by Michael Lee West
An Edible Book Review inspired by Jain at Food for Thought, a delicious blog for readers with an appetite for the written word.
Take one out-of-work pastry chef . . .
“Teeny Templeton believes that her life is finally on track. She’s getting married, she’s baking her own wedding cake, and she’s leaving her troubled past behind. And then? She finds her fiancé playing naked badminton with a couple of gorgeous, skanky chicks.
Add a whole lot of trouble . . .
Needless to say, the wedding is off. Adding insult to injury, her fiancé slaps a restraining order on her. When he’s found dead a few days later, all fingers point to Teeny.
And stir like crazy!
Her only hope is through an old boyfriend-turned-lawyer, the guy who broke her heart a decade ago. But dredging up the past brings more than skeletons out of the closet, and Teeny doesn’t know who she can trust. With evidence mounting and the heat turning up, Teeny must also figure out where to live, how to support herself, how to clear her name, and how to protect her heart.”
We were fortunate to have been invited to visit Charleston this past weekend, which is a favorite destination for us. Beside the charm, architecture & history of the city, we visit for the FOOD!
A Foodie’s paradise, we graze our way across the peninsula, hoping that the fact we’ve parked the car for the weekend, means we’re expending a few of the calories we’re consuming. I thought I’d include some Charleston photos, some new & some I’ve posted before, sprinkling in some of my favorite quotes from the book, as part this edible review since we just returned from the scene of the crime(s). . .
Following Teeny in Charleston and her culinary escapades, was the fictitious “I’m a Suspect Icing” on the “I Didn’t Kill My Boyfriend Cake” for me :-)
I even ran into Teeny’s bulldog, Sir, on a previous trip, right across from a white mansion on South Battery~
You know you’re in for a treat from the first two sentences:
“All I ever wanted in life was true love, a set of copper cookware, and the perfect recipe for red velvet cake. The last thing I wanted was to end up on Charleston’s six o’clock news, accused of murder and a slew of other crimes.”
So the fun begins. . .
Michael Lee West serves up Teeny’s troubles and tribulations like a Baptist Church covered-dish supper~ there are things you anticipate, but with lots more variety and MORE than a few surprises :-)
There was as much tempt my palate in this book, as when we visit Charleston: Coconut Shrimp, BBQ ribs, Bacon-Deviled Eggs, Seven-Layer Salad, Chicken Fried Steak, Tomato Basil Tart, not to mention every type of pie imaginable, along with recipes included in the book for Lavender Shortbread, Teeny’s Vanilla Peach Pecan Coffee Cake, Espresso Steak Rub & Fried Green Tomato Salad with Cornbread Croutons.
The MOST fun for me was reading excerpts from Teeny’s ‘Templeton Family Receipts & Whatnot’:
“Whenever one of the sisters got peeved, she wrote a recipe—not a normal one, mind you, but one that helped her relax. Some people have punching bags, time-out rooms, or Prozac. The Templetons had a cookbook. Our recipes were fanciful, listing umpteen lethal ingredients. Not that we’d ever tried them on anyone. It was just a way of venting.”
I took my cue from Teeny’s shopping cart to make a trifle:
“Food defines people just as clearly as their taste in clothing and their interior design. Miss Dora and I had discussed this a lot. Our cart overflowed with carby things: garlic French bread, potatoes, fresh corn, and a bakery sour cream cake that I planned to turn into a trifle. To our credit, we had a box of strawberries for the aforementioned trifle.”
A Bonaventure Georgia Peach Trifle, with a few strawberries from Teeny’s cart~ layers of pound cake, vanilla pudding & topped with whipped cream.
If you’d like a recipe you can find one for Georgia Peach Trifle, courtesy of Southern Living, here.
“That gave me an idea. I grabbed a peach. In a month, it would be ripe, but now it was hard and heavy.”
“I fired down two more peaches. One whizzed over Bing’s head but the other slammed into his nether region.”
