Maggie's Farm

Had enuf cookies yet?

Among the host of other Christmas goodies, the BD pupettes produced a couple of dozen Ginger Snaps made with grated fresh ginger. All other Ginger Snaps pale in comparison.

I made a batch of Gingerbread Men yesterday. Only three are left on the plate.

I guess they ran away. Gingerbread Men are known to do that.

A friend and beer afficionado responded to our post about Sam Adams' Winter Classics with this email:

"The best beer available in the USA is Palm. It's the only beer I will drink these days."

I guess I'll have to give it a try, but I don't think my local discount beer dump, which carries about 200 American and imported brands, carries it.

Palm is a Flemish beer. It has only been imported to the US for a year or two. Have you tried it?

Your editor is going off duty until tomorrow. 20 people arriving in a while (all bringing pies or vegetable dishes) - and a few more just for dessert. Here's what we're doing:

One just begun on the grill:

One in the oven, stuffed:

The cranberry sauce:

Squash pies (with heavy cream, spices, and brandy). More Pilgrim-authentic than Pumpkin:

I am in the middle of Conroy's new book, South of Broad, which is set in Charleston.

Being a Yankee, I had no idea what Benne Wafers were. Here's the recipe.

It's nice to know that there are still places in America where ladies routinely have teatime with homemade tea cookies. It is civilized and civilizing, like so many old Southern habits.

Regarding other low-country foods, She-Crab Soup is fine and dandy, but this summer I discovered how much I enjoy Shrimp 'n Grits (and I don't even love shrimp. I like it with the smaller shrimp).

This is my idea of a fine dressing for Mr. Turkey: Foie gras, apple and chestnut.

I have baked some quail with foie gras stuffing (damn good), but never turkey. Time to do it.

I may do a side of oyster stuffing and a side of the foie gras stuffing, but fill the bird itself with the expected chestnut, sausage and cornbread stuffing. Or maybe not.

Anyhow, I have to cook two, so I'll do one on the grill, unstuffed of course.

Candied mint leaves. I made a bunch of these old-fashioned treats last weekend.

Since my mint patch (Kentucky Mint, of course) has grown like crazy, it's fun to thin it out while making a fine treat. If you like mint flavor, these are great to decorate ice cream, fruit cup, a bowl of berries, melon, or whatever. In the old days, they were passed around as an after-dinner mint: the original "mint".

All you do is cut off some mint leaves (or tips of stems -even better), brush them with well-beaten egg white, press them into granulated sugar, and let them dry for 6-24 hours on wax or parchment paper. They will last a couple of days. When they dry enough, they are a bit crunchy.

Delicious. You can do the same thing with violet flowers in the springtime.

I like sitting in European cafes, sipping a cafe or a beer, maybe having a smoke, and watching the world go by. I also like running around trying to see everything noteworthy, but as I get older I appreciate just soaking up the atmosphere and the feel of a place.

I have seen, and prayed in, more medieval cathedrals than my brain can ever absorb, and I do not do shopping.

A re-post from our archives -

The Bird Dog family enjoys providing coffee hour at church. It's a gratifying ministry because it promotes fellowship. The more goodies you provide, the more fellowship you nurture, and the longer folks stick around and get to know eachother.

If a church is a manifestation of the living body of Christ, you can't have loose body parts all over the place: a congregation needs to congregate, in small groups and in large. Other churches in the area have copied our tradition of providing more than coffee and a pitiful bowl of goldfish crackers. We do brunch, essentially. Here is what we brought today:

Bagels and cream cheese; red and white grapes; plain pound cake, sesame pound cake, walnut pound cake; Vermont cheddar, brie, and Roquefort cheese and crackers; blanched carrots, broccoli, sugar snap peas and string beans with blue cheese dip; strawberries with sugar to dip them into (no matter how many you bring, they will disappear fast - the kids go for them like piranhas); cheese "Danish" pastries, tortilla chips with that excellent Costco salsa and Costco guacamole; corn muffins, chocolate chip muffins and blueberry muffins; croissants. Coffee, cider, and orange juice. I forgot to bring the sliced red peppers for the vegetable dip, and forgot the strawberry jam for the corn muffins.

I was surprised by how the blue cheese disappeared first today, and I brought a huge hunk. We don't bring doughnuts anymore because the little kids stuff themselves with them and the fussy parents don't seem thrilled with that. Next time, I think we'll bring a spiral-cut ham with honey mustard, and slice up a mountain of baguettes. This would be good with a ton of sliced melons. (Too bad we don't do wine and beer too - people would never go home.)

I had an appetizer plate of top-flight local Gorgonzola Dolce Gran Riserva in Italy last summer, up north in Piedmont where they make the stuff.

It had little in common with the supermarket stuff we get here in the USA. It was creamy, not crumbly, and it was tasty as heck but without any sharpness. It was not meant to be thrown in a salad or on top of a burger, but to be eaten reverently (or irreverently) with a fork in thin slices, with some slices of fruit on the side. Which I did.

It was expensive, too.

The weather is finally (just barely) warm enough for smokin' season.

I have had a gigantic, fat-covered pork shoulder in this thing for a few hours, covered with my good tasty stuff pork smoking rub.

With the cool breezes today - still waiting for real summer - it will take quite a few hours more until it is fork-tender.

This cheapo electric smoker never quite gets hot enough. My big smoker-grill is great, but I only have time to tend it on weekends.

