Divers Down!

Tonight for dinner we enjoyed scallops we gathered from our annual scalloping trip to Dekle Beach with the Hornsbys.  I must admit, the scallops were divine!

Just last month we traveled to the grassy flats of Florida’s Big Bend to go scalloping.  Since 2006, we spend a few days with the Hornsbys gathering the bivalve mollusks.  Scallops seem to like the shallow (4-10 feet) seagrass beds common to the Big Bend area, particularly preferring the area where the sand/mud bottom meets the edge of the grasses.  Amazing that with a swim mask, a snorkel, and a small mesh bag, one can gather and collect these tasty, sweet jewels of the sea! 

Ben and Benjamin scalloping in 2006.

Even after five years of scalloping, the experience still excites me yet makes me a little nervous.  Just under the sea, it is a quiet other-world.  Creatures move and swim in a silent style.  (It is the sharks I cannot help but consider; will someone play that “Jaws” theme song as they approach!?!!)  Searching and finding the scallops with their many neon blue eyes is fun for both children and adults. 

If you have never scalloped, give it a try!  Scalloping season lasts an extra two weeks this year, closing on September 25, 2011.  Divers down!   

In 2007, Georgia-Lee shows two scallops.

More About Dekle Beach

Dekle Beach, in Taylor County, Florida, is a popular scalloping destination.  With very little development, striking views, and an old world Florida feel, it is easy to see why.  However, the small community with beautiful views hides a deeply-felt tragedy   The No Name Storm of 1993 struck Dekle without warning.  Hurricane-force wind gusts and 12’ storm surges followed by low temperatures and inches of unusual snow claimed the lives of ten people in Dekle.  This Storm of the Century forever changed Dekle.  Even now, even among the beauty and peacefulness, there is something slightly sad about the community.  

Three years ago, a resident told me about a lady that clung to a palm tree with her baby for hours throughout the night, gripping tightly as wild waves crashed beneath her.  During the early morning hours, it started to snow.  As morning broke, the lady could hold on no more and fell to her death.  In my morning runs, there is one spot where I can nearly picture the woman clinging to the palm; it has an especially melancholy feel. 

Crabby Creek at sunset

In spite of its tragic past, Dekle pulls and tugs on one's coastal heartstrings.  Ben loves the area, the fishing, the views; I think he actually relaxes at Dekle.  Benjamin spends hours exploring Crabby Creek, the canals, and the long dock with Gus.  Georgia-Lee follows Hannah, just happy to be there.  

 

I could have eaten another plateful of rice and scallops – mmm!

Ben’s Favorite Rice with Scallops

1/3 cup butter

2 T chopped green onions

¼ t garlic powder

2 T lemon juice

2 T dry white wine

1/8 t dried dillweed

4 dashes hot sauce

1 pound fresh bay scallops

Crawford rice or white rice

Lemon slices

Melt butter in a large skillet; add onions, stirring until tender.  Add garlic powder, lemon juice, wine, dillweekd, and hot sauce; heat until bubbly.  Reduce heat to medium; add scallops.  Cook, stirring frequently, 3 to 5 minutes or until scallops turn white.  Serve over hot rice or Crawford rice.  Garnish with lemon slices. 

2011 Scallopers



In 2006, scallopers take a break to read a few books.

Paddling Spring Creek

With 18 kayaks and canoes, our group of nearly 30 individuals enthusiastically prepared for launch on Spring Creek.  Coolers, sunscreen, life jackets, and kids scattered across the landing.  Hot July temperatures and ever-present gnats encouraged everyone to load vessels with a purpose.  Three sets of Registers, the Hornsbys, and the Smiths were ready for our Spring Creek paddle!    

Since 2001, we have traveled to see Angie and Payne Hornsby at their Lake Seminole cabin during the Independence Day holiday.  We have watched our kids fish, swim, play, laugh, and grow in this beautiful outdoor setting.  In recent years, we kayak and canoe Southwest Georgia’s Spring Creek, which flows into the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers at Lake Seminole.  The trip down the spring-fed creek is fun for all ages!

Shelly Marshall Schmidt, of Oh Schmidt Productions, snapped this happy photo of the girls.

Originating from natural springs, Spring Creek travels through Clay, Calhoun, Early, Miller, Decatur, and Seminole Counties.  Covering 530,000 acres of land in Southwest Georgia, the free-flowing Spring Creek watershed is part of the Flint River watershed.  The creek waters run clear because of the limestone bottoms and cool because it is spring-fed.  Longleaf pines, cypress, and various hardwood trees grow and shade the banks of the creek.

Paddling Spring Creek

Through the crystal clear waters, we saw bream, bass, and gizzard shad.  In some places, large trees lay strewn across the limestone bottom; they are visible reminders of the old sawmill located up the creek.  Many years ago, timber was hauled to the mill on the creek.  Add the rope swings, 20 foot wooden docks, and gorgeous springs; there are lots of things to see and do along the way.

Benjamin readies himself for the jump into the cold spring.  We could see clear to the bottom of the hole, at least 30 feet or more deep!  Thanks, Shelly, for the photo.

By the time we stopped for lunch, everyone was starving!  Lunch turned out to be a trip highlight.  The single sandwich I fixed early that morning went too quickly.  What really looked appetizing was the corn on the cob.  Yep, corn on the cob, still in the shucks!  While some of us fixed sandwiches, Brinson Register was up early boiling an entire crate of just picked, locally grown sweet corn.  Several hours later, the corn was still warm; it looked and smelled delicious.  Brinson and his sweet wife Libby even remembered butter and salt, as if it needed anything to make it taste better!    

Aww shucks!  Aren't these corn eaters cute?

Brinson’s Spring Creek Paddle Sweet Corn

Get a big pot of water; set stovetop temperature to high.  Once water comes to a rolling boil, drop in fresh ears of corn, still in the shucks.  Allow corn to boil for 10 minutes.  Remove from water.  Pack together in cooler to keep warm.  Shuck and eat when ready.  Serve with butter and salt on the side. 
Packaging is environmentally friendly! 



Happy Birthday, America!

Happy Birthday, America!  We have much for which to be thankful on Independence Day.  In celebration of this special day, we visited with family and friends across the land – well, at least parts of south Georgia and our corner of Alabama!

Our patriotic weekend began at the Fort Mitchell National Cemetery.  The cemetery reminds visitors that many individuals serve our country during their lifetime; it is a visible and meaningful representation of service to our country.  During our visit on Friday, July 1, 2011, we paid last respects to my uncle, Peter Soukup.  Uncle Pete was married to my dad’s oldest sister Frances Parkman Soukup for more than 50 years and was father to five of my first cousins.  He served the United States of America with his military service, retiring as Colonel.  The site of the American flag draped over this former soldier’s casket was poignant.  In spite of temperatures in the upper 90s, chill bumps covered my arms during the 21-gun salute and playing of Taps.

Going on now for a decade, an annual Independence Day tradition includes a trip to see the Hornsbys in South Georgia.  Angie and Payne Hornsby host us at their comfortable lake house on the Spring Creek branch of Lake Seminole.  Look for an upcoming post dedicated to our kayak trip down Spring Creek.

Hornsby and Smith kids at Lake Seminole

After leaving Lake Seminole, we drove to Lake Eufaula to see Mammy.  Of course, we miss Papa being there.  He sure loved all the food and fixings that comes along with the 4^th of July – barbeque, corn, potato salad, Brunswick stew, and more!  We visited with Mammy and ate lots of delicious food.

Mammy, Ben, and the kids at Lake Eufaula

We wrapped up our weekend in Parkmanville at Mama Ann’s house.  She fixed a family favorite – homemade ice cream!  So cool and creamy, we were all ready to enjoy a big bowl.  The ice cream recipe originated from my mom's mom, Georgia Pharris Dudley; we called her Mama Georgia.  The ice cream is easy to prepare and is a staple recipe for summer get-togethers.

Mama Georgia’s Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

• 2 cans condensed milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 T vanilla
• milk, 2% or whole (Mama Georgia used whole milk; Ann uses 2%.)

Beat eggs.  Add condensed milk.  Stir in vanilla.  Pour into ice cream canister; add milk to the “fill line" of ice cream canister.  Place in ice cream maker; pack with ice cream salt and ice.  Ice cream is ready when motor stops turning ice cream canister. 

Mama Ann enjoys homemade ice cream with the kids.

Season Opener Snapper

The morning dawned calm and beautiful.  Within no time, the condo at Navy Cove was bustling with activity.  We donned swimwear, savved up with sunscreen, gathered snacks, filled water bottles, and grabbed the camera.  Getting ready for Alabama's opening day of red snapper fishing with the family definitely requires proper planning!

Looking at the Navy Cove Lagoon, it is a beautiful morning for a fishing trip!

For two long years, Ben has had plenty of time to plan this fishing trip.  He has been tying rigs, reading fishing forums, confirming coordinates, and checking the weather for the past few weeks.  Snapper fishing season in Alabama opened June 1, 2011, and Ben was determined to be ready.  Last year, he was equally prepared for opening day.  There was nothing he could do though about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the fact that federal waters were closed to fishing the eve of red snapper season in 2010.  Anyway, waters were open and we had a beautiful forecast this year - calm seas and an eager group of fishermen!

Not long after we anchored the boat and floated just off the rig, Ben got our lines into the 65' foot waters.  If Ben was a deckhand on a charter boat, he would have really earned his tip on this trip!  During the next 80-90 minutes at the rig, we caught our limit of snapper.  He was constantly taking big snapper off the line, cutting fish for chum, tying leaders, fixing weights, and hooking pogies.  Looking around occasionally at the five or six other boats fishing the rig, it seemed we were the only ones catching!  Georgia-Lee reeled in her two, I reeled in mine, and Benjamin handled his and probably Ben's too.  I really hope Ben enjoyed the fishing trip as much as the rest of us did!

Benjamin and Ben smile for a quick photo before getting the snapper in the cooler.  Notice how much Georgia-Lee is enjoying the fishing trip snacks!

Check out the big one that Georgia-Lee reeled in!

On the way back to Navy Cove, we stopped by the Dock Store at the Gulf Shores Marina for ice cream and Coke.  I am pretty sure that the promise of the treat afterwards might have been what lured Georgia-Lee to go on the fishing trip!  :) 

What a sweet reward!  American Girl Lanie enjoyed the fishing trip too!

Later in the evening, we ate fresh snapper for dinner.  Dinner was delicious, definitely worth repeating.

Season Opener Snapper

Ingredients

4-6 Gulf Coast red snapper fillets

1/2 stick butter

1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped

1/3 cup crushed Saltine crackers

1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 teaspoon Zatarain’s Creole seasoning

1/4 teaspoon salt

·        Melt butter, add Creole seasoning, salt, and Vidalia onions.  Allow seasons to blend and onions to become tender. 

·        Combine crushed saltines and grated parmesan cheese.

·        Spray glass baking dish with cooking spray.  Place snapper fillets in dish; brush with buttery sauce.  Cover fillets with saltine/cheese mixture.  Spoon the remaining butter sauce and onions over the covered fillets. 

·        Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until fillets flake. 

Those Sweet Onions from Vidalia

If you haven't noticed already, those sweet onions from Vidalia, Georgia, are now in season and at our local grocery stores.  Go ahead and put a bag in your cart - they are so yummy, you will eat them in no time!

Known as the world's sweetest onion, the secret to vidalia onions is in the soil where the onions grow.  The low amount of sulfur in the soil of just 20 Georgia counties, along with mild winters and regular rain, give the onions that delicious sweet flavor.  By protection of The Vidalia Onion Act of 1986, only designated areas in Georgia can grow the certified sweet onions.  Although the official act was passed as recently as 1986, the special onions have been grown in Georgia since the 1930s.  In 1931, Farmer Mose Coleman discovered the onions he grew in Toombs County, Georgia, near the town of Vidalia, were SWEET, not hot, like onions usually were.  And so, those sweet onions from Vidalia soon grew famous.   

Ben and I love vidalia onions - they are great in all types of recipes.  Fried, grilled, in casseroles, with other foods, or even raw, the sweet onions are a favorite.  Much to my surprise was when both Benjamin and Georgia-Lee enjoyed eating them raw with vinegar, salt, and pepper!  Earlier this week, they took the bowl of onions and vinegar Ben and I were eating, grabbed the salt shaker, and headed to the porch.  Quickly, they finished off our bowl of onions!  Apparently, kids will eat onions and love them!  (I will add that Georgia-Lee later moaned and groaned that her stomach hurt.  And no wonder, she had eaten nearly an entire onion with vinegar and probably lots of salt by herself!)

Apparently, vidalia onions have been a family favorite for years!  My Great-Aunt Maud Findlater Dudley (b. 1913, d. 1993) was known for her Vidalia Onion Casserole.  She probably took it to the large Dudley family gatherings held annually on Independence Day or Labor Day.  Aunt Maud was married to my Great-Uncle Menza M. Dudley (b. 1911, d. 1980), who was brother to my grandaddy Benjamin Clay Dudley (b. 1907, d. 1983).  

Aunt Maud's Vidalian Onion Casserole

14-16 saltine crackers, crushed                              

1 qt. vidalia onions, chopped

3/4 stick butter

4 eggs, well beaten

1/2 c. milk

1 cup grated sharp cheddar, not low-fat

salt and pepper to taste

Place crackers in the bottom of a 2-quart casserole dish.  Saute onions with butter until tender.  (Amount of butter can be adjusted down according to preference.)  Pour onions on top of crackers.  Beat 4 eggs; stir in milk.  Pour over onions.  Sprinkle cheese over casserole.  Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.  The dish is unusually good!