Savannah

Tim and I just spent 5 days in Savannah, Georgia. I had lived there for 3 years (Tim and I about 1.5 years as a married couple) so it feels kinda like going home when we are able to go back.
We saw old friends and ate at old favorites, and we also tried new places that were not there when we were.

Two new (and very different) bakeries have opened since we left in 2001. At the first, we had lunch with our friends who run the music ministry at Christ Church. This was B. Matthews, right on Bay Street in downtown Savannah. Tim and I split a fried green tomato sandwich which was super. I have no photos, as I have not yet built up the nerve to take photos inside restaurants! We selected our desserts from their cases of baked goods -- I had a chocolate walnut bar which looked better than it tasted, and Tim had a big, gooey, honey-pecan sticky bun.

We tried a second bakery for our last lunch before departing. I had heard of the Back in the Day Bakery from its blog. This place is charming and bright and happy, and it was topped off by our getting to chat with Cheryl (an owner and blog author) for a while to discuss this world of food blogs. We arrived just at 11, when they start serving lunch, and were pleased to see a steady stream of folks come through as time went on. Tim and I split a huge (could not have eaten the whole thing alone) Jambon, Beurre, et Fromage... ham, gruyere, and butter on a baguette. Mmmm. We so wanted to take a loaf of one of their breads home, but we knew we did not have enough room left in our bag to carry it. There was a beautiful selection of cupcakes to choose from (look at their web site) and we shared an "old fashioned" cupcake (vanilla with a bright pink frosting) and a "chocolate heaven" which was as good its name suggests. I am not a frosting fan... and this was excellent chocolate frosting... made me want to get home to try the 2 fudge frosting recipes that I have wanted to test in my continual search for the best frosting. We left with a bag containing a molasess cookie and a chocolate chip cookie for our plane trip. (Ok, so the molasess cookie did not make it to the plane, but we were delayed for several hours...plus, we all know that there are no calories on vacation...)

We have decided we can declare the Savannah Tea Room as our favorite restaurant in Savannah. The first time we went there (1999) Tim leaned across the table and whispered, "Is it bad that I really like it here?" While some might think it is a "girly" place to relax over a pot of tea and scones, they have always impressed us with their soups and simple yet somehow complex sandwiches. They make the best egg salad, perhaps just due to the addition of chives. I've had a sweet and juicy heirloom tomato sandwich in the past too. This time I had a grilled shrimp salad with mushrooms, pears and feta (note to self; pears and feta are a great combo). Tim had pepper encrusted tuna over greens with roasted peppers. Their soup-of-the-day was a cream of broccoli, which was not really creamy, but very good. For the first time ever I drank 2 pots of tea! Their house special was called Emporer's Bride and was described as a black tea with pineapple, orange peel, thistle, and qunice. It arrived first by its fragrance, and the flavor matched its aroma. I brought loose tea home for some friends and myself to enjoy.



We are fortunate to have friends who have housed us the last 2 times we have been down, allowing us a true "home" base.

We were taken for a boat ride one afternoon and floated by Paula Deen's new home. Alas, she and her boys did not come out on her porch to wave hello... There was a line of people wrapped around the corner each time we passed her restaurant. While I do not believe the locals go to eat there, she has certainly expanded Savannah's tourism, as the local tour company even offers a Paula tour now!

After 4+ years we still very much miss Savannah. We'd love to offer our recomendations if y'all are ever heading down there.

Biscuits with Sausage Gravy

Tim and I have been in Savannah for the past 5 days, so while I get a Savannah post written here is a "southern inspired" breakfast:

I have recently been making whole-wheat biscuits on Saturday mornings as a quick, warm breakfast. We had some buttermilk in the house, so in a quest to come up with ways to use it, I decided to make a southern-inspired breakfast of sausage gravy served over biscuits (in this case, all white flour).

The biscuits turned out as they were supposed to, light and fluffy (not be confused with eggs made by Veggie Tales), and the gravy was yummy too; however, the photos of said gravy came out looking rather unappealing, so you can be tempted by the biscuit, and try your own gravy made with a basic white sauce.

The biscuits, from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook
(Whenever possible, please buy books from your local independent book seller or used book store. I will only link to Amazon when I cannot find a suitable link to show you a particular book)

1/2 cup shortening (I used butter)
2 cups flour (for the above I used all white, but 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white makes a great biscuit)
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk (you can use regular milk; you may also need a bit more)

Preheat oven to 450F
Cut butter into flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and powder until it is fine crumbs (you could also do this in a food processor, and pulse until coarse crumbs)
Stir in milk until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, dough will be soft and sticky
Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead lightly to bring it all together.
Roll into a 1/2"-thick disk and cut into 2-3" rounds.
Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Will yield about 1 dozen.

Cinco de Mayo

As Tim put it to our friends who came up for a little Cinco-de-Mayo fiesta, "we're offering the rhyming food combo of margaritas and fajitas.”
The reason Mexicans celebrate Cinco de Mayo is that in 1862, 4,000 Mexican soldiers, armed with machetes and a stampeding herd of cattle, surprisingly destroyed the French army of 8,000 who were trying to take over Mexico for Napoleon III.
I am not of Mexican descent, but I do have a fondness for Mexican food, so in recent years we have used the 5th of May as a good excuse to make margaritas and eat chips and salsa.

I believe I had my first-ever margarita on our honeymoon, which happened to be not on Cozumel, but on Cape Cod. Harwich has an authentic, and terrific, Mexican restaurant called Ay! Caramba which we hit every time we to go to the Cape. Tim and I make pretty good and powerful margaritas at home following the recipe from Ina Garten in her second book. I have found the key is a little extra lime juice than what is called for.

Salud!

"Real Margaritas" from The Barefoot Contessa Parties

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2Tbps freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup Triple Sec
1 cup White Tequila (cheap tequila makes the best margaritas according to Ina)
3 cups ice

salt for rim if desired

Add lime juice, lemon juice, Triple Sec and ice in a blender and puree. Add tequila and process a few seconds more. Serves 6

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I really like to bake. Almost any time, whether it is after a long day at work, or a quiet Saturday afternoon...if there are butter, sugar and eggs in the house, I am ready to bake.

This past weekend I had a great excuse to bake something simple yet satisfying. I was able to see a college friend, whom I had not seen since he graduated 13 years ago, star in musical. Doubly fun was seeing several other alums and having it be a surprise to Steve that we were all coming to see his performance.
I wanted to take something to give him after the show, and was not sure if flowers were what one gives to a male performer. But what one cannot say with flowers, one can definitely say with cookies!

So a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies was made. This is one of my stand-bys, as far as cookie recipes go. It's based on the recipe you can find on the lid of Quaker Oats, but instead of 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 cup of raisins, I halve the cinnamon and add chocolate chips. And this batch even got 2 types of chips... some standard Tollhouse semi-sweet, plus some Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bittersweet chips. Tim and I are both big dark chocolate fans... and these dark chips have become a new favorite not only in baking (they make great fudge frosting) but also right out of the bag!

As with most cookies, I bake them till medium rare, so that they stay moist and gooey. These normally stay soft when stored in an air-tight container.

The recipe: From the lid of Quaker Oats

1 cup butter (I use Cabot unsalted)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (in original recipe, I use ~1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups oats (quick or old fashioned--I use quick)
1 cup raisins (in original recipe-- I use chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350F
Beat butter and sugars until creamy (you can't do this step too long)
Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla

Combine flour, soda, cinnamon and salt in a separate bowl

Add the combined dry ingredients
Stir in oats and chips (or raisins)

Drop by tablespoon on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.
Makes 4 dozen

Can also spread into an ungreased 9x13 pan and bake for 30-35 minutes to make bar cookies.

Carmelized Onion and Mustard Tart

So Tim was in a favorite independent bookstore when on the sale table he saw The Accidental Vegetarian for like $8. It's a fun story-of-a-cookbook about a gentleman in England who bought a vegan restaurant knowing nothing about running a restaurant, or vegetarian cooking! Well, his recipe for a mustard-onion tart jumped right out at us, and it is the first thing we have tried from this book.

After making the rich pastry dough, you slice 4 large onions... these were some powerful onions that had Tim avoiding the kitchen as their fumes were causing tears a room away.

It is always amazing to me how much onions reduce... especially after 40 minutes of cooking:

Some cream, eggs and the whole grain mustard are added to the onions and put into the blind-baked crust (which, but the way, was supposed to be in a tart pan... I don't have a tart pan, so I used my springform pan... gonna go buy a tart pan)

This all bakes and comes out slightly browned and looking kinda rustic.

It is thick, not custardy (which is a good thing in my book), and sweet due to the slow-cooked onions as well as the mustard and pastry. We served this with steak and our favorite syrah, and had its leftovers with a salad and surprisingly good grape tomatoes. We think this will be a good summer dinner with fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes.

The recipe: From The Accidental Vegetarian, by Simon Rimmer

Pastry:

1 3/4 cups flour
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
pinch of salt
3 1/2 tbsp(I needed more) milk
1 egg yolk

1. Put flour, butter and salt in a food processor and pulse until crumbly.
2. Add the milk and egg yolk and pulse until a dough forms
3. Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and kneed slightly and form into a flat disk. Wrap in saran wrap and chill at least 1 hour (great to make ahead of time so it's ready whenever you are)

Carmelized Onion and Mustard Tart:

4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 large spanish onions, sliced
1 clove of garlic (he says crushed, I minced)
2 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp whoel grain mustard
2/3 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400F
1. Roll out the pastry to fit an 8-10" tart pan (as I said above, I used a springform pan... a pie pan should work as well). Press into pan and chill for 20 minutes.
2. Bake the pastry for 25-30 minutes until crisp and dry. (he does not say to weight it down, but this needs to be done or else it puffs up)
3. While the pastry bakes, melt butter and oil in a pan over low heat and add the onions, garlic and salt and pepper. Cook slowly until the onions are golden but not burned... about 40 minutes.
4. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks, mustard and cream together. Mix into the carmelized onions.
5. Reduce oven temperature to 350F. Add onion mixture to pastry shell, and baked for 20 minutes until set firm and golden.