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March 11, 2026

Centreville Spy

Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Centreville

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Centreville Passes Historic Plastic Bag Ban Ordinance

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While Centreville Council Member Daniel Worth had to recuse himself due to a potential conflict of interest, the four remaining members voted 4-0 to pass a historic plastic ban ordinance that goes into effect next year. As a result, Centreville will join Chestertown and Easton municipalities, which already have similar rules in place.

After hearing a final public comments, including concerns about restaurants possibly paying a disproportionate cost for the implantation of the ban, Council members shared some of their thoughts before the roll call. The Spy was able to capture some of those highlights last night.

Queen Anne’s County will be debating a county-wide ban in the months ahead.

This video is approximately 12 minutes in length.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Mid-Shore Profiles: From Mr. Wood to Granpa by Maria Wood

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Editor Note: This month the Spy will be launching a Centreville edition to complement its sister educational news portals in Chestertown, Talbot County and Cambridge. In keeping with a tradition of dedicating a Spy newspaper to unique Eastern Shore leaders we have long admired we have selected the late Howard Wood  for that recognition. We asked Maria Wood, Spy columnist and granddaughter of Howard, to share her memories of one of Mid-Shore’s true conservation heroes and and put a well-deserved spotlight to a rare breed of citizenship. The Spy is currently having a startup campaign for the Centreville Spy which can be found here.

Howard Wood was a sailor, an attorney, a humanitarian, a conservationist, an adventurer, and my grandfather, not necessarily in that order. He devoted most of his long life to the Eastern Shore, particularly Queen Anne’s County. From the family farm on the Chester River, and his office six miles away on the corner of Lawyer’s Row in Centreville, he was a champion and steward of the natural beauty and abundance of the land and water, and an advocate, helper, and friend to the communities and people who live here.

A man can go by many names in 91½ years. There were those who called him Howard, but they may have been in the minority. To many, from all walks of life and of all ages, he was “Mr. Wood.” Even today it’s not hard to find people who speak of him with almost disbelieving affection, respect, and delight. Anyone in his family is familiar with the conversation:

“Oh, you’re Mr. Wood’s granddaughter/son/nephew/cousin? Oh yeah, I remember him, he was a good man. This one time, we were…”

…and off they go, telling a story, maybe of how he helped them, or improved something, or, just of a consistent reliability, doing more than required, in his methodical, mild-mannered, lawyerly view of the world. Off the top of my head, I can think of Black watermen, white farmers, skipjack captains, hunters, teachers, and many more with whom I’ve had a version of this conversation. Someday I’ll have it for the last time, but 15 years after Mr. Wood’s death, it’s still going strong. I feel both proud and inadequate every time.

To my grandmother, he was “R,” a mutual nickname they used nearly unfailingly, entirely mysterious to their grandchildren. In my own memory, he was “thee” to his siblings, with whom he followed the old-school Quaker practice of second-person singular pronouns. In possibly history’s politest protest movement, this usage was the early Quakers’ rejection of the second-person plural “you” customarily used to indicate deference to those in a higher social echelon. By the time it was in my grandfather’s lexicon, I think “thee” was somewhere between an endearment and a habit, but the Friends’ stubbornly egalitarian worldview in which it was rooted resonated deeply with the way he treated people and the way he presented himself.

Eventually he was “Dad” to his children, and then “Granpa” to grandchildren and great-grandchildren. One of my favorite memories is arriving at my grandparents house with my infant daughter, the first child in her generation. Granpa threw open the front door, bellowing “WHERE is my GREAT granddaughter?” At 84 years old, arthritic, and with little hearing left, his excitement at meeting the new baby made him perhaps more ebullient than I had ever seen him.

Sailing

At the helm at the end of his sail across the Atlantic, approx. 1982

He loved sailing more than almost anything. He was an original member of Corsica River Yacht Club, whose somewhat scrappy nature suited the Howard Wood ethic of focusing on what mattered. One of his guiding principles was “do what the weather tells you to do.” If the wind is right and the river is calling, don’t let the day go by without getting on a boat—there will be plenty of hot swampy days when the air doesn’t move to tend to bookkeeping or yard work. In his youth, he sailed on his Uncle Harry Wilmer’s sloop Elizabeth, and raced one-designs in regattas around the Chesapeake for decades. With Bill and Norman Grieb, his neighbors from across the river, he sailed on the log canoe Mayflower, exploits that Bill and Howard’s sons recounted just last week on a July 4th sail around Comegys Bight in Howard’s old daysailer.

