Faux Chef . . . Ramblings

To be clear, I am not a chef but rather someone who loves travel, good food and enjoys cooking.

I love food.  I love cuisines from all over the world and I can finally admit that I am an unapologetic FOODIE.

This site is intended to share some of my experiences growing up in Virginia and my later adventures and travels in search of great food as well as a few of my dishes from recipes I have found and recipes that I have created.  

Unless you celebrated the successes of the Allies in prosecuting actions in World War 2, 1943 was a largely unremarkable year.  An ailing President Roosevelt was in the latter years of his presidency.  Most of the country was working in the war effort supporting our troops and the war effort.  But, it was the year I was born.

I came into the world in my father’s hometown of Roanoke, Virginia.  He was one of 7 siblings, and his father owned a large apple orchard operation in a small community called Cloverdale, just outside Roanoke’s city limits.  My father worked for the federal government in that time as a part of the WPA charged under Roosevelt with helping rebuild the economy after the Great Depression.  At his death, my grandfather’s orchards were passed to an uncle.  Ultimately, the government purchased a lot of the orchard’s land in order to build a section of Interstate 81.  This marked the end of production for Golden Delicious, Stayman Winesaps, Red Delicious and other varieties of this fruit as well as apple butter, sauce, cider and other by products.  Other distant relatives of my family still operate Layman Brothers Orchards the Roanoke area.

My mother was born in Martinsville, Virginia about an hour and some minutes south of Roanoke (closer now because of better roads and more reliable vehicles).  The E I du Pont company had built a factory on the Smith River to produce a synthetic yarn called Nylon.  The factory became the largest Nylon plant in the world before being supplanted by other synthetic yarns and manufacturers.  Before I was one year old, my father moved to Martinsville to work for du Pont until his retirement in the 1960’s.

My grandfather in Martinsville/Henry County was a politician as the elected Clerk of Court as was his father and later his son, my uncle.  These three were elected and served in this office for 100 consecutive years.  My mother and her two sisters worked in the clerk’s office intermittently over a number of years.

My grandfather owned a large amount of land on what we called “the hill” that overlooked the Smith, the power generating dam and the du Pont plant but on the opposite side of the river.  He also owned a farm in a community called Horse Pasture (sometimes condensed to one word), also in Henry County.   I have fond memories of visits to this farm when they harvested Sugar Cane and made molasses in wooden troughs.  The Clerk also owned a home along Starling Avenue in Martinsville as well as land behind toward two other streets.  My mother and father bought a section of this property and built a home where I grew up until college at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, NC.

My father loved gardening and had a large vegetable garden at the rear of lot.  He also raised chickens that provided eggs for us and friends as well as food for our table.  A number of Concord and Niagara grape vines.  We had an abundance of black raspberry bushes as well.  So, not only did we have lot’s of bee’s, we had enough of these grapes and berries to make juices and jams.  He grew all sorts of root vegetables, tomatoes, beans, onions, radishes, leaf lettuce and herbs to provide food for most of our meals during growing season.  And, my parents did a lot of canning for storage on shelves in our basement.  This meant we had non-processed food during the winter.  

One of my aunts was married to someone who owned a large tobacco farm just into North Carolina near what is now called Eden; and, he also had a large tract in Martinsville where they lived and tended a huge garden.  Of the many things he grew, my fondest memory was when his watermelons were ripe and, during a visit, we could look forward to finding one of these melons chilling in a tub of ice and ready to eat on a hot afternoon.  At an early age, I looked forward to these visits because my aunt used to make the very best country meals.  For many of my early years, she cooked on a wood burning stove.  Her drop biscuits, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and the very best gravy were usually on the menu.  Because of the size of their garden, they also had a full room to store various vegetables they canned.  Like my dad, they also raised chickens, a lot of chickens for their eggs and meat.  So, I developed an appetite for various foods at an early age.

Martinsville was a vibrant and wealthy community in the 1940’s and 50’s and was listed as one of the wealthiest towns in the country.  It is said that at one time in this period, Martinsville had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the USA.  This wealth resulted from the area being home to many major furniture manufacturers and textile mills.  Du Pont added to this for the middle class because of the factory’s pay scale.   

J D Bassett’s Bassett Furniture and to a lesser extent, his son-in-law’s Stanley Furniture were dominant players in the furniture industry both locally and nationally.  I had some still obscure relationship (I think through her mother and my grandmother) to John Bassett’s daughter Ann and remember visits to the Bassett home that overlooked a section of the Smith River and the main Bassett factory.  I also remember that (Thomas B) Bonce Stanley once appeared in our backyard during his political days as a state representative and Virginia governor.  American Furniture also played a prominent role in Martinsville’s list of major factories.  I never thought much about these factories while growing up.  The irony here is that my business career for the past almost 40 years was built around providing furniture and other related furnishings and equipment to the hospitality industry.  Bassett, Stanley and American were all key players at one time or another in this industry and were both competitors and suppliers to our own business.

So, back to my life.  I lived within walking distance and attended Joseph Martin Elementary School.  However, I had health issues in these early years seeming to be related to a poorly functioning immune system.  I would attend school and promptly catch whatever illness was going around and would miss class.  I was so lucky to have had a school system and parents who were determined that I get a good education that they arranged for me to have home visits by my elementary teachers for these early years so that I could keep up my studies.  I actually did miss one full year of school but still managed to not lose my place in these early grades.  By the time I had gotten to middle school, the local system apparently felt that I had potential and arranged for me to have an intercom between my home and my classroom.  It was a system produced by Executone and we called it the “box”.  I had a unit at home with a speaker and a bar I could press to say something or answer a question in the classroom and on the other end was a small metal “box” containing a speaker and microphone.  Later, as my school day consisted of moving to different classrooms, students would carry the “box” and plug to the different classes.  To the best of my knowledge, this system was the first of its kind in the southeastern USA.  To me, it offered the best possible education and was life changing.  Fortunately, by the time I got into junior high and high school, I seemed to outgrow my immunity issues as was to able assume a more normal schedule.  But, my experiences and relative isolation in my youth was to have a huge impact on my life.

During my early years and because of my heath, most of my memories are doing things with family and, especially, my father.  He loved cars and so, in the fall, we would visit the auto showrooms on a Friday night when the new models were introduced.  I remember the years when cars had huge fins, push button gear changing and many other features.  

I remember going to the grocery. with him as he did almost all the grocery shopping.  We went to Kroger near uptown, Frank’s Food Fair on the southside and a few smaller markets.  We usually went uptown on Saturday morning to visit Montgomery Ward, the Advance store and a few other shops on our route.  Martinsville shopping was mostly centered on Main, Church and the connecting streets up to and around the square.  We could find 5 and dimes like Woolworths, Leggett’s, Grants, Globman’s and other shops.  Column and Ferrell was there where my shoes were purchased.  I remember how exciting it was to feel air conditioning at some of these stores and to ride an escalator when they began arriving in two-story shops.  

I also remember some Saturday mornings getting up near daylight to go fishing in the Smith.  My father would dig earthworms and make vanilla flavored dough to use a bait.  In all of these trips, however, I don’t recall catching a single fish.  I guess that is why fish was never on our menus at home.  Unlike today, my recollection of food was a pretty much repetition of the same dishes usually on certain days.  Sundays were generally a freshly killed roasted chicken or a chuck roast.  A mustard based potato salad was usually served and whatever vegetable was fresh out of the garden.  Gravy was always part of the meal whether chicken or beef and I loved it ladled over white bread.  I guess that is why I still love it in spite of now knowing how bad it is for our health.

During the week, we might have pork chops and, on some nights, when leaf lettuce was in abundance in our garden, my mother would make wilted lettuce with a hot vinegar, oil bacon dressing.  I loved that dish and still look for a recipe even close to how good it tasted.

I grew up at the time television became accessible to homes.  We got our first TV in 1954 and even though only a few channels were available, and broadcasts did not last that many hours, it was amazing.  A neighbor across the street owned a company uptown called Service Printing Company.  They had a TV before we did and often invited us and another family over on Friday nights to watch the Friday night fights or to see old movie films.  I always looked for to these visits as they almost always served fresh popcorn and a new drink, Minute Maid Lemonade.  Once we got a TV, we added TV trays.  Remember them.   That led to eating in front of the TV.  That led to TV dinners such as Swanson.  Pop one in the stove to heat, peel the foil back and you had a full meal.  In today’s world, not very healthy and certainly not that good.

I remember Chef Boyardee Spaghetti kits.  I loved them and I suspect that is where my love of PASTA started.  Kraft Macaroni and Cheese was another easy to make dish that we often had.  As said earlier, I have little memory of eating a lot of seafood growing up.  My father would make oyster stew frequently when fresh oysters were available at the grocery.  I have to say that today, I make that dish; but, back then, I hated the sight of it.  We went to the beach once a year and ate seafood there; but, fish was not my favorite.  Most seafood was not appealing until my college years and later.  In my earliest years, I also remember the milk man delivering milk regularly, the ice man delivering blocks of ices for the fridge before we got an electric refrigerator.  And, I remember the Coca Cola truck delivering cases of Coke or Dr Pepper every week or so.  

My father didn’t drink much.  He did make Egg Nog every Thanksgiving and sometimes at Christmas using a homemade recipe and Captain Applejack brandy.  He also drank an occasional Pabst Blue Ribbon on Friday night and on hot Saturday afternoons after working in the yard or garden.  I have no recollection of my mother drinking any alcohol, perhaps beyond a cup of “Nog”.  I don’t remember anyone drinking wine in my early years.  That said, paring a cocktail or glass of wine with certain foods is a real treat.