Deep Fried Kudzu

I'm starting to work on St. Patrick's Day decorations now. This year I decided to do a preppy theme for the holiday, and I started with making a paper banner. It was super-easy, and didn't even take close to an hour, plus Leslie came over to help and visit which was even more fun!

Supplies:
Pink acrylic folk art paint, lime green acrylic folk art paint, brush
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heart-shaped stamper, pink ink for the stamper, and a thin lime green marker

Green scrapbook paper (I used green with tiny white polka dots)
Pink patterned scrapbook paper (I used pink & green paisley)
Vellum (found some with tiny white polka dots)
ribbon (I used green shiny with raised green dots)
scissors
glue - Sobo or regular Elmer's
circle punch - mine is 2" diameter
((of course, this is just a starting point and you can do it however you like!!))

Directions:
The first thing to do is to measure your mantle, and cut the ribbon long enough to secure to each side of the mantle plus hang. From this measurement, figure how wide you want each paper triangle to be so you'll know how many to cut.

For example, my mantle is seven feet across, so I cut the ribbon about nine feet (you can snip off any extra) so there is a foot room on each end for tying and extra so it hangs.

We made twelve paper triangles for the banner and they are each 6" across at the top/widest point, so that covers 72" of the ribbon. If you go ahead and cut a few more pieces of everything, you can see when you hold the banner/garland up to the fireplace whether you want to add more to each end.

So, if you're cutting 12 paper triangles, you'll need 12 circles of patterned paper (the pink) plus 12 circles of vellum.

Once all the cutting is done, it's time to paint or stamp!
If you're stamping, take a small heart-shaped stamp, press into pink ink, and onto the vellum three times to make a shamrock shape. Take the thin lime green marker and draw a line to make the stem of the shamrock. This process is easier & faster than painting.

If you're in the mood to paint, pour a large pool of pink paint and a smaller pool of lime green paint on paper. Practice making hearts and the comma stroke before doing it on the vellum.

To make a heart shape, dip the bottom of your brush into the pink paint and make a dot, then dip it into the paint again and make another dot close to the first:

Now just drag the bottom of the brush through the two dots down to make a heart shape:

Make three heart shapes, and finish the shamrock off with a comma stroke (you just load the brush bristles with a lot of paint and then lift up as you're making the comma shape):
It's not at all perfect but I think that's sort-of the beauty of doing it this way. It's best to do these painted parts ahead of time so they are dry when you get ready to cut and assemble the rest of the banner.

Cut your paper triangles - you can make these as long as you want just as long as you remember to stick to the width you decided on in the beginning. For each of the paper triangles, we glued on a circle of the pink patterned paper, then glued on the painted vellum pieces. When gluing the painted vellum pieces, we just put a dot of glue right in the middle so that the vellum would lift up all around its edges (look three pics down):

We put glue on the front tip-top of each of the triangles and placed it onto the ribbon:


Once the glue was dry and set overnight, it was ready to hang:

Now I just need to finish the top of the mantle!

The other day, I picked up a magazine that I've never bought before - Taste of the South. I'll probably never buy another issue, but I got a giggle out of one of the features - a contest they did to find recipes using Krispy Kreme doughnuts. One of the recipes, really(!), was for a Krispy Kreme cheesecake.

Whatever you're thinking right now, I was probably thinking it too. All those things.

But then, I was like, you know...Av and I like to do these funny themed suppers and I know just the theme that this one would be perfect for (think pink flamingos and beer can chicken). Plus, when I looked at the recipe, there are 12 doughnuts that go into the crust plus 2 filled doughnuts for the middle. So if the average cheesecake is cut into 16 slices, one slice means you are taking in a little less than one Krispy Kreme per serving.

I'm not sure how much better that makes it sound.

I knew it was going to be super-icky or super-great.

It was super-great.

I changed up the original recipe a lot - here's my version:

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. melted butter, plus a bit more (unmelted) for pan
3 handfuls pecan halves
1 dozen Krispy Kremes
2 chocolate glazed icing filled doughnuts
12 oz. white chocolate
4 8-oz packages cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
4 eggs
1 tbsp. flour

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350*. In the bottom rack of the oven, place a pan 1/2 full of water.

In a 10" springform pan, cover all inside surfaces with foil, then butter the foil.

Chop the pecans until they are in small-small bits:

Cover the bottom of the pan with pecans, and drizzle the melted butter over:

Cut the dozen doughnuts in half, press 7 of them into the bottom of the pan. I used a paper towel to cover my hand and I pressed them until they were thin and no foil shone through. One doughnut I tore into little pieces to fill in any bare spots. The other doughnuts were pressed in and used to line the sides of the pan all around:

In the microwave, melt the white chocolate.

In the Kitchenaid, beat together the cream cheese and sugar until well blended, then flour, vanilla, melted chocolate, eggs and egg yolks just until it comes together.

Pour half the mixture into the springform pan, place the two chocolate icing filled doughnuts (cut into pieces) in the batter, then top it with the rest of the batter and smooth:

In the oven for 55 minutes:

After 55 minutes of baking, it was nice and brown on top. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside for another 45-60 minutes:

It can be served later once it gets to room temperature, or be put into the refrigerator to get nice and cool:

I sent Av off with great big pieces of cheesecake to give away:

...but I saved a couple of slices for him. He loved it!

I guess once a decade...or maybe...once ever is alright. It really was good, and we gave all of it away except two small slivers.

One thing I will never do, though, is mess with bread pudding like this. For shame!

We got to the arts and crafts festival in Monroeville mid-afternoon, and parked behind the old courthouse, where they have the set for performances of To Kill A Mockingbird.

Over on the side is this plaque to Atticus Finch:
It reads:

There are dozens of camellias all around the courthouse - a carpet of blooms underneath:


So, I have to say we were a little disappointed in the festival. There weren't very many real artists there at all, and there were several people set up to sell (resell) things that were probably made in China and not at all suitable for a festival that billed itself as arts and crafts. By 3 or 3:30 most everyone was all packed up to go home. Y'all, even the barbecue we got wasn't any good!

...but there was one tent there with real handmade, real craft, items. A gentleman named Ronald Scruggs of Georgiana was there with his wife, selling his handmade kudzu and wisteria baskets. We brought this kudzu basket home - it'll be great in the den for holding magazines:
He's also represented at Black Belt Treasures in Camden - he's got a coil basket here and a wisteria basket here.

Speaking of Black Belt Treasures, APT did a feature on them with their "On The Job" show that aired on Sunday. They have the episode available on Google videos, and the clip with BBT starts at about 14:05 into the program. At 20:45, Tyree McCloud, who is a stained glass artist, explains a church that he made that is really something else. Ordinarily I'm really not that wild about stained glass, but he is just soooo talented with it:

Tyree was also the artist that made the first of ten Gee's Bend quilt murals last year. There's a picture of it here.

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Several pics of the inside of the old courthouse, where TKAM is based, are here.

Outside Pine Apple, there was this line of gourds for the martins:

Between mile marker 63 and 64 on Alabama 47, there was this wonderful dog trot house! If you're not familiar with dog trot architecture, it's where there is a large open but roofed space between the two ends of the house:

You can see all the way from the front to the back - completely open:




Our next stop was in Natchez (rhymes with 'matches', just like the Natchez in Mississippi). We stopped here because we knew about a story about "The Bear Man". This is the New Hope Baptist Church, established in 1855:

Their dinner on the grounds tables:

...and this is the monument in the church cemetery for the Bear Man. He was a Frenchman who traveled around showing off his bear, Jimbo, who performed tricks. Unfortunately, when the bear was performing for the people in Natchez, he turned on his owner and killed him. The people at the church buried the Bear Man in their cemetery.

Our next stop was in Beatrice (pronounced "bee-AT-riss") - we stopped in at Finklea's (since 1909) for drinks and met the owners...super-super nice:

Next is Monroeville...

This weekend, we went to Monroeville for a little arts and crafts festival they were having in the courthouse square. We found some of the neatest things on the way over!

First we pulled over when we saw this pretty church - it's the Pine Flat Methodist Church in Butler County, just a few miles from the Wilcox County line on Alabama Highway 10. The church was established in 1858:

We had to walk through the cemetery to get up to it. The little building to the right is where the mens' and ladies' rooms are:

My boys:

The outbuilding for dinner on the grounds:

The church cemetery included this monument with shells all over it:


Next, we were off to Pine Apple, Alabama. All over town are just the prettiest old homes:




The Friendship Baptist Church cemetery in Pine Apple has this interesting monument - it's of William Joseph Melton, a plantation owner:

His daughter brought a picture of her late father to Italy and commissioned this monument.

Tom Fitzmorris hosts a daily radio show in New Orleans from 3-6pm on 1350am (and another three hours on Saturday, on WWL). It's always a lot of fun and really interesting. Av always remarks about how that's the sign of a great food city: that New Orleans daily sustains a three hour show just about where to eat next.

I pay to subscribe to his e-newsletter, "The New Orleans Menu Daily" (the free version is good but the paid version just has more content) - it doesn't have a fixed cost, and you send Tom via PayPal what the newsletter is worth to you to receive it.

One of the things Tom mentioned last week was the February 28th Game Dinner at Cafe Adelaide. Here's what they're serving:

Wild Game Hors D’oeuvres

Braised Duck and Chanterelle Ravioli
Sunny side-up quail egg and duck cracklings with quail consommé

Durham Ranch Wild Boar Salad
Lola rossa greens, wild boar head en glace, shaved manchego cheese and rabbit confit rillette croustade with foie gras vinaigrette

Cast Iron Seared Venison Strip
Rattlesnake chili and crispy onion rings with cayenne ketchup

Herb Grilled Elk Chop
Antelope stone ground grits, kangaroo and roasted pear crepinette and caramelized pearl onions, with smoking goose fricassee

[Stop! Go back and read that last one again.--Tom.]

How You Like ‘Dem Apples?
Creole cream cheese cannoli with apple chutney, granny smith tarte tatin and candy apple turnover

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See Tom's note above, about the Herb Grilled Elk Chop? Kangaroo! Wow... That is something I just have a hard time imagining!

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At Whole Foods, I saw this bag of benne candy from Specialty Foods South, LLC in Charleston SC. Benne candy is big around there. I figured inside would be some real Charleston homemade benne candy.

The surprise was when we opened the bag:
It was Joyva halvah, still in their marked wrapper. The package is labeled "Food For The Southern Soul" and instead they are just repackaging based-in-Brooklyn Joyvah halvah! What? I don't think that is right. hahaha!!!