When you go on a fishing trip or go camping in the mountains, do you enjoy celebrating the pleasure of the great outdoors with a gourmet meal cooked on an open fire?

Fans of outdoor cooking at its finest (as well as gourmet food in general), won’t want to miss the four Redwood Creek Campfire Classic events taking place across the country throughout the spring and summer to kickoff the 2008 camping season.

The most recent event will be held on May 17th, 2008 as part of the Food and Wine Festival at National Harbor in Maryland and will feature the semi-final competitions for the contest for already selected competitors from both the North and Southeast (with Hugging the Coast’s own Doug DuCap competing in the Southeastern Division!).

In addition to the Redwood Creek Campfire Classic cookoffs, the Food and Wine Festival at National Harbor will also feature demonstrations by Michel Richard, the critically acclaimed chef of Citronelle and author of Happy in the Kitchen as well as lectures and samples from dozens of culinary experts from around the country.

Two other Campfire Classic semi-finalist cookoffs will be held in Seattle, WA on May 31st as part of the Pike Place Market Street Festival and in Chicago, IL on June 7th as part of the Chicago Botanic Garden Wine Festival which will determine the finalists from the Northwest and Midwest divisions. (The finalists from the Southwestern division were chosen on May 3rd at Mayfest in Fort Worth, TX.)

Winners of the Campfire Classic Semi-Finals will be awarded $1,000, plus an all-expense paid trip to New York City to compete during the first week of summer for a chance to win a $10,000 Grand Prize. The finals will be judged by Redwood Creek winemaker, Cal Dennison, and Bob Blumer, host of the Food Network’s Glutton for Punishment and The Surreal Gourmet.

Like the poster above? You can get it free here. Also, please see the 2007 Campfire Classic Finalists’ Recipes below to help inspire you on your own culinary campfire adventures:

• 2007 Grand Prize Winner: Coal-Roasted Chuckbox Pozole-Stuffed Onions by Leah Lyon of Ada, Oklahoma

• Chincoteague Scallops by Julia DeCastro of University Park, Florida

• Rocky Mountain Pinon Paella by Paul Heitzenrater of Denver, Colorado

• Down East Lobster Scampi a la Campfire by Brian Mulligan of Bath, Maine

• Lost in the Woods Pork Tenderloin by Kim Wittmers of Minneapolis, Minnesota

• Double Chocolate Pancakes from Global Gourmet

• Chocolate Covered Strawberries from Chirky.Com

• Nutella Cookies from Alpineberry

• Chocolate-Mascarpone Phyllo Triangles from Allrecipes.Com

• Enchilada Casserole with Quick Mole Sauce from MyRecipes.Com

• Cheesecake With Chocolate Lace from BakeSpace

• White Chocolate Cake With Orange Marmalade Filling from Food & Wine

Enjoy the Holiday!

Maxeaudela has made a wonderful video in which dancers strike up an impromptu Charleston in Washington Square Park in New York City which you can see below (or here).

Looking for a a very filling and savory recipe you can make in less than 90 minutes? Try making this recipe for Seafood Lasagna from the folks at the Lots of Great Recipes.Com.

Ingredients:

8 lasagna noodles
1 c. onion, chopped
1 (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 1/2 c. creamed cottage cheese
2 c. condensed mushroom soup
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 c. sharp American cheese
1 egg
2 tbsp. butter
1/3 c. milk
2 tsp. dried basil
1 lb. shrimp, cooked
1 (7 1/2 oz.) canned crab
1/3 c. dry white wine

How to Make Seafood Lasagna
See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

Does your mom have a bumpersticker on her car that says, “I break for baguettes?” Then check out this cool shopping tote bag from the designers at Rootote which features a pornographically photorealistic image of baguettes guaranteed to cause gasps from fellow bread lovers.

Rootote also makes a nice shopping tote bag that celebrates the joy of eating carbs (er, crackers). Both are from YesStyle.Com.

And in case you want to fill that tote with a little something extra, here’s a good recipe for baguettes from Recipezaar.

