Common Denominators and a Melting Pot

The lions of August continue to roar their mighty breath across our area. Though expected this time of year after what feels like endless dripping of sweat from one's kneecaps I have to say it's a state of existence that for many of us has simply worn out its welcome this summer. Symbolically (as we all melt away in this heat) I pull out a chilled appetizer recipe for Stuffed Vidalias from the cookbook Recipes from the Hilton Head Melting Pot. In scanning the web I find a blogger/tourist referencing that she picked up this very same text in 2009 during a Thanksgiving vacation on Hilton Head Island that included a garage sale spree at the South Carolina Elks Lodge 2773 where I too had purchased this text. Always interesting when two seemingly disconnected individuals are brought together through a common passion (cookbook collection). Thanks to a host of channels today (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, FoodSpotting, etc) one can easily locate like-minded individuals with similar passions (at least those who prevail in the open windows of the internet). No matter the occasion this specific appetizer (compliments of Elaine Mitchell of Elks Lodge 2773) is simple, easy and plates beautifully for any neighborhood gathering. You have to use the real deal Vidalia Onions, not the one's claiming to be sweet or passed off as onion cousins to the Vidalia (I've tried that and it truly does not taste the same). Essentially the recipe involves peeling and coring vidalia onions which are set aside while you blend cream cheese and deviled ham, dry mustard, pimentos and seasonings of choice. After blending, fill the onion cores with the blend then chill for several hours in the refrigerator. After chilling one simply slices the onions into rounds to serve and plate accordingly. From one woman's kitchen to a garage sale to an internet post to another woman's kitchen the life of a recipe comes full circle like so many other things in this life.

Simply clockwork shrimp for the beach

While some families traverse to the beach the same week every single summer, our family had an annual menu of meals that were produced on specific days of the week during our week at the beach (whatever week we happened to land on the beach, some years it was early in the season, other years late in the season). My mother was not an expansive cook. In fact, she seriously only mastered about nine main courses during her lifetime, two of which were made in a crock pot. Of the nine, there was one dish that my mother reserved for the beach experience and only for the beach experience. That dish was Shrimp Jambalaya and it was always served on Day #2 at the beach. I honestly haven't made this dish since my mother's death in 2001, but somehow the universe for all her glorious works seems to know how to kick something back into mainstream life without too much fanfare (and much to my delight). This year, when the reconstituted version of my family gathered at the beach, my pseudo sister Linda (a family dynamic too complicated to explain here)and I each brought recipes from our personal collections to have and prepare on demand. Thus, it was more than fitting this year that Linda brings a recipe for a one pan dish she calls Savannah Shrimp (pictured here). The dish is simply, fresh from the dock sauteed shrimp seasoned with Old Bay accompanied by sauteed Vidalia onion, chopped and cooked creamer potatoes, newly picked field peas, fresh corn off the cob and diced vine ripe tomatoes. Like clockwork this simple dish brought back a treasured favorite albeit a revision of my mother's shrimp dish, but all the same it was served on Day #2 at the beach and will be from this point forward fittingly. Life's better at the beach with shrimp back on the menu.