Britt’s Donuts~

Tags

Britt's Donuts, Carolina Beach Boardwalk, Doughnuts

Today  is the day, Bailey is extremely excited! He woke up this morning with sugar on his mind already planning his after school activities.  Being Friday is great all to itself but add the season opening of Britt’s Donuts in Carolina Beach and you have something to really look forward to.

When we moved to this seaside community my daughter and her friend introduced us to a new kind of doughnut and it came in a white paper sack instead of a green and white box. On the Carolina Beach Boardwalk is a little locally owned shop that sells plain ole doughnuts that are anything but plain! These sugary confections melt in your mouth.  The line can stretch all the way down and around the other shops as tourists and locals alike wait for their turn.

You can purchase just one but you won’t want to.  All along the boardwalk people walk around with white paper sacks and in them are dozens by dozens of the famous Britt’s Donuts!

Last year after waiting our turn and finally enjoying the white bag goodie a seagull swooped down and stole Olivia’s Britt’s Donut right out of her hand, while she was in process of eating it!  You see they’re too good to feed to the gulls!

And TODAY is the day, the grand season opening of Britt’s.  While I am working away, Dave and Bay will surely have their place in line to taste those goodies, and if I’m lucky they will save one for me!

The Carolina Beach Boardwalk and walk to shops come to life during the spring and are hopping all summer long so if you’re in our neck of the woods stop by and enjoy some Britt’s!

Pinkie ~

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Buttered Toast~

Tags

Comfort Food, Food, Good old days, Grandmothers, Little Mamaw, Love, Memory Lane

Certain foods and smells trigger memories you may have long forgotten but when they resurface, the rush of “feel goods” can be so sweet.

We eat toast, quite often but this time it wasn’t just the hunger in my tummy that was being quelled it was a little trip down memory lane.

Instantly I was standing in my Little Mamaw’s kitchen watching her make buttered toast.  She always used a small toaster oven that had a pleasing single ding when the toast was ready.  She liked her toast a lot browner than I did so I would watch it through the glass and tell her when it was just right for me.  But, taking it out early meant that I didn’t get the ding.

Little Mamaw also always used margarine rather than real butter as the margarine was easier to spread and had a longer shelf life if left out of the fridge.  She had a heavy hand with the margarine and sometimes I wasn’t sure if I was having buttered toast or toasted butter.  Lord love her!

As I ate my “real buttered” toast tonight she was on my mind as she so often is.  I am thankful for comfort foods and for the memories and feelings they evoke, and for little dinging toasters!

What are your favorite comfort foods of choice and what special memories do they bring to light? Who are you reminded of when you enjoy them?

Vintage on the Shelf~

Tags

Children, Great Grand Mothers, Kitchen Gadgets, Mommie Wilcox, Nostalgia, Potato Slicer, Vintage, vintage kitchen

The title just popped into my head because of all the Facebook posts I have been reading about Elf on the Shelf but VINTAGE on the SHELF is what we did tonight!

My kitchen cupboard is full of vintage; vintage from my wedding, vintage from my childhood, vintage from my grandmother’s cabinets and vintage from my great-grandmother’s kitchen. I love vintage!

A few weeks ago my Bailey saw something upon the shelf that caught his interest – my great-grandmother’s potato slicer.  It has been in my cabinets for the last 9 years and I always just loved to see it sitting there.

Bailey decided that it was not much use just sitting there and that we should “try it out”.

I did have some sentimental second thoughts because it was Mommie Wilcox’s and if we were to break it then I wouldn’t have it anymore; to look at on the shelf.  I have other vintage kitchen items and dishes that belonged to Mommie Wilcox and I use them almost daily, so why not this?

I made a point at the grocery store to buy a bag of potatoes and thought we would try out the gadget for tonight’s dinner.  Bay was happy and Noah even tried a potato or two.

Before using it with our food I did wash it and placed it into the oven on 200 to quickly dry. It was a little stiff, from the past 9 years of non use, but a little cooking spray makes a good kitchen version of WD40.  Once we got the hang of how to use it (push down the handle), we had our potato slices in no time.  It really did take a lot less time that if I had hand sliced the dinner potatoes.

I’d like to think Mommie Wilcox is smiling and happy that we had her potatoes for dinner; and probably wondering just why it took me 9 years to get around to actually using something that was frequently used in her own kitchen.  I am sure she would rather me use it than just have it sitting on a shelf. I did add some nostalgia and served the potatoes in her robin’s egg blue serving bowl.

