Huzzah! Snow!

At long last the Lord graced us with some snow. There was much rejoicing from the kiddos as they were relieved of a day in the salt mines (aka school). They had yesterday off for MLK Day and then I think they are off Thursday and Friday too. I'm sure they are loving that.

Southern snow is awesome. You get to enjoy it for a couple hours and then it goes away. It helps to boost the local economy too. There is generally a rush on milk and bread. Don't ask me why. It's a tradition and who ever knows what gets them started. But one thing for sure is that the South is all about traditions... at least the real Southerners (the ones whose families have been here for generations) are.

If you are a first generation resident of the South, you'll probably never be considered Southern. Sorry 'bout that. Nothing personal usually. Facts are facts. You'll just never "get it" until your family roots have had a bit of time to marinate in our culture. You will perhaps find assimilation easier if one or more of your ancestors fought for the Confederacy during the war between the states.

I watched a bit of the inauguration online today. I started out on the live stream provided by CNN and Facebook. It was more of a trickle than a stream. It looked like more bandwidth was devoted to the inane comments from the Facebook viewers than was to the actual broadcast. Being exposed to the absurdity of the hero worship, the cattiness of the uncouth, and the shallowness of the masses made me want to hurl. I was actually relieved when I got booted from the trickle. I went over to Fox News and watched it there without the comments from the peanut gallery. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Fox's personalities weren't talking (or arguing) over the festivities as they usually do.

I thought the speech was well delivered. President Obama can really talk. However, just like on the campaign trail I felt that his rhetoric had no grounding in reality and that the statements that he offered on most things reeked of wrongheadedness - a wrongheadedness that I fear will cost us dearly. I was disappointed in the thinly veiled attacks on President Bush and his policies, and I was similarly disappointed in the racism that tinged so many of the comments.

These things being said, I did find myself agreeing with him that the time to cease business as usual is long past. I agreed that it is time to stop trying to avoid facing the difficult choices that have to be made. And I agreed that it is time for everyone in this country to take responsibility for fixing the things that need to be fixed. Hopefully he can engender enough cooperation to accomplish the things that are really in the best interests of the country. But I hope he gets as much resistance as he and his party gave President Bush on the things that will ultimately tear our nation down. May God keep him from passing even one of those measures.

Still, I will continue to pray for him and his administration.

I have a message to post here soon. Perhaps I can get to it tomorrow, although I have lots of other priorities that have to be taken care of so we'll see. Hope you enjoyed the snow.

This One's For Wade

Wade from Lifesong Carolina commented on this barn from an earlier photo that I had taken, so I took one that he could see a little better. Hope you enjoy it, Wade!

Chicken And Dumplins

It has been a snowy day here in lovely China Grove. It started about 1:00 this afternoon and as far as I know it is still at it. The only problem is that it has been above 32° all day. So, instead of having about 8 inches of snow we have maybe 2 inches. The fun will come when we finally dip below freezing tonight. All of that wetness on the roads will want to freeze. Should be interesting heading to church tomorrow morning.

So with our church only having 3 remaining Sundays, I needed to plan to take something to our Sunday evening gathering. I thought about making a pound cake, but I only had one full stick of butter. That would have meant driving to the grocery store, and I vetoed that idea.

What this weather called for was comfort food. And what greater comfort food is there than chicken and dumplings? And what is better than wanting to prepare something that you already have all of the ingredients for? So chicken and dumplings won out.

However, I do wish that I had gone on and gotten the butter and made the cake now. I am really starting to get cabin fever! I haven't seen another human face to face all day. On top of that, I just got an email from the pastor saying that we are going to have pizza at tomorrow night's gathering. <Sigh> Oh well!

Since I don't have the heart to torment my good friend G who reads this blog regularly, and since I can't think of a good way to ship him a container of homemade chicken and dumplings, I have decided to tell you how to make them.

I got the foundation of this recipe from my Grandmother before she passed away. But like a lot of good, Southern recipes most of the measures were pretty general. Unfortunately, I don't think that I will be able to do much better here, but I have a pretty good idea of what I did.

