NATIONAL LUPUS MONTH

              Tess and I have a very dear friend who suffers from Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, more commonly known as Lupus, an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks healthy tissue, She was diagnosed six years ago after a major sunburn that left her face and hands so swollen that she could not open her eyes for several days and her own mother did not recognize her.  (According to Tess, who grew up with her, she spent every summer of her childhood covered in sunscreen and then ultimately zinc oxide because she burned anyway.) Thankfully, when she healed, her pretty face and hands returned to normal but she lost half of her beautiful waist length hair partially due to the stress and also because she could not comb or wash her hair and it became so tangled that it had to be cut. This incident left her so terrified of the sun that she has not left her home since and has become a virtual shut-in, only going outside after dark to tend her herb and flower garden. Our monthly visits take place in a cozy, storybook cottage that she shares with her mother, complete with blackout curtains on all but her mother's bedroom windows.The entirety of her home is lit charmingly by clear twinkle lights because of her photophobia (or sensitivity to light). The refreshments are fresh, organic, and mostly raw as she has come to believe that cooked food does not agree with her. It is somewhat like visiting Rapunzel locked away in her tower. She is a lovely, intelligent woman forced to hide from the outside world because of a cruel condition, but determined to make the best of it. 

Luckily for many future sufferers of Lupus, this scenario will be prevented by early diagnosis and preventative measures. If you know someone with Lupus there are many ways to be helpful to them.

Fatigue is a major symptom of Lupus. Offering to do a friend or relative's shopping or other errands for them would be much appreciated. If they have a pet, you could take it for a walk or play a game or two of hide the mouse. If they have children, be "uncle" or "auntie" for the day and take them out to a movie or sports event or for a picnic. Or if you like to cook, why not prepare a meal (or two) and put one in the freezer for another day. When we visit, we stay for a weekend and Tess cooks and bakes and I walk the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (I added some pictures from the film 
 Restoration  (1995) for those who might not know what a these lovely little dogs look like. I love this film! -Tess)

                                                    LuLu Charles II's favorite.

Sam Neill as Charles II

Then I go 
fishing at the nearby river to stock their freezer with fresh, wild-caught salmon,(an excellent source of Omega-3.)

Not to be outdone,here is a picture of a salmon before.................

..........and After.

A gift basket is always welcome 
____________________________________

Books or videos in their favorite genre.
A CD of relaxing music.
Fresh fruit and /or vegetables from your garden (pesticide free).
Fresh flowers or a houseplant (also pesticide free)
Twinkle lights (apparently, you can never have enough)
Yogurt, Kefir, Kombucha Tea, 
Sunscreen, lip balm (Bert's Bees or Badger brand are especially good)
Wild-caught fresh fish (a wonderful source of Omega-3)

Celebrities with Lupus
***************************
Tony Braxton
Kristen Johnston
Seal
Selena Gomez
Nick Cannon

This post was written by both of us, but typed up by My Tess (except for this part, Ow) because I went out to get the mail yesterday and jammed two of my fingers in the box  📫  😧 and it hurts to type.

Me: 😭  Tess: Oh, my poor baby !!! 💋💋💋    Me:  😉😊 (Let the pampering commence !  🍕🍣🍧🍰🍲🍷🍺☕🍝)   Tess: Why are you smiling ?  Me: 😳  (Uhhh....)

May The (Belated) Fourth Be With You.

Yesterday at lunchtime, TheChamCham came downstairs, and while we were eating he casually inquired what time the Star Wars party was starting, who I had invited, and what he was expected to wear.He says I stared at him as if he were speaking Swahili.

Me:What Star Wars party? Him: It's Star Wars Day today. I thought you knew. I got up and looked at the calendar above my desk and saw nothing but Mother's Day for the month of May. I asked him if he were teasing me. He looked like a disappointed five year old who did not receive the cowboy boots he had asked Santa for. Him:  Then we aren't doing anything?  Me: I had no idea.I wish you had told me. It is a little short notice. Him: (pouting beautifully) Oh. 😔o.k.   Then he went back upstairs and B.B. King wailed for the rest of the afternoon.

What to do ?

