The Spiral Staircase

More Than Meets the Eye -- Twin Cities Trip, Part 1

We just got back from an exhausting and wonderful trip to the frosty mid-West, where we visited with Ethan's relations, most notably his brother Spencer.  For more on Spencer, see my earlier post. 

I begin to see why people like producing children.  Being with Spencer activated a new love center in my brain, which pumped out compassion at an alarming rate.  It felt ennobling but also it hurt like having my bones exposed to the air.

SPENCER'S TOP TEN THINGS IN LIFE

1. Ethan (and hearing Ethan play music, esp. boogie woogie)

2. Vacuums (To Spencer's delight, and because we find it difficult to refuse him anything, we let him vacuum our hotel room in Two Harbors every night.  We were sort of scared we would be discovered illegally vacuuming the room and ejected from the facility.)

3. Lawn mowers

4. Hamburgers

5. The past

6. There are only five things

After Spencer went back to Duluth, Ethan and I went on to the twin cities, where he and the Bad Plus played some awesome shows at the Dakota (more on this in part 2).  On a morning off, we took a trip to visit one of Ethan's high school friends, who has one of the largest collections of Transformers action figures this side of planet Cybertron.

Ethan and I had been discussing collecting and the impulse to collect, which he says massages a part of the ego that is wounded from childhood.  Ethan keeps his collecting impulse controlled, but it does manifest in certain bookshelves full of crime fiction. 

I felt honored that the Transformers collector, a gentle and brilliant man, not only let us tour his city of steel but also spoke with us about its psychological connection to his childhood.  This was profoundly moving.  Also, he let me transform the dinobots, who are my favorites. 

How cute is Slag? 

I really relate to him; both of us are angry nearly all the time and we are compactly built.  Also, kids at school used to tease me by calling me Tri-Sarah-tops.  Grr.

"Me Slag no like anything." -- Slag

The collector also gave us a DVD set of the Transformers cartoon, which I used to watch regularly with my brother.  Watching it again, I'm struck by the genius of the creators of the toys and the show, who managed to put together so many things that little boys love into one package (cars, jet planes, robots, dinosaurs).  There is only one human character, the inoffensive and perky Spike, who gives the viewer an entry point into the magical world without distracting too much from the robots in disguise.  Optimus Prime is the ideal surrogate father for the latchkey children of our generation -- large, wise, all powerful, issuing his firm commands in a gravelly bass voice -- and, unlike one's own father, he turns into a truck!

I have never been a collector; I throw things away.  Sometimes even things I need, like my return airline tickets. 

Once, after a horrible breakup, I left all my books out on a street corner in Bushwick.  This was before Bushwick had become even as slightly gentrified as it is now.  No one was going to come save my grandfather's old copy of the Decameron or the beautiful hardcover Lidell and Scott that had seen me through so many translations.  It still makes me sick to think of them sitting there in the rain like abandoned dogs.

I thought I was being evolved by letting go of the objects, but unless you also let go of the cravings, it's not an act of virtue.  It's like ripping off fruit that's unripe, or pulling off a scab before the wound is healed.  

ONE ART by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Dropping the Title

It always gives me a pleasant thrill when an author drops the title of a novel within the text of the novel.  It's difficult to pull off, but when it works it works. . .

"The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God."

"and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max and he sailed off through night and day/ and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are."

and maybe the best ever:

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.  Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me.  And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.  What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.  That's all I do all day.  I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.  I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."

What actually made me think of this was Talib Kweli; I just noticed how great his quotation is of the CD title "The Beautiful Struggle" at about 3:00 into the song "I Try."  You can tell how psyched he is.  It shows chops to quote yourself so well.

Cheese and Mixology Notes

Here are my cocktail recipes and the cheese pairings for the class I taught at Murray's Cheese recently, which focused on holiday-themed cocktails of brown spirits wih fruit and spice infusions.  We did five cocktails, each matched with a cheese.  I was really happy with how well the cheeses paired with these drinks -- creating that "more than the sum of its parts" experience that is to my mind the goal in a pairing. 