Since it’s not peach season, it came as no great surprise that my peaches were as hard & heavy as the ones Teeny fires as ammunition, so I used frozen peaches for my trifle instead :-)
“In my mind, peach trees meant love, shelter, and comfort. I’d grown up on a peach farm in Bonaventure, Georgia. Bing knew how I felt. The engagement was broken, but the tree should stay in one piece.”
“ ‘The whole process just tickles me,” I said. ‘I like matching food to people and filling up their empty spaces.’ ”
“As I drove toward the Battery, I felt the pull of the Spencer-Jackson.”
“The house was creeping up on me, seducing me with iron curlicues. . . ”
“. . .secret alleys. . .”
“. . .rose petals on cobbled walkways. . .”
“. . .and the tolling bells of St. Michael’s.”
“I loved the play of light on the stucco and how it changed from ice pink to peach to Pepto-Bismol.”
“This was Charleston, by god. The people might have lost the war but not their manners.”
“On this side of East Bay, the houses were fitted together like marzipan confections—cotton candy pink, blueberry, lime, saffron, watermelon ice.”
“When I got nervous, I had my own ways of calming down; I made up unusual recipes that weren’t necessarily edible but suited my mood.”
“I needed that book because it was full of make-believe evilness, penned by a whole slew of Templeton women trying to improve their moods with pounded peach seeds and foxglove.”
“I pulled the sheet over my head and tried to think of a soothing imaginary recipe. What I really needed was Smother Your Love gravy, poured over Forget Him pork chops, with a heaping side dish of He’s Better Off With Her pie.”
I decided to make Teeny’s signature cocktail. . .if you’ve read the book, you’re probably expecting a Peach-Teeny/Tini~
There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments for me, especially in this chapter of the book~
Teeny’s Splendid Mimosas~
Teeny’s cocktail of choice to serve for those with a Sucralose allergy
Rim a LARGE glass with pink sugar~ to distract with the lovely color & camouflage the sweet SPLENDA® flavor
Mix Blood Orange juice :-) with as many SPLENDA® packets as you dare~
Hope & Pray Sucralose with take effect sooner rather than later. . .
Add plenty of Champagne~ don’t be skimpy~
Conceal evidence of empty little yellow packets,
Serve and Hope for the Best!
“Teeny Templeton is small-statured and big-hearted, a heroine worthy of this novel, which is by turn acerbic and sweet, poignant and funny, with great sex, bad boyfriends, and Do Not Try This at Home recipes. However you slice it, Gone with a Handsomer Man is as addictive as red velvet cake. I hope it sells as many copies as that other novel set in the South that starts with ‘Gone with.’” –Harley Jane Kozak, Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Award-winning author of Dating Dead Men and A Date You Can’t Refuse
I’m anxiously waiting for a second helping of Teeny’s troubles due out next year~
Thank you for your visit, I’m joining:
Posted in Books, Food
Tagged Alphabe-Thursday, Bonaventure Georgia Peach Trifle, Charleston SC, cooking my book, food for thought edible review, Foodie Friday, Georgia Peach Trifle, Gone with a Handsomer Man, Michael Lee West, Splenda, Teeny's Splendid Mimosa
I’m joining Jain with my Edible Book Review at Food for Thought, where pages from your book magically mix with the kitchen and your camera.
I found this book at Audible, searching for something to listen to that took place in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. I selected it primarily because it was narrated by Kate Fleming, known under the pseudonym of Anna Fields ~ one of my favorite narrators, who tragically died in 2006, and leaves a wealth of recordings. . .
This book chronicles twelve-year-old Emily Parmenter, in a coming of age story, who lives with her father and older brothers on Sweetwater Plantation. Walter Parmenter who “lived far back in his head, in the glory days of the family-oriented plantations”~ is consumed with raising the famous Sweetwater Boykin Spaniels, desired for their hunting abilities. Oblivious when it comes to his daughter, Emily is left to navigate her small comforting world of tidal creeks and magical dolphins, with her dog by her side. Grieving for the loss of her beloved older brother and still coming to terms with being abandoned by her mother, Emily turns to Sweetwater’s Boykins and discovers she has an uncanny ability to communicate and train them. When a Charleston society daughter, Lulu Foxworth~ beautiful but damaged, discovers Sweetwater Creek, and is invited to move in for the summer, Emily sees her a threat to her small safe world while Emily’s father sees Lulu ‘resting & relaxing’ at Sweetwater, as his ticket into Charleston society.
“In the Lowcountry of South Carolina, and only there in the world, a savage and beautiful ballet takes places twice a day. Usually in late summer and early fall, when the tidal creeks of the Lowcountry salt marshes are at their lowest, the fish and crabs who inhabit them cling nervously to the muddy banks, waiting for the tide to return and give them sanctuary in the tall spartina grass. Suddenly the dolphins come.”
“Pods of bottlenose dolphins, which have hunted these creeks and banks for generations and know every bend and mudflat, burst into the creek and begin to herd the fish, usually silver mullet, against the mudbanks. At a signal, perhaps a whistle or the echoing clicks from the out-riding scouts, the pods erupt, and with sonic blast and perfect herding tactics, run the schools of mullets into a tight ball against the shore. In a thrashing rush that defies human ken, they create a great wave that washes the bait fish out of the water and up onto the mudflats. The dolphins, riding their own wave, follow them out of the water onto the banks, where they gorge on them until they are gone. The dolphins themselves come completely out of the water, lying side by side in a tight row, always turned on their right sides, as synchronized as the Rockettes. These salt-sea creatures come twice a day for two or three months, always to their pods’ ancestral banks, and for a moment become completely creatures of earth and air. It is called strand feeding, and nobody really knows why or how it happens, only that it has probably happened this way since time out of mind. The waters they hunt are not fresh, but sweet in the way that only warm, salt-softened water can be. This story is set on the banks of one of these creeks, and in the fields and woods around it. As long as anyone can remember, this ribbon of tidal water has been called Sweetwater Creek.”
Walter worked hard to establish a reputation for Sweetwater Plantation’s fine Boykins descended from the original stock founded in Boykin, South Carolina:
“The little dog had touches of this and that in his ancestry: Chesapeake Bay retriever, American water spaniel, cocker and springer. It turned out that the new breed was naturally affectionate in the house and joyfully enthusiastic in the fields and marshes. His dense, curly coat protected him from icy waters, his autumn-brown color effectively camouflaged him, and his stub of a tail did not disturb undergrowth and give away the position of the blind-hidden boats. He was equally at home flushing small waterfowl and upland birds: doves, turkeys, and ducks. He was even proficient at flushing deer. By the time Walter Parmenter met the Boykin Spaniel, the dog had become a favorite with sportsmen up and down the eastern seaboard.”
I had no idea when I selected this book that food would be is as prolific and as descriptive as the scenery of the Lowcountry~ the drool factor is HIGH in this book: turkey, corn bread and oyster dressing, pecan pies…fried chicken, collards, cornbread…crabcakes, shrimp & rice, shrimp & grits…beef tenderloin & benne biscuits…brown oyster stew & scalloped oysters…broiled quail & rosy sliced duck breast… And food is not just mentioned like menu items, Siddons SERVES them with the Foxworths’ heirloom silver~ slender stalks of white asparagus are “dripping velvety gold sauce”… breakfast consists of “crisp & airy” peach waffles & “cinnamon-walloped” sweet rolls; eggs are scrambled “endlessly high and golden” served along with “steaming” Sally Lunn doused in ribbon cane syrup ( I had to google, you can read here if Sally Lunn is foreign to you like it was to me :-) Food was SO abundant it hard to choose. . .
Since Boykin Spaniels figure so prominently in this story, I looked for a food to illustrate them, so I chose Cheese Straws.
‘The dog that won’t rock the boat,’ was the dog’s unofficial slogan.
