A Winner: Stewed Chicken

G made Stewed Chicken: Kota Kokinisti tonight before he left for work. The whole kitchen smelled delicious. The chicken was so tender it fell off the bone. I can't wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Mizithra is a Greek cheese; he found it at Your Dekalb Farmer's Market. There are a lot of strange cheeses in our refrigerator now. I'm eager to eat what's coming next.

Possible Side Effects Verdict

Possible Side Effects was hilarious. I laughed out loud several times. Augusten Burroughs' stories are wickedly funny while poignant and disturbing at the same time.

In one story, a 9-year-old Burroughs gets into a truck with a strange man who promises to show him a litter of puppies. As it turns out, there really are puppies and Burroughs ends up adopting one. Everything in the story turns out OK. Burroughs even ends the story by literally saying that everything is fine. And like all his stories on the audiobook, it ends with a cheery little musical bit.

But we know from reading Running With Scissors that things do not turn out fine for Burroughs. His mother's mental illness and his parents' neglect put him in dangerous situations that have serious, long-lasting negative consequences. He reminds us several times throughout Possible Side Effects that he is permanently damaged. It's that edge of danger and anger that make Burroughs' stories so interesting and his humor so dark.

Stunned Into Niceness

I chatted today on Facebook with my friend Rich. We hung out together in high school and still keep in touch. He's very smart and funny, often sarcastic and sometimes acerbic, so watch out. Remind you of anyone?

He said he had given his niece the address of my blog, and she may be in touch. I'd certainly love to hear from Rich's niece, or anyone's niece for that matter. I have nieces of my own, and they are pretty, clever people. But why would Rich's niece want to get in touch with me? He said it's because she's an aspiring writer and she should learn from the best! Well, you know Rich does not hand out the compliments so freely. So, I just melted like butter. Acerbic comments of the past all forgotten. Slate wiped clean.

So anyone who wants to send a niece to my blog to get some writing advice, go right ahead. I'm a college professor and I teach writing to students all day every day (except weekends, major holidays, most of December, the entire summer and one week in March) so I actually have lots of words of wisdom. All I need is someone motivated enough to listen. Take advantage; I'm not always so nice. But it isn't every day I get a compliment from my friend Rich.

For dinner tonight, Gerard outdid himself with horseradish and garlic prime rib with wild mushroom sauce and leftover Gerard rice on the side. Dinner was late, so he made me a martini. Smirnoff vodka and garlic stuffed olives.

What is the best compliment you've ever received or one that you didn't expect? Send your comments. Let's get a dialog going about how wonderful we all are and drum up some positive energy.

Book Club

Soon I'll be reviewing The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, because that's the book I'm reading for my next book club meeting. My friend Cheryl chose this book because it's the 2010 Man Booker Prize winner. I've read other Man Booker Prize winners and liked them: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy come to mind.

It's tricky to choose a book for Book Club. You hope most of the people, or at least a vocal minority, will like it. You remind yourself that you didn't WRITE the book, you only chose it, so if they don't like it, it's nothing personal. You can't please everyone; you know that going in. At least one member of our group doesn't like any books that are popular. Some like short stories. I don't like short stories. As I said in an earlier post, if I'm going to commit to a relationship with a character, I want it to be long-lasting.

I suppose you could say Possible Side Effects is a series of short stories, or essays. But Augusten Burroughs is in all of them, so my relationship with him remains intact. In fact, getting to know him better makes his essays even funnier. When he likes the bitter-tasting, hole-producing Nicorette gum (see post from 12/13/10) it's not only funny because that's a surprise, it's also funny because that is so him.

As I write this, Gerard is hard at work in the kitchen. He's making oven-roasted lamb shanks with roasted tomatoes and toasted orzo. Drool.

All About the Eyeballs

My blog has hit the big time. I have an advertising deal. A tiny advertising deal, but a deal nonetheless. I think this is how CNN got started. I'm going to receive a product from CSN Stores and then review it. CSN Stores is a Boston-based company comprised of more than 200 websites, including everything from luggage stores to furniture and bookshelves.

In professional media, advertisers pay for everything. Writers entice readers (or viewers, in TV) to look at the content. The more looking, the more seeing the ads, the more money. It's all about the eyeballs.

Opposite Day

One of the things I like best about Augusten Burroughs' "Possible Side Effects," and all his books really, is that when faced with a choice he often does the opposite of what I would do. So then I get to see what that would be like. A good example is the chapter in which Burroughs describes his introduction to Nicorette gum.

