Pink Martini at the Savannah Music Festival

What a great night watching Pink Martini from the second row. More words to come this weekend...

Recipe Review: Southern Living's Okra and Corn Maque Choux

The heat of the summer has left me craving lighter meals, and this month's issue of Southern Living Magazine delivered some great inspirations! The "Summer's Glorious Trinity" article of recipes using tomatoes, okra, and sweet corn had us positively salivating! At first glance we were both agreed that we had to try the Okra and Corn Maque Choux. If you're not familiar with Maque Choux (pronounced mock-shoe), it originated in Louisiana and I believe it was a Cajun spin on a Native American dish.

I faithfully followed Southern Living's recipe, which isn't an easy thing for me to do, resisting the temptation to add Herbs de Provence, which I add to most everything I cook. This was such an easy dish to make and it was so tasty. Here are a few of my notes on the newest staple to our summer recipe collection:

• I used Rodger Wood Polish style smoked sausage, which is made here locally in Savannah. This sausage gave a nice smoky flavor to the dish and had a nice texture. Next time I think I would use their spicy version, as Southern Living used a spicy smoked sausage when testing the recipe for the magazine.
• I chopped all of the vegetables before hand, mixing them in two separate bowls per steps of cooking. That way everything was prepared and I only had to dump in the bowl of vegetables that were required at each step. The corn took the longest to prepare, so it was well worth doing in advance.
• OK, I didn't completely follow their instructions. Since I wasn't using spicy sausage, I added a sprinkle of red pepper flakes with the green peppers, onion, and garlic.
• I found that 6 ears of corn yielded 3 cups. Most of the ears were fairly large too.
• For a vegetarian version, omit the sausage but do add a few drops of liquid smoke as the vegetables used really benefit from having that smoky flavor. You could even add tofu or mushrooms, adding them at a later stage than the sausage so that they are not over cooked.
• As with most dishes, this was tastier on the second day.
• We chose Jacob's Creek 2008 Riesling to have with this, which we thought turned out to be the perfect pairing.
• Left overs: we made amazing wraps with the left overs and some BBQ pulled pork. Such a fantastic combination. Am thinking this was better than eating it on its own. If I made it specifically for wraps, I would leave out the sausage as the pulled pork would be enough meat. For me at least.

With a few ears of corn left, I'm looking forward to trying their Tomato and Corn Pizza!

Real Women of Philadelphia Contest Hosted By Paula Deen

Last night I had the pleasure of going to the Lucas Theater to watch Paula Deen announce the winners of the Real Women of Philadelphia Contest. This contest, sponsored by Kraft, was an on-line competition hosted by Paula Deen looking for women across the country to submit their recipes, all using Philadelphia Cream Cheese. There were four groups of women last night in which Paula was announcing the winner from each group. Each winner was chosen by Ms. Deen along with an expert panel that consisted of the infamous Aunt Peggy, Robin Ross (Group Manager at Kraft's Culinary Center of Excellence), and Lori Lange (RecipeGirl.com).

The evening began with a very amusing introduction by Paula Deen talking about how she got her big break thanks to having self published a cookbook and the help of a good rain storm. I have to say, she came across as so warm and likable with a wicked sense of humor. The audience was in fits of laughter at her self-effacing and witty humor.

During the introduction, I spotted none other than Paula's Michael in the middle balcony. If you look hard you can see his trademark beard. It was so cute seeing him sitting in a prime location looking on at his beloved Paula.

The first round brought us the four finalists in the Side Dish category.

The winning dish was Mandy Heaston of Seattle with her recipe for Asparagus and Parmesan Cream Pastry.

Next up were the four Appetizer finalists.

The winner of this category was Caryn Ross of Oklahoma City with her Sassy Tailgate Sandwiches. These cute little ham & cheese sandwiches looked like a fun staple perfect for not only tailgate parties but picnics too.

At one point of the evening, much to Paula's surprised, she was joined on stage by a group of the "Real Women of Philadelphia" for an energetic performance that she jumped right into join in. Let me tell you, she might catch a lot of flak about eating a ton of butter but that lady can shake her money maker with the best of them - and did!

Round three brought us the four finalist in the Entree category.

