more salt if necessary, and serve warm or at room temperature.

Lemon Vinaigrette, from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (page 184) by Deborah Madison

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely chopped lemon zest
Salt and freshly milled pepper
1 shallot, finely diced
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or to taste

Combine the lemon zest, ¼ teaspoon salt, and shallot in a small bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes, then whisk in the oil and season with a little pepper to taste. Taste and correct the balance, adding more if needed.

Jay’s World Famous Lemonade from The Juiceman’s Power of Juicing (page 6 by Jay Kordich

4 apples
¼ lemon with the skin
Crushed ice

Cut the apples into narrow wedges, and slice the lemon. Process the fruit in the juicer. Serve over crushed ice.

 

 

And a poem to end on:

So Much Depends
on a lemon that is
not really a lemon

the name of which escapes me now
after the fact

the not-
lemon for the Jewish holiday
the holiday that has the
name that I can not remember either

the holiday when one hopefully
invites strangers
or friends to dinner

in their home
but not
their actual home,
but in a cabin/ shack/
lean-
to kind of structure
outside their actual home
but the purpose I recall!!

To remember the forty years in the desert.

The not-
lemon is very important to the
nameless- to me holiday
I learned about in
a film, the same film
I learned about the
nameless- to me
holiday

In the film the man
the rabbi
the holy man
buys a
very expensive not-
lemon because a
stranger slipped an
envelope full of
bills under
the door of
the actual house
that the man’s wife
the rabbi’s wife
the holy man’s wife
the holy woman discovered and
sang and
praised God and
paid the bills with.

The holy man and
the holy woman’s strangers
are old friends of the holy man
before he was a holy man

They are thieves, skinheads,
they cut up the not-
lemon and make a salad.
The man the rabbi
the holy man is devastated.

This is not just a not-
lemon,
It is a beautiful not-
lemon,
an extremely expensive not-
lemon for prayer
not salads.

(Photos by Martjusha, Delire Lucide and Piccolina)

Winter Recipes from Nigella Lawson

Rosie Greenway/Getty Images

This morning’s edition of Morning Edition featured a segment with Nigella Lawson, who shared two winter recipes (Doughnut French Toast and Cheddar Cheese Risotto), along with her thoughts on self-indulgence:

“Lawson says people denying themselves — anything fried, or anything containing butter, for instance — is one of the biggest food problems. Indulging in those things once in a while, she says, makes it easier to balance them with lighter fare, like soups and steamed vegetables.

‘I actually feel that I eat very healthily,” she says. “My only problem is that I eat enough for five healthy people.’”

Listen to the story here, (if you can stand Steve Inskeeps’ over indulgent lip smacking!)

 

 

Halloween Lunch

The Spread:

- Pumpkin Soup (recipe from my Mom)

- Salad with with chopped walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, sliced apples and a toasted sesame dressing

- Deborah Madison’s Banana Oat muffins

- Assorted gourds from Whole Foods

The Guests:

Bridgit, and the lovely fall flowers she brought!

Sleepy Sam, as we beg him to smile for the camera.

The Recipes:

- Pumpkin Soup:

½  pound sliced mushrooms, ½ c. chopped onion, 2 T. butter, 2 T. flour, 1-2 tsp. curry, 3 c. vegetable broth, 1 can (15 oz) solid pumpkin, 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk, 1 T. honey (or more to taste), ½ tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. pepper (or to taste), ¼ tsp. nutmeg, fresh chopped chives

Saute mushrooms and onions in butter, stir in flour and curry until blended. Gradually stir in broth. Bring to light boil, stir for 2 min. or until thickened.

Add pumpkin, milk, honey, salt/pepper, nutmeg and heat through.

- Salad: greens, chopped walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, sliced apples and a toasted sesame dressing.

- Deborah Madison’s Banana Oat muffins from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

The Morning After Frittata:

Caramelized onions, chives, cherry tomatoes, grated mozzarella cheese and six eggs. The perfect cure for a long night of vodka tonics, Duvels and spooky merriment.

I’d Rather Be Knitting

(from October 20, 2009)

Tonight, I knit through a(n online) class on Search Engine Optimization. I am making a woolen headband for the snow that will never come to Sarasota, Florida. With a pair of knitting needles dug out of a closet in my grandmother’s house some few hours after her funeral. Size 10.

The yarn leaves the needle smoothly, and the sound of the needles scraping together is so delicate that ‘scrape’ is so far from the right word to describe the sound.

 

Update:

Finished gray headband adorned with “pearls”

Red Lentils, Squash (And Fall Comes to Florida)

(from October 1, 2009)

Southern Florida woke up
and sighed this morning—
hundreds of breaths gaining momentum
and collectively cooling the sea air down
to seventy degrees.
A treat, on the first day of fall.

By evening, word of the crisp air
caught on—barrels of pumpkins
and colored chrysanthemums flank
supermarket entrances, squashes and gnarled
gourds replace peaches and strawberries
in the produce aisles. Joggers laboriously run
into the cool air that propels them through
heavy breaths and aching legs.

Bursts of orange: orange pumpkins,
orange sunsets;
I make a soup that aligns
with the changing of the seasons

This was all the sun left
after my evening adventure in orange cooking.

Note on Martha Stewart’s Red Lentil and Squash Curry Soup: To adjust for vegetarian purposes, use olive oil in place of butter and vegetable stock in place of chicken stock.