Twice a year, four of my buddies and I head for Cliff View Inn in Alleghany county where we fish, play golf, tell old war stories, harass each other unmercifully and have a great time. Probably too good of a time. For this biannual gathering, I serve as the cook – every meal. The prime reason for this personal sacrifice is that if I didn’t do it, and didn’t buy the groceries, we’d likely eat … [Read more...]

Several years ago, my brothers and I had some luck with stripers at Oregon Inlet. We caught enough to fill the refrigerator at our beach cottage. We dined in style that evening with broiled stripers in a lemon dill sauce. The next night was crab night. We picked up a bushel of beautiful “jimmie” crabs, already steamed. But we had a problem. At the time, my brother Charlie was not eating meat – … [Read more...]

Okra is one of those vegetables that you either love or absolutely despise. There is no middle ground. Many get a bad taste in their mouths (pardon the pun) for okra when they eat it stewed and from the can. It’s pretty slimy, I admit, but I like slimy when it tastes like okra. I am a southern boy and I adore this Cajun staple. Deep-fried okra is among my all time favorite things to eat. I … [Read more...]

“Everyone loves my corn bead,” says Nancy Jackson, Realtor Extraordinaire in Saluda. Living on the Northern Neck, a stone’s throw from the Rappahannock River, Nancy serves her cornbread both with seafood and other dishes. “People,” say this is better than dessert, she adds. Here’s how she does it.   Nancy’s Cornbread 1 Small box of Jiffy corn bread mix 3 Eggs 8 Oz. carton … [Read more...]

We had a family reunion last summer that drew around 30 uncles, cousins, nieces, brothers, sisters and grand kids. For one of the evening meals, we had barbeque catered through a local pit master. The other meal, the brothers and sisters chipped in with homemade dishes and my sister in law, Marsha Boggess (also the hostess for the gathering) prepared two huge platters of a potato casserole. I … [Read more...]

One cherry tomato vine is about the right number for a small family. Under decent conditions, one vine can keep that household in enough cherry tomatoes for a month’s worth of tossed salads. Five vines, however, creates something of a problem, unless you are a confirmed Tomato-Holic. I had 5 vines in my garden – all volunteers – and have been struggling with new and improved ways to eat cherry … [Read more...]

As I mentioned in last week’s Cooking column, I had five volunteer tomato vines that I let grow in my garden that have since produced enough tomatoes to cause a drop in the prices of all Mexican imports. I exaggerate, of course, I often do, but we have no shortage of small tomatoes in the Brewer household, and that’s no lie. Each day, I harvest a bumper crop. When we have salads, I put a dozen … [Read more...]

This spring, several weeks after my small vegetable garden had been tilled, I noticed a number of volunteer tomatoes springing up. I had intended to buy four new tomato plants. When conditions are right, four plants will produce a lot of tomatoes, but I hated to pull the hardy little plants up. I decided to leave 5 of the strongest vines and see what developed. What developed is that every single … [Read more...]