Cucina

Too funny! I was just about to post that this is definitely a girly girl, ladies only thread but had suspected their were a few men out there that had sureptitiously raided the leftover tea sandwiches in their youth and pined for the experience again! What I want to know is whether there are any men out there that have actually made tea sandwiches? ← No. No man has ever made one. ← Hmmmmm.....source of great amusement. Perhaps we should have a man made tea sandwich contest at Varmint's pig pickin'? What other dainty foods do men love but don't make?

Yes, but did he cut off the crusts and cut them into dainty pieces or shapes?

Too funny! I was just about to post that this is definitely a girly girl, ladies only thread but had suspected their were a few men out there that had sureptitiously raided the leftover tea sandwiches in their youth and pined for the experience again! What I want to know is whether there are any men out there that have actually made tea sandwiches?

Cynical Chef - Unseating any kind of editor at a paper (large or small) is a difficult task at best and pulling out the kitchen knives is not going to help. It is actually VERY southern and somewhat of a tradition to have a few really poorly done columns in the local papers. Examples beyond food? Bridal announcements that double as the invitation for friends and family to attend and society columns when there really isn't much society to speak of. Bad recipies in some southern papers are just a tradition if the jello salad recipies on the back of the wedding announcement page featuring my parents from the early 60's are any indication. If you want to change that, you're going to have to suck it up, make friends with this food editor and become a mentor. Invite her to lunch at your restaurant- cook the duck your way and her way and then discuss the differences politely by asking her questions about her version and how disappointed you were that it just didn't seem to turn out right and could she offer any suggestions. (fully understood that your stomach will churn in saying this) Then serve her what you consider your best tried and true and talk about it modestly. The other alternative is to invite the publisher to lunch. The publisher only cares about two things: money and readership. Serve her version of duck, serve your version, and explain that Greenville is ready for and sophisticated enough to have a better food section. Have examples of papers to show from other areas that are demographically similar. Explain how this will raise revenues (fall food or restaurant guide/advertising, etc) Explain how this will increase readership. Explain how cities known for a more cultivated dining experience - in the home and out - attract young people, new businesses, etc. Get the local chamber involved. Or - you can just remain cynical - it might be more fun that way.

Gifted Gourmet - Wow! That made me hungry! What a good list! Question - how do you make the red caviar ones without all the eggs getting mashed?

I was just looking through my cookbooks yesterday trying to decide on the same thing! Wow! Great ideas - especially that Ducklava. Two that have made it on my list are a hot onion dip (which is actually better if it's prepared ahead of time and then just heated up right before serving) and stuffed green olives wrapped with pastry which actually freeze well too.

In the mood to share?

Remember those little tea sandwiches with the crusts cut off - cut into delicate corners or long rectanges? Do you still make them and on what ocassions? what are your favorites? Mine include: pimento cheese, cream cheese with green olives, round cut one's with whole tomato slices and a little mayonaise, tuna fish with sweet relish.

Agh! Bad title from a one hit wonder. (John Berendt that is) Elizabeth on 37th is still in my view, on a par above anything else open to the public. She does the food - her husband Michael does the wine, and it's always a good pairing. And for that batter fried seafood that the Dr. says you're really not supposed to be eating but you crave it sometimes anyway, Pearls on Isle of Hope is a good bet with nice marsh views even if it's a bit rednecky. They also have a respectable she crab soup. But alas, the best food in Savannah is still done in private homes. The young couples have dinner clubs trading turns cooking, and some in the older set still have cooks or bring one in for special ocassion parties and even when they don't, they know what to do in a kitchen. When I lived in Georgia, I made a point of making friends in Savannah across generations just for the dinner invitations!

Hi Glenn - I had an ISP client a few years back that was getting into wi-fi installations of your type. (I'm in PR/Marketing). If I recall, most of the research at the time showed that consumers wanted to use it and would frequent places more often that had it but didn't want to pay for it. Many hotels offer wi-fi now for free as a value add incentive for staying at their property versus another that either doesn't offer it or charges for it. Same with some cafes. That said, I haven't looked at what the research is saying now but you might look out on Gartner or Forrester research websites to see if they have any free old research available on the subject. (They charge healthy prices for their current research). My guess is that to a certain degree as wi-fi has become more widely adopted, this is changing. For example, T-Mobile's alliance with Starbucks. You can sign up for a "free" day of wi-fi while visiting a starbucks but you have to enter all of your credit card info and unless you go through the pain in the fanny process of canceling, it automatically converts to a monthly account which is in the $30 something range. They also offer one time day passes for about $9.99 with no strings attached - that has worked well for me a couple of times on business trips to NYC when I had down time between meetings and wanted to get other work done. You might want to go buy a day pass at Starbucks to have a consumer experience for yourself. If you really want to charge, you will likely have to offer it for free for a while to build a loyal following and then you will have a couple of options if you dont feel like it's paying for itself in new or more business. You may want to offer "x" amount of time for free for folks who purchase within a certain range and then offer prepaid cards that they can purchase for additional time above and beyond the free time. Most ISP's in the wi-fi space can provide you with more detailed information on how to monetize this if it's something you want to learn more about. You should ask the salesperson that you're dealing with to go do the legwork if they really want your business. Hope this helps!

