Savannah, Part Two

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy (love) history? I love being right in the middle of it, right in the middle of a place with well-preserved history. My head wants to explode with the magnitude of it all. It's not difficult for me to imagine a young Savannah, a humid wilderness, teeming with insects, disease, politics, (notice how I placed those together!) natives and newcomers. Strip away the paved roads, the tourists, air-conditioning and the traffic noises, add in dusty streets, horses and carriages, the ripe smell of livestock in the backyards and a general lack of indoor plumbing, wood fires and the sounds of chickens, goats, and people, talking. The people, not the chicken and the goats. I do have a hard time imaging how it felt to wear multiple layers of clothing during the summer, and to do without deodorant, screens, bug spray and readily available ice. No wonder there were sleeping porches - who could stand to sleep in a bedroom on a second floor? I'm not sure if could decide between mosquitoes or heat stroke!

Door of the First African Baptist Church, started May 20, 1775

Random fence picture

Random bike photo

A city of artists and poets . . .

The Kehoe House

Side porch of the Juliette Gordon Low house

New Johnny Mercer statue. This area used to be a parking lot, and before that one of the squares (please, if I'm wrong, correct me). The last time we saw it it was just a gigantic hole in the ground. The city built an underground parking deck, and turned it into a nice spot to sit and enjoy the scenery.

The carriage house of the Andrew Low house (marriage home of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts). Mrs. Low bequeathed it to the Girl Scouts for all time - it was the site of the very first Girl Scout meeting.

One thing you can be sure of seeing in Savannah is plenty of Girl Scouts. This group was on the piazza of the Low House, doing some sort of ceremony. The Juliette Gordon Low story is fascinating, not always happy but enduring. I found it amusing that the tour of her childhood home and the one of her marriage home each shed a different light on her life. Her childhood home tour told of her unhappy marriage, and the tour of her marriage home never mentioned it!!

Early morning patriotism

Again, the First African Baptist Church

Factor's Walk

The Cotton Exchange and warehouses are located here, hence the name

The Davenport Home

The Cotton Exchange

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Another view of Factor's Walk, with River Street to the left

Monument to the African American Soldiers of the Revolutionary War

Savannah, Part One

We've spent a lot of time in Savannah, Ga, because it's John's favorite southern city. Mine is Charleston, SC, but that's another story. We tend to do the same things: head out to Tybee Island, if we're not already staying there, eat at the Crab Shack, visit the pier, walk on River Street in Savannah, browse all the candy stores, walk around sight-seeing, eat at Moon River Brewery, etc. We've done city/historic tours and ghost tours. It's always fun, almost always hot and humid, and we never leave wishing we had gone somewhere else. But as I took in the view over the city from our vantage point in our hotel on River Street, I realized that I needed to share. After all, there are people in Washington or Vermont who may never get a chance to see this great city in person, like I may never get to see Washington or Vermont! It may never be an option. I really enjoy reading other blogs that take you around the neighborhood, the city, the state. Vacationing online? Now that's an option! So join me as I wander out today on this first day of summer in Savannah.
A bit of history: British General James Oglethorpe first landed on the historic bluff above the Savannah River in 1733, almost 300 years ago. At the time, there were a number of native American tribes living in coastal Georgia. With the help of the Yamacraw leader, Tomochichi, Oglethorpe created a city in the heart of the Georgia wilderness. Savannah was based on a system of squares (remember the famous Forest Gump "box of chocolates" scene? yep, filmed on Chippewa Square), and 22 of the original 24 remain, each with its own distinctive style. But enough of that - let me share my hotel room photos, then I'll hit the streets and take some pictures. See you tonight!

This is the street view from my hotel window. West Bay, one street over from the Savannah River.
The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist's spires tower over the city.
The Lady and Sons restaurant, you know, Paula Deen's restaurant! It does exist, it does exist! We ate there a few years back, when they had low country boil on the buffet. Fantastic! John wasn't thrilled with the price, and I consider it more of a rite of passage rather than an everyday eatery. We may go back again, but most likely we'll just keep visiting new restaurants every time.

Summer Days

Just dropped the first participant of Camp Grandma back at his house in South Carolina yesterday, after two weeks of golfing, swimming, baseball and lots of vanilla Sno-Biz snacks. Boy, is it ever quiet in the car now . . .
His mom was the first one to get to him with hugs and kisses, and the next thing we knew, his three brothers and Dad were there to squeeze the stuffing out of him. My head was about to explode with all the talking - everyone at the same time!! It was a lot easier to listen before the twins learned to talk! I tried to get them all together for a family photo, and considering the twins are never still for more than 4 seconds, I think I did pretty well. (Diane, the twins wore their outfits today, and my daughter is sending the pics so I can post them).
The eldest grandson comes to Camp Grandma next week, and next year the twins will probably make their first visit to the camp. I'll start taking my vitamins now.

