The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

This book is a wonder, the very best book I have read covering this historical and emotional territory. I am not sure what it is that makes poets wtie 800 page epics, but A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth is another of my all time favorites, and this book may well sit beside it in my affections. The author contends that the original transgression of this land is not to be understood by looking at slavery, but rather by understanding the deep and ultimately evil nature of greed, and it could not be contained. The first European immigrants had been oppressed in their own land by their own king..."they resurrected this misery and passed it on.” Kidnapped Africans are hauled across the ocean, while the natives who live here are shoved off or murdered. Black slavery and Indian genocide may be regarded as distinct historical crimes, but Jeffers constructs her story to illustrate the integration of African and Indian pain in America. Almost immediately, the genealogies of her White European, Native American and enslaved African characters begin to mingle in a collage of expediency, love, rape, and the human need to survive despite all. The book goes from the twenty or so years before the Civil War all the way to right now, and if the convoluted racial composition of these characters is a challenge to track, that’s the point: Despite the strict demarcations of color that reside in the White imagination, the society that evolves in these pages is peopled by a spectrum of hues. Some claim their superiority, most suffer and a few pass. It is a book that is deeply emotional, brutal, without exageration, and offers a uniquely tied together view of our nation past and present.

Braised Short Rib Stew

In the late spring of the pandemic we ordered half of a cow. It was something that we had thought of doing in the past, and never quite did. We have routinely gotten whole pigs and lambs in the past, and enjoyed all aspects of it, including getting a local animal, supporting a neighbor, and our community, so when meat got very briefly tight we made the plunge, and this is what we made with the short ribs (a NYT recipe from Roy Choi. 4 pounds bone-in short ribs 1 small bunch scallions, trimmed and roughly chopped 1 ½ cups soy sauce ¼ cup chopped fresh ginger 1 small yellow onion, roughly chopped ½ cup garlic cloves, peeled (about 2 heads) ½ cup granulated sugar ½ cup mirin ½ cup fresh orange juice ½ cup apple juice ½ pound shiitake mushrooms, stems reserved for another use, halved or quartered if large 1 cup jarred, peeled chestnuts 1 cup taro, peeled and cut into large dice (about a 3-inch segment) 1 cup carrots, peeled and cut into large dice (about 2 carrots) 1 cup butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about half a squash) Put short ribs in a bowl, and cover with water. Drain, and discard water. Repeat twice. Remove short ribs from bowl, and score them diagonally across the top of the meat. Return ribs to the bowl, and rinse again. Remove, and pat dry. In a blender or food processor, combine scallions, soy sauce, ginger, onion, garlic, sugar, mirin, orange juice and apple juice, then pulse to purée. Add a little water if you need to thin out the sauce so it combines. Put puréed sauce in a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven with a lid, add 3 cups water and stir to combine. Bring pot to a boil over high heat, then add the ribs to the pot and lower heat to a simmer. Cover pot. Cook ribs over low for at least 2 hours. Add vegetables, cover and simmer, 30 minutes more or so, until meat is tender and vegetables are cooked through. Serve warm.

Together Together (2021)

I unexpectedly loved this movie. As a review I read said, is not just smart, it's sneaky-smart. You go into it thinking you know what you're getting into, and the movie conspicuously makes choices that seem intended to announce which boxes it's about to check off. Then it keeps confounding you—in a way that's understated rather than flashy—until you come to accept it on its own terms. It's the perfect storytelling tactic for a movie about a surrogate mother and her patron, a divorced man 20 years her senior. The main characters don't fully appreciate each other until they quit trying to categorize their relationship and let it be whatever it's going to be, while trying not obsess over what'll happen once the baby is born. The script is pitch perfect, and the two main actors make it happen. There was one moment of insight for me, a mistake I haven't made yet but still could. The woman who is the surrogate got pregnant and had a baby in high school that she put up for adoption, that is how she knows that she can carry a vhild and give it away. The pearl of wisdom is that she lost her family, because they saw her differently after she got pregnant, and when she was with them, she couldn't stop seeing herself that way and so she had to leave them. A terrible awful no good mistake, that is so bittersweet and so believable. There is a lot to be learned here.

Les Glycines, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, France

This restaurant is in the town that is near the painted caves that are found throughout the region. The potential for it to be touristy was high, but it wasn't the dining room has a gorgeous view, and is both ancient and modern at the same time. The lunch is a prix fixe at 35 euros, which is well worth it.

The fresh trout in this dish is local, and served in a celery puree--this was a dish that looks great and tastes even better. We had a glass of Monbazillac to go with it and it was memorably delicious.

One thing that we did not do a lot of on this trip was to eat more traditional French dishes, of which this, Veal Blanchette, is one. This was amazing, great mushroom flavor lightly flavored, veal tender, heavy but so delicious that you eat it slowly and savor every bite. I am going to try the blanchette technique with chicken thighs and see if We can replicate a bit. Served with a rice pilaf and enough for two!

