I first encountered B.J. Buckley’s work one of the times when I was a judge for the Poetry Super Highway annual contest. I love this poem “Butter” and am pleased to feature it this year on my blog.
Do you have any childhood memories connected to food? Does anyone not? Bread and butter are intimately linked to my memories of childhood happiness, specifically watching the homemade pita loaves puff up in the oven as they finished baking, and then spreading butter on them so soon it melted while the knife was still spreading it. That smell is still, to me, the scent of joy.
Butter
The cats are on the table licking butter from my supper of stale discount bread, whole grain loaf passed over in this whitebread town. It’s nearly Christmas, and this memory from childhood – December and real butter in defiance of the lack of cheese or meat. My father never shook the dust of Ellis Island from his shoes. Year’s end he pinched so on the Holy Morning we’d have oranges in the toes of our stockings and nuts in their shells, almonds and walnuts and filberts, Brazil nuts and pecans, and ribbon candy made by the Cockney man who had a tiny grocery, Greek cookies from Mrs. Panopoulous whose first son had ended his own life years before my sister and I were ever born.
My father drank his coffee half milk and so much sugar that even we with our Irish sweet tooths could barely get it down. I know from letters he wrote to Bridie, sister left behind and never married, that he longed for fish from the Shannon where it met the sea, for Kerry butter, which you find now in every market as if it were nothing special. Those December dinners of whole wheat thick spread with yellow are what I most remember, more than the scrimped-for ham and sweet potatoes, black olives and cranberry sauce in cut glass dishes, the good silver hidden all year under my parents’ bed, next to the string-tied shoebox with the captured leprechaun from the Old Country and the suitcase of graying photographs, the loved and lost whose names were faded as their faces.
The cats are licking delicately their soft paws, their pretty whiskers, cleaning their foreheads and their ears. They smell of kibble-fish and Kerry butter, of milk and wheat, a scent like the hands of my father, making us our suppers in the solstice dark, and then his thin clear tenor that sang us off to sleep.
at Yuletide, 2019
***
B.J. Buckley is a Montana poet and writer who has worked in Arts-in-Schools/Communities programs throughout the West and Midwest for over 45 years in schools, libraries, hospitals, senior centers and homeless shelters. Her work has appeared in Whitefish Review, ellipsis, Sugar House Review, December, Sequestrum, About Place Journal, The Comstock Poetry Review, and many others. Her book Corvidae, Poems of Ravens, Crows, and Magpies, with woodcut illustrations by Dawn Senior-Trask, came out from Lummox Press 2014. Her most recent work, the chapbook In January, the Geese, won the 35th Anniversary Comstock Review Chapbook Prize. Visit her website here.
So our Spring Break was earlier this month, right at the start of the time when schools in Houston were closing down. (Technically, classes ended a day early.) Many people who had planned to go on trips cancelled them, us included. To try and make up for not going on vacation, I planned some special dinners for the family as a treat. Between that and our grocery store running very low on usual meats (chicken, beef, pork) and rationing what was left, Continue reading “Forbidden Cookbook: Non-Herculean Lamb Chops”→
I spent most of yesterday afternoon in my kitchen. We were having people over for dinner last night, and so I dug out my tita’s recipe for spaghetti and meatballs and got to work. Making meatballs from scratch is fun, in its way, if you don’t mind meat. (I’ll probably share the recipe for those at some point. I don’t think my grandmother would have minded.)
And then I baked scones, because more friends are coming over this afternoon for tea. (I should probably share that recipe with you, too. Soon.)
Anyway, at some point between putting the meatballs in the refrigerator and taking out the ingredients for the scones, I realized I didn’t have any heavy whipping cream (necessary for scones), or fresh basil (for the other people eating spaghetti — I don’t eat it because I’m allergic, which means I often forget to buy it). So off to the market I went. Since I had so few items, I popped into the express checkout line.
There were several people behind me and I wanted everything to go quickly so as not to hold up the line. I also wanted to get home to make the scones and have them out of the oven before I had to pick up my daughter from school. (She’s attending an art school for these last few weeks of the summer.)