If you read my Easter post, you will know that I am up for a challenge and I do not like to disappoint my loved ones, especially my Mr.C. So, I went into holiday mode and threw together the most slapdash snacks and basic decorations I have ever "created" and by dinnertime we had ourselves a "party".

I did not invite anyone else (generations of Southern etiquette prevents me from ever inviting guests on less than twenty-four hours notice), I put The Empire Strikes Back

(our favorite) in the DVD player, laid the coffee table with the snacks (which were closer to what I would have served to my little ones back when I was a Nanny), plumped up the pillows on the sectional, and texted my Lord and Master that dinner was served in the media room. Dress: casual. 

 Blue Bantha milk with star shaped ice cubes.

"Hoth" Dogs,
Celery "light sabers", 









and hardboiled Lando's Eggs (Lando's Aide- photo) with black olive headsets,

(In between, we had the roast chicken and rice pilaf and green beans that I had already planned for dinner. I kept it warm in a chafing dish so that we wouldn't have to put the movie on pause. That always breaks the mood, I think.)

And for dessert, Dagobah Bars (brownies with coconut, chocolate chips, marshmallows and coffee) or Wampa Paws (the same ,with almond "claws", powdered sugar fur and strawberry jam "gore")
and Calrissian (rice) Crispies.

And guess what? He LOVED it !😊

He never fails to amaze me with his childlike appreciation of the simplest things.He says that when I arrived for my interview eight years ago, that he thought three things. First, that I was as pretty as a picture. Second, that I smelled like a bakery and to him that was nicer than any perfume. And third   (after serving him his requested macaroni and cheese) that I was the only woman who had ever made it for him from scratch (including his mother and his first wife). He said that he knew then that I was the one and he did not need to look any further.Who would have guessed that one of my grandmother's recipes, and not anything I had learned in cooking school,would not only win me the best job in the world, but the finest man in the world as well (although the latter took a lot longer and came as a complete and utter surprise.)


Let's see, Father's Day is only forty-four days away. I had best get a move on if I am going to do it up right!

                                 Is this not the most precious thing? I dare you not to smile.

                                                  When I was looking for the poster, I came across some cute photos of the cast that I thought you might enjoy. I certainly did.

 Harrison Ford, David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Carrie Fisher,Mark Hamill, Kenny Baker.

Carrie Fisher and her stunt double, Sandra Gross.

And my favorite. I always wanted a Tauntaun but alas, I still have yet to find one. I did almost come close with a gray American Saddlebred mare who sort of moved the same way but instead of squealing she sounded more like Chewbacca and dove out at anyone who passed her box on another horse, including Mr. William Shatner, who looked suitably startled. "Naughty Girl." I chastised her. "THAT'S a girl?" Exclaimed Mr. Shatner. I apologized and he smiled and rode away,  and never passed that way again. Mr. Shatner is a very wise man. ☺️🌷

Happy Easter

                                     

Easter has always been my favorite holiday. I don't know why exactly. Perhaps the pastel colors, the bunnies and chicks, the old fashioned Beatrix Potter Victorian/Edwardian gentility of it all. Whatever it is, I look forward to it every year, planning the menu weeks ahead of time, retrieving the carefully packed decorations (some of them as old as me!) from the garage and deciding where to put this bunny and that chick, and looking forward, with all the delight of my child self to putting together my Easter ensemble, from hat to gloves and everything in between.

I grew up in the deep South and every Easter our grandmother, who was a Belle until her last breath, made our Easter dresses in secret, yellow for the ginger baby (me) and pink for my flaxen-haired sister and presented them to us on Easter morning along with new white shoes, gloves, and straw hats trimmed with ribbons and flowers to match our dresses. We were then dressed and taken to church, returning afterwards to beautiful Easter baskets and a delicious lunch that lasted all afternoon.

