Cesar Salad Southern Style

Tonight we had a Seizure Salad, not to be confused with a Cesar Salad. This is the turbo charged version. We found this recipe years ago in a Wine X magazine. The magazine was pretty cool, but it struggled and I’m not sure it’s still around.

This is a really good salad and easy to prepare, it is not for those afraid of bold flavors. I like the way you use the salt and pepper and a bowl with a rough surface to help grind all of the ingredients into a dressing. To make it Southern style, try using the Piggly Wiggly brand Olive Oil !

3 thick slices of slightly stale sourdough or rustic style bread cut into cubes
3 T olive oil
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2) Place bread cubes in a large bowl and add olive oil. Toss until the oil is evenly absorbed.
3) Place croutons on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Salad
1/4 t salt
1 t coarsely ground black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 t anchovy paste
2 t Dijon mustard
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 t red wine vinegar
1 LARGE head romaine lettuce, thoroughly dried
Croutons (see recipe)
1/2 cup grated Italian Parmegiano-Reggiano
1) Add salt and pepper to the salad bowl. Grind garlic (with back of spoon) against the wall of the bowl until it becomes a paste.

Follow same procedure - add anchovies, grind, add the Dijon, egg yolk, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce one at a time.

Make sure that each ingredient is blended into a paste with the previous ingredients before adding next.
2) Add oil and vinegar. Blend well.
3) Tear or slice lettuce leaves into bite-sized pieces and add to the salad bowl. Toss thoroughly with dressing.
4) Add croutons and cheese, toss again, then serve immediately.

That’s it. It is not difficult. Just use the best cheese you can find. Also use Anchovy paste, it is not hard to find, and is worth the effort.

A Southerners’ Southerner

I wish Ken Burns would have picked someone other then the women he did to represent the deep south on his show about the war. I wish Eugene Walters was alive and could have done it. He probably had the same slow, molasses coated voice that she had.

He ’s the kind of person I want to be my spokesperson for the deep south. He was a real mans man, no pun intended. The guy did everything, went everywhere, embraced his southerness and wrote many books about his south.

He was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1921. He was in the army, stationed in the Arctic Circle. He lived in NYC, in Greenwich Village, in the 40’s. Can you imagine the Village in the 40’s? All the Hipsters, Bohemians, Poets and Artist setting the stage for the 50’s and 60’s. Blazing the trail for the Beatniks and the Hippies.

He also helped George Plimpton, who started the Paris Review, get it off the ground and going. This was in the 50’s, he lived in Paris and one can only imagine who he hung out with and the parties they had. Paris in the 50’s was wide open and jazz musicians from all over the world were living there.

Then he took his Southerness to Rome. Italy that is. He was known to always have an herb garden where ever he lived. He loved to cook and entertain, and he love to prepare southern dishes for his high minded, international friends. A cook book he wrote, American Cooking: Southern Style, was a best seller for the Time Life book series.

In Rome, he worked for a guy named Federico Fellini. He did set design on most all of Fellini’s movies and was in a few. He played the “tacky American journalist who keeps pestering Marcello Mastroianni”, in Fellini’s 8 1/2. He said he was in over 100 hundred films while in Italy. He stayed in Rome 23 years, then returned to Mobile, Kingdom of the Monkeys.

Look, I have read the books and seen the movie, so to speak, and this guy was the real deal. The above dosn’t even scratch the surface. He did so much, knew so many and made a real difference. I hear his name often here in Atlanta and he is a real inspiration to groups like the Southern Foodways Alliance. I am sure in the near future he will be celebrated more and more, and I am very glad of this. I would not mind if he’s the kind of guy that comes to mind when people think about Southerners.

Monday Report

Stayed in Atlanta this weekend, for what seems like the first weekend in a long time. Saturday I did the Organic Farmers Market. The weather is changing and I like the cooler temps. Not as many people out Saturday morning, maybe because it was a little cool.

Other than the market we didn’t do to much. Spent lot’s of time on the front porch, as you can see from this photo.

Sunday slept in to the very late hour of about 9:15. We got going fairly early, heading out to one of the many neighborhood festivals and street markets. I bought this little monster at the Chandler Park Fest. It a type of Racoo pottery. The guy explained the process he used, but it was to much info for a Sunday morning. I just liked it and didn’t care so much how he made it. Here is a photo of it.