He crossed the Atlantic Ocean by sail in a grand adventure that was a pinnacle of pride and delight. Maybe even more adventurously, he spent nine months in 1968 sailing down the inland waterway and to the Bahamas with my grandmother and my then-7 year old uncle. His 90th birthday celebration was a sail on the skipjack Elsworth with a crowd of family and friends, courtesy of Captain Andy McCown of Echo Hill. His love of “messing about in boats” lives in his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. If everyone in the family has a little Chester River water in our veins, it’s from him.

Conservation

He’s been fêted for service of organizations and institutions around the bay. A pioneering conservationist on the Eastern Shore, he was a founder of the Queen Anne’s County Conservation Association, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and the Chester River Association, which became one of the legacy organizations for the mighty ShoreRivers. He was a trustee with Maryland Environmental Trust, and in 1987 he was Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Conservationist of the Year.

He was involved with the Critical Areas Protection Act, which passed in 1984 and remains a significant tool for protecting the bay and its shorelines. In cooperation with the University of Maryland, he made Indiantown a demonstration farm in the 1980s, helping to establish best management practices for water quality protection while incorporating the economic and practical realities of real-life farming.

People

Yet, there was  more to Howard Wood’s contributions than protecting and preserving the land and water. People had to be in the picture as well. For over 42 years in his law practice, he helped people who needed it, without regard to race or class, a not altogether common philosophy at the time. After his (semi-)retirement, his old clients still called on him for assistance. He said “they’re like members of the family.”

During the civil rights movement, he proposed that the Centreville Town Commissioners establish a biracial committee through which Black residents could express what they needed and wanted, and the white executive and legislative officials could, by listening and acting, begin to address the issues and possibly avert the unrest that would rock nearby communities in the years to come. There were surely other factors that kept Centreville relatively peaceful in those years compared with neighboring county seats, but this straightforward, reasonable approach from a community leader may have helped.

In 1992, responding to a severe housing shortage, Howard and Mary Wood established the Spaniard Neck Foundation to raise money for low-interest loans and grants to help with housing related costs. Governor William Schaefer recognized their efforts in 1988 when the  He served on the board of the Kent & Queen Anne’s Hospital, as a director of the Centreville National Bank, on the Maryland state Attorney’s Grievance Commission, and on the vestry of St. Paul’s Church in Centreville.

Personal Connections 

The list of such accomplishments is too long to fully explore here. But in my observation, personal relationships were his most important contributions to the Eastern Shore. That’s why so many people are still excited to talk about what he did for them, and with them, and the way he made them feel. Last week at a 4th of July crab feast, I heard just such a story.

Howard Wood with his great-grandchildren, approx. 2006

It won’t surprise you to learn that high-speed internet was a long time coming to the farm. As recently as 2009, in a quest to do better than dialup, a family member looked into broadband. There was a chance a signal from an old fire tower across the river could do the trick, so two technicians drove out to assess the situation. After a search for a suitable site—close enough to the house, with an unobstructed line of sight, and access to electricity, it was not looking good. There was some discussion of trying the roof, but the guys understandably looked askance at that prospect. During the friendly chitchat as they wrapped up the disappointing housecall, one of the technicians realized where he was.

“Oh, is this Mr. Wood’s place? Oh yeah, I’ve been here before, I remember him. He was a good man. This one time… ”

… and he was off. It emerged that in the days of the Spaniard Neck Foundation, in addition to conveyancing deeds, administering loans, and untold other tasks associated with such an endeavor, Mr. Wood had invited kids from the families the foundation was working with to the farm. He taught them to swim and to row a boat, and if my own childhood is anything to go by, probably got them to pick up some sticks, too. He gave them a good time and made human connections, making manifest his instinctive understanding that conservation means little if the people in this unique place don’t take the time or have the opportunity to commune with the land and the water.

