It
could have been a spicy radish her dad pulled from the earth that made Susi
Gott Seguret fall in love with cooking. Her hippie kind of parents moved to
North Carolina to build a cabin, grow food and create art and music in the
‘60s. The mountains limited travel in days of old, so this family also learned
to feed themselves from wild nuts and mushrooms, pumpkins, beans, squirrel,
turkey feet and pokeweed.
I
would have loved to be down-the-road neighbors with this family, trading
home-grown bounty.
The
photos of landscapes and foodscapes are beautiful in her book, “Appalachian
Appetite: Recipes from the Heart of America.” She shares methods for pickled
ramps, grits with morels, Tennessee Ham-Wrapped Peaches, Possum Pate and Susi’s
Jack Daniels-infused collards (with bacon fat).
I’ll
have some fiddle playing while enjoying Leeky Smashed Potatoes and beer bread.
Apparently Dolly Parton referred to sweet tea as the house wine of the south.
This book explains that in the 1900s sweet tea was a luxury as not everyone
could afford tea, sugar and ice. It was also a power boost for working in the
field all day.
Here’s
a recipe for something good on biscuits or pancakes:
Imogene’s
Chocolate Gravy
Sugar
Cocoa
Milk
Combine
ingredients in a saucepan (more sugar and cocoa, in ration to taste, than
milk). Boil until it reaches the consistency desired and pour over freshly
baked biscuits or pancakes.
Olive
Love
Are
you thinking of olives as snacks? Why aren’t you? Gaea is putting almond-shaped
Halkidiki variety olives, removing the pits, marinating them with olive oil,
oregano, garlic, coriander and lemon peel and packing that Greek flavor into a
liquid-free pouch. Come on. If they've done all that for you, you could at
least rip open a bag and enjoy. I even shared my fragrant lovelies, which
included four servings at 15 calories each. This should be your snack.
Open
& Eat Quinoa
Few of my
foodie friends have played with cooking quinoa, so I wonder if I could convince
them to experience Carrington Farms’ bag of toasted quinoa. It’s an “open &
eat” bag, no cooking required, and labled “Healthy Foods for a Healthy Soul.”
Bold claim and bold flavor. Those toasty nuggets are super healthy and very
crunchy and flavorful. If you can’t imagine just getting a spoonful during a busy
work day, sprinkle them over Greek yogurt or use them as salad toppers. I’m
enjoying them over a bowl full of baba ghanouj. If you don’t know about that,
I’ll save it for another column.
Nuts
for Viki’s Granola
I’d
love to have breakfast with Viki. Gluten-free oats, unsweetened coconut,
sunflower seeds and pecans would come with the experience. Vicki’s Granola is
the good stuff and the healthy stuff mixed together. I tried banana walnut with
milk and I managed to save some blueberry almond for yogurt topping. This is so
much more “real” than the granola I had as a kid in the ‘70s. Viki has gone
back to the natural stuff that granola was born to be.
This
shroom helps you clean
So
you love cooking and entertaining, but then there’s the cleaning. A sample
TubShroom is designed for the shower, but it arrived the very week my bathroom
sink drain stopper conked out, so that’s where I tried it. TubShroom is
flexible and fits into the drain. Hair warps around the cylinder where you
can’t see it. When you pull it out you can clean it off with a paper towel and
you’re done. It prevents clogged drains and prevents you from having to use
harsh chemicals. You don’t have to install a thing and it works with animal
hair, too. This is a product that does what it says it will.
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