Boston Diary - June 13, Part 2

The waterfront with Bunker Hill Monument (on Breeds Hill, of course) in the background.
This bird was posing for me!
"Old Ironsides," the U.S.S. Constitution. I did go aboard today.

I walked back across the bridge to Hanover Street. I decided to try a different Italian restaurant, but I picked the wrong one. I chose the Florentine Cafe because it was charming with the window boxes of flowers. Inside the Italians were all watching the soccer game on ESPN. Somehow the sports atmosphere ruined the charm of the flowers.
I wanted something with a marinara sauce. Since the only thing on the menu I saw with this type of sauce was spaghetti and meatballs, that's what I ordered. This is after I cut up the meatballs. I wish that I'd gone back to Giacomo's. I'd rate Giacomo's 5/5 and I'd rate the Florentine 3/5 on taste. Not to despair though. Mike's Pastry was nearby so I had my final cannoli of this trip. I wonder if they'd like to put in a branch in East Tennessee? I'm really going to miss Mike's!
The produce looked good!
I also went to King's Chapel Burial Ground.

Gov. Winthrop is one of its most famous burials!
Overview of cemetery.
My last stop (because my feet were too tired to go on much longer) was the Brattle Book Shop, a renowned antiquarian book dealer. I browsed the local history and genealogy sections, but I didn't purchase anything because I don't have room in the luggage for more books! (I'd already found some nice books on the burying grounds in the book section of a gift shop early. Those were the only ones I could make fit!)
Since my feet were "dropping," I decided it was time to take the T back to Quincy and call the hotel for the shuttle. I came back and was saddened to hear of Tim Russert's death. Someone in the NBC news family will have big shoes to fill.

Boston Diary - June 10

Today was the first full day of conference. After breakfast at the hotel, we arrived on campus where we attended devotions and then the first keynote address by Dr. Em Claire Knowles of Simmons. After that, we had a business session, then lunch on campus (pizza), and our first round of presentations. Since I'm primarily in technical services, I went to the cataloging roundtable. After that we had "professional tours." I had signed up for "make your own tour." We went to the Boston Public Garden, Boston Common, and Old Granary Burial Ground rather than touring one of the libraries of the area.

Here are some gorgeous purple flowers that are in the public gardens. They look like oversized purple dandelions but they don't seem to blow quite like the dandelions.

Guess who was swimming?
The ugly duckling became a beautiful swan!
On the common is a tribute to football!
The frog pond with part of the city in the background.
This is the Tremont Temple.
A close-up of the top of Tremont Temple.
Old Granary Burial Ground. It dates back to 1660. This is just one of the gates.
One side of the ground.
Memorial to victims of the Boston Massacre, including Crispus Attucks.
John Hancock.

Paul Revere.
Paul's wife, Sarah Revere.
Mother Goose.
Samuel Adams.
I'm grateful to Charles Ewer for founding New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Ben Franklin's parents.
You just never know when you'll run into some other librarians in an old cemetery!


The spire of the Park Street Church (Congregational).

A view down Park Street.
We came back to Braintree and ate at Legal Seafood. This is the Summer Cape Cod dinner feature. It had lobster, scrod, smoked applewood bacon, and a corn sauce that had tomatoes. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Dessert was Boston Creme Pie!

Boston Diary - June 8

It was too hot to do much of anything today. I grabbed coffee in the hotel and ate another one of those cannoli from Mike's Pastry for breakfast. Then I went to church. Instead of heading into Boston, I went to the Church adjacent to the campus of Eastern Nazarene College where our conference is being held. I've been to a few services in Nazarene churches before, but this was the first time I'd ever experienced a liturgical service in one. I didn't feel so badly when I heard several Nazarene librarians saying the same thing!

For lunch we headed to Finian's in Quincy. We'd read that they had a great Sunday brunch and very good Boston scrod. I had the opportunity to try a few new things. There was a scrod au gratin that was interesting. I also had banana fritters which were new to me and grape nuts custard. They were all good. You can see some of the other things I had in this photo.


Most of the day, I just tried to keep cool. We went back to the campus to meet up with others who were arriving, including one of my colleagues. It was nice to visit everyone, and it was also nice to have a day of rest.

I had supper at Chipotle Grill. We don't have one in Knoxville, but the person I went with said that others are better than this one which just opened in Quincy.

Boston Diary - June 7

It's off to Cape Cod with a small group of fellow librarians! First, a stop for breakfast in Quincy at a little place called Barry's Deli. Everyone loved their breakfast, and most of the group that is staying on the campus of Eastern Nazarene is planning to go their for breakfast Sunday morning. I had a bacon, egg, and cheese omelet which came with home fries and toast. One of the regulars helped us find where they hid the boxes of individual jam servings.

