Elegant Dining

Food is only one part of dining. Friends and family are a second part. The third part is the atmosphere that invites everyone into the space whether you go all out with grandma's china or a simple arrangment of flowers or fruit as a centerpiece.

Our dining atmosphere has just been transformed. Mr. Dr. Sue made this chandelier and hung it over the dining room table. When I say "dining room" it's a bit of a stretch. Our dining room table sits at an angle in the entranceway to our home. We "dine" there on special occasions and so a dining room it is.

Mr. Dr. Sue fitted a horizontal metal pole with light fixtures, wired it and hung it from the ceiling over the table. He milled grooves into the pole about half inch or so apart. Every groove holds two or more crystals attached to either end of jewelry wire and looped around the grooves. He found crystals in traditional chandelier shapes, small crystal beads, and glass crystals that are squares, diamonds and large teardrops. The lights are on a dimmer. The chandelier changes with the brightness of the light. It is beautiful by day and beautiful by night. The chandelier is elegant, thick with crystals, and extravagant like thousands of blossoms on a spring flowering tree.

May everyone dine in light and beauty!

Meatloaf Mania

Living in the land of frisee and fennel, when I travel to Nashville I have one food on my mind: meatloaf. The best food in Tennessee is at Meat 'n Threes, restaurants with old wooden chairs and oil-cloth stapled to the table tops that feature a choice of meat, 3 sides of vegetables, and a roll or corn muffin. Vegetables come fried and/or simmered with a ham hock and/or sweetened with sugar. Fried chicken, chicken fried steak (steak patted thin, rolled in flour and then fried), and meatloaf are typical Meat 'n Three menu choices. Order the lemon icebox pie for dessert.

I just returned from a business trip to Nashivlle. I have a terrific consulting partner there, Ms. B. I stay in a cozy blue house in her back yard. When I arrived, Mr. B who grew up in Carthage, TN, had cooked a special dinner dinner for me: mashed potatoes, turnip greens, and meatloaf. He and Ms. B know my mania.

Mr. B says he got the recipe from National Public Radio, but the meatloaf was the essence of Southern cooking. I've never tasted anything like this on the West Coast. My meatloaf doesn't come close, probably because I'm a Yankee and I use ground turkey.

The meatloaf was so delicious that I woke up in the night dreaming of meatloaf. I had some for breakfast. Driving back from our meetings late in the day, I wondered, was there still leftover meatloaf? I had some for dinner and a late night snack, breakfast the next day, and lunch on the airplane ride home. It was the meatloaf of meatloafs!

Mr. B couldn't give me the exact recipe. This is what I know:

4 parts ground beef
2 parts ground pork
2 eggs
1/2 container ricotta cheese (that's the part he heard on NPR)
saute onions and peppers before adding them to the mix (NPR might have told him this too)
salt, pepper, other spices
top with creole sauce
bake in a loaf pan so the juices stay in the meatloaf.

Mr. Dr. Sue picked me up at the airport.

"Shall we go out to dinner? Or if you want we could go home and I can make dinner. We still have some leftover meatloaf."

We went to the Japanese restaurant where I had a large bowl of udon soup.