Chloe Oliver

By Chloe Oliver

As the 2010 graduates go forward, I am sure that they will receive words of congratulations as well as words of advice. I too congratulate their hard work rewarded and offer a few lines of wisdom. Although the following is not all inclusive, I consider each to be sage advice for both young and old.

   Do nothing that will make you lose respect for yourself or others.

   Never be the source of embarrassment or misfortune for others.

   Choose your friends wisely. They should be people of character and honesty. Better to be a sage by yourself than a fool with the crowd. Avoid those who habitually place you in the shade and themselves in the light.

   Be picky about who you date and mate.

   Don’t belong so wholly to others that you lose sight of your own values.

   Choose an occupation that is of value and enjoyment to you. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn usually appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer. It is appearing today because of technical issues that occurred last week.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

“Come wiz me to de casbah!” – that familiar line uttered by the well-known skunk, Pepe le Pew, in Warner Bros. cartoons has always been a mystery to me.  Just what is a casbah and where is it located?  From watching the cartoon, it was obvious that the casbah must be in a desert location in a very mysterious part of the world.  The word “casbah” is a French transliteration of the Arab word “Qasbah” which refers to the citadel or walled part of a city.  The casbah was introduced to the West in a movie made in 1938 called Algiers.  The movie starred Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr.  In addition, the aforementioned Pepe le Pew is taken (loosely) from the main character of   Algiers, called “Pepe le Moko”.  The 1954 cartoon The Cats Bah, spoofed Algiersand introduced the suave “Pepe le Pew”. 

Algiers, the capital city of Algeria, is located in North Africa.  The casbah of Algiers is filled with twisting alley and souks or marketplaces.  As the home port of the Barbary pirates, the casbah in Algiers became known as a haven for criminals, ne’r do wells and shady characters of all kinds….providing a refuge where no questions were asked.  Work on the Casbah of Algiers was begun in 1516.  It remained a walled city until the close of the 19th century.  Just what would these fugitives from justice eat in their exotic place of self-exile?  One could imagine a pirate, just in from long   months robbing and pillaging, to want some fresh vegetables, some savory grilled meat and succulent fruit……along with a serving of the ubiquitous North African staple – couscous.  Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

There’s a part of the world which is close to my heart and until 2003 I was unaware of its existence.  In November of that year I was introduced to the Franconian area of Northern Bavaria in Germany.  The walled villages, the beautiful river Main, the storybook scenery, and the wonderful food…. I was hooked.  We’re going to take a too brief gastronomic tour around the region – and not a wurst in sight.  With just a bit of creative shopping, we could fashion a dinner here in Mississippi which would illustrate this tour. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

“Barbara Tropp and the origins of Chinese Bistro cooking”

Last week I was in Jackson and ate lunch at P. F. Chang’s.  This multi-location or “chain” restaurant positions itself as a “Chinese Bistro”.  The chain, founded by Paul Fleming in Scottsdale AR in 1993, follows in the culinary tradition established by Chef Barbara Tropp. Tropp opened  China Moon Café on Post Street in San Francisco in 1986 and operated it for eleven years until forced by ill health to close.

Until Tropp opened this celebrated eatery, the American concept of Chinese food was characterized by “with six you get egg roll” and LaChoy canned and frozen foods.  Tropp brought a vast knowledge of Chinese culture and food to the  growing interest in fresh and organic foods popularized by Alice Waters at Chez  Paniss (located in Berkley, CA).  The blending of Tropp’s delightful personality, her deep love for all things Chinese and her passion for the best and freshest ingredients made China Moon “the” go-to place in San Francisco for foodies interested in Asian cuisine. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

“A rose is a rose is a rose.” Gertrude Stein

When I moved into my mother’s house last year, I inherited her rose bushes.  I’d never grown roses before.  Mike, my husband, wanted to pull them out immediately because  he said they were “high maintenance”, but I persuaded him to give me a year to learn all there was to know about roses.  The first thing I learned is I am in love with the scent of old roses.  New hybrid roses don’t have much scent, and neither do “store-bought” roses.  Strangely enough, just after we moved in I found a book at a flea market entitled “The Forgotten Art of Flower Cookery” by Leona Woodring Smith.  It seemed like fate was telling me to think about cooking with roses, as well as growing them. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

Capers…..just what are they?

In 1996 when the original Back Door Café opened in the former appliance department in The Lampton Company, we began serving our signature chicken salad.  In  this recipe,    which I actually made up, the unique flavor comes from the vinegary addition of capers.  From the beginning this ingredient created interest.  Just what was this small, tart, salty green thing?  Some people guessed English peas, others guessed some type of chopped pickle – it was just capers.

Capers are the green, or unripened, bud of a Mediterranean plant called Capparis spinosa.  This perennial plant grows in arid conditions and once established, can continue to produce for decades.  The use of capers is recorded as far back as 3000 BC, where they are mentioned in the great flood story known as Gilgamesh in Sumerian cuniform tablets.  The bud is common in many of the cuisines of the Mediterranean, especially in Italy.  The pungent taste they give dishes is a result of mustard oil (glucocapparin)   which develops during the curing process and is released when the bud is crushed.  Capers are hand-picked, sun-dried, and then processed either by being packed in salt or preserved in a vinegar and salt solution.

The size of capers vary from the size of a petite green pea (called a non-pareil) to a caperberry, a stemmed berry about the size of a small strawberry.  Small capers are often found as an accompaniment for smoked salmon, while the large caperberries serve as a garnish on salads or cheese trays.  Capers also supply the traditional vinegary taste in tartar sauce. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

To most people there are two constants in life – death and taxes.  For my mother there were three – death, taxes and if you don’t attend the April meeting of The Town Club you will be elected to an office.

The Town Club was established in1946.    The Charter Members were Willene Bullock, Jackie Bregan, Mary Margaret Barnes, Helen Barnes Jordan, Madelyn Lokey, Ruth Newson, Irene Cook, Peggy Sims, Byrle Sims and Sue Weems.  The organizational meeting was held in the apartment on Oak St. which was home to Roy and Ruth Newsom.  These charter members had in mind setting aside a time each month to visit with each other….just to keep in touch.  The meetings were held in   homes, and dessert and coffee were served. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

This morning I harvested my entire crop of asparagus – two spears.

My asparagus was planted in the same manner as the wild asparagus naturalist Euell Gibbons stalked in the seventies – by birds.  Not native

to much of North America, the herbaceous plant was moved from place to place by hungry fowl, who ate the attractive red berries on the mature plant, flew to another location, sat on a fencerow and let nature take its course.  Interestingly enough, old fencerows are one of the places Euell recommended to search for the wild asparagus.

 Asparagus is mentioned in ancient texts in two capacities.  First, the perennial plant is used for its diuretic properties and then for its delicious flavor.  The earliest surviving cookbook, written in Rome by Apicius in the third century AD, gives recipes for preparing asparagus. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

Growing up in Columbia in the late 1950’s and 1960’s, Easter meant a new outfit, decorating Easter eggs, singing “Up From the

Grave He Arose” at church and lunch with my grandparents.  I listened to the teachings in Sunday School of Jesus being crucified and rising on  Easter Sunday.  I heard different preachers talk about elements of the occasion – nails in his hands, Peter denying Jesus, Joseph donating his tomb, the stone in front of the tomb being rolled away, Jesus appearing to Mary and the other women…….I never gave a thought to when Easter was – just sometime in the spring of the year and I guess I thought that everyone around the world marked the occasion known as “Easter” just as I did. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

It is no secret that I love books, especially cookbooks.  If  someone started a twelve step program for Bookaholics Anonymous, I could be a charter member.  The siren song of a stack of old books is more tempting to me than the smell and sight of homemade chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven.

 When I come across one book which combines great storytelling from a favorite author, along with recipes, it’s a grand slam.  I have always loved the way Pat Conroy weaves a tale.  His prowess with the English language is amazing.  He has the gift to make written words actually speak from the page.  His cookbook, The Pat Conroy Cookbook, Recipes of  My Life, has a perfect score from me.  He combines tales, thoughts about cooking and cookbooks and some really fine recipes. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This new weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

March 19^th bears a special meaning to certain people the world over.  It marks the day set aside in the liturgical calendar to remember St. Joseph.  Since the Middle Ages, Italians of Sicilian descent have celebrated this day in a special way.  According to legend, there was a great drought, and subsequent famine on the island of Sicily.  The people petitioned St. Joseph for rain to relieve the terrible conditions and promised a great feast in his honor if the rains came.  The rains did come and the Sicilians began the tradition of venerating St. Joseph with altars of food to recall the event.  The fava bean was the crop which saved the people from starvation, much as the potato was for the people of Ireland.  Originally a food just for cattle, the fava bean became not only a favorite dish, but also the symbol of St. Joseph’s day.  The theme of the altars is to share with those less fortunate.  The food put onto the altars is not wasted, but is fed to visitors and also packaged for distribution to homeless shelters. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This new weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

A food product was introduced in 1937 with the unusual name SPAM.  This mixture of pork shoulder, ham, and secret spices (which included sodium nitrate to maintain the pink color ) was  conceived by The Hormel Company as a way to keep meat edible for longer periods of time when refrigeration was not consistent.   It proved to be extremely important for feeding the troops in World War II, especially in the South Pacific.  This food product’s name has morphed into modern language as a descriptive word for useless or unwanted email.  When reading about this word, the food product is, by its patent definition, always written in all capitals – SPAM.  The food product has developed a cult following, even sharing its name with a Broadway play (Spamalot).  Although few people acknowledge eating SPAM, in 2002 the seventh billion can was sold. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This new weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

Are there times which live in your memory, colored by all the moods, voices, smells and other attributes of the day?

 My first  trip to Corinne Dunbar’s restaurant in New Orleans was like that.  I was seven years old and feeling very grown up to be going to New Orleans to shop with my mother and grandmother.  Mama and Grandma had on hats and gloves and I had on one of those horrid dresses little girls in the 1950’s were cursed to wear.  There were layers upon layers of tulle petticoats sewn into the waistband of the dress.  The itch was beyond description.  It was then I learned what suffering for beauty meant and I vowed to choose comfort over fashion – a vow I have kept, by the way. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This new weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

The Shakers, a corruption of the expression “shaking Quakers” are a Protestant religious denomination, begun in Manchester, England in 1772.  The small group quickly found a leader in Ann Lee, who continues to be revered today as “Mother Ann”.  She brought her band of nine followers to the United States in 1774.  Over the next century the number of converts would number more than 200,000, of whom only about 6,000 became full members.  These members lived in 19 settlements spread through Ohio, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.  Strict believers in the three C’s:  celibacy, confession of sin and Christian communalism, the group depended on converts and adoption of orphans to increase their numbers.  As of September, 2009, there were three Shakers left – living in Sabbathday Lake, Maine.  The Shakers were great innovators and were responsible for numerous inventions and practices in farming.  Creators of the rotary harrow, the circular saw, the clothespin, the flat broom and the wheel-driven washing machine, they were also once the largest producers of medicinal herbs in the United States, the first group to commercially sell seeds in paper packages.  Believers in the premise that “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” their barns and homes were models of efficiency and sanitation;  they created simple clean-lined furniture and architecture which is still popular today.  Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This new weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

What child isn’t fascinated with secret passageways, trap doors, mysterious rooms and sliding mirrors?   The Stoneleigh Hotel in Dallas was conceived by eccentric millionaire Harry Steward, who amassed his fortune as a Ford Tractor Distributor and built in 1923.   To suit his client’s exotic tastes, the architect included many unusual rooms and details.  One room, called the Grape Room,  was boarded up for many years.   Its existence forgotten, the secret Grape Room was rediscovered during a renovation of the hotel in 1998.  Untouched since its installation in the 1930’s, the room is located on the second floor and  features a massive stone fireplace carved with pheasants as the focal point, the original chandelier and rich, old ornate woodwork paneling, which was brought over by boat from the Chart-Hills school in London, England.   It is believed the Grape Room, named for the intricately-carved grapes in the woodwork, was used as a private library by Colonel William Stewart who purchased the hotel in 1938.  It was Col. Stewart who engaged celebrity decorator Dorothy Draper to design the lavish Penthouse apartment in the late 1930’s.   This grande dame of hotels proudly advertised that it never closed its doors during its 70 year history.  Sadly, the hotel closed in November, 2006.  A planned renovation of the property, located in the Turtle Creek area of Dallas, will include condominiums and a small boutique hotel. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This new weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

Chocolate – a brief history

More than three thousand years ago people in Mesoamerica were cultivating the cacao plant.  This plant’s oval shaped pod contains some pulp, described as having a mild, bittersweet chocolate flavor, but that is not the best part of the pod.  The 30 – 50 seeds contained in the pod are the beginnings of chocolate as we know it.  The Mayan people are believed to be the first to cultivate the cacoa tree.  They learned that the seeds, when dried and fermented produced a delicious, bitter flavor.  The Mayans, and later the Aztec, made a drink from these beans and flavored it with maize, vanilla and even red pepper.   These early peoples learned that to dissolve the ground cacoa bean took the hottest of liquids, giving rise to the Mexican expression to describe something very hot as “like water for chocolate”. To these peoples, the cacoa bean was largely a spice, evolving into the savory seasoning in the Mexican dish known as Mole. The beans of the cacao tree were so highly valued that they were used as currency. The side effects of the cacoa drink…stimulation, a sense of euphoria and enhanced performance led the Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus to give the name “Theoborma” to the plant.  This translates to “food of the gods”. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This new weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn appears each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

 ……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

 As I said in the preface to this column, I enjoy exploring how food customs develop.  One of the food related newletters I receive is called “Chocolate and Zucchini”.  It is written in France by Clotilde Dusoulier.  Since my only child is presently living in France, I quite naturally have an interest in all things French.

This morning the newsletter arrived in my gmail box.  The lead topic in the newsletter was about Candlemas,  or La Chandeleur, being observed on February 2 in France and celebrated by eating crepes. I’d heard of Candlemas, but didn’t know much about it. Click to continue »

Fran Ginn

This new weekly column, “Adventures in Good Eating,” by Back Door Café chef/owner Fran Ginn will appear each Thursday in the Marion County Informer.

 ……I relish the opportunity of finding something new and different to eat wherever I go.  I love to explore why people eat what they do and how food has shaped their lives.  Adventures in Good Eating is my way of sharing the pleasure of culinary discovery and also the anticipation of tables and tastes yet to be found.

 The Hass Avocado

 Say avocado and what comes to mind?  Guacamole, guacamole and more guacamole?  The next time corn chips and guacamole begin a meal, take a moment to ponder this amazing fruit and its fascinating history. Click to continue »