Doubly Blessed ~

Tags

Ball Jars, Beech Creek, Blessed, Can House, Corn and Beans, Family, North Carolina, Pressure Canner, Vegetable Garden

I truly may have to change my profession and become a food critic.  We are not really the go out and eat kind of family, we do dine out on occasion, but as a rule I cook and we eat home cooked meals.  Sometimes those meals consist of a really good ham, turkey and cheese sandwich but it just makes sense, healthy sense and dollar sense to eat at home, especially for our family of five!

I didn’t have to cook last night thanks to our friends Larry and Gayle, and tonight I have been doubly blessed in that my dear sweet Momma and little Mamaw have prepared dinner for us.  Two nights in a row and I am already becoming spoiled.  I do so appreciate the time and effort involved with home cooked meals.

Tonight’s menu is made from scratch meatloaf, different recipe than Momma usually makes, but delicious just the same.  I’ve pondered and can’t think of a single thing Momma has ever made that I really didn’t like.  She even has me eating her coconut cake although I do not have a penchant for coconut.

Our sides tonight are my little Mamaw’s famous corn and beans.  Every holiday meal, summertime cook out, birthday dinner, church social and without exception the annual Williams’ Family Reunion she makes her famous corn and beans.  Let me explain, it isn’t one dish of corn and beans, it is two totally separate dishes that just sort of go together like peas in a pod or peanut butter and jelly.

Creamed corn that was cut off the cob by hand, (something I wasn’t allowed to do as I might cut too close to the cob, there is a technique) cooked with constant string as to not scorch, (which was usually a good job for me) and frozen; and green beans that were strung, broken (both of which I was good at helping with) and canned in boiling water in a pressure canner.

Because my grandparents, Mamaw and Papaw, were raised on the left and right forks of Beech Creek growing vegetable gardens from the time they were knee-high to a grasshopper that is what they have always done.  Without fail they knew when it was time to prepare the soil, plant and tend it and when it was time for the garden to come in.  Year after year sometimes more than one garden, and sometimes in more than one city; the most famous and abundant vegetables they grew were their corn and beans.

Harvesting time was always a busy hullabaloo with all the pickin’ (picking) and shuckin’ (shucking) and puttin’ up (canning).  Because of this there was always a plethora of corn and beans from previous canning seasons.  Mamaw and Papaw accumulated more ‘corn and beans’ than you could imagine thus it was always what she cooked.  One deep freezer turned into two or three for storing the corn and one hand-built can house turned into two can houses for the reserve of Ball glass jars filled to the top with beans and other vegetables that were put up and stockpiled for the winter.

I am not talking about a century ago, this yearly process was happening until the last few years so to have Mamaw’s corn and beans tonight with Momma’s meatloaf and peach pie was a treasure! Thank you both for your love!

Dinner Delivered to My Door ~

Tags

Dinner Delivered, Friends, Lasagna, Salad, Thoughtfulness

I am perplexed as what to do first, eat or write.  I set everything on the table and the aroma wafted up.  I made everyone’s plates and served them respectively then made my bowl of salad, cut my slice of desert and spooned up my main course.  As we weren’t all eating at the table I found myself carrying my dishes straight to my desk, plopped down and didn’t know whether to taste or type. I couldn’t resist so I tasted first ~ then typed!

Our friends Larry and Gayle not only prepared this meal for us but also drove almost an hour one way to deliver it to our front door.  What was inside the large box and bag smelled wonderful however it wasn’t until I set them down on the table that I realized the special effort that Gayle had put into making this for us.

The bag contained the salad makings; divided little baggies of Julienne red peppers, cut cauliflower and broccoli sprouts, quartered cucumber slices and sliced powdery white mushrooms.  A large container of fresh green lettuces of a mixed variety, a smaller container of red and juicy Tommy Toe tomatoes, a jar of Marie’s Creamy Ranch Dressing and I am not quite sure how Gayle knew that I absolutely love black olives but she did.  Also, a small tin of sliced black olives!

The box contained a very large tin of homemade meat and cheese lasagna that she had freshly made this afternoon, still warm and covered with Reynolds.  A fresh loaf of French Bread adorned the dish and to the side was a smaller tin of cream cheese covered brownies.  There were even pretty toothpicks holding the Saran Wrap from touching the top of the cream cheese.  Finally was the most beautiful golden-finch colored hand towel with a design of ears of corn on the cob on one end.

Absolutely beautifully put together and the taste didn’t disappoint the presentation; it was out of this world.  I have delivered a meal or two in my past but never have I been so detailed and meticulous in preparing my dish, making sure that every aspect of the meal and what goes with it was included.  And nothing needs to be returned to the chef, see every detail.

With David recovering from his surgery Gayle’s only thought was that I could use the rest and not have to worry about cooking tonight.  Thank you Larry and Gayle for having such thoughtfulness and consideration for others!

First from the Larder ~

Tags

Desserts, Dinner, Homemade Meals, Larder, Muffin Tins, Sandwiches, Strawberry Muffins

Tonight’s dinner was delicious, even though I cooked it myself, I don’t mind telling you I did a fine job.  I don’t cook everyday as sometimes we take the simple route  and eat ham and cheese sandwiches, peanut-butter and jam sandwiches, a tuna and cheese melt, or sometimes the ham and tuna is left off and we stick with a plain grilled cheese.  Yes, we do eat a lot of sandwiches because we are usually on the run – to soccer practice, a soccer game, to drop off or pick up one huckleberry or another from some event or gathering of young people.

But I do cook meals, quite often because we dine out only when there is a blue moon.  There are various reasons we nourish ourselves at home with home prepared and cooked meals; for one, the nourishment itself.  When I do the cooking, I know where, for the most part, the food came from, how it is prepared and cooked and what is in it.

I agree it is simpler and most American’s do prefer to eat out as a treat for themselves and their families, but I believe the “treating” has turned into the standard.  The second reason is the substandard food that one receives when dining out, unless one eats every meal at The Capital Grille, Sullivan’s or Morton’s, trust me when I say the food is really substandard.  Lastly is the health concern of the preservatives, cholesterol, sodium and fats and more that are hidden in industrialized restaurant food.  I also think it is cleaner to eat at home.  Of course, not with the mess I make in a kitchen, but the food itself is cleaner.

There are exceptions to every rule, group celebrations or a get together that one is invited to or that is planned by others when eating out or consuming food that is prepared by others in an industrial environment is unavoidable, but for the most part, we eat at home and I do the cooking.

Tonight’s dinner, and I am sorry I didn’t photograph it, consisted of boneless chicken breasts lightly breaded and pan-fried with garlic salt, pepper and sauteed onions.  On the side was fresh steamed broccoli and a baked potato loaded with butter, sour cream, bacon, cheese and a dash of salt.  The boys drank milk and we drank homemade iced tea, not from a tea maker.  From the minute the onions hit the sizzling pan the wafting aromas brought my family to the border of the kitchen asking how long until dinner was ready.  Such a compliment their impatience can sometimes be!

While preparing the mail course of our dinner I scanned the pantry for what could be for dessert.  I pulled a regular boxed cake mix and prepared it.  Too long it would take at this point for the cake to cook and cool enough to be just slightly warm before we would be ready for it so I pulled the over-sized muffin pans from the shelf.

The trick I have found with not only muffin tins but cake pans as well is that I pre-heat them in the oven, not just the oven itself.  This way when the batter goes into the sprayed or greased and flowered pans it has a head start on becoming the same temperature as the oven setting.  It also sticks less, for me anyway.

With the batter poured and the tins in the oven, we sat down to enjoy our freshly prepared meal.  Earlier in the afternoon, I had purchased fresh strawberries and those were already chilling in the icebox mixed with sugar to create a glazed liquid coating them and making their redness shine.

Dinner complete and muffins out of the oven, I only slightly let them cool before taping the pan on a cloth to gently loosen them from their form.  Still looking around for something to make these little treats more than plain strawberry muffins, I reached for the chilled strawberries and powered sugar.

A slight, or not so slight, coating of powered sugar went on first, then came the strawberries in all their glory with their own glaze and just a tap of powered sugar to top it off.  Whipped topping would have been nice but then again, it might have been too much for this simple dessert.

The muffins could be eaten plain, with powered sugar, with strawberries or with powdered sugar and strawberries.  The choices were up to the individuals, but they all chose the loaded muffin as did I.  It was scrumptious – still warm on the inside but not too hot as to melt the powdered sugar and here is the finished result!