Well, the thing about not taking trips is that you can’t
blog about taking trips. Sooooo, we’ll resort
to kind of a this and that format. They
Fried Oyster project is moving, just not as fast as I had thought. I was able top procure some Duck Fat, so I have
that going for me… Will probably get to
it after this next “Epic” winter storm does what it does this weekend.
So let’s lead off with food (hey! That’s novel!). Last Saturday I attended the Friends of the
(St. Mary’s County) Library annual winter brunch.
And, like always it’s held at St. George's Episcopal Church in Valley Lee. And, like always, the food is prepared by “the
Church Ladies”, although there was a healthy representation of the “non-distaff”
side. A quick oddity, I googled “antonym
for distaff” and it says there isn’t any!
There is some obtuse reference to spears, but certainly no definitive male
equivalent of distaff. Anyhow, there
were quite a few men in the kitchen, and in fact the person kind of in charge is a guy (note
proper use of the word). Of course the
attendees tend to be the same year after year; library staff, board members,
most of the volunteers for the book sale, so we mostly know each other. One reader of the Feeder and he came
over and said: “I’ll be reading about this for sure!”. Well, in a way, he is correct. The problem is there is nothing new to
say. For the last N of these events, the
food has been nearly exactly (I’ll leave a little wiggle room) the same. The buffet lineup is a couple of Quiches, two
kinds of egg bake: plain and with peppers; French Toast; Stewed apples; Scrapple and Sausage; Roasted Pork Loin; Green beans (the “wide” kind); and Kugel (a noodle casserole thing).
Now, let me state right here that like every year, the food
is very good and put together in the kitchen, not unwrapped from some food service truck. The sausage is some of the best I’ve
had, and NOT from a round tube, it’s hand patted
On the left is Scrapple another local “delicacy” (you like
it or you don’t). The history of the
dish would take a whole column, but generally it’s made out of the “leftovers”
from slaughtering hogs and has various regional forms, such as Livermush,
Liverpudding, and “Goetta”. General
process is to mix the offal with Cornmeal and or Buckwheat Flour, add spices of
choice, form it into a loaf, let it set, slice it and fry it up.
Read more about scrapple (etc., if you're interested) here:
Anyway it is always an enjoyable event, with real local food, and we’ll look
forward to next year with the same expectations (a mild hint). By the way, the pictures above were taken at the January, 2011 brunch, but you couldn't tell the difference five years later.
PS the annual FOL book sale will be in April this year, on the 22nd
Rising from the ashes..
When I first began coming here (70’s and 80’s) there was a
deli called Showtime Deli located in what is now the Mixing Bowl in “downtown”
Lexington Park. It was very popular for
sandwiches and the character who reigned over it’s operation. I will probably be corrected, but eventually they
morphed into “Charlie’s Deli”, and then closed all together and I THINK moved
down the road to open a larger operation, just called “Charlies”, which has since closed and then a failed brief stint as a Jamaican themed place. Anyway the original "Showtime" Gelrud clan has revived
Showtime Deli!
On Great Mills Road in the building that was most recently Rita’s, which came after a history of a Sushi
place, and going back to a McDonald's. I
may have missed one incarnation in there. At any
rate they will again be serving their "Famous Overstuffed" sandwiches with clever names
like “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a ham” or “A streetcar named Pastrami”; all
kind of “Show” related.
Normally, I am a bit skeptical about newly opened places in
locations with a history of failures, but I have to be more optimistic
here. This is not their first rodeo (I’ve
always wanted to open a restaurant” = doom);
They know the market (big lunch time crowd), and have dealt with this
product before. Only nearby competition
would be Subway, which they should be easily able to trump. Plus, everybody likes a good sandwich like
Pastrami.. I wish them luck! With so many local places closing it is good
to see some veterans get back in the game.
Another showtime
Changing away from food for a bit, but in the “Showtime”
vein, PBS debuted a new series called “Mercy Street”, taking place during the Civil War. It is set in 1862 Alexandria
(filmed elsewhere) that centers around a “Yankee” Hospital pushed into commandeered Southern
Mansion. Two nurses are featured, one from a Confederacy background, and another with Northern heritage. The ladies are each VERY dedicated to their
respective “causes”, and squabble a lot, but each respects the other and are dedicated
to saving lives, maybe with a little attention to the color of the uniform of
the patient. In the middle is a doctor
who seems to be the “good guy” (only one episode in, mind you). Who
pontificates with phrases like “Blood is neither blue nor gray”. There is also an African American who seems
trapped in the Southern mentality.
We thought it was kind of heavy handed, and overplayed the Northern/Southern
tension too much. Of course I wasn’t
there, but there seems to be genuine hatred shown both ways where philosophy
should not override saving lives and limbs.
We each decided we would give it one more shot (It follows Downton Abby,
I suppose to trap the audience).
Sports shorts (NOT the Peyton commercial)
Had enough football yet? Pretty dramatic stuff in the NFL divisional playoffs: Packer’s pack up
for home (coin gate?), Sneaky Pete goes back to Seattle after a bizarre tale of
two halves, Kansas City streak ends in Foxborough, and Big Ben shows, but
returns to Pittsburgh. Three more games.
Have you heard about the emerging Tennis scandal? More to come there..
No sense mentioning the Spartans..
Enjoy the games, sandwiches, scrapple, and
DFD
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