The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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An anniversary is the celebration of a recurrence of a date marking a notable event. Even though I was not a part of the Alabama Gazette when it first started, this October will be the anniversary of when I started writing my articles named SOUTHERN CUISINE. My first article appeared in the October 2014 issue. I have shared about one hundred and fifteen recipes, given advice on cooking methods, and told stories about some of the people and places that helped define Southern Cuisine. My first top...
I just read an article where a food writer discovered the Peanut Butter and Mayonnaise Sandwich! This writer must not read my article nor get around much. Even Garden and Gun has featured this sandwich, with the history of the sandwich dating back to the 1930's. The writer had a picture showing the ingredients: organic peanut butter and Hellmann's mayonnaise. Then commented, "To my surprise---it wasn't awful". If the sandwich is made with Duke's mayonnaise and Smucker's Natural Creamy peanut...
I started writing this article on Friday the 13th. I got stung by a red wasp reaching to shut the dining room door. I reached to grab the door so I could then grab the door knob. I grabbed a red wasp between my index finger and middle finger. It felt like someone was poking a pin in the side of my finger. It looked like it got my three times. My hand swelled up and looked like I was wearing a catcher’s mitt. Today is Saturday the 14th, which to some people is worse than Friday the 13th. So f...
There are signs everywhere that summer has arrived! Besides the obvious signs of it being too hot and too humid. There are more boats on the Alabama River, the plants in your garden are growing and starting to produce. I already have about two pounds of blueberries and a basket of peaches, thanks to neighbors and friends with great gardens. I have been picking peaches and pears but that much from my trees. Farmer Markets are in full swing. There is the smell of BBQ in the air almost everywhere....
If you are a retired chef, there is a good chance for your birthday you will receive a cookbook. If the gift giver knows that you write an article for the Alabama Gazette called Southern Cuisine, it is a better chance the cookbook will have recipes from the South. Moreover, if the book is from your sister, it will not be the run of the mill cookbook. It will be “The Southern Sympathy Cookbook, Funeral Food with a Twist”, by Perre Coleman Magness. This cookbook will compliment a funeral food coo...
Let us pray that May will be kinder to the food industry than it was with April. My wife and I spent an evening checking UPC codes on our egg cartons and trying to find out where our lettuce came from. Luckily, our eggs were not of the 200 million eggs that were recalled due to Salmonella fears. In addition, the romaine lettuce we had was not part of a prepackaged salad mix. The lettuce recall was for about 8,750 pounds of salad mix. I am not going to say I told you so but I did tell you...
It is time to update your word processor dictionary. Well, at least, time to add some culinary terms. Merriam-Webster has added more than 800 new words to its dictionary and there are many new food words. The dictionary company added these words because they have "widespread, sustained, and meaningful use". Now we know that Fond, the tasty bits of browned foods stuck to the bottom of a pan after browning or roasting has an official name. An Arnold Palmer is a drink that is a mix of tea and...
In past Southern Cuisine articles, cooking tips, preparation instructions, food safety, and individual recipes were highlighted. Recipes called for the produce that was usually available for the month the article was published. I rarely wrote an article that had an entire holiday menu with one theme. I believe it was a past Valentine's Day article when I last had a theme for an entire meal. I wanted to do an entire menu designed for a holiday and give my readers enough preparation time. Easter i...
Is there something wrong with this winter’s weather? We had two snowfalls of over three inches each, and days when the temperature never got above freezing, and a few days later three inches of rain in a couple of hours. One can look at what happened as a blessing. The freeze and snow will kill the mosquitoes, and the rain will raise the water table so the ground will be just right for planting this spring. We need to start now to be ready for the beautiful spring weather that will come s...
I can remember not too long ago I started one of my articles with a statement that it was August and I was hot. It is no longer August and I am no longer hot. I am sitting in my kitchen in front of a wall-mounted gas space heater with all three burners going and I am cold. It is only 42 degrees outside but it has been rainy and gray for days and the forecast is for clearing which will bring the temperatures down to the twenty's at night. The preceding weather information has changed four or...
Being Southern I read a column in a local paper a couple weeks back titled "What being Southern means to this ol' gal" written by Jaine Treadwell. It is a touching piece and since part of the story was about food in the South, I want to share some of the column with you. She writes, "Being Southern is hog killings, chitlin' suppers, cane grindings and syrup makings. It's pulling corn and picking velvet beans. It's shelling peas on the front porch and drying peaches on the tin roof of the barn....
I belong to a social group called "Overseas Brats". The members were dependents of military parents stationed at military bases around the world. As a group, we get together for gatherings and reunions around the country. We share experiences about coping with living in a foreign country and coping with the different lifestyles when we came back to the United States. The members of the group are from a wide range of ages, so we compared what is was like living in, let us say Germany. Some of us...
