wrapping the weekend...

Weekend Music, eats, and events..

First, we eat.

Friday, I mentioned that we were going over to Breton Bay for the annual spring dinner meeting of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society.  And historically, it is held at the picturesque Olde Breton Inn, home of the famous county Baileys.  And, as I said before hand, I thought I could name the menu from memory. And, I was right!   To accompany the cash bar there were little bits set out to go with....  your small drink... Standard

That’s country ham, by the way, not “stuffed”, and of course cheese cubes, those little cuppy tostito thingies that held “something”.  You get what you expected..

As with dinner.  Every year: Eddie tells you to get in the  (always) buffet line

Which every year starts with steamed (to death) veggies; squash “stuff”; some sort of slaw; the standard off the truck chicken cordon blue:

and one of the things they always do well

Then mashed potatoes (and canned gravy), leading to the hand carved steamship round

With horseradish, horseradish sauce, or au jus.  So you construct your plate with what you always get and there you go:

The time honored standard Bailey plate.  And lest you think I’m being critical, I’m not.   From the moment I received the invite and confirmed that it was same location, I knew exactly what I was going to get.  No surprises, nothing awful, nothing really great (with the exception of the oysters, which are always very nice), don’t have to worry or think, just go on auto.  Get the food, talk to your table mates, have a nice time.

The program for the evening was a presentation on two historical books.  The first was about the rise (and fall) of the local commercial seafood industry (oysters, clams, crabs, fish, etc.)  lots of neat pictures of shuckers, fishermen.  The second one was a history of the local wooden boat construction that of course HAS died out.  Pictures of “Cap’n” so and so, and his boats. Both are available at the Calvert Marine Museum.

Events

Well, kinda.  We have a little PNC bank branch office on our corner now, replacing the older one next to it.  Saturday, they hosted a “Taste of 235” which had several of the restaurants  up and down Rte. 235 participating (from Mixing Bowl to D. B. McMillans) along with places like Anita’s Cakes, Dunkin’ Donuts (price and participation may vary, limited time offer, see store for details – ever hear their radio commercials?  Godawful).  Of course the intent of the bank was to convince you to do business there.  Which I will never do based on how shabbily they treated us when they snagged our home equity line of credit.  So when the lady with the smile and clipboard approached our (mixed) little table and got past “how you guys doing today?” and  all chatty about the weather, I just glared at her.  I was “nice” and didn’t say anything.  It wasn’t her fault, in fact she was pleasant, but you can have the damn bank.  Anyway, there were booths set up and you could sample the wares of the vendors.  There were lots of people there sampling this and that...

It was “kid friendly” so you had to have the “balloon bender guy”

And strangely enough I didn’t see any face painters.  The folks from the Tides brought some hot crab dip in little rolls

I saw some of our neighbors, and most everybody had seemingly a nice time, so I will give the bank (despite ulterior motives) credit for providing the opportunity to bring folks together.

Music

Last evening (Sunday) despite the day long wind and rain, we decided to try to go to the concert of the “Suspicious Cheese Lords” which was to be held in the brick chapel at Historic St. Mary’s City.  Several times I have cursed and praised the acoustics inside, cursing the screaming kids, and praising the music.  One of the people at the City arranged to have them perform last night in the Chapel.  They are a group of ten (last night) gentlemen (not “guys”) who sing a cappella medieval music.  They have quite a reputation around the mid atlantic.  Driving down there through the cold rain and wind, we wondered if perhaps it would be canceled or at least moved into the (warm, dry, near bathrooms) auditorium at the Visitor Center.  Surely they wouldn’t make people do the walk.  Yes, they did, and stop calling me… (insert rim shot here).  So with umbrella held horizontal to protect as much of the body as possible (not very effectively) we made the walk I have done so often as a ChapVol out to the chapel.  Once inside the only bother was the fairly chilly temperatures (to go with the damp pantlegs).  But sure enough about thirty or so hardy souls had braved the elements and were seated on benches and chairs.  Eventually they were introduced and started singing

As you can see, the acoustics are from the large flat, blank walls.  Those walls have been called 17^th century amplifiers.  And they did their jobs.  What lovely music.  They ultimately sang about 14 selections from early 15th century to a contemporary piece by one of the “Lords”.  One of the more beautiful pieces was “Lamentations of the Profit Jeremiah” by Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585).  Of course it was sacred music, all it latin.  By the time they neared the end, the light was fading and they resorted to flashlights to see the music.

It also created some pretty patterns on the ceiling

It is amazing what the human voice can do.  To my humble engineering ear, they were right on pitch, timing was great.  It was a great experience hearing music pretty much as it would have been sung 500 years ago.  Kind of chilling.

So that was our weekend, how was yours?  Nothing to do?  Hah!

Okay time to quit this and go get

DFD (preceded by cocktails)

Bits and Pieces

Potpourri for your friday

I guess first “to do”.

In the 15 odd years (yikes!) that I have been here in Southern Maryland, I have to say I have NEVER attended the legendary “Opening of the Tiki Bar”.  I was going to say that I was “proud” to say…. But that’s kind of not fair.  Obviously there are many (thousands) of people with differing opinions because the opening receives almost national coverage.  It is a pilgrimage for many folk.  Fortunately we will be able to observe (and most likely hear) some of the goings on from the safety of the digs across the river from the festivities.  I’m sure we’ll see the flashing lights (but not the other flashings) and hear sirens, and maybe some music if winds are right, but not the huge crowds.  So if you go, I hope you enjoy it, be careful and arrange for transportation if that is a factor.  It is just another unique event here in the land of nothing to do.

On a little higher plane there is an interesting concert Sunday evening in the Brick Chapel at Historic St. Mary’s City.   As a Chapel Volunteer (ChapVol) there spending many hours, there is an interesting thing about acoustics inside the Chapel.  Last Wednesday when I was there hosting groups of kids for Homeschool Day, there were herds of varying amounts of them, from two or three to upwards of ten.  Once they figure out the echoes are great, screaming contests often ensue.  With the cacophony of that going on, it is IMPOSSIBLE to talk to somebody even if they are right next to you and be understood. It is amazing.  On the other hand, music, choral or instrumental, is just lovely.  One of the historians at the city calls the walls the “17^th century amplifier system.  It is gorgeous.  But I digress… Sunday at six thirty, a male a cappella ensemble called (and i am not making this up) “The Suspicious Cheeselords” will perform music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.  There is a $5 fee at the door, and you must walk out to the chapel from the Visitor Center off Rosecroft Road.  Seating is limited by the size of the chapel.

In kind of a related note, the first of this year’s River Concert Series will be on the 22^nd of June.  I see a note in the paper this morning that there has been a task force assembled to consider the future of the Series, as there has been much speculation on the cost and sustainability of the concerts.  With the Orchestra expanding its venues (with a fee), it will be interesting to see what comes out of it.  The “report out” is expected this fall.

This weekend will also mark the celebration of Earth Day with things too numerous to mention going on in Leonardtown starting Sunday afternoon.

Whew.

Passings

Yesterday (or the day before, it all runs together) the Today folk spent a good half hour eulogizing Dick Clark.  No doubt an American phenomenon (I won’t say Idol), he provided a stage (ha ha) that launched many a career, and kind of brought popular music into the mainstream.  With a little less fanfare it was noted last Thursday that Levon Helm passed from complications of cancer.  He, along with Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson formed the (IMHO) iconic musical group “The Band”.  Don’t think ever before or since there was a group with such unique music.  You new immediately who was playing songs like The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down; Ophelia; and of course “The Weight”.  Classic, classic stuff.  You just don’t hear that anymore..  You still have a recording of "Music from Big Pink" with Dylan ?  You should.  They’re all going, leaving us with the likes of the Justin Biebers of the world, The Voice, American Idol and other trash.