Cheddar Cheese Straws, recipe here~ really easy & good, dog cookie cutter not required :-)
Emily picks out a puppy from the litter on her tenth birthday~ the runt of the litter at only three weeks old, who clumsily sits down on Emily’s foot~ it’s love at first sight. Her older brothers’ snide comments that he was “no hunting spaniel” and more of a hound dog, prompts Emily to name her puppy Elvis :-) Elvis become Emily’s constant companion and confidant.
“Off in the marsh and on to the hummock, live oaks spilled curtains of silvery moss onto the high grass, and the resurrection ferns burned primal green. At the marshes’ edges the spartina danced in a light wind that smelled so densely of the ocean, fishy river and the sea far beyond it that you could get drunk on it. A hundred bird songs haunted the shimmering air. Over it all arched the great tender, washed-blue skies of spring.”
“The marsh was almost totally green now, and alive with its teeming, gliding, scuttling, splashing denizens, and the smaller creeks cutting it ran full. It was nearly high tide. Behind Emily’s closed eyelids the sun made red whorls and pinwheels, and was tender on her face.”
“People who live beside moving water have been given the gift of living light, and even if they never come to recognize it as such, any other light, no matter how clear and brilliant, is pale and static to them, leaving them with a sense of loss, of vulnerability, as if they have suddenly found themselves without clothes.”
“It was a Saturday afternoon, and for once the Lowcountry was behaving as it did in the dreams of people who had left it a long time before but never stopped aching for it. The air was soft and sweet with the scent of flowers both close by and borne in from faraway by the river wind. It was cool in the deep shade of the front porch, and not really hot when you went out onto the lawn and down to the river or back toward the kennels and barn. The sucking humidity had lifted temporarily and the sky and reflecting river were so blue they almost hurt the eye. The wind that lifted with the incoming tide made the river, running full, glitter and dance, and off on the faraway hummocks, and even to the woodland beyond, you could see the sharp details of palmettos and soft webs of moss and resurrection ferns, the shivering of the small live oak leaves, the ink black trunks of the forest trees.”
“Every citizen of the water and marsh and sky seemed to put in a courtesy appearance for the Foxworths: mullet jumped in the river, shrimps popped, turtles splashed into the water from the mossy banks, ospreys dived and wheeled in the blue vault of the sky, and even the young eagle who lived across the river, on the edge of wood, swept by, casting a prehistoric shadow. Off the hummocks the ensigns of the white-tailed deer flashed in the deep shadows, and from Sweetwater Creek, the roar of the big bull alligator drifted across the peninsula.”
The Parmenters’ housekeeper, Cleta provides a safe-haven for Emily and makes a Coca-Cola cake. . .
I used the Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake Recipe, here and the icing recipe for the cake below.
Coca-Cola Cake Icing
6 tablespoons Coca-Cola®
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dark)
1/2 cup butter
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter in saucepan and add cocoa and Coca-Cola. Remove from heat and stir in confectioners’ sugar, chopped nuts, and vanilla. Top cake while hot.
Lulu takes Emily into Charleston:
“They rattled over the cobbles and bricks of the old neighborhoods south of Broad, and Emily could look up at the narrow, beautiful old single houses lining the streets, the colors of soft heat…”
“They drove down yet another street lined with live oaks and palmettos and tall old dowager houses, and Lulu slowed and stopped before the largest of them. It was massive and beautiful, with slender columns. It sat amid smaller but equally graceful outbuildings, like a mother hen with chicks. The faultless green lawn was encircled with a handsome wrought-iron fence…”
Lulu gradually begins to prepare meals for the Parmenters cooking from her great-grandmother’s ‘receipt’ book and prepares among other things, a shrimp pie.