Grandma's Chicken & Dumplings

Ingredients

1 Chicken (Cut up. Leave the skin on.)
2 Bay leaves
1 T Italian Seasoning (Usually contains oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil)
1 clove garlic cut in two
1 t dehydrated onion (You could use fresh. I was feeling lazy. Use about ¼ medium onion finely diced.)
5 black pepper corns
Salt to taste (I started with 1½ t, but I ended up adding about 3 t total)
2 c plain white flour

Method

1) Put the chicken in a stock pot. Cover with water. Add the bay leaves, Italian seasoning, garlic, onion, pepper corns, and salt. Cook on medium heat until the chicken comes off the bone easily.

2) Remove the chicken from the stock. Remove the bay leaves. Remove skin from chicken and remove the chicken from the bone. Tear the meat into bite sized pieces and return to the stock. Let it cook until the stock has a nice, light golden color. Make sure that the broth is adequately seasoned. Remove about 3 cups of stock from the pot and set aside.

3) Take ½ c of the flour and mix by hand it in a bowl with just enough of the stock to make it stick together in a ball. Use as few strokes as possible. Overworking it will make the dough tough. Sprinkle flour on your work area and turn the dough ball out onto the flour. Sprinkle flour on the dough and roll out as thin as you possibly can. The thinner the better. Cut the dough into 1 inch squares.

4) Turn up the heat under the stock pot until it is gently boiling. Slowly add the dumplings, gently stirring them into the boiling stock.

5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have used all of the flour. Return any remaining stock to the pot. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cook. If you have a crock pot put them in there on the lowest setting.

You could probably eat them within 30 minutes if you just can't wait, but chicken and dumplings get better as they cook. The longer that you can give them the better. Keep an eye on the moisture level and add water as needed. I usually prepare them the day before I plan to eat them.

I hope that this recipe works out OK for you. Chicken and dumplings is one of those things that takes a little practice. If it doesn't go just perfect the first time, don't give up. Even when they aren't the best, they are still pretty good! Thanks for reading.

UPDATE:
I tasted them at about 1 hour, and I frankly couldn't imagine them tasting any better. Hope yours turn out well!

TIP:
Chicken and Dumplings don't really reheat well in the microwave. It changes the taste. They do much better if you slowly warm them back up on the stove top (just be careful to keep them from scorching) or in the oven.

A Long Day Can Lead To Random Thoughts

It has been a pretty long day. I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep, so I went ahead and got up. It kind of reminds me of that old Army commercial that ran back in the 80's I think. The slogan said something like "Army. We get more done before 7:00 than most people do all day." Of course there is a reason for this - they got up a lot earlier than anyone else too!

I think that I have probably mentioned that I am helping with a church plant here in Salisbury. We got some negative news yesterday at church. One of our oversight committees has recommended that we pack up and call it quits. Fortunately I already knew about this before I got to church yesterday morning. Last night the majority of our core group met at the Pastor's house for a meal and to discuss the morning's news. I was very pleased that to a person everyone wanted to keep going. No one felt like we had finished our course here in this area.

Another committee was meeting tonight to discuss the recommendation of the first. The big difference is that this committee has the authority to act on their recommendation. One of the things that I did this morning was write a letter to the committee to let them know how I feel about the situation. Hopefully, we will have a positive outcome. I still haven't heard yet.

The rest of the day was spent pretty much working on tutorials and reading. There is so much information out there. I have all but finished the HTML tutorials and will be beginning CSS tutorials probably on Wednesday. After I have finished them I will take another swing at developing my website.

Tonight was Jazz Band practice. We were all off tonight. My guitar sounded pretty awful, but I am not sure if it was only because I was playing it. I think it needs a tension rod adjustment. It is really buzzy right now. I wish I knew a REALLY good luthier around here. When I used to live in Greensboro there was one who was very skilled and I was on his wait list, but never heard from him. (I have heard that one day he just shut things down, packed up, and moved out of town. Strange, but then that is the way those artistic types can be.) Still, I need to practice WAY more than I do right now - especially soloing.

