Citrus Salad
I first had a version of this, without the dates, and with a candied walnut at Deano’s Restaurant in Dublin, Georgia.
I sent an email to Deborah (Savage) last week and asked if she would like to go to the North Carolina Museum of Art (if she hadn’t been before). She checked with her husband, Russ, and we took a trip up to Raleigh (from Pinehurst) yesterday. I made it to their home by about 8 am, and then we left for Raleigh, stopping at Carthage to get breakfast at ‘Mac’s Breakfast Anytime’ (a small local chain). *It was “Buggy Day” in Carthage, but that was not to be our focus for this Saturday.
I thought we might sit at a “Big Boy” booth, but we found that even I wasn’t big enough and the table would have been too far away from the seat. Deb and I had country ham and Russ had bacon, all of us eggs. I had a really big biscuit, reminiscent of the Geico commercial in which they ask, “Can a 10 lbs. bag of flour make a really big biscuit?” The biscuit had the texture of a yeast roll, but didn’t smell of yeast, and did look like a really big (tall) biscuit.
We all enjoyed our breakfast and then headed on to Raleigh. Russ offered me a flossing pic, which surprisingly did a very good job. (I might buy some of these to keep with me.)
We turned off onto the Wade Avenue exit and then left under the overpass, and the next exit right (about a quarter mile, or less) was for the NC Museum of Art. We parked at the first parking area near the entrance to the museum and walked down the winding path to the new museum buildings. The old museum buildings are just off to the right of the new facility and are labeled for special events.
The Museum restaurant and gift shop are just to the right of the tall entrance doors. A little girl was fascinated (as were many of us) with a projected image of a tree with it’s branches swaying in an imaginary breeze. *Bathrooms just to the right.
The information counter was just to the left of the entrance. Deb got a museum map and the clerk said that this was the second weekend that the new facility had been open. She also suggested that we visit the outside Rodin garden, before it got too hot outside.
We went outside and there were several large black statues and a reflecting pool. I must not be a fan of Rodin. Perhaps someone that is a fan knows why his women all have big feet and really look more like thick men in grotesquely distorted positions. Back inside…
Deborah managed to rush out of the photo, providing an unintended artistic effect (she is blurry and the other items in focus).
Russ, however, stands still viewing the intricate detail of one of the large landscapes.
You can visit my Flickr site for more of the NCMA photos I took.
Near the end of our tour, Russ walked on ahead of us into one of the modern art rooms. When Deb and I entered the room, some women (6 girlfriends) had asked Russ to take their picture in front of a large painting of Six Girls.
Before we left, I headed to the bathroom while Russ and Deb toured the Gift Shop. After the bathroom, I headed to the Information Counter to ask about an item I had heard about, but had not yet seen. There was an upside down image of the Mona Lisa, made of colored spools of thread, with a crystal ball on a pedestal in front of it, which turned the image right-side up. Apparently, it was at the other end of the room just behind me, so I quickly walked the length of the room and found the item. *Yes, I keep calling it an “item”, because it’s not a painting or a sculpture and I don’t know what category you should post it under.
Russ had bought Deb a gift card of one of the gallery photos of four little shoeshine boys, with tired eyes. She had liked their eyes which showed how exhausted they were.
After the Museum, we headed back into town via Wade Avenue with the idea of finding a restaurant for lunch. We passed the Whole Foods grocery and then after several blocks turned in to Cameron Village (shopping center), an old but renovated and vibrant site for commerce. I first saw a sign for Foster’s (which appeared to be a ‘high-end’ restaurant, and then Village Grill, and a draught house, etc. We finally turned a corner and found an Italian eatery, Piccola Italia Pizza & Italian Restaurant. There were no parking spaces and after “circling the block”, more of a half-circle and then a turn about, Russ found a parking space around the corner. Deb and I got out of the car before Russ turned into the space (because it would have been difficult for the ‘fat man’ to get out of the car after he was parked).
We all walked down the sidewalk, past a Quiznos, and a wine shop, and finally arrived at Piccola’s . There were several tables outside, but since it was a hot day, we headed inside.
The restaurant was dark and appeared to be small. Since we were seated in the first booth and I faced the entrance, I never got a good view of the rest of the restaurant. It was cool and dark, and on a hot day felt very comfortable.
Our waitress (a young woman, with a button nose, black hair and a dark tan) brought us menus and silverware and asked for our drink orders. I had sweet tea, Russ had water without ice, and I don’t recall what Deb had. When the waitress returned with our drinks, bread and a balsamic vinegar & oil dipping sauce, she asked if we needed a little more time. We did and she came back a little later.
Deb had a half-order of Italian sausage with penne pasta, and a garden salad. I don’t recall what Russ ordered, but I had what Deb had, except I had Ranch dressing instead of vinegar & oil. The bread was good, and later, we asked for more.
The waitress brought our salads. Mine was simple, with large leaves of various lettuces, one small red button tomato, a slice or two of red onion, and a small steel cup of dressing. A simple salad, but very, very good!
Our entrees arrived, mine in a small white bowl, with plenty of penne pasta, a long link of Italian sausage covered in a generous portion of sauce. *I probably would have ‘turned’ the tomato sauce with a little sugar. But the bread, sausage, sauce, pasta and salad were all very good. Our tea was refilled.
After the meal was over, our waitress asked if we wanted dessert. Russ and Deb had already mentioned getting Tiramisu, but I did not want dessert. They said, there should be enough if I changed my mind. The waitress brought three spoons and the dessert had a maraschino cherry on top.
I tried a ‘bite’ and it was very good. It would have been even better with coffee, but I didn’t want coffee. We finished the dessert. Russ ‘picked up the bill’ and tip, and then we walked outside, up the sidewalk and around the corner to the car.
Eventually, we made it back to Pinehurst and I to Fayetteville and then, for me… off to sleep.
It was a good day. The day before Mother’s Day, 2010.
Perhaps the reality that forty years ago, I was 16 years old, just hit me because I had been posting old family pictures to Flickr yesterday. It really hit me as I got into bed, and I found it difficult to even think clearly about “how old I had gotten.” It was one of those nasty little melancholy feelings, just short of depression, each time I tried to emphasize the point, as I lay there alone. The feelings of despair, of “a wasted life,” of the fate of a bleak aloneness sometimes just have to be embraced. It doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t necessarily make them more manageable, but like dark, storm filled clouds, they come, and given time, they will go. *Of course, I guess there is always the possibility that a storm might come from which you do not survive. That’s life;-)
I was 16, and another year at Swasnboro High School was over. A friend of the family had an automobile that had an automatic transmission, and they let me drive up to Jacksonville to take my driving test for my NC Driver’s License. I passed, although I think I had a little problem with the 3-point turn. Next day, I was on my way up to Portsmouth, VA to start my summer vacation, living with my mother. I don’t recall, but that was probably one of the trips I took on a Trailways bus, passing through New Bern, “little” Washington, Ahoskie, Elizabeth City and finally arriving in Portsmouth at the bus station, downtown.
I now had to drive my mother’s 1964.5 Mustang. It was Prairie Bronze, and was a 2+2 Fast Back. It was the first vehicle, of several that we/I have owned that had fold-down back seats. *We had an AMC Pacer (Butterscotch in color.) which had a fold-down back seat. I then had a Mazda 626 (White) which had a split fold-down back seat, which allowed one person to sit comfortably in the back while you carried something long (sports or fishing equipment, etc.) beside them passing through the opening into the trunk.
The Mustang had a manual transmission, and I had a difficult time learning to shift gears, but had much practice as taking my mother or aunt to work involved about 50 blocks up and down High Street in Portsmouth. My aunt worked at the Naval Ship yard, and my mother worked at the Naval Hospital. I became better at using the manual shift, but through the years, I will often find myself “grinding” the gears when I thoughtlessly attempt to shift.
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My aunt had a long-time beau, Irwin Wilkins who was very kind to me. He had a small boat that was tied up at my aunt’s dock, which was in front of her house at 521 Riverside Drive on the West end of Portsmouth. Driving from Churchland to Portsmouth over the Churchland Bridge, you can’t turn immediately onto Riverside Drive because they wisely blocked it off. Probably had been, or would have been many accidents at that turn.
Several times through that summer, Irwin would take his boat out fishing and he would take me along. We would wind about the James River stopping periodically to cast our lines into the water. Two events I recall regarding that summer of fishing:
Once, we got started late, and the tide was receding quickly. We managed to get the boat in the shrinking channel, polling through an increasing amount of mud. Not sure if we would have sat in the boat, in the mud, if we couldn’t have gotten it to the river, until the tide returned, or if we would have hopped out into deep mud and waded back to shore.
The second event involved Irwin and me casting our lines on opposite sides of his boat. We waited and then both of us “got a bite.” We started to reel our lines in, and there appeared to be a pretty good “fight” on both lines, but then the lines began to converge, both of us walking nearer each other until it became obvious that the lines had become entangled. And, as our “catches” reached the surface, what dismay to find that one of us (not sure who) had caught a good sized eel, and the other was a toadfish. *I think it was called a toadfish, but whatever it was called, it was ugly and I had been told inedible. Rather than trying to untangle our lines, Ervin just got out the pliers and snipped both our lines;-)
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Irwin Wilkins had a good heart. For a boy that had no father growing up, Irwin provided one of those “dad/son activities”. No, I never thought of him as a dad. He was just a friend of my aunt, who did “kindly” toward me. But, Irwin had a “drinking” problem. I do not recall him being a “mean” drunk, but I do recall him being very red-faced and smelling of alcohol at least a few times.
I lost touch with Irwin after my aunt’s death, the first year I was a Carolina (Chapel Hill). Hey, the family didn’t even tell me that she had died until I returned for Christmas break that year. *A couple of years ago, I visited Portsmouth, with the intent of tracking down family graves in Portsmouth. I found all but the grave of Aunt Pete (Zeta Morton Littleton). The cemetery keeper got out her plot book and we went through it several times, but there was no entry for my aunt. I recall the general area where she was buried, but without going row by row, grave by grave, wouldn’t be able to find her.
But, I said I lost touch with Irwin. I heard he had died a few years after my aunt. It didn’t really sink in about the circumstances of his death, until a few years ago, when I recalled that they had found him, deceased, and standing upright in a narrow alley-way. What an awful end for a man who was so kind. 
I found Irwin’s grave (Olive Branch Cemetery -If this is not his grave, it was nearby and had an urn like those in the center of this picture.), which was near some of his family. His grave had a stone or concrete urn, for flowers, but was empty the cold winter day I visited. It came to me that I should return his kindness, so I went to my truck and finally my eyes lit upon a viable gift. There was a corkscrew/wine bottle opener, a cheap one, that I had bought at the “dollar” store. It had a burgundy, plastic handle. I left it in his urn.
Add the mustard to the potatoes while they are still warm, then let cool (which I normally do not do). *I tried adding a little ground coriander to this and loved it.
I stayed at the Best Western on Bush River Road in Columbia, SC, arriving on Friday night and leaving about 10am on Sunday morning. The motel has the blue roof in the picture above.
On Saturday morning, I ate at the Cracker Barrell just across US 20 (upper left of photo), and on Sunday morning ate at the restaurant at the Radisson. I’ve stayed at both the Sleep Inn (in photo) and the Radisson.
I headed up I26 after breakfast. The morning was sunny, but pleasantly cool. After a while, I found that gas was running low and I started looking for “cheap” gas. There were several times, when poor sign placement led to me passing by the “turn off” instead of turning. Finally, I reached Spartanburg, and made one of the exits. The fueling station at which I stopped had a two tiered pricing system for cash & credit. I only got a few gallons on credit and then headed on up I26.
Making it to Landrum, SC, I made the turn onto Hwy 14 and turned into an Ingles gas station (adjacent to the grocery). Their per gallon price was about $2.569, which was 3 to 10 cents cheaper than I had seen along the way from Columbia. From some signage along the roads, I realized that there was some type of “race” scheduled for the day. I picked up that it was probably a horse race (didn’t know if buggies, steeple, etc.). I passed through town and a few miles on the other side made my turns and then was at Spanglers. There were no “honey” signs at the foot of the road, so I had an inkling that he might not be in business (or alive).
Les Spangler’s Honey
*The short story on this is that I’ve never ever met Mr. Spangler. I have bought a couple of jars of honey a couple of years ago, but that was on the “honor” system. He displayed his honey in jars behind a little pull up window. You took what you wanted and left the money (I don’t recall if it was a money box or jar.) The “retired” sign is where the honey was displayed.
How did I find out about Spangler’s honey, in Landrum, SC. At some point, I found the “33 Liberty” restaurant’s web site. They were located in Greenville, SC, but seemed to have closed sometime before 2009. They offered haute cuisine, and they had a nice web site. In one area, they explained about where they purchased some of their ingredients, and Les Spangler’s honey was one of these “mentions”. — I think the 33 Liberty site was also where I learned about the Sweet Grass Dairy in Thomasville, GA. (I have been to Sweet Grass Dairy twice. The first time was before they had built their new store, and you actually went to the farm to make your purchases. The new store is a short distance from the dairy farm, and a little outside of Thomasville.
(Above: This is Les Spangler’s home, near Landrum, SC. He no longer sells honey, see sign below.)
From Landrum, I made it up to Asheville fairly quickly and found that Exit 33 off of I26 provided a sharp U-turn and you were almost immediately at the intersection, with the Toyota dealer to the left. I turned left at the light and drove a few miles coming upon the Farmers’ Market on the right.
Western Carolina Farmer’s Market (Asheville, NC – Saturday, April 17, 2010)
(Above – Small, white “b” potatoes for “ramps & potatoes”. The sales people were friendly and attentive, while going about straightening and moving produce about. )
(Above – RAMPS for “ramps & potatoes”. These were slightly larger bunches of ramps at $3 each. The smaller bunches at the other end of the display were $2.)
(Above – Bought several cheeses, one of which was a small white, chevre frais (goat cheese), for “ramps & potatoes”.)
Piazza Restaurant, Asheville, NC (the location was formerly “Trillium, a Bistro”)
My waitress was personable, and friendly and the shrimp & basil pizza, and salad I had was good.
Piazza’s bar area.
I would have liked to take a few extra days for this trip, but a weekend jaunt is what I have. The necessity to go at this time is based upon the seasonal availability of “ramps”, a mountain food oddity similar to a wild onion with a flat green leaf instead of a tubular one. The flavor is as pungent and unique as garlic, but it isn’t garlic. It is one of those things that when you eat it, everyone knows you have eaten it. It is probably best to eat it with friends and lovers and therefore you are not the “odd man out” according to smell.
Ramps are only in season in the early to mid-Spring of the year and only grow above a certain elevation. I checked with someone with the NC State Ag Dept./Western Carolina Farmers’ Market (Asheville, NC) and they are in season currently. I found that I could clean them. Chop them up, and then freeze them and they would last for quite a while. They are sold in bunches, with the dirt still on the tubers.
About 5 or 6 years ago, I first learned of the ramp, and also bought fingerling potatoes about this time. On that trip I also visited south-Georgia, Thomasville, and bought various cheeses. Home again, I cooked the ramps on the stove, added the potatoes, sliced, and then goat cheese to make a cream sauce. This went well with a pan-fried steak.
I am planning to drive down to Columbia, SC after work today (about a 3 hour trip), and stay at a Best Western Motel on Bush River Road. It will be about another 2 ½ hours to Asheville, NC tomorrow morning. Depending upon how early I get up, I may either drive downtown Columbia, or head up to Landrum, SC (just off of 26W) and seek out the honey of Les Spangler (S. Blackstone Rd.).
I should get to the WC Farmers’ Market by 10 or 10:30 am, depending. *Not sure if Les Spangler is still alive. Never met him, although I have bought honey at his place. Left the money where it said to, and bought a couple of jars.
Going up 26W to Asheville from Columbia, I will get off at Exit 33 and then take a left at the next intersection (Toyota dealership on the left). It is just a short distance up the road to the Market.
The Market has cheeses also.
After the Market, I plan to drive downtown Asheville. Not sure if I will park and go to Grove Arcade. May try it because there was a shop that had the balsamic vinegar I like.
Don’t know if I will try to eat downtown, and then meander back to Columbia. Stay overnight, and then roam Columbia and back to Fayetteville on Sunday.
Several years ago, when I had begun to try various and “new to me” foods, I came across something called a “ramp”. I was walking through the WNC Farmers’ Market in Asheville, NC at the time and saw these leafy, wild onion looking plants bunched up for sale. The dirt was still on the tubers.
I asked what they were and it was explained to me, but seeing that they have a unique flavor and the parts are oddly put together (imagine the tuber of a wild onion, with a flat green leaf growing above ground). In flavor, they are as strong and unique as garlic, but they don’t taste like garlic.
Fortunately, I did not google for recipies (yet), so I tried the following:
The Market had provided me with fingerling white potatoes. I believe someone had named them “gravelling” potatoes, since they were small like pebbles. On that trip, I think I had also travelled down into South Georgia, to Thomasville, and the “Sweet Grass Dairy” and had bought various cheeses, including some Chevre Frais (fresh, soft goat cheese).
So on a skillet, I began to saute the ramps (tops and tubers, chopped) in olive oil. After they began to soften, I added the potatoes which I had sliced, and then as the potato edges began to brown, I added the Chevre Frais, along with a little Half & Half which formed a thick cream sauce for the ramps & potatoes. Salt & pepper to taste.
This went well with a pan fried steak. Steamed broccoli or broccolini, or a salad would compliment this also.
I found that I could clean and freeze the ramps for later use, which could last into the fall easily.
http://ncalternativecropsandorganics.blogspot.com/search/label/ramps
KEY TRENDS
Four trends have been identified as key drivers of technology adoptions for the period 2010 through 2015:
Critical Challenges
Technologies to Watch
The six technologies featured in each Horizon Report are placed along three adoption horizons that indicate likely time frames for their entrance into mainstream use for teaching, learning, or creative inquiry. The near-term horizon assumes the likelihood of entry into the mainstream for institutions within the next twelve months; the mid-term horizon, within two to three years; and the far-term, within four to five years.
On the near-term horizon — that is, within the next 12 months — are mobile computing and open content.
The mid-term adoption horizon is set two to three years out, where we will begin to see widespread adoptions of two well-established technologies that have taken off by making use of the global cellular networks — electronic books and simple augmented reality.
On the far-term horizon, set at four to five years away for widespread adoption, but clearly already in use in some quarters, are gesture-based computing and visual data analysis.
JING is a free screencapture (still images and video w/audio) utility from TechSmith (Camtasia, Snagit). You get the utility, 2 GB of storage on Screencast.com and limited bandwidth each month for free. Upgrading to Pro for $14.95 per year gives you 25 GB and 250 MB per month bandwidth. Pro also gives you some added options (to save video in either SWF or MPEG formats).
On Screencast, you can create public, hidden, password protected and authenticated folders. An authenticated folder requires the viewer to have a Screencast account and login with it.
Sharing images or videos is easy. You can cut-n-paste a short URL into your email, or link on a web page, or embed the image or video in a page by pasting the code.
Start Jing and a little yellow sun icon appears at the edge of your monitor window. Click on it when you want to capture an item, check your history, and/or change some program options.
Selecting the capture area is easy. Either click and drag the cursor to create a capture window, or click if the selected viewing window is highlighted already.
[Screenr.com provides similar video capture from your PC screen but requires a Twitter account.]
Bill Gibson, II 