Our first stop on the Cape was at the Christmas Tree shops in Sandwich. Now, you might expect to find Christmas trees, ornaments, etc. at a place with such a name, but they had everything. I purchased some maple syrup as a gift, a really nice straw beach tote, and some postcards.

We got to see a boat loaded with lobster traps.
This is the group of librarians on our trip. Of course, I was taking the picture so I'm not in it! (L-R: Ruth, Mary, Patty, Tami, Laura, Sandy)
Houses are very close to the beach in some places.
They also have some very large houses!

The gardens all over the island were immaculate!

We had lunch at J.T.'s Seafood Restaurant in Brewster. I had another lobster roll. The one in Ipwich was tastier!

The Nauset Light.
The Three Sisters Lighthouses.
The Chatham Light.
Beach in Chatham.

Another view of the Chatham Light.
The harbor in Chatham.
This house is trying to hide, but I caught it!
I love this little boat. It has such character!

Reliving the 1960s! Don't you love it?
We had supper at The Captain's Table in Chatham. This is the broiled seafood platter. It had scallops, shrimp, cod, and flounder.
The harbor in Harwich at dusk.
No ACL trip is ever complete without ice cream. We stopped in Plymouth at Friendly's. The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream special was tasty!
It was much cooler on the Cape than it was back in Boston so I'm glad we went! I got back to my hotel at 11 p.m. That's why this post is late getting here. The heat is still oppressive today so I'm mostly staying in the a/c. It's too hot to do too much.

Boston Diary - June 6, Part 2

This is the "Old Manse." It was built by Emerson's grandfather in 1770. Emerson and Hawthorne wrote here. You probably know Hawthorne's story collection "Mosses from an Old Manse." If not, there are many places online where you can download it for free.
I loved the wildflowers beside the Old Manse.
North Bridge. It was here the "shot that was heard around the world" was fired.
You can see one of the monuments in the background.
Lunch time! It's off to the Colonial Inn in Concord.
I had the Colonial Chicken Pot Pie. It came with mashed potatoes, asparagus, carrots, and cranberry relish! Oh, the rolls they served while you were waiting were wonderful too! Yes, it was tasty! (Of course I added salt and pepper as needed.)

Outside the Colonial Inn. Don't you love these flowers? Can anyone identify them?
Downtown Concord. It's quaint and charming!
Now, it's off to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Here's Emerson's grave. (The marker was hard to read in person too!)
Louisa May Alcott's grave site.
Hawthorne's burial place.

Thoreau's plot.

Orchard House. This is where Louisa May Alcott lived.
Sorry about the flash glare, but it was either that or the power lines in the other picture. This one was shot through the car's windshield. This is The Wayside which was the home of the Alcotts, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Sidney at various times. The brochures says that it is the only home that Hawthorne ever owned.
We went back to the hotel where the ACL board is meeting and had dinner with them. I had soup (clow chowder - which we know is pronounced "chow-dah" around here) and a half sandwich (ham & cheese on wheat). No photos.

Then I took the T back into Boston where I grabbed cannolis from Mike's Pastry for everyone who wanted one. (see this earlier entry in this series for the cannoli description) I brought back a few extra. Yes, they are just as good the second time around! Everyone else who was trying them for the first time agreed!

Boston Diary - June 5

Last night was my last night to stay in the Back Bay on this trip. I moved this afternoon to a hotel nearer the location for the Association of Christian Librarians Conference which will be held in Quincy. I was excited because friends from Tennessee would also be arriving.

I thought I'd share a couple of views from my room at the hotel. This is the part of Newbury which I suppose is really to the west of the hotel. You can see the Sheraton and the Westin Hotels that are connected to the convention center and the "Pru" in the photo.

In this next one, I apologize for the glare, but you know how it is in the early morning shooting through the glass window! The big tall building all the way to the left is the John Hancock tower.
This is what the Bay Window Room looks like with all my junk when I was packing. I half-way made up the bed for the picture. I don't know why I didn't think to take one before I had all my stuff out.
I went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and had one of their bacon, egg, and cheese bagels. I wanted a "hot" breakfast this morning but I also wanted it fast so I could get back to the room and finish packing.

I spent the rest of the morning at NEHGS, working mostly with Rockingham County, New Hampshire records. Right before lunch, I took a look at some Berkshire County, Massachusetts records. (I was hoping for a little time to browse just enough records to see if two families I believe migrated together from that area could be found there. I can take one family back several more generations, but the other family is a bit more mysterious.)

