Corn and Pea Salad

It’s really hot. When we cook of course it gets even hotter. So we do anything we can, for these few weeks each year when we get the 100 degree days, to keep it cooler inside.

One thing we try do do is cook less, cook less inside that is. We can cook all over the place around here. The front porch has a one eye gas burner ready to go at all times. Also on the front porch is a small grill that gets really hot and is just the right size for meals for two people. The backyard has both a grill/smoker and a large open pit fireplace for outdoor cooking. We use all of these to cook with. We also try to eat stuff that is prepared, and not cooked, not in our house anyway. So here is a salad we’ve done for years. I think it is Staceys’ grandmothers recipe.

We are down with the fresh and local scene, but ask most any chef and he’s gonna tell you there’s a few things that he uses right outta the can. This is one of those recipes.

Corn and Pea Salad

1 can (15 1/4 oz) Del Monte White Whole Kernel Sweet Corn

1 can (15 oz) Le Sueur Very Young Small Early Peas

1 medium sized white onion chopped

1/4 cup of Mayonnaise (or to taste)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix - Cover and Chill for at least 2 hours

That’s it. Great with burgers, ribs and dogs.

Enjoy !

The South, the Beautiful South

I am happy to see the South and Southern Culture so so celebrated these days. I say these days, but I think it’s been in the works for awhile now. Groups like the Southern Foodways Alliance, Slow Food, Society for the Revival, Preservation of Southern Food and Chefs like Linton Hopkins and Tony Seichrist are all about promoting and preserving the ways of the new south.

Along time ago, I drove a limo for a hotel in Mobile, Alabama. I was driving a minor T.V. star from England, around the Garden District, per her request. I remember her telling me how the British considered writers from the south the deepest, darkest and their favorite. That has always stuck with me, as it was the first time I ever thought to be proud of who I was and where I was from.

Now this was not something profound. No, it was just a little something I keep with me and think of from time to time. It’s something I think about whenever I might be looking for something to read. I will go to my bookshelf today and be drawn to the large tomes on southern literature. I know if I grab one of those I have a broad choice. There is a great difference between a Eudora Welty story and a James Baldwin story. But, both give me buckets full of southernness. And each with really different views on life.

Now days it is so great to see how it’s all so cool again. Eugene Walters ? Who would have thought my Moms old friend would leave such a mark. A mark that can be traced all over the world and end up in Mobile, Alabama. Hell, Frank Stitt is one of the best Chefs in America and he is from the city of Cullman, Alabama. He has three restaurants in Birmingham.

Ya know we are gonna have to talk about this again at a later date. I mean there is just so much to say and it is also the theme of this blog, the South.

These thoughts got in my head today when I read an email from a friend, who is a gentleman farmer here in our beautiful south. He ask if I had read a book by Sonny Brewer. One thought led to another and by the end of the day, I had borrowed, from my local library ”the Moviegoer” by Walker Percy and ordered “The Poet of Tolstoy-Park” by Brewer from amazon.com.

The Shutter Table

I was hired recently, by a very brilliant couple, to build a dinner table for their beach house. The table is to be built using antique shutters. This couple, lets just make up a name for them, lets call them Chris and Julie, already have a couple pieces of my work. Like I said, they are brilliant.

Chris and Julie found a table made from shutters in a store here in town. It was imported from far,far away, so I was happy to be able to tell them about the shutters I had. They are from a plantation home about 1 hour east of Atlanta. The nice lady who gave them to me told me they were original to the house, which was built in the late 1800’s.

So this was great. These guys are gonna get the style table they want and have it made from a local product, not such a “fresh” product, but local all the same. It’s fun when I can build something and be able to tell the customer where the materials came from. People really seem to appreciate it.

So here are some photos. I just knocked the pegs out and removed about 4 nails and took the thing apart. It was easy to get the pegs out, I was surprised. You can see how rough they are, but after I have sanded them, they already look better and the finish Julie has come up with is gonna look great.

The table is to seat 8 and will comfortably, when it’s all done. I have had these shutter for 5 years or more. Just holding on to them, waiting for the right job. I have more shutters and more ideas of what I might do with them.