I got to see a clip of one of Obama's speeches. That guy can speak - and he can work a crowd. Of course, so can John Edwards. The problem is that John Edwards is full of crap. Obama has bought into some pretty off-the-wall things like global warming. The thing is he is running this nice guy campaign. This is the same ploy that Edwards used to win the Senate seat in NC so long ago. It was just an act for him, and he used it to distract from his extreme left position on everything. I don't think that Obama is any different.

I have also moved deeper in Look Homeward, Angel. I am still of the opinion that Wolfe could write circles around Faulkner. There are some pretty tragic characters in the story. I always hate to watch a train wreck, but I am enjoying other elements of his style and his insights into Appalachian (Ap-puh-LATCH-un) culture. Though I have never lived there yet, that culture is very much a part of who I am. If I have anything to do with it I'll spend my last days there.

So there you go, the full gamut from religion to literature. Thanks for reading!

Greens A' Cookin'

Tonight I have been cooking a pot of greens. I didn't get my greens on New Years' Day. Instead we had cabbage. I reckon it will work as well as the greens, but I still missed the greens.

I have been sampling them as the night has worn on. They are pretty good. I bought a pound of turnip greens and a pound of mustard greens. They smelled so good when I was cutting them up that I had to try them. I was surprised. They taste pretty good raw too. Might end up in a wintry salad some day. It had an almost arugula flavor to it. With a lemon vinaigrette? Hmmm..... But I digress.

If you have never cooked greens before you would be amazed by how much they cook down. I knew that they would reduce as they cooked, but I never would have dreamed that a half a pot would render down to less than ¼. I am pretty sure what I'm having for supper tomorrow: greens, corn bread, baked sweet potato and some black-eyed peas. Mmmmm. I don't guess it sounds (or gets for that matter) any more Southern than that.

Think it sounds gross? That's alright - just leaves more for me!

For the First Time Ever...

I have just begun reading Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel. I am not even 20 pages into it and I'm already hooked. Dang! This guy could write.

I am actually torn between reading for general effect and reading for full comprehension. I think that I will read it faster for the general effect. Later I can come back to it and revisit. This is a book that I believe that I can read and enjoy more than once. I can't believe that I have never been required to read Wolfe in all my years of education. Even in my Southern Writers class we read Faulkner instead - FAULKNER!

It took me years just to read Faulkner and understand him - I was afflicted with him as a senior in High School too. Why is it that people always believe the most twisted perverse things about the South? It is because of the likes of William Faulkner and Erskine Caldwell. Thank God I didn't have to read Tobacco Road. I saw it for the first time last year at the Triad Stage in Greensboro (who, by the way, do a great job with their productions) and was utterly appalled. It was the most revolting thing I have ever seen called art. Caldwell had a chip on his shoulder and the South has been paying for it since.

OK, I'm calm again. I actually can see why Faulkner's writing has been praised. He captured - at least in Absalom, Absalom, the way Southern people tell stories. I just wish that his characters hadn't been so bizarre. If you've never read Faulkner before, there is a trick to it. See, when Faulkner wrote he would often insert parenthetical ideas that could literally last for PAGES before finishing the original sentence. The effect was something like this: (Forgive me, I'm a bit out of practice. I could do it perfectly in college.)

Salisbury was (Can't you remember that time that we went down to O.O. Rufty's General store? You know that time when the radiator hose busted there on East Innes Street. There we all were trying to get that blamed thing off the truck with everyone and his brother standing around gawkin' at us. Don't you remember how Uncle Jim burned his hand on the steam? I'll never forget how they used to have the buckets of seed right there in the walkway between the display cases as you entered the door. I always thought the pink corn was neat and liked the feel of it slipping through my fingers before my dad made me put it down on account of the poison that had been put on it to keep the birds from eating it.

That store was a veritable wonderland inside. They had things in there that must have been there since the store was opened just after the Civil War. There were farm implements and notions, old toys, hardware, clothing, doo dads, and thingamabobs, tools, housewares, fertilizer and all manner of other fascinating treasure. And in the air hung a pungent, earthy smell. I guess it came from the dirt that was ground into the hard wood floors and the farm chemicals.

Of course my favorite part was the drink coolers that they had there just inside the front door - you know, the big square chests that slid open at the top and contained bottled drinks. Not the kind of drinks they have now in the plastic bottles; glass bottles with metal bottle caps that didn't twist off. There was a bottle opener right on the front of the cooler. We always drank it right there so we didn't have to pay the 10¢ bottle deposit. Somehow a drink tasted better drinking it there in the lobby of O. O. Rufty's.

Thank goodness they had that radiator hose too. We'd a been in a fix if they hadn't. We were able to get the truck fixed and back home before supper.) a lot different when I was growing up there. Everything was a lot more laid back and slower paced. Everybody knew everyone....

That was typical of most everything that I ever read of Faulkner's with the exception that the characters are fairly normal and no one is doing anything scandalous in the back room. By the time you get to the end of the sentence that started four paragraphs ago you have completely forgotten what was being said.

The secret to reading Faulkner is to read until you get to a parenthesis and then skip on down to the end of the parenthetical phrase. Read the rest of the original sentence and then go back and finish the stuff in between. Get used to doing it. You won't read far without needing to. Sometimes it seemed like he even put parentheses inside of parentheses! The thing about it, though, is that if you listen to Southerners telling a story that's generally the way they do it.

I suppose that it is a little early in my reading of the story to be extolling Wolfe over Faulkner - only 20 pages in and one of the main characters turns out to be an alcoholic. But there is something different in the portrayal so far - something different in the presentation. It is being done respectfully, I guess. It isn't the South that is making him this way. It is his own generational demons that are driving him. I am truly shocked that I am already engaged with this book. I am already empathizing with the characters. I think this is going to be a very enjoyable read.

The Feasting Has Ended... (For A Bit)

Well, Thanksgiving went great again. Lots and lots of really good food. Dinner at my Grandmother's house made Rockwell's "Freedom From Want" look like a light mid-afternoon snack! The table was literally full of food. I didn't even get to taste everything. I was stuffed after one trip to the table. Prior to the meal the kitchen was as busy as a beehive - and just as crowded. There were so many family members there that there was hardly a place to sit - so many, that I was looking for a quiet place away from the madness.

As I have just finished writing this I can't help but think that it would be hard for some people to comprehend this extravagance and abundance. Perhaps my description sounds like arrogant boasting. If your experience this past week wasn't like mine, I am sorry, and I truly wish that it had been that way for you too. These thoughts humble me and cause me to reflect on the blessings that God has lavished on me and make me remember that the reason that God blesses us is that we can be a blessing to the world. I pray that He will help me to do a better job of that this year.

On a somewhat different note, I wasn't in much of a posting mood on Thanksgiving. For some reason words just didn't seem to be flowing very well, so although I did manage to post a Thanksgiving message, it really didn't come very close to what I had hoped to publish for you.

Here are a couple of good Thanksgiving Day Posts that I wish that I had written:

The Real Meaning Of Thanksgiving from over at the Bear Creek Ledger

and

Gratitude over at Conspiracy Of Kindness

I hope that your Thanksgiving was great.

Keep Your Money, Boys. The South's Gonna Rise Again!

And now for something completely different...

Southern and Northern Secessionists Meeting In Tennessee

Well, that's something that I wasn't expecting to read. I'll admit that it might be easier if all of the little groups would stake out their piece of America and set the laws the way they want to!

I always heard that a lot of folks consider all Southerners to be inbred, ignorant, bigots, but I thought that things were perhaps getting a little better. I guess not. Here's a quote from the article that struck me as particularly arrogant and stereotyping of the South:

The League of the South says it is not racist, but proudly displays a Confederate Battle Flag on its banner.

Um. A Confederate battle flag does not a racist make. Many Southerners are proud of their heritage. They are proud that their ancestors fought under great men like General Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. These were men of very high standard, integrity and honor. For many in the south, the Civil War wasn't about slavery. It was about defending their country. For many it was about states' rights - something that we are seeing eroded every day with the debates about abortion, homosexual marriage, and gun control.