He wants to quit his three-pack-a-day smoking habit. Already the opposite of me, because I have never smoked a cigarette. Causes cancer, smells bad, costs a lot of money... I just don't get it. So he buys nicotine patches and gum and throws away all the instruction materials without reading them. Obviously, I would have read all the materials. After all, there could be, you know, possible side effects. He applies two patches and puts two sticks of gum in his mouth.

He starts to chew the gum and senses a chemical taste. He keeps chewing and it starts to burn like pepper. He keeps chewing and starts to feel something in his stomach that he describes as a buildup of acid or a hole forming. He keeps chewing. He gets the hiccups and exclaims, "I LOVED the gum!"

That reaction made me laugh out loud because it was a surprise. I'd have viewed it as a calamity, possibly calling for medical attention. It would have probably shocked me into quitting smoking cold turkey. I admire the creativity of someone who looks at the world in different and unexpected ways. On the other hand, Burroughs becomes addicted to Nicorette gum.
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What my husband is planning for dinner tonight:
Chicken breast Tuscany with baby peas
"Gerard Rice" which is a rice risotto with mushrooms, peppers and onions

Conclusion

I finished The Hemingses about a week ago, but have not had time to blog because of Senior Capstone presentations, final exams, Hanukkah and holiday parties occurring all at once. Today I had no appointments all day besides carpool. So, time to catch up.

I thought the Hemingses was a great story, and a very important one to tell. They were possibly the most privileged slave family in the U.S. and still their lives were tragic because of their enslavement. How could they not be, under such circumstances, in which human beings are owned by others as property. One of the saddest truths is that the book was much more about Jefferson than about Sally or the other Hemingses, despite the title. This is because no records of the Hemingses' lives were kept, as they were thought to be insignificant. So they can be known only through the study of Jefferson and their relationship to him. And even there, much is lost because Jefferson's descendents destroyed all references to Sally among his letters and papers.

Now I'm reading Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs. I thoroughly enjoyed Dry, in which he chronicles his struggle with and recovery from alcoholism. It was dark and hilarious. I'm listening to this book, of course, as I finish out the semester commuting to Piedmont College. I especially enjoyed hearing about Burroughs' visits to his grandparents' house in Lawrenceville as I passed the Lawrenceville exit along my drive.

A couple of Burroughs' observations made me laugh out loud. One was his analysis of CNN International vs. CNN domestic, which was more apt than even he probably knows. This is while he was visiting London:
     "After this I watched a little CNN. CNN is very different in the United Kingdom than it is in America. For one thing, there's more global coverage. They even gave the weather forcast for New Delhi. That would never play in America because people would e-mail CNN headquarters and say, "Who the fuck cares about fucking India? Give us more missing coed stories."

His comments about Jewish women also cracked me up. He and a lesbian friend were discussing her dating prospects. She said she had always wanted to date a Jewish woman because she heard they were loyal and good shoppers.

Burroughs reads the books himself, and this is a treat. I listen to a lot of books on tape, and usually prefer the professional readers over authors. A lot of time, authors don't enunciate well, especially dropping consonants at the end of sentences, and it's hard to catch every word. But Burroughs is an excellent reader and his personality comes through, adding another dimension of hilarity to his mini-memoirs.

Why I chose to read this book:
I read Running With Scissors a long time ago, then recently read Dry. The combination of Burroughs' sense of humor with his serious subject matter is thought-provoking and very funny.

How I first learned about this book: Browsing on Paperback Swap

Where I got it: Paperback Swap

What format I'm reading it in: Audio CD (8 discs)

What my husband Gerard made for dinner tonight: Curried chicken and rice

Shoyu Chicken

I solved my problem with the due date on my library copy of The Hemingses of Monticello. When I was unable to renew it because there was a waiting list, I put myself on the waiting list. When I reached number one, I was the only one on the list. So, I canceled my request. Then, there was no waiting list and I was able to renew the book. Now I have plenty of time to read it.

The Shoyu chicken was absolutely delicious. Even Jeffrey liked it. Here is the recipe (Gerard halved it):

Ingredients:
5 1/2 to 6 lbs. chicken thighs
5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups low-sodium soy sauce
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup mirin (this is a Japanese cooking wine)
8 med. garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
4-inch piece ginger, sliced 1/2-inch thick and smashed
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
5 Tbs. cornstarch dissolved in 5 Tbs. water
Thnkly sliced green onions, for garnish

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except cornstarch and green onions in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to low and simmer, covered, turning occasionally, until chicken is tender, about 30 to 35 minutes more.
Remove chicken to a serving platter. Remove garlic and ginger and discard. Bring sauce to a boil, skim off excess fat, and cook until reduced slightly, about 10 minutes. Whisk in cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add chicken, turn to coat, and serve chicken with sauce and sliced green onions.

The Big Mystery

In the 1790's in Virginia, the children of female slaves were slaves and the children of freed female slaves were free. It was not easy for an enslaved woman to achieve freedom, but if she did, she freed all her unborn future generations as well. Sally Hemings at 16 was presented with this opportunity, and Annette Gordon-Reed spends a long time trying to figure out the motivation behind her decision.

Hemings was 16, living in Paris with U.S. ambassador Jefferson and pregnant with his child when it was time to go home. Gordon-Reed painstakingly (emphasis on the pain, for the reader) explains how easy it would have been for Hemings to gain her legal freedom in Paris, which did not permit slavery. She also makes it perfectly clear that Jefferson didn't force Hemings to return with him to Virginia; he talked her into it, and struck a bargain. The agreement was that he would free all her children with him when they turned 21. But as Gordon-Reed points out, she could have become free in Paris immediately if she stayed, and her unborn child and all subsequent children she had in her lifetime would be, therefore, also free. So why did she go back to Virginia?

Gordon-Reed runs through a number of options, but none is the clear answer.

• She could have loved Jefferson, but then why the hard bargaining? Besides, it doesn't seem likely that a beautiful (Gordon-Reed gives evidence of this) 16-year-old girl is going to fall in love with a 46-year-old man. (Sorry, 46-year-old men.)
• She could have missed her family. But she'd been separated from them for eight years already, and surely there would be some way to reunite with them eventually. And remember we're talking slave/free here. High stakes.
• She could have been outsmarted by Jefferson. But again, the length and seriousness of the bargain, which resulted in a written document, does not support this. and Hemings had her older brother and possibly a whole community of former slaves and/or mixed race servants to consult with.

One  possibility that Gordon-Reed does not touch (Afraid, Gordon-Reed?) is that Hemings (and the other Hemingses) wanted white fathers for their children. Hemings herself had only one black grandparent and three white grandparents. Her mother and grandmother had both had children with white men (though they had no choice in the matter). The Hemings women were said to be beautiful, and the whiter they became, the more they were considered by whites to be attractive. It also made it a lot easier for them to receive better treatment from whites when enslaved and when freed.

It's not very PC to suggest that someone black would wish to become white. But Hemings was 3/4 white and her children with Jefferson were 7/8 white. Gordon-Reed herself points out that the one-drop rule (that anyone with one drop of "black blood" was considered black) was still 100 years in the future, and there was not solidarity among all people of African descent. Gordon-Reed does point out that there were many young, single, mixed-race free men in Paris whom Hemings could have married. But she didn't. She went home with Jefferson voluntarily. I think it's worth at least considering as a possibility that Hemings chose Jefferson because he was white, and that she thought her future children would have a safer future as mostly-white in Virginia with the promise of being freed at 21, than they would as somewhat less white in Paris and freed on the spot. That may not be cool by today's standards, but Hemings lived 200 years ago. In every other case, Gordon-Reed warns us not to judge 1790s actions by 2010 standards. But she seems to have blinders in this situation.

I am cooking tonight because Gerard has to work (boo). He did the grocery shopping though, and left me with ingredients and a recipe for Shoyu chicken (thighs, broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger). Also some green beans to steam, as that's Emily's favorite vegetable and she's home for Thanksgiving. There's a 1/2 bottle of Green Truck organic chardonnay in the refrigerator with my name on it.

Getting to the Good Stuff

I feel like I'm working hard to get the salient details of the Hemings-Jefferson relationship, but the details are satisfyingly detailed and scandalous. Sally Hemings was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife as well as their slave. When the wife died, Hemings remained Jefferson's slave, and she lived with him in France while he was the American ambassador there. Also living with them were Jefferson's two legitimate daughters and another slave, who was Hemings' brother. Sally Hemings became pregnant while still in France, and gave birth in Virginia. She and Jefferson had four children together who lived to be adults. Three of them eventually were freed and after leaving Monticello, lived as white people.

When Hemings and Jefferson began their sexual relationship, she was 16 and he was 46. Annette Gordon-Reed, the author, suggests that any time an unsupervised teenage girl is introduced into a household where an adult man is not married, an inappropriate relationship is inevitable. I'm not sure I believe this is inevitable. Possible, surely. Maybe even probable?

As she tends to do. Gordon-Reed painstakingly points out obvious things to the reader and she's driving me crazy. For example, she explains the difference between a man's relationship with his wife and his relationship with his daughter. She does this to help build her case that Hemings and Jefferson's sexual relationship was a likely turn of events, considering that Jefferson was a widower, and therefore, unmarried. Now I'm doing it! (Pointing out the obvious, that is.) Anyway, Gordon-Reed actually says that if a wife had been present, she would have said, "Stop gazing at Sally" and "Have sex with only me." But that a daughter could not say such things, mostly because she'd have nothing to give in return, because daughters don't have sex with their fathers. She said that.

I believe that Gordon-Reed's continual pointing out of the obvious is not meant to be patronizing. I think she's refuting the years and years of historical interpretations (and denials) about Jefferson and Hemings' relationship and the marginalization of Hemings. I think she isn't really talking to me; she's talking to those historians. But it's still hard to take.

For those who read my blog to find out what I had for dinner, last night it was rib-eye steak, rosemary-garlic oven-roasted potatoes and a green salad. We have salad a lot, because it's one of the few vegetables our son will eat. I played sous chef and seasoned the steak with lemon pepper and seasoned salt. It rained, so Gerard abandoned plans to grill, and cooked it in a cast-iron skillet with some more of his compound butter. We also had a beer sampler, as he had bought a mix-and-match six-pack of micro-brews from Whole Foods. I tasted "Hairy Eyeball" and "Small Craft Warning."

Update

I'm rocking along; on disc 10. Dinner tonight was bourbon-orange salmon, roasted corn-on-the-cob with compound butter, and saffron rice. With the House Martini and sparkling water.

Getting Into the Hemingses of Monticello

I'm already on Disc 6. Typically, I save my listening for my work commute, but because this book is so long, I decided to also listen whenever I'm in the car, doing chores or carpooling. The advantage is that I'll get through the book sooner, possibly before it's due. The downside: No more denial over how much time I actually spend carpooling.
The details about Thomas Jefferson's household, the lives of people in the late 1700s and the institution of slavery are fascinating. Gordon-Reed is a historian, and the book reads like a history book, so it can be a little dry, especially when she goes over the complex family trees. It's like all those "begats" in the Bible. But you'd be amazed how entangled Jefferson's and his wife's family trees are with the Hemingses'. HA! I knew that plural proper possessive information would come in handy.
One thing I don't like about the book is that Gordon-Reed is constantly preaching about how black slaves were actually complete, complex human beings with full-fledged feelings and individual talents, personalities and intelligence. I understand that white people who condoned slavery did not acknowledge this, but I do, and I'm sure just about everyone else in 2010 does as well. I get it, Annette Gordon-Reed, I get it. Stop patronizing me.
Last night for dinner, my husband cooked chicken scallopini, rice risotto with musrooms, onions and green peppers, and a green salad, and served a pino grigio.

Early Impressions of The Hemingses of Monticello

I already like this book for two reasons: the title and the length. I like the title because it contains a plural proper name. I discuss plural proper names with my college students, and they don't easily grasp the concept. I'd like to point out that the possessive form would be "Hemingses'" as in, "The Hemingses' story is fascinating."
The audio book is 25 discs. I love a long book because if I'm going to make the effort to get to know the characters and their world, I want the relationship to last for a long time. During my 69-mile one-way commute to work, I can get through almost a whole disc. I commute three days a week. That calculates to six discs a week. It will take me four weeks and one day to complete the book. The library gives me only three weeks to keep it, so I'm going to have to try to renew after one week and one day at the earliest, but after two weeks would give me some breathing room. I hope no one else is on the waiting list, or I won't be permitted to renew.

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed

Why I chose to read this book:

1. I'm fascinated by the details of the way people lived in other places and times
2. I'm interested in the scandal when it was revealed to the American public that President Jefferson had a second, non-white family
3. I want to know more about how Africans and African-Americans suffered under slavery in the U.S

How I first learned about this book: The book review in the Atlanta-Journal and Constitution

Where I got it: The Dekalb County Public Library

What format I'm reading it in: Audio CD (25 discs!)

What my husband Gerard made for dinner tonight:

• Sea scallops with butter and bacon
• Rice with carmelized shallots
• Steamed broccoli and carrots
• Vodka martini with garlic-stuffed olives