Category: savannah

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food home cooking savannah

The Ultimate Southern Thanksgiving Side: Cornbread Dressing

local dressing

Dressing is the ultimate Thanksgiving side. On Thursday, there will be macaroni and cheese, potato salad, candied yams and cranberry sauce. However, dressing is the main side to go with the Thanksgiving turkey. It has to be right. It can’t be too dry or too salty. Plus, it must be seasoned properly. Stuffing or dressing, that is the question. It’s kinda like the debate between pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie. I prefer dressing. Stuffing is stuff you might stick in a turkey. It is the stovetop dreck that is high in sodium but low on flavor. Dressing is a side dish, a Thanksgiving staple. In the South, it is typically made old bread or cornbread. The vegetables used are up to the cook.

My friends in New York love my dressing. One friend requested that I make it for Easter, and I have brought my dressing to a few potluck dinners. Now that I live in Savannah, I make a dressing that incorporates local food and flavor.

Inspired by the vegetables I got from Forsyth Farmer’s market, I decided to make an Italian flavored cornbread dressing. From the farmer’s market, I used red and yellow peppers, fresh basil and Vidalia onion. Then I went to my local grocery which is walking distance from my place. I bought Italian sausage, chicken broth and Jiffy cornbread mix there.

Eating local also means going to locally owned business. There’s an amazing takeout place called 520 Wings. According to local Savannahnians on Yelp, the garlic parmesan wings are the best wings in town.

Now that I have all the ingredients, I got to work. First I made the cornbread the night before so that it was completely cooled. Then I roasted the vegetables in the oven and cooked the sausage in a saucepan. As the vegetables and the sausage were cooking, I took the cornbread and cut in the big chunks. Then I place the pieces in a casserole dish. Then I added the chicken broth and the vegetables. Next I added the Italian sausage after making sure that any grease has been drained. Using a big wooden spoon, I mix all the ingredients together. Then I added the chicken parmesan wings and basil on top.

Have a good Thanksgiving!
P.S.Check out Michael Twitty’s hilarious post on how to navigate Black Thanksgiving when you are not Black.

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food home cooking savannah

Recipe: Mac and Cheese With Kale and Roasted Red Peppers

kale with mac-n-cheese

High/low cooking is what I call using local farmer’s market vegetables with store bought stuff. I decided to make macaroni and cheese with kale. I was inspired by a dish I had years ago when Red Rooster opened in Harlem. The mac-and-greens dish is still on the menu, so it must be a favorite.

I bought some shells and cheese to go with the cheddar cheese, kale, onion and red pepper I bought last week at the Forsyth Farmer’s Market. First, I roasted a quarter of an onion and one whole red pepper in the oven with olive oil and seasoning.

In the meantime, I sauteed the kale with chicken stock and garlic. After 10 minutes, I took the kale off the heat and drained the excess chicken stock into another boiler. I used that boiler to cook the pasta. Then I drained the pasta, and added sour cream, cheddar cheese and heavy cream. Then I added in the kale. Lastly, I put the contents of that pot into the same casserole that I roasted the red pepper and onion. I sprinkled a little more cheese and baked for 15 more minutes. It is delicious, and healthy. Marcus Samuelsson, eat your heart out.

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food savannah

Shalom Y’all: There Are Jewish People In Savannah

Latkes

Shalom Y'all Jewish Food Festival

Savannah may be deep South, but Congregation Mickve Israel is Savannah is the third oldest synagogue in the country. Mickve Israel was founded in 1733. There is a history of Jewish people living in Savannah that predates the recent migration south of New Yorkers to the city.

This year marks the 27th annual Jewish Food Festival, which is aptly named, Shalom Y’all. The smells of the food wafting through Forsyth Park on Sunday reminded me of being at Katz’s or 2nd Avenue Deli in New York. Last week, I was reminiscing about Mo Pitkins which was one of the first restaurants to start the revival of Jewish cuisine.Though Mo Pitkins was more of a music and comedy venue, the original menu had an appreciation for Jewish food.