I sold a couple of pieces of furniture Saturday morning, no art. Which is strange, latly it’s been the other way around. So as you can see not much to report, kind of a quite weekend.

Kingsized Bed

So this is the bed I wrote about last week. It is made from 6″ square antique pine post on each corner. The headboard has a panel of assorted antique ceiling tiles and the remaining lumber is salvaged from a Mardi Gras float. I painted it white and sanded it for the distressed look. The headboard is almost 6′ tall. Click on the Flickr cube to the left for a better photo of bed.

Iron Chef, Southern Style.

We had fun last night. Our friend, Wynn the Wine Guy, invited us to a taping of a pilot for a t.v. show. It was a show some locals are trying to do based on, of course, Iron Chef. It starts with an interview with the challanger before the cook off. Sounded like a decent idea. Oh, that and we were on the guest list.

So we went. It was held at an event hall. It was like a large bar, with a double kitchen in the rear part of the building. Towards the front, two over-sized chairs were place side by side with a microphone in middle. This was the interview stage. It wasn’t really much of an interview. The host just got the challenger to start talking about himself and let him go. That could have been a problem, but, since the challenger was Butch Raphael of Pangaea Sandwich Shop, it was cool.

See Butch is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He has quit a history and I am gonna do a post all about him soon. But, first I want to tell you about tonight, cause this was something one dosn’t get the chance to do often.

So we arrive kinda of early with Wynn. Wynn, blends, bottles and markets his own wine and he was serving some last night. He was also a judge for the cook off. I am also gonna do a post all about Wynn, and not even mention Ty, very soon. So first things first, we check out the place, paying close attention to the double kitchen. I love a commercial kitchen, here it was two for one. Two huge stoves with burners, grills and griddles. And two ovens. And two double door coolers. Hell it was as if this double kitchen had two of everything! I really liked this place.

Before the interview they had starters, beer and wine. Wynn’s wine of course. Butch prepared the starters. I didn’t see the beer option. They were pouring Wynns Rose and his Spanish white, Vida Nuvea. The Rose is also Spanish, made from the tempranillo grape. Tempranillo is a fairly big red and I think big reds make good Rose. The white is fresh and kinda green with almost a bubble to it. It is effervescent if you will, and you should.

In the south we like bacon. Everywhere in the world, we like bacon. Anything wrapped in bacon and cooked is good. I like to wrap bacon in bacon and then cook that. Butch served candied bacon as a starter. It was like crack and 3 seconds after I ate one, I wanted another. I ate about twenty strips. They were half the size of a full piece of bacon and stiff with a sugar coating. I am not sure what else was used , but I hope Butch will tell us, I plan on turning the whole world on to this shit!

So first they did the interview part. Really, Butch talked about where he came from and how he became a chef. Like I said, really interesting stuff, I will go into detail in a day or two. Then it was back to the double kitchen for the cook off.

It was done a lot like the t.v. show. The secret ingredient’s was hanger steak. Each Chef had 30 minutes to prepare as many dishes as they could using hanger steak and a pile of other ingredients. So they went to work and folks were encouraged to ask question as they cooked. Folks did ask all kinds of questions, Butch answered most and the other chef did a few. That is until time got tight on time and they were trying to plate the food.

The judging was the same as Iron Chef. Points were given for taste, presentation and originality. I was down on the challengers (Chef Butch) end so I didn’t really get to see what the other chef prepared. Butch did a twisted/southern dish with chicken fried hanger steak that was served on top of BLUECHEESE GRITS and topped with garlic chips. Yea, the blue cheese grits were good. Stacey decided we are gonna perfect this dish and use it often. Between the candied bacon and the grits, Butch was going southern with a twist and I liked it. He also did a roulade. Cutting the steak thin and rolling it with oaxacan cheese. He started this in a skillet and finished it in the oven. That was served with a red wine and butter reduction. His third dish was blackened curry crusted hanger steak. Served on top of an arugula salad with a apple, onion and radish relish.

