Cumin Carrots
Rock Hudson on the set of Giant. Marfa, TX 1955
Rock Hudson lassoing himself. What a tall drink of water!
Our master bath in Marfa. I had this shower curtain made from a photo of Liz Taylor practicing lasso before I knew of any possible Giant connection!
A piece of art that we have in our house by Jason Archer from the ‘Marfa Mashup” Series.
Me & Charlotte Gill at the Push Up Birthday Party. Chapel Hill, NC. Mid 1970s.
Elisabeth and Kay Shearer at the Push Up birthday party. I guess it was hers?
My sister and me looking like a football hooligan. I think that’s a window unit behind us! Chapel Hill. Mid 1970s.
Can’t find any photos of the dreaded Chevy Citation but here I am with a mullet and one of our Volvos which was probably also hot.
The Reeds somewhere in the 70s. I think it’s summer judging by Mom’s outfit. Holy bellbottoms on me! I think the man on the left may have married Mom and Dad?!
My Great Grandmother, Dee Dee, with her purse at the beach. Lady could party! She was my Mom’s grandmother and she used to scare me. We would watch Lawrence Welk and drink Fresca together. One time I gave her some Hershey’s Kisses for Christmas. She told me she didn’t like chocolate and she exchanged them at Woolworth’s for some butterscotch candies. Who does that?! Her real name was Sarah, I’m named after her.
Mom and Dad looking cute at some sort of conference.
Mom reading from one of the books she wrote with Dad, 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About The South.
Greetings - AGAIN - from West Texas! We have a vacation house in the small desert town of Marfa. It’s a fascinating place. It was originally a ranching community and, then, in the 1920s the Army built Fort DA Russell which housed German prisoners of war during WW2. The base shut down in the late 40s but was discovered by minimalist sculptor Donald Judd in the early 1970s. He thought the 16 decaying buildings were the perfect place to display his art so he purchased them. Marfa was an obscure art outpost for a time, I remember a RISD friend of mine interning at the Chinati Foundation in the early 90s. I thought she was nuts because it was so remote. The town got a boost in the late 90s when art philanthropists bought property and started investing in the town. And then it kind of snowballed from there… there’s a James Beard nominated restaurant, internationally acclaimed galleries, practicing artists ….. all in a little town of 2000 in the middle of nowhere. We love it. (Here’s kind of a wanky New York Times article on it.)
One big claim to fame that I didn’t mention was that the movie Giant was filmed here in 1955. I remember watching that movie before I moved to Texas – I was a huge James Dean fan – and thinking “Who would ever want to live there?!!”. The landscape seemed so desolate, so desperate. What you don’t see in the movie is the sense of freedom given by all of that open sky. I now think it’s beautiful! You’ll find little nods to Giant around town, the Hotel Paisano has photos and “The Elizabeth Taylor Suite” etc. But, one thing we didn’t realize is that the stars only stayed at the hotel for a short time before someone found them rental houses. My husband met a woman the other day who used to live in our house and – wait for it – she claims that Rock Hudson stayed in our house during filming and that Elizabeth Taylor stayed across the street. Wait, what?! It’s possible. Our house was built in 1953 so it would have been one of the newer properties in this tiny town. I’ve been walking around this whole visit thinking, “Rock Hudson touched this sink” and wondering “Did Rock sleep in the master bedroom where I am now lying down and writing this?!” We’ll have to do some more digging to prove it but so far it’s checking out! There’s a fun article about Elizabeth Taylor coming to dinner in the backyard in a negligee. I’ll buy it. Man, I love some juicy provenance.
When I was a teen I had a lifesize poster of James Dean on my bedroom door. It used to scare the crap out of people. You’d come around the corner and - Yikes! Who could have guessed then that I would have ANY tie to him as an adult. (James Dean also shacked up in this neighborhood a few blocks away. We know that house address for sure.)
It is hot as hell here. I was just down at the Presidio County Courthouse for a Marfa Pride celebration and the poor drag queens leading Bingo were doing their best to stay cheerful under their hot wigs in the unrelenting desert sun. I played a few games and then retreated back home where I drew the curtains and cranked the AC. When we bought this place last year it had window units. Good AC is priority #1 in Texas so we saw to it that we had a decent system as soon as possible. Still, we had a few weeks of old school cooling. It reminded me of my childhood. Growing up, our Mallette St. house had one window unit in the front of the house, one window unit in the back, and a few in the upstairs bedrooms but we weren’t allowed to use them at night. I can remember the sound of Mom cranking on the breakfast room one in the morning as she went about her routine. It was loud and rumbling. The sound used to make me feel guilty, as I thought I should probably be getting up. I’m a sleeper and can literally sleep for ever. Mom would get up and go out in the garden in the mornings to work. I would lie in bed and wrestle with the idea of rousing. I always felt like Mom would want me to be up, although now that I’m a mother I’ll bet she was actually savoring the alone time. Hindsight 20/20 and all of that, I should have just not worried about it and stocked up on all the sleep I could. I would need it later.
Summer makes me remember all sorts of things from childhood. Those orange frozen sherbet “Push Ups” were a household favorite. At one of our birthday parties either me or my sister asked for those to be served. We spent a lot of time at the UNC Faculty Club pool. It was pretty free range back then. They had a giant metal slide that would fry the backs of your thighs as you awkwardly squeaked down. We had a terrifying JAWS beach towel that gave me the willies. It had a person innocently swimming at the top with a shark lurking down below out of sight. I used to show it to my friends to freak them out.
Mom, no matter how hot it was, always looked great. She was the first person I knew to rock a sarong, which always prompted Dad to comment, “a sarong is so right!”. (So, now I have to say that every time I see a sarong.) Mom had a pith helmet that she wore to shade herself from the sun. I think this was around that whole “Out of Africa” time where we all dressed like we were on safari. Anyway, the hat was super cool and I borrowed it as often as I could.
And, my major childhood memory of summer? HOT VINYL CAR SEATS. Literally the worst. Legs sticking to them. Pools of sweat left behind. I’m not sure if we didn’t have AC in our Chevy Citation or if it conked out and we never fixed it. But I do recall that the window handles in the back seat broke off and we just accepted defeat and left the windows up all summer. Can you imagine? That’s CPS level stuff right there. But, I guess character was forged!
So, for today’s recipe I wanted something cool and fresh. I vaguely remember Mom making these carrots. I’d probably serve them room temp.
CUMIN CARROTS
2 – 2 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced into ½” diagonal slices.
steamed until tender
1 c olive oil
1 c red wine vinegar
huge bunch parsley, chopped
½ head garlic [8-10 cloves] minced
¼ c cumin
¼ c paprika
1 Tbsp salt
pepper
Sarah’s note: No instructions. I guess just combine and marinate for a bit.
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