Since the woman in line behind me had already loaded a bunch of items onto the conveyor belt and was practically standing on the hem of my skirt, I knew she was probably in a hurry, too. So when my purchase came to $4.35, I whipped out my debit card to make things go faster. As I turned away with my bag of groceries in hand, I heard her remark to the man checking us out, “Well, I’ve never seen anyone use a debit card for under $5.00 before!” as if that were something worth commenting on. He agreed. I didn’t turn around but just kept walking. And while I know something like that shouldn’t bug me, it kind of did.
It’s not like I live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business, and yet on a routine basis we encounter people who feel the need to remark on everything that isn’t, in fact, their business. I chose not to say anything, but there were several things I could have retorted, such as:
“It would take too long to break a hundred, and I didn’t want to hold up the line.”
“I haven’t been to an ATM machine yet this week.”
“If I use a debit card, there will be a record of my having been here, in case something untoward happens to me before I get home.”
“I’m hoarding all my cash for when the revolution comes.”
“Nice tank top. I didn’t think people still bedazzled their clothes, but hey, you do you.”
Gah. Most of that stuff wouldn’t have been true, even though it might have been snappy enough to be entertaining.
I’ve been trying to stay off social media a little bit, since every time I get on there I find at least a few posts in my news feed from people whom I respect and like but who have to post every thought as if they were the first ones to think of it, or as if the angry, incendiary things they’re popping off in the depths of their own emotional maelstroms might not actually spark some negative consequences. It’s exhausting.
And honestly, I get it. It’s easy to be frustrated and angry right now. It’s also exciting to have new thoughts (new to oneself, at least). Maybe this is the only way they can stand to interact with the world. And I also fully realize how ironic even this post is, because I’m essentially doing the same thing. But gah. I’m trying to find a happy medium, and it eludes me. This means I end up not posting much, because my serious writing time is going to my new book of poems (which I cannot wait to tell you more about — very soon) and my new novel (which is coming along, albeit slowly at the moment). Le sigh. If you have advice about how to handle this whole social media thing in this moment in our cultural history, I’m interested.
So here’s another question for you: what is the most ridiculous thing a stranger has ever commented to or at or toward you, and what response do you wish you had given? I’m creating a safe space here for you to vent for a moment. Feel free to make us laugh, because laughter is the best medicine.
To tide you over while you think about what you want to get off your chest and purge from your system, please enjoy this gorgeous self-portrait my Orange Belt Fairy Princess Badass made this week (after two classes).
This is a great dinner for a chilly evening. It’s very basic, and though it takes about an hour to prepare, most of that is stove time with the pressure cooker that you can use to do something else. I like to make the pot roast and use the au jus from the pot as a gravy over mashed potatoes and peas. (And to be really easy about it, use mashed potatoes from a mix and frozen peas.) Add a salad if you want and some ciabatta rolls, and yum.
I found a version of this recipe online, though I don’t remember where and can’t find it now (sorry). But as with all recipes, I tweaked it to exclude items I didn’t like or am allergic to and added things I do like. Then I played with measurements. (All the ones here are to taste unless otherwise indicated, but if you prefer having something concrete to go by, try it with 1 tsp. each of the herbs and go from there according to what you like.)
There’s no picture for this one because it’s just too boring to look at, despite how delicious and fall-apart tender it is.
POT ROAST
ingredients:
beef roast (2-3 lbs.)
olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of your pressure cooker)
1 envelope Ranch dip mix
1 envelope brown mushroom gravy mix
garlic salt
black pepper
minced dried onion
salt
dried thyme
dried oregano
dried parsley
24 oz. beef broth
1 white or yellow onion, thinly sliced
If you have the time and want to get fancy, add sliced baby bella mushrooms when you put in the sliced onion.
Heat olive oil in pressure cooker and brown roast on all sides in it. Be careful not to splash or burn yourself; the oil will heat very quickly.
In a small bowl, mix Ranch dip mix, mushroom gravy mix, and other herbs and spices together. Sprinkle them evenly over roast. Add beef broth and diced onion. Stir broth around so that herb mixture covering roast is moistened and diced onion pieces are in the broth. Seal the lid on the pressure cooker and cook on high heat until the pressure indicator sounds.