This was good stuff and, except for the blue-cheese grit dish, they were also beautiful to look at. It didn’t matter Butch lost. I demanded a recount and really raised hell about it until the folks running the show threatened to call the police and have me arrested.

But otherwise, it was cool to see them film this. The double kitchen scenes were the best. I ask one of the guys filming what they were gonna with all the footage and he said they would compile a montage of different shots and try and sell the idea as a show. They are doing another show in two weeks and I plan on being there.

Southern Accents

There is a song on the great album “Unchained” by Johnny Cash, named Southern Accents. He is know to have said it should have been the anthem for the south instead of Dixie.

The song talks about how every aspect of the singers life has a southern accent. Not just the way he speaks, but everything. It’s true, and what it makes me think is that we are not any different than anyone else in this world, we’re just from the south. Yes some of our customs, transgressions if you like, old and new, may be questioned by others, but we are no different then anyone else, we’re just from different parts of the world. We are from the south, and we do things with a southern accent, and that’s the difference. We celebrate that difference. We don’t run from history, we know the history of everyone, everywhere, has questionable moments, but we look forward, with a southern accent.

So last night we attended the taping of a pilot for a t.v. show. It was a take off on Iron Chef, with a southern accent. The twist on this show is that the challenger is interviewed before the cook off. So it got me to thinking how everywhere, everyone is basically the same and wants the same things from life. Different cultures are always being bashed for being different. That’s all there is to it, they are different and that alone turns people off. Now I get pissed off when the south and southerners are labeled rednecks. The biggest redneck I ever met was from New Jersey. I’m sure there are what one would call a redneck from everywhere. It’s not the locale that makes you who you are, it only adds flavor to who you are. An asshole is an asshole, I don’t care where you are from. Asshole is just another word for redneck.

But what got me to writing this is the fact that down south here, folks are working on t.v. shows, running huge companies, raising families, wait a minute that’s not true. What really got me to writing this was the job I did yesterday repairing my toilet. See, I replaced a toilet in our house a year or so ago. It never worked very well. When you flushed it huge bubbles came up and not much went down. I asked questions and did research and was told the air vent was stopped up. When you flush the air in the pipe has to go somewhere and if it can’t leave through the vent, it comes back up through the toilet. Well, for a year I have tried every trick I have read about or had been told to try. Nothing worked. So it hit me yesterday, a way to fix my toilet, with a southern accent.

So what I did was, drain the water from the toilet bowl, crank up my heavy duty, backpack leaf blower and stick the blower hose in the toilet and turn it up to top power. Well the back cover of the tank went flying as well as lots of water, the dogs ran for their life and Stacey came racing in to see what was going on. I was soaking wet, the room was soaking wet, but the toilet was working just fine. Thank you very much!

Little Rock

That’s where Stacey and I spent the weekend. Just hanging out with oldest sister, eating, drinking and trying to stay out of jail. OK, so there was really no chance of anyone going to jail, but we tried.

Like I have said before, I like to visit Arkansas, and I like Little Rock. Each time I go I find something else I like about it.

This time it was David Family Kitchen. We called to get the location and we were told 23rd and Roosevelt ave. We thought it might be a rough neighborhood, we hoped it was rough cause you always find good soul food in the hood. Well it wasn’t rough at all, in fact it was a beautiful neighborhood. It was marked by signage as the Little Rock Historical District. The homes were awesome. They were old and big and all different styles of design. There was also a beautiful cemetery that appeared really large. Next time I am there I plan to visit it. I’m thinking a long walk after a huge meal of fried chicken, meatloaf, black-eyed peas, mac and cheese, lima beans, cream corn, spinach casserole and cornbread. That’s the kind of stuff we had at DFK. And it was great.

We also ate a the local oyster bar. It was a dive and that’s what attracted me to it. Once again, places like soul-food joints and oysters bars should be dives, in tough neighborhoods. Well this place was a dive and the fried oysters and shrimp were good, but I must say the gumbo, and etouffee really, really sucked. I know gumbo and I know etouffee and not only did this stuff suck, but it didn’t come close to being what each was named. We didn’t let that bother us, we were glad we tried it, marked it off the list.

I can’t wait to get back and try Juanita’s Mexican Restaurant I found on the internet that the locals say is the best!