Summer Stewing: Frogmore

It was 1997, and I was wearing allegedly comfortable, definitely unstylish Northern California office attire. I was sharing a cube with two of the better looking, single men in the Internet Consulting firm I was working for. It was about this time of year, which makes it a decade ago, and we were discussing summer plans. One was going to spend time with the girlfriend’s family in Tahoe, the other was going back east to the Cape. What was I doing?

I was working! Summers were for children. I was given a total of 2 weeks, that’s ten days vacation, and I doled the days out with the same miserly skimp I typically reserved for Halloween candy. I wasn’t going on vacation. I was going to save my time up, and maybe in a few years, I could get two or three consecutive weeks. And then I could really go somewhere, like speed backpacking through Europe or something. Vacation smation; I’m a working girl.

Surfing the traffic back from Foster City that evening, something hit me. Sure, I could give up this summer, but what about the next summer? When did I get to stop saving and start spending?

If I was to live to a ripe old 85…and at this time I was 25, well then that would give me 60 summers. Okay, 40 summers when I’m still running around (those last twenty might be more of the sit-on-the-porch variety). And I guess another 20 summers where I’m chasing after kids, so now we’re down to twenty.

That’s twenty times I get to go to the beach and splash. Twenty tans. Twenty Forth-of-July barbeques. And the scary part? That’s a conversation I had with myself ten years ago. So now I’m down to ten.

Ten? If they were minutes, I could spend them all waiting for the R train to arrive. Only ten summers left?

Dig deep, girl. If I were to be honest, and hopefully the blog-faithful will hold me to this, I've always had the suburban girl dream of living on a farm, having some fab boots, a short skirt and a tailored plaid short-sleeve button down. Oh right; and what would I be doing on the farm? I'd be milking Bessie, churning butter, harvesting berries. On the weekends, I'd channel Annie Oakley, and keep the folks entertained with my mad shootin' skills at the Country Fair. The talent would emerge quickly; though I was raised in Roosevelt Field Mall, you can't keep an inner farmgirl down.

So this may sound like a cross of Gilligan's island, Little House on the Prairie, and soft porn, all dreamed up by a naive city slicker, summers are for making dreams a reality. Let's see if I can't get myself closer to experiencing this dream this summer. One more down; nine to go. What are your plans?

Frogmore Stew
Serves 6 to 8

A classic low-country dish, thankfully made frog-free, I learned about this stew while working with a lovely Charleston family on Home Made Simple. It’s tasty, fun, and you can eat it with your hands. Plus, if you’ve got kids, the whole mess can be cooked in 30 minutes, but trust me, this ain’t your Everyday Thirty Minute Meal.

In fact, the Frogmore Stew episode is airing this weekend. Please tune in to the show on Sunday at 1PM EST on TLC. For more information about the show, please visit http://www.homemadesimple.com/.

1 cup Old Bay seasoning, shrimp or crab boil, plus more for serving
3 pounds small red potatoes, scrubbed
1 1/2 pounds kielbasa, cut into 3-inch pieces
8 ears corn, cracked in half
4 pounds jumbo shrimp, shell-on or off
Mustard, for serving
Cocktail sauce, for serving
Lemon wedges, for serving

1. Bring 10 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot fitted with a strainer insert. Add Old Bay seasoning and potatoes. Return to a simmer, and cook for 15 minutes, or until potatoes are almost cooked through.

2. Add kielbasa and corn and return to a boil. Simmer 3 to 5 minutes, or until corn is bright yellow. Add shrimp and cook until shrimp are bright pink and beginning to curl, about 3 minutes.

3. Carefully remove strainer insert from pot, and remove to a large tray (to catch any liquid). Spill the whole pot of stew onto a newspaper-lined table (preferably outside), and serve hot with mustard, cocktail sauce, lemon wedges, and lots of paper towels.

TIP: Frogmore stew is traditionally made with shell-on shrimp. This gives the stew more flavor, and is more fun to play with as you sit at the table and play with your dinner. Feel free to use whatever you prefer; shell-on or off, though shell-on is typically less expensive (and tastier!)

TIP: If your potatoes are larger than 1 1/2-inches in diameter, chop them to a smaller size, or simply extend the potato cooking time.

TIP: Have fun with this stew, and add whatever ingredients sound good to you. Some favorites: Green beans (toward the end of cooking…they should take no more than 3 minutes to cook), or cooked crab (since they’re cooked, all you’re waiting for is the liquid to return to a boil, indicating the crab has been heated through.)

TIP: If you don’t have a strainer insert for your pot, not to worry. Simply pour the cooked stew into a colander, and serve that way.