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goin' down South

Some people know I’m on the “Editorial Board” of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society’s quarterly newsletter we call: “The Chronicles”.   I am mostly dead weight, being thrown in with a bunch of folks who have lived here for years and years and hence have lived a lot of history for this county, gaining several interesting stories and experiences along the way.  Only arriving in ’96 I am considered far from a being a “County Boy”.  So my knowledge is derived from a keen interest in our history and from rubbing off the County Archivist, i.e., MFO. So my role is mostly relegated to punctuation, sentence structure and helping with the flow of a given story.

Part of my responsibility should be to produce a “Story” for inclusion in the Chronicles.  One of the editors suggested I do something on food, a subject with which I have some degree of knowledge and familiarity.  SO years ago I thought I would do something like “The evolution of fine dining in St Mary’s county”.  I’ve done a couple of interviews of local long time restaurateurs.  Question is: how far back should I go?  I think it should begin with plantations (like Sotterley) and the enslaved people who were living there.  Many brought with them the foodways of their country of origin where they were forced into slavery, and adapted them to what was available in this country.  With just a little bit of poetic liberty, you soon find yourself with recipes for things like “Fried Green Tomatoes” which I decided to try.  

Step one, obtain some!   Fortunately, I have a friend with an extensive garden which produces a lot of tomatoes and of course they go green before turning into red.

AResized Green tomatoes wcm t6s 200823 

I selected one to begin

Sliced it up

(fairly thick as the recipe specified)

And did the Mise en Place for the batter, etc.

And even decided to “kick it up a notch”

Got out the fryer

 got the oil to the specified temperature

and fried them and served along side local corn

They were pretty good.   I think they’re done for the season.

Well what does one drink with/for a classic southern dish????\  To borrow a phrase from the Gorilla… Of Course!!!

An interesting aside, thrown in here. I purchased this rather expensive bottle of Absinthe (substitute).  If you read many cocktail recipes that call for that ingredient of Herbsaint, most of them want you to either use miniscule amounts or: “spritz or rinse the inside of an iced cocktail glass with the Absinthe (or Herbsaint), Remove the ice from the glass and coat the glass with the Herbsaint, then discard”..  the darn bottle costs a lot, and so you are literally throwing your money away. 

So…

• 1 cube sugar
• 3 dashes bitters
• 1 1/2 to 3 ounces of Rye whiskey  (to taste)
• 1/4 ounce absinthe
• Garnish: lemon twist

Rinse a chilled cocktail glass with the Absinthe and discard

Muddle the sugar cube with the bitters

Add whiskey and stir

Gently squeeze the lemon twist over the drink to release its essence.

Serve

Enjoy, ya’ll and with COVID who cares about

DFD

Did you know that IHOP is gone?? i didn't