Tag: Brian Garner

You’ve watched as they gathered the recipes, maybe even contributed one or two yourself; you’ve filled out the pre-order forms. Now it’s time for the unveiling. Hot off the press, “The Cooks of Fairfield County” cookbook is now ready for the grand unveiling at a special dessert event to be held on Sunday, August 25 from 3-5 p.m. at Honeysuckle Acres, 70 Honeysuckle Lane in Winnsboro. The event will introduce “The Cooks of Fairfield County” to the public. Cooks who submitted dessert recipes are invited to prepare their recipes to share at the event.

“The unveiling will be a fun social event — a soiree,” project coordinator Denise Jones said. “The cookbook started as a fundraiser for the Fairfield County Chamber of Commerce.”

To gather the recipes, the cookbook creators engaged the community through the newspaper, word of mouth, email and social media like Facebook.

“The idea behind compiling a cookbook was to bring people in the community together,” Jones said. Anyone who lives in Fairfield County or has ties to the county was invited to submit recipes.

“I don’t think there is anything that brings us together more than food,” she added.

The cookbook editors received 635 recipes, including some they gleaned by pouring over about 30 old cookbooks going all the way back to 1945.

“We included all the recipes,” said Jones. The chamber used an online cookbook publisher to create the cookbook.

“We had a group of people along with me who entered the recipes and proofed them,” said Jones. “We tried initially to limit the recipes to two per person, but we had some that have submitted more than that.”

There were lots of pecan pie recipes and lots and lots of chicken casserole recipes. This is a cookbook for someone with a real sweet tooth, because by far, the largest section is Desserts.

This cookbook is unique, Jones believes, and stands out in the cookbook crowd.

“These are recipes that came out of Fairfield County, dishes that people around here have probably eaten at church events and have always wanted to know how to make,” said Jones. “Now they will have that opportunity.”

A favorite feature of the cookbook is the 100 or so vintage recipes from the days when we didn’t worry about things like fats or the effects of butter, sugar and salt.

“This is the first Fairfield County cookbook that we know of,” said Jones.

Chamber president Terry Vickers expressed appreciation to Jones and the new chamber board members who initiated the cookbook project.

“We hope everybody in Fairfield County will buy at least three cookbooks; keep one and give the others as gifts,” Vickers said. “Christmas will be here soon and it’s a great gift to stock up on before the holidays. Send them to friends and relatives out of state so other people will know what great cooks we have in Fairfield County.”

If you plan to bring a dessert to the unveiling, or need more details about the event and the cookbook, contact the chamber at 803-635-4242.

Don’t know about you, but I’ve got my fork and napkin ready!

Local artist Campbell Frost says there’s a hidden artist in all of us. The Fairfield County Arts Council (FCAC) is inviting all those artists to come out and play.

You hesitate to use five-dollar words like “renaissance” when talking about how something has improved or changed, but when we’re talking about the Fairfield County Arts Council, that word seems appropriate.

A transfusion of new blood, brought about by associating with the Ridgeway Historic and Cultural Committee (the presenters of the annual Arts on the Ridge art event in Ridgeway), brought the FCAC back from almost the point of extinction.

Now, the FCAC is a vibrant organization with their collective paint-smeared fingers in several pies, say FCAC president Virginia Lacy and FCAC board member Phyllis Gutierrez.

“We are using community events to create a new excitement for the Arts Council,” Gutierrez said. “This arts renaissance involves artists and supporters of the arts who feel the arts should be an important part of specific community events like Arts on the Ridge and Pine Tree Playhouse. They feel there’s a need for more community involvement in every area of the arts — visual, performing, written, spoken and musical,” Gutierrez added.

This group has provided the volunteer-powered engine that is starting to make art-related things happen in Fairfield County.

Lacy and Gutierrez believe that love of the arts can bring communities together and help revitalize those communities.

