Spotlight

Take us along! Find the hidden dingbat!

We’ve enjoyed seeing photos from our readers on their travels with Alabama Living! Please send us a photo of you with a copy of the magazine on your travels to: mytravels@alabamaliving. coop. Be sure to include your name, hometown and electric cooperative, and the location of your photo.We’ll draw a winner for the $25 prize each month.

A large group of friends traveled to Amelia Island in February and Alabama Living was their magazine of choice on the bus. Thanks to Keith Roling of Troy, a member of South Alabama EC, for submitting their photo.

Wesley Murphy took Alabama Living to the Alabama State Beta Convention in Birmingham. He attended along with other students from Rehobeth Elementary. They earned top awards and were ready to compete at the National Beta Convention in Nashville. Wesley is a member of Wiregrass EC.

We did it again. We hid last month’s dingbat so well that only 31 of our readers guessed the correct location! We admit it was a very hard one to see, but the goalposts were hiding on Page 38 on the side of the window air conditioner. Modie and Deborah Smith of Joe Wheeler EMC said they searched through their magazine “too many times” and had almost given up before they went though it one more time and found it. Myrtle Waters of Repton, a member of Southern Pine EC, said she finally found it with the help of a magnifying glass, and at nearly 82 years old, she was proud of herself! We’re proud of you, too! Nathan Cunningham of Millport asked us to keep making the searches challenging. “Hidden dingbats are hard to find and time-consuming. This project is best done with a buddy. Get that person to help you find the dingbat next month.” Good advice, Nathan!

So grab a buddy and start looking for this drawing of a bat, just in time for Halloween fun. Congratulations to our randomly drawn winner, Joyce Oliver of Bridgeport, who will receive a prize package from Alabama One Credit Union. Remember, the dingbat won’t be in an ad and it won’t be on Pages 1-8. Good luck!

By mail: Find the Dingbat Alabama Living PO Box 244014 Montgomery, AL 36124

By email: dingbat@alabamaliving.com

Sponsored by

Andrea H. Presnell of Central Alabama EC took Alabama Living on a trip to Cayo Costa State Park in Florida with her friend Skye Ellison.

The Parks Family from Bon Secour traveled out west and made a stop at Four Corners Monument, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona all meet. Lucas, Camilla, and mom Lisa are pictured. Dad Nicholas took the picture. They are members of Baldwin EMC. Baldwin EMC members Lisa Downing of Summerdale and her husband traveled to Ocho Rios, Jamaica last year and took along their favorite magazine. She enjoyed reading while soaking up the sun!

Roy and C.J. Patton took their magazine to Egypt where they visited the Pyramids of Giza. The Pattons are members of Baldwin EMC.

Letters to the editor

E-mail us at: letters@alabamaliving.coop or write us at: Letters to the editor P.O. Box 244014 Montgomery, AL 36124

Loved August cover

Best cover ever! I absolutely LOVE that photo! The colors, the composition, the expression of pure happiness....AWESOME!!

I truly enjoyed the article on Romay Davis. What an inspiration to both young and old. Thank you for that article.

Sonja Eddy, Auburn

Robert and Debora Jackson took the May issue to Robert’s 50th Yale reunion in New Haven, CT the last week of May. The cover features Alabama’s state cake, the Lane cake, which is from their town of Clayton. They are members of the Pea River EC. Debora has painted the lane cake into an outdoor mural for the town.

Preserve family recipes in a personalized heirloom cookbook

By Lenore Vickrey

When my son got married in 2010, I gave my future daughter-in law a cookbook of several family recipes. I got a number of contributions, including pound cake and pineapple casserole from her grandmother, lasagna roll-ups and holiday candy from her future aunts and cousins, and peach cobbler from my mother’s recipe box, and then produced the book using an online source. The result was a hardback binder with fancy stock photos and the recipes neatly arranged on cardstock.

Fast forward 12 years, and the options available for anyone to produce an heirloom family cookbook have exploded. While the company I used has since discontinued its online services, there are plenty more to choose from. You can make a cookbook as simple as typing up recipes yourself and taking those hard copies to a local printer, or uploading recipes to an online template, and including scans of old food-stained recipe cards (the mark of a favorite recipe!) and family photos to use throughout. A newer option is the e-book, easily accessible on a cell phone.

