Brunswick Stew

I've had a few requests for the Brunswick Stew recipes, so here ya go!

Melody’s Brunswick Stew

Yield: 3.5 Quarts

Ingredients

• 2 quarts homemade chicken stock

• 1 (3 1/2-pound) whole chicken, cut up

• 1 (15-ounce) can baby lima beans, undrained

• 1 (8-ounce) can baby lima beans, undrained

• 2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped

• 1 (16-ounce) package frozen baby lima beans

• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

• 1 large yellow onion, diced

• 2 (15-ounce) cans cream-style corn

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter

• 1 tablespoon Kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

• 2 teaspoons Texas Pete

Directions

Bring water and chicken to a boil in a Dutch oven. Reduce heat, and simmer for 40 minutes or until tender. Remove chicken, and set aside. Reserve 3 cups broth in Dutch oven. Pour canned lima beans and liquid through a wire-mesh strainer into Dutch oven. Reserve beans. Add tomatoes to Dutch oven. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring often, for 40 minutes or until liquid is reduced by 1/3.

Skin, bone, and shred chicken. Mash reserved beans with a potato masher. Add chicken, mashed and frozen beans, potatoes, and onions to Dutch oven. Cook over low heat, stirring often, for 3 hours and 30 minutes. Stir in corn and remaining ingredients. Cook over low heat, stirring often, for 1 additional hour.

Elly’s Burnswick Stew
2# chicken and/or pork, cooked, then shredded
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon hot sauce
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup bacon drippings
½ cup barbeque sauce
1 ½ cups ketchup
2 cups diced, cooked potatoes
3 cans cream style corn
Mix together, heat & eat.
　

Still on Roanoke Island

We headed southward to the tiny fishing village of Wanchese. The town derives its name from one of the Native American chiefs (the other was Chief Manteo) who traveled to England in 1584, in the company of two early Roanoke Island explorers, Amadas and Barlowe.

While not exactly a trendy tourist destination, Wanchese is an interesting place and definitely retains its identity as the center of the commercial fishing industry for the area. It was here that Melody taped Dawn & I for our supporting roles in the Manteo Christmas video. The wind was blowing at near gale force, my hair was flying about my face and Dawn & I kept getting the giggles. All in all, probably not the best for my debut on film. As I recall, Dawn flubbed her lines more often that I did ........

The shrimper on the left reminds me of the Forrest Gump parking job.

Touring Roanoke Island was a great time! Melody showed us places off the beaten path, where the typical tourist doesn't trod. We saw little family cemeteries, old homes once lived in by early fishing captains, ferry docks no longer in use and the sound - north, south, east & west of the island. I so enjoyed the drive, that I repeated it last year on my own!

It was late afternoon by the time we returned to Melody's house. Steph had to leave, but Dawn & I remained to enjoy the company of Melody and her mom, Dorothy. We settled into the high back rockers on the front porch and simply rocked and watched the world go by. The soft, sweet drawl of conversation was like music to my ears ...... I was quite content to sit quietly as the three southern belles chatted. I was very concious of my harsh, grating Yankee twang - I kept quiet as much as possible. Soon, Melody stepped into the house and returned with snacks - olive loaf and ......... yes, pimento cheese!

Now, this is rather difficult to explain, but in all the years I've gone to the Outer Banks, I've always been a visitor. I'd always been made to feel welcome by the locals in the shops & restaurants, but I was painfully aware of my "touron" status. This evening, as I sat and rocked on the front verandah of a magical little house, with its sprawling magnolia tree on the lawn, listening to delightful companions, a Yuengling beer in one hand, and a Ritz topped with pimento cheese in the other ....... I suddenly realized I was a GUEST on the Outer Banks that evening, not just an out of town visitor. There is a difference, and you know it when you feel it.

We had a wonderful dinner in the side yard - Brunswick Stew, home-baked beans, slaw and cornbread. It was delicious! (Hey, I can't remember my cell phone number, but I remember a dinner from 2 years ago? Gives you an idea of how good it was!) Of course, I would have been content to finish up the pimento cheese and skip dinner!

For those of you not familiar with Brunswick stew, it is a traditional dish of the southeast. It is a tomato based stew, usually with lima or butter beans, corn, okra and other vegetables. The meat varies ...... Melody's (as does my mother's) had chicken, but pork or beef can also be used. True Brunswick Stew uses rabbit or squirrel. Thanks, but I'll pass on that. If anyone wants the recipe, let me know ....... I can get my mom's or ask Melody for hers.

And, pimento cheese ....... Had I the talent, I would write an ode to pimento cheese. You must realize, *real* pimento cheese tastes nothing like the stuff you buy in the plastic container in the local supermarket. Or, at least not up here in Iowa. The good stuff, the real stuff, gives your tummy the warm & fuzzies. I've made it once ...... it was okay. I've bought it twice ..... it sucked. But, Melody's ....... oh, my. She was kind enough to share her recipe which was originally Molly Fearing's. It is delish!

PIMENTO CHEESE from Mollie Fearing

1 pound sharp cheddar cheese shredded

1 pound Swiss cheese shredded

1 quart Dukes (that's mayonaisse for you Yankees)

17 ounces chopped pimento

2 tablespoons onion juice

Mix all the ingredients together and let it chill for two days before serving. Can keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Make 8 cups.

On to the Island Farm

The Island Farm during our visit - 2008

After visiting with the Mother Vine, we headed to the The Island Farm. Now a living history farm, the site was originally the homestead of the Etheridge family, who settled on the land in 1757. The house, built circa 1847 by Adam Dough Etheridge, was in the early stages of restoration during our visit.

During our visit, there were very little in the way of furnishings in the house - a table and chairs, a wardrobe, etc. Today, lovingly restored and managed by the Outer Banks Conservationists, the farm house looks much like a typical Roanoke Island farm appeared during the mid 1800's. Pieces original to the home allow visitors to step back in time and contemplate how their ancestors lived.

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A few of the outbuildings, such as the chicken coop &

smokehouse, were under construction using old time carpentry methods. The workmanship is amazing.

The barn, while not part of the original farmstead, was

built in the mid 17th century. Previously located in western North Carolina, it was disassembled and rebuilt on the Island Farm.

This is all that I'm going to write about the Island Farm for now. I'm planning on a visit to the farm this September and will post current photos. I'm especially looking forward to meeting two residents of the farm --- Roxie, an oxen and Clancey, a draft horse!

My Last Full Day on OBs 2008 Part I

I began writing about my day on Roanoke Island in an earlier post. To refresh your memory, Dawn and I left Hatteras Village and the lovely cottage "Lightship," heading north to Roanoke Island. There, we'd meet up with Melody & Stephanie and spend the day touring the island, with Melody as our guide.

As a history fanatic, I was giddy with excitement in anticipation of exploring Roanoke Island, the site of the first English Colony in America. The following is an excerpt from National Geographic Magazine:

The story of the first English colony in North America has been fascinating historians and curiosity seekers for a very long time.

The saga began on a summer day 420 years ago when co-captain Arthur Barlowe and a few dozen other Englishmen stood at the railing of their ship and peered anxiously across the water at a strange new world.They had no idea what to expect, but the odor wafting to them from the small islands off the coast of what is now North Carolina filled Barlowe with wild hopes. The vegetation was at its summer peak, and the aroma was like that of "some delicate garden" full of fragrant flowers, he wrote later.

Barlowe was part of an expedition sent by Sir Walter Raleigh, an English courtier, to find a place for a colony. Roanoke Island, protected from the Atlantic Ocean by the slender sand dunes that came to be known as the Outer Banks, seemed a likely spot.The soil, Barlowe said, was "the most plentiful, sweet, wholesome and fruitful of all the world." And the Native Americans living on the island were, in Barlowe's opinion, "gentle, loving and faithful, void of all guile and treason."

Based on Barlowe's report and backed by Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh sent an all-male colony of more than a hundred settlers to Roanoke Island in July 1585. For a while things went well.

Among the colonists were a brilliant scientist named Thomas Hariot and artist John White. Hariot set up the New World's first science laboratory, while White made detailed maps and drawings of the Indians and his new surroundings.

Problems soon befell the Englishmen, however. The Indians, angered by the harsh tactics of the colony commander, Sir Ralph Lane, became hostile. Supply ships from England didn't arrive, and food became scarce. So when Sir Francis Drake, on his way home from the West Indies, arrived at Roanoke Island in the summer of 1586, the discouraged colonists opted to return to England with Drake.

When the supply ships arrived shortly after Drake's departure, the crews found only a deserted settlement. Sir Richard Grenville, commander of the supply fleet, left behind 15 men to hold the island and sailed back to England.

Later, at an abbey in Ireland, Hariot started writing a book about the wonderful new land on the other side of the world. But on Roanoke Island, the tiny English garrison left by Greenville was in serious trouble.The Indians had decided they'd had enough of the foreigners and attacked the settlement. The outnumbered Englishmen scrambled into their boat and fled.

They were never seen again.

A second colony of about 115 English settlers—including women and children—landed on Roanoke Island in August 1587. They found only the charred ruins of the village. It was an ominous welcome. But the colonists decided to rebuild and make a new start.

John White, the artist who had returned as governor of the second colony, went back to England to gather more supplies. He intended to return to Roanoke Island right away, but war between England and Spain delayed him.

When White finally reached Roanoke Island in August 1590, he discovered that something had gone terribly wrong on the sweet-smelling island of fruitful soil. The colony was gone.

The only clue left was the cryptic word "Croatoan" carved on a tree. The word could have been a reference to a tribe of friendly Indians who lived south of Roanoke Island. Some scholars think Indians may have killed the colonists; others think the English settlers moved farther inland and married into Native American tribes. A third theory says the colonists were killed by Spanish troops who came up from Florida. No one knows for certain what happened to the colonists.

he site of the settlement began gradually disappearing beneath the vegetation and shifting sands of Roanoke Island.

n 1607 England sent more colonists to the New World. This time they landed up the coast from Roanoke Island and founded a settlement called Jamestown in what is now Virginia. This colony managed to hold on through difficult times, and England had its permanent presence in North America. The Lost Colony of 1587 became a historical curiosity.

Our island tour began with "The Mother Vine." Located at the northern end of Roanoke Island, the Mother Vine and its grapes may have been among those cultivated by the Croatoans who occupied the area. Explorers in 1584 observed that North Carolina was “so full of grapes, as the very beating and surge of the Sea overflowed them. . . .” and pointed out that “in all the world the like abundance is not to be found.” These grapes undoubtedly also provided sustenance for the early settlers of the Lost Colony.

When Ralph Lane served as Governor of Roanoke Island (1585), the settlement was divided between “planters” and “the colony.” The planters unquestionably cultivated grapes where the Mother Vine now stands.

Melody had obtain permission from the owners of the land where the vine continues to this day producing scuppernongs, a native type of muscadine grapes. The 32 feet by 120 feet vine spreads over a trellis which bears its weight. We were awed & amazed by the nearly 500 year old plant. Crawling beneath the wooden support, we viewed the root system of the vine.

Unfortunately, this summer the vine was sprayed

with an herbicide by Dominion Power, when a tendril of the plant threatened a utility pole. The Mother Vine began to brown and experts were called in. Nearly 10% of the vine is expected to be cut back before the damage by the spray is halted. Even then, it may be 2 to 3 years before the full impact of the injury to the creeper can be assessed.

North Carolina's official state toast salutes a land "where the scuppernong perfumes the breeze at night." Let's hope the breeze continues to carry the sweet scent of Roanoke's Mother Vine for many years to come.

Next on our tour (and my next post) - The Island Farm.

Finally .... blogging again!

I've been a real loser. As much as I like to write, I just haven't had the inclination to do so for quite some time. However, with this year's vacation looming on the horizon (51 days), I'm beginning to get the urge to share my Outer Banks experiences, memories, thoughts, etc. Looking over the past entries, I see I didn't even finish writing about the 2008 trip. Jeesh. So, bear with me as I try to catch up over the last 2 years.