Although I have no little girls of my own, but having been a Nanny for several years before I decided to become a Chef, I have tried to continue these traditions in other ways and with other families. This year was my ninth as the head of TheChamCham's household staff and our second as a couple and I had made plans for weeks but my mother decided to move last month and wanted me to supervise everything. I am the "organizer" of the family and my sister conveniently lives in France, so it fell to me. The packing and move were uneventful and I stayed for two weeks to see that the unpacking, arranging and decorating were done to my mother's satisfaction. I then returned home and continued my Easter plans. There is a saying (adapted from the Robert Burns poem "To a Mouse") ............... 

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

My mother took a fall last week and I was packing instead of filling Easter baskets. Seeing my disappointment (I love my mother dearly but her timing has always been...ironic to say the least.              I have resolved not to tell her when we choose our wedding date because I know she will "accidentally" lock herself out of her house that day and I will have to board a plane wearing my wedding gown to go and let her in) TheChamCham very sweetly offered to go with me so that we could still celebrate Easter together (when they made him they most definitely broke the mold) When we arrived there were no decorations, her grocery order had not arrived, and her maid had gone to spend the holiday with her family in another city. The next day was Easter. 

TheChamCham calls me Mini Martha (as in Stewart). I have no such illusions. I also do not have assistants to help me. No offence to Ms. Stewart, but no self-respecting Southern woman would allow someone else to set her table AND hard boiling and dying 250 eggs for an Easter egg hunt with only 28 children and being nonchalant about not finding all of them is a sin! I could not help but think of No Kid Hungry when I read that. 

By the afternoon the groceries had arrived and been put away, I had raided my mother's sewing baskets for ribbon and assorted trimmings, blew the contents out of a dozen eggs, fired up the glue gun and we had an Easter tree

and a centerpiece, I stayed up most of the night making lunch and filling Easter baskets for my mother and TCC and fell asleep at the kitchen table. I once threw together an Oscar party with only two days notice. It turned out surprisingly well, but working under pressure is very exhausting and requires too much caffeine, which in turn causes all sorts of problems.

Despite all of this, I will remember Easter 2017 as one of the nicest ever. Lunch was enjoyed by all, ( so much so that I had to make more deviled eggs the next day to take the photo because all 36 halves had disappeared between lunch and breakfast. I cannot imagine who could have eaten them. Or can I?)
 Later, we watched the charming (and be warned: SAD) "Miss Potter", the James Stewart classic "Harvey", and "Easter Parade".  My mother and TheChamCham, who do not love each other but who both love me, were actually very cordial to one another for the entire weekend of our visit. My mother is healing nicely and has inquired as to whether WE will be visiting her for Mother's Day. I reserve the right to not answer that question for two weeks.

Oven fried chicken (trying to eat a little bit lighter these days. TheChamCham is a breast man, chicken breasts that is, but my mother's freezer is full of nothing but drumsticks. I told TheChamCham that he would have to settle for legs. He settled for four) potato salad, Waldorf salad, cornbread, sweet tea (in a jar, yes. It should be a Mason jar of course, but strangely I could not find even one in my mother's kitchen and had to settle for a jelly jar! Shudder. And yes, the jar should be above the knife but it took me so long to find it that I was frazzled and did not notice until I was uploading the pictures. I am simply mortified but I was not going to redo the pictures. Pobody`s Nerfect.) ,pickled red beets and coconut cake with fresh strawberries. Deviled eggs (pink from the pickled beet juice).I think they look more like Easter that way.

                                Happy Easter from Tess d'Urberville and TheChamCham.

A LITTLE SOMETHING TO BRIGHTEN YOUR DAY !

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

The "Busy Bee",as I like to call him, has handed over today's post to me. I hope you do not mind.


 TheChamCham and I are both Irish on our mothers' side and as I like to celebrate just about every holiday you can think of, we had a little celebration beginning with breakfast.

                            I know,I know, it IS fattening, but it is only once in a while. I promise he will be getting fruit and yogurt for the rest of the week.

Next, movies ! We watched THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH

It is a lovely film directed by John Sayles.It is one of those films that is hard to describe but I shall try. It takes place in Donegal,Ireland, the story of a family with a strange,yet magical connection with the sea, an island, and the seals who have lived there going back many generations. If you like quiet Irish films (I do) and happy endings (I do) , then I think that you will like it. I  have the soundtrack and I play it quite often when I am cooking. Jenny Courtney and Richard Sheridan (Fiona and Eamon) are both very good, especially considering that it was the first film for both of them. I also liked the grandparents Hugh and Tess (!) played by Mick Lally and Eileen Colgan. The cinematography is beautiful ( you cannot go wrong with Haskell Wexler). I only wish that I could find a recipe for that seaweed soup !