“There’s a common factor there, whether it’s your art work, a child’s art, your friend’s or a family member’s art, or art for art’s sake — it brings people together. People will come to these events” Lacy said. “It’s a wonderful way for all people to communicate.”

OK, so arts are good for the community. This is a given. So, why else do you want to be a member of the Arts Council and attend the meetings?

For the experiences, my friends. One of the goals of the Arts Council is to begin a series of art workshops in the fall. FCAC members will be able to take part in these exploratory workshops that are planned for everything from basket weaving to pottery making, as well as explore the paint mediums of oils, acrylics and watercolors.

The FCAC has not left out the scribes among us in their planning, be you poet or prose writer. Virginia Schaefer is in the planning stages of organizing a writer’s group under the FCAC umbrella.

FCAC members who are also artists have the opportunity to display and sell their works in the anteroom of Hoot’s Restaurant in Winnsboro and in other venues.

Besides that, most every FCAC meeting features news of interest to artists and art-supporters, and there’s likely to be a realtime art demo of some sort thrown in for good measure at the meetings.

The new FCAC is determined to see the arts flourish in Fairfield County and the surrounding areas. I urge you to attend one of their meetings and prompt your own hidden artist to come out and play.

Fairfield County Arts Council meetings are held the first Tuesday of the month, at 6 p.m. at the Century House in Ridgeway. For information, call Virginia Lacy at 803-360-0893.

Pine Tree puts Doo-Wop twist on classic tale

Start with the 1950’s doo wop group Sha Na Na. Now tell them to put on a performance of Little Red Riding Hood and you have some idea of what to expect from the upcoming Pine Tree Playhouse production of the children’s musical, “Doo Wop Wed Widing Hood.”

Director Matt Swanson explains that “Doo Wop” is the story of Red Riding Hood with a twist – it takes place in the 1950s, in a 1950’s style household and with 1950’s style costumes and technology references.

It also has 1950’s style music, hence the ‘Doo Wop’ in the title. “There’s doo wop, rock and roll and even some Calypso music – like Harry Belafonte might sing,” said Swanson.

But this isn’t your grandmother’s Red Riding Hood story. For one thing, the Big Bad Wolf is a vegetarian. And he’s also an Elvis impersonator, complete with spangled Vegas-style jumpsuit.

Swanson has assembled a talented cast of kids from ages 4 to 18 to tell this crazy, Daddy-O fairy tale.

“Putting on a show with kid actors during the summer months when they’re out of school brought some special challenges,” Swanson said.

The largest challenge has been the absence of large parts of the cast during the rehearsals due to summer activities like church camps, Vacation Bible Schools and family vacations.

“I’ll be working with half the cast on any given rehearsal day, while the other half is not in town,” Swanson said. “That’s a real challenge. Some kids can get their blocking (movement on stage according to the script and the director) and their lines at one rehearsal, and then the next week other kids will pick up their blocking and lines while we fill in for the ones who are gone.

“Fortunately,” Swanson quipped, “the kids learn the material very quickly.”

Swanson said he has a very talented cast with several strong singers. While there are no solo songs in the show, there are solo parts to some of the songs.

“That’s made it easier, and it should make the quality of the show pretty darn good, too,” he added.

The kids have really enjoyed the off-beat, upbeat nature of the show, Swanson said.

“A lot of kids’ shows are based on classical literature or the classical model, which are usually rather serious plays,” Swanson explained. “This is not a serious retelling of the Red Riding Hood story at all. The material is fun, the music is snappy and the story is sassy.”

Sounds cool, Daddy-O.

Doo Wop Wed Widing Hood opens on Friday, Aug. 2 at 8 p.m. and continues with 8 p.m. performances on Aug. 3, 9 and 10. Sunday matinees are at 3 p.m. on Aug. 4 and 11. Call the Pine Tree Playhouse at 803-635-6847 or email pinetreeplayhouse@gmail.com for reservations. Tickets are $8 ($6 for students).