Don’t let a bout of seasickness ruin your fishing trip or cruise! According to Seaworthy Magazine (published by the Boat Owners Association of the United States)…

“Whenever he encountered a seasick sailor, Admiral Nelson, the 19th century British hero at Trafalgar, suggested his own fool-proof remedy: ‘You’ll feel better if you sit under a tree.’ Nelson, who made a few trips to the rail himself, was obviously a funny guy but not everybody shares his sense of humor about seasickness. The same motion–up, down, up, down–that reminds some people of Joseph Conrad reminds others of what they had for lunch. In the almost 200 years since Nelson met his Waterloo, modern medicine hasn’t been able to improve on his tree remedy, but they’re working on it.

For anyone contemplating a bumpy voyage, there are various pills and patches that have been concocted–Dramamine, Marezine, Bonine, Scopolamine (ear patches), etc. These anti-motion drugs all affect the inner ear, which is where seasickness originates before it drops–thud–into the stomach. While some people swear by one or the other of these remedies, there is no one drug that has proven to be ideal for everybody. None of the pills work immediately and all must be taken well before symptoms occur. There is also something called Phenergan, a suppository that is said to be effective when someone is already seasick.

If you are going to try one, you might want to start with Marezine, since it is the least likely to cause drowsiness. Scapolamine is probably the most effective and its effects also last the longest, about 72 hours. It can have some strange side effects, however, and requires a doctor’s prescription. Marezine, Dramamine, and Bonine are antihistamines, which means they can be bought over the counter. Phenergan can also be purchased over the counter.

Many people think of pills or patches as a last resort to fighting motion sickness. One alternative is ginger root powder, which is a seasick remedy that was first brought to our attention by an enthusiastic BoatU.S. member in Washington State. Ginger root powder settles the stomach and has gotten some good press, including a recommendation in Lancet, a well-regarded English medical journal. Ginger root powder capsules are available in health food stores.”

You can read more of this highly informative article here.

In his book The Human Body, Isaac Asimov related the anecdote about a seasick passenger whom a steward cheerfully assured that nobody ever died from seasickness. The passenger muttered, “Please–it’s only the hope of dying that’s keeping me alive.”

Here’s a YouTube video performance by bluesman Seasick Steve who says he earned his name every time he went out on a boat.

According to an article in Gothamist:

“Between the New York Times barbecue cover story last week and the giveaway pulled pork yesterday in Madison Square Park, it would seem as though New York is going all kinds of rubbed and sauce-slathered crazy (don’t forget to free up the second week of June for the mammoth Big Apple Barbecue).

While the current media blitz over toasted bones and brash pit masters inevitably continues, Gothamist would like to divert just a little of your attention to some barbecue-appropriate side dishes and accoutrements, in particular, from the Carolinas and Georgia.”

You can read more of the article here.

Gothamist also has a nice article about The Carolina Country Store in Brooklyn here which was discussed here on Chowhound. Mentioned in the previous article, Poor Freddies Rib Shack was named one of the best places to eat in NY by the Village Voice and was raved about here by the folks at Chowhound.
Among the often hard-to-find items expats from the South can enjoy there are bone-in country ham, pimento cheese, hoop cheese (rat cheese), red franks, and boiled peanuts as well as the far easier to find hush puppy mixes and bags of grits.

• Garlicky Prawn, Roasted Pepper, and Goat Cheese Quesadillas from The Gutsy Gourmet

• Blue Cornmeal Chorizo Stuffing from About.Com: Homecooking

• Pescado Borrachos (Drunken Fish) from The Epicentre

• El Charro Barbacoa from Clay’s Kitchen

• Black Beans With Mexican Beer from Chow.Com

• Sopes from ifood.tv

• Churros from Kaboose.com

• Tres Leches Cake from Cooking Mexican Recipes

Enjoy the Holiday!

FinalCutpro78 has a nice video homage to Charleston South Carolina which you can see below (or here).

Looking for a a very comforting and homey recipe you can make in 90 minutes or less? Try making this recipe for Salt Cod Cakes from the folks at the CIA Sizzle blog.

Ingredients:

1 pound Salt Cod filet
Water as needed
2 2/3 cups milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 2/3 cups Russet potatoes (2-3 large), peeled
1 egg
1 tablespoon brown mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco sauce to taste
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste

1 cup Panko Japanese bread crumbs
12 slices bacon
Vegetable oil to pan-fry as needed
12 toothpicks

How to Make Salt Cod Cakes
See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

May’s Free Cookbook Preview…

Been to Google Books lately? Google Books has been gradually placing the full text of thousands of books online, many of them free full previews of culinary books that are either out-of-print or have been added online with the permission of their publishers.

One of the latter gems we’ve recently stumbled upon is Cruising Cuisine for Home Entertaining: Hors D’Oeuvres and Appetizers, a 140 page book of interesting recipes inspired by cruise vacation meals written by Elena Vakhrenova.

A former cruise line manager with experience in food and beverage, Vakhrenova’s book features hors d’oeuvres and appetizers selected for their interesting presentation and easy preparation. Elena has added personal stories and impressions to help the reader experience how the recipe was first discovered and what makes it special.

You can read the whole book for free on Google Books here…enjoy!

You can also order the book from Amazon here.

With rising food and gas prices, sometimes it’s hard to justify the expense of gourmet food ingredients. However, according to Christiane Jory, the author of 99¢ Only Stores: The Cookbook, shopping at discount stores (at least occasionally) may be the answer.
According to the book’s description:

Tired of forking over hundreds of dollars for entertaining her friends and family, Christiane Jory challenged herself to create more than 100 gourmet recipes for appetizers, side dishes, main courses, and desserts-solely with items she found at 99¢ Only Stores. Her recipes include:

• Artichoke Spinach Bake on Homemade Pizza Bread
• Green Beans Au Gratin
• Chicken Tetrazinni
• Pinot Noir Poached Pear Tart

This 224 page book is filled with sample menus, as well as a glossary of cooking terms. Each recipe includes the estimated cost of the meal and helpful kitchen hints, such as uses for recycled milk cartons and how to freeze egg whites.

By the way, Christine has a blog in which she shares recent bargain store finds, photos, and recipes.

There are 262 99¢ Only Stores in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas. (Here’s a link to the store locator.)

Because we live in South Carolina, I have never been to a 99¢ Only Store. However, we do have Dollar Tree Stores which offer all items for $1.00 which are located all over the East Coast.

Among the things we’ve found there are gourmet snacks and crackers, organic soups and broths, large containers of spices, bread and baked good mixes, marinated artichoke hearts and musrooms, Hungarian Ajvar (and myriad other condiments), kitchen knives and cutlery (not exactly Henckel quality, but if you’re bringing over a cake to a friend you won’t weep if you lose your implements), microfiber kitchen towels, and more.

When we lived in Western New York State, there was a small, local supermarket chain that offered all groceries for $1 as well as a variety of independent dollar sores that sold everything from #10 cans of chocolate syrup, an assortment of gourmet ice creams and cheeses, large jars of various pestos, fancy honeys and mustards, imported olives, and tapenades, and other culinary items that make me weep at the memory of the incredible savings.

Here’s a video of Ellen DeGeneres clowning around in a 99 cent store:

“Olga Berman had something to confess: She is frequently guilty of involuntary porkicide. ‘I’m the girl who kills pork,'’ she wrote in an e-mail. ‘I always overcook pork chops, and they come out dry.’Even after three years of a part-time culinary program at Sur La Table, Berman didn’t have the chops to cook chops.”

But Olga Berman is nothing if not supremely fortunate. According to this article in the Miami Herald, when Southern cookbook author Nathalie Dupree heard about Berman’s pork curse, she showed up Olga’s DC apartment to play fairy godmother and show her the secret of unforgettably succulent pork chops.

“Then the two started the chops by heating butter and oil in a sauté pan. Dupree laid two chops in the pan, explaining that you always cook the prettier side first because it will get more nicely browned than the second side. ‘When the pork starts talking, you start listening,’ Dupree intoned. ‘It’s sizzling because it’s putting water out into the hot fat. When it stops sizzling so much, it’s time to turn it.’ Dupree turned the chops with her hands, as the pros do…”

You can read more about Nathalie Dupree’s 911 Culinary Intervention here.

