Hi Friends,

I'm finally getting my blog together! So, I hope you'll enjoy it and send comments to let me know.

It has been a long winter. I'm so glad to see Spring even if it does mean yard work. It also means fresh food from the markets around the Charleston area too.

Daniel Island has the first Farm Market scheduled for Thursday, April 30th, so I have that to look forward to. I understand that Rococo Bakery will be here and I am anxious to have some of their bread with my pimiento and cheese.

Boone Hall Farms is also a great place to shop for seasonal items. Right now strawberries are in season and they have plenty. Try the dessert recipe at the end of the blog for Strawberry Amaretto Romanoff and you'll love it. I once had someone at a United Way function tell me that she wanted to jump in the bowl of Romanoff and eat her way out. Hmmm, I must have put too much Amaretto in it that night!

My son Rob has become an incredible food photographer. Since I love breakfast and biscuits, his biscuits photograph (shown) really got my attention and it evoked some very good memories from home. In particular, it reminded me of a night that my sister and I spent away from home and our first fresh milk experience.

We were friends with a girl that we went to school with and one night we were invited for a sleep-over. Our friend's family had a small farm and a milk cow. That next morning we were awakened early for breakfast, and went into a warm and cozy kitchen where our friend's mother was preparing fresh biscuits for breakfast. For children who ate breakfast with their father at 10 Am and usually had toast as part of our breakfast, the biscuits were a wonderful treat. But while eating the biscuits, I took a big drink of my milk. I thought that I would die. It was the most horrible vile stuff I'd ever tasted. Who knew? Until that early morning in the 1950's, I thought that all milk tasted like Dairy Fresh or was white, chocolate or buttermilk. So, I was totally taken aback by the taste of milk that had just come directly from the cow. It's called "raw milk" and "raw milk" has never been pasteurized.

One morning I was doing a radio show on food in Anderson and one of the advertisers was a farm that sold "raw milk." People were calling in from all over the listening area trying to buy the milk. These were people who had grown up on the flavor of "raw milk." And, like the rest of us were looking for that long lost taste which brought back a great memory. It just goes to show you how strong those memories are and how tight our ties are to our past.

Speaking of back home and memories-

Some Day You Will Thank Me For This; The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Being a "Perfect" Mother- Just released by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays, two Mississippi Delta women, is a good and funny book. They were kind enough to include me on 3 pages along with some of the recipes from my cookbook. This is the third cookbook for Gayden and Charlotte. Their first book, Being Dead Is No Excuse is one of my all time favorite books. You will find the book under cooking or humor at Barnes & Noble. Great book! Congratulations on another one.

Roasted Corn Salad with Tomatoes and Feta- This is a wonderful fresh salad that I made at one of the classes that I taught at Williams-Sonoma. I made it again last week when my son had a barbecue for my granddaughter's birthday.

Wow, my son Ed is a really good cook. His barbecued chicken was delicious and very tender. I learned something about cooking chicken last week and I will never barbecue chicken the same way again. I'll do it his way. My daughter-law-made a mean and delicious mac and cheese to go with everything. It was all gone in a flash. I've included the corn recipe for you in this blog.

Speaking of Williams-Sonoma, Joyce McCarrell and her sister Nancy have opened their new restaurant in Travelers Rest. Go online and take a look at http://www.cafeatwilliamshardware.com/. And, if you are in Travelers Rest, by all means go by there and have a bite of their delicious food. Joyce and Nancy have done everything they can to help you remember the good old days, from serving buttermilk and bread to cookies and milk for after school moms to stop and share.

I'd also like to mention that I reviewed the Old Village Post House in Mount Pleasant for the magazine a while back. It was a wonderful dining experience. Some of the best food I've had in the area. I hope you'll give it a try when you are in this area. It's an excellent restaurant with high standards. You won't be disappointed. The salmon with caper butter sauce was absolutely the best I've had. Chef Jim Walker knows how to cook but most of all he knows how to season. I've always said that tasting and seasoning is the most important element of cooking. If you'd like to know more about the restaurant or the food that I ate that evening, send me an e-mail.

The other restaurant that I recently visited and enjoyed is Chai on King St. My friend and I shared appetizers and I enjoyed every bite of Oysters Rockefellar, Shrimp stuffed with crab and wrapped in bacon, and mini angus burgers ( the best I've ever had) and the atmosphere was nice too. It was not too crowded, and on a night of pouring rain, a glass of Chilean Chardonnay and tapas was just what I needed.