These people don't even try to hide their contempt of these folks:

Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which monitors hate groups, said the League of the South "has been on our list close to a decade."

"What is remarkable and really astounding about this situation is we see people and institutions who are supposedly on the progressive left rubbing shoulders with bona fide white supremacists," Potok said.

Sale said the League of the South "has not done or said anything racist in its 14 years of existence," and that the Southern Poverty Law Center is not credible.

"They call everybody racists," Sale said. "There are, no doubt, racists in the League of the South, and there are, no doubt, racists everywhere."

Harry Watson, director of the Center For the Study of the American South and a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said it was a surprise to see The Middlebury Institute conferring with the League of the South, "an organization that's associated with a cause that many of us associate with the preservation of slavery."

Leave it to a UNC professor to take that stance. I don't know if the League of the South is a racist organization or not. I hope not - racism is abhorrent, but I am ruffled that the assumption is made that they are racists simply because they have chosen to use the Stars and Bars as a part of their banner. Southerners have a right to celebrate their heritage just like everyone else.

Florida Drivers

Kentucky is the reason I'm not a pinhead Florida driver who rides his brakes and falls apart when it rains and can't drive on ice. You can always tell the Florida people in North Carolina in the mountains in the summer. They drive 30 miles per hour in 55 zones, and they use their brakes on every curve, and they're so ... dumb they brake all the way down mountains instead of using the transmission. Then their brakes go out, and they go over the high side on the next curve, and the locals behind them get to drive at normal speed until they catch up to the next Florida idiot. My mother straightened me out on that score. Florida drivers exasperated her.

- Steve Graham @ Hog On Ice

That is so true... God help you if you happen to be driving down 321 south of Boone in the middle of October. My mom was raised up there (NC mountains) and every time we went up to Boone she'd be complaining about the "flatlanders." You didn't even have to see the license plate to know - the smell of burning brake pads was a dead giveaway. My mom can absolutely fly down those roads. Riding with her I hardly ever worried that we'd go flying off the side of the mountain.

Actually, I think that it is matter of pride for mountain folk that they can drive curves without fear. Though I am not native mountain folk, I do pretty well, but I can't live up to my uncle's level.

My mom's brother claims that he could drive from Tweetsie to Patterson in a panel van with a load of oak cabinets without touching the brakes. I'll have to take his word for that one. I'm pretty certain that I don't want to be in the van. I have ridden with him on the narrow, windy back roads between Patterson and North Wilkesboro in a full-sized pick-up truck hauling a bass boat going every bit of the speed limit. (Maybe more. True story.) That was enough adventure for me!

On a side note, right off of the Wilkesboro Road is the grave site of the infamous Tom Dooley.

I love the mountains. Give me mountains over the ocean any day. That isn't to say that I don't appreciate the water. I do. But the ocean can't compare to my beautiful Blue Ridge.

And, by the way, "Appalachian" is Ap-puh-LATCH-un NOT Ap-puh-LAISH-un.

Cheerwine at O.O. Rufty's

A hometown favorite...

Earlier this afternoon I stopped at a small bait and tackle shop to get some gas and bought a bottle of Cheerwine. I just had to take some time and write about it. The taste of that drink brings back so many great memories.

Cheerwine is a drink that was born right here in my hometown. It is basically a cherry cola and has nothing at all to do with wine. Growing up, it was always funny to travel to different parts of the state and ask for Cheerwine. Folks would look at you funny and say, “We don’t sell wine here, son.”

I guess even that statement says a lot about the world that I grew up in. There were still blue laws on the books that prevented stores from being open on Sundays when I was a kid. There were also a lot of “dry” counties in North Carolina back then. I remember there being major battles to bring liquor by the drink to Salisbury. It was a very polarizing issue. And there are still remnants of those old laws on the books, preventing people from buying alcohol at various times. But I digress.

Anyway, Cheerwine has A LOT of carbonation. Back when I was a kid the only way to get it was to buy a carton of glass bottles (see the picture above) and these bottles had the pry off bottle caps. That saved a lot of headaches, because anyone who has opened a 2-liter bottle of Cheerwine can tell you that if you aren’t careful when opening its twist off cap you’ll likely be wearing it! The other caps seemed to prevent this unpleasant experience!