Turn heat down to medium and cook for 45 minutes.
Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Run under cold water to help release pressure before unsealing the lid.
I love bacon and Ranch dressing, but I’m sort of tired of those being the driving factors in my pasta salad, so here’s something a little different with a little bit of a Mediterranean flair. It’s quite light, especially if you go easy on the homemade dressing (and if you want to swap it out for a different dressing you like better, you can). This recipe makes enough for a party, so if you aren’t throwing one, cut the recipe in half or plan to have leftovers.
ingredients for pasta salad:
1 package tri-color pasta of your choice––I like the corkscrew kind.
1 package edamame, shelled––Follow the cooking instructions on the bag.
1 can baby corn
1 can dark red kidney beans (low sodium preferred), drained
1 can cannellini beans, drained––You can substitute garbanzo beans (chick peas) if you like.
1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
1 small jar kalamata olives, drained
1 small package crumbled feta cheese
3 or 4 stalks of heart of palm, sliced into discs
ingredients for homemade dressing:
garlic salt
lemon pepper
extra virgin olive oil––Make sure you go with a brand that tastes good!
lemon juice
Boil the water for the pasta for a dollop of olive oil instead of salt. Follow the instructions on the pasta.
Follow the instructions on the edamame to steam them.
Drain and rinse the canned/jarred ingredients.
Mix all the yummies together in a large bowl.
Now for the dressing, which is a Lebanese dressing my grandmother and mom taught me, and which I use for many kinds of salad. Add the garlic salt and lemon pepper to taste. I usually cover the entire bowl with each spice because it will be mixed in with a lot of pasta salad. (You can be more generous with the lemon pepper; if you add too much salt the flavor won’t feel light or refreshing.) Add enough olive oil to coat everything slightly but not enough for the oil to collect at the bottom of the bowl. Add a generous dollop of lemon juice. Mix everything together.
The title of this recipe post might be a little misleading, because the lasagna I’m about to share with you does contain meat, though you could leave it out if you wanted.
This is a wonderful one-dish meal for families whose members include finicky kids who won’t eat vegetables. It has fiber, veggies, dairy, and meat all in one. It also goes nicely, if you’re feeding a hungry bunch, with ciabatta rolls or garlic bread. Add a salad and you have a delicious weeknight feast. But be forewarned: a serving of this stuffed lasagna can be really filling!
I admit the prep isn’t super quick; mine took about 20 minutes. And the cooking time could be about 45 minutes. So start this one as soon as everyone gets home from work/school. The good news is that this makes about 8-12 servings, depending on the size of your pan and how you slice the lasagna up, so it could potentially be two meals. I recommend a 9”x13” casserole dish, unless, like me, you have a brownie pan with walls in the middle. (If you use such a brownie pan, you reduce the risk of a soupy middle, but you will probably have to break and artfully arrange the noodles when you lay them in the pan, which adds a few minutes to your prep time.)
ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 can reduced sodium dark red kidney beans (drained)
SNEAKY PART ALERT: baby food purées of butternut squash, carrots, and green beans (though any orange-colored baby food will work well here, as they hide in the sauce undetectable by children on the lookout for Evil Vegetables They Refuse To Eat)
oregano (to taste)
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1 egg (slightly beaten)
SNEAKY PART ALERT: 1 jar (about 24 oz.) spaghetti sauce––with mushrooms and olives (So sneaky!)
1 15-oz. can tomato sauce
1 box no-boil lasagna noodles
at least 2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend (though plain mozzarella will work well here)
3 tablespoons ground parmesan/romano/asiago cheese blend (though plain parmesan will work well here)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit).
Brown ground turkey on stove in large skillet. When meat is browned and crumbly, add baby foods, kidney beans, spaghetti sauce, and tomato sauce. Sprinkle oregano on top. Stir and cook on medium high heat until bubbling, then reduce heat to low and let simmer. (You could also add any other finely chopped veggies to the sauce at this point, if you wanted. I imagine onions, portabella mushrooms, bell peppers, extra olives, zucchini, yellow squash, and eggplant would all be tasty here. Replacing the ground turkey––or whatever other ground meat you wish, such as beef or crumbled sausage––with these various vegetables could make this a good meatless entrée.)
yummy meat sauce with sneaky vegetables
Combine egg and ricotta cheese and more oregano in bowl. (If you wish to add basil here, do so. I don’t because I’m allergic to it.)
Spread a thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom of the lasagna pan. Spread a layer of noodles on top of this. Spoon some of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Add a layer of meat sauce to cover the ricotta mixture. Sprinkle the shredded cheese blend over the whole thing. Spread another layer of noodles on this, then repeat the ricotta, meat sauce, and shredded cheese steps. Do it all one more time if you have room in the pan. Keep going until you’ve filled the pan about ¾ of the way to the top.
Add one last layer of noodles, then the remaining sauce, and finally the remaining shredded cheese. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese blend over the whole thing.
Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 10-15 minutes or until bubbling. Let the lasagna rest five minutes before cutting into it and serving.
For the uninitiated: a tagine is a Moroccan-style stew; it’s also the vessel said stew is cooked in. A tagine can be a one-pot meal, containing most of your food groups in a single, easy-to-prepare dish. Served over couscous or rice, it makes an easy but comfortably complex dining experience, excellent for all weathers. If you really want to be balanced, add a salad or green vegetable on the side.
It’s easy to find tagine cookbooks, and it’s actually not all that difficult to find tagines, either. My husband bought me this small and beautiful one for Mother’s Day a few years ago from Williams-Sonoma. It’s the perfect size for our family of four and sits directly on our gas stove. (If you have an electric range, tagines sometimes have to be handled a little differently; you can refer to the cookpot’s instructional guidelines for more information. They operate beautifully in an oven, too, which is what I used in our old house that had a glass cooktop.)
So the other night I needed to make dinner and didn’t have anything planned, but I did have a few simple ingredients on hand in the pantry (including canned vegetables, which means this was super easy to put together, though fresh ones will work beautifully too if you have the time). I made what I’m calling a Lemon Chicken Tagine. It ended up being delicious served over jasmine rice. Here’s the recipe.
***
ingredients:
1 lb. fresh (or thawed, if frozen) chicken thighs
extra virgin olive oil (for sautéeing)
butter (for sautéeing)
minced garlic
1 can button mushrooms, drained
1 lemon, scrubbed and sliced (discard the rind tips)
1 can chick peas (also called garbanzo beans), drained
1 can sliced white potatoes, drained
salt (optional)
pepper (optional)
garlic salt
lemon pepper
water
***
In a large pan (not your tagine yet), sautée the garlic and mushrooms in enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Add butter to taste; I usually drop in a good-sized spoonful scooped from the spreadable butter or a tablespoon of stick butter. Add the chicken thighs, chick peas, and potato slices. Now is a good time to add a little salt and pepper, if you like, to taste. Cook until the chicken is done (internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit), turning the thighs now and then and stirring the vegetables around.
When this is finished, transfer everything to the tagine. Add garlic salt and lemon pepper to taste. Spread the lemon slices around evenly. Add water to the dish just until everything is mostly covered, then stir everything up to make sure it’s well mixed. Stir gently, though: this dish will be full!
Cook the stew until it comes to a boil. Refer again to your own cookpot’s instructions for heating guidelines; mine works well up to medium heat on the stove. Once the stew is boiling, stir once more — gently — then cover with the conical cover and simmer on low heat. Again, individual tagine manufacturers will recommend individual timing guidelines. (If your cookpot doesn’t have an instructional guide, you can find all manner of resources online to go with yours by doing a simple search.)
Here’s what my Lemon Chicken Tagine looked like when it was ready to serve:
Sort of a monochromatic meal, I admit, but the whole thing took less than 45 minutes to conceive of and prepare, and even my finicky-as-all-get-out children ate it and liked it, so I’m calling it a success! I served it over jasmine rice, and we even had enough leftovers for one hungry person to heat up for lunch or dinner.
Like I said before, there are all manner of tagine cookbooks out there. I even have a really good one. The thing is, a lot of the recipes in it don’t really work for my family most of the time. There’s always at least one ingredient that someone hates or is allergic to or that is impossible to find at the grocery store around the corner. Mostly what I’ve found is that these recipes are adaptable. Pick one that gets it mostly right for you and then pick and choose from the ingredients list as you see fit. Make substitutions with similar foods. Play around with it. Enjoy!
In response to Sarah Warburton’s blog posts this week about her family trying to eat more “food-shaped food” (as opposed to processed foods that come in boxes), I wanted to share my favorite roast chicken recipe. It takes a minimal amount of prep work and practically cooks itself, and it’s healthy as well as being delicious. In fact, once I learned how to dry-brine a chicken, it became my default way of preparing whole poultry, because it makes the bird so flavorful and juicy and tender. No more dry chicken!
When we make this recipe, we use two whole birds because Tiny Beowulf can eat half a chicken on his own when he’s hungry. (I wish I were exaggerating, but he’s seven and already bigger than his nine-year-old sister, who’s of at least average height. I’m not hugely tall, but I’m also not completely short, and he comes up to my chin.) But my point is that you can modify the recipe for one chicken. You can also reduce the amount of salt you use for dry-brining, if you wish, especially if you’re seasoning the poultry the day you cook it. You will find the way to your own tastes.
Roast Chicken and Root Vegetables
2 whole fresh chickens (minimally processed, or go organic if you can)
chicken broth
kosher or sea salt
lemon pepper
garlic salt
3 whole lemons (quartered, seeds removed if desired)
baby carrots (or sliced large ones)
celery (sliced and chunked)
small potatoes (peeled or not)
onion (quartered)
extra virgin olive oil
1. Combine the salt, lemon pepper, and garlic salt in a small bowl.
2. Rinse and pat dry the chickens. Patting them dry helps give them a crispier skin in the oven. Dry-brine the chickens with these seasonings up to one or two days in advance of roasting them and put them in the refrigerator, though you can season them the same day you cook them. You’ll need about ¼ tsp. salt for every pound of chicken; add garlic salt and lemon pepper to taste. (I’m generous, especially with the lemon pepper, which isn’t as strong as garlic salt.) Stuff the insides of the chickens with the lemon wedges. (Apologize to the chickens if you feel the need.)
Dry-brining is great because it allows the salt and seasonings to absorb into the meat and then lock in flavor and juices. If you let it rest in the fridge for a day or two, you can observe over time that the chicken will look at one point as if it’s sweating. Do not be alarmed. This is part of the “moisturizing-flavorizing” process. (But don’t take my word for it. You can learn more about this process by doing a Google search for “how to dry brine a chicken” and let yourself be dizzied by the array of experts offering their guidance.)
3. When you’re ready to cook the chickens, pour a shallow bath of chicken broth into the bottom of the baking dish. Toss in the carrots, potatoes, onion, and celery around and under the chickens. Brush olive oil over the tops of the chickens; coat them well.
4. I use a convection oven, but you can do this in a regular oven, too. Roast or bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, uncovered. Then roast or bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, covered with a loose aluminum foil tent.
5. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and continue to bake, loosely tented, until thigh meat (not next to the bone) reaches internal temperature of 165 degrees at least. In my convection oven, this usually takes about another hour to an hour-and-a-half when I’m cooking two chickens, but I recommend you start with 30 or 45 minutes and then just keep checking the temperature and adding on another 10-15 minutes each time as needed. After the first 30-45 minutes, remove the foil so the skin will gently brown and get crispy. Roasting or baking just one chicken may reduce your cooking times. The main goal is to make sure the bird’s internal temperature is safe.
I’m not a food photographer by any stretch of the imagination. Trust me, it’s delicious.
6. Once the birds are out of the oven, let them rest for about five minutes before cutting them up. Serve with the root veggies and a lovely long grain and wild rice or ciabatta bread with butter. If you choose to roast just the chickens without the vegetables, serve with a salad, too.
Om nom nom!
If you make this recipe or have other tips or comments to share about dry-brining poultry or cooking chicken and vegetables, please post in the comments section below!
Even though I live in Texas, I admit I don’t really care for football, not any part of it, and so I don’t host or attend Super Bowl parties as a general rule. I don’t watch the game, not even for the commercials (though I have been to quite a few SB parties in the past which were primarily devoted to watching the commercials).
Remember that adorable black-and-white sweater I was wearing back on the 13th? (Click here to see that post.) I promised I’d tell you the story of how I’d acquired it.
A couple of years ago, it became very chic for women to host swap meets with their girlfriends. The recession had been hammering down upon the whole country for so long, the recovery slow. In a strong environmental push, some of the people who suddenly had little (or less than they’d had before) were finally realizing the intelligence of reduce, reuse, and recycle. And women’s magazines began featuring articles about Swap Meets.
The concept is simple: you bring the things you don’t want or need anymore and give them to others who can make use of them, and you take home their stuff you can make use of that they can’t. (The generally-accepted rules for how to host your own party are below.) Parents of small children have been enjoying this principle with other young families forever: how many of us wore hand-me-downs?
There’s new terminology for it now, too, to give the whole concept a little flair and to encourage everyone to feel good about it all. “Recycle” has become “upcycle,” “hand-me-downs” have become “hand-me-ups.” Euphemisms aside, though, it’s a concept that, if performed thoughtfully, frequently works.
So after reading about Swap Meets enough times — and yes, I do occasionally read certain women’s magazines, don’t judge — I decided I wanted to try it out. I emailed all my girlfriends to explain the concept (as if they didn’t know) and to ask, who might be up for it?
As it turned out, the answer was most of them.
We’ve had a few Swap Meets over the last couple of years. Not everyone can make it to every one, but usually between eight and ten can, which is a really good number. This is the sort of activity that works well once or twice a year, because inevitably the group is a little different each time, and it seems like, in our cluttered lives, cleaning out the closets is always a good idea. If you’re like me, your closet isn’t quite big enough to hold all your clothes and wardrobe accessories, so every spring and every fall, when it’s clear the weather has really turned the corner, I switch out about half my clothes for the appropriate season. And while I recognize that in the early 1990s the style etiquette mavens decreed that white was perfectly fine to wear in the winter in warm-weather climates, I still like to keep the bright whites, the dainty florals, and the pale flowy garments separate from the heavy colors, heavy fabrics, and heavy mood of the glorious colder months. So twice a year I’m compelled to make an inventory of my wardrobe and clear stuff out.
It’s an exercise in streamlining that may one day, hopefully, evolve into the ability to handle all the cluttered details in my life, and I know this, and I’m okay with that.
Now, if you really want to clear stuff out of your house — because, let’s be honest, that feels good — the trick of the Swap Meet is to take and give away a whole lot more than you bring back home. At our last one, I took about a carload of goodies and brought home four new things, one of which was that delightful sweater, and another of which was a pair of incredibly hot vintage-inspired black velvet heels which my friend Marcie wore once and then decided were too tall for her to walk around her campus in every day. Score! I’ll be wearing them tonight to a fancy fundraiser at my school.
Thank you for having a job where you walk to work, Marcie!
So by now, no doubt, you’re ready to host one of these parties yourself, aren’t you? Well, there are a few rules. Not many, and they’re largely common sense, but they do matter just to make sure everything goes smoothly, that there’s no confusion or mismanaged expectations.
THE RULES FOR A SUCCESSFUL SWAP MEET
1. First of all, contribute to the Swap Meet only those items which are in good condition. Avoid bringing anything you’ve decided to discard because it’s worn out or stained or in need of mending you don’t have the time or expertise for. The general thought is that if it could be sold at a consignment shop, then it’s probably a good candidate.
2. This is for (insert category here) only. That means, just the ladies, or just the guys (if they’re interested), or just children’s clothes, or just home furnishings, etc. Keep it simple so everyone knows what they’re getting into, and if they’re not interested, they won’t show up and then be bored or disappointed. (A side note: necktie swaps for men have shown some promise at some workplaces, but I’m not sure they’ve truly caught on yet.)