“It’s important to capture this kind of information,” says Rob-

in Rawls, who lives in Montgomery and in Gantt in Covington County where she and her husband, Phil, are members of Covington Electric Cooperative. A Rawls family cookbook, Conecuh River Rats Can Cook, was printed in 2002, spearheaded by Joanne Rawls Mock, their cousin. The Rawls brothers all lived in Gantt, and now their adult children have property near each other on Point A Lake. The cookbook project prompted Robin and other family members to capture the recipes that hadn’t been written down, she says. “Our parents cooked from knowledge,” she explains, “so it was important to keep them in the family. In the process, you remember the recipes that are meaningful, that link you Alabama Living editor Lenore Vickrey created a binder of family recipes for her daughterin-law, Anna Bedsole Vickrey, using an online to holidays as well as everyday events.” Joanne used the BHG website to gather company. recipes, as family members entered their contributions online and sent photos to her. She then used the “cut and paste” method with the photos and had 15 to 20 cookbooks printed at an office supply store, in time for a family reunion in Gulf Shores that year. BHG later featured the cookbook in Potluck Magazine in 2003.

The Rawls cousins gather at Point A Lake in Covington County to prepare a family recipe from their family cookbook. From left, Richard Rawls, Jess Rawls, Joanne Rawls Mock and Phil Rawls. PHOTO BY ROBIN RAWLS

Honoring a mother’s legacy

In 2015, Denise Brassell collaborated with her sisters-in-law, Beth Joiner, Nancy Barnes and Maria Ashmore, to publish a keepsake tribute cookbook, In the Kitchen with Mimi, to her motherin-law, Alice Melva Owens Brassell, affectionately called “Mimi” by her family. Mrs. Brassell grew up on a farm in rural Henry County close to Baker Hill, served by Pea River Electric Cooperative.

“It only seemed fitting to honor Mimi’s legacy by compiling what we considered to be her most favorite recipes, in some cases our most favorite dishes she prepared, and anecdotes in some fashion,” says Denise. She hand-typed each recipe for the cookbook, then sent them to Friends and Family Cookbook Publishers (the company has since stopped creating new cookbooks, according to its website), and later sent in family photos and original recipe cards to add a personal touch.

“We went through several edits, changing picture locations and captions over the course of many months before completion,” she says. “The result is a priceless family treasure.” Only 100 books were printed, as “it was mainly intended as a keepsake for family members and friends and as a memorial to Mimi. The cookbook epitomizes who she was while serving on this earth and who she will always be remembered as in our hearts.”

Maria Ashmore remembers her mother being well known for her delicious meals, “even cooking for my dad’s office and Thanksgiving and often cooking at church,” she says. Looking back through the cookbook brings back many memories of her childhood, shelling peas and butterbeans under the oak tree at the family farm house. “I can just visualize my mother in the kitchen making these delicious recipes.”

Clockwise, from top, old family photos can enhance pages of an heirloom cookbook; an early photo of Alice Melva Owens Brassell (“Mimi”); cover of the cookbook; a vintage photo of “Mimi’s girls” from the book, daughter-in-law Denise Brassell and sisters Nancy Barnes, Maria Ashmore and Beth Joiner; and pages from inside the book featuring both the handwritten and the typed version of Mimi’s Peach Pie recipe.

Family reunions and food go together

Family reunions are often the impetus for creating heirloom family cookbooks like the Conecuh River Rats book. The Pryor Family Cookbook, created in 2007 for a family reunion in Chicago, is a simple spiral-bound compilation of recipes from young and old. Alyse Studivant Williams, now a clinical psychologist in Chicago and a niece of Jackie and Joseph Trimble of Montgomery, assembled the book as part of the reunion fun.

“The idea of the cookbook was conceived as a way to offer connection to each other that we might share the gift of food and perpetuate our legacy in a new and different way,” she wrote in the book’s introduction. Jackie treasures her copy, whose pages are lovingly splattered with bits of ingredients used over the past 15 years.

Her favorite is likely “Mama’s Sunday Biscuits,” from her mother-in-law Marybelle P. Trimble, now 100 years old. “Every Sunday morning she made those biscuits,” Jackie remembers, recalling watching her assemble the flour, shortening, sugar and milk and cutting the dough. The book has some humorous additions from young family members: Joseph Trimble II contributed his “Super Dooper Milkshake” and his younger brother, Joshua Calvin Trible, offered his “Dagwood Sandwich” of bread, bologna, lettuce, ketchup, mayo, tomatoes and mustard.

