Groovy Island Girl

thoughts.rants.passions.life.family. interesting finds.good & bad times.friends.people.what matters.what doesnt.what nots - in this journey of life of an island girl in an island state.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Southern Comfort

I love the South. From what I have seen and read about it, I am so intrigued by it. Its history, its culture and of course the Southern accent. I don’t know but there is something appealing about and of course how can we over look the Southern hospitality. I sometimes wonder what it is about the South that such a draw – maybe its from reading Gone With the Wind heehee..

Anyways with the South comes its great Southern cuisine. I remembered having my first test of Hardees biscuit back in the day – the restaurant has since closed. I can still remember the taste and the texture and with the age of the internet where you can get all sorts of recipes from anywhere at your fingers tips I scouted for the recipe and found one which I tried – talk about reliving the good old days. I tried my hand at South Georgia Biscuits and I sure enjoyed them I am obviously looking for more biscuits recipes to try. There is the fried green tomatoes – the dish not the book, southern fried chicken and I think its through Southern cooking that I learnt about buttermilk . I love that stuff great in chocolate cake – makes the cake soft & moist… *drools* …


While I was at the baking supply store I saw some beautiful pecan nuts, and thought about making pecan pie, when I looked at the recipe and the amount of sugar used I kind of got scared heehee.. For me when I look at a recipe, and read the ingredients used for some reason its like I can almost taste it. I know I am probably just weird that way but anyways, I might try the recipe when I have family or friends over because I know people who rave can appreciate it.


Another Southern recipe that i tried was Red Velvet Cake. I did it for Mother's Day last year and my late grandmother enjoyed it. She even tried to feed me some so sweet isnt it. Red Velvet cake is basically chocolate cake with red coloring - hah i just ruined the suprise, its usually made on Valentines day.


This blog is not so much about my experience with Southern cooking but more about what southern food is all about. I have posted this write up from my favorite cooking site allrecipes.com and listed links to some recipes that’s worth trying. Hope you guys get some info and will try them.



Southern Comfort

By: Kelly Brant


If comfort food is your pleasure, you can't get any more soothing than good ole Southern cookin'



A Cuisine of Many Cultures

Southern food has a history as rich as the gravy that tops the flaky buttermilk biscuits on Southern breakfast tables. The cuisine may have the reputation of being calorie-, fat- and sugar-laden, but the food of the Deep South is a combination of culinary heritages from around the world.


European, African and Native American influences make up the flavors and cooking methods of southern food.


The Native American influence is evident in the wide use of corn--from corn bread and grits to corn fritters and oven-fried corn--that has always been a staple on the Southern table.


Notable African contributions include okra and black-eyed peas, while the popularity of deep-fried foods can be credited to both African and Scottish influences.


What is Southern Cooking?


Southern food is home cooking, comfort food, Creole, Cajun, Carolina low-country, soul food and Tex-Mex. It includes an abundance of fresh vegetables, rice or corn, inexpensive cuts of meat (usually pork or chicken) and fresh seafood.


Popular Southern dishes include barbeque, chicken-fried steak, catfish, smothered pork chops, black-eyed peas, grits, biscuits and gravy, fried green tomatoes, collard greens, okra and sweet potatoes. And no Southern meal is complete without libations, especially sweet iced tea and mint juleps.

pecan pie Pecan Pie

southern fried chicken Southern Fried Chicken

Living in High Cotton

Big country breakfasts of eggs, biscuits and gravy, sausage and grits, and supper plates of chicken-fried steak, corn bread and collard greens provided farmers with the fuel to work from sun up to sun down in the scorching heat and humidity of the South. But these meals were not just nourishing: they were also economical.


Thoughts of the pre-Civil War South may evoke images of sprawling plantations, but in reality most Southerners were subsistence farmers who relied upon their own harvests to feed their families. Many Southern dishes were created out of necessity and frugal ingenuity.


Redeye gravy, for example, is made with pan drippings and leftover coffee.


Key lime pie is another such dish. With very few cows in the Florida Keys, fresh milk was not readily available for pie baking. When sweetened condensed milk was introduced in 1856, it was natural to combine it with Key limes, creating the South Florida favorite.


What's for Supper?

Fresh fruit cobblers and pies are popular Southern desserts, the most famous of which include Florida's Key lime pie and Georgia's pecan pie. Pecans are a key ingredient in many Southern dishes, from New Orleans pralines (pronounced PRAH-leens) to Mississippi catfish. True Southerners will tell you authentic southern cooking is an art form passed down from generation to generation with little girls helping at the apron strings of their grandmothers, but anyone can enjoy a taste of the South with the right recipes.

key lime pie Key Lime Pie hush puppies Hush Puppies

Puttin' on the Grits

Whether you like them buttery or cheesy, grits are undeniably Southern. And nobody knows grits better than the folks in St. George, South Carolina--the per capita grits consumption capital of the world and home of the annual World Grits Festival.


I have often wondered what grits was so I Googled it and came back with this. The description of grist according to wikipedia is ..


Grits

Grits is a type of corn porridge, which is common in the Southern United States consisting of coarsely ground corn. This is similar to many other thick maize-based porridges from around the world such as polenta. It also has a lesser resemblance to farina, a thinner porridge.


Hominy grits is another term for grits, but explicitly refers to grits made from nixtamalized corn, or hominy.

Yellow speckled grits is also very popular[citation needed] in the southern states, named for its the black specks in its yellow body.


Traditionally the corn for grits is ground by a stone mill. The results are passed through screens, with the finer part being corn meal, and the coarser being grits.


grits Grits

southern style biscuits Southern Style Biscuits

fried green tomatoes Fried Green Tomatoes

The food looks yummy don’t it. Anyways here are some recipes links if anyone’s keen on trying making southern food.


http://southernfood.about.com/library/recipes/blidx.htm

http://www.southernconnoisseur.com/recipes.html


http://www.foodieview.com/food/recipes/southern.jsp


Have fun learning & discovering …….

Let Me Be Your Muse

Let me be your muse tonight ………… So the song says and I agree. It’s bold, a little provocative , sexy with little moments of innocence and cuteness and out right I want you bad kind of song. I think many women can relate to this song of wanting to be a mans one and only. Men have a tendency to hide how they really feel (no pun intended guys) lol and I guess sometimes women have to take drastic measures to find out what he really thinks and feels about her and to to get there she needs to cook him make his bed so the song says.


I just really like the song. The beat, the words what it means. I have to admit ill like mean this much to a man sometime - I can always wish and dream … Really read the words soo emm err can I be you muse tonight umm not just tonight *grin* ………,………

Hey You ………

I'd like to be,
the kind of dream you'd never share,
To be your boss and to be your maid.
Your shaving cream,
your razor blade.
The buttons of your shirt,
your favorite underwear.

I'd like to be,
the only thing on earth that makes you cry,
the only thing that makes you happy.
Soon you will see,
that no one else but me,
Can take you this high,
and soon you'll make your last name mine

Hey you,
making an offer that no one could ever refuse.
Don't play the adamant
Don't be so arrogant.
Can't you see I've fallen for you

Hey you,
making an offer that no one could dare to refuse.
Don't play the adamant.
Don't be so arrogant.
Let me in,
let me be your muse tonight.

I'd like to be,
the first white hair upon your head.
To be your cherry pie,
your daily bread.
I'll cook for free,
I'll make your bed.
If I can know the things you thought and never said.

Let me in let me be your muse, be your muse tonight!!!



Thursday, February 28, 2008

Cool Jewels

Cool Jewels Ice Tray ..

Received this in my email and thought that was so cool and oh so pretty. Ahh diamonds a girls best friend in this case ice shaped gem stones which look like huge diamonds. This would be fun for a girls night our or for those hinting on your boyfriends lol that was what the actual email sent – thought it was really cute. This product can be found at www.perpetualkid.com


Dahling...everyone knows that ice cubes are a girls best friend! Just fill this food-grade flexi ice tray with water or any kind of juice, and freeze.

Then pop out the three-dimensional COOL JEWELS and bling out your beverage!

Freeze up a batch for your next party and spread the wealth!


Photobucket

Watching A Sunrise

"Watching a sunrise, we open ourselves up to the beauty that nature creates, knowing it will never repeat itself just like this again." ~ Jake Rajs


A simple sentence like ‘Watching A Sunset’ can trigger thoughts, ideas, dreams. The mind seems to work over time when the sentence watching a sunset is concerned at least in my mind at this point in time. Watching a sunset can bring about a smile, a memory or just things that we could possibly think off that involves the sunrise – romance, family times…

the sunrise is like a magic ball when it comes up, its rays creep through our blinds or curtains, or the rays pointing straight on our patios, our gardens, behind the trees, the majestic looking ball slowly coming out from beneath the trees across from the lake, when on a boat or ship in an ocean or on the beach where the sun seem to be coming out of the water. The rays the multitude of colors and how it breaks up the dark clouds is truly amazing. It is as though ones heart is opened and light is shining out of it for its full of happiness ……

It brings back memories of breakfast with grandma and the rest of the family as we sit at the patio in the early hours of the morning watching the day begin. Memories of waking up in the middle of the sea while vacationing some years back – the smell the sounds and sleeping in a wooden house we could see the rays of the sun coming through the gaps.

It creates of thoughts of waking up with someone special on a cruise to nowhere, huddled together watching the sun come up or waking up next to a loved one on the beach cuddled together under the blanket.

I was inspired to write this blog by those simple lines ‘watching a sunrise’ which I received from my favorite site dailyinspirations.com. What started out as a simple quote took me away for a while to come up with memories & dreams.

I have included some pictures of sunsets I found online and included quotes with them. Some of the quotes coincide while others down but it all describes the wonders and beauty of and nature
.



Photobucket To stand by the beds at sunrise and see the flowers awake is a heavenly delight. ~ Celia Thaxter

Photobucket There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope. ~ Bernard Williams

sunrise in the meadows The individual human is still the creature who can wonder, who can be enchanted by a sonata, who can place symbols together to make poetry to gladden our heart, who can view a sunrise with a sense of majesty and awe. ~ Rollo May

Photobucket The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round. ~ John Muir

sunrise in the forest Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise. ~ George Washington Carver

Photobucket For me optimism is two lovers walking into the sunset arm in arm. Or maybe into the sunrise whatever appeals to you. ~ Krzysztof Kieslowski

Photobucket He who binds himself to a joy does the winged life destroy; but he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise. ~ William Blake


I hope these pictures have brought sunshine to your days , smiles on your faces .& inspiration to light your day …Have a great day!

Book Tags

I love books. Just one of my favorite things. I could be like Oprah start my own Iffa’s Favorite Things website hehee.. anyways, I love to read them and own them as with many other people I am sure. I remembered splurging my first paycheck on books which always made me really happy.



Over the years and in between moving from grandma’s to grandma’s and finally my own and my own place (yeah I moved twice) I have built quit a collection. I was told I still had books over at grandma’s – have to make a note to pick those up….



Anyways to the point of this blog entry, as an extensive a collection as I have I have realized that books which I loan to friends and family don’t seem to make it back to my library which honestly irritates and sometimes I don’t even remember who I loan them too. I remembered once actually treating my book collection like a library with me as the librarian taking notes on who loaned what and when but then I figured it was not right to do so .. I trust that friends and family would return them back but hey they don’t well anyways …




I was going through my stuff old journals and stuff I found these cute little book tags – I am not wrong it was from an old issue of Oprah. It’s a nifty little idea. It has quotes on reading and books and at the end of it, it has a little name identifier .. “From the Library of ……” I guess this way your books don’t get lost and whoever borrowed it will be reminded to return back.




You must be wondering why make a big deal – well I love my books as much as I love writing and honestly speaking I haven’t tagged my books – why? I don’t know. Just because I suppose.. But if anyone is keen on it you can use it using colorful construction paper and colorful markers. Come to think of it ‘Post Its’ works great too. I think you can design it or change the name identifier slogan to whatever you want. Just a thought …



Just in case anyone is wondering what I am rambling on about well here is a picture of it ..


Photobucket



Cute huh .. Anyways if I decided to tag my books ill probably post a picture of it here .. and if anyone else does please can I see? …. *grin*


Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Here's a fact ...

Umami

Sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami?

Referred to as the "fifth taste", umami describes that full-flavored, meaty, savory sensation that you can't quite put your finger on. It creates what chefs call "mouth-feel" for a super-satisfying meal.

Eating foods rich in umami, such as parmesan, mushrooms, chickpeas and anchovies, will leave you happy as a clam for just a few calories.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Realize

Bubbly’ the cutesey song by Colbie Caliat is one of my favorite songs and her next single ‘Realize’ is not exception. I enjoy her laid back, down to earth, free spirited sounds if that makes sense. Music to me is something that touches your heart your spirit your soul with its tunes as well as it words and these two have got me so far. I love the words especially. On top of the words the video is just as nice. Correct me if I am wrong but both these videos have beautiful scenes of nature one of the forest and another of the coastline and the beach. I don’t know in some strange way, I dream of places like these and the romance that it brings with it



Anyways, as with every song tells a story so does this though its not my story though more like stories of people I have crossed paths with. Its sometimes sad and a lot of times it ends up with happy endings if we “realize’ things soon enough



I included the song as well as the lyrics. Trust me its worth listening too and worth looking deep on the meaning of the song. Enjoy!



‘Realize’ by Colbie Caliat



Take time to realize,

That your warmth is. Crashing down on in.

Take time to realize,

That I am on your side

Didn't I, Didn't I tell you.



But I can't spell it out for you,

No it's never gonna be that simple

No I cant spell it out for you



If you just realize what I just realized,

Then we'd be perfect for each other

And will never find another

Just realized what I just realized

We'd never have to wonder if

We missed out on each other now.



Take time to realize

Oh-oh I'm on your side

Didn't I, didn't I tell you.

Take time to realize

This all can pass you by.. Didn't I tell you



It's not always the same

No it's never the same

If you don't feel it to.

If you meet me half way

If you would meet me half way.

It could be the same for you.



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