Those warm memories of a childhood day on the farm buoyed the now-grown up internet specialist, and he had a brainstorm. Maybe he could catch that broadband signal after all. A little more testing and fiddling, and he found an auspicious spot on the far edge of the front lawn. Pretty soon, a clip from the David Letterman show was streaming in, at a bit rate beyond dial up wildest dreams. There’s almost nothing about that sentence that my grandfather would have understood, or found relevant, but that’s progress for you, even on the Eastern Shore.

Saving the Bay: People Working for the Future of the Chesapeake, quotes Howard Wood as saying “Part of the Bay is beyond the borders of the stream. It includes the land, forested shorelines, the historic landscapes, a sense of heritage and place, and the connection to the people who live on the land and water. Those may be more important than just straight water-quality issues. Certainly here on the Eastern Shore, along these rivers, in these communities, on these family farms, all of those things tug at our hearts.”

The practical, patient way that he lived that insight is what brings smiles to the faces of those who still remember Mr. Wood with such delight. Because sharing what he loved about this place was almost as important to him as helping people get into safe, clean homes, the splashes of a boy into the Chester River on a hot and sticky summer day rippled through the decades, eventually bringing YouTube to the 11th generation of this family on the old farm beside the river. Those ripples and many others, large and small, endure—a legacy, and an example for the rest of us.

Maria Wood traveled throughout the country as production and tour manager for award-winning musician David Grover, with whom she co-founded a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing education and fostering positive social change through music and music-making.  She returned to school mid-career, earning a BA in American Studies and a Certificate in Ethnomusicology from Smith College. More recently, she has written and taught on the meaning and impact of the musical Hamilton, served as Deputy Campaign Manager for congressional candidate Jesse Colvin and was Executive Director of Chestertown RiverArts. She lives in a multigenerational human/feline household in Chestertown. 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Food Friday: Vacation Nibbles

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The Spy Test Kitchen has returned from a smashing vacation, brimming with ideas and new experiences. Despite what Agnes Callard said in her New Yorker piece, The Case Against Travel, I think travel is good for the soul. We got out of town, saw old friends, met new people, saw lots of art, and water, and fireworks, and ate constantly, and with gusto. I polished my toenails, slathered on the sunscreen, donned brightly-colored, light weight summer togs, and kept filling my canvas market tote with fresh, local fruits and vegetables at each and every farm stand.

Foodwise, as it was a New England vacation, the ubiquitous lobster roll was a favorite, as were oysters, and scallops, and fried fish sandwiches, and cooked-on-the-grill hamburgers. There was also gelato, focaccia, Parker House Rolls, pesto, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, panisse lettuce, and blueberries, blueberries, blueberries. We trailed dreamily through busy Italian food markets, independent bookshops, edgy galleries, cavernous museums, and tchotchke-stuffed antique stores. We waited for a ferry, rode in unaccustomed Ubers (and traffic), walked miles in the sun, and got caught in a downpour while strolling to the beach. We went on pilgrimage to the shrines that are Car Talk Plaza, Eataly, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harvard, and the Oxford Creamery in Mattapoisett, home of the Tall One’s very first lobster roll. We unwound in a very busy fashion.

We went out to dinner often, but the best things we ate were homemade: carrot cake is good for a birthday celebration, but it is even better a couple of days later for breakfast. And a bloody Mary brunch should always include snappy little homemade Old Bay biscuits from Dorie Greenspan’s Cookies cook book. Dorie says she wanted a cookie that would go with beer: I applaud her noble impulse. This was the perfect New England vacation crunchy little cocktail nibble, made ineffable by the addition of good Maryland Old Bay Seasoning.

Dorie Greenspan’s Old Bay Pretzel and Cheese Cookies

Makes 3 dozen

Ingredients

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
12 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 24 pieces
4 ounces (1 cup) sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 ounces (57 grams) salted pretzels, coarsely chopped

Directions

Put flour, Old Bay and salt in a food processor; whir to blend. Scatter the butter over the flour mixture and pulse in long spurts. Pulse until dough forms clumps, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of the bowl. Add cheese and pretzels; pulse to combine. Turn dough onto a work surface; knead briefly to bring it together. Divide in half; roll each half into a 9-inch log. Wrap each tightly in plastic wrap; freeze at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350°F. Position racks to divide oven into thirds. Line two cookie sheets with parchment.