Sheila Cutchlow of Washington, D.C. was the winner of the Entree category with her Joy Bundles and Rice. Upon being presented with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, she was greeted on stage by her beautiful daughter. It was so moving to witness their genuine joy at winning along with their strong bond. I have to say this left me a little choked up.

Last but not least were the four Dessert finalists with their sublime submissions.
Winning with her recipe for French Apple Cake, KC Quaretti Lee of Venice, Florida took the cake in the dessert category. Being a Sarasota girl with family in Venice, I was secretly pleased to see KC take the title.

All in all it was an amazing night. The recipes looked superb and I'm sure it was a very tough deciding on a winner from each category from so many fantastic dishes. Each of the winners receives the opportunity to create a cookbook with Paula Deen along with $25,000 cash. Not bad, eh? The projected didn't end last night either. Starting in July, we can submit our recipes to be included in this cookbook! Keep an eye on this page or Paula on Facebook for upcoming information on how to submit.

I've Moved! From the Suncoast to the Hostess City of the South

Hello friends, it's been a while. The past several months have been a whirlwind. So many things have been going on; some great, some not so good. The biggest thing was a welcomed relocation to my favorite area of the country. Yes my friends, I moved 400 miles north-east to live the South! Left behind is my beautiful hometown of Sarasota for the lovely historic city of Savannah, her islands, gorgeous salt marshes, and the Lowcountry. This change has also brought on a renewed desire to pick up where I left off with Artichokes and Lemonade. Yes, there will still be recipes to come, but please stick with me as I share some new discoveries in my freshly adopted home town. I hope you enjoy what you see and keep me company as I explore and get acquainted with this gorgeous area of the US. The food of this region completely inspires me, so I'm sure there will be no shortage of good things to post.

Lacoste ~ The Mystery of the Illuminated Castle (10/07)

We were exhausted and parched after our uphill explorations in Oppède Le Vieux, the cafe there looked like they were closing so we set off to Lacoste in search of liquid refreshment. When we first arrived, the entire grassy area where we parked was cover with these curious white snails. There were hundreds, if not thousands of them.

We first stopped for a lovely thé au citron at Le Café de France where we also enjoyed the views of the vineyards in the valley bellow. Afterwards, we were fully refreshed and ready to explore Lacoste: the picturesque medieval village where cobblestone streets give the impression that time has stood still.
James was the first to spot a sign for SCAD: Savannah College of Art and Design. SCAD have partnered with the Lacoste School of the Arts to host four quarters for art students and professors from around the world the learn and teach together in this beautiful setting. Now this would have definitely been an incentive to me as a budding young art student, to spend a quarter in France learning in an international class setting. Oh, if one could only turn back time...Amongst the ancient village setting, we saw many pajama clad, crock wearing American students either strolling to get to a lecture short of being on time or carrying around dirty laundry with all the coolness of the "I don't care" attitude that only an art student can carry off. Yes, that was me through most of my teenage years.

Now I'm not one to slander, but we did witness one rather bizarre scene: as we were walking up one of the winding cobbled roads, we could hear a rather loud conversation from what appeared to be a professor giving advise to a student. From what I witnessed, he was giving her ideas for an interview that she was going to conduct with a fellow artist - including all of the questions to ask and a potential title for the interview. As we got closer I could see that the student was wearing a hearing aid. Now, I really took offence for the student over what I was witnessing: fair enough that she might not hear well, but that doesn't mean she can't write? I may be speaking (or typing) completely out of term as I don't know the entire story, but honestly, did he really need to do the job for her? I mean, as a budding journalist/artist, wasn't she there to learn using her own mind and not be dictated to? Let alone at a volume that could have been heard all the way in Bonnieux. After that strange encounter, we continued on uphill...

At the very top of the hill was a fantastic collection of sculptures from the visiting students...

One of which solved the mystery of an illuminated caste we would see at night from our terrace:
In the distance, almost at the center of the photo above, you will see something that is lit up. We couldn't quite make it out through binoculars, apart from that it appeared to be some kind of castle or large building. Now while this isn't quite the making of an episode of Scooby-Doo, we were excited to solve the mystery, nonetheless. This sculpture made it all very clear:

What we were seeing in the distance was the ruined castle of Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, or the Marquis de Sade. It was the Marquis' vision that Lacoste would be a haven for thespians and artists, so I think that he would be please. Apart for the state of his castle...