About Cindy

Married, Female, Empty Nester Love to garden, cook, read.

No Frogs in Frogmore Stew

Frogmore Stew aka “Lowcountry Boil” and “Beaufort Stew”

Frogmore Stew is a classic Low country South Carolina dish.  I don’t know exactly how it got its name, but I do know that Frogmore, South Carolina is on St. Helena Island which is right off the coast from Beaufort, South Carolina which is part of the greater coastal area known as the Lowcountry.

So, I guess it doesn’t matter what you call it.  I like to call it Frogmore Stew.

Frogmore Stew is one of several great winter dishes to make and serve outdoors for lots of guests.  

Here is my recipe:

Frogmore Stew
2 tbs. olive oil
1 bunch fresh parsley
1 stalk celery
2 tbs. Old Bay Seasoning
3 lbs. smoked sausage, cut into 2″ chunks
3 lbs. small red potatoes
8 ears corn, cut into 2″ chunks
4 lbs. shrimp, shells left on
3 tbs. hot sauce, such as Tobasco
1 large onion
1 clove garlic
1 bell pepper
1 bay leaf

Chop pepper, onion, garlic, parsley, celery. Saute vegetables with sausage and seasoning.

Boil potatoes in a gallon of water with hot sauce.  Add vegetable/sausage mixture to potatoes.  Add corn and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the shrimp and cook for several more minutes (until shrimp are pink).

Drain the liquid and dump the contents of the pot on a paper lined table out in your backyard. Provide plenty of paper towels and a cooler full of cold beers.

Also nice with bonfire.

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Advice from Mark Twain

I was going to write about aging, but as I started banging on the keyboard, I realized that wasn’t my topic at all.  Why write about something that I really have absolutely no control over?  I can’t stop aging.  Tomorrow when I wake up, I will be one day older than I am today.  And, you will, too.  Next year, on this exact date, I will be one year older than I am today.  So will you.  We can’t stop time.  Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

It can be a struggle coping with our aging processes.  We read health books and diet books and newspapers and magazines that give us advice on how to live longer and healthier.  We want to age gracefully, and beautifully.  We want to keep our agility and our teeth! 

We’d like to eat whatever we want whenever we want.  We’d like not to worry about the fat content or sugar content or salt content of our foods or if the portion size is bigger than a matchbook.  We want to keep our blood pressure down, our cholesterol down, our gout at bay, our diabetes in check, our hearts healthy, our brains alert. 

We take vitamins promising to help the bodies that we neglect.  As a nation, we spend millions a year on over-the counter remedies, doctor visits, prescription drugs, workout club memberships, home exercise equipment, books and videos to help us beat the aging process.

But, don’t worry. Be happy.

My advice? Take Mark Twain’s advice!

“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”
– Mark Twain

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Christmas Golf

That's me at the tee box!

That's me at the #1 tee box!

This is just one of a ton of reasons I love about living in the Low Country of South Carolina…Golfing on Christmas Day. 

We met a nice couple from Canada. Jim and Annette.

New Friends, too!
New Friends, too!

The next day, we took them to Charleston and gave them the nickel tour; we walked through the market and historic King Street; we drove down to the Battery and looked out at Fort Sumter; and we lunched at our favorite Greek Restaurant, Old Towne Grill.

We were hoping to get together with them one more time before they headed back home to the far reaches of the north, but couldn’t get it coordinated with the other plans we made with family for the New Year’s weekend.

Maybe we’ll see them again next year…

 

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