Finally Food

I had an interesting conversation last night with somebody regarding MSG.  It was discovered that she has an allergy to MSG resulting in unpleasant symptoms.  She related a story about a recent (sort of by accident) trip to one of our local chains, Texas Roadhouse.  She is pretty food savvy on her own, and knows enough not to order steaks in a place like that because the rubs they use often contain MSG.  She spied a chicken dish on the menu, and just to be sure, asked the server if it contained MSG.  The reply was she didn’t know, but would go ask the kitchen.  Upon return, the diner was told that “All of our food has MSG”.   MFO and I were somewhat taken aback by this.  We thought that MSG had sort of “fallen out of favor” and was not in widespread use anymore.  I have no separate confirmation of this, but I pass it along for what it’s worth.

Tonight MFO and I are attending the annual Dinner of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society. It is always kind of a fun event, most of the local “history” people show up, and there is usually a good program.  But more interesting to the feeder is the venue.  They usually have the dinner at the Olde Breton Inn, home of the local catering legend Eddie Bailey, and tonight will be no different.  I probably could give you the menu from memory, but we’ll see if there are any changes.  I may take the new little point and shoot and provide documentation.  MFO and I along with the other attendees will most assuredly be

DFD

Checks, and Cheques

Trying Large again...

Checks

After yakking about the (lack of) power play in the NHL the other day, I eventually wound up watching the Flyers play the Penguins, which got me to thinking again.  As a young engineer I aspired to becoming a “professional engineer”, emblematic of the pinnacle of the profession.  I normally associate the word with reaching the highest level of any particular field.  A professional dancer or opera singer is usually regarded as at the highest performance level.

I am not sure anymore that it applies to sports.  Those of us who have or are coaching kids in (you name it) hockey, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, basketball, teach them the skills, sportsmanship, concepts of team play and so forth and what do most of them dream of?:  becoming a “pro”.  I look around now at those who play sports professionally, and I would ask myself, do I want my child to turn out like that?  I guess when you join a professional team, you give away your ethics and get paid to injure people, cross check from behind, slam dunk a basketball and then “in your face” your opponent.  People will not sign contracts because despite millions, it is a couple less than somebody else, and hence is not acceptable.  I don’t ever remember Bart Starr holding out for more money.  I suppose it is reflective of the “me” society, the heck with a team, it’s all about me and my ego.  Finish college?  How stupid – show me the money!!

Cheques

Yesterday I sat down to write a check/cheque to pay the piper in the form of credit card bills, and noticed on the statement my “account number” was listed as: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx- plus the last four of the card number.  It was in there more than one place.  That’s nice I thought, they’re trying to protect my secrecy.  So as I finished writing the check (and sobbing), I looked at the back of the envelope with all the little tips like don’t send cash, one of which is “write your account number on the check”.   Hmm, I thought, I wonder.. So since I was feeling a little frisky (and caffeinated) I dialed up the good folks at Visa.  After deciding I wanted to continue in English, the next recorded message was “please enter your 16 digit account number so we can be of more assistance”.  “Agent!” I shouted into the phone.  Silence.  “okay, if you would like your account balance, please enter the 16 digit account number so we can proceed”.  After about 5 more “agent!” screams I was warned my call might be monitored or recorded, and it actually rung and a human answered.  I won’t go into any cultural differences; we’ve all had that experience.  “how may I help you?”.  Well, I just have a general question:  since your statement shows my account as (x’s), is that what you want on the check?.... Pause…  “Do you need to know your account number sir?  I can help you with that”.   No, I am asking if you want me to write the account number on my check exactly as shown on your statement?  “I can show you how to find your account number”.  No….. and after a couple more tortured attempts, I think the bulb finally lit, and he began to comprehend what I was really asking..  “Oh no, sir you have to write the complete 16 digit account number on the check”.  Well, for security purposes you don’t put it on your statement.  “that is correct sir”.  But you want me to divulge the complete number on my check?....  Pause….  “yes sir”.   Do you see any inconsistency in that?.   Silence.  (about ten minutes now),  “I can see your concern, but you must write the number.  I can pass your comment to my supervisor”.   Sensing defeat, I said fine, please do that.  “is there anything more I can help you with today Mr. Moody?”  No, I don’t thinks so.  “Have a nice day and thank you for using Visa!”.   I tell you it is the little things that add up to that aneurism. 

