On Saturday, Suzie and I went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Though we are highly cultured people, we don’t hang out in art galleries just every day. On this particular day, we were witness to absolute masterpieces.
Our first stop at the Nelson was the display of Dr. James A. Naismith’s Original Thirteen Rules of Basket Ball. There they were in simplistic splendor. The two pages were mounted and described on an adjacent museum tab that spoke of typed ink and hand lettering on paper in the same way such tabs describe paintings as oil on canvas or oil on wood. Do these rules belong in an august art venue such as this? Of course they do. They are every bit as much the product of a creative human mind as the Mona Lisa. They are the reason that March is mad. From them emanate The Final Four and The NBA Finals. Thanks to them I gave up as much as three to four hours a day the year around in my younger years. I loved every minute of it.
The presence of the rules in the museum was the result of David Booth, a University of Kansas grad, acquiring them at auction for display at KU. It is likely that they will ultimately find a special home in the Booth Family Hall of Athletics. David, his wife, Suzanne, and their children are the benefactors of that facility. The sale price of $4.3 million less about a half million for the auction fees will benefit the Naismith foundation, which promotes sportsmanship and provides services to underprivileged children around the world and of which, Dr. Naismith’s grandson, Ian Naismith is a founding director.
After the rules, we saw the first reunion in over 30 years of the three panels of one of Claude Monet's most richly colored late Water Lilies triptychs, created between 1915 and 1926. The three panels are owned by and ordinarily separately reside in The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Collectively, they are 236 3/4 inches by 167 5/8 inches in size. It is one of only two triptychs by the artist in the United States. To stand a couple of feet away from these paintings and see the masterful strokes in detail is awe-inspiring and then some.
Speaking of masterpieces, I’d like to share a couple from my home state of Louisiana. One is Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning, and the other is Steen’s Cane Syrup. The former can jazz almost any dish. I use it instead of salt and pepper. Morton’s Lite Salt contains half the sodium of regular salt. Chachere’s is roughly equivalent to that, but you only need to use half as much of it as regular salt. Consequently, I think you end up cutting your sodium usage to about a quarter of your normal usage of regular salt. Besides, it tastes better. As you will see in a moment, it is more versatile than you might expect. The cane syrup is dark and thick like molasses, but since no refined sugar is extracted from it, it is sweeter. Steen’s is the only maker left in the world. It can be an acquired taste.
A really good breakfast sandwich can be made on a biscuit (or sliced bread, a croissant, an English muffin, or whatever form of bread you choose). Add a sausage patty or split a sausage link. Add a fried egg. Sprinkle on a little cheese while you’re heating everything up. Before you close up your sandwich with the top of your biscuit, lightly drizzle on some Steen’s and sprinkle moderately with Chachere’s. Mmm … there you have another masterpiece.
How about messing with a classic: the peanut butter and jelly sandwich? You can do this with whatever favorite jelly, jam, or preserve you want. We have recently discovered spreads from E.D. Smith in Ontario, Canada. We have tried two of their flavors. One is a mixture of raspberry, cherry, and acai. The other is peach, apricot, and orange. They are the most robust fruit spreads I’ve ever tasted. I’ve done this spread and mixed. Spread is when you put the fruit spread on one piece of bread and the peanut butter on the other. Mixed is when you stir the spread and the butter together in a bowl until they are one substance. My artist daughter, Erin, swears this is the only way to do a PBJ. In either case, moderately sprinkle one side or the other with Chachere’s to achieve the pièce de résistance. Yep, another masterpiece is discovered.
Here’s another twist on the classic nutty and fruity sandwich: The Seasonal PB&J at Kansas City’s Blue Bird Bistro. It features house made Missouri northern pecan butter and organic house made preserves served on toasted house made bread. These guys can’t be beat when it comes to fresh and local. This is also a masterpiece, and they do it the hard way … without any Louisiana products.
It is time to close this post. I’m hungry and need a snack.
