Cookin Lore wrote:Lousy weather, freezing rain, the temp is -2C so roads are slippery as hell.
Wow, that's REALLY cold for us in New Orleans, Lore, as it's just over 28°F! When it gets down that low here for more than 3 or 4 hours, we will have to run a trickle of water (about the size of lead in a pencil) in the faucet farthest away from the water main outside a person's house. Lots of people just run a trickle from each of their faucets like people used to do but, of course, it makes the water pressure in an area extremely low which is dangerous for any fires that might occur. Sadly, when it's very cold here, many people run space heaters while others, believe it or not, run the burners on their gas stoves on high So fires often occur when our weather is unusually cold.
When Brian and I used to make and deliver smoked turkeys for Christmas presents, we used to deliver a turkey to an older lady and her husband who lived about 4 or 5 blocks from us. Louise (a/k/a Weezy) became friendly with us because she took the bus to and from work and passed our house on her way to the bus stop. I've related before how I usually speak to everyone who walks by, even if it's only a "good morning" and even if they never responded to my greeting. Weezy, like me, spoke to everyone, always returned my greeting and we soon became "fence talking" friends. Soon Brian knew Weezy too and we were both in love! Some of you might remember me saying Weezy passed by right after Christmas and told me the week prior she wondered what the wonderful smells she encountered when passing our house were. I told her how we smoked and delivered turkeys for Christmas presents and how we were now up to 8, which necessitated our taking turns getting up in the middle of the night to take usually two turkeys off the smoker and then lugging each up to the second floor apartment we lived in. She smiled (she's African American, probably in her late 80s now but was about mid-60s then, a gorgeous woman with a smile that could even win over a grouch!) and said, "I sure wish I was one of those lucky 8, Michelle!" Of course, even though I just laughed and said nothing, I think we both knew right then and there that Weezy and her husband "Bat" (their last name was Batiste) would get a turkey the following year. When we went to deliver it, Bat answered the door (we'd seen Weezy waiting for the bus downtown near Brian's office one day when I was picking him up after work, and drove her home so we knew where she lived) and said, "Weezy's out and about right now but she told me you two might be coming by!" All three of us had a good laugh, we handed over the turkey and a jar of my cranberry orange sauce and as they say, "it was on" for many years to come. Weezy and Bat were our first delivery for many years until the disabled merchant seaman who lived across the street lost his elderly mom who took care of him; Bubba's turkey never even got loaded into the car but just trucked across the street. Everyone who made it onto the turkey list remained on it until they passed away or moved away, which gradually began to happen as most were elderly. I also gave a turkey to the attorney(s) I was working for each Christmas, as it was an inexpensive gift and much-lauded over gift. We eventually bought a second smoker just to make Christmas time a bit easier and still have two 22-inch Weber Smokey Mountain cookers to this day!
One particularly cold Saturday or Sunday before Christmas, our usual day for delivery, she told us Bat was in the back of the house and asked for us to come in and say hello when we got there. Their darling house, always meticulously maintained, was what we call in N.O. a "pea shooter," which is a VERY narrow "shotgun" house, with each room leading into the next room without any hallways. Most shotguns were narrow, too, and ended with the kitchen and the bathroom, which meant you had to walk through all the bedrooms to get to the bathroom! They were lucky, though, as there was a room past the kitchen and bath which they used for a den. When we walked through their home, which was hotter than a sauna, the stove in the kitchen had all four burners on high. When we left and she was following us out, Weezy grabbed me as I walked past the stove as my hair was long and it scared her that I passed so close to the stove! I hadn't even thought of that as I walked out but I think of Weezy and Bat each time cold weather comes and I hear of residential fires begun by space heaters or stoves being used to heat homes.
Weezy finally moved back to N.O. last year; she'd been living with one of her adult kids in one state after another since 2005's Katrina, and lives in a small apartment in East New Orleans (probably 20 miles from us), but we kept in touch with her since the storm. Bat died a couple of years after the storm. She'd call us each time she changed houses so we'd have her number. If I ever start using the smokers again now that Brian can no longer do it, my first cook will be a turkey on both levels of the smoker so I can drive one out to Weezy!
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