Winter drags on....

Well, did you survive the N^th storm of the season?  I think the all knowing weather channel dubbed it Titan, and indeed predictions were that it would live up to that name.   In reality, at least around the digs, it wasn't quite as bad.  I put that down in part to the fact that I repeated my ritual of preparing for Armageddon: move generator into place; test start it; stage extension cords; arrange battery powered devices (flashlights, lanterns, radios) strategically around the house; a selection of spare batteries concentrated all in one place; vehicles and spare gas cans filled; etc.  Of course MFO thinks this proves I am nuts, but in the three (?) major storms so far this year, we have maintained power and heat.  See, it’s only crazy if it doesn't work

The day started out as predicted, with snow blowing sideways

(flakes not visible in 24 knot winds)

So that accumulation was pretty much impossible at least on the back side.  This continued for hours and between drifts and snowfall I think we maybe got five or so inches.  Eventually the storm moved on, the sun kind of peeked through, leaving a rather pretty sight in both our “front”

And “back” yards lighting up the Solomons

And our feathered friends gathered to partake of the seed

5451

And the place where we have enjoyed numerous Gimlets and DMOTRWAT's didn't look quite so hospitable 

Eventually our tax dollars at work arrived in the form of County Plows to clear the streets, and once again despite complaints and pleas with county officials, they started at the inside of the circle, and progressive passes pushed the snow outward, eventually building a virtual dam across all the ends of our driveways

“There you go Mr. Homeowner, be sure to gun the car in your driveway and maybe you can jump it! have a nice day"

You would think that in these technologically advanced time they could use the truck’s on board hydraulics to change the blade angle such that you could start outside and move the snow toward our circle.  Or, much easier, go the other way, and achieve the same effect.  Wind row at the circle circumference is much better than across the end of our driveway.  (End of rant portion).

Fluff

You remember our discussion of Crab Fluff wherein the high and mighty Bottom Feeder was educated that indeed there is such a thing?  Well, an intrepid reader sent along a menu picture from a place called Ocean Pride in Towson

Fluff seems to be more prevalent up toward Baltimore.. guess I gotta go try it somehow..

Small Plates

Every day I get sent a couple of “newsletters” from various associations and agencies with stories about what’s new and (forgive me) “trending” in the food and beverage service industry.  A lot of them are geared toward the chains, because face it, that’s where the overwhelming majority of people spend their dining cash.  Sigh.  Anyway you find out stuff like:

-        IHOP is exploring a fast casual concept within their existing restaurants

-        Wendy’s will sell 415 of their restaurants in the first quarter to the franchisees, and require makeovers

-        Tim Horton's will further invade the US with 300 more of their legendary coffee and donut outlets (with 500 more in their own Canada)

-        McDonald's will begin test marketing “build your own burger” concepts with customers using tablets 

-        Texas Roadhouse will look into acquiring a secondary outlet for Pizza, called, get this: Bubba’s 33!  Apparently Chipolte is quietly expanding to pizza, as is BWW…If you want to get rich, I suggest you talk to your bank and go for the first Bubba's 33 franchise in St. Mary's County!!  Can't lose.

In the beverage department

-        Idaho has opened their 50^th winery

-        MillerCoors will begin marketing “Smith and Forge Hard Cider” mainly to manly men.

-        And more

Okay enough, I gotta go put away a bunch of batteries and stuff… and then think about getting

DFD

History

This week we lost a great friend to museums and historic preservation when Dr. Martin Edward Sullivan passed.  There will be many formal tributes to Dr. Sullivan, but to most of us here in Southern Maryland he was just…. Marty.  His long list of accomplishments will be told by others, but he will be remembered here as somebody who left a prestigious job in Arizona to become the Executive Director of Historic St. Mary’s City.  It was under his guidance that the “city” blossomed, and he worked with St. Mary’s College to establish their Museum Studies curriculum.  He brought an infectious enthusiasm to everything he did, and you couldn't help but share his passion for history.  He left Historic St. Mary’s to become the Director of the National Portrait Gallery in DC. 

During the time he was there, MFO successfully “won” a private small group tour of the Gallery, to be led by Marty.  Great, I thought… tromp around an old building looking at dusty pictures of dead Presidents.  Well, the truth was that that “tour” will stand out in my memory for a long time.  Marty hosted us in his office (complete with wine, mind you), told us about the Gallery and then led us on a fascinating walk through history and American culture.  He had an astonishing knowledge of all (and there are plenty!) the paintings, told stories about them, pointed out this and that, why this person was important, on and on.  He didn’t lecture us, he just talked about them matter of factly.  That was so typical of Marty, unassuming,  just like talking to your neighbor across the fence. 

So now Dr. Martin Edward Sullivan has passed into that history he cared so much about, but he will always remain in our memory as…… Marty..  Thanks for stopping by

Afternoon

While basking between this morning’s “dusting” and Sunday night’s “maybe” storm (see “weather” below) I had a nice interlude this afternoon.  Not much else going on, so this is kind of light.

I was finally able to match holes in schedules with a friend and we decided we’d go to lunch.  Since he lives “down” in Southern Maryland we decided we would try the St. Inigoes General Store, a place that people have informed the feeder about.  It has been on the “gotta go there” list for a while so this seemed like a good time to try it.  People seem to like it.

So we joined up in the parking lot, and went inside.  Indeed it is a “general store”, with shelves containing various items you would expect to find in a general store, cleaning products, various dry foods, that kind of thing..  There were a number of people standing around the counter, and nearby a white board presented sandwich specials, like an Oyster Po’ Boy for $10.95.  We looked around for the dining area, and guess what, we were in it!  As near as we could figure out, there is no sit down service available, but we didn’t ask.  So, we decided to vacate to another venue.  Problem: where are you going to go in the lower county?  Answer: Courtney’s!

Alert readers will know that Courtney’s is the king of my “Just Right” list now that St. James Pub has shuttered (and one might reasonably argue Courtney’s was always the king).  Due to the failure of Plan A, it was a little later than peak lunch time, and there were only two other groups seated.  One was a collection of (what we assumed were) Volunteer Rescue workers, complete with those jackets that have acronyms on the back.  Every once in a while, static squawking noises emanated from devices affixed to them..They seemed all to be in the veteran category, and were having a good time relaxing (you always have time to relax at Courtney’s).  Eventually Tom Courtney showed up at our table with the perennial cap affixed to his head, pad and menus in hand.  He stood with pencil poised and menus undelivered, but we kind of knew what we wanted, a bacon cheeseburger and an oyster basket, beer and coke.  He took down the order and left.  I thought he looked a lot more fit than the last time I saw him.  Five or so minutes later the (plastic) glass of ice cubes and plastic coke bottle arrived along with the Yuengling and frosted mug.

During the ensuing fifteen or twenty minutes we had plenty of time to catch up, enjoy the (now) sunny day and the water view, all the stuff on the walls, and general ambience.  Very pleasant.  At one point the food for the eight VRS folk arrived, complete with the ritual of Tom calling out the dish in hand, and the diner raising his or her hand to bid on it.  Normally I give crap for this kind of service, but in a place like this it is perfectly acceptable and even expected.  As it should be.

Our food eventually showed up, the ritual distribution placed in front of me the waxed paper lined red plastic basket with six plump fried oysters, hot crispy fries with those little bumps on them, and across the table the hamburger topped with obviously just fried real bacon, not that flat stuff you normally get.  And it was served on those kind of special rolls they always have.  My request for a second beer fell on deaf ears, but what the hell.  Why not?

While we were eating Tom’s wife, the chef Emily(?) came out of the kitchen with six cupcakes (still in their plastic six pack package), each one with a lit candle in it, and we all sang happy birthday to one of the VRS ladies.   How neat is that?  What an enjoyable afternoon.

Openings

On the other side of the peninsula and across the Patuxent, I see the “new” Lighthouse is opening for business (yes, you have to find this stuff out on Facebook) at least for lunch and happy hour. Prices are astonishingly low, but I suppose you gotta do that to “get them to come”.  I hope they do.  A picture looks like they have a very nice bar.  Since it is run by the Clarke’s Landing folk, they should have a leg up on the business.

Which leads me to think there are now quite a few opportunities for “fine dining” (a hazardous designation, I know) over there on the island.  The standby Dry Dock and remarkably good Bistro at Blue Heron Bistro Bed and Breakfast Bistro (I never remember the proper combination) are now joined by the “upstairs” at the Striped Rock and (presumably) the Lighthouse (caveat that the Feeder has not visited either place).    And while the CD Café is pretty much reliable and serves very good food, I don’t think I would classify them in the “fine” category.  However, I would put their Back Door Lounge right up there for a place for sips and small bites.. Some might mention Giovanni’s but I don’t.

Speaking of dining, some thirty one restaurants in Calvert County are participating in their Restaurant Week, which runs through this Sunday.  As I read it, there isn’t the hokey meal for $20.14 that is fairly common, just special menus (?) and prices.  Check it out if you wish.

Weather

An odious subject these days indeed.  Since I’ve mentioned Facebook a few times, I’ll keep going.  There is now a proliferation of “weather” pages, all trying to provide up to the minute predictions and conditions.  While I suppose they are all okay, if you want to follow one, I would recommend following: “Justin Berk, Meterologist”.  He is a retired professional having worked television for years.  He has pretty much nailed amounts, timing, and severity over the past few storms.  

Meanwhile we gotta go get

DFD

Pucks and Oysters...

Ye olde editor’s note:  this was penned late in the afternoon of Sunday (the 23^rd) so depending on when you see this, there is kind of “dated” material here and there

Well the winter games of the XXII Olympiad are over.. .. well, kind of over.  In reality, the closing ceremonies have concluded and the torch (has literally) passed to Korea for 2018.  However, intrepid NBC continues to pretend the nine hour time difference doesn’t exist and won’t let us see the closing ceremonies until this evening. So before getting to some food content, I’ll muse a little on the games just concluded.

I have never been competitive at sports (or little else for that matter) but the former athletes and competitors used as resource people for commenting on the events seem to stress that mostly who you are competing against is yourself.  They measure success by their own standards, being satisfied if they did the best they could, not what’s hanging on their necks at the end.  And speaking of measuring success, have you noticed the distinct lack of showing the “medal count” now that USA didn’t “win” the Olympics.

Slap shots

Having coached the sport for many years, I had special interest in the Hockey games and pretty much enjoyed the “big ice”, wide open, version played in the Olympics as opposed to the NHL version we see here.  Passing, skating, and play making are important, and I personally did not see or hear of any fights.  So much more entertaining.  A closer version is played here in the college games where you see 100% effort every shift and only minor pushing and shoving (it IS a contact sport). 

I also noted that it was thirty four years ago yesterday that the “Miracle on Ice” occurred in Lake Placid.  That team was composed of amateur players, and the defeat of the Russians in the semi finals has been called one of the top sports moments of the 20^th century.  Like other apocryphal moments in history I still remember exactly where I was.  I was in the Dellwood ice rink in Florrisant, MO (suburb of St. Louis), in a little locker room with a bunch of little kids fresh from practice. It was a great experience.  Bringing things back to the present, I think one reason that this year’s USA team was excused was exactly the same as recognized by MFO in those old days in St. Louis  hockey rinks whose stentorian “Too much Dancin’!!” could be heard from the stands when that last extraneous pass or an attempt at a cute stick handle move resulted in a turnover. Sound familiar?  The companion MFO message was “Shooooot the puck!”.  That particular piece of advice was echoed in these Olympics by none other than Eddie (the Eagle) who routinely commented that: “It’s never a bad play to put the puck on the net”.   Great sport..  see you in four years…. Hopefully !!

Oysters

Funny how things transpire..  Sometimes I never know where I’m going when I start to hammer the keyboard, and the words that flow take me someplace I had no idea of when I started.  Earlier this weekend I was working on my piece for the SMC tourism website and wanted to talk about something to cook in this dark winter we’re suffering.  Naturally, I thought of Oysters, and browsed my collection of cookbooks.  I ran across one from the past days here at Pax River

The cover image of a still complete Cedar Point Light House and the words NATC kind of give its age away.  I THINK it was published during the flight test program for the “original” F/A-18 Hornet, as part of a fund raiser for something as these types of “comb bound” volumes generally are.  I remembered a particular recipe that I used to make that was always appreciated even by those who normally don’t eat oysters, in the form of Scalloped Oysters.  Easy to make not much fuss and is really good.

Alert local food people will note the name of the contributor in the upper right.  In the day, Bill Taylor was known as the “Dinner Designer”, and catered elaborate dinner parties around the county.  His invitations were always a work of art, hand written in beautiful script (I still have a couple someplace).  In later years (‘90’s), his house was a museum of show costumes, playbills, and memorabilia devoted to musicals and shows.  As age overtook him, he became an irascible character, one of those people who had different persona between public and private.  He is no longer with us, no doubt planning dinners….somewhere.  But he was part of the fabric of Southern Maryland Food…  and by golly he was ALWAYS

DFD

Reminder:  Downton Abbey season ends tonight… DVR!!… remember last year’s surprise ending!!

