Since one of our friends was given the boot by his wife (deservedly), my husband decided to take over Sunday night cooking. He has been cooking for about 5 years now and has become quite good at it. What began as a genuine attempt to be more helpful around the house, has developed into a weekly adventure for him in that he has come to the realization that the chef writes the menu. Thanks to the South Beach Diet, I rarely make pasta. John decided that it really could be fun to pull out the hand cranked pasta machine that Mom had given us years ago and went on a four year pasta binge. On a given Sunday you could walk into my kitchen and see hand cut pasta draped over the top of my cabinet doors or little raviolis drying on the counter and John proclaiming that this was the best yet-- that he'd finally rolled it thin enough. Of course there have been some not so great Sunday meals, too. Like the time that one of the standard poodles helped himself to the pasta, or after three trips to the grocery, dinner didn't make it to the table until after 8:00 (our daughter goes to bed at 7:30), and of course, the time that Louis, the crazy poodle, snatched a rib eye off the counter and raced around the yard taunting us with it. My dear husband is now on a quest for perfect fried chicken. The chicken last week was perfectly acceptable southern fried chicken, it could have used a little more salt, he just forgot to make any side dishes. This week, John is more confident about the chicken, he has the basics down, just needs some tweaking so he goes to the master of complicated, Thomas Keller of the famed French Laundry, for his recipe. As this one requires a twelve hour brine, he started last night making the brine, cutting up the chickens, etc. I' sure that the chicken will be delicious and I'm impressed that he would even attempt a Thomas Keller recipe, but it's just too bad that my grandmother isn't around to teach him to make fried chicken because I seriously doubt that even Thomas Keller's could be better.
In Savannah, you know spring is right around the corner when Russo's announces on their marquee "For those in the know, it's shad and shad roe". Before coming to Savannah, I had not experienced the delicacy known as shad. Way back when, shad was an important food source in the United States and was fished in the spring as the fish leave the Atlantic to spawn in freshwater streams. These days, shad is fished primarily for the roe (which is delicious, I admit). Of course I don't fish, (do Southern Girls fish?) but I understand that one of the reasons that shad is not commercially available is that it the boniest fish known to mankind--it has 3000 bones to be exact. Try to fillet that. According to the folks at Russo, it's a dying art but, fortunately, alive and well at their fish market. My weekly farm box arrived yesterday and contained a bag of shiitake mushrooms and my cook's brain immediately went "ding, ding, ding--Elizabeth's shad recipe" the one without the roe and with those yummy shiitake mushrooms and leeks. Heavenly, and a reminder that spring is almost here.
I have the distinct privilege of being the mother of a beautiful seven year old daughter. Living with her, watching her grow up and experience the world has been a fascinating journey. I'm still amazed by what she teaches me. My daughter has a friend who is a "one upper" anything you can do I can do better. We have had many conversations about not taking things personally, ignoring it, etc., but to no avail. The friend had a birthday recently and received new ballet gear--leg warmers, sweater--all the big girl stuff. My daughter complained for two days that the friend would be insufferable at the next ballet class and I suspected that she was correct. The big day arrived, my daughter dressed for ballet (leg warmers and sweater, of course), I put her hair in the requisite bun, she complained a bit more about her friend and disappeared into her room. A few minutes later, she returned, ready to go and wearing a tiara. Given that jewelry was not allowed in ballet class and I seriously doubted tiaras were, I expressed this thought. My daughter shrugged and said "I know, I'm just wearing it in the car". Problem solved, life is good, tiara trumps the "one up" anytime. Moral of the story, brilliant life lesson learned from a seven year old--when life gets tough, skip the brownie from Back In The Day Bakery or the glass of wine and wear a tiara!
It's that time again--our beautiful city is hosting the annual Savannah Book Festival, a world-class literary event bringing popular and critically acclaimed authors to historic Savannah, Georgia. The festival kicks off on Friday, 2/5 with keynote speaker Vince Flynn. Throughout the day on Saturday, there are free events in Telfair Square that are open to the public. On Saturday evening, Kate Campbell, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Caroline Herring and Claire Holley are performing a Eudora Welty Tribute concert at 8:00 pm. Julia Reed will be at the Jepson Center for the Arts on Sunday giving her much anticipated brunch talk. Sounds like a great weekend!
It's cold and rainy and we are coming off the coldest winter that I have experienced in 12 years of living in Savannah. It's true, I've had enough of winter and am longing for spring. I'm dreaming of trips to the Farmer's Market in Forsyth Park with my daughter, gorgeous summer tomatoes, beautiful salad greens, shell beans and fresh eggs. Then a quick stop on my way home at Russo's for just caught, still alive soft shell crabs. Unfortunately, we are still a few months out, but help has arrived in the way of Cha Bella's new Farm Boxes! Our first box arrived on Thursday (they deliver right to your door) and definitely exceeded my expectations--beautiful baby greens and carrots, butternut squash, broccoli, fresh herbs, strawberries and freshly baked bread--all locally grown and organic. Just seeing my daughter so excited about veggies makes it worthwhile and the butternut squash soup on a cold day is just icing on the cake. Check out Cha Bella's website for more information about this fantastic restaurant and their Farm Box program.
www.cha-bella.com
Fed To End MBS Purchase Program
There was major economic news on many fronts this week, with mixed results for mortgage markets. The Fed statement essentially followed the expected script, demand was strong for the Treasury auctions, and much of the economic data released during the week was stronger than expected. The net effect was a small increase in mortgage rates during the week.
As expected, the Fed made no change in the fed funds rate on Wednesday. The biggest surprise was that the Fed's Hoenig dissented from the decision, as he believes that economic conditions have improved enough that the Fed should begin to tighten policy. The Fed's outlook for the economy was slightly more positive than in the prior statement. The statement repeated that the mortgage-backed security (MBS) purchase program will be concluded by the end of March. Some investors were disappointed that the Fed didn't show more support for a possible expansion of the MBS purchase program, and mortgage rates rose after the news.
There is a wide range of expectations in the investment community about the impact of the end of the MBS purchase program on mortgage rates. The Fed has been purchasing roughly 75% of new MBS issuance, and a decline in demand from one source normally leads to higher yields to attract other buyers. One argument, however, is that the end of the program has been expected for quite a while, so mortgage rates already reflect the news, and there could be little reaction over coming months. Other analysts predict an increase in mortgage rates of as much as one percent.
I get a lot of questions about the outlook for the foreclosure market and when things are going to get better. The delinquency data for last month is very telling. Note that serious delinquency is over 90 days late.
Fannie Mae reported yesterday that the rate of serious delinquencies - at least 90 days behind - for conventional loans in its single-family guarantee business increased to 5.29% in November, up from 4.98% in October - and up from 2.13% in November 2008.
Compliments of Michael Caputo