The Right Place

“That I am in the right place at present there is no doubt about, as I have found something interesting to work at, in my own field, and time and place and material in which to do it.”

                                                                                    Winslow Homer

I know that feeling…on Palm Sunday, March 24, I conducted The St. Saviour’s Festival Choir and instrumentalists in a performance of Bob Chilcott’s new Requiem.  Premiered in 2010 it is quickly growing in popularity among both choirs and audiences throughout the US and England for good reason.  The work is a requiem of peace and hope and it is comforting, inspiring and uplifting.  The harmony is often modern, but not jarring, and the Sanctus made me feel like dancing on a Caribbean beach.

This work was a challenge for my choir and the few ringers, mostly because it was brand new to everyone.  Two weeks before the performance, to my horror, they acted like they’d never seen the music before. I lay awake for hours that night trying to figure out how to solve the problems.  I must have because it came together beautifully.

The exquisite and unusual instrumentation calls for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, timpani and organ.  The organ is the foundation, the timpani provides drama, and the winds add color. The 24 singers balanced perfectly against the accompaniment in the beautiful setting of St. Saviour’s.

But this is why I know that feeling…standing in front of the performers and a full house I was able to bring the score to life, to convey the meaning of the music from my heart to the hearts of the choir and instrumentalists and on to those in the audience.  The music spoke to us; we were moved.  It was a deeply profound experience, and I am grateful.

Loss

My dear Aunt Dot died on February 18.  A friend’s husband died unexpectedly two weeks ago.  The fathers of two choir members have recently died.  Another choir member’s grandmother died a few days ago.  Last week I played for a funeral and another is on my schedule for this week. It seems I am sending more sympathy than birthday cards and making many arrangements for memorial donations and flowers.

Speaking about the many losses with one of my tenors, we summed it up by agreeing it was the stage of life we are now in.  50’s and 60’s, with the older generation passing on and the occasional death of one of our peers.  It is uncharted territory for me, but perhaps acknowledging it is at least a step in the right direction.

I was grateful when my aunt died-her last few weeks were painful, confusing and humiliating.  In short, not about living.  Her rich life was celebrated at a beautiful Episcopal service by her sister, numerous nieces and nephews, a couple of great-nieces and a few friends.  My cousin and I drank a margarita to her at the lunch afterwards (oh yes, she would have approved whole-heartedly!).  And I will treasure her memory every time I hear opera, visit an art museum or see a foreign movie- thanks, Dot.

This Is Good

Edamame Hummus

3 cups frozen edamame, thawed and drained
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3-4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup tahini, stirred well before measuring
2-4 tbsp water, to thin as needed
1/2-1 tsp sea salt, to taste
1/4 tsp coriander
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1. Set aside a handful of edamame for garnishing.
2. With motor running on food processor drop in garlic cloves to mince. Add edamame and process until somewhat smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Add lemon juice, tahini and water and process until very smooth-this may take a few minutes.          
 (Important!)
4. Add salt, cayenne and coriander and process until combined.
5. Garnish with reserved edamame, smoked paprika, freshly ground black pepper and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Serve with crostini, crackers, pita chips and/or crudites.

I served this at a dinner party on Sunday evening-a delicious change from my usual goat cheese and olives.  And in the interest of full disclosure it is not from Joy of Cooking, but it is from my binder!

Cooking Simplified, I Hope

True confession…I have 40 cookbooks, give or take a few.  And this is after purging many over the past couple of years.  Until now I thought I just couldn’t help it... I LOVE buying cookbooks, both new and used, and have received many as gifts and even inherited a few.  But I am going to try to stop, or at least slow down.

Although we do have a lot of dinner parties, most of my cooking is just for two.  My favorite suppers are a bowl of homemade soup or a piece of fish with vegetables and salad.  After a day at work I don’t open a book and make a complicated recipe.  Yet that is what is in my library- a plethora of books with recipes that call for lots of ingredients and chopping.  Even the simple, Quick Weeknight Dinners-type takes at least an hour for me to throw together.  And then there is the planning of the week’s meals, my invariably forgetting a few things at the supermarket, and trying to figure out when I’ll have the time to make something and should I double it for leftovers?  It just seems like too much trouble.

So I’m going to experiment for the month of February and see if I can simplify by using just one cookbook. After the holidays I brought back my aunt’s copy of the 1997 edition of Joy of Cooking.  It is virtually untouched and she has no need for it anymore. Yes, I do have a Joy of Cooking, 1975 edition, but I’m giving it to the library book sale.  It has some notes in it, such as made this for playgroup 1988 (Butterscotch Brownies) but all the same I’m not keeping it. The later edition is truly updated, with more uses for tofu and the like, and it has plenty of ideas for soups and fish.

In addition to the above mentioned cookbooks I also have a large three-ring binder stuffed with tried and true recipes that I’ve cut out from magazines and newspapers or received from friends.  I also have a folder overflowing with more clippings of things I want to try.  Too much!  Perhaps I might cheat a little and use my binder, but that’s it, I promise.

Check back in a month to see how the one cookbook experiment worked.  And for those of you who can just open the fridge and throw something together, I’m jealous.

Welcome, Prudence!

China Road

When I first married in 1975 most couples registered at a department store for formal china, silver and crystal.  The simple look of a silver band around a cream background of Lenox’s Solitaire appealed to me then and still does.  Since I was preparing to be a “preacher’s wife” my mother insisted that I needed 12 place settings and by golly that’s what I got. Fancy dinners with church members and deacons were in my future.

The Solitaire lasted longer than the marriage and I carted it around with me for over 30 years.  Even when I was single I’d unpack it in every apartment and use it for dinner parties.  All twelve place settings.  And it became the china that Bill and I used for Christmas, Thanksgiving and the like.  I just loved it.

Shortly before Emily and Jeff were married I used the china for a meal when they were visiting.  In the back of my mind I’d been thinking of giving it to them, but truthfully I was having a very hard time letting it go.  But I mustered the courage to ask if they might like it and the answer was an unequivocal Yes! I packed it up and the day after their wedding they loaded it into their car and took it to DC.

Bill and I had Thanksgiving dinner with them this year and there was my china, looking ever-so-beautiful in its new home.  I sort of like the idea that it started out Baptist and converted to Judaism.

Of course I still have the Waterford crystal and Gorham sterling…

Aunt Dot

She is like a horse grazing

a hill pasture that someone makes

smaller by coming every night

to pull the fences in and in.

She has stopped running wide loops,

stopped even the tight circles.

She drops her head to feed; grass

is dust, and the creekbed’s dry.

Master, come with your light

halter.  Come and bring her in.

            In the Nursing Home by Jane Kenyon

My dear Aunt Dot is having a rough time of it.  Almost 90 and never married, she recently had to move to a nursing home in the Dallas area.  She is not just an ordinary aunt, but someone who has had a profound and lasting influence on my life.  While visiting her last week I reminded her of all that we have in common, which includes a love of reading, travel, movies and opera, devotion to the Episcopal Church, and a taste for wine.  But what I meant to say to her was Thank you, Dot, for opening my eyes to a big beautiful world and for taking me along on your journey.