Are your first words when arriving at a meeting or lunch date, “I’m sorry I’m late”? Have you ever been left at the dock while your fishing buddies have been off catching fish for hours?

Wakerupper.Com is a free service that will send an automated wakeup or reminder voice and/or text message to your phone so you can arrive in time for any event, remember an important event, or notify you when it’s time to do a particular task, remove the bread from the oven, or even take your daily medication.

The service works with any phone in the U.S. or Canada (including the iPhone).

You can schedule a free automated reminder here. (There’s also a handy FAQ here.)

If you’re not from the area, ETVRoadShow brings us you this informative overview of some of the history of Charleston.

Looking for a good recipe you can whip up in 60 minutes or less? Try making this recipe for Yellow-Fin Tuna Steaks Stuffed With Pork-Scratchings from The Passionate Cook.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp coarsely crushed black pepper
200 g yellow-fin (sashimi-grade) tuna steaks (cut into 2 pieces for a starter)
100 g pork scratchings
4 tbsp roughly sliced spring onions
3 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 medium pear
1 tbsp dry sherry
1 tbsp sweet sherry
2 tbsp peanut oil

How to Make Yellow-Fin Tuna Steaks Stuffed With Pork-Scratchings
See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

Here down South (especially in Charleston), we’re lucky for much of the year to have access to fresh local seafood. However, other parts of the country are not so lucky.

As it says in an article on AirCargoWorld.Com…

“In order to dine upon day-old Copper River salmon in a trendy New York City bistro or freshly farmed shrimp in the comfort of a Manhattan, Kansas, household, air cargo shipping is necessary to ensure quality of fish and shellfish…

According to the National Fisheries Institute, Americans eat 16.5 pounds of seafood annually per capita, 74 percent of which is of the fresh and frozen variety…

Alaska plays a significant role in transporting fresh Alaska seafood, flying more than 26 million pounds of it to the lower 48 states and beyond each year.”

You can read more of the article here.

• What is the difference between Atlantic and Pacific Salmon? from Wisegeek.Com

• What types of salmon are there? From Virtual WeberBullet.Com

• How do I choose between various types of smoked salmon and what do they taste like? from The Nibble

• How do I smoke my own salmon? from What’s Cooking America

• Since some fishing licenses granted require me to limit my catch to a particular type of salmon, how can I identify the salmon I have caught? from Ezinearticles.Com

• Where can I find photos of all the kinds of salmon to make it easier to identify them? from King County DNR

What about a recipe?

How about Mustard-Broiled Salmon With New Potato Salad from RealSimple.Com?

If you regularly enjoy boating, fishing, or surfing it is essential to keep an eye on the tide. Here’s some handy tools and websites for the purpose:

Sciway.net has some free online tide prediction tables here that cover from Wilmington, NC to the entrance of the Savannah River as does the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

If you have a Palm OS PDA handheld, Tide Tool displays the tide and current graphs and tables for 6,900 locations worldwide. It also displays the times of sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, and the moon phases until the year 2031.

Tide Tool is free software. You can download it at http://www.tucows.com/preview/34687.

If you have a Windows OS PDA handheld, NavStation Tides from Woodpecker Software is available for $40. You can download a free trial version of the software here.

“Late last year I went on a mammoth eating adventure around the southern United States. I’ve banged on at length about Charleston’s grub here, after my shock at hearing about Bill Clinton letting his grits go cold (come on Bill, an Arkansas boy should know better). But I haven’t mentioned the amazing food I had elsewhere in the South. And that’s just rude.”

In the story, Susan Smillie of the UK newspaper The Guardian, enjoys the Southern hospitality of Atlanta where she eats (among many other delicious things) Carolina gold rice soup with grilled quail, peanuts, and scallions and New Orleans (where she eats jambalaya and explores the myriad joys of andouille sausage).

The trip starts in South Carolina, where she eats savory shrimp and grits at Charleston’s Old Village Post House and tender lamb glazed with chocolate barbecue sauce at Tristan’s.

You can read more of her story here.

