Entries from November 2003 ↓

No one should have to prepare any meal just because its expected. Dining should be pleasurable. So sometimes we have to break with tradition and try something new.

Here are three other birds that make delicious substitutions for the regular holiday meal.

Pineapple Glazed Game Hens
Recipe courtesy Georgia Downard

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

Glaze:
Juice, from 1 can pineapple slices
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon vinegar (any type)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Hens:
2 cornish game hens, about 1 1/2 pounds each
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

For the glaze, cook pineapple juice over medium heat until it has reduced to 2 tablespoons. Stir in 2 tablespoons olive oil and curry powder and cook for 1 minute more. Take off heat and stir in vinegar. Preheat the broiler. Cut the hens in half, using either a cleaver or poultry shears, cutting around and discarding the backbones. Use the palm of your hand to flatten the halves slightly. Brush hens with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the hen halves, skin side down, on a broiler pan and broil for about 5 inches from the heat source for 10 minutes. Brush the hens with the glaze. Turn skin side up and broil for 5 minutes. Brush liberally with glaze and continue to broil for about 5 minutes longer, until the thigh meat juices run clear when pierced with a knife and the skin is nicely browned.

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Roast Duck in Cherry and Black Peppercorn Sauce
c.1997, M.S. Milliken & S. Feniger, all rights reserved

Recipe Summary
Yield: 2 servings

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 shallots, minced
1/2 cup dried cherries
2 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
3 cups duck stock or chicken stock
1 tablespoons arrowroot
1/2 cup Madeira wine
1 duck (5 pounds)
Sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon sherry wine vinegar

In a medium saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter over low heat. Add the shallots and saute slowly, until soft. Add the dried cherries, molasses, pepper, and duck stock. Simmer 15 minutes.

Blend the arrowroot with the 1/4 cup of the Madeira. Mix the Madeira into the duck sauce and simmer 3 to 4 minutes, until slightly thickened. Set aside. (The sauce may be made ahead, up to this point.)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Season the duck cavity with the salt and pepper. Pierce the skin thoroughly around the lower breast, back, and thighs. Truss the duck and place, breast side up, on rack in shallow roasting pan. Place the duck in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and roast the duck 30 minutes per side. With a bulb baster, remove some of fat that accumulates as the duck roast. Turn the duck, breast side up, and sprinkle with salt. Roast 10 to 15 minutes longer for medium rare or until juices run rosy when a thigh is pierced with a fork. For well done, roast until juices run clear.

Remove the trussing. Place the duck on a serving platter and keep warm in a turned off oven while finishing the sauce. (The duck may be roasted in the morning, if desired, and reheated at 300 degrees at this point.) Place under a broiler for 3 to 5 minutes for extra crisp skin.

Remove all but 1 tablespoon fat from the roasting pan. Add the remaining 1/4 cup Madeira to the drippings in the pan. Boil rapidly, scraping the brown bits from the bottom and reducing the wine to 2 tablespoons. Strain the wine reduction into the prepared duck sauce. Finish the sauce with the sherry vinegar. Simmer 1 to 2 minutes and swirl in the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter.

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CANADA GOOSE WITH SWEET BRANDY SAUCE

1 (6 lb.) goose
Salt to taste
1 lg. onion, peeled
2 apples, cored and quartered
1 med. potato, halved
6 to 8 strips bacon
1 recipe sweet brandy sauce

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Rub cavity generously with salt. Place onion, apple quarters, and potato halves inside goose. Cover goose with strips of bacon. Place in oven and bake for approximately 3 hours or 30 minutes per pound of goose. Baste every 15 minutes of last hour with Sweet Brandy Sauce. Serves 6.

SWEET BRANDY SAUCE
3/4 c. honey
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. red wine
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 oz. brandy

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir briskly for 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Serve warm. Makes 1 3/4 cups.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was ready to end my participation in this discussion of relationships and how we socialize in order to meet people, but the topic keeps coming up in conversations I have wtih friends offline and on. That the subject is resonating with such a diverse group geographically, and across gender and age lines, is an obvious indication of widespread issues here.

Looking for common denominators, the chief complaint I hear from others–and one I’ve voiced myself–is that as a community, we have too narrowly defined the physical spaces and ways in which we socialize. Time and again, I hear people say they are tired of going to the same place and seeing either the same type of people or the exact same people each time they go. It is as if we are in a collective rut, repeating the same patterns over and over, giving no thought as to whether they serve the needs of large numbers of us.