I found a recipe here, for shrimp pies that gave me an excuse to play with my new Williams-Sonoma pocket pie mold :-)
“Each day was so perfect that it seemed there could never be another one, and then there was. The great seas of spartina sweeping away to the line of dark trees at the horizon, ordinarily the color of an old lion’s hide, were still as green in the beneficent sun as the little emerald lizards of the Lowcountry. They rippled gently in the small tidal winds off the sea, smelling of warm salt and sea grapes and flowers from unknown faraway shores. The skies were a tender, cloudless blue, almost indigo at noon, and the small citizens of the marsh and river and creek lingered, splashing and swishing and chirping and rustling. None seemed in a hurry to settle down. The creek banks and low lying branches of the live oaks were festooned with big, drowsy snakes and turtles; whitetails whisked I the far-off hummocks, wood ibises and wood storks and ospreys and an occasional eagle circled lazily, riding the warm thermals. Only the dolphins were gone, cleaving more firmly to their internal imperative than the lure of the still-rich creek water.”
Overall I enjoyed this book, despite the fact that there was a section that was VERY disturbing and I felt, unnecessary. I found the combination of the joy of dolphins, the details of raising & living with dogs, the setting and imagery of the Lowcountry, irresistible. Anna Fields’ audio performance, and ability to “giving herself over to the page” was icing on the coca-cola cake :-) and elevated a 3* read to a 4* listen for me.
Posted in Books, Food
Tagged an edible review, Anne Rivers Siddons, Boykin Spaniels, Charleston SC, Cheddar Cheese Straws, Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake, Coca-Cola Cake, Dolphins, food for thought edible review, literally cooking my book, Mosaic Monday, Shrimp Pie, Sweetwater Creek, Williams-Sonoma pocket pie mold
Seeking Indigo for Rainbow Summer School for Mrs. Matlock’s class, led me to return to Charleston, SC~ which we visited several weekends ago.
Indigo, or indigotin, is a dyestuff originally extracted from the varieties of the indigo and woad plants. Indigo was known throughout the ancient world for its ability to color fabrics a deep blue. The dye was highly prized by English textile plants in the 18th Century.
Although rice was actually the first lucrative cash crop of South Carolina, it took approximately one hundred years to perfect the rice-growing techniques used in the New World. By the middle of the 18th Century, indigo became a strong rival of rice in South Carolina. Its culture is said to have begun through the experiments of a planter’s daughter, a young girl named Eliza Lucas, who set out the plants on her father’s farm on Wappoo Creek.
Eliza Lucas is credited with introducing indigo to South Carolina. In her father’s absence, sixteen-year-old Eliza became responsible for managing the Wappoo Creek farm, plus supervising overseers at two other Lucas plantations, one inland producing tar and timber, and a 3,000 acre rice plantation on the Waccamaw River. With seeds she received from her father from the West Indies, she eventually perfected a method of making blocks of indigo cakes to be turned into dye. The dye, for which England had relied upon from French sources, was in great demand, used in military uniforms and in dress coats of the day. She provided a new, lucrative business for South Carolina planters. Historian Edward McCrady wrote: “Indigo proved more really beneficial to Carolina than the mines of Mexico or Peru were to Spain . . . . The source of this great wealth . . . was a result of an experiment by a mere girl.”
The indigo production in the American colonies was important and lucrative, due to the monopoly it held on the English market. By the mid 1750′s, indigo was a booming industry. Between 1756 and 1757, indigo exports from South Carolina rose from 232,100 to 894,500 pounds annually. Indigo production, like cotton and rice, were also labor-intensive, setting the stage for a larger slave demand along the South Carolina coast.
As the second half of the 18th Century wore on, South Carolina indigo was increasingly having to compete on the world open market. Given the inferior quality of South Carolina indigo to other varieties in India indigo in the mid-1790s, indigo production in South Carolina was almost completely phased out by the turn of the 19th Century.
I’m Blue since I missed last week’s rainbow assignment, so I thought I’d combine Blue & Indigo for another Charleston tour. . .
In the early 1900s, Dorothy Pocher Legge purchased a section of houses on East Bay Street in Charleston and painted them based on a Colonial Caribbean color scheme. Known as Rainbow Row, this line of 18th century commercial buildings was built to service the bustling wharfs and docks of the port of Charleston.
