This is Marie, contributing an article about a paired establishment that has divided into two – the Gnu’s Room and Mama Mocha’s. We’d stumbled over the bookstore while wandering in another part of town, and on arriving at the coffeehouse found out more about the story. Continue reading “Mama Mocha’s Coffee Emporium, Auburn AL”
Tag: marie writes
The Chicken Salad Chick, Auburn AL
This is Marie, contributing a story about a very special specialty store and restaurant. The Chicken Salad Chick is a chain that is slowly expanding through the southeast, and on a recent trip to Auburn, Alabama, we visited the original location. Each of the main menu items except the pimento cheese is some variety of chicken salad. There is a limited selection of sides. The combination I picked was “Fruity Fran” and “Olivia’s Old South” with a side of fruit intended for the boy, who came with us on the two-hour drive from our house to “the Plains” in eastern Alabama. Each of the salads that has a name is linked to a real person in the life of Stacy Brown, the owner and inventor of these delicious recipes. Continue reading “The Chicken Salad Chick, Auburn AL”
Sandcastle Cafe and Grill, Saint Simons Island GA (take two)
This is Marie, contributing an article revisiting a go-to favorite of ours for breakfast on the Island, The Sandcastle Cafe and Grill. We have possibly visited on almost every trip we’ve taken to visit my family since that initial mention on our blog way back in 2010. Continue reading “Sandcastle Cafe and Grill, Saint Simons Island GA (take two)”
Food from Fiction 4: Sipsey’s Fried Green Tomatoes
“When Mrs. Threadgoode saw what she had on her plate, she clapped her hands, as excited as a child on Christmas. There before her was a plate of perfectly fried green tomatoes and fresh cream-white corn, six slices of bacon, with a bowl of baby lima beans on the side and four huge light and fluffy buttermilk biscuits.” — from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg (Random House, 1987)
This is Marie, contributing an article about a Yankee trying to cook like a Southerner and having a rather hard time of it. Mind you, I’ve lived in Georgia longer than all the other places combined, but it seems you just can’t take the Minnesota out of me. Continue reading “Food from Fiction 4: Sipsey’s Fried Green Tomatoes”
Food from Fiction 3: Sam-I-Am’s Green Eggs and Ham
“Say! I like green eggs and ham!
I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat.
And I would eat them with a goat…
And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
They are so good, so good, you see!” — from Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss (Random House, 1960)
This is Marie, contributing an article about Green Eggs & Ham. I was in somewhat of a whimsical mood when making this selection, which is hardly a recipe at all. Continue reading “Food from Fiction 3: Sam-I-Am’s Green Eggs and Ham”
Food from Fiction 2: Nero Wolfe’s Poached and Truffled Broilers
“As I had holiday traffic to cope with, it was half past nine by the time we got home and washed and seated at the dinner table. A moving car is no place to give Wolfe bad news, or good news either for that matter, and there was no point in spoiling his dinner, so I waited until after we had finished with the poached and truffled broilers and broccoli and stuffed potatoes and herbs, and salad and cheese, and Fritz had brought coffee to us in the office, to open the bag. Wolfe was reaching for the remote-control television gadget, to turn it on so as to have the pleasure of turning it off again…” – from “Fourth of July Picnic” by Rex Stout (aka “The Labor Union Murder,” in Look, July 9, 1957), reprinted in And Four to Go (Viking, 1958)
This is Marie, contributing the second of my articles about food in fiction. This time it is a recipe from the completely wonderful source The Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout (and, although not on the cover, Barbara Burns who is credited with testing many of the recipes and providing the final wording). Continue reading “Food from Fiction 2: Nero Wolfe’s Poached and Truffled Broilers”
Food from Fiction 1: Mickey Dade’s Rice-A-Roni
“Five minutes later, Mickey laid the lamb out flat on the grill and covered it. Then, back in the kitchen, he took a saucepan down from its rung on the wall. He put it on the stove over high heat, throwing in half a stick of butter and some olive oil. In another minute, he’d added chopped shallots, garlic, thyme and rosemary, some allspice, and three cups of the chicken stock that he made from scratch whenever he started to get low. Some things you simply couldn’t cut corners on.
He stirred a minute more, added a cup and a half of Arborio rice and some orzo, then turned the heat all the way down to the lowest simmer and covered the pan. This was his own personal version of Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat, a simple pilaf, but he liked his strategy of first making the kitchen so fragrant that it drew his roommates to the feast whether they were inclined to eat or not.” – from Treasure Hunt by John Lescroart (Dutton, 2010)
This is Marie, contributing an article that is only tangentially about cooking some rice.
Some time ago, I saw this lovely series of photographs documenting iconic meals from various books, such as a photo of the tea party from Alice In Wonderland (that was my favorite, followed by the photo of the potatoes and eggs from The Secret Garden) here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/04/16/fictitous-dishes-dinah-fried-book/
It was such a lovely photography series that it was an immediate inspiration to do something similar here. However, an immediate stumbling block came up – the dishes that were were lovely as photos were also not precisely appropriate to this blog (how many of you would actually want to cook a potato in a campfire? And then eat it? Please be honest!) Not only that, but I am constitutionally unable to do something exactly the way someone else did it. Continue reading “Food from Fiction 1: Mickey Dade’s Rice-A-Roni”
Marie, Let's Eat! 