Fixin' Supper

I have a friend who recently said that almost all blogs are navel-gazing, "but not yours. It has a point."

Heh.

I challenge anyone to find the point around here but I am glad you are reading. [Anyone? Mom??]

In the spirit of navel-gazing, I wanted to share this article about the listservs in East Nashville. I’m pictured and quoted, talking about the East Nashville listserv that I started Jan. 1, 2000. It’s alive and well today. Holy cow, the paper is right. As of this morning, we have 852 members. Thank you all.

So when I go to weather.com and see a picture like this, I get a little freaked out. Right now, that big red area isn’t anywhere near my house. [Sorry for all you folks in my hometown. I hope you know the nearest neighbor with a basement. You all are in the red zone!! I guess you are just in for it, Mom and Dad. I doubt there are many basements near you. :( ]

It’s just tornadoes that do it to me. I have lived my whole life in tornado country but not til the big one in ’98 did they ever bother me. I mean, twice when I was growing up, tornadoes came down my street, skipping over the houses. In neither instance did any of my neighbors [or us] suffer severe property damage. I remember storms that knocked down massive trees — on my street and all around me. I remember one storm that just laid waste to the countryside out past my grandmother’s house. Farmhouses, trailers, trees — miles and miles of destruction starting what must not have been more than 2-3 miles from my house. Yet I grew up without a basement and never thought a thing about it.

Ah, the ignorance of the young.

Just like my 11-year-old dog, who also lived through ’98 [albeit outside in the middle of the storm -- far different scenario than my personal story], thunderstorms and tornadoes bother me more with each passing year.

After saying I wouldn’t even consider a house without a basement on this last move, I went and bought a house without a basement. It has many other charming aspects which overall, more than make up for the lack of underground shelter. But I know that at least three or four days a year, as long as I live here, I will be convinced that I was insane to purchase this place. So I am always grateful for storms that come during the day. I feel more in control of that. I hate nothing worse than waking up to the sound of the weather radio at 2:38 a.m., wondering where I am and why I’m up. Once I figure it out, I can’t go back to sleep until I see the storm is over.

All in all I suppose fear of tornadoes is both a rather minor phobia and also a rather healthy one. You won’t catch me out videoing any upcoming storms. On the other hand, I love a good thunderstorm. Never mind the light show and the accompanying chorus: I like the reminder that this physical earth is more powerful than we can imagine, and that its systems have a lifespan of their own, outside of humankind’s control.

It’s just, are those tornadoes really necessary? Thanks, I thought not either.

Marché Artisan Foods is open in the Walnut Exchange on Main Street! I just heard the news. More as soon as I know it. I can’t wait to check out this new venture from my fellow Vandy alum Jay Frein and his partner Margot McCormack, who own Margot Café.

Rumors of its demise were most premature! HallowEast returns to East Nashville by popular demand. Check out the many activities beginning this weekend and running through Halloween itself. Truly something for everyone.

Lance Martin (author of a great food blog, btw) has a roundup from the Tomato Art Festival this weekend. Visit his site for some nice photos and a wrapup of the event. I agree with his sentiments:

"…the organizers put on an impressive street festival. Only in its third year, if it keeps growing it will soon
surpass Steeplechase in Nashville popularity."

To me, this incredible event is evidence of the revitalized spirit of our neighborhood. There’s a real and growing sense of community here, without which such events wouldn’t be possible. I’ve lived in East Nashville for more than a decade, and if you’re not here, well, you’re missing out.

Just three more days til Tomato Fest ’06. I just wanted to let you all know, there is no point in  your entering the tiniest tomato contest, because we have the winner over here. Be sure to come by Bongo Java at noon on Saturday to see us claim our prize.

What? You want to see the tiniest tomato? Forget it. It’s remaining safely ensconced in its undisclosed location until the judging.

My 1yo will be baptized this weekend at East End United Methodist. What a marvelous occasion. And we are so blessed that many friends and family are coming to join us for the weekend to help celebrate. What started out as a one-hour church service, of course, has morphed into a four-day extravaganza/hysteria.

• There are the children to entertain/prevent from having tantrums, of course.
• There are the relatives to feed/nuture their psychological issues.
• There’s me to enjoy the festivities/try not to have a breakdown in the midst of the chaos/family fun.

Actually we are all looking forward to the time together. With relatives flung across the Eastern United States, it takes a major holiday or an event like this to bring us together. And I have an Excel spreadsheet that outlines where 30 people are going to be on Sunday and where my family is eating and sleeping the end of this week. I may not be a "planner," at least according to my sisters and mother, but I was raised by one. (Mom, this is where I’d link to your blog, if you had one.)