Typically, our social patterns fall into two categories. Regardless of where you live, there are usually the first type, bars and clubs, catering to varying subsets of the Black gay community. Some are actually Black owned, most are not, but there is little variation in the way they function from city to city.

The second place where people have an opportunity to meet, although their purpose may not be ostensibly social in nature, are through community based organizations, gay and lesbian community centers and social programs that typically offer some form of support group. Just about every Black gay organization anywhere in the country has some kind of regularly scheduled “group” where people sit and share their feelings.

Both styles of interacting are necessary and valuable parts of the community, and I don’t take issue with their existence. They serve their purpose. But they also have their limitations, especially if you don’t fit into that purpose.

The bar scene–a relic of a pre-Stonewall era when gays had no where else to go–caters to anyone who wants to get their drink on. Fine if you drink, a lousy place to hang out if you don’t. Centering activity around the consumption of liquor increases the likelihood of surrounding yourself with drunks, and how fun is that?

Clubs meanwhile inherently impose a class system. One is either a “member” of the club or not, and just like any good fraternity or country club, the decision as to who can comfortably associate there or not is often arbitrary and capricious. The choice of music played often dictates who wants to hang there. The existing clientele is another factor. Usually at some point, people age out of the scene because they appeal only to those of a certain generation. And do we need to talk about how much physical appearance and perceived fashion sense affects who will get any play and who won’t? I think the word shade must have originated in a Black gay club.

Just the other day, I got an email inviting me to the opening of a new uptown hangout. The message used words like “Red Carpet Grand Opening,” “By Invite Only” and “Dress To Impress.” This is not the first such attempt to bring a Black gay supposedly upscale nightlife to Harlem, or to other parts of the city. But it again creates an air of exclusivity, that will appeal to some while turning others off.

The social support group model on the other hand grows out of a genuine attempt to address some of the psycho-social impacts of being Black and gay, by allowing people a space to vent and share thoughts and feelings on subjects like HIV/AIDS, homophobia, sexual desire and other topics serious or lighthearted. In a city like New York, every night of the week somebody is meeting somewhere.

Talk is good and these spaces allow people to open up in ways they may never do in any other venue. As a result, friendships and/or deeper relationships have as much a chance to form there as anywhere else. But where there are deeper psychological issues, talking alone doesn’t mean someone is actually moving towards a place of healing. I have personally gone to some forums where the same people are talking about their same issues a year after the first time I met them. And yet, the support group can be just the place of comfort and familiarity they need.

So while the number of bars, clubs and support groups may be numerous and diverse in any given community, in and of themselves they offer few options for anyone looking for more than that. As I have been asking for years, where do you go to meet people if you aren’t into bars, clubs and support groups?

I will share some of my own ideas on that later this week in Part II.

They say in the NFL on any given Sunday any team can beat any other team. Well that’s true of every team except the Giants. They can’t beat anybody. They can’t beat the teams below them, and they sure can’t beat the teams that are better than them.

Sunday’s game against the Eagles was about the most lackluster showing I have seen in years. There was no emotion, no energy, no focus, spirit, drive, nothing. They talked this week about having their backs to the wall–as they do every year–and rising to the occasion against a division opponent they had to beat. But when the game got underway, they were the same uninspired team.

There are no highlights to recap. They lost 28-10. Their 3-0 lead early in the first quarter was the only time they led. They are now 4-6 and would have to win all of the remaining six games to have any chance at a playoff spot. We all know that’s not gonna happen.

Jim Fassel will get axed at the end of the season and maybe it’s for the best. A culture of mediocrity has set in. The veteran core of this team has accepted being just good enough and don’t know how to rise above that. They need a shakeup, maybe a coach who’ll light a fire under everybody and get what few stars they have scared of being cut so the others will fall in line.

I’ve been thinking if you take the New York Yankees out of the equation, nobody would ever consider New York a major sports market. All of the remaining teams suck big time. The Jets are crappy this year and won’t make the playoffs either. The Knicks and Rangers are off to dismal starts and I can tell already the Knicks won’t see post season. The Mets are in a perennial rebuilding mode and will be again next year. There is really nothing to look forward to sports-wise.

Thank God we have theatre and concerts and dance and museums and other cultural attractions.

