April 16, 2024

It’s Fall! Let’s Kick off Oyster Season!

In an ethereal way, we are all pushed out of our warm and lazy summer days. We wish to hum through our love of summer, but a transition calls. Football will beckon, colors will change, and on the coast, oysters also take the stage. We have a salve to heal the pain of a lost season, and for this angst we have the Oyster Roast.

If one has an invitation to a friends backyard, or the opportunity to participate in a generous local business invite, it would be a sad mistake not to take the chance on the Oyster Roast experience.

Check the weather for a possible drop in temperature, and wear something wash, and wear that is ,well, you. Oyster Roast people don’t care what you look like. They just want to share in the event, and enjoy getting to know everyone over a cold beverage, a saltine and something special from the sea that shouts “Fall is Here!”

The table will be rustic and functional made for distributing oysters, and discarding shells and always made to accommodate conversation. One good glove, and an oyster knife is all you need in the way of utensils. A hospitable oyster roast veteran can help a newbie get started. Sip a beverage, and crack open that oyster shell. Oysters are not about their appearance.  They have depth, texture, and dimension.  Try all the condiments, cocktail sauce, butter, vinegar, or if the oyster is perfect, nothing at all.

As is at the Oyster Roast, so is life.

Andi Bartruff

I’m Screaming for Ice Cream!

To waste fresh produce is a bit of a sin.. So when you have a mound of delicious end of summer peaches, you have to get creative.. I’m thinking ice cream…( and if you have strawberries, blueberries, or other fruit, do the same!)

5 fresh peaches

1 can peach nectar

1/4 cup water

1 cup of sugar

4oz.  sour cream

1 pint heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

squeeze of fresh lemon

Peel and cook peaches in nectar and water for about ten minutes.

Drain and add sugar. Let cool.

In a food processor or blender, Blend sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla, and lemon with cooled peaches.

Pour mixture into cooled ice cream freezer container, and let your ice cream freezer do the rest!

Finally, pick your favorite people, and share this special treat!

Andi Bartruff.

Southern Smarts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning from others…

I have always tried to keep an open mind to people who I meet and the ones that I call friends. The diversity of our society can offer wisdom to us all if we are open to except it. We can learn from others.

           I will admit that I find myself wanting to stay within the comfort zone of my on beliefs and convictions.(being surrounded by people who think as I do) It is great living in that comfort zone, but I ask if that is all I ever do… hang out with “my peeps”.  How will I ever learn anything new?  So meeting and engaging myself into the lives of others whom have different beliefs and convictions, almost always renders a feeling in me that I have broadened my intellectual being.  Learning something new or being exposed to a different prospective from others that don’t “walk our walk” or “talk our talk” makes us not only wiser, but grow as a person .

      Today social media sites such as Facebook are to me the best example of us all treading the waters of diversity, and we do this all in the privacy of our homes. We are watching and listening to ours friends via the computer. We carry on conversations with people we may have not seen in 20 years. We see their lives being lived out in pictures and opinions. Sharing our differences could not be made more comfortable than Facebook.  Expressing your difference of opinion in the comfort of you home in front of your computer instead of standing in front of your friends is so much less invasive. What a way to connect and socialize with a diverse society.  In closing remember exposing yourself to different views doesn’t compromise your beliefs and convictions, but just offers a different prospective. And if your open to it well, you may just learn something.  Stephen Spurling