Use a serrated knife to cut dough into ⅓-inch-thick slices. Place slices 1 inch apart on baking sheets. Bake 19–21 minutes, rotating sheets front to back and top to bottom after 10 minutes, or until firm and golden. Cool on sheets 5 minutes and then place on cooling racks.

The sous chef wanted a taste before the cookies had cooled completely. He was chastised. The pretzels need to cool to regain crunch, and the Old Bay needs time to mellow. Patience is a New England virtue: think of all those widow’s walks. This is also the perfect time to make a batch of bloody Marys, watch some tennis, or to get out the beer. Enjoy your summer!

“Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”
― Maya Angelou

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Food Friday: Peachy

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This is a column from last year, when we were still COVID-wary. I have taken the Spy Test Kitchens on the road for a little R&R. We’ll be back next week. Enjoy!

Last Friday night we popped out of our COVID-imposed bubble and ventured into public for dinner in a restaurant. There were people! There were people who had made bad shoe choices! There were people who brought me a tall, sparkly French 75, and would have brought me another one had I been foolish enough to think I had the youthful stamina for a second. But best of all, there were people who cooked for us.

Normally I am a little leery of the fancy, au courant, artisanal places whose menus are heavily reliant on ingredients that are currently in season. I am always sure that I will wander in during lima bean season, or rutabaga season, and then will I will be sunk. But on Friday night we walked smack into the middle of peach season.

We shared a lovely plate of lightly grilled peaches and tomatoes, doused with olive oil and dotted with soft clots of bleu cheese. Yumsters. Such a light and sweet appetizer! And easily recreated at home. Except on Saturday night we grilled the peaches and tomatoes, substituted some fresh mozzarella for the bleu cheese, and drizzled a homemade vinaigrette dressing over plates of crisp arugula. Dining at home can be seasonal and au courant, too!

Emily Nunn’s Perfect Mustard Vinaigrette

1⁄2 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (Mr. Sanders prefers it without the mustard)
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1⁄2 teaspoon of sea salt (or more to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper
Place the ingredients in a jar and shake until it is completely emulsified. If you like garlic on your salad (I often do) start the recipe by mashing together a clove of garlic and the salt in a mortar and pestle (or with the back of a spoon, in a bowl), then whisk in the remaining ingredients.

Yotam Ottolenghi can teach us all how to prepare wondrous peach dishes:https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/19/peach-recipes-yotam-ottolenghi-galette-shrub-bellini-runner-beans

It’s time to get creative! Summer is the time for juicy watermelon, thick tomato sandwiches and dripping peaches. How can you appreciate a peach unless you feel the velvet skin with your own sticky fingers? If you haven’t had peach juice run down the front of your shirt, you have not had a satisfactory summer experience.

Mr. Sanders sliced half a peach onto his bowl of cold twiggy cereal this morning, leaving the other half for me on the cutting board. I ate it over the sink, because the juices dripped furiously and there wasn’t anyone around who would point out that I should have been ladylike and used a napkin. Don’t neglect any opportunity to just seize the day, and a peach, early, and eat it in your own free-spirited summer fashion.

Perhaps I will have to ditch the usual French 75, and opt for a Bellini the next time we venture out of the Bat Cave. But I think I will practice at home first:
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bellini And I will pretend to be sipping it at Harry’s Bar with a crowd of pretentious American ex-pat writers from a previous era. Remembering to limit myself to just one, because they do pack a punch.

“The people that I liked and had not met went to the big cafes because they were lost in them and no one noticed them and they could be alone in them and be together.”

― Ernest Hemingway

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Food Friday: Frankly, Hot Dogs

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Sometimes I forget that we live in a country that is so vast and diverse that a New England hot dog is so different from a Chicago-style hot dog, and neither of them is like a hot dog from Texas, or from California. And this is one of the great American qualities – we are true blue and we love our regional delicacies.

In Boston, a Fenway Frank is boiled first, and then lightly grilled. (It is served in a split-top roll, which is also used for the best sort of lobster rolls: Split-top Roll) The Puritans among us prefer garnishing a Fenway Frank with just a thick wiggly trail of spicy mustard. But since this is America, feel free to pile on your own favorites.