We are gonna do a plain square post for legs. And how’s this for timing, this past Saturday morning at the farmers market, a friend came over to say hi and introduced me to a guy that was with him. I got to talking to this guy about my furniture, which I had a few pieces of at the market. When he learned I was building from salvaged wood he ask if I might be intrested in some post from a building he was renovating in downtown Atlanta. He told me the post were about as tall as me and 6″ square. I didn’t have to ask. I knew this building was well over 100 years old. Tomorrow I will go pick up this wood and get the low down on the building. Like how old, what was it used for before he got it and the address. Then I will really have more local, antique, awesome materials to build from. And they will make great legs for Chris and Julies table.

Later I will show you the finished product and let you know about the large posts I hope to get tomorrow.

The Monday Report

Now thats Report as in Colbert Report, thank you very much. I accept your apology.

So, this is very regular, kind of routine if you will. I am not used to much routine. I guess the only time I lived a life of routine as an adult I was sick and it was only for about a year. So writing this blog everyday is a chore. But, I enjoy it very much. I like chores like this one. Do something creative, do it today, and every weekday, but, you can take all day getting it done. That’s good for me. Like, if I need to do a few loads of laundry and have all day to do it, no problem.

Anyway, sometimes I am going to give you the Monday Report. I will tell you about our weekend and add some random thoughts. Maybe not every Monday but maybe.

So, Friday early a.m. and I am loving life. I am painting pictures and building furniture from one of the many things I have in my workshop. This time I take a door which is a small door, 53′ long by 30′ wide. I build a base with four legs made from old piano parts. I paint the base white and distress it. I paint the door 5 different colors of green and trim it in black paint, distress it and clear coat it. It looks great on the base.

I smoked 2 big rack of ribs and got some slaw from the seafood joint up the street. Then my sister arrived later in the afternoon, with her husband and their son, Scotty Mike. We chowed down on bar b que and had cold beers. Some of of us had lemonade and some of us had tequila. Fun Fun - then sleep.

Saturday, Stacey took our guests to the Georgia Aquarium. They had a great time seeing all the fish. I went to the Morningside Organic Framers Market. I sold the coffee table I had made the day before.

We then met on the front porch and had shrimp poboys for the seafood joint up the street. They are the best poboys I have had in my life and they cost $4. I have to buy Paul one every time he beats me at golf, which has been often lately.

Then Scotty Mike and me and his dad went and played 9 holes of golf. That was nice. A golf course is one of my favorite places in the world.

Then home, get cleaned up and lay out food, fill the ice chest and light the grill. Have way to much of everything, and over serve our guest, break some bones and call it a night. Sunday morning and some of us are hurting.

Random thought - check out Garden & Gun magazine. I especially like their philosophy on the South.

A kitchen full of old stuff

Once when I was in high-school, I went to a house that a guy had built from old materials. I thought it was really cool. Then about 10 years ago, I started to sell furniture I built from old materials. So, it was only natural for me to use old materials when I renovated our kitchen.

So I slowly started throwing out parts of the old kitchen. One year the dishwasher broke, so I ripped it out of the counter and threw it in the front yard. Little by little, I did this to our whole kitchen and then started putting it back together.

I built cabinets from cabinet grade plywood. The cabinets that were to be hung on the wall got old windows for the doors. These old windows had four panes of glass per window. Each pane of glass was about 12″ square. They were nice size windows which made for big cabinets.

Another cabinet was one that started on the floor and was about 6′ tall. We use a old french door for the door on this cabinet. On top of that, I sat a barristers box case, just a single unit, it was almost the same width of french door cabinet. These cabinets were on a wall along with 2 sets of floor cabinets.

In between the 2 floor cabinets sits a Roper gas stove. It’s a vintage Roper stove with 4 burners on a stainless steel top and an oven. A broiler, storage and a warming drawer underneath. It is stove white with a stainless steel top. It looks like a old chevy. There is also a new stainless steel refrigerator next to the french door cabinet. Above the stove is a vintage Icee clock.

Across from all that is an island. The island has a bar which runs the length of the island which is 12′ long. Starting from one end it has, a cabinet for cookie sheets and the likes, then a stainless steel front dishwasher, then a very old french style farmhouse sink. This old farmhouse style sink was here at the house when we moved in. Just sitting out in the back yard. I used a restaurant style faucet and it’s working out well for us. Next after the sink is a cabinet of 3 drawers and then a pull out cabinet for a garbage can. Next to that is a large under cabinet. On the bar and for counter-top on right of sink, I have used antique pine salvaged from a cotton mill in Carrolton, GA. The mill was built in the 1850s. This is hard, old wood. I also used it for the counter-top along the wall.

To the left of the sink, I used a piece of rock maple butcher block. The piece I had was large enough to cut a 6′ x 2′ piece for the whole counter top. So we use the end of the counter-top, next to sink as a chopping block.

I have painted all the cabinets RED and distressed them. The old windows look great like this. The walls are to shades of blue. The color scheme is much like the colors in the old Icee clock.

I was in a bind about what to do about the floors. We had moved the kitchen from a corner of the room, out to the middle of this room. And this 1 room used to be 2 rooms. So when we pulled the crap off the kitchen floor, we found pine running the opposite of the oak flooring in the other part of the room. Well about that time a builder who sometime calls me to pick up lumber he has, called. Said he had 2 pickup truckloads of wide plank flooring. It was excellent wood and all mixed up. Random lenghts and widths, from 4″ up 10″ wide. Some of it was oak, some pine, some cherry, some mahogany and some hickory. It was perfect and it was free. So I sent off for some fake antique nails. I nailed it straight to the floor. The end.

Figs

It’s that time here in East Point. The figs are getting ripe and this year we have found a new tree that has black figs on it. They are not like any fig I have seen. They are not real large and are rounder than other figs I get. Inside they are more red than other figs.

What Stacey and I do is walk the hood and look for trees we can raid. We have a few regulars.
One gives us a medium size fig with a pale yellow color. Another gives us figs just like our tree at home. I think they are a brown turkey figs. Our other tree, we have two, gives us a small purple fig.

They are all very good and we eat them many ways. I think my favorite is as a stuffing for chickens or even better, Cornish Hens. We cook a regular Thanksgiving stuffing and add the figs. Man is it good. We had some last night.

Another good way is to split them in half and gently push a small chunk of blue cheese into the center of the fig. And you can’t go wrong if you wrap a fig in bacon and broil it. It works well if you cook the bacon half way and let it cool. Then wrap the fig and fix the bacon in place with a toothpick and broil ’till the bacon is finished. This way the figs don’t over cook and turn into a sugar bomb.

Figs were not a big part of our lives until we moved to this house in East point. Right away we embraced the figs growing at our new house and were very happy to have them. Over the years we have perfected many good ways to enjoy figs. And theres always a new way to try.

We like them so much we have found trees all over the hood and we use them all. Some figs come ripe before ours do, so we eat off those trees a few blocks away before we start harvesting ours.

Now in the bible it seems Jesus didn’t much care for figs.
“Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he was hungry.
“And when he saw a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it, but leaves only, and said to it, Let no fruit grow on you henceforward for ever.”
And presently the fig tree withered away.
“And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon has the fig tree withered away!”
–Matthew 21:18-20

Man, I got to tell you - I am so glad my figs haven’t withered.

Rosenbaum house

There is a house in Tuscumbia Alabama designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was built in 1939 in the Usonian style. Stacey and I toured this house not long ago and it was a really good tour. The guide was very informative and had tons of knowledge on many different aspects of the whole project. She told us the house was commissioned by the Rosenbaum Family. The lot was a wedding gift from the grooms Mom and Dad, who lived across the street.

At first, Wright did not want to do the job. After a few years of getting nowhere on the idea, Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum went to see him, and he finally agreed to design the house.

The two strangest things the guide told us was Wright never visited the property or the job site. And it was the only house he ever agreed to do a addition to. So in 1948, Wright designed the additional wing.

Mrs. Rosenbaum lived in the house until she passed in 1999, then it was purchased by the City of Florence. The house was in very poor condition by this time and the city stepped up and put out hundreds of thousands of dollars in to renovating it. Funny, the original house cost approximately $40,000 to build in 1939 and the addition cost in the $70,000 range.

It was restored to the original state after the addition. I was amazed at how much plywood was used. It was used for lots of the cabinets, used in the ceilings and was prevalent in the kitchen. It was also used for a bunch of furniture Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the house. Check out the photos. The guide told us plywood was hot at the time. It was the newest, coolest material and he loved using it for this project.

We had no idea that Frank Lloyd Wright designed a home in Alabama.
Wonder why he never went to the job site ? Wonder why he agreed to do an addition to the home ?