And I am excited about all of that. I have been thinking for several days about what to serve for different meals. You have to know this one thing about me. If company’s coming, I’m not making something I’ve ever made before. It’s like a sickness I have. (I say that about a lot of things, don’t I?) But really, it’s true. It’s not even like I think about it consciously anymore. When I started thinking about what to make for this coming Friday night’s dinner, I just naturally pulled out a cookbook I’ve never cracked before. That was automatically the right one. And I think I’ve found something that my father (really, it’s better with meat in it), NYC sister (no red meat, no white grains, healthy fare only please), Nashvegas sister (must have meat!) will all enjoy. I don’t have to plan around my mother or the kids. (7yo eats yogurt and chicken; how can you plan around that?….1yo eats everything, bless him.)

Saturday night for some reason had me screwed up from the start. My 7yo wanted to grill out. Fine. Yesterday my mom said, "Your dad and I will bring steaks." I thought that was a great idea. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that was only half the entree. We had a vegetarian joining us. And some kids probably wouldn’t eat steak. So add hot dogs and veggie burgers. Then NYC sister calls. And I realized the other problem. NYC sister hasn’t eaten red meat or hot dogs in years. Years, people. I said, "You can eat a veggie burger, right?"

NYC sister: "Well…"

I then proceeded to lose it. This did not fit on the spreadsheet. This is why spreadsheets and planning are bad. This is why I do not plan. Plans don’t work out. It’s better to see who’s at your house at 5 p.m. and see what’s in the freezer. It’s worked for me up til now.

I think NYC sister is still speaking to me.

Today, I told Nashvegas sister about our conversation and explained the good news: The vegetarian is not coming. (It’s not really good news, party wise. I am sad about that family’s not coming. But it was simplifying dinner.) And about how I had been getting fairly irrational over the grill issues with NYC sister.

Here’s the best news: Nashvegas sister left me a voice mail tonight. She and my mother have appointed themselves in charge of dinner Saturday night. Hmmm. What else can I have a panic attack about?

:) Thanks, y’all!!

 

Davidson County holds its general election, and the state holds its Democratic and Republican primaries today. There are lots of judicial retention questions on the ballot, one contested judicial race in Davidson County, a really hot U.S. Senate race in the works….and please, please….if you’re not voting one way or the other for all those judges, keep paging through the ballot til you get to the last page. The Davidson County school board race is on the very last page. Five of the nine seats are up for grabs.

Polls are open til 7 p.m. Magically, the page on the Davidson County Election Commission website that tells you where to vote isn’t working this morning. !!! If you don’t know where your poll is (you must have become a registered voter by more than one month ago to be eligible), try their site later or call them at 862-8800.

If you aren’t registered, DO IT NOW so you can vote in the general election in November. Our Senate race is neck and neck.

August 12. East Nashville. Be there.

This year’s Tomato Art Fest promises to be the best yet. If you’re not an East Nashvillian, a foodie or an art gallery person, you might not have picked up on this great event in the past. But if you miss this year’s summer festival—well, we’ve already been voted "Best Food Event" in the Nashville Scene. And that was last year—before they went nuclear. It’s clear to me that the Tomato Festival has in three short years become one of the premier neighborhood events in Nashville. Best of all, it’s open to everyone, and no matter who you are, there is something fun here for you to do: BLT recipe contests, bloody mary contests, tomato king and queen to be selected, biggest tomato, smallest tomato, kids’ activities, and of course, the tomato art.

Of course there are also many tomato preliminaries, including the gallery preview at the Art & Invention gallery the evening of Aug. 11 (one of East Nashville’s great see-and-be-seen’s every year)….two chances to make a Second Line umbrella (in prep for the parade, of course), today and tomorrow at Art & Invention….a kids’ tomato-themed workshop at Plowhaus Artists’ Cooperative.

Kudos to Bret and Meg MacFayden, owners of Art & Invention Gallery, for cooking up the Tomato Art Fest in 2004 and for bringing it to such glorious fruition now.

Those of you who know me best are doing a double-take right now to read any sort of coffee-related news on this blog. My personal experience with coffee lasted less than 2 months at Vanderbilt, after which time I realized that my body had made the executive decision to sleep in after pulling all-nighters working on the school paper, and it would no longer be force-fed any more coffee, thank you very much. My continuing apologies to Professor Eakin and all the other wonderful teachers whose classes I squeaked through. It wasn’t you.

Undoubtedly the java at Portland Brew would have been a bit more helpful at getting me to class than the sludge I was consuming so many years ago. And these days, those bleary-eyed folks stumbling out of the house in East Nashville every early a.m. have yet another caffeinated option. Portland Brew is open on Eastland Avenue! From PB staffer Kevin Newman’s email to the neighborhood this afternoon:

There is nowhere to sit, something is wrong with the phone, and we don’t have our full menu available yet, but the new Portland Brew Coffee on Eastland and Scott is now open for business. We will be adding more furniture and equipment as it is shipped in, and we should have the same sandwiches and muffins and treats as our other stores very soon. The upstairs seating area won’t be open until we do a bit more construction, and that will probably come last. We do have Wi-Fi.

I became a PB customer when their second location opened down the street from my office, on Murphy Road, several years ago. I know many East Nashvillians are excited about the arrival of a late-night, non-bar hangout. With wifi, no less!

Welcome to the ‘hood.