As you travel west to Chicago, you will observe that the Chicago-style hot dog is a completely different creation. Chicago-style hot dogs are cooked in butter in a pan, and then served in warm, poppy-seed rolls, with lots of veggies on top. Chicago-style dogs are “dragged through the garden”: topped with sweet pickle relish, chopped onions, pickled peppers, tomato slices and sprinkled with celery salt. Have you been watching The Bear? You’ll know then how popular these franks are.

Then you’ll mosey down to Texas, to encounter the Hot Texas Wiener, a frank cooked in hot vegetable oil. If you place an order for a “One”, you’ll get a blisteringly hot frank topped with spicy brown mustard, chopped onions, and chili sauce. Yumsters.

As you continue west, and stop in Los Angeles for a some street food, you will encounter an L.A. Danger Dog. This frank is wrapped in bacon! I cannot imagine the state that Gwyneth and Meghan call home would do anything so decadent and audacious as a grilled, bacon-wrapped hot dog. More controversial to a hot dog purist are the toppings: catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, sautéed onions, with peppers, and a poblano chile pepper. Catsup? Mayo? But to be polite, you must eat like a local, and it will be deelish.

Common sense teaches us to not use catsup on our franks after the age of 18. You might as well make bologna sandwiches with Wonder bread, and douse them in catsup.

Have you ever seen the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile on the road? I can remember driving on a Florida highway once, and suddenly, puttering alongside us, was the Weinermobile. What a cheap thrill that was! Sadly, now it is called the Frankmobile. Time marches on. You can follow the Frankmobile on Instagram:

July is National Hot Dog Month, and the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says that some of the top hot dog consuming cities include: Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Washington, DC, and Tampa. You’ll want to brush up on your hot dog etiquette, I’m sure.

And here are the official rules for Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, in case you want to try this at home.

NPR 1A – Hot Dogs

Happy Fourth of July! (I will still be in Massachusetts enjoying my first post-COVID vacation next week, so we will be repeating a column, something from the Way Back Machine. Enjoy!)

“A hotdog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz.”
― Humphrey Bogart

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Church Hill Theatre Announces 2024 Season of Plays

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After months of planning and discussion, Church Hill Theatre proudly announces its 2024 season of outstanding plays. As always, the offerings will include old favorites, edgy new dramas, and a family-friendly musical. With a renovated building, comfortable new seating and improved sound and lighting equipment, CHT will offer audiences a truly professional theater experience.

Charley’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas will be the first production of 2024, being presented March 8 through 24. It is a farce in three acts that centers on Lord FancourtBabberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter’s aunt. The complications of the plot include the arrival of the real aunt and the attempts of an elderly fortune hunter to woo the bogus aunt.

My Fair Lady, by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe, to be presented June 7 through 23, is a musical adapted from the book Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.  It is a satire about class distinctions in England during the early 20th century. It centers around a cockney flower girl, Eliza Dolittle, who is taken in by linguist Henry Higgins, who bets his friend, Colonel Pickering that he can improve her speech and manners sufficiently to pass her off as a duchess. This musical has delighted audiences since it opened on Broadway in 1956.

August Osage County, by Tracy Letts, playing September 13 through 29, is a highly entertaining play about a very dysfunctional family. The father has vanished, the mom pops pills, and the three sisters have shady little secrets. Variety called it, “…ferociously entertaining…,” and Time Magazine wrote of it, “This original and corrosive black comedy deserves a seat at the dinner table with the great American family plays.”

Ride the Cylone, by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell will appear on the Church Hill stage November 8 through 24. This cult favorite musical follows six members of the Uranium City High School Choir who are involved in a horrific roller coaster accident. A mechanical fortune teller, the Amazing Karnak, offers renewed life to the teen who makes the best pitch. Who will survive?

The Green Room Gang will once again gather in July to teach and create theater for young people.

The 2024 season will culminate with a production of A Christmas Carol December 13, 14, and 15. Using the radio play script that has become a standard at Church Hill Theatre, the new presentation is being created. Details are still being formulated.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Food Friday: Cool Summer Salads

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Happy summer! It’s finally here. School is out, and you can hear screen doors slamming up and down our street with busy folk intent upon enjoying summer. Luke the wonder dog and I have to dodge out of the way of the young bicyclists who are toting colorful towels or tennis racquets as they pursue summertime activities. It’s nice to be outdoors.