Pretty soon, it was time for lunch. I had one more place in the Back Bay on my list, but I wasn't really in the mood to spend the money at that place so I decided to ask a staff member at NEHGS what she liked to eat. She named two or three of her favorites, but I decided to try the Thai Basil.
I chose the Mango Curry. Here's the rice (and a little carrot flower with a pea center) . . .
. . . and here's the curry! Of course, I poured the curry over the rice. Well, actually I spooned it over the rice.
The food lived up to its reputation, and Thai food is definitely not available in Morristown!

I went back to NEHGS where I decided to finish up a little research begun the day before on my Ward family. I came up with some interesting questions. As I was looking through a compiled genealogy on the family, I immediately recognized a problem in the research. The compiler had a fifty-two-year old woman marrying for the first time and having several children after that. I can't wait to decipher that mystery, but I'll have to work on it at a later date.

I knew that my friends from Knoxville would be arriving before too late so I decided to leave around 3 p.m. and catch a taxi to the other hotel. My friends were a little later than expected, but we eventually met up.

We were choosing a place to eat in the Quincy area so that no trip into Boston where both the Red Sox and Celtics were playing was necessary. I found a place called Tullio's that sounded promising. When we drove by, my friend's father said that it didn't look like a place he'd want to eat. I pointed to all the cards in the parking lot and the people entering the restaurant. He pulled in at the next restaurant down the road which turned out to be like a Subway. He wasn't in the mood for sandwiches. We ended up going back to Tullio's. The parking lot was full, but we noticed someone leaving the building so we waited on them to pull out and grabbed their place. I ordered the Tullio's White Stone Pie. It's goat cheese, fresh mozarella, aged parmesan, with garlic and herb oil. The crust was wonderful. I'm a huge fan of thin crust, and this one was wonderful!

Oh, yes, my friend's dad is a Tullio's convert! He says he could eat there every meal and not get tired of it! You know me . . . I want diversity!

Boston Diary - June 4

Today was a rainy day in Boston. Most of you know that I've now vowed to avoid breakfast here at the hotel, so I decided to give the Paramount a try. I knew from my research beforehand that it was one of the best places to eat breakfast in Boston. I had to walk through the Boston Public Garden to get there. Terry was bragging on his garden yesterday, but this one is just as spectacular in other ways. Here are a few pictures from this trip. I took a ton of them when I was here in September 2006 so I didn't snap quite as many today, especially since it was raining.

These swans were enjoying their little stay on the grass.

Make way for ducklings!

The real ducklings. There are three of them to the left of the bigger duck, but some of them were taking a dip so they are hard to see!

Look in the tree. What do you see? That little guy was enjoying that nut!

I love the buds!

What kind of tree is this?


My malted Belgian waffle with fresh fruit from the Paramount. It was absolutely wonderful!

I spent the morning researching at NEHGS. I utilized a few more Essex County records. Then I utilized some Grafton County, New Hampshire records including the towns of Plymouth and Hebron. I made a list of all the manuscripts that I knew that I'd want to look at in the afternoon. Most of what I discovered just reinforced what I already had.

Before long it was time for lunch. The last time I was in Boston I was only able to visit the gift shop at Cheers. I decided that it was time to really go "where everybody knows your name."

This was called Cliff's Cranberry something or other. It's a non-alcoholic drink made of cranberry, lime, and ice cream.
This was the Cheers Cheeseburger.

This, of course, was the bar area. (I think it was too early for Norm and Cliff to be there.)

Now, after lunch, I headed on back to NEHGS to hit the manuscript collection. I figured that it would take most of the afternoon, and it did take a good portion of it. Quite a few of the manuscripts were compiled genealogies done by others. Some did a better job than others. There were also some town records and some various other records that persons had transcribed in letters and such. After going through these, I went back up to the 6th floor reference room and told David Dearborn, the reference librarian, that I was working on a line with which I thought he was pretty familiar. I shared with him my Dearborn ancestry. He told me which of the larger manuscript collections that I'd avoided would be useful. Then he shared with me his research on my branch of the family. I, in turn, supplied him with some information on my immediate branch that he did not have. I went back to a table and read through his information which is well-documented.

A lot of the information that I need now is on microfilm which is LDS film. I will probably use some of it tomorrow, but I know that I can have access, even if it means a delay in receiving it through the local Family History Center.

I walked back to the hotel to put up my research before heading out for supper. Tonight's theme was Chinese (with a twist). I decided to hit Myers + Chang which is in the South End. I had read about it in two different publications that recommended it. This meant a new adventure for me. I took the Green line from Copley Square down to Boylston where I needed to transfer to the Silver Line (which is the bus). I took it to the E. Berkeley St. stop. My directions had said that this was the nearest stop. I thought that meant that I'd have to walk, but right there in front of me was the restaurant! I ordered Green Papaya Slaw for the dim sum and Chicken & Rapini Stirfry for the main dish. The slaw had 3 of those little spice indicators next to it. The stirfry had two of them.

This is the green papaya slaw. As you can see, green papaya is nothing like the fruit papaya. It was certainly a unique taste. It kind of grew on you, but the heat kept building as you ate it as well. By the way, if you are wondering, I did eat the entire meal with chopsticks!
These are some Chinese pickles that they brought out to me since I was a first-timer. I really only ate a few of the carrot ones, but I was glad they mostly tasted of vinegar and not dill.
This is the main course--chicken and rapini stirfry. It was quite tasty.
This was a ginger-lemon mini-custard that they gave you at the end to cleanse your palate. Very tasty!

Boston Diary - June 3

NEHGS Library didn't open until 9:00 so I had plenty of time beforehand to chart out what I wanted to accomplish on day 1. I looked at the list of resources that I definitely wanted to consult before I left town because I didn't have access to them otherwise and decided that there were several Essex County records that I could probably cover by just spending a few hours in the morning studying. There were several unique family titles that I wanted to peruse for clues but not necessarily use as proof. There were a few manuscripts that I wanted to use. Then there were some microfilm sources, some of which were also available in Family History Centers (although I understand that the delay in receiving those is getting to be quite long these days).

The hotel's breakfast was supposed to be served beginning at 7:30. Let me just say that I think that is very late for breakfast in the first place! They were 25 minutes late getting it out this morning. It was just a continental breakfast. I could have walked to Dunkin Donuts and back and stil had time to spare in the time it took for that! (Dunkin would have been better too.) This hotel served a hot breakfast when I was here in September 2006. They also had continental items, but that wasn't the only thing. Let's just say that I preferred the old breakfast! The continental breakfast has not been anything to write home about either time I've eaten there. They have changed the dining arrangements downstairs and now offer a French restaurant in the evenings (at least on some evenings). I have decided that I am going to try a breakfast place that I read about tomorrow rather than waiting on them to get breakfast out when I'm starved to death!

I walked down the street to NEHGS, arriving a few minutes before 9 a.m. I decided to spend the morning in published Essex County records and finding aids. I took many pages of notes, but one of the highlights was a transcription of a couple of wills. I plan to get copies of the originals later. One of the things that I had to keep reminding myself about is that in the old calendar the 1st month was March. In most cases, dates were written with the date, then the month, and then the year (e.g. 28: 1: 1665).

I will have to admit that my favorite find of the morning was the will of Alexander Knight, the father of Hannah who married Isaac Perkins. I'm not going to attempt to reproduce the will here even though the transcription was done in 1916. However, I will tell you why this will was my favorite of the morning. It's really quite simple. I have never run across a will that reads like a sermon before until I read this one! I also learned that Hannah was the "eldest daughter" and that her siblings were Sarah, Mary, and "Nathaniell". The will confirms that his wife's name was "Hanna" as well. Being the oldest child, Hannah (future wife of Isaac Perkins), received more land than her siblings. She got 6 acres of marsh land and 6 acres of planting land. Of course, her brother was to get the house after the death of his mother. The sermon was interesting to me. I wondered if he felt that some of his children were straying and that he was going to have one last chance to get their attention about spiritual matters during the reading of his will. The original can be found in the Essex County Probate Files in docket 15, 941. [The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts. Volume 1, 1635-1664. Salem, Mass: Essex Institute, 1916. pages 439-441]

I had a "business lunch" with a member of the NEHGS staff. We ate at Tealuxe, a little tea and sandwich shop diagonally across from the library. The sandwich was very good. The service was great. I ordered an iced tea that had vanilla, peach, and apricot. I'll be honest. I didn't taste the flavors that much. They had an excellent tea menu though. It reminded me of Laura Childs' "Indigo Tea Shop" in her Theodosia Browning tea shop mystery series set in Charleston, South Carolina.

I spent the afternoon going through some unique Perkins family material that the library had. I went through all the issues of the Perkins Family Newsletter that the library owned. I found a few helpful items and recorded those. Perhaps the most interesting book that I ran across was one written by Robert A. Perkins, who appears to be a professor emeritus of social work from Louisiana State University. It is entitled Seeds of a Planter and appears to have been self-published in 1997. I would love to have my own copy of this book. Prof. Perkins did the most marvelous job of incorporating medieval history into the Perkins family narrative for the oldest known generations. The writing is a little to the academic side, but it really does a fantastic job of describing the family in the social context of the day, explaining what might have been happening that would cause them to want to leave England. I would exceed copyright if I copied the book so I really want to try to track this book down.

These tidbits are far from all I found today, but I just wanted to hit a few highlights.

I decided that it was time to try the North End and one of its Italian restaurants. I came back to the hotel room to do a little research. I knew that I wanted to do dessert at Mike's Pastry because EVERYONE keeps recommending it. I just didn't know which restaurant to try. I founds that the reviews for Giacomos were really good. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it is one that a lady on the plane mentioned to me as being really good. The reviews recommended lots of their items but one of them stood out to me in the reviews and on the menu itself--the butternut squash ravioli. Standing in line waiting to get in, there was a lady right behind me who was telling people "Yes, it's worth the wait; this is the best Italian place in Boston!" I will say that the prices seemed more reasonable than some of the others I had seen, and the food reviews were all really excellent.

Yes, that's asparagus. That's a mascarpone cheese cream sauce with a few bits of prosciutto in it. It was absolutely wonderful! The red sauces in various places in the dining room smelled divine with the aroma of garlic in the air!

Now, one place that has been recommended to me at least a half dozen times since I've arrived in Boston is Mike's Pastry. I've heard that I should get the ricotta pie and that I should get a cannoli. I decided to get both and box them up and bring them back to the hotel. This is the package that rode with me on the subway. I decided to try the ricotta pie first because I'd heard Rachael Ray talking about what a bargain this was and how good it was at one point. It's in my del.icio.us bookmarks for that very reason. I ate part of it. It was very good.
However, I had to try the cannoli. Someone at NEHGS told me that I absolutely had to try the cannoli, but they failed to tell me that they offered many varieties that all looked equally decadent. I settled on the Florentine Cannoli. Let me just say that I intended to only eat part of it after eating part of that ricotta pie, but it was so decadent that I just kept eating and kept eating and kept eating until it was all gone! They supposedly ship their goods, and I may have to take them up on this.
I noticed that they also had gelato, marzipan, and other goodies. I will definitely stop here again before I head home. Besides - I get to use that Charlie Card that I've got too much value on!

Italian night was very tasty!

P.S. Jasia has the 49th edition (a.k.a. the Swimsuit edition) of the Carnival of Genealogy posted.

Bahamian Foods

Conch Fritters
Conch was on the menu everywhere. This was how we decided to try it. It was less threatening as an appetizer than if we'd really hated it and ordered it as a main course!

Guava Duff
This is a traditional Bahamian dessert.

Bahamas Goombay Punch.
It tastes like ginger ale with pineapple and coconut. It grows on you, but it's not something you'd probably go buy again!

Tennessee Won . . . and Other Thoughts!

I'm very glad that my Vols won this first round in the NCAA today. I was able to watch most of the first half of it while eating at Neely's in Memphis. This is the place of Food Network fame! I didn't meet Pat or Gina. Did the BBQ live up to its hype? I don't really think it is the best I've ever eaten, and I prefer a less sweet sauce; however, it was quite good. The portion of the pulled pork I received was huge for a small. I would say there was at least twice as much meat as I usually get at Buddy's back in East Tennessee. Would I eat there again? Yes--and I want to try those BBQ nachos! They looked decadent. Several folks in the dining room had ordered them, and I kept wishing that I'd not ordered the pulled pork as I was waiting on my food to arrive!

After that I went shopping. The only place that I bought clothes was at Macy's. What took so long was finding a dress that Mom would wear. We found one at the 6th store we entered. Actually after the 4th store, mom was getting tired. So after that, I went in and looked around to see whether I saw some possible candidates. After finally identifying 3 possibilities in the 6th store, I went out and got her. Then we went back in so she could try them on. Someone could make a fortune if they would make "Granny dresses". (I'm not talking about the 60s style called "Granny Dresses" but simply dresses that an older person would wear and feel comfortable wearing.) All of the options were probably a little different than she would have normally tried, but they all met her requirements for modesty, having a little sleeve, and not being too short. She chose the one that I would have picked for her.

I apologize for not blogging yesterday, but I had so many family members in that I really didn't have time. I'll blog later about some of the "reminiscing" that we were able to get my Dad to do about his time in World War II.

Update: If you've not seen this incredible photo of the Atlanta tornado, you need to see it.

Sunday Dinner

Sundays were a special day when I was growing up. It was a day when you put on your Sunday-go-meeting clothes and went to worship God at your local church. It was a day when about the only folks you could find on the job were nurses, other hospital staff, and restaurant employees for the few which chose to open on that day. There were blue laws that kept your downtown stores closed on this sacred day.

One of the highlights of Sunday was getting together with the family for a meal. It was not necessarily always at your house because sometimes you'd go to your grandparents' home. The menu would be pretty much one of a couple of options. One option would be fried chicken which could be made earlier in the day with mashed potatoes and other vegetables such as green beans which were grown in someone's garden. Another option would be a roast which was cooked slowly with potatoes and carrots around it. There would usually be a green vegetable like green beans as well. When I was smaller, we usually bought those brown and serve rolls that had about 5 sections to them. The beverage of choice was iced tea. At our house, unlike in most Southern homes, the tea was unsweetened. For dessert, there would usually be a fruit cobbler (blackberry and peach were the most popular) or banana pudding. After crock pots came in vogue, the roast was often prepared in it.

We later got in the habit of eating at one of the two restuarants in town that I remembered being open on Sunday (Pickle's or Stanford's). The most popular entrees for adults were catfish and fried chicken. When I was smaller, I usually preferred a hamburger, but I gradually preferred the other options!

Later in the day, we might take the infamous Sunday afternoon drive. We'd go back to church later that evening for the evening services.

Nowadays, I rarely get an opportunity to enjoy a Sunday afternoon meal with anyone other than my cat. (I have no family members nearby.) I occasionally will go with someone to a local restaurant after church, but that is rare. Most of the time, I go to the grocery store after lunch and pick up something fresh to cook. Sometimes I break down and purchase the rotisserie chicken. I can eat some hot and fresh at lunch and then make my own chicken salad to enjoy later in the week.

The fun times had at Sunday dinners seem to be lost. Half the fun in the past was in cleaning up after the meal where the women all pitched in to help in the kitchen (while talking about all sorts of things that came to mind) while the men watched the ball games on television.

How did your family observe the Sunday dinner?

Cornbread

Maggie over at Maggie Reads asks the rhetorical question about whether or not a true Southerner eats the sweet concoction in the box labeled Jiffy Corn Bread Mix? (My answer for this is only in a casserole of some sort.) Maggie searched through a number of cookbooks looking for a Southern cornbread recipe. She came up with a couple of recipes, but even one of those has too much sugar in it for many a true Southerner. The other recipe works for those times you want a little spicier fare!

I actually have a true recipe for real Southern cornbread, but you'll have to suffer through the story of how I came to have such a recipe first! Many years ago (and I won't say how many) when I went to graduate school in Ohio, I was not going to be able to make it back to Mississippi for Thanksgiving. After suffering through white bread dressing with oysters at the home of some friends one year, I decided that I was making Thanksgiving dinner for a bunch of my other grad school friends who couldn't make it home. The only problem was that I didn't have a clue how Mom had made our traditional Thanksgiving dressing. I did what any girl would do. I called Mom and asked her to send me the recipe. (I called her in plenty of time that she could write the recipe out and send it by mail.) She, of course, did not have a written out recipe for the dressing but she told me what she put in it without amounts. My next question was "How do you make the cornbread?" I knew that it was in a cast iron skillet with cornmeal, but I had no clue of what else went in it besides buttermilk. Mom humored me though and she actually made it for a Sunday dinner when some of her family came so that she could try to measure her ingredients and get them all written out for me so that I would not have to endure another year of that inedible white bread oyster dressing concoction those "Yankees" served. Here is her recipe for cornbread:

2 cups yellow self-rising corn meal
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Mix all ingredients. Pour into a hot greased cast iron skillet (or if you are not making it for dressing you can use those wonderful corn stick pans that Maggie shows in her post). Bake at 450 degrees until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Now I should say that my Mom prefers the yellow self-rising corn meal from the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge or the kind they sell at the mill at Dollywood. Yes, this means that I take corn meal to Mississippi on a regular basis!

I also found a second time she sent me the cornbread recipe. In it, she'd changed her measurements slightly and added flour:

1 3/4 cup yellow self-rising corn meal
1/4 cup flour
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Mix dry ingredients. Break eggs into dry ingredients. Add part of milk and beat well. Add enough milk to make a medium thin batter. Pour into a hot greased cast iron sksillet. Bake until done at 450 degrees.

Note: If your corn meal is not self-rising, add one more tsp. of baking powder and 1 tsp. salt. Some people do not use any baking powder with self-rising corn meal.

My Mouth Is Watering . . .

I've always been a lover of Do-Si-Dos (the peanut butter sandwich cookie sold by the Girl Scouts). Nicole over at Baking Bites is tempting me with this homemade version. Since I almost used all my peanut butter last night, I'll have to run to the store before I can make these. I'll probably stop on my way home tomorrow night!

Fruitcake Update

If it had not been for the sender box on the label bearing the name of a neighbor, I would have thought one of you had decided that it was time for me to have the experience of re-gifting a fruitcake. Well, thanks to my neighbor, I'll now have that experience. The UPS man came with a box containing one. I kept hoping as I saw the round tin (knowing the place it had been purchased) that it was Moose Munch or nuts. As far as fruitcakes go, it should be a pretty good one since it came from Harry & David's. My choir section is supposed to take chips and dip to the choir party tonight. I haven't come up with a dip to make from a fruitcake. If I sliced it very thin, I could fry the pieces, but I don't think they'd be very good chips. That leaves me with the option of re-gifting it. So . . . who will be the (un)lucky recipient?

Fruitcake

Did you like fruitcake? Did your family receive fruitcakes? Have you ever re-gifted fruitcake? Have you ever devised creative uses for fruitcake?

Fruitcake: the original gift that keeps on giving.

I don't have a lot of use for fruitcakes. I think that Kirk Talley in his "Fruitcake" (recorded on his Talley Ho, Ho, Ho album in the late 1990s) gave some of the best potential uses for fruitcakes when he suggested using them as doorstops or paperweights. I haven't checked to see if the song is available for download on iTunes, but you can purchase it via Kirk's store or get the song itself at Walmart.com for 88 cents. Trust me; the song is worth the 88 cents. I won't tell you what he eventually does with the fruitcake, but he's got some other creative uses in the song.

One of the salesmen who called on Mom at the hospital gave her a fruitcake one year for Christmas. Mom was working one night when we needed to take some sort of dessert for a Christmas event at the church. Dad called Mom to see if we could take her fruitcake to which she readily agreed. It was one of those fruitcakes that was in a narrow rectangular gold box. One of the men in the church asked Dad to get him "another glass of that fruitcake." Apparently, it was well-soaked. I think that's the last time we ever took fruitcake to church.

I've been fortunate that I've never received a fruitcake that I've had to regift. I would, however, give it to someone who eats fruitcake if I did receive one. I can eat a few bites of fruitcake if I'm in a social situation where it would be rude not to do so, but it is far from being my favorite Christmas food, and I could never make it through a whole one.

Christmas Cookies

Did your family make Christmas Cookies? How did you help? Did you have a favorite cookie?

Not really. We mostly made candies. I loved Christmas cookies, especially the cut-out ones with the frosting. I think that Mom occasionally made a jam thumbprint cookie or something similar, but I didn't really like those very well when I was young. I remember Mom making a chocolate chip cookie once in awhile, but not at Christmas. I didn't like hers as well as Toll House Cookies though. I think I’m more of a cookie baker than my mom was though. One year I made some “peppermint rounds” that were in the Southern Living. They were quite delicious, but they were not quick and easy. When I lived in Cincinnati, one of my colleagues shared her quite tasty “Pie Crust Cookies” that is your basic cut-out cookie recipe that you frost however you wish. I try different cookies different years. I like to be adventurous in the kitchen!

These aren't cookies, but I made these decadent brownies last night and took them to a party tonight. I substituted the peppermint extract in the batter because I got the regular Oreos. I used Ghiridelli chocolate. The only thing that could possibly improve upon them is to add a scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream to the top while they are still warm. This recipe is definitely staying in my collection.

Christmas Foods

Did your family have any traditional dishes for the holidays? Was there one dish that you thought was unusual?

Turkey and dressing and ham were usually on the menu. Pies were usually pecan and chocolate. Mom always made candies, especially fudge.

While we are on the subject of fudge, I should tell a story. On one of Mom and Dad's trips after they retired, they found some wonderful cranberry fudge somewhere on the coast of Oregon. For several years, Mom would always order a box from them at Christmas. Later, the place went out of business, but she found out about another place nearby which supposedly had that place's recipe. Let's just say that the box of fudge was rather disappointing. Mom then proceeded the next year to devise her own cranberry fudge recipe. She got that recipe tweaked, and it's a family favorite now. I dare not share that recipe with you all though without asking Mom's permission.

Mom always made an “Amalgamation Cake” at Christmas. This was a very popular cake in northeast Mississippi as you can see by a recent mention at Itawamba History Review and Terry's description of it in today's Hill Country of Monroe County Mississippi . When I was little, I thought it was awful. Later on, I developed a taste for it. It's very rich. If you are watching your cholesterol, don’t even bother to look at the recipe!

Amalgamation Cake

2 cups sugar
2 cups butter
10 egg whites
1 ½ cups milk
3 Tablespoons baking powder
3 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream together sugar and butter. Sift together baking powder and flour and gradually add to sugar, butter. Add milk as needed while mixing. Add vanilla. Fold in egg whites last. Divide mixture into two 9 x 13 inch pans. Bake in a 350 degree oven until inserted toothpick comes clean.

Filling/Icing:

3 cups sugar
1 pound butter
2 cups raisins
2 cups chopped pecans
10 egg yolks
2 cups grated coconut
1 cup coconut water (or milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar, butter, egg yolks, and coconut water (or milk). Add remaining ingredients. Mix well and frost.

