Life With….

One of the things that is most distressing to me about summer is it makes me fall in love with Durham and the South as a whole all over again, right when I am about to give up on them.  I am personally most happy with the weather when it is 80-100 degrees and humid.   In fact there has been a noticeable rise in the amount of time I spend outside hiking, reading, cleaning windows and the like since June arrived and summer came.

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes

I spent the first weekend of 90+ days almost entirely in the sun (with heavy sunscreen and bug spray), reading a book that I urge all of you to RUN to the store to pick up – Matterhorn. I think may be the best book on the Vietnam  War (not the politics or impact  at home but simply the soldiers on the ground fighting).  It completely negates Tim O’Brien’s generalization that you can’t tell a true war story of Vietnam.  Though I love reading The Things they Carried,  this book focused less on psychological abstractions, dealing instead with the horrors, bonding, difficulty and love these Marines developed and felt for each other as they fought against an unseen enemy, the terrain, and ambitious officers who misunderstood what was happening on the ground in a realistic way.  It focuses on the whole person as opposed to just the internal struggles.  I am not sure that someone who had not lived with people under these circumstances could have written the book, and there is a reason it is resonating with many. This book feels true, the characters are alive, and all I could think when I finished it was I wish it were longer – which was odd as it comes in at around 600 pages.  (On a personal side note, the Marines play Acey-Ducey, a version of Backgammon invented by members of the U.S. Navy and a game I grew up playing having been taught by my grandmother and mother, except for a short mention in Hoyle’s Rules of Games, I have never seen mention of this game in print, and seeing it here made me very happy as it is one of my favorites).  I really think everyone who enjoys literature or history should read this book.

One of my absolute favorite parts of  this summer has been the produce.  I have been hitting up the farmer’s market in both Durham and the Western Mountains of NC.  Thus I have had an abundance of fresh greens, blackberries, corn, kale, home made sausage, eggs and other treats.   The fresh pulled peas and patty pan squashes have been particularly good – but thus far the absolute best have been the local strawberries.  They look like a painter’s rendering of the fruit, as opposed to what is normally at the grocery story, and taste as good, if not better, than they look.  A few weeks ago I took a carton of them, a book, and my hammock and enjoyed the smell heat, humidity, and the smell of the earth and concrete after a rain, and all seem clean again.

Friday, when two friends joined me in the mountains, I took full advantage of this bounty.  (To be honest, I took advantage of it to a point all weekend, even using local eggs and bakery muesli bread for french toast made with almond milk).   Everything on the plate, with one exception, was bought from the farmer’s market in Durham, the Co-op, or was already stocked in the mountain pantry.

Therefore I took the bone-in pork chops and marinated them in enough apple cider vinegar to cover half of each chop at least.  I added to the marinade 3/4 of a mango and half a vidalia onion.  After marinating for 1.5 hours (rotating once) I pan sauteed them until brown on each side, checked them for done-ness and put them into the oven at 350 to finish them off – the entire time they cooked in the marinade. They tasted like a cross between mangoes and apples without being overly sweet.

I served them with zucchini blossoms (with baby zucchini attached) which I flash fried after dipping them in 3/4 cup beer and 2/3 cup floor (sprinkled with pepper). I heated oil up until dropping from the mixture fried up when dripped onto the oil as a test (1bout 175 Degrees)  and put the blossoms in 2-4 at a time depending on size, the frying was almost instantaneous, and the blossoms were a treat – a slightly peppery zucchini with a crunch.  I also served up fresh kale which I sauteed in chicken broth and the rest of the onion.

For appetizers (as one guest did not arrive until after nine) I let my friend buy cheeses and a locally made sausage.  Knowing I would not eat the cheese, I looked something for me to eat and share. Therefore, I boiled shrimp, freshly caught outside Charleston, SC and driven up to the mountains, the shrimp were so fresh they were still blue in places and the contained a sweet roe given them a unique flavor.  I dropped in lemon juice and Coach’s low country boil, which I bought at the framer’s market co-op.  After boiling and refrigerating I served with home made cocktail sauce.

For desert there were fresh peaches and black berries – the best fruit of early summer.  Most exciting of all, except for the pork chops enough was left of everything else that I can heat, reheat, and continue to eat it for a few more days!  Especially when combined with the patty pan squash, and fresh zucchini I sauteed the next night (all that was missing was the peppery okra, which I have not yet seen good quality of).

With amazing produce like this (and the dishes that can be done with them), heat, thunderstorms, long days, and the stillness of the world due to heat combined with the activity of  the cool hours, I am glad summer has just started and winter is no where in sight.  Now on to reading a Jeeves and Wooster book…

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Create Your Badge  All text and copyrights preserved by the author for words and original pictures and may not be used without author's permission. For more information visit http://www.peebesalgy.com Follow me on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/peebesalgy or contact me directly through http://www.peebesalgy.com/blog/contact-me/ Courtney Brown | Create Your Badge