My chore avoidance tendency is reemerging as thoughts are reluctantly turning to the Fourth of July, and summertime entertaining, and eating in general. I wake up every morning and think about the day ahead; Luke and I take our first walk, and that’s when I decide if I need to head out to the grocery store for provisions. It’s nice to have planned ahead enough that I have already made a couple of kinds of sturdy salads that can sit in the fridge for a few days.

Potato salad seems to get more flavorful as it steeps in its mayonnaise dressing for a few days. It was excellent with grilled chicken on Sunday night, and it will be even better on Tuesday night with baked salmon, and for a side dish with my cheese sandwich on Wednesday. I’m going to make a double batch for the Fourth: half to bring with us to the picnic, and half for another home-cooked dinner, or two, later in the week.

This is my standard potato salad recipe, which tend to repeat here every year or so:
My Popular Potato Salad

This is a recipe that people actually ask for – and not just because they are my in-laws and trying hard to be polite! It that constantly evolves and adapts, and each summer brings a new twist. I don’t always have green onions – Vidalias work just fine. No red bliss potatoes? Go for Russets. A little fresh thyme? Why not? This potato salad is dependable, tasty and can be adapted and stretched to feed the masses. Just add more potatoes and more mayonnaise. It is particularly fine for large picnic gatherings, but Mr. Sanders has been known to make a midnight snack of it, too. It tastes best if it has a little time to sit and mellow, so if you can make it in the morning, it is just right by suppertime.

Many, many servings…
2 pounds little new, red bliss potatoes (do not peel!)
1 cup Hellmann’s mayonnaise, thinned with milk, enough to be pourable
1 bunch green onions, chopped
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes until tender. While warm (but not still steaming hot) slice potatoes and begin to layer them in a large bowl – one layer potatoes, then a handful of green onions and salt and pepper. Pour on some of the mayonnaise mixture. Repeat. Gently stir until all the potatoes are coated. You may need to add more mayonnaise mixture when you are ready to serve, as the potatoes absorb the mayo. Deelish.

Martha, who is famous, and I am not, has another recipe for potato salad that calls for hard boiled eggs. Also cornichons and buttermilk. I suppose, in this day and age, there is room for differing viewpoints: Martha Stewart’s Potato Salad

The Smitten Kitchen has a novel approach to potato salad – to use a tzatziki dressing: Smitten Kitchen’s Potato Salad I just love using cucumbers as much as I can in the summer.

More colorful, and probably more nutritious, is this chick pea salad. Chickpeas are loaded with protein and fiber. Tomatoes, especially if your homegrown are ripe, are sweet and delightful. And the lemon juice helps keep the salad fresh for a few days in the fridge. Who could ask for anything more? Chickpea Salad

A panzanella salad is the ultimate lazy unfamous-woman’s dish: tomatoes, dried bread, cukes. Add my favorite cheap white wine, some candlelight, and this is total bliss. And it perfect environmentally, because nothing goes to waste: this is why we stash bread in the freezer: Panzanella Salad

Nobody likes cooking in the summertime, unless you are a happy-go-lucky year-round resident of Tuscany, in which case you cannot ever complain. The rest of us mere mortals need to cope with summer heat, doldrums, and constant existential dread. Let’s enjoy some simplicity, and graze from bowls of deliciousness already stashed awayin the fridge. Let us be grasshoppers for a little while.

“Summer… when fireflies come out at dusk and ice melts too fast in lemonade; ice cream tastes better even though it’s the same-old flavor.”
― Nanette L. Avery

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Food Friday: Juneteenth

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This June 19th marks 158 years since Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced to people who were still enslaved that they were legally free. The Emancipation Proclamation, which was made on January 1, 1863, had been suppressed by slave owners in Texas for two and a half years. Jubilation ensued. The first Juneteenth freedom celebration was held the following year.

That inaugural Juneteenth celebration was in Texas, where they believe in doing things bigger and better. Texas barbecue and all its fixings are fitting for Juneteenth. In 2021 President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law establishing Juneteenth as our newest federal holiday. The White House celebrated Juneteenth the other night, and we’ve got a lot of cooking to do!

Traditional Juneteenth foods are: cornbread, fried catfish, shrimp and grits, ribs, pulled pork, fried chicken, collard greens, Cajun gumbo, jambalayla, and potato salad. Make the kinds of foods you would have at a cookout, but be sure to have lots of traditional, celebratory red foods: watermelon, tomato salad, red beans and rice, red velvet cake and strawberry pie.“Watermelon and red soda water are the oldest traditional foods on Juneteenth,” said Dr. Ronald Myers, head of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation.

This Juneteenth I will be doing some home cooking to honor the legacy of the Black Texans on the anniversary of Emancipation Day. I will remember the enslaved cooks who brought African cooking to America while cooking some of their traditional recipes which continue to enrich our cooking.

Some of our tomatoes are starting to ripen, but aren’t quite ready for harvesting. It looks like a great time to wander through the watermelons in the produce department, though. I saw yellow watermelons for the first time a couple of weeks ago – they were positively incandescent! They looked as if they could glow in the dark. But we need some bright red watermelon for a proper Juneteenth dish.

Matthew Raiford, the South Carolina Chefarmer, talks about growing up and eating Georgia Rattlesnake watermelons. They had “dark green stripes resemble a diamondback rattlesnake” and were extremely sweet.
This is his recipe for:
Watermelon Steak Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes and Sangria Vinaigrette
Serves 4 to 6

FOR THE SALAD
1 to 11/2 pounds freshly mixed salad greens or microgreens
1 pound heirloom tomatoes of varying sizes and colors, such as Cherokee Purple, Yellow Brandywine, black and yellow cherry tomatoes
1/4 medium seedless watermelon (5 to 10 pounds)
Olive oil for brushing

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE
1 cup traditional red sangria, either homemade or store-bought
1/2 cup olive oil
Freshly cracked black pepper
Sea salt

DIRECTIONS
Prepare your grill for medium- high direct heat, 375° to 450°F.
While the grill comes up to temperature, wash and dry the salad greens, then divide the greens among four to six serving plates. Wash and dry your tomatoes. Slice the whole tomatoes into ½- inch rounds and halve the cherry tomatoes. Divide and arrange the tomato slices evenly among the plates. Set the plates in the refrigerator to chill while you finish the dish.

Slide the watermelon into ¾- to- 1- inch- thick “steaks,” then quarter the steaks into wedges. Brush each side of the watermelon with a little olive oil, then set the wedges on the grill for approximately 3 minutes per side, until you get grill marks. The longer you leave the wedges on, the sweeter they’ll get. Remove the watermelon from the grill and arrange evenly among the salad plates.

Pour the sangria into a large measuring cup with a pouring spout, then whisk the olive oil into the sangria until it makes a nice, loose vinaigrette. Generously dress the salads. Sprinkle the salads with pepper and salt to your liking, then serve.

https://georgefox.cafebonappetit.com/matthew-raiford-juneteenth-recipes/

I also liked this sweet and hot Watermelon Chow Chow. The jalapenos deliver a great kick.

“Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory or an acceptance of the way things are. It’s a celebration of progress. It’s an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible—and there is still so much work to do.”
— Barack Obama

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Local Wine and DrinkMaryland in Centreville: A Chat with Mid-Shore Wine Coach Laurie Forster

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Centreville plays host to DrinkMaryland on Saturday, June 17th. From noon until about 5 PM, attendees can enjoy wine, beer, food, music and have a chance to look at unique products made right here in Maryland.

At center stage again this year is speaker, author and professional wine coach Laurie Forster. One of our spies caught up with Laurie right here in Easton where she and her husband have lived since 2005.

An earlier career in software sales required knowledge of wine when it came to wining and dining clients.  So, Laurie dove into an instructional program that eventually saw her leave the software industry for New York to learn more and gain important and hard earned wine certifications.

Believing that people need not feel intimidated by the language of sommeliers, she set out to help people feel more confident in their wine choices. Hence, “the wine coach.”

The concept has taken Laurie from Easton to points across the map, doing wine events for audiences of all sizes.  She has a book and a website (link below). Fortunately for us, her next stop is in Queen Anne’s County where she has been invited back to serve as the “MC” on centerstage at the Centreville DrinkMaryland event.  In addition to keeping a fun, casual and entertaining program going for attendees, Laurie will lead a wine tasting experience at 3:30 PM certain to educate attendees about Maryland wine.