Cheerwine has finally expanded its horizons past Rowan County. Apparently, it is now available throughout the Southeastern United States. Sadly, in the years of its expansion the quality of the drink seemed to decline. I am not quite sure what the cause of it was, but the quality of Cheerwine was becoming sub-par. If you got it from a soda fountain it tasted right, but getting it from any other source was bound to be disappointing. Perhaps the soda sat around too long and wasn’t fresh anymore; or perhaps the formulation got changed. This was incredibly sad to me because when outsiders would sample my favorite soda they would blaspheme it, saying that it wasn’t good. It was like saying that America, baseball, and apple pie just weren’t up to snuff anymore!

A couple of years ago the company changed its bottles to match an older logo that had been used before I came along. This change seemed to correspond to the change in quality. Recently, the company has gone back to the bottles that I am most familiar with, and the quality has gone back up. The only difference that I have noticed is that the bottle touts real cane sugar as an ingredient. I wonder if that is the source of the difference in the taste of the drinks. Perhaps the company tried to substitute high fructose corn syrup for sugar. Well, whatever the problem was, I’m glad that they’ve got it fixed.

Cheerwine figured in to a lot of my childhood memories. I remember going to my grandfather’s home during the summer months to make homemade ice cream. My favorite kind was the homemade Cheerwine ice cream. It was just awesome! (As if the drink weren’t sweet enough, you go and add MORE sugar to it!) Those were good times. My brother and I would play as the preparations were made, and then we had to take our turn sitting on the ice cream freezer to hold it steady while my dad or grandfather turned the crank. It always took much longer than we wanted it to. I’m not sure which was the worst part: having a frozen behind from sitting on that melting ice, having to wait for the ice cream that was in the freezer, or just having to sit still that long!

Another memory that Cheerwine figures in prominently had to do with trips with my dad to O.O. Rufty’s General Store. The store had been in existence since 1905 and was an absolute wonderland to a kid like me. The front windows were full of all kinds of interesting things, many of them antique. As you walked into the front of the store there were seed bins with many varieties of garden seeds and plants on both sides of the entrance. Once inside the store you could find anything from farm tools to house wares, to clothing. The floors were worn wood with a heavy layer of dust and dirt, and the air had a smell that was a combination of machine shop and farm supply store. There was always more to see in that store than you could ever take in in a million years.

Even beyond all of that wonderment, my favorite part of going to Rufty’s with my dad was getting to go to the old drink coolers that they had there and get a bottled drink. I usually got a Cheerwine, but would sometimes break tradition and get a Brownie or a Sun Drop. It was a ritual with us. (Perhaps you have never seen the kind of coolers that I am talking about, but they are like a chest-type freezer. They had a sliding top and when you went to get a bottle you could tell what you were getting by looking at the bottle cap. I’m sure that is why you rarely ever see this kind of cooler anymore, they just don’t show off the bottles as well as the refrigerator style coolers that they have today.) Every time we ever went into Rufty’s we would get a drink before we left. Usually we would drink it right there in the store because there was a 10-cent deposit for the bottle that we could save by drinking it right there. I don’t remember a single time that we ever went into the store without getting a bottled drink. In fact, up until they sold the business, I would buy a drink when I went in there, even if I was by myself.

There was something special about those times. I am not exactly sure what it was, because I don’t remember a single conversation that we had while drinking those soft drinks, but there was something about it that was just like a Norman Rockwell painting or like the cracker-barrel in the old stores. If I had to guess what it was, I’d say that there was a sense of connection and acceptance between me, my dad and grandfather, and that place and the people around us. It was as if in those times there was never any feeling of being in the wrong place or the wrong time. Time, place, and personality joined in the lobby of O.O. Rufty’s in perfect harmony.

Sadly, the proprietors of Rufty’s have sold out to a new owner. I haven’t been to the “new” store yet. But somehow it just doesn’t seem the same.