Food quickie

Since I was asked today as I entered Coffee Quarter for yet another community related meeting, just a couple of sentences.  Lately I have found the place to be improving and generally more populated than it has been before.  I also think the staff has less piercings and (visible) body art, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Speaking of coffee places…. another quick thought.  Have you been to our local Starbuck’s after the “renovation” was completed?  IMHO a complete disaster.  The counter side of things is probably better, but they sliced up the “seating area” with a monstrous floor to ceiling “shelf" that cleaves the area in two.  Plus if you don’t watch yourself coming in the door, you might bust your nose.  And remember those soft leather chairs?  Gone.  Hard seating only, with a (for lack of a better term) community table seating six.  Mostly it is occupied with people staring at screens, but I would feel funny sitting down there.  On the other wall is a bench from end to end.  The proprietor claims there is more seating but it’s hard to believe.  It used to be kind of welcoming and inviting, but now it’s just kind of cold and hard.   One would hope it was not done intentionally to make it so uncomfortable that you don’t want to stay.  Turn those tables!!  Sigh.

 Who cares how you

DFC

Tax Day....

Got those taxes in?   Remember the Titantic?  No, I wasn’t there.

With MFO scheduled to arrive this afternoon, I have to get to arranging the house.  But I did want to make a couple of quick Sunday morning comments..  about (what else) food, traffic, and sports. 

Food First (as it should be)

Last night I was invited to liven up my bachelordom by joining some friends for dinner down at the Ridge American Legion Hall.  Once (twice?) a month they have a “Steak Night” where for 14 bucks you get dinner.  (price soon to rise a dollar).  A couple of generations were in our party so I was advised to be there at 5:30.  Despite some snarky thoughts about is this dinner or late lunch, I said “Sure”.  The Legion building in ridge is just below the meeting of Routes 5 and 235, so It’s pretty far down there.  I suppose it’s like a million other American Legion posts in America, a low brick building, neon beer signs in the window, and a cluster of smokers outside the door.  Inside is a comfortable timeless bar, with probably the only modification in the last decade is the addition of flat screens.   Obvious “regulars” populated the bar, everybody knows everybody and conversation flows easily.  For the “nighters” you pass through the bar, give the lady your fourteen dollars and receive a little ticket, and enter the hall.  Lined with tables and oilcloth coverings, place mats are set along with rolled up pressed silverware.  There were many people there, almost giving it an air of a social event, which, in reality is exactly what it was.  Friends gathering together to chat about their week, how’s Uncle Ralph doing?, have you put in your garden plants yet?, did you hear about….  Although there were a few family groups with kids, most were at least my age.

To obtain food, you sit until a (?) volunteer comes along to take your order.  There is pretty much a ritual to follow, and thank goodness I had a guide (although I had been there once before a couple of years ago).  The delivered dinner consists of a steak (to your choice of doneness), green beans, corn, a roll, and a baked potato.  For veterans of the event, all this gets reduced to ordering “medium rare, beans”.  Or for the more hungry: “medium rare, both” indicating you want beans AND corn.  That’s it.  Off it goes to the kitchen.  Meantime you can go into the bar, get a (reasonably priced) beverage, and then over to the side table which contains help yourself soup, salad, and fixin’s.  The soup (as I remember) was in actual melamine bowls, but salad (from a huge bowl in ice) only has Styrofoam bowls available.  Dressings and fixings are provided are all in plastic packets, those creations of the devil that are almost impossible to open, never do where they should, and then the dressing dribbles out from some unexpected spot.   You also pick up sour cream (in little plastic tubes) and (ice cold patties of) butter for the potatoes.   Eventually (upwards of a half hour last night) they bring the (melamine) plates of food, auctioned off by a recitation of “well done both;  medium rare corn, etc.” and you surrender your little orange ticket for the plate.  Classic Legion fare I suppose, the beans and corn look like they came straight from a Del Monte can, the potato is wrapped in foil which somehow retains the potatoes heat forever, and a steak with one of those little colored plastic stabbers indicating the doneness of the meat.  As I observed around the table, the stabber was pretty accurate.  My medium rare was just that, which is a pretty good trick for a piece of meat less than an inch thick.  It had pretty good flavor although you had to cut around the odd piece of sinew here and there.