ZuccQueenie

Oh sure, you all thought I was just slacking, doing nothing, definitely not writing any blog posts. Little did you know I was on my 2010 Zucchini Queen Tour, dazzling 10's of people with my baking skills.
I'll include the link to the story in our local paper, but for those of you who would rather not click away, here it is. Try not to be too jealous.

Tifton Gazette

June 12, 2010

Zucchini Queen

Local cook uses squash in chocolate cakes

Joe Courson/Gazette correspondent

CNHI

TIFTON — Two grandmothers' favorite food left a lingering, good taste in the mouth of their granddaughter, Theresa Clemens. She’d become obsessed with the versatility of a type of squash she adds to her baking recipes.

Grandmothers’ Influence

“It’s a family thing. I grew up eating zucchini. My grandmothers grew and baked with zucchini. So, it’s a part of life. Some people say it’s a Yankee vegetable. Why not? Sure it is,” says Theresa with her characteristic quick, delightful laugh.

One of her grandmothers washed soup cans that she would use to bake zucchini bread in.

“She’d have little brown loaves that she would wrap up that we would eat,” remembers Theresa.

Sometimes, her grandmother would give away her zucchini bread baked in a soup can.

Tifton reminds her of her hometown of Columbiana, in northeastern Ohio, south of Youngstown. What’s the difference between the two cities? No that much since both have an agricultural economic base.

“They (people in Columbiana, Ohio) just have accents, that’s all,” says Theresa.

She moved southward to Florida and then to South Carolina where she worked as a graphic artist, and later married John Clemens, the vice president of fiscal affairs at ABAC. But she never stopped thinking of new uses for zucchini, regardless of where she lived. It became an unlikely passion.

“There’s only one way to improve zucchini and that’s with chocolate,” says Theresa.

She proved it.

Zucchini Chocolate Spice Cake

She brought her zeal for new uses for zucchini with her from Ohio. Most people would never associate zucchini with chocolate cake, but leave it to Theresa to give it a try.

“I never tried using it in a cake before, until recently,” says Theresa with a laugh.

She noticed the cake batter was bumpy and lumpy as she poured into a baking pan. A quick taste of the batter satisfied her. It had possibilities.

“Zucchini doesn’t have any flavor. It takes on its flavor from the ingredients that surround it,” says Theresa. “It’s kind of like tofu with vegetables.”

She felt so pleased with her creation that she shared it with her ABAC co-workers. Theresa didn’t mention the squash inside.

Deception?

“A lot of deception,” says Theresa.

If they knew, she feared, it could squash their desire for the cake.

It didn’t.

“No one turned up their nose or anything,” says Theresa.

“I didn’t taste the zucchini,” says Dr. Jeff Gibbs, dean of ABAC’s School of Business after he learned of the unusual cake ingredient. “You really had to look hard to see the green in the piece of cake.”

Others felt a bit surprised when she told them, finding the revelation easy to swallow after they ate it.

“It was gone; gone fast. A co-worker ate two pieces,” says Theresa.

What makes zucchini

work in a chocolate

cake recipe?

“You grate it. All the Zucchini does to anything is add water when you bake. When you grate a zucchini, it’s full of water. Leave the rind on, and when you bake it, it pretty much bakes its way to nothing, but it makes everything super moist,” says Theresa.

She admits to frequently baking cakes from scratch or from a mix that turn out dry to the taste. The secret of moist cake making eluded her for years, until she found the cake recipe in a zucchini cookbook. Theresa couldn’t resist trying it.

Now, she intends to experiment with traditional recipes that call for water as an ingredient and substitute zucchini to discover the right substitute proportion.

Supply

Theresa doesn’t worry about running out of the versatile squash that grows literally a few yards from her kitchen.

“I have four plants that produce about two million zucchinis in a summer, in about three months,” says Theresa as she picks one from under an elephant-sized green leaf.

She grows them in a raised bed with a simple irrigation system, but a disease called powdery mildew turned some of the leaves yellow. (She’d like to find a way to fight the disease.) Her other beds grow tomatoes, and a variety of vegetable plants.

Another Taste Test

If anyone wonders if Theresa’s zucchini chocolate spice cake tastes moist like many homemade cakes, then wonder no more. Two taste tests answer the persistent question definitely.

It does.