Good morning! I have a hot batch of sweet potato biscuits to share. It's another recipe from Martha Hall Foose's cookbook Screen Doors and Sweet Tea.
This recipe was quick and easy. Even so, I made a rookie mistake that I haven't made since I was a little kid who turned a Chef Boyardee pizza into a Frisbee at the babysitter's house. I put the first batch of biscuits in before the oven was done preheating. Dang.
Sweet Potato Biscuits!
Even so, the sweet little darlings came out okay...just a little brown on the bottom. An ice cream scoop will help you measure out the portions evenly, and some parchment paper will make clean-up simple. No rolling of the dough...these are drop biscuits.
While you are baking, why not listen to Alabama Shakes on Pandora? They're from Athens, Alabama and make for good kitchen music. The other songs that Pandora picks for the mix are a sweet match. Try the song below to see if they pass your taste test.
Since I have a cooking-from-scratch hangover, it's Farm Fresh paninis, Northern Neck ginger ale, leftover three-bean salad, Betty Crocker walnut brownies (with chopped pecans added in) and vanilla ice cream for dinner. I settled into bed to work on my required reading and promptly fell asleep for a half hour.
Now I'm awake to tell you about a book I finished earlier this year as part of the syllabus, since I didn't get very far with today's selection. First, let me say that I have strong biases when it comes to the music that I enjoy. Words, in general, I need to have words in my songs. I understand that computers are used to mix music, but I don't want to hear their heavy footprints in the way of letting a vocalist hit certain inhuman notes and blending the band into a tasteless background hum. I'm not a musician, so I don't have the appreciation for classical music that I should. And I'm not working it out on the dance floor, so techno has got to go. Which brings me to...
That's how I like my music. Thank goodness for people like Alan Lomax and William Ferris who had the sense to capture and preserve roots music. Ferris spent his time traveling to new places, making new relationships and documenting traditional sounds. He talks about the hard lives of black sharecroppers and the stories of Chicago's money trees that lured Mississippians north.
Ferris also explores the fact that, "Music was one of the few avenues to success available for blacks, and because blues records were sold to black audiences, recording success reflected how well a singer expressed the feelings of his or her audience. The blues singer became a spokesman for the black community" (9).
Ferris writes about being a white outsider who needed to develop a rapport with the locals in order to gain access to the musicians and their blues. This allowed the men to speak freely about sometimes contentious relationships with white men, and those stories are included here.
I'm partial to the section on the male/female call and response songs because I like some rowdy sass sometimes. It makes me think of Joe Tex and Carla Thomas carrying on in Stax's "The Same Things it Took to Get Me".
I also enjoyed the historical context of the "one strand on the wall". If you want your own, Jack White will show you how, but you don't need to plug yours into an amp.
There's tension between blues and gospel music, solo and band performances, old and new blues musicians, men and women, black and white and humankind and nature. In addition to broader stories, Ferris recounts his visits with a handful of blues performers and transcribes the lyrics and conversations of interviews as well as house party performances. This technique brings the reader right inside the experience that Ferris is enjoying firsthand.
If you think you want to be a blues performer, Mr. Ferris would want you to know that you better be quick on the draw. Blues lyrics should be flexible and impromptu in order to please the audience at hand. But if people are trying to dance because your audience is no longer a house party but a big venue, you've got to make that happen by playing the recorded and familiar version.
Now listen up to Howlin' Wolf to see if you've got what it takes.
As a credit to Martha Hall Foose, author of Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, tonight's meal made it to my boyfriend's list of all-time favorites.
Along with the 3 Bean Salad and Blue Cheese Pecan Bread I made earlier, I added Crispy Baby Reds with parsley and dill salt (page 164) and Paper Sack Catfish (page 129). I will have to say that I have never been more precious with a potato recipe. Indeed, there is one step where I failed. After boiling the potatoes, I was to spoon them into a baking dish, one at a time, and coat with olive oil. Sorry, Martha, I did small batches instead.