She Wouldn't Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha

The author is someone that I know, in a way. She was a resident and I was the residency training director, so a professional relationship, made more personal by being a psychotherapy advisor as well. I am underpowered to fill that role, and was at the time, but she was talented and did not need much from me. She has published her first novel and I really enjoyed it. There is a time travel element, which is not well within my loves, but it is well constructed for the non-fantasy lovers amongst us. She opens the novel with a quote, which will become quite prophetic based on the action to come: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. If you are looking for a novel that will make you think, feel and experience along with the protagonist every single emotion and spiritual dilemma, then you've come to the right place. Dr. Adlakha writes what she knows and constructs a wonderful ride to go along with it--and an obvious jump to a second novel, to boot. Recommended!

French Weekly Markets, Periguex, France

This is the week to reflect on what we have and to give thanks, and I am well up to the task. The thing that I have as a stretch goal is to spend more time in and around the weekly markets that occur in France, to be able to spend enough time in a place to really take advantage of a culture that is built around food.

The fact that you can live in a small town, and not have to leave and still have great access to meats, cheese, seafood and fruits and vegetables is a huge draw for me, and something that I am very jealous of coming from a small midwestern town. I carry things home with me when I travel (France was no exception), the ability to do it as a matter of course would be outstanding.

There is something about these outdoor markets that I find attractive--I had forgotten that but my spouse remembered, and we made three attempts with two successes in our realtively short stay. The French make food shopping fun again!

Local Thanks

The pandemic has made me more of a home body--I suppose that is true for most of us, but it wasn't a burden to be so isolated, at least some of the time, and I have been even more focused on being able to get food that is localas a result. We are long time CSA supporters, and have bought meat directly from the farmer for over three decades. Now I am really loving a Thanksgiving where many of the things on the table were grown in or near the county I live in. I am eating an apple from a local farm even as I write this, at the end of January, I am still able to have this experience, and feel very blessed about that. Happy day of thanks to you and yours.

Brantôme, Perigord Vert, France

Brantôme is in what is known as Perigord Vert, and the last of the four regions to visit. The médiévale town has what is thought to be the oldest bell tower in France, dating back to the 11th century and gets some of it’s height from being built into the rock face. This town is notable for well preserved architecture, coupled with exceptional parking (definitely not a given in a town built pre-automobiles) and a river runs through it.

Another feature is that a river runs through it. Brantome sits on a bend of the river Dronne that encircles a large part of the town and the steep wooded slopes form an attractive backdrop. The Benedictine Abbey on the river's edge is superb and this along with the old stone bridge, weir and pretty mill now turned into a splendid hotel and restaurant all make for a very photogenic scene and make Brantome one of the most beautiful towns of the Perigord Vert.

The Abbey, which the town was built up around, was built by Charlemagne in 769 and is the main historical highlight of the town along with its troglodyte caves including the famous cave of the 'Last Judgement'.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

I found this to be a book that I liked more the further I got in it, and there is plenty of book to be had here. This is a big novel of people thinking big thoughts. The story that underlies the action, which occurs over centuries, is a tale that dates back to ancient times. The story is then interwoven with different characters over different times, some good, some not, all of them are complicated in their own ways and products of their times. In time, we learn the outcomes of several of these stories, and how you might conceive them to be interconnected in their own way. It is a seat of your pants action book that unfolds in a decpetively sluggish manner, and exciting to the end. The earliest action takes place in the mid-15th century when Omeir, an ostracized boy with a cleft palate who is my favorite. He is conscripted into the Ottoman army and becomes a reluctant witness to one of history’s most consequential battles. The new sultan is marching on Constantinople with a set of mighty cannons that may allow him to breach the city’s ancient walls. There are other soldiers and other wars, and it is nicely tied up, more or less, in the end.

Moulin de L'Abbaye, Brantôme, France

We were largely focuses on restaurants with a Bib Gourmand designation from Michelin, which indicates a superior meal, perhaps but not always focusing on local specialties, and at a good value. It was a wildly successful strategy, but we veered off of it to have a meal at a One Star restaurant, because there are just oodles of them in this region, and why miss out on that completely? The setting is absolutely unparalleled. Our table looked out on a water wheel and the Dromme River, so beucolic and peaceful as a setting for a special meal.

We agreed that we would eat whatever the chef, Ramses Alan Navarro ( a Mexican native who moved to France after working in Mexico City), made for us. Each course is a complete surprise, and we were not disappointed, from the amuse bouche and the coofee and sweets that we ate outside along the edge of the river.

THe two courses pictured here are a duck confite ravioli and a roulade of sole filled with and surrounded by razor clams. These were two of my favorite courses that I ate the whole trip, and the meal was very slow in pace, so that you could really savor each bite, not just the individual courses. Warning, though--this took 3 plus hours from the time we were seated until we were back in our car, so it is almost a whole day thing to eat here and see the town, or at least it was for us.