Kitchens, Poets, Puritans, and Kevin Bacon
Saturday News Scraps Newsletter, v1/E5
Table of Contents:
Most Favorite Tiny Kitchen
The Poet’s Corner: Adrienne Rich’s Mushrooms
From the And Another Thing Department—Further News About Native American Frybread
The Annals of Religion Corner: Oklahoma Is the Latest State to Question Puritans’ Lax Attitude Toward Women
Winning Entry in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Contest
Most Favorite Tiny Kitchen
The fact that even Alice, when shrunk to her smallest size in Wonderland, would not have fit inside this kitchen does not at all disqualify it as among the most well-equipped and cozy in the world. Carrie Walter Stettheimer, its architect and decorator, spent 20 years creating the lavish house that the kitchen serves. It is probable that, as a wealthy daughter of a wealthy New York family, she would have had little familiarity with the skillets, Dutch oven, and frying pans. Instead, she and her famous artist friends would have to wait in the nearby stuffy dining room to be served the toast and brioche as soon as the bacon in the cast iron skillet crisped. The delightful array of fancy pastries on top of the refrigerator wouldn’t arrive until tea. Meanwhile, the servants and cooks—the class I would venture many of us would be happy to be among—would be sitting quite pretty at the gateleg table with its bowl of fruit and welcoming cups of tea.
Take a full tour of Stettheimer’s house with Ileana Ottini.
The Poet’s Corner: Adrienne Rich’s Mushrooms
What Kind of Times Are These
There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted who disappeared into those shadows. I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooled this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here, our country moving closer to its own truth and dread, its own ways of making people disappear. I won't tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods meeting the unmarked strip of light— ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise: I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear. And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell you anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these to have you listen at all, it's necessary to talk about trees.
Keep celebrating Poetry Month at the table by cooking the Rich-inspired mushroom recipe from the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center.
Garlic and Rosemary Braised Mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons red wine A pinch of salt 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced 1 rosemary sprig, minced 10 button mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed Grated pecorino or parmigiano to taste Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, wine, salt, garlic, and rosemary. Toss the mushrooms in the olive oil mixture until they are all coated, then place them cap-side down in a small oven-proof glass or ceramic dish. Bake for 25 minutes or until most—but not all—of the liquid has evaporated. Broil them on low for 1–2 minutes, checking often to make sure all the liquid hasn’t evaporated and the garlic isn’t turning a dark brown. Transfer the mushrooms to a small bowl and pour the remaining liquid over them (scrape the dish to make sure the rosemary and garlic get into the bowl with the mushrooms as well). Top with grated cheese to taste and serve warm.
From the And Another Thing Department Further News About Native American Frybread
Early this week, an accidental confluence between News Scraps and The Food Section took place through a discussion on Native American frybread and its legacy in tribal history. An incisive interview with Nikki Crisp, a member of the Cherokee nation, furthers the discussion, starting with the hard argument made among tribes across the country about the bread’s origins. Enjoy the interview!
The Annals of Religion Corner
Oklahoma Is the Latest State to Question the Puritans' Lax Attitude Toward Controlling Women With the passage of a law that forbids women from obtaining an abortion unless she’s near death, Oklahoma joins 25 other states that are openly questioning whether Puritans are true Christians since they historically considered it not sinful nor a crime if a pregnancy ended before quickening—generally 16 to 20 weeks. In response to a recent harangue from the states, the spirit of Reverend Cotton Mather was so incensed he rose from his well earned tomb to respond,
“I’m all for hanging women if they’re witches but they have the right to do what they think best for themselves in all other matters.”
Mather referred the states to an article written by Ranana Dine of the conservative leaning University of Chicago Divinity School.
“Perhaps they’ll learn a thing or two,” Mather said.
Texas’s Governor Greg Abbott sent Mather a copy of his state’s new women’s health guidelines that highlight some of Abbott’s great-grandmother’s pregnancy recipes.
Mather passed it on to poet Ann Bradstreet for her opinion on the matter.
Quiet annoyed by being awaken for such nonsense, she said, “their grandmothers would be ashamed of them.”
Winning Entry in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Contest
The best part of visiting the graves of my mom’s parents and cousins was being permitted to run around all the cemetery stones, peaking in mausoleums’ windows, and romping over the more substantial statues. The one below sat across the path from our family’s more modest site, and the benches provided a good place to sit or lie down while we waited for the adults.
It was also hilarious—these Kitchen, Potts, and Bacon all united together. Surely the three families must have seen the humor of their names joined together, carved in stone. My dad went further, pointing out the irony in these particularly named rich people lying not far from a family of cooks and maids who had spent their lives working for the likes of the Pottses and Kitchens, both wealthy textile owners: the Pottses settled Pottstown, PA; the Kitchens’ mill stood across the river in the neighborhood where we lived. The Bacons were more elusive but surely equally grand.
Years, and years, and years later, someone in the family stumbled upon a shred of the Bacons’ history. The family was by no means rich but more socially prominent in Philadelphia society, and their afterlife embrace came through the marriage between a daughter, Annie Kitchen, to Thomas Bacon. Thomas, this inquisitive and diligent researcher discovered, is a long removed relative of Kevin. It is fair to say that neither he, nor the Gallagher and McGettigan clans across the way, give a hoot, but it still makes this generation smile every time we walk by.
An interesting read!