Next, we watched THE QUIET MAN.

The John Ford classic with a good story, wonderful performances from John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick and many others. The scenery is beautiful, the art direction and cinematography are lovely (although, I wish Maureen O'Hara's costumes had been prettier). If you have never seen this film then I hope that you will and if you have, why not watch it again? 

Next, Dinner !!!

                                               IRISH STEW (I forgot to sprinkle the fresh chopped parsley before I took the picture.) I make it with beef ,but of course lamb is traditional. 

                                              IRISH SODA BREAD (Yummy warm with butter)

                                 TheChamCham loves his Guinness.  I prefer apple juice.

We ended the evening's entertainment with the original CELTIC WOMAN concert. And then.......


                                                                     DESSERT !     

                         
                           CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH BAILEY'S IRISH CREAM FROSTING.
                                                                        AND COFFEE.            

                              May you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows that you are dead.

                                                                 SLAINTE.

TRAILERS

                                                               

                                                                          So we watched Jurassic World

again tonight. Great movie. Lots of fun. Then we went to IMDb and Tess read the new trivia aloud. (She does this every time we watch it, and after everything else we watch)

Then we watched some trailers. Kong, Skull Island (Wow! That looks insane! )

We both like the 1933 Fay Wray  version, don't like the 1976 Jessica Lange version, and admired, but didn't love  the 2005 Naomi Watts' version.

(Tess' mom once had dinner with Fay Wray in the 1980's. She said that she was still lovely. Tess says her autobiography was one of the most interesting she has ever read.)

Then we saw FEUD:Bette and Joan. I thought Faye Dunaway nailed Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest and reading down the credit list Catherine Zeta-Jones as Olivia DeHavilland ? I can't see it.

Then we saw the trailer for a little movie called ..........

The Mummy.

Hmm, wasn't there already a movie or two by that name ? I think I'll save my comments until I see the entire movie, but I think using "Welcome to a new world of Gods and Monsters" is, how shall I put this..........um, PLAGIARISM !!!  At the very least, I think it's lazy writing.  I mean, if they couldn't even think up an original title, I guess expecting them to come up with an original tagline was presumptuous.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (2017)
Tess has been dreading this once since the first casting announcements.

We're both fans of the 1991
ANIMATED Disney feature but after seeing the trailer neither one of us is interested. Emma Watson was miscast, it's as simple as that. Using her to lure the Harry Potter audience is a poor excuse to star the wrong person in an iconic role, and surrounding her with versatile, seasoned and much more talented actors and singers only proved how wrong she is for the role.
If you think I'm being unfair, let me know !

As a comparison, we watched "INTO THE WOODS"

last night and were pleasantly surprised. After having separately seen the Broadway production (me) and the PBS televised version (Tess), we were curious ,and ten minutes in we were hooked. Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Young Victoria) as The Baker's Wife was wonderful ! (neither of us even knew she sang ) and Lilla Crawford as Little Red Riding Hood (in her FIRST film role !!! 😲 Although she has been on Broadway) was amazing ! Why didn't Disney cast a talented unknown as Belle ? $$$$$$$$ Is that a good reason ? Heck, no ! By the way, Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) DOES have an impressive singing voice (who knew that HE sang ???)  Mandy Moore had to audition SIX TIMES for TANGLED and they already knew she could sing !!! 😧

THE LITTLE MERMAID

is apparently next. Who do you think should play Ariel ? We saw Sierra Boggess on Broadway and she was wonderful ! You say she's not sixteen.......So the H*** what !!!
Then cast an unknown teenager who can SING, (and presumably swim!) ARE YOU LISTENING DISNEY ???)







HEADS UP to any Native American teenage girls who can sing. They'll be casting Pocahontas

eventually. GET AN AGENT !!! 😉