From the Sea to the Mountains and Home again

We started off the first part of the month with Labor Day at Surfside, continuing our okra endeavors by creating Donald Link's Chicken and Andouille Gumbo.  I actually had some Andouille from Cochon Butcher Shop in the freezer, so it was almost like he was there with us.  Well, not really....  Anyway, it calls for 6 different kinds of pepper, but I cut that back to 4, and it was plenty hot enough!

We found a recipe in a Southern Living for a overnight soaked french toast that is baked.  Lately Alice has been making some artisanal french bread, and it is dense and very crusty. It turned out very well. It's got a moderately gooey praline topping, that I made with bourbon, because we didn't have vanilla.  Hey, September is Bourbon Heritage Month, so that worked out well, don't you think?

Speaking of Bourbon, Arnold Palmer came by, and I introduced him to W.L. Weller. We sat on the porch a while and looked at the Labor Day Weekend crowd on the beach.

The next weekend we went up to Lake Junaluska, near Waynesville. The house we stay at has great porch that looks out over the lake. It's perfect for picking out pecans,  so we wound up making more of Praline French Toast! Rambling up Highway 276 towards Mt. Pisgah, we came accross the local farmers market and scored a good deal on a new(to us) kind of apple.  A Peppin Fall apple is a large apple,  almost but not quiet as tart as a Granny Smith. We also got some fresh mozarella, and some acorn squash. That part of the wold is the world headquarters of  Sunburst Trout, so we brought back a small cooler full of beautiful  fillets.  Although you can get these at a few grocery stores in South Carolina,  its a dollar a pound cheaper up there You really should use a minimalist approach to Sunburst Trout.  Just a little bit of lemon juice & some mild seasoning. It's reminds you very much of salmon!

Last weekend we celebrated Alice's birthday.  Instead of a birthday cake, we had been talking about making a Croquembouche, but you have to use carmel candy for that, and the weather didn't look too promising for candy making.  Being the pragmatists that we are, we* went ahead with the pastry production, but turned them into cream puffs (vanilla & coffee flavored).  They were very good. So good, in fact, Alice is now modifying the recipe into eclairs.  More on that later. We also learned that they freeze very well, but you should NOT try to eat a frozen cream puff.  Really, trust me on this.

*When I say "we", read Alice.

For breakfast? Why, its OKRA!

Mama Glenda and Big Phil now have access to some fantastic OKRA. We have a standing order for 5 pounds any time they are coming this way. We are putting it up by blanching it for two minutes, dropping it in ice water to cool it off, then draining it well and truly.  We spread it out on a large cookie sheet, then place it in the freezer for a couple of hours or more. After it is frozen, we quickly bag it up in quart ziplock baggies, and back in the freezer they go. One large cookie sheet equals three bags, which are about a pound in each.  

The frozen okra chops up really easy for gumbo or Okra & Tomatoes, which we eat over rice.  It's a wonderful dish for the dead of winter.  With some cornbread or biscuits to kind of sop up the juices!


Our favorite way with okra is very simple.  Place a layer of okra in a pan with a top.  Add water so you've got about a quarter of an inch.  Sprinkle with  a little salt & pepper, and add a half of a jalepeno if you're into that, which we are. You need to add just a little oil or butter, say about  half  teaspoon for a large frying pan. You turn the heat on high and watch for it to boil. As soon as it boils good,  put the top on, turn the heat off and set the timer for 10 minutes. That's it, you're done. Serve immediately!  It cooks enough so that it is not crunchy, but it doesn't get slimy.  The Jalepeno kind of infuses through the okra, and oil helps keep it green and pretty. We love it this way!

Last Saturday morning I served this beside a couple of slices of NC tomatoes & a big dollop of steel-cut oats. Twas delicious!  Really, you should try it!

Fruits of the Season (with a side of Beets)

It started in early June really; we got a box of beets from Catherine Porth, thinking to make about 20 quarts of pickled beets. 

We  wound up with closer to 30, and still had enough beets to try perfecting a salad we sampled at AFWF.  It's got a little vinegar and oil, some yogurt, hazel nuts and micro greens. We've got the beet part down, but haven't yet gotten the hazelnuts candied to our satisfaction.

