ArcaMax

The Hat

The wedding was a British-influenced affair. My niece was marrying an Englishman. The groom wore tails and an antique top hat from the 1800s. My nieces’ beautiful wedding dress was made in Ireland. They took this British thing seriously and many guests were making the trip from Britain; including his family.

The invitations outlined that they encouraged guests to dress in formal wear and hats were highlighted for the ladies.

I took that as an invitation to emulate the British ladies and go all out with my hat. I’ve seen so many pictures of Camilla on her wedding day and her massive hat. I’ve seen some of the totally bizarre fascinators that many of the ladies wore to Prince Williams’ wedding so I thought...why not? If they want hats I’ll wear a hat. A real, British-style hat.

But where do I get one?

I have been to Bermuda several times and as a British protectorate country they have many British traditions. The ladies there all dress to the nines for Sunday church. Every one of them wears a hat along with a beautiful dress or suit and heels. It’s really fun to see them as they gather for conversation outside the church.

Every time I’ve been to Bermuda, it’s been in winter, so I took to buying hats that I could wear at Easter. I have a whole collection of them, so if this had been a spring wedding I’d have had a spring hat in my collection that I could have worn. But I had no hats that would be appropriate for a formal occasion that took place in October. Darn.

This provided a conundrum.

One option would be to buy a new hat. That would not be a problem in Chicago. We have all the big Michigan Avenue stores where you can buy anything. Challenge is it all comes at a price. A hefty price. And how often would I wear the hat here?

I was all set to go ahead and invest in a beautiful hat.

As I planned my outfit and planned my hat buying trip, my hair appointment came up. That appointment seems to pop up every four to six weeks. (Those ladies with gray hair who don’t want to know how much gray hair they really have will sympathize with my schedule with my hairdresser.)

Michael is my wonderful hairdresser. I must drive by at least 40 hair salons to get to Michael. He does a great cut, a decent style and then I usually just go home and re-style it a bit (like most women do) and then I’m happy. Michael keeps me entertained with all kinds of stories while I get my hair done and if I’m not feeling all that chatty he just gets down to business and doesn’t bug me. I like that.

This particular day I was sort of chatty so I was telling him of the beautiful British-style wedding that was coming up and how I found a dress on line, on sale, that I thought would work. I was waiting for it to arrive and see if would fit. Then I’d plan the rest of my outfit. Michael is always interested in style. I’m not a big shopper so it’s fun to listen to him regale about shopping. I generally dislike shopping altogether; especially for clothing. Send me out to buy glass art pieces and it’s a whole different ballgame. Clothes; not so much.

So I described the dress. He said, “It’s black, right? And you said you need to find a hat”. I confirmed that to be true. He came back with, “I might have a candidate for your hat”.

He went on to tell me how he had bought a beautiful black hat that was on OFF, OFF, OFF, OFF price at Neiman Marcus end of season sale. He loved the hat but had not found an occasion to wear it yet.

Okay so that might trip an alarm in your head. Michael wears women’s hats?

Yep.

Michael is a part-time drag queen. He performs at several venues all over the city. I went to see one of his performances and he’s great! He did several songs by various artists and wears outfits to match along with makeup and wigs. He’s a fairly big guy. He wears a size 10 ladies shoe but he struts around in those heels with more ease than many women. In the performance I saw he did an impression of Adelle that was killer! He had the perfect wig, the black signature dress and his mannerisms were so spot on you’d thing Adelle was in the room. Just don’t look too closely. But you don’t cuz he’s up on stage.

Michael described the hat and I went for it. He said I could borrow it, so I did.

I wasn’t sure it would be perfect so I backed myself up with a fascinator in case I chickened out in wearing the hat.

I got all dressed and ready for the wedding. I stepped out of the dressing room and let my husband be the judge. I asked him if the hat looked good or if I should just wear the fascinator. He came back with, “Go big or go home”. So the hat stayed pinned securely to my head.

And turn heads, it did.

I definitely won the award for the biggest hat at the wedding. There was one that came in a close second in size but all others were much smaller and more conservative. It was fun wearing that hat. I almost felt British for just a few hours. (I went with the fascinator for the wedding reception. I could not wear that hat all day long. I could barely get it and me in the car!)

I guess it generated post wedding conversation because I got an email a few days after the wedding from my sister-in-law (mother of the bride) who said I won the award for the best hat. Of course there was no formal competition but it was nice to hear the compliment. At least I took it as a compliment.

So here’s your chance. Vote on my hat. Scale of one (What were you thinking?!) to ten (Perfect hat for the occasion. Spot on!). Send your votes to Zola@zolacooks.com.. I can’t wait to see the results. Feel free to comment too. (The pic was taken on a cell phone so it’s a bit fuzzy but you’ll manage with it).

Poached Salmon (SUPER EASY)

If you want moist salmon that is flawlessly cooked with almost no effort at all, this is your best bet. You can eat this with plain salt and pepper or several kinds of sauces or even salsa. Here’s a version with an orange-ginger sauce.

For the salmon:
2, 6 oz portions of salmon filet or steak
Water

In a sauté pan with sides put in your salmon skin side down. Pour in enough water just to cover the salmon. You don’t want it floating around; just covered.

Bring the salmon to a boil. Lightly boil for 2 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let the salmon sit in the water for 10 minutes. Salmon will be done and will be juicy as can be.

You have two choices. Serve the salmon hot or you can let it cool and chill it in the refrigerator. On a hot day a cold piece of salmon is wonderful! This can be re-heated along with the sauce for a warm lunch.

For the sauce:
Olive oil spray
1/4 cup of diced shallot or green onion
1/2 cup of water
2 Tbl of peeled and chopped fresh ginger root
1.5 cups of chicken stock
Juice of one orange
1/3 cup of heavy cream
1 Tbl of fresh orange zest or 1 tsp of dried orange peel
Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium sauce pan spray lightly with olive oil. Add the shallots and cook on medium until they are loosened up. Add the water and the ginger root. Cook until reduced and almost no liquid remains.

Add the stock and the orange juice and reduce again until only half remains. Add the cream and cook until it begins to thicken. Just a few minutes. It won’t thicken much because you are using very little cream. It will just be cloudy. Pull from the heat and add the orange zest/peel and salt and pepper to taste. This whole process can be done while the salmon cooks.

There will be more than enough sauce for two pieces. Pour three tablespoons of sauce over each piece of salmon and garnish with greens if you want. I garnished with a few bits of green onion. This is a very light ginger-citrus flavor. Very mild.

You can use the extra sauce on chicken too.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola