Come Spend The Day at The Edge of America

Well another blistering day of heat and humidity has already descended upon us here in the Lowcountry. Michelle and I just completed our 3 mile walk around our neighborhood walking trail at White Gables and are now assessing our options for the day. One of the considerations is some time at the beach. From The Land of Palm Trees, the blog, is defined by an innate desire to share with many of you what life is like for those of us who stay behind on Saturday mornings when the vacationer packs the trunk and heads back up I-26, I-77 or I-95 toward their home and a big part of living here in the land of palm trees is having the ability to take 3 hours out of your day and head to the beach for a little while.

So many times I talk to friends, old neighbors, classmates and the such and they talk about taking their beach vacations to Myrtle Beach like it is the only beach to visit. While MB is a great place, albeit more the quintessential tourist trap than piece of paradise, their are some other great beach destinations just a little further south on the Atlantic Ocean from "the Grand Strand." Fortunately, for us Lowcountry folks, Charleston is home to four distinctive beach towns, each unique in it's own right, and if you extend the reaches of Charleston just a little bit South and lump Edisto into the mix we have five options.

While it is not necessarily my favorite beach in Charleston, Folly Beach, aka "The Edge of America" is a great beach town in it's own right and one that any of the Myrtle Beach crowd should consider trying out one year. Especially if after you get back home and start looking through those beach vacation photos you notice a lot of concrete, a hundred different versions of putt-putt golf, miles after mile of high rise after high rise, and just about every other get rich quick scheme known to tourism. Folly isn't exactly all sand and waves, and beach stores are counted on one hand instead of "on every corner" like at MB, but Folly Beach is one cool little beach town and I think a lot of you may enjoy visiting there. I found a You Tube video that provides a pretty good taste of Folly Beach and have embedded it for your enjoyment.








Like most places around Charleston, Folly Beach is a treasure trove of historic facts. Serving as a barrier island protecting Charleston, when ships traveling from England and other locations approached the coast Folly was one of the first pieces of land that they encountered after months at sea. At one time the island was known as "Coffin Island" because ships would drop off any passengers suffering from cholera or malaria rather than taking them into Charleston. There is also a fair amount of Civil War history involving Folly and it's neighbor Morris Island. Perhaps my favorite little snippet of Folly Beach notoriety is that George Gershwin wrote the American Folk Opera Porgy and Bess while living on Folly Beach in the 1930's, and you all know what a fan I am of Porgy, ie Summertime, and the livin' is eeeeeeeeezzzzy!!!

So, if you are looking for a beach vacation that provides laid back evenings listening to bluegrass and acoustic guitar, real fresh seafood not the truckload of all you can eat frozen for months variety and sunrises over the ocean and sunsets over the Folly River, come on down to the Edge of America. Who knows, you just may not go back home. Whether you are on the beach today or in the back yard, have a great day, From the Land of Palm Trees.

Whoopie Pie Recipes

I promised you in the last post that I would share the recipes for the chocolate whoopie pies with peanut butter cream filling. As mentioned earlier, the recipe comes from the current issue of Cooking With Paula Deen. The boys and I had a blast with this recipe, as you can tell from the blog post. If you get a chance, try this recipe, you will be satisfied I trust.

The Cookie Recipe
Ingredient List
1&3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter (softened)
1 & 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk seperated
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Recipe Instructions:
1- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment
2- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt
3- In a large mixing bowl beat sugar and butter until fluffy
4- Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla to fluffy mixture
5- Gradually add flour mixture and buttermilk to the mixture above in portions, alternating flour and buttermilk making sure to end with a flour portion on your last add in
6- Refrigerate batter for 10 to 15 minutes then using a 1/4 cup scoop drop batter onto baking sheets, spacing by at least 3 inches
7- Bake for 12-14 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean

Creamy Peanut Butter Filling Recipe
Ingredient List
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1&1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Recipe Instructions:
1- In a medium mixing bowl beat peanut butter, butter and vanilla at medium speed
2- Once smooth, gradually add confectioners sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, beat until smooth

Whoopie!!! A Rainy Evening

Today was a rare overcast day, for the most part, and while it is no longer raining the cloudy evening was perfect for an inside activity with my two sons. While we could have spent the evening playing video games or cards, I had something a little different in mind. Why not something really masculine, you know, an activity that would prepare my two boys to be real men, great husbands and respected fathers. I gathered the two of them together for some man time and announced to them, "let's make some homemade Whoopie Pies." They looked at me quizically, like I had entirely lost my faculties and gone stark raving mad. Then I showed them the pictures in the latest edition of Cooking With Paula Deen and smiles came to their faces, almost simultaneously.


Now it's no secret that I truly enjoy experimenting with food and cooking, and if I do say so myself, I am fairly adept. I am confident that my wife would confirm that appraisal. And, I do honestly feel that cooking is a skill that makes a young man a high value target in the eyes of bachelorettes worldwide. I mean what beautiful southern belle wouldn't pine for a beau who knows how to make whoopie pies?

And so we begin, after both boys were appropriately uniformed for the task they gathered the dry ingredients for the cake batter. Michelle was skeptical when she realized that they would be making the batter from scratch which only seemed to strengthen the resolve of the two apprentice bakers.


JD took charge of the batter preparation phase confidently directing his capable assistant Noah who diligently measured out the ingredients for his brother.

Like any good assistant, Noah occasionally referred to the recipe in order to insure that JD was on track.

JD was finding the mixer process to be a bit of a challenge and slightly messy so he "directed" his younger brother to step in and "do something." Noah with his usual ginger swag willfully accepted the assignment while reminding his older brother that after all he was a "master mixer."

While the master mixer worked on achieving a fluffy mixture of butter and sugar, JD began to incorporate the cocoa powder into the flour and baking powder.

When the sugar and butter were adequately fluffed, JD took the lead once again adding vanilla extract and eggs to the mixing bowl.

The master mixer took over again as JD alternately added the flour and cocoa dry mix along with buttermilk to the mixing bowl in order to finish the whoopie pie batter.

When the batter was finished, the two bakers decided it was time to test the mixture. After all, the best part of baking is licking the beaters.

Sammie even dropped her favorite sock monkey in order to make herself available for beater duty, just in case.

While JD prepared the cookie portions for the oven Noah began prep work on the peanut butter cream filling.

The master mixer rides again...

After the pies were removed from the oven and cooled, it was time for the peanut butter cream filling and final assembly of the whoopie pies. They found a temporary home on a plate. After all, quality control is of the utmost importance in the kitchen.

After sampling the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cream Whoopie Pies Noah informed JD that his newly acquired skill could be put to use back at the Sigma Chi House at USC and that the whoopie pies would be a great addition to the football tailgate parties. I don't know about that, but I do know I had a lot of fun watching and listening to my sons as they worked together in the kitchen, and I am betting that some day, when the right girl comes along they will both pull this one out of the old memory bank and charm their way into a young girls heart through her sweet tooth.

Hopefully the sun will shine wherever you are tomorrow AND here in the Land of Palm Trees as well. Check back Thursday for the recipe for these Chocolate Peanut Butter Cream Whoopie Pies.