I'm sure that they would have been even better if I followed the recipe exactly, but I had to move on to the next step, so I could get my catfish in the oven. The catfish was some of the best I remember having and I got to use some dill from our garden, but I will use a bigger baking sheet next time. My paper sacks were dripping olive oil over the sides and onto the floor before I got wise to the sitchyation. It's best to get fillets of a similar size and as close to the ones that the recipe calls for (6 ounces) as possible. It's mighty difficult to judge doneness from the other side of the paper bag, so I'll never be the hostess with the dramatic reveal of slicing the paper bags open at the table. I did the optional addition of blanched asparagus beneath the catfish and prosciutto on top. I forgot to add the pepper before cooking, but that didn't ruin the evening. Butcher's twine, by the way, is on the baking aisle, next to the spices at Farm Fresh, if you need to know.
All in all, it was a tasty meal, but the recipes I chose to put together made for a heavy plate. If I had to do it all over again, I would add in a fresh fruit salad and not have the bread and potatoes...just one or the other. So far, this cookbook has delivered the goods, and I look forward to telling you about other test runs. Perhaps something from the Mailbox Happy Hour section next?
Outside the kitchen screen door, the next door neighbor's cat is sprawled out in the shade next to the water bowl that we keep for her. The front screen door is propped open where my boyfriend is trying to capture the beauty of a wildflower plucked from one of our tiny gardens. On the airwaves is Nick Waterhouse and KEXP. A gentle breeze is flowing through the house while the oven is set to 375 for some first-time bread baking.
I'm no stranger to dessert breads and cornbread, but this recipe was for Blue Cheese Pecan Bread (page 180) from Martha Hall Foose's cookbook Screen Doors and Sweet Tea. It's one of those cut the butter in and knock on the bottom to tell if the bread's ready kinda recipes.
For a first effort, it turned out better than edible, good enough to share with neighbors. Both the next door neighbors were away, so two-doors-down Mr. Herman got a slice.
Right now, the good ol' stand-by Three Bean Salad (page 62) is marinating in the fridge. I substituted a red pepper because I had one on hand and added the optional can of artichoke hearts. We were able to use some onions from our garden that had bolted and were ready to pluck. I'll be able to tell you how it turned out tomorrow.
Tonight I'll make Paper Sack Catfish and Crispy Baby Reds, and I'll get back to you on how that went.
Foose recommends some zydeco to go with your bean salad.
Lissen here.
So what does this have to do with my Delta State class in July? Well, there's the required reading, and there's the extra reading that I've picked up-- like cookbooks. Foose was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, so how else could I kick off a reading marathon?
Y'all, I had a midlife crisis in Best Buy. I got another virus on my PC last week, so I stamped my little tootsies all the way to the Apple department and bought myself a Mac. Well, I qualified for the pay-it-off-in-18-months deal anyway. It's my very first laptop. Yes, I am that stone aged. I don't text either. I'm trying to get with the program, but using someone else's bank account would speed me along.
Try to be patient as I get to know my new MacBook Air. Ta da. I'm thinking that the quality of my life is about to improve. Seems I can now broadcast all of my favorite Delta blues right onto the porch and into the backyard with this Airport thingamajig. I will also be able to use both wireless and wired networks while I'm on the road and at Delta State this summer. And Apple TV means that I think I can cut back my cable channels some more and save some dough there. Oh, Stewart and Colbert...I will miss you the most.
Right now, I'm working on finding the perfect name for my new sidekick. Any suggestions are welcome. She looks like this.
It's Memphis in the early 60s. Amidst the stifling climate of segregation in the South, Stax Records offered a refreshing subculture in which all talented recording artists could flourish. Booker T. and the MGs, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes & David Porter, The Bar-Kays and the Staple Singers are a part of the Stax story. I'm looking forward to the field trip we are taking to what is now the Museum of American Soul Music on the historic intersection of McLemore and College.
But if you love Otis like I love Otis, you probably remember that he also had a connection to Atlantic Records. That's all part of the dramatic story behind Stax. Talk about high highs and low lows.
You'll be fascinated by this documentary and grateful that Stewart and Axton took a chance on a venture that was extraordinary to imagine in the late 50s but responsible for bringing us so many joyful, timeless grooves to celebrate.
Just don't tell Mr. Pig that if Grandma was along for the trip, she'd have her Tupperware filled with ham biscuits.
And if you like doing all of your cooking on the road and under the hood, check out the recipe for Frito Pie in The Bad Girl's Guide to the Open Road. Ms. Tuttle gives all kinds of cooking times paired with recommended mph's to put the heat on your frozen foods too.