The first woman since Julia Child to film more than 100 cooking shows for public television, Charleston’s Dupree is the author of 10 cookbooks (you can preview four of them free of charge here) which have sold over half a million copies so far.

You’ve doubtless heard the term “out to lunch” as used to describe someone who’s not fully engaged in what they are doing; just going through the motions.

In contrast to that I’d like to add the phrase to the verbal pantheon “out to dinner” to describe someone deeply savoring each and every bite with great attention and awareness; someone truly alive to all the sensual possibilities and satisfactions that only a great meal can provide.

Do you remember the first time you had corn on the cob cooked up and buttered only minutes after it was harvested? Your first cream puff, bursting at the seams, swirls of chocolate drizzled pastry brushing your nose? The thrilling sinus rush of wasabi harmonizing with the buttery notes of fresh tekkamaki? The intoxicating scent of Vidalia onions caramelizing on the grill?

Then you’ve been fortunate enough to have that “out to dinner” experience.

Recognized for giving many people that “out to dinner” feeling early in their careers, these chefs were named the 2008 Best New Chefs in America by Food & Wine. Seeking to discover tomorrow’s superstar chefs in the making, Food & Wine’s previous awardees included Thomas Keller in 1988, Nobu Matsuhisa in 1989, and Rick Bayless in 1988.

ETV Road Show has a nice video feature on Gullah basket making in the Charleston South Carolina which you can see below.

Here’s a nice photo of sweetgrass baskets at a stall on Highway 17.

Looking for a a very simple and homey recipe you can whip up in 30 minutes or less? Try making this recipe for Oyster Croquettes or Fritters from the folks at About.Com: Southern Food.

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups oysters, drained and chopped

How to Make Oyster Croquettes or Fritters
See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

The folks at Amazon.com have put together a complete list of all the cookbooks nominated for this year’s James Beard Cookbook Awards.

(Last year, Charleston natives Matt and Ted Lee were awarded Cookbook of the Year for The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook.)

Many fans of Southern cuisine will be happy to hear that James Villas’ The Glory of Southern Cooking and Jean Anderson’s A Love Affair with Southern Cooking: Recipes and Recollections were both nominated in the Americana Category.

The James Beard Foundation also maintains a list of Who’s Who in Food and Beverage in America, with new inductees added annually.

José Andrés, Bobby Flay, Dorie Greenspan, and Michael Pollan were all inducted last year.

Just how addicted to coffee are you? Do you ever wish you could be permanently hooked up to a coffee I.V.? (If so, see the cartoon to the right.)

What about using coffee as a homemade beauty treatment to firm and tone the skin? (Supposedly you can.) Do you have Starbucks Finder installed on your handheld PDA so you can get your fix anywhere you go?

Then cooking with coffee is the next step in your addiction cycle.

Beyond tiramisu and other obvious coffee flavored desserts, coffee and/or espresso can be used to make a wide variety of interesting marinades, rubs, and sauces. If you’ve ever known the deep pleasure of eating country ham and red-eye gravy, you’re already well on your way to enjoying coffee as a culinary enhancement.

Here’s a few main meal recipes featuring coffee as an ingredient:

• Steak in Indonesian-Java Marinade from Kate’s Global Kitchen

• Charred Buffalo Medallions with Coffee BBQ Sauce from The Food Network

• Grilled Pork Chops with Coffee Barbecue Sauce from About.Com Home Cooking

• Chicken And Coffee Barbecue Sauce from Cooking With Gourmet Coffee

• Coffee Glazed Roast Leg of Lamb from CooksRecipes.Com

• Beef Short Ribs & Coffee, Ancho and Cinnamon Sauce from VisualRecipes.Com

By the way, it is said that French writer Honore de Balzac drank up to 40 strong cups of coffee a day. He went on to write 92 novels and his essay, The Pleasures and Pain of Coffee, gives one a fascinating/horrifying glimpse of his all-too-caffeinated life.

As Balzac goes on to write in the essay…

“For a while - for a week or two at most - you can obtain the right a