• Warm Curried Egg Salad from Betterrecipes.Com

• Kulich Coffee Can Easter Bread Recipe from Group Recipes.Com

• Sweet Potato Biscuits from Easter Recipes: Blogspot

• Fruity Fruit Salad Recipe from Soul Food and Southern Cooking

• Asparagus With Hazelnuts and Parmesan from Kaboose.Com

• Cauliflower Casserole from About.Com: Southern Food

• Fish Fillets With Corn and Red Pepper Salsa from Easter Recipes: Blogspot

• Baked Ham With Spiced Apples and Pears from CooksRecipes.Com

• Cheesecake Tart With Tropical Fruits from Bon Appetit

Enjoy the Holiday!

This is a nice video homage to Charleston, SC by Robert L. Payne with some good shots of the coast, beaches, and palm trees for those of you who haven’t had the luck to visit here (yet).

Looking for a good recipe that won’t bore your family to tears? Try this Grilled Grouper Tangerine Recipe from Florida Key Treasures.

Ingredients:

4 grouper filets (6 to 7 ounces)
Juice and zest from two tangerines
2 tablespoons dry white wine
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon course ground black pepper
vegetable cooking spray
2 tablespoons minced scallions
2 tablespoons red bell peppers (diced)
fresh herbs to garnish

How to Make Grilled Grouper Tangerine

See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

Long considered a delicacy in Japan for their purported aphrodisiac qualities, the red sea urchin is a popular fixture on the menus of many British Columbia sushi restaurants. Sea urchins both red and the more common green are also used in Italian and Greek cuisine.

According to BC Seafood Online, the porcupine-like red sea urchins are still harvested by hand the traditional way using stainless steel rakes to pick the urchins from the rocks or via deep sea diving. However, on the East Coast, trawlers are often used.

Here’s a great photo blog that shows more information about urchin harvesting.

Chow.Com states that the red sea urchin is found throughout northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Red, green, and purple sea urchins are harvested on the American Pacific coast. Green sea urchins are commercially harvested on the American Atlantic coast. The largest American producers are California for red urchins and Maine for green urchins. Peak season for red urchins is October to May; peak season for green urchins is November to March.Fresh urchin roe and whole urchin are available year round with a peak period of September to April. Urchin roe is also available frozen year round, especially in Asian supermarkets.

A few sea urchin recipes…

Oyster and Sea Urchin Stew

Salmon Fillet with Sea Urchin Risotto

Spaghetti With Sea Urchin Roe, Lemon and Field Balm

Sea Urchin Bruschetta

Baked Sea Urchin With Sea Urchin Butter

Are you looking to spice things up a bit? Here’s a fun roundup of good recipes that use Clamato juice as an ingredient from Clamato.Com…enjoy!

• Clamato Stuffed Peppers

• Clamato Rice With Chicken

• Clamato Ropa Vieja

Since St. Patrick’s Day has just passed, we thought this would be a good time to highlight a few interesting foodie records from The Guinness Book of World Records, makers of Guinness Beer (of course!).

Largest Tiramisu

Largest Slab of Fudge

Largest Omelette

Largest Sandwich

Largest Stir-Fry

Longest Line of Pizzas

Most Spoons Dangled From the Face

and, from our archives, The Hottest Chili Pepper in the World.

• Fadge (from Basic-Recipes.Com)

• Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup (from About.Com Southern Food)

• Irish Apple Mash (from RecipeCenter.Com)

• Colcannon (from Europeancuisines.com)

• Beef and Guinness Pie (from T.S. McHughs.Com)

• Irish Cod Cobbler (from Recipezaar)

• Bailey’s Irish Cream Cheesecake (from Baking About.Com)

• Blarney Stone Cookies (from Land O’ Lakes)

• Apple Barley Pudding (from Ireland-Information.Com)

Also, check out Cocktail.com’s St. Patrick’s Day Cocktail Page as well as this nice roundup of traditional Irish recipes here.

Enjoy the Holiday!

Check out this YouTube video slideshow that showcases a few of the many pleasures of fishing and boating in South Carolina.

Looking for a good recipe that won’t bore your family to tears? Try this Romeritos with Shrimp Cakes Recipe from Saveur.

Ingredients:

24 small waxy potatoes
Salt
1 tsp. baking soda
10 prickly pear cactus paddles, thorns removed, trimmed and cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 lb. romeritos or spinach, trimmed and washed
4 oz. dried heads-on shrimp, peeled, shells and heads reserved
4 eggs, separated
9 tbsp. canola oil
1 1/2 cups red mole paste

How to Make Romeritos with Shrimp Cakes

See More of Hugging the Coast’s Fish For Friday Recipes

Spotlight on a good cause…

Help preserve South Carolina’s beautiful Morris Island Lighthouse by purchasing the rare, limited edition print pictured above or by making a donation to Save the Light.

“Save The Light is pleased to offer Jim Booth’s print, “Carolina Legacy”, a homage to the importance of the Morris Island Lighthouse to South Carolina and Charleston, and was created to help support Save The Light’s goal to protect and preserve this irreplaceable historical landmark.

Jim’s painting depicts the Morris Island Lighthouse as it looked in 1896. This venerable tower still stands to remind us of the noble legacy of our treasured maritime history. The sales of this new print will enable Save The Light to begin the Protection and Preservation Project.

The Save The Light Edition of “Carolina Legacy” is signed and numbered with an edition size of only 400 prints.

All sales will be through the Jim Booth Art Gallery. Payments by cash, check, or credit card will be accepted. Please let the gallery sales people know that you are a member of Save The Light when you order. The cost of the print is $200.00 plus $2.00 for protective shrink-wrapping and $10.00 for shipping if necessary. Please call the Jim Booth Gallery at 1-800-696-5772 or access his website, www.jimbooth.com, to purchase your print.

The Save the Light edition of the last print sold out in two weeks, so we urge you to act quickly if you would like to reserve prints.

The sales of the first print Jim Booth released for Save The Light in 1999, “First Light”, raised the funds necessary for us to purchase the lighthouse from a private owner and donate it to the people of South Carolina.

We are very excited to begin the multi-phased project to preserve this, the most beloved symbol of South Carolina’s maritime heritage.”

You can find out more about artist, Jim Booth here. Memberships in Save the Light are available for as low as $25 and entitle you to receive a variety of great lighthouse related memorabilia.

More Related Links:

• Morris Island Lighthouse Webcam
  
• Lighthouse Friends Morris Island Lighthouse Page
• Flickr: Morris Island Photos

Here in Charleston, we’re blessed to be able to experience warmer days, gentle breezes, and blosomming flowers while much of the rest of the country is experiencing the last gasp of winter.

But soup is always in season, as the below recipes and links listed show!

• Drunken Crab Soup from The Joy of Soup

• Red Lentil Soup from Kitchenography

• Classic French Onion Soup from the Slow Cook

• Thai Style Shrimp Soup from Robin Garr’s Winer Lovers’ Page

By the way, according to a study done at the University of Illinois, your soup choices are a reflection of your personality type. While we don’t know about that, we do know that the folks at Soupsong have compiled a fascinating and exhaustive list of soup references in the movies that you have to see!

As Laurie Colwin said, “There is nothing like soup. It is by nature eccentric; no two are ever alike, unless of course you get your soup in a can.”

Looks like I’m going to have to add drinking Postum to the long list of things I’ve always wanted to do (like flying on the Concorde) but never had a chance to. General Foods, the maker of Postum is discontinuing its manufacture after over 100 years of production.

However, if your pockets are deep and your hunger for Postum immense, you can still snag a few jars of it on ebay.

According to Wikipedia’s Postum entry, Postum’s main ingredients were naturally-caffeine-free wheat grain, bran and molasses. Postum was the flagship product for the C.W. Post Company, which became General Foods in 1929. The drink was popular with Seventh Day Adventists and Mormons who avoid caffeine for religious reasons.

There’s a good article about the end of Postum here. You can also hear an NPR Podcast about Postum here.

But all hope is not lost. Cooks.Com has a substitute recipe for Postum that you can try. If you do, please let us know how it measures up (or just share your Postum memories) in the Comments Section below!

According to a recent article on Foxbusiness.Com, the Southeastern United States is the best place to retire for those on fixed incomes. (The article goes on to list the American West and South and Central America on the #2 and #3 positions, respectively.)

As John Shelton Reed once said, “Southern barbecue is the closest thing we have in the U.S. to Europe’s wines and cheeses; drive a hundred miles and the barbecue changes.”

Here’s a Folly Beach surfing video from Buskirkr that shows him surfing with dolphins in the distance.