This is the end for now, but watch for the next blog so that I can tell you about the new Farmers Market on Daniel Island. And, check for more good places to eat when you are coming this way.

Oh, one more thing. Please ask me about my new menu planning service. I can provide menus for 7 days, along with recipes and grocery shopping list.

I can provide it online and it is guaranteed to save you from the "what are we going to eat tonight blues." It will also save you money since you will have a menu, recipes and the grocery list to shop from. The costs is weekly and low and there is no contract so you can stop when you like, and restart when you like.

Give it some thought and let me know if you are interested. Wouldn't that be a load off your mind on those busy work days?

Would love to hear from you.

Best, my friends

Linda

Pan-Roasted Corn Salad with Tomatoes and Feta

4 ears of corn with husks and silk removed
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon coarsely chopped thyme
1 bunch green onions, green portion only, thinly sliced on the diagonal
Salt and fresh pepper to taste
3 cups halved cherry or grape tomatoes
8 ounces feta cheese cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh basil

Holding each ear of corn by its pointed end and steadying its stalk end on a cutting board (I use a Bundt pan and hold the corn in the center hole) cut down each ear with a sharp knife to strip off the kernels with a kernel cutter. You will need about 3-1/2 cups corn kernels. Set aside.

In a large non-stick sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm half the butter and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil until nearly smoking. Add half the garlic and saute, stirring constantly 20-30 seconds. Add half the corn and sauté, stirring occasionally, until golden and just tender, 3-4 minutes. Add half the thyme and green onions. Transfer the mixture to the bowl. Repeat with the rest of the butter, one tablespoon olive oil, garlic, corn, thyme, green onions. Add to the bowl. Let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
In another bowl, combine the tomatoes, cheese, the remaining olive oil, salt and pepper and toss gently to mix. Add the tomato mixture, the lime juice and basil to the cooled corn and toss to mix. Taste and adjust with salt , pepper, and more lime juice. serve at room temperature. Serves 4.

Strawberry Amaretto Romanoff
(From my late mother, Ann)

4 cups fresh strawberries, halved if small, quartered if large
1/2 cup Amaretto or your favorite almond liqueur
1/2 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
Toasted almond slices

Stir together the strawberries, Amaretto and sugar. Chill for 3-4 hours or up to 8 hours. Spoon into Champagne bowls or pretty dessert dishes.
Beat heavy cream, sugar and almond extract until lightly whipped. Top the berries with a spoon of the cream. Top the cream with the sliced almonds.

Daniel Island

Smythe Park, Daniel Island Cabbage & Collards Farmers Market-Last Day

Hi Friends,

It has been awhile since I’ve written my blog, but tonight I cooked some field peas with snaps, and had them with cornbread and onions and it reminded me that I need to share with you all. I also love hearing back from you when you get the blog so that’s good incentive to write too.

The peas- during the last day of the season for the Mount Pleasant Farmers Market I was able to pick up some peas and butterbeans from Gruber Farms market stand. I put them in the freezer and cooked the peas tonight. Oh, the peas were so good. What flavor! I’m really looking forward to the butterbeans. Maybe I will make the butterbeans on Thanksgiving and share them with family.

While the market was open, I was able to get turnips and collards and cook them too. I made the turnips with cornmeal dumplings. Not as good as my mother’s but good. The collards are just good cooked with some bacon drippings and then adding some hot pepper flakes. I also found some good kale and cooked that with bacon. Love those greens.

It’s harder and harder to find a good South Carolina produce farm these days so if you find one in your area, give them the business. You will never regret it. Mr. Gruber is in his 80’s and he has been a farmer his working life. He and his daughter Susan spend every Tuesday afternoon at the market selling their wonderful produce. I’ll be happy to see the Gruber’s again at the Dec. 14th holiday market.

What else has been happening- I had the great pleasure of writing an article about Sullivan’s Metropolitan Grill in Anderson a few months ago and the article is out in the latest issue of South Carolina Homes & Gardens. Please go to Sullivan’s if you have not been. You are in for some wonderful food and great service. You can read the article and the magazine online now by going to www.schandg.com and when the home page comes up, go to the upper right corner and where it says that you can “Read the latest issue” then click on “Read” it and the November-December issue will pop up.

