9/2/09
Softball: Our Annual Diaspora
Dear People,
In one of those utterly sublime games in which the display of taut aerobic excellence leaves me thinking that we should all just up and turn pro, Jeff W’s team barely staved off my own, 12-10. Matt’s 5th inning triple play was particularly sensual in the clarity of its execution, and I’m not saying that just because I like to blend solid analytical reportage with the usual compelling critiques of Pollock, Rothko and Koufax.
In any case, the scrumptious post-game barbecue added to the majesty of the day, and overall, it was a joyous though bittersweet sendoff for Kira, who will soon find herself in Seattle. Yeah, that Seattle, where the coffee is barely adequate, the rain nearly ceaseless, and the haughty ’tude of the local folk, even at their most tolerant, is that unaffiliated email-organized softball is best kept safe, legal and rare.
Alas, though, Kira is not the only one amongst us who will soon face a momentous change in recreational locale, for as it’s done before, the shameless city of Berkeley is once again forcing us from our rightful homeland. This time it’s because they claim that for the next couple months, a presumptuous horde of lacrosse-playing pre-pubescent nutjobs is somehow more worthy of Codornices than we are. In reality, of course, we all know it’s because the Department of Parks and Recreation wants nothing less than to toss us into the dustbin of local recreational history.
Of course they will fail and fail miserably, for what they never learn is that our indomitable communal spirit is not derived from the moist yak-manured soils of our cherished homeland (rich and fertile as they are), but rather from the courage, grace and raw athletic hunger of all of you—the individual loons who make us an inimitable aerobic people. And therefore there will be a game at beautiful GROVE Field this Sunday at 11AM, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning….Raymond
PS: Grove rocks! It’s at the corner of MLK and Russell, one block North of Ashby, and unlike tree-infested Codornices, it’s nearly rodentia-free!
9/4/09
Softball: A New Locale and Cornbread!
Dear People,
There will be a game at Grove Field this Sunday at 11AM, and as of now, there are still three slots left. Please remember that Grove is not Codornices, and that if you carelessly go to the latter out of habit, you will be mocked by a swarm of softball-hostile youth for being a total geographic dufus. Grove, more glorious than Codornices in both temperament and Feng Shui, is located at the corner of Russell and Martin Luther King, one block North of Ashby.
Please bring $4 for the field, which for this week only includes either a delightful house-made rigatoni baked in the wood oven with chanterelle mushrooms and pear or a low-deductible public option for the duration of the match. . .Ray 845-7552
PS: Speaking of fine food, several people at last week’s barbecue were interested in getting Jeff W’s fresh corn and basil cornbread recipe, and so I am passing it along with explicit instructions from Jeff himself. Happy braising, or baking, or whatever it is you need to do. . .
Fresh Corn and Basil Cornbread
(Gourmet Magazine)
1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 large eggs
1/3 cup chopped basil
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chilled, unsalted, butter–diced
1 and 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (from 3 ears)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9x9x2-inch baking pan. Whisk buttermilk, eggs, and basil together in a large bowl. Blend cornmeal and the next four ingredients in a food processor for 5 seconds. Add 1/2 cup butter and blend until a coarse meal forms. Add corn kernels and blend using pulses until the corn kernels are coarsely chopped. Stir the dry ingredients into the buttermilk mixture and transfer to the pan. Bake until golden on top (about 45 minutes) and a toothpick, inserted into the middle, comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes before serving.
Note: In my oven the cooking time was only 35 minutes, so be vigilant. I used 1% buttermilk so this could be even richer with whole milk. I added a diced, roasted red bell pepper for color, which I think added another layer of flavor.
A word of caution: I doubled this recipe for our picnic, but if I had to do it over I would make two single recipes because I had trouble getting all of the dry ingredients to blend in the food processor and I ended up having to massage a lot of lumps out of the batter when I combined them.
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