Ambrosia, a Quintessential Southern Dessert

As a child of the Deep South, ambrosia was always among the desserts my grandmother served at her holiday table. According to Greek and Roman mythology, ambrosia is food of the Gods.

An internet search revealed there are a lot of different ambrosia recipes, some containing apples, pineapple, sour cream, Cool Whip, marshmallows, or pudding. The Deep South Southern ambrosia I recall from my youth was a simple dessert consisting of seasonal winter citrus, such as oranges and grapefruit, garnished with flaked coconut. This is my best recollection of my Nanny’s ambrosia. The addition of the dried cranberries and a splash of Grand Marnier are my own. It's best served during the winter months when citrus fruits are at their peak. Even after all these years, my grandmother's recipe is timeless and contemporary.

Serve in your finest crystal bowl, or as I did in this case, a bowl from Meakin’s mom’s Early American Feather Glass collection. Food of the Gods deserves the best.

Southern Ambrosia 
Serves 6 to 8

3 ruby red grapefruit
6 – 7 Navel oranges
A small handful of dried craisins (dried cranberries), optional
½ cup flaked sweetened coconut or more to taste
Splash of Grand Marier, optional
Fresh mint for garnish

With a sharp knife, remove the peel of the grapefruit and oranges and discard. Over a large bowl, remove the individual sections (called supremes) of the citrus with a knife, letting the juices and the sections fall into the bowl. Drain the juices and save for breakfast or cook’s treat.

Soak the dried craisins if using in a bit of hot water to plump, then drain well. Add the craisins to the citrus supremes, along with about a half cup of flaked, sweetened coconut or to taste. I added a splash of Grand Marnier for extra flavor, but it’s neither traditional nor necessary.  Add a sprig of fresh mint for garnish, or julienne the mint at the last minute and add just before serving.

Printable recipe

Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

French Cranberry Sauce 

It’s been a wild and crazy week. Between dashing to appointments with a very talented decorator at Pottery Barn (a fabulous experience by the way) and pulling the condo together for the season, I don’t feel like we’ve even stopped to catch our breath. What a shame too because the weather in south Florida in November is absolutely delightful. Not too cold, not too hot, and the traffic isn’t enough to make you want to pull your hair out just yet.

Last night I had a little panic attack when I realized next Thursday is Thanksgiving. As usual Meakin’s advice is right on. “Don’t worry,” he said, “just rely on our old standards, which is what most people prefer for Thanksgiving anyway.”

And so it is. We’ll have a traditional oven roasted turkey, a French cranberry sauce simmered in red wine that I’ve made for thirty years, a version of my mother’s Southern cornbread dressing, and baby English peas with butter and rosemary. Dessert will be Bahamian sweet potato pie spiked with a healthy dash of dark rum for an island twist. Simple enough and easy to pull off. Besides, our favorite Thanksgiving food is really a turkey sandwich shared between the two of us before we turn off the lights in the kitchen and go to bed Thursday evening.

On Friday I’ll make one of our favorite fall soups – pumpkin squash, which is what I did last year. It can be made ahead and slowly reheated after a Friday morning shopping spree if you’re so inclined to visit the malls. You most definitely won’t find us there. My first career was in retail management and just thinking about shopping on the day after Thanksgiving gives me a major headache. But for others, it’s exciting to snap up bargains and get your Christmas shopping out of the way early, so I say more power to you. The economy will definitely thank you.

Pumpkin Squash Soup

The details and the recipes can be found by clicking the various links. I’ll be sharing our Thanksgiving favorites with Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum and On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Are you, like us, serving old favorites or are you spreading your wings and trying some new recipes?  Will you be staying home and doing the cooking or are you going to visit family or friends? Whatever you do and wherever you go,  we wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving.

An Elegant French Green Bean Salad from the Périgueux Region

November has always been my favorite month in the fall. In the mountains, the leaves have changed, there’s a nip in the air, and it’s cool enough to build a fire in the fireplace. When we lived in the islands, in November the humid days seemed to all of a sudden disappeared and the heat of summer was magically gone and replaced with gentle cooling breezes. The same is true on the Gulf coast of south Florida. November also happens to be the month we were married and that alone is reason enough to love November don’t you think?