Bill and Sabra Nickaus from Sullivan’s in Anderson will be down to visit soon. I’m really looking forward to seeing them.
My great culinary find this past month is the Old Village Post House in old Mount Pleasant. That article will be out in January. But, in the meantime, if you are in town, you must go there. The food is incredible. This restaurant and Sullivan’s will be hard to top! Believe me. From the minute I walked in the staff was friendly, and Kevin Desmarais, the GM and Jim Walker the Chef were just as nice as could be. This restaurant is another of the Maverick Southern Kitchen restaurants and their standards are high, thank goodness! You can eat local, and enjoy some delicious food.

I had salmon that was the best I’ve ever had! And, I mean that. The crab cakes are delicious too, and the prepared sauces for each dish- oh! You’ve got to come down and try this restaurant. It looks like a New England village restaurant when you drive up to the place. The building is from the late 1880’s and it has a ghost!

Speaking of food, Lolly from Ooh La Lolly on Main St. in Anderson called to say that she made my cousin Sybil’s Caramel Cake from my cookbook for a big birthday party and everyone loved it! They all asked for the recipe. Thanks Lolly. I’m so glad you called and told me. Made me feel really good.

I had a busy October. Among other things, I was a guest hostess for the Charleston Preservation Society’s Annual Candlelight Tour. My house on the tour was at 89 East Bay Street. It was gorgeous. We are hoping to be able to feature that home in our magazine in an upcoming issue. The first question that I asked – who was the designer? The answer, Merrill Benfield. You can find out quite a bit about him online. Wow, Mr. Benfield is a very talented designer.

One of my cooking teachers was in town a couple of weeks ago. Natalie Dupree had a reception for her and I was invited. My teacher was Anne Willian who owns La Varenne at The Greenbrier. Seems that she and Natalie went to Le Cordon Bleu at about the same time and both are members of Les Dames d’Escoffier. Anne has a new French cookbook out and she was signing books that evening. I was quite honored to have been invited. I had the chance to meet some other food writers including the former New York Times Food Editor who now lives in Charleston and she is so nice. Also, the editor for the Charlotte Observer was there. We had some good food and good conversation. Natalie’s brother, Chuck lives in Charleston now. He is such a nice person. He was the acting bartender that evening.


Last of the Mount Pleasant Market
Personal things-
During the past month I received mail from my Armistead family cousin, Dot Anderson. Dot lives on a farm in Alabama. I am envious of her at times. Especially now when I see how many pecans she has available to use for goodies. But, other times too, when she writes to let me know how beautiful the field is when covered in an early morning frost. Dot has a way with words that makes me want to be there. Needless to say, I love getting her mail.

This is what Dot wrote about pecans and I totally agree with her! Also her note about the hay fields in frost just got to me! Ahhh, to live on a farm and grow my own produce. I think I’d like that sometimes.

“Hello, the weather down here is great. Just cool enough to know fall is here. Hope you are having the same. As of Friday we have sold about 1500 pounds of pecans--not a pea can in the bag. When someone calls them pea cans I shutter-cause down south that ain't something you eat.” YEAH DOT!!!!!!!

Dot also wrote “It has been cold here the last couple of mornings. The hay field looked like snow Tues. and Wed. when we got up. Sure was pretty. Our kitten, Hot Dog, started out the door and turned around and came back in, He does not like cold, windy weather. I agree with him…..”

Dot’s note reminded me of one of the first things my mother told us about pecans as children- “don’t say pea cans.” Then she explained the difference!! So, I know exactly what Dot means. So do all of you from my cooking classes. Remember what Mr. Harris’ store sold? I am, of course, laughing right now.

I’ve made some good “ready made” salads at home. One of them is a Rivera Salad Mix from Fresh Express. It’s a mixture of butter lettuces and radicchio. I make a plate of lettuce and then put several slices of cooked or pickled sliced beets, then sprinkle some feta all over the lettuce. For dressing I use Ken’s Thousand Island, or Raspberry-Pecan Vinaigrette. You can make this in a jiffy.