It came to me while watching the news coverage of residents of Florida preparing for Irma. Of the homeowners that were staying and working to protect their homes from the wind and flooding, few mentioned that they had plenty of food and water to ride out the storm. Knowing that there would be no electricity and no water; did they think it out as much as they were concerned about the sand bags and plywood? Some locations in Florida may be without electricity for a week or longer. There will be...
Oh, the month of September! This month always keeps you guessing about the weather. Is it going to cool off a bit or just be another extension of summer? Since this has been a Bi-Polar summer, your guess is as good as anyone else’s is. Just last month I had high hopes that I was going to put up jars of figs and peaches from my garden. The strange summer could be the cause for my gardens lack of produce. My fruit trees did not produce as hoped. No peaches, which I heard was because we did not h...
The windows are rattling, the thunder is booming in the background, and the rain is as thick as fog right across the street. Any minute now and it will cross the street. It just did and I wish it had not. The wind is coming from a different direction than from the usual west. When the rain comes from the south, as it is now, the sunroom ceiling leaks. I have to move my chair and then lay towels on the floor to soak up the drips. I live in a home that is 187 years old, and I expect it to leak...
When I am doing research for this column or doing any web browsing, I have to pay close attention to what my original search topic was and keep notes of side items I find that I wish to go back to later. I find myself sidetracked and then forgot what I was trying to find in the first place. I am really sidetracked when I am on the app, PINTEREST. I keep going to look at related items that you find when you scroll down the page of the item that caught your eye in the first place. I find myself...
Did you know that the third largest household expense is for Food? I think the two largest are housing and transportation. I cannot help you with where you live and how you get about, but I have touched upon, in past articles, ways to save on food. Keeping a well-stocked pantry and purchasing fresh local fruits and vegetables are not just money saving practices but also healthier. I have stressed upon reading the fine print in the ingredients list hidden on the back of the food packaging. After...
You are ready to try a new dish. You went to the market and bought the freshest items you could find, and they were from a local farm. You get home and open the cookbook and the instructions are as complicated as the startup guide to your weather radio. You cannot plug it in and hope it knows where you live and which NOAA radio station covers your area. There is food you should not be eating if the instructions are as simple as "Heat and serve”. Likewise, if they are too complicated the "joy of...
To decide on the subject for my column, I do a great deal of research. I search through cooking websites, magazines, recipes I developed or modified from my chef days, recipes that were given to me, newspaper clippings friends and relatives have given to me. I have used my phone to video a TV show that showed how to cook something I wanted to try, so I could then write the recipe for it. In addition, I do a lot of shopping and I like to go out to eat. I started collecting recipes from the days...
I just got back from a trip to Texas after seeing friends, relatives, and seeing how the places where I use to live and hung-out have changed. My friends and relatives have grown older but they have not changed much. The places where I use to live have changed greatly. And in my opinion, the cities I visited have not changed for the better. They seem to have lost their character; they are no longer fun to be in. The roads are always under construction and the traffic is so bad that the roads...
I was doing my usual “surfing the net”, thumbing through old recipes, thinking of a restaurant I want visit, and watching cooking shows, trying to think of a topic for this month’s article. It came to me when one of our granddaughters opened the refrigerator, and commented about the amount of butter, cream cheese, and eggs on the shelves. She wondered why we had 2 pounds of butter, four packages of cream cheese, and two dozen eggs. Moreover, she wondered why we had six mason jars of soup. Good...
Even when I thought winter would never come, I did wish that it would come gently into the night. As I write this, I was wondering what happened to the gentle part. I wake up one morning and it is warm, 70, and the usual muggy. Then a breeze started up and the temperature started down. The temperature dropped 35 degrees and I still had shorts and tee shirts as my wardrobe. I was happy, in a way, for the change. It is supposed to be winter. I was looking forward to trying some new, heartwarming...
If you mark out every passing day on your calendar, you will notice there is not much left to mark out. The year 2016 is coming to a close and what a year this has been. In the culinary world, Sous Vide cooking is becoming mainstream and affordable for home preparation. Southern Cuisine is still popular and has the attention of the up and coming chefs trying to put their mark in the restaurant world. Putting attention on making dishes healthier and using locally source products. This is my...
I believe that Thanksgiving is one of the last bastions of family traditions in this country. A celebration when the different generations of a family gather for a meal that has been part of the landscape of America since the Pilgrims. A time to give thanks for the bounty that has been bestowed on use and a time to strengthen the ties that bind a family together. The stories, adventures, mishaps, and good fortune that are shared and retold every year. And this bond in some families is so strong...
I just returned from one of my "Escape the Summer Heat Tours." This time the escape was to Iowa. Even though it is further north than Alabama, they can have hot and humid summers but at least this time of year you don't have to worry that a blizzard will keep you from getting there or keep you trapped there. This trip was warmer than expected, highs in the low 80's, but low humidity and usually a good breeze. So coming from central Alabama it was cool and comfortable. Nothing compares to...