Hebrew National Hot Dogs

 

A few years later, Mile End popped in Brooklyn, and David Sax wrote Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen.  At the Shalom Y’all Jewish Food Festival in Savannah, there was plenty of food. There were latkes, blintzes, challah bread,  matzoh ball soup, sweet kugel, Hebrew National hot dogs, pastrami, Sephardic lamb and more. Potato kugel is the one that wasn’t there that I really wanted, but it was nice to smell the food and heard the sounds of Brooklyn. All of a sudden, people was speaking Yiddish with a Southern drawl. I was half expecting to see Marty Markowitz walking among the crowd.

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savannah

How Savannah Does Tech: GeekEnd

GeekEnd Banner

Over the weekend, I went to GeekEnd. Recapping a three-day conference is harder than recapping a single season of Game of Thrones. There are few too many characters, and I wish could rewind to remember the best quotes.

It’s best for me to do this in reverse order starting from Saturday’s night after party and going back to Thursday.

The after party was fun.  I had never heard of the band French Horn Rebellion which was kinda like Bastille or Capital Cities but with the french horn as the lead instrument.  The music was very danceable but a little too “on the nose” of 80s music. They definitely can move the crowd.

All events were either at The Guild Hall or at Chromatic Dragon which around the corner. This was very convenient. It helped retained attendees, and you could easily go back and forth from one conference session to another.

The last panel I attended was the social media analysis bootcamp.  Lindsey Johns of Flutter Media and Ashlee Perkins of Forge[X] gave the audience members and me great advice on using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.  I also learned about what types of Twitter post (ones with photos) get more attention.  I was so inspired that I started tweeting more from my Gnatty Savannah twitter account.

The “What’s Beyond Email” was cathartic. It was a safe space to rant about everyone’s frustration with email. The panel which was moderated by Kevin Lawver, offered suggestions on how to make email less painful.

” Email is a giant bucket of sad” – Kevin

“Don’t use email for conversation” – Katheriin Liibert  of Fleep

“Don’t place information in a place that’s hard to find.” Steve Ross of Oak. Works

“Use Slack or Chat Ops” Josh Nichols of GitHub

The founders of Selfie On A Stick are Bravo tv show waiting to happen.  Jacqueline Verdier and Dominic  Suszanski may be an overnight success story, but there have sharp business and promotional skills that any entrepreneur could employ.

If you don’t have any customers, you don’t have a business.”  Jacqueline Verdier, CEO of Selfie on A Stick

The gift bag included a Tattly robot tattoo. I love Tattly temporary tattoos so this was a score.

At lunchtime, you could eatup and meetup.  After meeting John from Urban Savannah and having a couple of sliders and hot dogs from Sly’s Sliders, I wandered back inside to hear Renay San Miguel of Georgia Public Broadcasting talk about the changing landscape of media. Basically, everyone is a publisher.

LittleBits, which is a startup that create DIY electronics for kids and adults held a workhop.  Eric Sharpe is the Savannah Chapter Leader for littleBits.

Friday,  I listened to the panel of start-ups and pivoting before I had to leave for work.

Thursday, I checked out The Pitch Circus which was like Shark Tank meets the New York Tech Meetup.  Brian Bason, former CTO of Niche, has a new start-up Bark which won the Pitch Circus.  Green Badger came in second place.  Tommy Linstroth of Green Badger is a  cloud-based Saas for the management of LEED construction projects.

I had a great time at GeekEnd meeting new people, learning new stuff and thinking about how I can use technology to solve problems.

PS. Check out the Storify of my tweets during GeekEnd.

 

 

 

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art business savannah

Crafternoons At Starlandia Art Supply

Starlandia Art Supply

Starlandia Reclaimed Art Supply

Starlandia Creative Supply is an art supply and craft store that sells new and reclaimed art supplies. It opened at 2438 Bull Street four months ago, right around the time I moved to Savannah. I love shopping in the store for DIY interior design ideas, and it is a great space to spark creativity.

Employing a business model similar to a clothing thrift store, you can donate art supplies for credit and then use the credit to shop in the store.  There’s everything from canvas and picture frames to buttons and tennis balls.  Anything  that inspires artist to create is at Starlandia. The store is bright and colorful and it is like the Willy Wonka factory of art supplies.

One of the things that make Starlandia a great addition to Savannah creative community is that it provides an opportunity to reuse and upcycle items and facilitate recycling. What may be considered to be scraps to one person becomes inspiration to another.

Recently, I had the pleasure of spending the morning crafting with the owner of Starlandia, Clinton Edminster. We made a vision board and I wrote about it in the September issue of Well FED magazine.

Starlandia will be hosting crafternoons for the next two Saturdays (October 17th and 24th) to help Savannahnians make their Halloween costumes. There will be lemonade, cookies and hot glue! Work on your upcoming Halloween costume, or try a variety of different Halloween Decoration crafts to add some spook to your Pumpkin Day Celebration.

 

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food savannah

Gospel Dinner Cruise on The Savannah River

Gospel Choir on Dinner Cruise

Soul Food Dinner

On Monday evenings in Savannah, you can be uplifted and filled with the sounds of gospel music and delicious soul food.

During a two-hour dinner cruise on the Savannah River, both tourists and locals can enjoy a spirited evening hosted by Savannah RiverBoat Cruises .

Last Monday, I was invited to go on the dinner cruise and I had a wonderful time.  The ship itself is spacious, so this is a great way for big groups to gather together and eat dinner.

The food is plentiful, so there’s no need to bum rush the chafing dishes. It’s a buffet that will appeal to Southern soul food lovers. Vegans need not apply.  The menu includes macaroni and cheese, greens, fried chicken, candied yams and squash casserole. I especially liked the pulled pork. I went for seconds and ate it with some cole slaw and the cheddar biscuits. Yes, I said “cheddar biscuits”. These are not the ones from Red Lobster, but more like ones your grandmother made with cheese in them.  Yum! For dessert, there’s peach cobbler and banana pudding. The cobbler is worth the calories.

The food is good, but the gospel choir is great.  The Mass Production Ensemble sang familiar gospel songs that are American folk songs like “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art” as well as contemporary gospel like Hezekiah Walker’s “Every Praise“.  They also sang the “Happy Birthday” song (which is now legal to do) as well as love songs to the couples on board the ship who were celebrating wedding anniversaries. One couple had been married fifty years. Golden!

The season for the weekly riverboat dinner cruises is ending at the end of October, so you have three more weeks to indulge.  At 45.95 per person, the Gospel Dinner cruise is a great value for dinner, music and scenic views of the Savannah River.

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art savannah

October Savannah Art Walk

Art By Sabree

savannah art walk october

The collage above features artwork from Dana Richardson, Samantha Claar and Anthony Gomez who were some of the artists featured in the monthly Savannah Art Walk. The monthly Savannah Art Walk is an event that Savannah locals should attend. It’s fun, free and there’s wine. It reminds me of going to Chelsea on Fridays in Manhattan for art opening or Final Friday in Over-The-Rhine in Cincinnati. If you go to at least ten galleries, then you will be entered into a raffle at the end of the night. There’s a some nice prizes, and  I won a print from artist Sue Nichols. Yay!

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food home cooking savannah

Recipe For Mexican Pulled Chicken And Reducing Food Waste

Mexican Pulled Chicken

Some people hate litter.
Some people hate smokers.
I hate food waste.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, roughly one-third of all food produced for human consumption each year ends up in the trash. How can solve hunger if all that food is wasted?!

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver did a great segment on his show about how food is wasted annually. There’s a new restaurant that just opened in Brooklyn that aims to reduce food waste. Przemek Adolf who I met a few years ago at Dara Furlow’s New Year’s Day brunch, opened his restaurant, Saucy by Nature, with the sole purpose of reducing food waste.

Which brings me to this recipe below. I like a rotisserie chicken from Kroger but I have to have a plan for it or I will end up wasting it. Menu planning is essential to reducing food waste. After eating the dark meat first, there was a lot of chicken left. My first thought was chicken salad, but I didn’t want that. Then I thought of using the slow cooker to make pulled chicken like pulled pork. I went to the store to pick up chicken stock and spotted a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles. My Dad told me that he has been adding tomatoes and green chiles to his famous chili, so I figured it would be good for my dish.

Here the recipe:
Leftover White meat from rotisserie chicken
1/2 of chopped onion
1 small jalapeno pepper
1/2 bell pepper (red, yellow or purple)
1/3 cup of chicken stock
1 can of diced tomatoes with green chiles (Rotel or any brand)
A bag of tortilla chips
Monterey or Pepper jack cheese.

Directions:
I chopped up some onion, a jalapeno and a half a purple pepper that I got from the farmer’s market and added to the slow cooker. Then I added the chicken stock. I was using a knife to the cut pieces of the chicken off the bone, but I got lazy and dump all the leftover chicken in the pot. My laziness was rewarded with a more flavorful chicken.

I had a few options of how to eat this Mexican pulled chicken. I could have paired it with rice, or gotten some potato rolls to make sandwiches or even used tortillas to make tacos. However, I decided to make nachos since that was a great way to share food with roommates and neighbor who stopped by.

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forsyth park people savannah

Savannah Picnic In The Park

Hooray For Hollywood

Linda Dancing

What’s the big deal about a picnic in the park? It’s a big thing when it is the annual Picnic In The Park when the Savannah Philharmonic plays. Annually, Savannahians convene at Forsyth Park with decorated tents,bringing picnic baskets and dressing up based on a theme. This year’s theme was “Hooray for Hollywood”. BTW, I learned that the song was actually written by Savannah native Johnny Mercer.

My friend Linda invited me to hang out at the tent where her friends, Brian and Jeanine who had created this wonderful tent which was like the outside of the theater where the Oscars happen. They had a red carpet, step and repeat and a concession stand with popcorn. There were even movie posters of the two most famous movies that were filmed in Savannah, “Forrest Gump” and “Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil“.

Brian is a chef at a hotel here in Savannah.  He made chicken teriyaki skewers, stuffed mushroom, cantaloupe soup,  and  fingerling potato salad. He also brought as well as a fruit tray, a crudites tray and a cheese plate. With Jeanine’s attention to detail and Brian’s delicious food, they came in second place Yay!

I walked around a lot taking photos. It was one of the best people watching I have experienced in the four months I have lived here.

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art savannah

Savannah Art Walk

Dana Richardson Art

savannah art walk attendees

The second Saturday of the month is the  Savannah Art Walk.  The Savannah Art Walk is a fun monthly art event where local artists are featured in galleries and stores.  The welcome reception was held at the Bohemian Riverfront Hotel, a boutique hotel on Bay Street with views overlooking the river. Red and white wine was flowing and it is where you pick up the art walk map.  Hosted by artist and entrepreneur Tiffani Taylor, a few of the local artists were on hand to talk about their work.  Then the walk started.  You have three hours to visit as many galleries as possible. The more galleries you attend, the better because if you attend 10 or more galleries, you are entered into a raffle that takes place at the Andaz Hotel.   I did,  and I won a sample of L’Occitane products. [My hands have never been this soft.]

I was excited to attend the walk since I met Tiffani Taylor at the beginning of the summer.  It was great to walk around and meet new people, talk to artists about their work and learn more about Savannah.  I was especially impressed at the art at Kobo Gallery. Coincidentally, one of the artists is my neighbors, Dana Richardson.

Anyway, I had a blast, and I highly recommend attending Savannah Art Walk every month.  In the past, I thought about getting a master’s degree in arts administration,  so this is not coming out of left field. I enjoy art, and I was a volunteer at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and an intern for an arts organization in college.  The art walk has also inspired me to curate a show of Savannah artists in New York. I don’t know how I can do it, but it’s possible.  I believe in infinite possibilities.