Jeez - put down the butter knife! I never said it was "new fangled" - I just haven't heard anyone call it oleo since i was a small child. I proudly admit not to be an expert on margarine or oleomargarine. I just wanted to know if anyone else remembers calling it oleo and what the heck is the oleo anyway? After all, if they can lopp off the oleo and forget about it, maybe there's still hope that margarine will go by the wayside too?

Is it just me, or did anyone else's grandparents call margerine Oleo? And does anyone know why it was called that?

Okay - I was reading the thread on cooking contests (which facinate me but I've never entered one) and it occurred to me that there would be a perfect one for this event for those commuting by car. Manifold Destiny - The one! The only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine Maybe Varmint would consider inviting the authors as special guests and judges?

Every Christmas when we were kids, my grandmother used to make a huge tin of assorted wonderful homemade candies. It never lasted very long so my father took to hiding it and then rationing it out a few pieces a time at every dinner. Well that was just an invitation to find it and so every year, we would search the house end to end after getting home from school until we found it. We would eat some, and rearrange it so it didn't looked as picked over as it was. My father would of course catch on eventually, and he would resolve to outwit us the next year. One year he almost did. We searched everywhere and couldn't find it and were about to call it quits. On a whim, we decided to check outside under the round lid of the Weber Grill. Sure enough- voila! After that he just gave up.

Hmmmm.....Yum. Jaymes & Mayhaw Man, I feel a sweet tooth ache coming on which brings up the subject of what southern sweets are part of your holiday tradition? This year, if I can work up the energy, I'm going to try to go whole hog and do the best from my Dad and Mom's side. ie. on my Dad's side, his mother made exceptional candy - fudge, caramel (sort of like denser prailines), divinity, date loaf, and candied grapefruit rind - on my mother's side, the old fashioned thinly rolled out tea cookies with a hint of fresh nutmeg cut in festive shapes: and then cherriettes which consist of equal parts butter and crisco, flour, powdered sugar, vanilla and lemon extract, pecans and a half a candied cherry in the middle. This of course is quite an effort, but it would be very much appreciated so it's worth it. Folks - what sweets will be in your tins this holiday season???? Edited because despite Jaymes' best tips, I can't seem to get the quoting to appear right on the first try. Cripe! And edited again because it didn't work on the second try either!

Lovebenton0 - enjoyed your post. For whatever reason, I've never cared for sweet cornbread even outside of holidays. It's one of those things I like the same way every time - dense, rich and shaped like cornsticks, crispy brown from a cast iron cornstick pan. That said, I did vary the recipie from the family version to use buttermilk rather than whole milk - it just tastes better and richer to me. There are a few other variations I like as well - jalepeno and jack cheese corn fritters and cornbread made with real corn and vidalia onions in it. Yum. There's no right or wrong way to make cornbread or dressing but we all have our preferences! You're welcome on the dressing recipie! This is one thing I will never fiddle with (at least on holidays). It's in the category of comfort food. It brings back memories. And I know that if I show up for Thansgiving, Christmas or Easter Dinner at any of my relatives on my mother's side, I can count on getting it just the way i like it! Chicken gizzards? Maybe they ran away with the dish and the spoon?

I agree with Jaymes - Durkees just doesn't seem to have the same bite it used to - but it's still the only thing I know to use in deviled eggs. I forgot all about Hummingbird Cake? Doesn't it have poppy seeds in it?

Southern Foodways membership information ← Many thanks Melissa! I agree with Jaymes. I learn something new and useful every day. Back to topic - what's the one very southern thing folks remember eating as a child/young adult that they just can't find anymore or don't know how to make? Mine would be my grandmother's recipie for Divinity - I have the recipie but it turns out too soft.

Jaymes, in my experience they are better for everything....Eunny describes it well in How to Carve Chickens. (I had to ask how to carve a chicken because I kept not coming out without a wishbone which was very troubling!) Same is often true with vegetables although there's nothing like a big fat home grown tomato where one slice can cover your whole face of a sandwich! And I agree with you about SFA. Mayhaw man, could you please post a link on how to join? I'll sign up and give memberships to family members as stocking stuffers. They'll be a big hit. thanks.