Then came the expedition to Callaham’s Orchard for blackberries and a few peaches. But it wasn't until around 4th of July the peaches really became plentiful in Lexington county. This year they are truly phenomenal.  We found a place out on Highway 1 near Gilbert that's been giving us great deals. We've frozen about 2 bushels at least, and lately Alice has been dehydrating them. In addition to just eatin' on them, we've made Bill Smith's Green Peach Salad, and his Peach Soup, Peach Cobbler, and a killer relish made with peaches, avocados and peppers.  

Alice and Catherine have also been picking blueberries. So far we've frozen about 4 gallons, made Blueberry Sorbet, a peach and blueberry cobbler and eaten them plain.  

One thing we hadn't really planned on was Pear Apples.  A couple of weeks ago we got almost a bushel from the tree at Mama Glenda's.  The bigger ones are the size of tennis balls, and if you let them sit for while, they are almost, but not quiet, like a Bartlett pear. They are too watery to do anything else with except eat, though we have frozen some to use later in smoothies, and maybe Sheri's Pear Soup.

Last spring I found out that Callaham's Orchard has nectarines.  As I have never, to my knowledge, eaten a SC Nectarine,  I got Suzanne to let me know when they would be coming in. Mama Glenda and Big Phil went by last Saturday: they brought down two huge boxes Andy Callaham had picked that morning. They are wonderful.  We have frozen them, made Ginger-Nectarine Preserves, Pickled Nectarines with Bourbon, and used them in along with the peaches in Green Peach Salad. And of course we’ve eaten them plain. Really, you all should go NOW and get some!

Yeah, Yeah, this post is too long I know. Sorry. I'll do better.  Next time:  Rumptopf?

A Fruity Foodie Old Friendly Fathers Day Weekend

A friend of ours from the SFA, Sheri Castle, from beautiful Carboro, NC. has just had her first cookbook published. She’s travelling around the South for 4 months promoting it, and we’ve been trying to meet up with her since April. Unfortunately when we’ve been headed to NC, she’s been elsewhere, and when she’s been in SC or Georgia, we couldn’t make it happen. About 6 weeks ago we found out that Heidi and Joe Trull of Grits and Groceries were featuring recipes from Sheri’s book for their June Dinner Club. Grits and Groceries is kind of in Belton, SC., just down the road a piece from Mom & Dads house in Williamston. Since this was Father’s Day Weekend, we called Mama Glenda and Big Phil to see if we could take them down for a celebratory meal. Now we’ve been fans of Grits & Groceries Breakfast for years, (Glenda and Phil rave about the Stuffed French Toast) but none of us had never been to Dinner Club.

Sheri’s book is all about using the South’s wonderful fresh produce. It’s arranged by crops, which is really pretty cool. So that got me thinking about farmers markets and such, which led my brain to Callaham’s Orchard, owned by some wonderful folks I went to high school with a hundred years ago.

As it turns out their Blackberry U-pick operation was in full swing. So Saturday morning we all went picking! The berries were absolutely gorgeous, and almost, but not quiet, at peak. In about 2 hours of not hard work, 5 of us picked 11 gallons of berries! We froze 3 gallons whole, kept one to eat on, and juiced the rest. We wound up with over 3 gallons!

You’re probably thinking I’m going to make wine with the juice. Well, I’m not. All that juice is reserved for Breakfast Smoothies in the dead of winter. (Although I will admit to using a small amount of whole berries for rumtopf.) I can’t say that juicing all those berries was a lot of fun, but it sure beat picking and canning couple of hundreds quarts of James Island tomatoes in a tiny un-air-conditioned kitchen on Folly Beach, which is what we used to get into this time of year! Big Phil wound up looking like he had the measles.

The event at Grits and Groceries was wonderful, ‘ceptin’ for a little bit of rain, which really wasn’t that bad, especially since Mama Glenda quickly grabbed the last available table inside! And Lo, there right inside the door was Bobby and Suzanne Callaham! So it was so good to see old friends, especially with such fantastic food all around. Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin with Fig Sauce, Squash Casserole with Swiss Cheese, Black-eyed Pea Salsa, and Peach Upside Down Cake were just some of the deliciousness they set forth for us to enjoy. Heidi and Joe did an impressive job with Sheri’s recipes. We came back with her book and have already started using it!

We’ll definitely be back to G & G for a Dinner Club, although it’ll have to be a while. Heidi and Joe have the good sense not to do outdoor events in July and August!