Rumor has it too, that the houses were painted in the various pastel colors so that intoxicated sailors coming in from the port could remember which houses were their own :-)
Number 95 was once owned by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, signer of the U.S. Constitution~ who just so happens to be one of three sons and a daughter, born to Eliza Lucas and her husband, lawyer, Charles Pinckney.
Charleston’s most intriguing iron oddity is the gib plate, a washer and nut assembly attached to building façades typically in the form of discs 12-15 inches in diameter, which anchored internal stabilizer rods. Used to bolster masonry walls, gib plates became such a common sight after the 1886 earthquake that they were soon referred to as “earthquake bolts”. Stylish homes along East Bay were distinguished by plates made into crosses, stars, and lions’ heads, and recent restorations South of Broad have included unattached “faux” plates to surfaces where originals were removed.
Our room for the weekend~ complete with our own personal earthquake rod. . .only in Charleston are cracked walls considered part of the charm and ambiance, therefore accounting for the premium room rate :-)
We recently visited Charleston, South Carolina for the weekend. In addition to a diner’s destination & delight, it is a city chock full of wonderful architecture. . .full of columns, fluted pilasters, wrought iron, and architrave moldings on historic buildings and homes. We park the car for the weekend when we arrive and enjoy walking, so we don’t miss anything. . .it also helps offset our calorie consumption :-)
History and heritage are a part of life in Charleston. Seemingly untouched by the ravages of time and nature~ hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and wars~ is a culture spanning three centuries of European influence on the city’s architecture.
Wrought iron in Charleston, dates back to the 18th century when ironsmiths fashioned Swedish bar iron into elaborate shapes by hand. Heated on open flame to soften, the iron was then pounded with hammers or twisted to create delicate rosettes and stylish scrolls.
The extent of architectural styles are numerous and said to be unparallelled~ where, block after block, you can see examples of Georgian, Classic Revival, Palladian, Adamesque, Greek Revival, Italianate, Regency, Second Empire, Eastlake, and Queen Anne homes~ throughout the Charleston peninsula.
Historic buildings are known for elaborate details such as crenelations, quoins, vermiculation, rustication, voussoirs, and triglyphs.
Lime and sand were combined to form stucco, that was used extensively over brick exteriors by “raking” brick surfaces to create a base, then scored to resemble blocks of stone.
I’ve always wanted to stay here~ Two Meeting Street Inn~where you can sip your coffee, facing the Battery and the Charleston Harbor. . .
Known as The Holy City, due to the numerous church steeples that can be seen rising above the skyline, religion is deeply embedded in Charleston’s culture~with over 400 places of worship for many denominations.
Charleston brick masons were known for their jack arches, belt courses and corbelling~ which is still evident today.
And at the risk of repeating myself, I had to include this smart white pup . . . who knows if you visit Charleston with the heat in the triple digits, the importance of staying hydrated :-)
Thank you for your visit, I’m joining:
This week’s color of the Rainbow assignment is Green~ I thought I’d share some Green from a weekend visit to Charleston, South Carolina.
At first glance this wrought iron appears black, but is actually considered Charleston Green. The color originated after the American Civil War, when the North provided black paint to the South for use in its reconstruction. Too “funereal” for Charlestonians’ sensibilities, as well as too proud to use paint that came from Yankees, they mixed the black with a little yellow, and their own color of Charleston Green was born.
Glimpses into small courtyards find gardens lush & full of greenery~
How these window boxes thrive in Charleston’s sweltering temperatures always amazes me. . .
Palmetto Trees line the sidewalks ~ South Carolina’s official state tree. . .
More wrought iron, no mistaking this green for black :-)
And more green iron~
Bike around the city. . .
Or take a carriage ride to see the sights. . .
We prefer to stroll, so you don’t miss treasures like these. . .
Most importantly, if you visit Charleston with the heat in the triple digits, remember to stay hydrated. . . :-)
Since this is Rainbow Summer School, I thought it only appropriate that I end with pictures of Rainbow Row.
Thanks to my hostesses to this week’s parties I’m linking to:
