The Estate Sale Diaries- An Addendum

In my last Diary , I failed to mention some of the furniture that I am seeing these days. Particularly the dining room tables and chairs. I admit I have a blind spot when it comes to the out sized and the wooden. I go for the "smalls"-the pots, pans, paintings, linens I can carry away without a dolly and fit inside the cab of my truck.

I live in a small apartment that lacks only a sofa. There is only so much more I can fit in, though a few more bookcases would be welcome. And as for that sofa, the daybed I used as a substitute is on my porch ,where it has been taken over by a family of once homeless black cats-

I have been to a few dinner parties over the years where I sat in dining rooms, but most of my 62 years worth of meals have been a kitchen tables. The one I sit at now is a peculiar thing with a heavy blue plastic (and uneven) top that I keep covered with round tablecloths. Since I am now a bohemian/hermit semi-retired semi-professional, it suits me well. My dining room,just off my dime- sized galley kitchen is quarter- sized. Had I the money to buy a real dining room set, such as the one I saw at the sale on Friday, the dogs and I would have to move out if it moved in.

Perhaps it is the scale of the houses we build these days, that we need fifteen foot tables with ten chairs. And giant chairs, on a scale that would shock a Shaker. Nothing delicate, or simple, or restrained. Dark wood with big seats for even the biggest behinds. A style I would have to call "Viking Funeral Banquet".

Perhaps this is a regional taste, suited to the homes of Nashville's ostentatious and striving to be ostentatious suburbs where there is new money and questionable taste. People who live in houses as large as their corporate headquarters may have a blighted sense of proportion.

As for me, I will always sit at little tables, and when I dine on an ordinary evening, I will only see three small empty cafe chairs, unless the beagle is sitting on one of them. Cozy and everyday ,and better than a table used only over the holidays and secretly by the maid for her morning coffee.

Oxtails-Part 2

Here are the braised oxtails,ready to be coated with Dijon mustard, then rolled into Panko crumbs.

And here are the oxtails after 2 minutes beneath the broiler-

Left with the braising liquid, I decided to make soup! I added a few sprinkles of Herbs de Provence and a 15 ounce can of Cannellini beans. Delicious.

This recipe should serve two or three. And you may find it best to eat the oxtails with your hands, as you would fried chicken.

Braising In The Oven Now- Oxtails- Later to be Broiled with a Mustard Crust

I found oxtails at the grocery a couple of days ago at 60 cents off a package( a Manager's Special). My favorite way to cook them, for they are the most succulent of beef dishes, is to open up my "Beef and Veal" volume of "The Good Cook", edited by Richard Olney.


I am braising the oxtails inside my Lodge cast iron pot. I have put the 1 1/2 pounds of meat onto a bed of 3 diced carrots and half a diced yellow onion. I have two cups of vegetable broth in the pan as well as 5 small garlic cloves and three slices of an orange. I also sprinkled in some sea salt. I will braise this at 300 degrees for a few hours, then will scoop out the tails, and coat them with brushed on Dijon mustard. Then I will roll them in Panko crumbs and brown them under the broiler.

The strained onion and carrots will be a side, as will my garlic and rosemary roasted potatoes.


* The orange slices are my addition. I will post a photo of the Mustard coated oxtails when they are done-

The Estate Sale Diaries-Friday September 28, 2012

There are major estate sales and minor estate sales.


Major sales have lines outside the door hours ahead of time, and are held in rich neighborhoods. Dealers spend the night outside in their vans, waiting. The word is out that there are antiques, designer pocketbooks, quality cookware, and top of the line garden ornaments.


Minor sales do not attract dealers, and there are no lines. One is not pinned against a wall trying to get to the checkout table or to get a look in the closet.


The three sales I went to today were minor, but not a waste of time. My motives for going were curiosity, the endless hunt for vintage cookware and vintage cookery books, and my desire to buy a blender, since my ancient Waring, circa 1960, died.


All three sales were at a nearby subdivision of condominiums. These homes suffered much damage two years ago when the Harpeth River flooded, but are recovered now and once again inhabited by the elderly and retired.


The first sale had few books and fewer cookbooks, but boxes of old cassette tapes, both audio and video, and the out sized black boxes we used to use to play them on. How dated they are now, how remote. But how surprising to see people rushing to look through old L.P. records, which are much sought after!


I saw little of interest until I reached the kitchen, which was empty. (Even at 9am, I do not think there were more than a dozen people in the house,)


I found a vintage Wearever aluminum steamer/double boiler with that pre-Julia 50's look. A few bucks, and not to be resisted-

There were also some good quality storage containers. Banal, I realize, and not interesting until one regrets not having one to freeze leftover roast lamb in- These are always a good and economical deal at estate and yard sales, especially if they are Pyrex and can go from freezer to microwave.

The next two sales were at two neighboring clubhouses at the same condos. One was forgettable, yielding only a cheap blanket and comforter that I will put out on the daybed this winter for the Porch Cats, a feral tribe that has taken up living out there. And there was one interesting book- an encyclopedia of Tennessee history and culture. I might have paid five for it, but $20 is too steep for me. I may stop over tomorrow and see if it is still there and if I can deal-


The first clubhouse was more interesting, not only for the three nice Talbot's blouses in my size and the London Fog lined winter jacket, but because it had two cookbooks-the only cookbooks I saw- and both were choice.

The first, a community volunteer cookbook from a group called the Tennessee Telephone Pioneers, was published in 1981, and new editions of "Dining With Pioneers" still appear from time to time, though now the old name has become "Telecom Pioneers", a name that does not have the friendly, neighborly, good times, traditional spirit of the original. One reads "Telephone Pioneers" and imagines women on the phone across this country-house to house, farm to farm- sharing banana pie recipes and stories about their children and grandchildren. One sees the word"Telecom", and the images morph to outsourcing, layoffs, to nothing good.


The second book, quite worn, is "Kitchen Kollege", a collection of recipes from a 1950's Nashville cooking show on WSMV TV. The author, then Phila Rawlings and later Phila Hach,was a well-traveled and well educated woman who flew over a million miles around the world as an airline stewardess. Later she cooked on the air, then opened a restaurant called "Hachland Hill", which was open for "private dining". She wrote six cookbooks, and now I own two.


Altogether a successful and thrifty day. And I bought a blender. An Oster, for $8.00.

A Must Read For Hummingbird Fanciers!

A fascinating post at vickiehenderson.blogspot.com about the migration of Western hummingbirds such as the Allen's and the Rufous into Tennessee. Nashville has yet to see these, but they are in Knox County and Chattanooga. I will be leaving my feeder up through the winter again.


I discovered the mentioned blog on Surfbirds.com, an indispensable site for anyone interested in birds.

"Stop It!"- A Postcard from a Cynic.

I turned off the political TV shows this week right after Mrs Romney told her husband's fellow Republicans to cease and desist with their complaints about her husband.

"Stop it!" I commanded my TV, for I was sick of everyone, no matter what they believed or what party they belonged to. I was sick of Morning Joe and Fox TV and MSNBC and CNN. I was sick of seeing the video from Boca Raton with Mr Romney and the waiter whose apron got in the way and the little flickering candles. I was tired of tax returns and AARP rallies and campaigns that go on for four years.


I was so weary, that cynic that I am, there was only one man to turn to. One Antidote.


"The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice," said this man, "You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you."


George Carlin said this.


Gore Vidal once said the same thing. He said that when any newly elected US President walks into the Oval Office for the first time he will find Them waiting for him. The real Powers. The real owners of the country, and they will tell him how things are going to be-


Perhaps , once a century They will pick a token outsider- a Latino, a woman, or an African-American for president. They do it to calm the masses. To fool the idealistic. Like Tancredi in Lampedusa's "The Leopard", they admit to each other that "In order for things to stay the same, we are going to have to change".

Autumn Equinox-Nashville

A rare old Elm at Percy Warner Park-

Two places to sit and think-

A vista-

A path through the fields-

Our most beautiful weather of the year started a week ago. Mornings in the 50's and cool dry days in the 70's. No longer does the humid heat hold us hostage inside, kept company only by our air conditioning! Walks and garden work galore, but alas, little time to post-