Thank you, Mayhaw Man, for this ... ← Agreed. Cynical Chef brought up an interesting point earlier about Anson Mills that sent me scurrying out onto the internet to find out if they sell to the pubilc. Part of the problem I believe, is that there are people who would like to keep up certain traditions, but there's a lack of good ingredients out there to do it OR - as is more often the case, they are out there, but they aren't readily available in our communities and we're not sure where to find them. A good example would be small chickens. I used to go the grocery store and the farmer's market with my Grandmother's cook Reba and learned everything I know about picking out quality meat and produce as a result. (I will eventually elaborate on some of that in the other Foodway's forum (Domestic Help and Southern Cooking). Reba always said not to use a chicken any bigger than 2.5 pounds for frying or it just wouldn't be tasty. She was right in my opinion and it's why I rarely eat any kind of chicken anymore. You sometimes can luck out and get a small organic chicken but it's still rare. Produce is the same thing - at least in D.C., if you find fresh black eyed peas or butterbeans at the farmer's market, they are picked too late so they are big and not nearly as tasty or worth the effort. The good news is that the awareness of these issues is growing - you see a major turn towards organic gardening, organic produce and getting back to the pure, simple and unadulterated. I find this encouraging - in the meantime, just need good sources for the ingredients I crave - MayhawMan? Any luck on setting up a board for that purpose????

Thank you and thank you also for digging up the wonderful sources on Bill Neal that MayhawMan mentioned. They are really wonderful finds! On the subject of food having it's origins in poverty, I am quite sure that's the case with my mother's kidneybean casserole recipie, but nonetheless, it's a family favorite! I still laugh when one year, we all went around the room to discuss our favorite thing our mother makes. My brother said kidneybean casserole with a straight face and he meant it.

Cynical Chef - If great cuisines have their origins in poverty, Oh to be poor again ! It likely doesn't qualify as a southern cookbook (and when I bought an original on ebay out of curiosity I didn't know it was in reprint) but the White House Cookbook originally published in 1887 has the following recipies: Italian Style of Dressing Truffles - Ten truffles , a quarter of a pint of salad-oil, pepper and salt to taste, tablespoonful of minced parcely, a very little finely minced garlic, two blades of pounded mace, one tablespoonful of lemon-juice. After cleansing and brushing the truffles, cut them into thin slices, and put them in a baking dish, on a seasoning of oil or butter, pepper, salt, parsley, garlic and mace, in the above proportion. Bake them for nearly an hour, and just before serving, add the lemon juice and send them to table very hot. Oh - what I would give to be poor enough to afford 10 whole white Italian truffles for dinner! (Actually, my assumption is that they were not considered a delicacy at the time - Is that a safe assumption? Oh what I would give to return to those days!)

Ooooooh Varmint! Count me in! Thanks for the invitation!!! What can I bring?

Jaymes - I love my Charleston Receipts! But my favorite coastal cookbook (and I'm partial because of my coastal Georgia roots) is Coastal Cookery. It was first published in 1937 by the Cassina Garden Club on St. Simons Island and is still in print. I have the 50 year anniversary addition from 1987. While there are some similar recipies between the books, you also see some interesting contrasts. Charleston Receipts comes out ahead on the number of shrimp recipies but Coastal Cookery has more crab and oyster recipies for example. One of my favorite fattening recipies in the book attributed to "Mrs Gladys McKinnon" is Crab Mornay 1 lb white crab meat 1/2 pd grated cheese 1/2 cup butter 3 tablespoons of flour 2 teaspoons white pepper 1 teaspoon salt 1 pint milk Make thick cream sauce of butter, flour, salt and pepper. (she forgets to mention add the milk here) Into greased baking dish place a layer of crab meat, layer of cheese. Pour in some cream sauce and continue until dish is filled. Bake in moderate oven for 25 or 30 minutes. She doesn't say so (because it's assumed you would know) but this is typically served with a puff pastry shell or over a nice hardy piece of bread sliced from a whole loaf.

Varmint - do you happen to know of any N.C. books or sources on how to do a N.C. style barbeque/pig pickin'? The best barbeque I have ever put in my mouth some 20+ years ago now was in Farmville NC and came directly out of a pig that had been roasted all day. the meat was chopped up accordingly in each half of the pig - some as hash - some as pieces - and then the barbeque sauce which seemed to have a vinegar component was poured directly into the pig. I have never had any better since.