“Free jazz concert” are three words that are music to my ears, pun intended. When it means an opportunity to hear trumpeter and flugelhorn player Jeremy Pelt and his quartet, there is really no better way to spend an afternoon. Pelt is one of the jazz world’s busiest performers, playing with a veritable who’s who of great performers, and is now getting well-deserved recognition as a soloist and head of his own group.

Pelt appeared as a guest on Newark, NJ member-supported public radio station WBGO FM’s Saturday Afternoon Jazz program, hosted by Monifa Brown, at J& R Music World in lower Manhattan. Backed by Vicente Archer on bass, Danny Grissett on piano, and Israel Bannerman on drums, they performed an hour long set from his new CD Close To My Heart (MaxJazz).

Now I don’t dare venture into the realm of music reviewer, that’s not my forte. I’ll leave that to others more qualified. I only know what I like. The 27 year old California native who now calls New York home, has a style he readily acknowledged as having been influenced by Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Booker Little, Lee Morgan, and Chet Baker. Not a bad list of guys to emulate.

Pelt however hasn’t just copied the jazz greats, he’s played with them. Since graduating from the Berklee College of Music in 1998, the long list he has appeared with includes Jimmy Heath, Ravi Coltrane, Roy Hargrove Big Band, Bobby ” Blue” Bland, Bobby Short, Keter Betts, Vincent Herring, The Skatalites, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, David O’Rourke, Benny Russell/Jorge Sylvester Next Legacy Orchestra, Cliff Barbaro, Winard Harper, Duke Ellington Big Band, Dion Parson, Ron Blake, Charli Persip, Mickey Roker, Cassandra Wilson, Gary Bartz, Harold Ousley, Greg Osby, Frank Lacy, and many others.

Pelt is currently a featured performer in the Mingus Big Band, Ralph Peterson Quintet, Lewis Nash Ensemble, Cannonball Adderley Legacy Quintet featuring Louis Hayes, Vincent Herring, and the Frank Foster Loud Minority Big Band. All of this in just five years!

With his band mates nestled comfortably in back of him, the Jeremy Pelt quartet swung easily yet vigorously through a selection of mostly ballads, including 502 Blues (Drinkin’ & Drivin’), Why Try To Change Me Now and In Your Eyes. While jazz aficionados may not be as numerous as their counterparts in pop or hip hop, they are certainly a loyal following, and the assembled audience in the store was delighted by Pelt’s musical mastery. Equally enjoyable was the accessibility of this star. No entourage, no army of security, just four guys playing great music in front of an appreciative crowd, then sticking around later to sign autographs. Remind me again why I love jazz so much.

The new digital camera came along with me and captured these shots.

It’s Friday, I’m at the office, and it’s almost quitting time. I stopped working hours ago however, and was looking at my site, knowing I’ve been meaning to post something all week. This should be the first of at least a couple more over the next few days.

I finally had a moment to call my mother last night. Work has been keeping me very busy lately and I kept meaning to do it but then it would get too late and I knew she’d either be busy with her caretaker role with Dad or gone to bed, so I wouldn’t call and so another day would pass. But we spoke last night and in between all the health related concerns she shared about herself and Dad and the one I told her about that I recently had (yeah, I’m getting that age too now), the subject of Thanksgiving came up. She of course asked if I was coming home.

In past years I have always had personal issues about the holiday season, namely the fact that at my age, I haven’t started my own “family” traditions. My married siblings have created there’s and even my younger, single brother, owns his own house and is creating his. But at Thanksgiving and Christmas time, yours truly is still making the trip back upstate.

But you know what? This year, I’ve decided I am not going to have a problem with it. What the hell, I am single! I have a small-ass apartment, not really conducive to entertaining. Staying here and trying to do something with other friends in the same boat would be a bit strained cause their spaces aren’t much bigger. And dammit, Mom can burn! I am not gonna stress out over the idea of going home, yes HOME, to lie around the house, eating, sleeping and watching tv (which is ALL I am gonna do there, in repetitive cycles) even though I am very much an adult.

Of all the holidays, I actually like Thanksgiving the best. It doesn’t have the overly commerical feel of Christmas nor the forced joy of New Year’s. I know some folks get all political over the Pilgrims and Indians story, but I don’t. It’s just a time to get family together to enjoy each other’s company. And I can see nothing wrong with that.

I have said here before, time is passing and I don’t know how much longer these moments together will last, so I plan to make the most of them. Other siblings have talked of coming in as well, so it may be one big noisey house again, just like when we were kids. Nothing wrong with that.