McKenzie- So, let me tell you about McKenzie. We took her to the store to buy some pj’s while she was visiting with us. We found a hat that looked like a puppy and we made the mistake of showing it to her. So, when we got ready to put it back, she cried. We bought the hat and put it on her. It was 80 degrees that day, but she was so happy to have the hat on. She loves the hat. She was just as content as could be. She still gets tickled when she sees the hat. And believe me, when a 7 month old gets tickled, you will get tickled too.
McKenzie and her “white dog” hat Ed and family painting pumpkins at the Corn Maze


Food-
Salad-
I’ve made some good “ready made” salads at home. One of them is using the Rivera Salad Mix from Fresh Express. It’s a mixture of butter lettuces and radicchio. I make a plate of lettuce and then put several slices of cooked or pickled sliced beets on top of the lettuces, then sprinkle some feta all over the to. For dressing I use Ken’s Thousand Island, or Raspberry-Pecan Vinaigrette. You can make this in a jiffy.

We have had a little cold spell here and there so I made a big pot of soup. In my cookbook it’s called Sopa Santa Fe but I changed it around a little so below is the recipe that I used when I made the soup the other day.

Sopa Santa Fe

2 pounds ground sirloin or 1 pound ground sirloin and 1 pound extra lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 (1-ounce) packages ranch style dressing mix
2 (1.25 ounce) envelopes taco-seasoning mix
2 (14.5 ounce) can seasoned black beans, undrained ( I used Bush’s Seasoned Black Beans)
1 (14.5 ounce) can kidney beans, undrained
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (14.5 ounce) can white corn, undrained
1 small can yellow corn, undrained
1 ¾ cups water

Lime flavored tortilla chips

Cook the ground meat and onion together until the meat is browned. Stir in the ranch dressing mix and the taco seasoning mix. Add the beans, tomatoes, and cans of corn. Add the water and simmer on low for about 1 hour. Serve with sour cream, cheese and/or sliced green onions, and crushed lime tortilla chips.

Thought you might be able to use some holiday side dish recipes, so find them below. This is from an old cooking class back in November of 2006. Still good today. Not lo-cal but still good! If you‘d like my Brandied Cranberry Cake recipe, please let me know and I will send the recipe, but for those of you who have the cookbook, it’s in the cake section.

Lavender Rice Pilaf

2 T. butter
1 cup long grain rice
2 cups chicken stock
½-3/4 teaspoon salt
1 (3-inch) piece lavender
½ cup toasted hazelnuts

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add rice. Stir the rice in the butter for about 5 minutes or until it starts to become golden. Add the chicken stock and the lavender. Season to taste. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a very low simmer. Cover. Cook for 25-30 minutes. Add toasted hazelnuts just before serving.

Brandied Cranberries

18-ounces fresh cranberries (if using frozen, thaw first)
1-1/2 cups sugar
¼ cup brandy
Place cranberries in a single layer on a lightly greased 15 x 10 x 1-inch jelly roll pan. Pour sugar over the cranberries. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Spoon the cranberries into a large bowl. Gently stir in brandy. Refrigerate until ready to use. Makes 2-1/2 cups.




Apricot Casserole

3 (16-ounce) cans apricot halves, well drained
20-30 Ritz crackers, crushed
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Layer half of the apricots in a greased 2-quart baking dish. Combine the crackers, sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle half of the cracker mixture over the apricots. Repeat with another layer of each. Pour melted butter over the top layer. Bake for 30 minutes.

Green Chili Corn Casserole

4 (10-ounce) packages frozen shoe peg corn with butter
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese softened
4.5 ounces chopped green chilies
½ teaspoon garlic salt
Defrost corn in large mixing bowl. Combine cream cheese and green chilies in food processor or beat with an electric mixer until well blended. Stir in the garlic salt. Add cream cheese, and chili mixture to corn, mixing well. Spoon into a 2 quart casserole or baking dish. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown.

Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Cranberries

4 pounds sweet potatoes
2 cups fresh cranberries
2 sticks butter, melted
1 cup pure maple syrup
Peel sweet potatoes. Cut into quarters lengthwise; cut crosswise into ½-inch pieces. Combine sweet potatoes and cranberries in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine butter and maple syrup. Pour over the cranberry mixture, and mix well. Pour into a greased 3-quart baking dish. Cover tightly, and bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes or until potatoes are very soft.

Happy Thanksgiving, Love Linda