The smell of the meaty, peppery, fatty smoke from the fresh pear tree chunks is at least half of the pleasure.

The Shrimp and Grits I had on Saturday in Alabama were served hot in large Martini glasses with a tiny silver spoon. It was something new to me. Like a dessert. The shrimp and sauce were spooned on top of the grits.

I detected a faint hint of cilantro and lime in the shrimp sauce, but I do not have the recipe. The shrimp were sweet as sugar, fresh from the Gulf, and bite-sized - about an inch long. I do prefer the tender little ones to the big ones for most purposes.

I learned the below from this site (which includes one of the countless recipes for this treat)

In the Low Country of South Carolina and particularly Charleston, shrimp and grits has been considered a basic breakfast for coastal fishermen and families for decades during the shrimp season (May through December). Simply called 'breakfast shrimp," the dish consisted of a pot of grits with shrimp cooked in a little bacon grease or butter. During the past decade, this dish has been dressed up and taken out on the town to the fanciest restaurants. Not just for breakfast anymore, it is also served for brunch, lunch, and dinner.

Of course I remember.

AVI wants some help remembering old 'Gansett commercials.

'Gansett, Knickerbocker, Rheingold, Piel's - I do recall them all. We are now just left with watery old Rolling Rock and the delicious Ballantine Ale - if you can find it.

The Maggie's Farm cafeteria refuses to serve fancy beers for breakfast or lunch, because beer ain't sposta be fancy (good stuff like Guiness is different - it's a meal, not a beer - and even more so if you stir one or two raw eggs into a pint for breakfast like they do in Ireland).

Wine is another matter.

A fun theory says modern humans are all about the home-cooked meal.

Make mine barbecued short ribs with sides of cheese grits and cucumber slaw, and a few Rolling Rocks.

Kind of cool. (h/t, Ace). I would like to see more.

Many of those lunches look darn good, but the crap the American kids seem to want looks disgusting. Anyway, if I ate lunches like these I'd be asleep for two hours afterwards. An apple is about all I can handle if I have things to do.

Photo is a school lunch in China. Looks good to me - especially that fried fish.

Terrific stuff. Cheap, too. We have had Crab Cake recipe wars here recently, but here are some more simple recipes. I put no flavorings in the cakes, because I like the main taste to be the tender, succulent, subtle crabmeat, which is why my favorite food in the world is sauteed soft-shelled crab.

Except maybe Halibut with capers, or Shad Roe with bacon, or Bluefin Tuna belly just seared on the grill, or rare roast beef with horseradish and Yorkshire pudding, or Shepherd's Pie, or barbecued short ribs with cornbread, or Chicken Pot Pie, or black bean soup with jalapenos and mashed potatoes, or plain mashed potatoes, or a real Gumbo made by my Louisiana pal, or a Woodcock dumpling with gibier sauce, black truffle, and Porcini mushrooms, or ...

Thanks, COSTCO. Good stuff, but I only needed 2 cups. Now what do I do with the rest?

When I was a kid, my babysitter would take me fishing for Blue Crabs off the dock. What it required was a string with a hunk of bacon tied to the end. When you gently pulled it up to just below the surface, you needed a crab net to scoop up the crabs clinging to the bacon. Otherwise, they would let go of the bacon.

My Mom was never disappointed to find a bucket of two dozen crabs when she got home.

We have posted, somewhat disparagingly, about the Blue Crab's natural history and the Blue Crab as dining material, (too much effort, basically) but we never have disparaged good Maryland crab cakes, especially when consumed in volume with volumes of bad beer in low-life Maryland tatoo pubs with dogs walking around, after a day of duck hunting.

The subject comes up because we noticed projects about the aquaculture of Blue Crabs. Very cool. Fresh water? Who would have thought it?

Here's how they raise them from broodstock.

What a clever country we are. Speaking of clever people, Sippican sends this recipe:

CRAB CAKES
            1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
            4 large eggs, beaten lightly
            6 tablespoons sour cream
            1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves (preferably flat-leafed)
            2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
            1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
            1 teaspoon paprika
            1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
            1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
            2 pounds lump crab meat, picked over
            2 cups fine fresh bread crumbs
            1/3 cup cornmeal
            1/2 cup vegetable oil

            tarragon tartar sauce as an accompaniment
            lemon wedges as an accompaniment

            In a bowl whisk together the butter, the eggs, the sour cream, the pa rsley, the
            lemon juice, the Worcestershire sauce, the paprika, the salt, and the cayenne and
            stir in the crab meat and the bread crumbs gently. Form 1/2-cup measures of the
            mixture into twelve 3/4-inch-thick cakes and transfer the crab cakes as they are
            formed to a baking sheet sprinkled with half the cornmeal. Sprinkle the crab
            cakes with the remaining cornmeal and chill them, covered with plastic wrap, for
            at least 1 hour or overnight.

            In a large heavy skillet heat the oil over moderately high heat until it is hot but
            not smoking and in it sauté the crab cakes in batches, turning them once, for 3 to
            4 minutes on each side, or until they are golden, transferring them as they are
            cooked to paper towels to drain. Keep the crab cakes warm on another baking
            sheet in a 200°F. oven. Serve the crab cakes with the tarragon tartar sauce and
            the lemon wedges.
            Makes about 12 crab cakes, serving 6.

I'd skip the bread crumbs. They dilute the crab meat.