But of course you’re not really there for the food, it is just a reason to gather together, enjoy company of friends, catch up on local gossip, and maybe have one more bud light than you usually do.  Community and food.  A great combination.

 Traffic (okay, rant)

Last Thursday I left the digs about ten to six to head to the Dry Dock for my one good dinner.  Upon turning north on 235 at Millstone landing road, I was faced with three lanes of stationary cars, i think due to an earlier accident somewhere.  A nice person let me in (I gave a wave as you always should) and pulled into the nearest lane since eventually I would be turning right on 4, and going over the bridge.  And a good 35 minutes later I did exactly that.  Once again, by the time I did that I was frothing at the mouth, and yelling at the local morons.  I do not understand why they feel they are so important that they can use the “right turn only” lane as their personal expressway.   I suppose they are going so fast that the signs saying “Right Lane MUST Turn Right at Intersection” are not readable.  Or, if experience shows there is an island at the next intersection, you merely turn on (or not) your blinker and just shove over until past the island, then accelerate again.  What do we pay the police for anyway??  Grrrr.....

Sports

With college basketball and the Master’s over, the NHL playoffs have begun.   As a rule, I don’t much watch pro hockey during the season (which has little meaning) but get more interested as the holy playoffs begin.  Readers may remember that both FOJTE and Y played for years in youth and high school and E also in college.  Plus dad coached for twenty some odd years, so I think (in my own mind) that I know a little bit about the sport.  I won’t go into the “fighting” rant here (although I could), but rather another thing sort of caught my eye last night.  When I coached kids I would spend a few minutes of precious ice time each practice on the “power play”, a crucial part of the game.  And indeed the operative word there is “play”.  Basically, since you have (at least) one more player on the ice than the other team, they cannot cover everyone.  The legendary coach Bob Johnson would preach power play tactics in clinics, give out reams of diagrams, and discuss at length things like “the umbrella”.  The goal (ha ha) is to have an open man in good scoring position with the puck on his stick.  Give and goes, drive down, dish off, all orchestrated to provide that good scoring chance.  A thing of beauty when it clicks.  Well, in the professional ranks (supposedly the pinnacle of the sport) they still use the term “Power Play” but it bears no resemblance to anything like a planned play.   Pass the puck back and forth at the points, maybe dish behind, back to the points, until somebody feels like they can blast a slap shot toward the net, hoping by a miracle to score, or to create a rebound.  No looking for two on ones, no drawing defense away from net, just pass, pass, pass, blast.  Sigh, I can be a beautiful game if played right.  Too bad..

and for the Legion dinner there was no apparent custom to

DFD

Can you spell triskaidekaphobia?

Uncharacteristically for me, this has nothing to do with that!  Just couldn't let it pass unnoticed.

So just a few this and that’s to occupy some of your Friday time.. which is the 13^th, in case you had not noticed, be careful out there…

Events

As you all know, April is Archeology Month, and in honor of that,  tonight there is a nice program down at Historic St. Mary’s city.  Several of the archeologists there will be making a little presentation on their recent digs and findings.  No charge of course, it is in the Visitor Center at 7:30.  With MFO in Wisconsin I will be there.

Sunday there is the inaugural concert of the Waterside Music Festival Series. Silberschlag and his orchestra are entering into an expanded bunch of concerts apart from the River Concert venue.  Concerts are planned for Woodlawn, National Harbor, and perhaps Porto Bello.  There is a $25 fee, but supporting one of our unique attractions here in SOMD.  Although I am not sure, I suspect you might be able to try some Slack Winery product. I’m still on the fence there.

Food Related

I got my latest copy of Cook’s Illustrated the other day, and after passing on the Kimball column about how wonderful Vermont and its people are, sI tarted leafing through the recipes and insightful  tips (like how to use your barbeque tongs as a makeshift bottle opener) and came across a recipe called “Really Good Crab Cakes”.  Mercifully no mention of “Maryland Style” was to be found, but the premise of this piece was that while freshly picked crab meat is preferred he wanted to “come up with the best (gasp) possible crab cakes….regardless of whether I was starting with fresh crab meat”.  A little side bar rated commercially available crab meat with Phillips Premium Crab Jumbo top rated (at $27 for 16 oz.) and passable canned Miller’s Select.  I went on to look at the recipe and found a twist I had not heard of before.  It contained a bunch of stuff (celery, onion, garlic, heavy cream, Dijon, Old Bay) but I came up short when I saw “4 ounces of shrimp, peeled deveined and tails removed”.  Say what?  Well, the reason is that he wanted to make a sort of binder to hold the crab together.  Somehow he came up with the idea of using shrimp (to enhance the briny sweetness and plump bite of the crabmeat). and decided on a mousseline.  “blitz 6 ounces of shrimp in the food processor (yes, the recipe called for 4) with 6 tablespoons of cream, old bay, Dijon, hot sauce and fresh lemon) he loved it, and the science editor called it a true “meat glue”.

Anyway the whole preparation is pretty extended: soak the crab in milk 20 minutes, toast panko crumbs, puree some and sauté some of the veggies, combine, let cool, mix in this, add that, and finally come up with 8 panko coated items which you then fry in oil (after firming in the fridge for 20 minutes).  While intriguing, it strikes me as just plain silly.  Cook’s Illustrated at it’s best!

Coming and Going

The whole restaurant/food service business is strange.  Talk about volatile!  Openings and closings, revolving chefs, revamping, and as they say, Change is the only constant.  As a case in point in our little community, in my very last posting I talked about Chef’s American Bistro morphing into Café Kilimanjaro (with a sidebar of Lone star becoming Brasserie 235).  Well, this morning I learn that not only will American Bistro be shuttered, the operation will move to the retirement center in Wildewood (home of multiple attempts at a restaurant, the latest being La Tabella).  It sounds as if La Tabella will be no more (due to the unfortunate death of the owner) and instead it will become “Brasserie at the Village”.  He seems driven to have a Brasserie..  anyway it will feature an “upscale European and French menu, introducing lots of seafood, a raw bar, domestic and foreign beers and an exciting array of small vintners wines and an array of well made scotches, whiskeys, gins, vodkas, and cordials.”  He is shooting for around Mother’s Day.  Back in the day, Chef ran the restaurant there whatever name it was then.. tavern?  He has never thought small. I will not repeat my feeling about the space, regardless of what is on the table..

And lastly, a pleasant feature of the food business.  I treated myself to a solo dinner at the Dry Dock last night, and was delighted to see one of the “old team” of long ago appear as a manager to augment the owner who has been devoting a lot of time to that.  She departed years ago to open her own place up in Prince Frederick.  Once the business gets you, it’s hard to let go.  She was a great server, and now I’m sure her talents will do nothing but elevate the Dry Dock even more.  I had a fried oyster starter last night that were some of the best I’ve had in a long time.  Just the right size oysters in a light batter that stood up in little peaks, not just a clumpy shroud surrounding the meat.  It was crisp, and the oysters just creamy.  I should have had a dinner portion.

Okay, that’s it for a Friday the thirteenth.  MFO points the MOMSTER east tomorrow to arrive on Sunday.  I bet when she arrives she will want to be

DFD

ps/admin.. you might notice that i have been playing around with font sizes, some thought the "old" was too small, but now some think the larger is too big.. Opinions welcomed.  I'll leave today's "small".  i only have two choices.