I find in the fall I crave what I call “transitional” foods, the kind of foods that bridge the gap between hardy cold weather foods such as braises and stews and light summer entrees. This elegant little French green bean salad is an excellent example of a perfect starter for an autumn dinner.

In southwestern France in autumn the walnuts of Périgord grow in the Dordogne and the Lot regions and during September their markets are full of fresh walnuts. In early October the bulk of the crop is gathered when they fall to the ground and are dried and made into walnut oil, one of the most distinctive flavors of the region.  This green bean salad is especially delicious paired with another local specialty of the region, foie gras.

If you can’t find French haricot vert as shown above, slender green beans will work. However, I don’t recommend pole beans. This is a French salad with foie gras, so we want it to look elegant, n’est-ce pas? Walnut oil is available in most supermarkets and specialty stores or substitute a good extra-virgin olive oil. Make sure to store any nut oils in the refrigerator after you open them because they turn rancid if left on a shelf in a warm cabinet just as any fresh nuts will do.

Salade de Périgueux or salade d’haricot vert
Adapted from “The Food of France” by Sarah Woodward

1 pound of French green beans (haricot vert), or any slender green beans, topped & tailed
Sea salt
2 tablespoons walnut oil or extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Freshly ground black pepper
A small handful of freshly shelled walnuts, broken in half or crumbled in large pieces
2 ounces foie gras

Bring a saucepan of water to boil with plenty of salt and very gently boil the beans for about 6 minutes. They still should be green and fairly crisp. The exact time will depend on the size and freshness of the beans, so taste regularly.*

As soon as the beans are cooked to your satisfaction, drain them and dress immediately with the walnut oil, lemon juice, and freshly ground black pepper even if you are serving them later. When it’s time to assemble the salad, season with a tiny bit more sea salt, scatter the walnuts over the salad, and top with thin slivers of the foie gras.

*Cooks notes: Take care not to overcook the green beans. They should have a good bite with no discernible crunch and taste “cooked” but definitely not mushy. They can go from cooked to over-cooked very quickly, so it's important to stay close and taste, taste, taste as you go during the final few minutes.

I will be sharing this recipe with Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum and On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable.

What I'm reading.

“Touching, thoughtful, hilarious, and exquisite in its observations, French Lessons—Ellen Sussman’s day in Paris with a wonderful collection of characters—is a treat. . . . Très charmant!”

—Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Four Ms. Bradwells

My Carolina Kitchen Celebrates its 3rd Blog Anniversary

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has stayed with me and read my blog along this incredible journey for the past three years. I had no idea when I started blogging what a wonderful experience it would be. I’ve met so many wonderful people and your friendship means the world to me. I also could not have done this without the help of my fabulous husband Meakin, who is my photographer and my best friend in the world.

For those of you who have blogs of your own, you know how scary it can be to push the “publish” button for the first. Fortunately I wasn’t alone when I took the plunge. It was late in October of 2008 when a group of members of the North Carolina Writers Network in western North Carolina attended a workshop on “How to Start a Blog” in the computer room of a local library. The workshop was conducted by Glenda Beall, at the time the Netwest Coordinator for our area. Glenda has two popular blogs of her own, Writing Life Stories and Writers Circle Around the Table. I felt a little out of place surroundedy by poets such as Nancy Simpson and Brenda Kaye Ledford, both who had previously published poetry books. But with group support, we all jumped into the world of blogging together. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I primarily post two kinds of stories – food and travel. Here are a few of the most popular posts during the past three years. Please click on the link to see the original post.

Most Popular Food Posts

Low country Shrimp and Grits

Oven baked Pancake/Popover – known as a Bismark or Dutch Baby - so easy it practically makes itself

French Chicken Marengo à la Provençale

What to serve houseguest for breakfast

Jacques Pepin’s Smoked Salmon Pizza

Barefoot Contessa’s Mexican Chicken Soup & Our Own Homemade Tortilla Strips

Most Popular Travel Posts

Wednesday is Market Day in Saint-Remy-de-Provence in the south of France

Bistros of Provence Part I - Featuring Le Bistrot de Paradou, Patricia Well’s Favorite Bistro

Bistros of Provence Part II

A Virtual Trip by Airplane to Abaco Island in the Northern Bahamas, our old home, for lunch at our favorite restaurant

Highlands, North Carolina - high in the mountains where cool mountain air and natural beauty meet Mother Nature at her finest 

Carmine’s Gourmet Market, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

A Tour of Thomas Edison’s winter home in Fort Myers, Florida

Again, thank you and merci beaucoup to each and every one of you for your wonderful support and generous comments. I could not have done without you. I will be taking a short intermission and plan to return in early November.

Cheers! See you soon. I will be linking this to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum and On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable.

Cheerwine, BBQ and NASCAR - It's a Carolina Thing

I wrote this story a couple of years ago for the North Carolina Writer’s Association as one of my contributions to an anthology about North Carolina. Cheerwine, as you’ll read below, is a burgundy color cherry cola drink similar to Dr. Pepper or RC Cola, Coke, or Pepsi. The distribution of Cheerwine has widened through the years and you can often find it where NEHI soft drinks are sold. I’ve read that most Fresh Markets now sell Cheerwine. You can also click the Cheerwine link to see if it available in your area. Feel free to substitute the cola of your choice if you can’t find Cheerwine. This is a versatile BBQ sauce that is good on chicken or pork.

Nothing says Carolina like Cheerwine, BBQ and NASCAR

Cheerwine, first bottled in 1917, is still a popular soft drink in North Carolina. Although this burgundy colored cherry soda with lots of bubbles is the red color of grapes, it doesn’t contain any wine or alcohol. During that era it wasn’t unusual to give it such a name. Other soft drinks of the time, such as ginger ale and root beer, combined a flavor description with the name of an alcoholic beverage. Cheerwine is as much a part of North Carolina culture as BBQ and NASCAR.

BBQ is serious business in North Carolina and there can be heated discussions on which sauce is the best, eastern or western style. Along the coast, easterners insist that their vinegar based sauce is the original American BBQ sauce and, when being served a pulled pork sandwich, it’s not unusual to be asked if you would like slaw on it. On the other hand, high in the western mountains, aficionados prefer a thicker tomato based sauce.

NASCAR and racing have deep southern roots in North Carolina. Well known NASCAR race car driver Junior Johnson, born in rural western North Carolina in 1931, was behind the wheel of his daddy’s pickup truck at eight. When he reached fourteen, he became part of the family business and delivered moonshine throughout the backwoods. Johnson was an aggressive driver and often found himself in the winner’s circle when his fellow moon shiners held informal races in their souped-up delivery vehicles. With a number of unofficial wins under his belt, Junior entered professional stock racing and went on to win forty seven poles and fifty NASCAR Winston Cup series races. In 2000 he was inducted into the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

The heart of NASCAR country is in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1949 NASCAR held its first strictly Stockcar Race at the Charlotte Speedway. Lowe’s Charlotte Motor Speedway, the one and a half mile super speedway, is where most drivers now call home. 

Tailgating before the races is part of a rich tradition for NASCAR spectators. Sometimes tailgating parties can last for days as fans gather around for simple, hearty meals cooked and served outdoors and prepared on either elaborate grills towed behind their trucks or the more simple Weber types. Southern-style BBQ meats play a starring role in the camaraderie of this ritual. Meals can range from being served on fancy linen tablecloths with silverware to simple help yourself foods piled high on paper plates. So if you’re headed to a NASCAR tailgating party, whip up a batch of this tasty western style Carolina BBQ sauce using Cheerwine instead of moon shine. Take it along to baste your grilled pork or chicken.

Combine three cups of Cheerwine, one and a half cups of ketchup, one quarter cup of apple cider vinegar with a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, and one teaspoon each of chili powder, ground cumin, dried oregano and paprika. Add one quarter teaspoon ground allspice, a couple of healthy dashes of Worcestershire sauce, and season with salt and pepper. Place in a saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about forty-five minutes or until thickened. Allow to cool. To perk up the flavor, add a little squeeze of fresh lemon juice, hot sauce to taste, and check for salt and pepper. Makes two to three cups. Use to baste pork or chicken during the last fifteen to twenty minutes of grilling. Feel free to add your own special touches. That’s the fun of BBQ - making it your own.

Cheerwine, BBQ and NASCAR. It’s a Carolina thing. 

I will be linking this to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum and On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable.