Southern Cooking at its best! Inner Banks Clams

by Eddie Browning

Although thee are several species of hard clams, bivalve mollusks, in the North Carolina waters, there is only one of commercial importance, Mercenaria mercenaria. This is the one most commonly eaten locally and is known by many common names: little-neck, quahaug or quohog, hard shell clam, round clam and cherry stone. Clams are [...]

Summer Cooking : Pickled Okra

PICKLED OKRA
4 or 4 1/2 lbs. sm. okra pods
7 cloves garlic
7 hot peppers
7 tsp. dill seeds
1 qt. vinegar
1 c. water
1/2 c. pickling salt
Wash okra well. Drain and set aside. Place 1 clove garlic and 1 hot pepper into each of 7 hot sterilized pint jars. Pack jars firmly with okra, leaving 1/2 [...]

A St. Valentine’s Day secret - for men only!

If thanksgiving is colonial, and Christmas medieval, then the tradition of Valentine’s Day is Victorian. The custom of sending love tokens is much older historically (St. Valentine, the martyred saint whose name is honored, lived in the third century), but it seemed to find perfect expression in Victoriana - Hearts and flowers, poetry, cupids, doilies, ceremony, Flaubert, Chopin, Poe. “For love’s sake” had a mysterious, forbidden drama then. Although I don’t see many of my lady-friends receiving lace-edged handkerchiefs, hand-dipped chocolates, or unsigned cards anymore, I have clear memories of my own Valentine’s Days, mostly from my childhood.

Delicious Inner Banks Soups (and a Salad)

 ”… and the best cook
cannot alter the first quality.
 They must be good
or the cook will be disappointed.”
 - Amelia Simmons in American Cookery, 1796
 The whole essence of casserole cooking in the South would be lost without the familiar red-and-white can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup.  But there’s so much more to soups and stews than [...]

Advent IV: Familiar Sides Dishes with a new twist!

It isn’t always easy to determine whether a vegetable dish is something to serve “on the side” or as the main attraction. Think about a typical Christmas table: At the center, a large, glossy brown turkey, a nice Standing Rib Roast or a Baked Ham; arranged all around are a banquet of vegetable sides: Brussels sprouts with chestnuts, green beans flavored with nuts or bacon, creamed corn or spinach, baked squash drizzled with honey, sweet potato soufflé. Adding a variety of vegetable dishes to your meals livens up any main dish, even main dishes that feature vegetables.

Advent III: Gifts from the heart and hearth

Christmas for me and my family is a time of intense domestic involvement. Many of the visible tokens of celebration, the decoration of the house and the presents for friends, are in fact family projects that are relaxing and pleasurable.
My daughter, Mary Courteney, now married and teaching fifth grade, undertakes her own preparations, and they are beautiful…

Advent II: Gifts from the Kitchen

by Eddy Browning
eddybrowning@mchsi.com
One of my fondest memories is going to my grandmother’s home and assisting her, Fat Annie and my mother make Christmas “goodies” for the family and our friends. We usually arrived just before lunch so I always anxiously looked forward to eating grandmother’s traditional bread pudding for dessert. Since my grandmother [...]

Advent I: Pot Likker and Aunt Puss!

Every year, a few days past Thanksgiving we’d drive to my grandparents home to spend the day. It was a family tradition and ours believed they should be kept. My mother felt her mother’s back porch was the only place to make that “perfect” Advent Wreath. Daddy usually didn’t make the [...]