I love the mountains of western North Carolina but the Southerner in me was born in the Low Country. The summers of my childhood were spent on the beaches, playing in the surf and exploring the shallow waters on the edges of the Intercoastal Waterway. Sun ripened tomatoes were eaten whole and hot off the vine. Peaches dripped juice down my chin and made my fingers sticky. We fished for crab in the shallow waters and peeled fresh shrimp to be eaten with corn which had been taken off the stalk that morning. We ate fruit pies of every sort, angel food cake and ice box cake. Later in ...
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CELEBRATE SUMMER (AND THE FOURTH OF JULY) WITH A WATERMELON CAKE!
I read in the paper this week that the tourists were gathering in the Great Smokey Mountains to watch the fireflies. And I thought how grateful I was that I don’t have to fight for a space or sit with a crowd to see the fireflies. I look out my window at the grass and trees surrounding me and I can see them rising from the ground to hover in the air. The occasional firefly makes it in through my screen which interests my cat until he tires of chasing the light. My daughters say my house in Asheville reminds them of their grandparents’ house in Connecticut where they spent many lovely ...
COOKING WITH FRIENDS: BAKED GOAT CHEESE ROLLS WITH HONEY AND THYME
High on a mountainside about ten minutes from downtown Asheville is a stately Southern mansion, with sweeping porches, endless views and carefully tended grounds. It is a beautiful spot. But it wasn’t always this way. Ten years ago The Reynolds Mansion was falling apart. Time and neglect had brought this once beautiful house to its knees. And that is when my friend, Billy, saw it. Billy loved the house and the house needed love and that was what it took. Today, The Reynolds Mansion, once home to Senator Reynolds and the Hope Diamond, is considered to be one of the finest Bed & ...
5 TIPS ON HOW TO USE YOUR FARMER’S MARKET SHARE
This article was previously published in AVLToday . I got my first CSA basket from the North Asheville Farmer’s Market on Saturday. It marks the beginning of my summer challenge: how to use the varied and sometimes strange items I am given. It is my own personal game of “Chopped”. If you already participate in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program than you probably know what I am talking about. For those of you who don’t, it works like this: the buyer purchases a share of the harvest from a local farm and receives a “box” on a set schedule over the course of the growing ...
FIRST DATE ROSEMARY RHUBARB MUFFINS
The other night I went on my first date in 45 years. Now just try and get your head around that because Lord knows I have trouble with it. It’s been a very long time since I have felt attractive and desired so I am not averse to the idea of meeting people who are interested in getting to know me. It feels good. On the other hand, I just got out of a 37 yearlong marriage, more than half my life (!), and I am enjoying doing what I want to do when I want to do it. I knew right after I said yes that this man was not going to change my mind about my freedom. But then I thought why did he ...
EASY AS PIE! STRAWBERRY GALETTE
The growing season is finally here and in order to get recipes to you in a time for you to use the ingredients at their best, I am doubling up on posts this week. Two things I really, really like: fresh, fresh, fresh local fruit in season and fruit pie. So when my CSA basket came with a half-gallon of sweet strawberries, I knew just where that was going: Strawberry Pie. Truth to be told, I’ve been planning it for weeks! And since I am still working out of my tiny rental kitchen it was going to be a rustic pie, made without a pie tin. I’ve been thinking of making a rustic pie ...
COOKING WITH FRIENDS: WHISKEY SOUR, SHAKEN NOT STIRRED
Meet Tom, mild mannered computer programmer by day and impresario of the cocktail at night. I spent an evening with him and his wife, Emily, in Chicago recently where he showed me how easy it is to make a showstopper cocktail to impress your friends. ( Before I go any farther with this here is a disclaimer: Tom is my son-in-law and he is British. We forgive him for both.) I don’t know if Tom discovered whiskey (and specifically Bourbon) in the United States or not, but he has developed a love for it which endears him to friends and family as he uses his expertise to our advantage. I ...
MEMORIAL DAY POTATO SALAD
Memorial Day: the beginning of Summer, opening day for swimming pools and a day for family barbecues. It is a bittersweet holiday for me. Growing up in a small town in Connecticut, Memorial Day began with my Girl Scout Uniform. Arranging my badge-covered sash over my shoulders and settling my hat on my head, I gathered with the rest of my troop in a church parking lot and marched to the town cemetery where we listened to speeches and prayers and felt the wars remembered to be far removed from our lives. Afterwards, my family would pile into our wood paneled station wagon and drive to ...
ENGLAND MEETS THE AMERICAN SOUTH: A NORTH CAROLINA STYLE JACKET POTATO
This all started because it was cold out. It was not supposed to be cold. Spring in Asheville usually comes on with a rush. You move from sweaters to sundresses in a day and never look back. But not this Spring. Oh no. It’s been nothing but going back. I bounce from Spring clothes to Winter and back again like the ping pong ball my cat plays with. Anyway, cold. Cold means comfort food. It calls for cheese and starch and carbs. It calls for potatoes. A jacket potato is what they call a baked potato in England. The classic British jacket potato is baked then topped with ...
COOKING WITH FRIENDS: OLD-SCHOOL CHEESE STRAWS
This is the first in a new series: Cooking with Friends. So much of cooking is about sharing the love. Travel with me to the kitchens of my friends and explore the food they love and love to share. Today I am in the spacious, sunlit kitchen of Rick Bell and Tom Watson, owners of Engadine Inn and Cabins, located just north of Asheville in the mountains near Candler, NC. The ingredients are lined up on the counter and the ovens are pre-heated. But before we start, Rick takes a moment to show me one of his prized possessions. It doesn’t look like much. Just a pile of clippings, ...