A day in the life

Well, maybe, just maybe, we’ve seen the last of precipitation that lingers on the ground.. and once again I don’t have very much intelligent to say about food.. 

Less than intelligent, but interesting

There was an interesting article from one of my list serves on “How to detect a bad bottle of wine”.  These come along every so often and they pretty much tell the same story.  Sommeliers commonly report they get about one “bad” bottle a night.  Of course reputable ones will evaluate the wine before bringing it to the table.  The big problem is that us consumers are reluctant to claim the wine is “bad”, assuming they are inexperienced and hesitate to question a wine in a restaurant.  Instead, they’ll drink it and decide that they will never buy “that bad tasting wine again”.  “Corked” is the kind of catchall term that is used to describe flaws that put the wine “off”.   The effect can be anywhere from mild to overpowering (wet dog) further complicating matters.  Once you have experienced a corked bottle you will never doubt your nose again.  I was most grateful to finally run across a “bad” bottle which was confirmed and replaced at the point of sale.  Anyway, it’s something to keep in mind, and if you think it isn’t right, ask the server (hazardous – “Tastes fine to me!”) or the Sommelier.  Take it back to the store and ask politely.  Most reputable wine stores and restaurants don’t want you leaving without being satisfied..

Better

Sorry, didn’t mean to get off on a bunny trail, because I had a delightful afternoon today and need to talk about it.  After coffee and conversation with a friend, I went down to St. Mary’s College for another Brian Ganz piano talk.  I hate to keep writing about him, but darn it I just can’t help myself; his talent and personality just can’t be ignored.  The program today was all Chopin, part of his ten year long journey to perform every one of Frederic’s compositions.  He called it a “Chopin Buffet” because it presented a smorgasbord of different “styles” (sorry my good classical music friend), from Mazurkas, to Waltzes, Etudes, Preludes, a Scherzo, and a Ballade.  The Ballade was No. 4 in F minor, Op. 12.  Some consider this to be Chopin’s finest composition, if not the supreme piece of classical music ever written.  Brian is of this opinion.  I had heard it before but you never get tired of hearing it (sort of like the Dead’s “truckin’”).  It is beautiful.

There wasn’t much talking this time due to the number of pieces, but when Brian finished the program, he said he had received an email today requesting he play Chopin’s Funeral (something) or Fantasy Impromptu.  So here’s this world class artist asking if so and so is in the audience.  Yes, he was.  Okay, says Brian, if people are willing to stick around I’ll play the Fantasy for you, otherwise anybody who has to leave may.  About three people left (assumed they were students making a class).  Brian briefly disappeared back stage briefly, came back with a music book, and asked if anybody wanted to turn pages for him. from the audience:  “You don’t have it memorized?” (all eleven pieces previously were) … “well, not quite”  So some gentleman from the audience went up on stage, and said “nod your head when you want me to turn the page”.  Well, Brian said, I tend to nod my head a lot when I play (true statement), so I’ll go side to side when I want the page turned.

So with amateur page guy standing next to him (refused a chair) Brian played the beautiful Fantasy Impromptu… You would recognize it if you heard it.  Page guy had his hand on the page about a minute (my guess) before it needed to turn..

What a lovely experience.  We are so lucky to have him and live in this place..

Sport

In just a quick turn before closing, I hope you had a chance to see the USA/Russia Olympic hockey game Saturday.   What drama. And the (then) unknown kid from the Blues will go down in the annals of Olympic history along with the miracle on ice.  A lot of the (middle of the night) know it all, sports talk radio guys extolled how good this was for Hockey, on and on.  Well STRG guys, it’s a different game.  Larger ice surface, rules of overtime are different, and (thank God) they seem to concentrate on playing hockey instead of pandering to the blood thirsty American fans who only want to see fights.  Refreshing.  With no commercials, the game takes much less time to play.

And amazingly, I found myself fascinated by the Ice Dancing competition..  Talk about athletes.. wow. And the good ones are REALLY good. Flowing effortless motion in tight quarters, concentration, complicated maneuvers (and I learned the word “Twizzles”), including tosses, and so forth.  Great stuff.

Okay time for dinner and have to go get
DFD