FATHER'S DAY 2012

A FEAST FOR MY FATHER

By Doc Lawrence

In my hometown of Atlanta where we never stop celebrating Gone With The Wind. I recall how much Gerald O’Hara, Scarlett’s Irish-born dad loved his wife, children and, of course, Tara, and how proud Rhett Butler was to be a father to a little girl. Fathers are special and those like me who are lucky enough to have theirs still around, should think about a feast as we celebrate the men who occupy this hallowed status.

Dad remains my hero. A combat soldier in World War II who still hates war, a good and decent man who did his best to give his family a wonderful life and never thought of expecting anything in return. But, my father also enjoys good food, particularly things that are farm fresh, often advising me during my adolescent “know-it-all” days that home grown tomatoes would extend my life.

Now, I pray he’s right.

My feast for Father’s Day is what I would serve the great blockade-runner and smuggler, Captain Rhett Butler, a man who enjoyed the finer things in life and, according to Margaret Mitchell’s book, got what he wanted. Because Rhett Butler was from Charleston, the great epicurean center of the Southern Atlantic Coast, lived in Atlanta, traveled to Paris and New York, and had business in New Orleans, we can assume that he loved Champagne, was very familiar with the wines of the world and had a refined palate that was attuned to great dishes that, as we say down here, were properly prepared.

We’ll begin his feast with a few pours of chilled Champagne served with snacks that are salty. Caviar (quality domestic caviar is available now) in some form; perhaps something with anchovies? This will stimulate conversation and invigorate those appetites.

The first course should have roots in Charleston and Savannah, two cities that have a related food heritage. My choice is She-Crab Soup, that fabulous dish made with crab roe and seasoned with a touch of fine sherry. I would not hesitate, by the way, to serve a quality semi-dry sherry with it.

Next, to honor my father, Atlanta, Scarlett and Rhett, I’m serving roasted pork loin in Port with prunes according to that great Southern cook Edna Lewis’ recipe. The wines for this rich, flavorful entrée will be a choice of Chambertin, the magnificent red Burgundy that was Napoleon’s favorite and, for those who prefer something more robust, a Tannat from Uruguay. (Try one bottle soon and you’ll be hooked.)  Ms. Lewis lived for many years near Atlanta and her recipes and wonderful stories occupy many pages in her collectible cookbooks.

In 1945, Dad was a military attaché in New Orleans to the World War II hero General Jonathan Wainwright, and even lived for security purposes in the Presidential Suite of the historic Roosevelt Hotel. To complete my feast for Dad, I selected a dessert, Charlotte Russe, a dish I once devoured at a private dinner at Antoine’s, the fabled French Quarter gourmet shrine. The whipped cream, custard, berries, ladyfingers creation is memorable a quarter century later and it is good and rich enough to salute my best friend and life mentor. Wine? I saved an Australian treasure: a 2001 Botrytis Semillon from New South Wales. It’s rare, valuable and would be hard to equal.

Just like the super fellow with such a big heart I’m honoring this Sunday.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

Take a trip to Mississippi's Gulf Coast:

http://www.bytheseafuture.org/DocLawrence_Southwind_June-2012.html 

KNOXVILLE-A VACATION GATEWAY

TENNESSEE MOONSHINE TRAIL

                                             By Doc Lawrence

Wish that I was on ol' Rocky Top
 Down in the Tennessee hills
Aint' no smoggy smoke on Rocky Top
Ain't no telephone bills
Rocky Top you'll always be
Home sweet home to me
Good ol' Rocky Top
Rocky Top Tennessee.

             “Rocky Top,” by Boudleax and Felice Bryant

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE-A journey into the land of White lightening, 200 miles of history, beauty, adventure, and charm, begins just outside of Knoxville’s famous attractions and little-known sites. This trail gets its name from the route’s legendary history as a moonshine-running corridor during the prohibition era. It was a time when rebels careened around these curves, transporting illegal, homemade corn whiskey under the cover of darkness to avoid the law.

I’m off to visit historic towns whose famous thrill-seeking outlaws unknowingly laid the foundation for today’s stock car racing, experiencing the natural beauty of East Tennessee, anticipating that much of it remains as it has for hundreds of years. Its mountains are laced with might streams like the Powell, Nolichucky, French Broad and Holston Rivers. These ancient forces, harnessed by the Tennessee Valley Authority to generate electricity, created vacation hotspots Norris Lake, Douglas and Cherokee Lakes, beautiful bodies of water that draw thousands of visitors each year. Along the way, my journey will explore the picturesque mountains, traveling along the path first cut by Daniel Boone.

Highlights include a stop at Dandridge, the second oldest town in Tennessee (ca.1792), a delightful mixture of old and new. Today, downtown Dandridge is a National Historic District showcased by the courthouse completed in 1845, a prime example of Greek Revival architecture. Next is Russellville and an opportunity to learn about the headquarters of Confederate General James Longstreet during the winter of 1863-1864. Morristown is home to Bethesda Church, a quaint old building with high-backed pews and an enclosed pulpit, one of the oldest churches in this section of the state. The church was built in 1835, and was later used as a hospital for wounded Union and Confederate soldiers. There are approximately 82 unknown soldiers buried nearby.

When you think of Tennessee, Davy Crockett comes to mind. Morristown was the American hero’s childhood home and has a museum containing artifacts from Davy's childhood, telling the story of this legendary figure in American history who died fighting at The Alamo.

I’ll be reporting on legendary places like Clinch Mountain, Cumberland Gap, Joppa Mountain Pottery, and describing the museum in Maynardville that provides a glimpse of the heritage of Union County. The museum has a reference library with genealogy lines of many families connected to Union County, known as the "Cradle of Country Music." This is the home of the Grand Ole Opry’s Roy Acuff, Chet Atkins, Kenny Chesney, Lois Johnson and Carl Smith.

This will be the launch of a series of vacation ideas that appeal to those visiting the South during the Civil War Sesquicentennial as well as those who yearn for real adventure, preferring travel closer to home.

Join me in all the fun.

Looking for better travel in Florida? Read about what many describe as "Original Florida." With the Sunshine State set to celebrate its 500th Anniversary, here's a few places to visit:

 http://global-writes.com/2012/05/tallahassees-culinary-triangle.html

JUNE VACATIONS IN GEORGIA

JUNE DOWN SOUTH VACATION DISCOVERIES     Beaches, Mountains, Vineyards, Food    After completing a whirlwind tour of plantations, farms, markets, dairies and vineyards all sponsored by Georgia’s outstanding tourism department, we’re headed out for more original stories this month as the heat gradually rises. Knoxville is home to the University of Tennessee and it’s also one of the gateways to the Great Smoky Mountains. Doc Lawrence will be there to meet the challenges and adventures of the “White Lightning Tour” providing our readers with lively reports and exciting photographs of this treasured and beautiful part of America. The new posts in Wines Down South include stories about two Georgia cities, Statesboro and Vidalia, complete with a glimpse into Georgia's rich history, cultural experiences, outdoor adventures, world-class attractions, culinary delights and more. Known around the world for sweet onions, the Vidalia area is full of local flavor offering unique shopping, dining, scenic drives, and outdoors adventures. Less than 60 minutes from Georgia's coast, Statesboro is emblematic of Southern charm and is home to Georgia Southern University. The school’s 11-acre Botanical Garden blooms year-round and the Wildlife Center teems with raptors, reptiles and waterfowl. We explore the new Civil War archeology finds at the Natural History Museum and show you how to have a better getaway with fine and antique shopping, arts venues, a historic downtown stroll, and more than 200 restaurants. The Bulloch County courthouse is beautiful and the Saturday Farmer’s Market is just across the street from the Emma Kelly Center for the Performing Arts, named after one of the great characters in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” Doc Lawrence pairs filet mignon (click for recipe) from Will Harris’ nationally acclaimed White Oak Pastures (see video on the right) with two Georgia wines, one from Horse Creek Winery in Nashville and Still Pond in Arlington. Both are featured on the right. Visit Wines Down South and join Doc and Lynne Brandon at Lauri Jo Bennett’s cannery in Norman Park Georgia, have a glass of something special at the only tasting room on Georgia’s Interstate system, and watch Vidalia onions sorted and packed for the world to enjoy. Summer is underway and we want you to come along as we enjoy the delights of our South. Friend Us! Follow Us! Share Us! It's a heralded farm producing the best beef, chicken and more for great restaurants and respected stores like Whole Foods. Enjoy the tour with owner Will Harris (click).   Steak Oscar Recipe   DOC'S WINE PAIRING For the White Oak Pastures' Steak Oscar few wines work better than the Hahira Red from Ed and Andrea Perry's Horse Creek Winery in Nashville, Georgia. The Bulloch County Courthouse in lovely Statesboro Wines Down South Sheila Brewington    Doc Lawrence    Stephen W. Cannon    Val Kruse  Jordan Bloomingdale    Guy McKenzie     Anne Marie O'Keefe     Lynne Brandon Copyright © 2012 Wines Down South, All rights reserved.

FARM TO TABLE IN SOUTH GEORGIA

LAURI JO BENNETT’S PICKLED DELIGHTS

“When I want you in my arms,

  When I want you and all your charms
  Whenever I want you,

   all I have to do is dream.”

                  Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, recorded by The Everly Brothers

By Doc Lawrence

NORMAN PARK, GA—This small town nestled deep in South Georgia is nearer to Tallahassee, Florida’s capital city than the great metropolis of Atlanta, unofficial headquarters of the New South. Colquitt County is the home of the Georgia Baptist Convention and the fertile soil grows almost anything that roots. Nearby Moultrie was the home of the great songwriting team, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant who as husband and wife wrote over 1500 songs for legends like the Everly Brothers, The Grateful Dead, Buddy Holly, R.E.M., Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan and others, and they penned “Rocky Top,” the official song of the University of Tennessee,

 

Drink the wonderful water here and you might feel an itch to write a love song.

Lauri Jo Bennett has her jams, jellies, and pickled vegetable headquatered in this fertile land. A highly respected schoolteacher, she longed to plunge into the challenges of entrepreneurism and began making gourmet delights from local sourced fruits and vegetables. This family effort now sells a couple dozen different products like pickled green beans, asparagus, okra and fabulous Strawberry pepper jelly in over a slew of states. Everything is made by hand from scratch including the labels. Laurie Jo is emblematic of farm-to-table and needs no hype.

Lauri Jo is the real deal: impossible not to like and admire. Leaving Norman Park I wondered if any state official ever thinks of having her as a representative of Georgia’s best. I can see Laurie Jo serving her goodies to the communist rulers of China served along with the wines of nearby Horse Creek. Friendships are crafted this way. It’s part of the magic of South Georgia’s hospitality tradition, something as natural as a smile and handshake.

Laurie Jo began her company with a dream. This is a place where dreams are revered because they often come true.

Enjoy more about the food and wine of this great part of Dixie:

http://bytheseafuture.org/DocLawrence_Southwind_May-2012.html 

ON THE ROAD IN GEORGIA’S HEARTLAND

GEORGIA OLIVE OIL, WINE, BLUES AND GOOD FOOD

By Doc Lawrence

“You can reach over in the corner mama

  and hand me my travelin’ shoes

  You know by that I’ve got them

   Statesboro blues.”

               Blind Willie McTell, recorded by The Allman Brothers

STATESBORO, GEORGIA. It’s home to Georgia Southern, an acclaimed university that serves as the cultural hub of all that is wonderful about this deep South region nestled in the Coastal Plain. Vidalia onions are grown nearby and the town of the same name has a museum dedicated to this edible bulb and all it means to the local economy and food heritage.

Statesboro, made very famous by the Allman Brothers rendition of Blind Willie McTell’s blues classic, has all the energy of a college town and is a good place to lose those bad economy blues. Also, it is the launching pad for the annual Georgia Media Marketplace a press tour like no other in any state.

Joined by noted travel writers from other states and Canada, the itinerary includes visits to places like Horse Creek Winery in Nashville, a serious operation producing award winning muscadine and vinifera wines, with dinner and overnight at nearby Shadow Oak Plantation.

Lakeland is home to Georgia Olive Farms, the leading East Coast producer and marketer of olive trees and Georgia Olive Farms Extra Virgin Olive Oil. This is a near perfect prelude to Lauri Jo’s Southern Style Canning in Norman Park. Lauri Jo Bennett’s down home cooking is in Mason jars and blossomed into a full-blown market in 13 states

Other visits include Weeks Honey Farm in Omega, Gin Creek and Sparkman’s Cream Valley in Hartsfield.

Glass Enterprises Gator Houses in Camilla is one of only three-dozen alligator farms in the United States and Pelham, with a remarkable downtown, is home to the Pelham Wildlife Festival, held in October.

Still Pond Farm Winery in Arlington is Muscadine headquarters. The manicured vineyards supply fruit for the 11 award winning wines and many other wineries throughout the country.

Publix and Whole Foods feature the meats from White Oak Pastures in Bluffton a family farm that cooperates with nature to produce artisan products that are healthy, safe, nutritious and delicious.

Arlington’s Quail Country is an Orvis endorsed hunter’s paradise. Literally a step back in time showcasing Southern hospitality and a wildlife habitat.

Everything is finished with a tour of Blakely and Early County featuring the Coheelee Creek Covered Bridge and the 12th Century Kolomoki Indian Mounds.

Returning to the Atlanta International airport, a survey seems to be in order: Is it true that the Statesboro Blues make you feel good all over?

More about the food adventures of Georgia and Florida:

http://bytheseafuture.org/DocLawrence_Southwind_May-2012.html 

FLORIDA TOURISM'S FOUNDING FATHER

HENRY FLAGLER’S FLORIDA

By Doc Lawrence

Ponce de Leon led the first European’s to land in Florida, but it was oil tycoon Henry Flagler who was truly the state’s founding father. Next year, the Sunshine State embarks on a celebration of Florida’s 500^th anniversary, but for now we toast to Flagler’s foresight and iron-willed determination. This year marks a century since his Florida East Coast Railroad joined Key West and Florida’s Atlantic coast with the world.



BRIDGE TO KEY WEST

Flagler, who along with John D. Rockefeller was co-founder of Standard Oil, became one of the most influential leaders during the Gilded Age of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. His monumental projects in Florida connected St Augustine to Palm Beach, Miami and Key West, producing an immeasurably beneficial impact on this economic and cultural development of the state. A swamp became an oasis featuring luxury hotels more opulent and better designed than most counterparts Europe. And through Flagler’s efforts, rail transportation opened up Florida tourism and commerce to the rest of the world.

For some time now I traveled the entire route of the Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway, from where it began in St. Augustine, then south just the way Flagler built it. Flagler’s love of luxury accommodations is fascinating. Although he wasn’t much for heavy drinking or extravagant dining, his hotels along the rail line remain international legends, time-honored examples of the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach has no equal in the country.

The Breakers, an architectural wonder adorned with priceless objets d’art, represents the best in gourmet dining and fine wines, maintaining a global reputation for excellence. My visits there over the years include unforgettable Bordeaux wine dinners, a delightful conversation with rock star Sting, a frequent guest, days and nights covering the gourmet gathering of the Distinguished Restaurants of North America, and more than a few overnight pampered stays. Today, a glimpse of the Breakers from the street conjures up images of Henry Flagler whose descendants still own it. Here is an American treasure, just as important in its way as Flagler’s railroad.

Flagler, with a little help from ships, connected New York City with Havana via Key West. If there were delays, his resort hotels in Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, St. Augustine, Miami, Palm Beach and Key West made a layover a fairytale experience.

With the imposition of mindless Prohibition, the popularity of the “Havana Special,” as Flagler’s passenger service from Miami to Key West was called, soared. While “dry” America sunk into boredom, the good life continued in the Conch Republic. Les Stamford’s magnificent book, “Last Train to Paradise,” recounts typical days there during America’s failed social experiment: “The city’s bars never closed, the rumrunners never stopped their trade between Key West and Cuba, and federal agents were known to beg off any posting to the wide open southernmost city.”

Flagler, according to those who worked with him, was motivated to build his railroad by vision while the luxury resorts were extensions of his lifestyle. More than one colleague recalled that Flagler never asked if his railroad would make a profit, but instead wondered whether it could be built.

Flagler’s remarkable achievement suggests that there likely would be little of consequence in Southeast Florida today without his rail line. However, the Key West part of the story ended in tragedy. In 1935, before hurricanes had names, a monstrous storm struck Key West northward, destroying lives, property and most of the Flagler rail line in the southernmost extremity. Ernest Hemingway, then a Key West resident, reported much of the tragedy. His words are not for the feint of heart.

Henry Flagler died as a result of a fall in his beautiful home Whitehall in Palm Beach. Today, his mansion is the acclaimed Flagler Museum. Among the last words Flagler spoke were these: “Sometimes, at the close of the day, when I am fortunate enough to be alone, I come here. I look at the water and the trees yonder and the sunset and I wonder if there is anything in the other world so beautiful as this.”

NOTE: The Southern Culinary Triangle is a hot new tourism magnet. Tupelo honey, Mayhaw jelly, goats that faint, artisinal cheeses all with some gourmet restaurants dotting the landscape:

http://www.winesdownsouth.com/PDF/southernFood/South_Culin512.pdf

 

MEMORIES OF MOTHER

ROSES FOR MOM

By Doc Lawrence

My dear departed mother left a trove of priceless memories. She remains the best self-taught cook I’ve known, a kitchen magician who could transform things ordinary into a feast for angels. All moms are special and all things possible begin with them. Alabama’s tough and crusty coaching legend Bear Bryant always ended his weekly television show with a command: “Call your mama!”

He meant each day.

My stylish mom loved to cook and entertain. She glowed with beauty and strength of character. Her favorite hobbies were family and friends. At Christmas, I might get a handful of cards from a few close friends. Mom would be deluged, proving the old adage that you receive love by giving it.

She was from northeast Alabama. You can see towering Lookout Mountain from the place she was born. Old cemeteries nearby have graves of Revolutionary War soldiers, Confederates and many strangers who might be kin. The town, once a warm mineral water spa for tourists, no longer exists. The area is called Sequoia Valley and it’s as lovely as anything in Wyoming or Montana. Rural, big skies and underground caverns you can explore. I feel her presence there.

My mother was a child of the Depression and World War II. During my baby days, she was very ill, in and out of hospitals, but somehow managed to carve out a career with one of the South’s legendary retail stores, Rich’s.  I still have folks stop me while I’m shopping in Atlanta, asking about her.

With apologies to all the talented chefs I have the privilege to know and admire, my mother could take almost nothing and miraculously create a banquet. Sunday dinner (she never skipped church) was a spread of congealed salads, perfectly seasoned fresh vegetables, fried chicken, roast beef, biscuits and gravy plus cornbread and desserts. Tea was brewed and the table was set with boundless love.

To this day, I’ve never had a better dessert that her lemon custard pie with graham cracker crust topped with billows of soft meringue. And if she owned a cookbook, no one ever saw it.

I learned that Elvis died when my mother called me. Rain or shine, she attended his concerts in Atlanta. She adored the Atlanta Braves. A joke in our family was that mom would not die during baseball season. She departed on a cold December night.

Sunday I’ll make the journey to the cemetery with flowers. Mom is buried next to her youngest son who predeceased her by three decades, an unimaginable pain she carried with unwavering dignity.

The roses will be bright red. The prayer in gratitude. The memories precious. Somewhere from the backroads, I’ll hear her favorite hymn, “How Great Thou Art,” the version by Elvis and the Jordanaires.  I’ll be back for sure on her September birthday. Maybe then the Braves will be in first place with a chance to win it all in 2012.

Nothing would make her immortal soul happier.