3. Turn your living room (or wherever you’re hosting it) into a boutique. Lay out the clothes nicely: hang them up, fold them neatly on a table, stack the shoes and purses artfully as if you were preparing a window or shop display. The idea is to make the overall environment cute and appealing rather than making it look like a picked-over garage sale. This may sound intimidating, but it’s not so difficult once you start, and if you’re not as confident as you could be about your ability to do this, enlist a friend with good design sense (think, a well-ordered or nicely decorated home) to help you.
4. Everyone who comes to the party must bring something to give away. (Again, this isn’t a garage sale.) Even if you bring only one or two items, don’t show up empty-handed. And remember that a variety of sizes for a variety of guests is a good thing! Often what we purge from our closets is what, heartbreakingly, doesn’t fit anymore. It’s fun to share that favorite blouse you’ll never wear again with one of your good friends on whom it would look fabulous.
5. In order to get everything set up before people begin browsing your displays, ask that everyone give you their items before the day of the Swap Meet — or else come over an hour early to help set up. Also have a defined time for when things begin and when they end. For example, we usually say the party will be from 1:00 to 3:00, and that no one may begin swapping or claiming items until 1:00. Anyone who’s late understands the consequences of that. Anyone who shows up at noon to help set up will get a sneak preview of what’s being offered. (Reminding your friends of this can sometimes actually result in more people coming to help set up.)
6. No money changes hands for anything. This is non-negotiable, or it ceases to be a Swap Meet and becomes something else.
7. Lay out some treats for the party: light finger-foods, a little dessert, some wine or punch or whatever. Remember that it’s not a typical meal-time, and that people are going to be trying on clothes — bedrooms and bathrooms usually work well as fitting rooms — and that probably no one wants to eat anything heavy. Keep the menu simple, light, and festive, and don’t forget the small plates and napkins. One successful menu I’ve used which resulted in very little waste and general yumminess all around:
hummus and pita bread triangles
simple antipasti tray: cubes of three different kinds of cheese, sliced pepperoni, mild olives (Some gently-herbed flatbread crackers make a lovely companion to this.)
sliced vegetables with Love Dip or some other festive spread rather than just the same old Ranch (Remember, we’re not kids anymore and can try other interesting flavors.)
bite-size cream puffs (You can find them in the frozen section of the grocery store. Just get one box, though! Or if you’re extra health-conscious, go for a fruit salad or tray of already-cut fruit, which people will often be more likely to nosh on than whole fruits like bananas, apples, and even clementines that haven’t been peeled or cut.)
a light white wine if people are interested, assorted individual teas, bottled water, maybe a ginger ale punch
8. When your party comes to an end, make sure everything left over gets either boxed up to store for the next Swap Meet or else donated. This is very important if your goal is (at least in part) to clear the clutter out of your house. No one should repay the hostess for her hospitality by leaving all the unclaimed stuff in her living room! Make a plan before the party to take what’s left over to a nearby charity or donation center, if you like, thereby doing something really good for other people in need. Just be sure everyone knows from the outset that they must either take their leftover items back home with them or else have an immediate/same-day plan for getting them out of your house.
And ta-da! It’s a party with little clean-up, you’ve had fun with your girlfriends, and your closet has been cleaned out.
B.J. Buckley is a Montana poet and writer who has worked in Arts-in-Schools/Communities programs throughout the West and Midwest for over 45 years in schools, libraries, hospitals, senior centers and homeless shelters. Her work has appeared in Whitefish Review, ellipsis, Sugar House Review, December, Sequestrum, About Place Journal, The Comstock Poetry Review, and many others. Her book Corvidae, Poems of Ravens, Crows, and Magpies, with woodcut illustrations by Dawn Senior-Trask, came out from Lummox Press 2014. Her most recent work, the chapbook In January, the Geese, won the 35th Anniversary Comstock Review Chapbook Prize. Visit her website here.
Sappho's Torque 