News

Food, Glorious Food

The first time I saw an Apple cake it was sitting on the kitchen counter of a family I baby sat for and I guess I was probably 13 or 14. It looked like a beautiful piece of old wood. There have been a few times that I have been struck hard by something and this is one of them. It was real similar to the first time I heard Neil Young or Stephen Stills play acoustic guitar or the first time I heard the record "Court and Spark". It changes everything and life turns into this great treasure hunt where you're finding one cool thing after another.... Music and food are pretty great. If someone walked up to me and handed me a shiny tour bus and 4 hot musicians to play with, I would still want to have my hands in the food. (Can you put a Vulcan oven on a tour bus?)

I'm from a big family and food was and still is a pretty big deal. There are 9 of us and we all like to eat so it was fun for me as a kid to get up early and try to figure out how to follow a recipe and try it out on the family... I was probably 8 or 9, so you can imagine. I made a Chocolate Peanut Butter cake that was like a cinder block and no one would eat it so I put it on the back porch for the dogs and, thank god, they wouldn't eat it either. I made my way into restaurants and got lucky enough to work under some good chefs. Also in '81 my Mom and Dad started a BBQ business at a garden center. They were in a little snowball stand sized out building and in the winter the only heat was the fire from the pit and the only air in the summer was a fan. It was great! People would come and get their pumpkins in the fall and then pick up a Pork BBQ sandwich, which is their signature item. The recipe for this was given to them as a wedding gift from my grandfather, Guy Nelson. My Dad is from Alabama and my Mom is from Memphis so...They "leave the smoke in the bottle" as my Dad says, and use real hickory wood. We all worked there and it was real honest to goodness adventure in the beginning. A few fires, crazy customers... crazy employees... basically just learning how to navigate all aspect of the food "business". 25 yrs later we have a restaurant right down the road from where they started and some days it seems like quite literally the roof is going to come off. It's a real BBQ joint. The food is good and the music is good too, thanks to my brother Andy, who is always foraging for great stuff for us to listen to. Check it out if you are so inclined www.andynelsonbbq.com

Recipes I Found

Espresso Brownies - If you've got a house to paint or a house to build for that matter, this would be the Brownie. It's recipe I found in Lee Baileys "Country Desserts". The first time I made them was for a family gathering and the next day one by one everybody told me about there story of adventure and insomnia... Mr. Bailey called them "Outrageous Brownies" but I call them "Wide Awake Brownies" because of that and come to find out, he got the recipe from Ina Garten, who has the recipe in her book "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook". There is a slight difference in their recipes too so check it out. They kick ass either way and are actually good chilled which is not usually the way I like brownies. They are gooey moist and strong. (Careful if you say EXpresso though. There are folks out there policing this who will whap your hand with a ruler for it. Said with an "s" it takes you to that Thurston Howell place and with an "x" it just makes you feel like a hillbilly.)

Blackberry Pie Cobbler
My Dad is a master gardener and he grew the most amazing Blackberries this summer. They looked like bumble bees! The idea is to pick them and then get into the house and make jam and this will make for a happy morning in December. It's a piece of summer there. There is a good recipe for Apple Pie Cobbler my sister Susie found and I like to use it with other fruit too. Fresh Blackberries with this recipes take it up a notch or 2 or 5.... Berries are wetter so you have to adjust things a bit. I just cook it a little longer. I've never tried to thicken this only because it's cobbler and in the spirit of Lee Bailey, who is one of my favorite guys and who preferred his fruit pies au natural, I just thought to leave this one be and most absolutely eat it with ice cream.

DOUGH —
1 1/2 C FLOUR
2 tsp BAKING POWDER
1/2 tsp SALT
MIX THE DRY AND CUT 1/2 C SHORTENING INTO THIS LIKE YOU WOULD A PIE CRUST.
THEN ADD 1/3 C MILK
WRAP AND CHILL THIS

PRE HEAT OVEN TO 350°
PUT 1 STICK OF BUTTER IN A 9 X 13 PAN IN THE OVEN TIL IT'S MELTED
IN A SAUCE PAN BRING TO A BOIL 2 C WATER WITH 2 C SUGAR

YOU'LL NEED ABOUT 4 CUPS OF FRUIT

TO PUT THIS THING TOGETHER—ON A FLOURED SURFACE YOU ROLL OUT THE DOUGH INTO A RECTANGLE AND COVER WITH BLACKBERRIES OR APPLES(SLICED AND PEELED- GRANNYSMITHS ARE GOOD). ROLL LIKE A JELLY ROLL AND SLICE ACROSS. THERE SHOULD BE ABOUT A DOZEN SLICES. PUT THESE IN THE 9 X 13 PAN AND POUR THE SIMPLE SYRUP OVER THIS AND BAKE FOR ABOUT AN HOUR...