On the Menu: Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to post about traditional Thanksgiving meals. I have to admit that when I read about the Duct Tape Turkey that my first thought was that wasn’t right because it wasn’t cornbread dressing. If my mom ever soaked our turkey in brine, I never knew about it. I know that she didn’t in later years, but I don’t recall it as a child either. Earlier today, I saw Tyler Florence praising the brining process on the Thanksgiving turkey. He said that it really made the meat moist and delicious. I may have to try it sometime just to see if it's all it's cracked up to be! I see those big turkey fryers in stores all the time, and I have to admit that deep-fried turkey wasn’t our family’s tradition either.

Turkey was, of course, the traditional meat served. It was placed in a large roaster in the oven. We did not stuff it. Instead we had a separate dish called dressing (or cornbread dressing). The turkey and dressing were accompanied by giblets and gravy (although there was usually a little of it set aside without the giblets for those who didn’t like all those “innards”). Jellied cranberry sauce was always served. Mom always chilled the can in the refrigerator ahead of time. Both ends of the can were opened and the sauce would just slide out on the relish tray where it could be cut in slices. Side dishes usually included green beans or a green bean casserole, a sweet potato soufflé or butternut squash casserole, Waldorf salad, and ambrosia. My maternal grandmother was the big fan of the ambrosia. After he died, I often heard mom talking about how he always insisted on ambrosia at Thanksgiving. Rolls (some store-bought variety) were usually served also. For dessert, we’d have pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie and pecan pie.

In later years, Thanksgiving meals have been modified to accommodate the changing tastes of my nieces and nephews. The Waldorf salad has been replaced by a fruit salad that my sister-in-law makes that is basically just cut-up fruit (apples, oranges, grapes) with sugar on it. The sweet potato soufflé has been replaced by the hash brown casserole. The pies are usually either fried apple pies or a cheesecake (although sometimes some of us insist on one of the more traditional pies although we rarely get them both). The turkey and dressing remain the same, although we often only purchase the turkey breast now. The gravy is now always minus the giblets. Last year I made real cranberry sauce. It was much better than the canned stuff, and I definitely prefer whole cranberries. The rolls are homemade now. Green beans are still usually on the menu, even though the nieces and nephews avoid them. Due to the amount of ambrosia left over each year, it eventually was removed from the menu.

In On the Banks of Plum Creek, Laura Ingalls Wilder describes what they had one Thanksgiving. They had stewed goose with dumplings in the gravy, corn dodgers, mashed potatoes, butter, milk, stewed dried plums, and three grains of parched corn as a reminder of the Pilgrims’ first dinner.

The Thanksgiving menu in Fannie Farmer’s 1896 edition of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book consisted of oyster soup, crisp crackers, celery, salted almonds, roast turkey, cranberry jelly, mashed potatoes, onions in cream, squash, chicken pie, fruit pudding, sterling sauce, mince, apple, and squash pie, neopolitan ice cream, fancy cakes, fruit, nuts and raisins, bonbons, crackers, cheese, and café noir.

So, what was your family’s traditional Thanksgiving meal? Has it evolved over the years to accommodate changing tastes?

I'm Getting Very Hungry

I was just checking out Smokey Mountain Breakdown's Friday Food Porn post. All I can say is that I'm surprised Terry hasn't shared with us about the tradition of country ham and red eye gravy yet.

Update (10/6): As I went to sleep last night, I remembered that Terry had shared about hog killing and mentioned frying the ham. I just don't remember any red eye gravy in that article!

Alton Brown Feasts on the Mississippi Asphalt - Part II

Last Saturday, I wrote on Alton Brown's food tour through Mississippi. He continues his journey tonight with the Soul Food Survivor episode of Feasting on Asphalt 2.

His first stop was at Doe's Eat Place in Greenville where he had their famous tamales. The restaurant even has a copy of the Delta Democrat Times article about Alton's visit on their site. This restaurant has earned all sorts of recognition in food circles recently.

His next stop on the "Tamale Trail" was Joe's White Front Cafe in Rosedale. The restaurant is famous for its tamales, but he tried one of the koolickles (kool-aid pickles). He said the sweetness was not overwhelming. The rest of his crew seemed to like it. Then he tried one of the corn husk tamales there. (The Greenville tamales used parchment instead of corn husks and double-tied them instead of single tying them.) There's also a very interesting oral history of how Joe's sister Barbara is carrying on the family tradition.

He crossed the Helena bridge and went into Arkansas. He'll be finishing up in Memphis, so I guess this is it for the Mississippi foods.

This episode will air multiple times this week.