THE SEELBACH COCKTAIL

This classic recipe came from Jamie Boudreau in Imbibe magazine.  The Seelbach is a classic champagne cocktail named after the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky.  I elected to start the tasting with this one, as the bitters and the bubbly prick up the appetite.  This is a great cocktail before a rich meal.

1 ounce bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace)
1/2 ounce triple sec (Cointreau or Luxardo are both good brands)
7 dashes Angostura bitters (or to taste)
7 dashes Peychaud bitters (or to taste)
3 ounces chilled NV champagne
Garnish: lemon twist

Add bourbon, triple sec, and bitters to ice-filled shaker and stir very well.  Strain into chilled cocktail glass and top with champagne.  Twist or flame a lemon twist over top, rub around rim, and drop in.

This was the hardest cocktail to pair.  We ended up going for a sheep cheese that had a nice interaction with the bitters, popping them on the attack, but then finishing mellow and sweet:

MALVAROSA

First imported to the U.S. in August of 2004, Malvarosa began as a labor of love. To save the nearly extinct Guirra sheep, Valencian cheesemaker Enrique began producing this Manchego-like wheel. Frankly, we think it blows Manchego away. The paste is firm, but far more buttery, and incredibly rich and sweet. More like the crowd favorite Pyrenees Brebis, this one is compulsively edible, down to its nearly butterscotch finish. Aged for a minimum of three months; careful cheesemaking and gentle pasteurization preserve an enormous hit of succulent flavor.

RUSTY MENORAH

I knew I wanted to do a Scotch drink for the class, and I was playing around with Rob Roy variations, but they were all overwhelming the cheese.  Then Kenta Goto at Pegu Club suggested I try a champagne-topped Rusty Nail.  This was a great idea!  I infused the Scotch with vanilla beans and bolstered the sweet honey flavor of the Drambuie with a syrup of New Zealand honey.  This was my favorite drink of the bunch, a distinguished Hanukkah libation.

1 1/2 ounces Johnny Walker Black infused with vanilla bean
1/2 ounce Drambuie
1/2 ounce manuka honey syrup
3 ounces chilled NV Champagne
Garnish: orange twist

For infusion: steep 1L bottle of JWB with a large, plump vanilla bean for at least one week and up to one month, depending on desired strength

For honey syrup: mix equal parts manuka or other floral honey with spring water.  Heat just to dissolve.  Keep refrigerated.

For cocktail: in an ice-filled shaker, mix Scotch, Drambuie, and honey syrup.  Stir very well and strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Top with champagne and flame or twist orange rind over top.

This paired so well with the stinky yet mild Grayson:

MEADOW CREEK DAIRY GRAYSON

Virginia's Feete family uses ecologically-sound farming practices in raising their dairy herd of Jersey cows.  No pesticides or herbicides are used in the fields where the cows are rotationally pastured.  The cows are never confined or fed silage, and are given minimal hormones and antibiotics.  The milking season ends when grass growth wanes and the cows wind down their milk production.  The quality of the cheese reflects this diligence.  Grayson is Meadow Creek Dairy's washed rind offering.  The brownish-orange rind of the mildly pungent four-pound square envelopes a supple, semi-soft paste that tastes rich and beefy with sweet, nutty tones.

For the next two cocktails, I moved into brandy territory.  The first one used a delicious homemade raspberry cordial that is great taken neat (so great that I almost didn't have enough left over for the cocktail).  Mark Morris gave me the cordial recipe so I named the drink after my favorite of his dances. 

L'ALLEGRO

The raspberry flavor is lifted up by the lemon juice in this bright-colored holiday cocktail.  The black pepper rim adds a nice sharp note. 

1 1/2 ounces raspberry-infused Armagnac
1/2 ounce Dubonnet rouge
1/2 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
Garnish: black pepper sugar rim (3 parts organic white sugar mixed with 1 part fresh-ground black pepper) 

For infusion: (Alice Waters’ recipe from Chez Panisse Fruit): Fill a 1-quart jar with raspberries. Pour in 1 cup sugar and cover with brandy or Cognac. Close the jar and let sit 4 days, shaking the jar occasionally to make sure that the sugar dissolves. Keeps 1 year.

Rub outside rim of chilled cocktail glass in lemon juice then coat with pepper-sugar mixture.  Shake raspberry Armagnac, Dubonnet, and lemon juice very well over ice and strain into prepared glass. 

The berry-peppery cocktail paired well with this fudgy-peppery cheese, and it reminded me of the best wine-cheese pairing I've ever enjoyed: a perfectly ripe Chaource with Billecart-Salmon NV rose.

JASPER HILL FARM CONSTANT BLISS
A truly exceptional new find: raw Ayrshire cow's milk, aged in caves for just 60 days.  Unlike many bloomy cheeses, Constant Bliss is not sprayed with mold.  The rind develops as the result of ambient molds in the cave. Hand-made by two brothers, Constant Bliss is buttery and dense, with an earthy, vegetal character. Some liken the mushroomy quality to a good Camembert, though the paste is dense and cakier. The aroma of the moist caves is present in the mottled gray and white rind.

I originally designed this next one with Grey Goose La Poire, but the apple flavor really comes through with Calvados.  I love Benedictine as a sweetening agent in cocktails!

SUGARPLUM

Sweet and lightly fizzy, with Christmas-y flavors of cranberry, apple, and sweet spice. 

1 1/2 ounces Calvados
1/3 ounce Benedictine
1/2 ounce Demerara spice syrup
7 cranberries
approx. 2 ounces sparkling cider such as Martinelli
Garnish: Apple chip (optional)

For Demerara syrup: Mix 1 C Demerara sugar, 1 C spring water, a cinnamon stick, six cloves, and three peppercorns in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve.  Boil five minutes. Let cool, strain, and store refrigerated.

Muddle cranberries in the bottom of shaker with spice syrup.  Add Benedictine and Calvados, fill shaker with ice, and shake very well.  Strain into chilled cocktail glass (if flecks of cranberry bother you, fine strain) and top with chilled cider.  Present with apple chip.

Since this cocktail is so full of true apple flavor, pairing with a great cheddar was a natural fit. 

CABOT CLOTHBOUND CHEDDAR

We all know the name Cabot, but this first-to-market cheese represents a new commitment to American artisan cheesemaking.  Using the pasteurized milk of Holstein cows from George Kempton neighboring farm in Peacham, Cabot produces these 35 pound clothbound wheels and delivers them to neighboring Jasper Hill Farm within 2 to 5 days for aging and maturation.  Upon arrival, the Kehler brothers brush each wheel with melted lard to promote sturdy rind development and turn the cheese daily for three weeks. The wheels are then turned and brushed weekly as they develop alongside Jasper Hill's own cheese for 10-12 months.  The resulting cheese offers a stunning array of flavors: the firm, slightly crunchy paste is never waxy, and unfolds with layers of toasted nut, toffee and cooked fruits.

I thought it would be nice to finish up with a hot toddy, so I went for hot buttered rum, and I had the students add their own butter from their cheese plates  Of course Murray's sold some delicious, sweet cream butter. 

VOLCANO HOUSE HOT BUTTERED RUM

This recipe adapted from Imbibe is a classic, dating from 1950s bartender Bob Ita of the Volcano House Hotel in Hawaii.

1 1/2 ounces aged rum
3/4 ounce lemon juice
1/4 ounce Maraschino
3/4 ounce Demerara syrup
Very hot black or oolong tea (I used Kuan Yin)
Garnish: one clove, small pat of unsalted butter 

For Demerara syrup: Mix equal parts Demerara sugar and spring water.  Stir over heat to dissolve.  Let cool and store refrigerated.

Warm mug using boiling water.  Combine rum, lemon juice, Maraschino, and sugar syrup in the bottom of the mug and stir to dissolve.  (If you want a piping-hot drink, stir these together over a low flame until warm, then pour in preheated mug.)  Top with very hot tea, stir, and float butter and clove on top.

Since the funky cherry pit flavor of the Maraschino comes through strongly in this cocktail, our cheese pairing for this one was a nod to the flavors of the classic cheese fondue, in which gruyere and kirsch (cherry brandy) are common partners.

BEELER GRUYERE

Undoubtedly the best Gruyère we’ve ever come across!  Selected by Swiss Maitre Fromager Rolf Beeler, a lengthy 18 months of aging produces a dark rind that speaks to its firm, nutty, intensified paste of raw cow's milk, dotted with crystallization.  A little goes a long way; just a whiff could satisfy you.
 

My Mom's Chekovian Misadventure

A great post from my mom's new blog.

Lobster Glut, Weird Amazons, and Dead People

A bit of good economic news: Lobsters are on sale all over the city.  After I taught my cheese class last night at Murray's (which was super fun -- I will post the recipes tomorrow), Ethan, Lisa and I went out for a little snack at Fish in the Village.  A whole steamed lobster, clams, corn on the cob, and fries for $19!  It's a deal worthy of the Bargain Biatch!  Today I read in the Times that these savings are city-wide.   Might as well feast while we can.  Soon we will be killing stray dogs and roasting them over the burnt shells of American cars.

Yesterday I got an order from Amazon.  I had ordered a raunchy instructional book, as I had given away this same book to a bachelorette and wanted to replace my copy.  I won't say what it was, but suffice it to say: fairly skanky. 

Wedged into this book was a copy of Thomas Merton's "Praying on the Psalms." 

I hadn't ordered this book, and I wonder: was this just a weird mistake?  Or some religious freak in order fulfillment trying to send me a message?  Either way, I was psyched.  I love Thomas Merton.  It's also fitting because I just picked up the Bible the other night for the first time in a long time.  I read Ecclesiastes and was struck by its uncanny similarity to the Heart Sutra. 

I had a dream last night about my Uncle David, a borderline autistic man who killed himself when I was in high school.  He was lying in bed, fighting with my grandmother, but when I walked in he cheered up.  His normally somber room was filled with scented candles and had gleaming wooden floors.  He said, "Sarah, you look great!  I'm so happy to see you!"  (David would never have said this in real life -- he was kind and magical with children, but as soon as you hit 12, he withdrew.)  He held me in his arms and I cried with happiness, although in my dream I didn't know he was dead, and I thought: why am I crying?  I don't want to upset him.  I feel like this is a lucky dream, although I don't know exactly why.  I guess I think it's lucky to dream about dead people.  It's the only way you get to see them.

 

Cocktail-Cheese Class

This Wednesday, I am coteaching a class called "Winter Warmers and Cheese" at the fabulous Murray's Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village.  I will be preparing five delicious cocktails (including champagne cocktails and hot buttered rum), and cheese maven Taylor Cocalis will teach us about the cheeses she has selected to pair with each. 

Now half off for Spiral Staircase readers!  If you would like the discount info, email me (under "about" in this blog's sidebar.)

De la Hoya-Pacquiao

My buddy Danny and I were in the minority as we cheered De la Hoya last night at 200 Fifth.  I've always liked this bar because they have liberal political signs written on their chalkboard every election, right alongside the daily salmon special.  Even during the Kerry days.  How many sports bars can you say that about? 

You had to pay $25 to get in, which seemed sort of steep, but the place was packed.  Pacquiao or "Pacman" is clearly the man to beat now in the middle weights, and I think he could take Mayweather, though I'm not sure.  He has an enormous badass entourage, and when they roll into the ring it's like some kind of Hong Kong action movie, only Filipino.  He's so of the hip hop generation that his choice of "We Will Rock You" as entrance music seemed almost ironic.

De la Hoya had Bernard Hopkins lurking around in his corner, which I thought was cool.  Bernard is my other favorite fighter, and he of course beat De la Hoya in a previous match.  Shane Mosely, who beat Oscar twice, was also in the ring, although I couldn't figure out why.  I wondered if it was weird psychologically to have so many fighters he had lost to in the ring. 

It's been years since I watched a fight.  This is mostly because I don't have a TV, but also because whenever I watch boxing I want to train again, which is out of the question, as I need to save what little wrist strength remains for opening bottles of champagne.  So I hadn't seen Pacquiao before, but man is he good.  His handspeed and balance are beautiful.  Oscar never got anything serious off.  He was swollen and discouraged when he quit on his stool after eight rounds.

I knew it was sort of lame (as well as hopeless) to root for De la Hoya, but I just couldn't help it.  I've been devoted to him ever since he lost that bad decision to Trinidad, even though he never fought as well after that night.  I liked the De la Hoya that used to box behind the jab.  But he's old now, and I think that even in his prime he would have had trouble with Pacquiao, since left hook fighters always have trouble with southpaws.

OK, so, the real reason I love him is that even though he's rich from his self-marketing, and even though he could just spend his time doing vanity projects like this one...  (Hit mute when you watch this, and just check out how adorable he looks.  If he asked you to go out for a malted milkshake, you would do it, no matter who you are.)

...I mean, come on!  My man could support himself male modeling and he still gets in the ring and fights the scariest cats: Mosely, Hopkins, Vargas, Mayweather, Trinidad, Quartey, and now Pacquiao.  Who else does that nowadays?   

So, my hat is off to Oscar, and I hope he retires to drink lots of milkshakes.  And I can't help being sad because he was the first fighter I really admired and now he's past his prime.  This makes me feel old, but so does everything these days. 

Vanity of vanities, saieth the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity!

What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?

One generation passeth away and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever.

It couldn't have been an easy thing for De la Hoya to quit on the stool.  You do like to see brave men go down fighting.  It's an awful ending to a hero's story when he dies in bed:

(from Roger Lancelyn Green)

Then Robin Hood lay back on the bed and slept, for he was very weak.  But as soon as she was certain he was sleeping, the Prioress loosened the bandage from his arm so that the blood flowed once more.  Then she stole quietly away and left him.

All day long Robin lay there bleeding slowly to death, and when the shadows were lengthening he awoke and looked about him.  He was so weak now that he could scarcely move, but he saw that the bandage had been unfastened purposely, and he guessed that the Prioress had done it.

Robin staggered to his feet and flung open the windows.  It was but a short drop to the ground, and beyond the garden he saw the forest, his forest, beckoning to him.  But he could not so much as raise his leg to climb over the window.

Then he thought of his bugle-horn.  With trembling fingers he drew it from his pouch, raised it to his lips and blew the old call Wa-sa-hoah for the last time. . .

Maid Marian and Little John find him, and

Then, weeping bitterly, Little John placed the bow in Robin's hand and guided his fingers to the notched arrow.  For the last time Robin Hood drew his good yew bow, and as he drew strength seemed to come to him so that he drew the arrow to the very head and loosed it so strongly that it flew well beyond the Nunnery walls and fell in a deep green glade of the forest...Next morning Little John sought out the arrow, and where it fell he dug Robin's grave with his own hands, and laid him to rest under the greenwood tree.

Master Cleanse Day 3

OK, so Ethan and I are doing our annual juice fast.  It's the one where all you have is lemonade made with organic lemon juice, grade B maple syrup, and cayenne pepper.  We only do five days of the recommended ten, but it's better than nothing.  Gives the body a chance to recover from all the excesses of the New York lifestyle.  This year in particular I feel I need it to clear out the debris from my year of Grey Goose-ing.  

I can't say I enjoy fasting at all.  It is miserable and difficult.  But I know from experience how much better it makes everything feel.  This is my fourth year doing it, and I've noticed I get less colds and just feel generally spiffier through the winter.  Plus, doing it between Thanksgiving and Christmas helps to cut down on the eating momentum generated during the holiday season. 

It helps to have someone to do it with so you can commiserate.  Ethan and I spend a lot of time lying in bed listlessly, declaring our love for each other and for hamburgers.