All of this is made possible by local sponsors and the leadership of the event partners:  the Maryland Wineries Association (MWA) and the Town of Centreville.

Event spokesman, Jim Bauckman, shared the group’s excitement, saying, “We’re thrilled to be returning to Queen Anne’s County for the 2023 DrinkMaryland Event. The success of this event series since 2017 has been great for the local community and the small businesses that participate. Maryland makers are the focus – artisan and food vendors, local musicians and Maryland-made wine, beer and spirits.”

Enjoy the conversation with Laurie Forster.  Learn more about her work at https://thewinecoach.com . And, learn more about events and tickets for DrinkMaryland/Centreville https://drinkmaryland.org .

Craig Fuller served four years in the White House as assistant to President Reagan for Cabinet Affairs, followed by four years as chief of staff to Vice President George H.W. Bush. Having been engaged in five presidential campaigns and run public affairs firms and associations in Washington, D.C., he now resides on the Eastern Shore.

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Food Friday: Trending for Summer

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In the summer the much vaunted Spy Test Kitchen cooks are just like everyone else – who really enjoys cooking when it is hot? We are just fine with snacks, thank you. Toss a cheese sandwich our way, please. But if you insist on perpetrating the three-square-meal myth, could we cut down on the number of dishes we have to wash?

I don’t watch many YouTube or TikTok videos because they send me down rabbit holes where I lose all sense of time, and I find the amateur camera work distracting. There are reasons why people go to film school. Please give me something shot with a Steadicam, a beginning, middle and end, throw in a plot, some English accents, and roll a stylish credit crawl. But, I have lived through COVID. So, of course, I watch the occasional viral TikTok. This recipe has gone spectacularly viral, and deservedly so. It is super easy, tasty, colorful and is perfect for the summer avoidance of extra time spent in the kitchen.

https://www.tiktok.com/@foodmymuse/video/6924800060656045318?lang=en&q=baked feta and tomatoes&t=1686228446167

I am still waiting for the tomatoes in our back yard garden to ripen, but luckily there are many colors and flavors of cherry tomatoes available. I am eager to try Twilights, which are a dark, rich grape tomato – almost black, as suggested by David Plotz in a recent Slate Political Gabfest endorsement. I am haunting the produce department of our grocery store, hoping for a delivery. But there are others: https://www.gardeningchores.com/types-of-cherry-tomatoes/

Except for the tomatoes and the feta, this is practically a pantry staples recipe: a shallot, garlic, olive oil, salt, red pepper, pasta, lemon and fresh basil. You don’t need to go to the fancy grocery store, which is always a relief. This recipe can serve more than two people. It cooks quickly, and in one pan, so if you hustle, you won’t be in the kitchen long at all.

Baked Feta and Tomatoes

2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes
1 shallot, quartered
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup olive oil, divided
Maldon salt
A pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 (8-ounce) block feta
10 ounces cooked pasta
Zest of 1 lemon
Fresh basil, for garnish

Step 1
Preheat oven to 400°F. In a large ovenproof skillet or medium baking dish, combine tomatoes, shallot, garlic, and all but 1 tablespoon oil. Season with salt and red pepper flakes and toss to combine.

Step 2
Place feta into center of tomato mixture and drizzle with remaining tablespoon oil. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until tomatoes are bursting and feta is golden on top.

Step 3
Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente according to package directions. Reserve ½ cup pasta water before draining.

Step 4
Add the cooked pasta to the skillet of tomatoes and feta, add the reserved pasta water, and lemon zest and stir until combined. Garnish with basil.

We skipped the pasta and went directly to schmearing the mixture on pieces of crusty garlic bread – a perfect summer meal. Bread, hot cheese, tomatoes, basil and the obligatory glass of cheap red wine. Take off your glasses and squint at the world around you. In the setting sun, it could almost be Tuscany.

Baked feta and tomatoes with pasta can be the perfect light summer meal, or when you serve it on garlic bread, is a nice cocktail nosh, when all you really want to do is barely more than to tear open a bag of Doritos. You will be almost as cool as a TikTok influencer. Enjoy.

https://www.eatwell101.com/baked-feta-recipe

“Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in.”
― Ray Bradbury

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.