Besides family reunions, the holidays are another favorite time for creating and giving family cookbooks, according to Christina Gibson, director of growth for Create My Cookbook (createmycookbook.com), an Atlanta-based company which has preserved 5.5 million recipes for families since its founding in 2007.

“The person making the cookbook is often a daughter,” she says, with ages ranging from 35 to 65. But recently an 89-year-old put together a cookbook, proving that even older adults are very capable of using the online software even if they were nervous at the outset.

Jackie Trimble holds a copy of a cookbook, published in 2007 for a family reunion, which she has used for the past 15 years. PHOTO BY LENORE VICKREY Marcia Weber and her mother, Lucia Driggers, are working on compiling recipes for a family cookbook.

A healing process

While the process can evoke some sadness for our family’s cooks who are no longer alive, the gathering and reading through the loved one’s recipes actually can be healing, Christina says. “Grandma has recently passed and (the cookbook) is a way to celebrate the grandmother and all the memories she created for her family in the kitchen. It’s a way to relive those moments, to preserve the family memory, the culture and the heritage for future generations.”

Not surprisingly, the most common title for a family cookbook is simply, “Mom.” Most cookbooks average between 30 and 60 pages, and can be published with a hard cover, in a binder (so pages can be added) or as an e-book accessible on a cellphone. “But when it comes down to it, people still like the printed book,” Christina says. YouTube tutorials offer help and design services are offered. The process is “very easy,” she adds.

Marcia Weber of Wetumpka is working on a family cookbook with her 98-year-old mother, Lucia Driggers, who published a book on the settlers of Wicksburg in the Wiregrass area after Marcia’s father, longtime managing editor and publisher of The Dothan Eagle, passed away. That project was an opportunity for her to “get her grieving worked out,” Marcia says, but then she needed another project. Thus the idea for a family cookbook was born.

“We’re in the compilation process,” she says. “I am so grateful my Mom can still explain certain recipes and the important ingredients which are local to my hometown Wiregrass area. I have driven 100 miles for the right cornmeal (from Pollard’s Mill in Geneva County), and have tried three stores before finding chicken bags to make the chicken broth for dressing.”

Pulling together these “old-timey country cooking” recipes from her mother’s memory has been rewarding for both of them, she says. “We’ve gotten about 40 recipes so far,” including “Mom’s Holiday Dressing,” green rice (made with green onion, celery and green pepper), chicken pot pie, her dad’s chili and her grandmother’s pecan pie.

“The whole point was to preserve family memories for the family,” she says. “We may actually publish it!”

The Create My Cookbook company can incorporate original recipe cards in heirloom cookbooks, along with typed versions.

Readers share their favorite cookbooks

For some, a cookbook received as a gift is enough to make it a keepsake. Others are treasured heirlooms, passed from one generation to the next.

Even homespun, simple cookbooks – like those sold as fundraisers by Junior Leagues and women’s church groups – hold a special place for many home cooks. What the recipes may lack in sophistication is more than made up for in the sense of community and tradition that graces the pages.

We asked readers to share their favorites with us. See if you recognize any of them! — Allison Law

Linda Kelso, Joe Wheeler EMC:

These days we have shelves of cookbooks and wonder if we should even keep them since you can find almost any recipe you need online. Just as there is something comforting about holding a real book, so it is with a cookbook. You can mark the pages, add notes and dream of the recipes you will try.

My paternal grandmother, Cecil Kelso, only had one cookbook – a 1950 Duluth’s Favorite Recipes. When I got the cookbook, I was surprised to find that several of “her” recipes, which she had passed on to us, were from this cookbook. I have spent hours looking at the book; few of the recipes use cans of soup, but many use canned vegetables in a city where there’s often snow for nine months of a year. Kolachy, Kringle, Patica, Fattigmond – recipes from a bygone era of immigrant grandmothers showing the ethnic diversity of this Minnesota city at the head of the lakes. I am honored to be the granddaughter that got “the” cookbook.

Jeffrey M. Jones, Langston, Ala.:

When I was a mailman in Texas, I passed a yard sale and saw a 10-cent French paperback cookbook. Everything you can imagine is in there! Quiche, Hollandaise sauce, pate and my favorite, beef in red wine sauce. The book’s 96 pages are not connected in any way anymore, but I still use it. I think I’ll make some vichyssoise tonight – all from (a) 10-cent (book).

Bill Dunbar, Dixie EC and Baldwin EMC:

Whenever anyone talks cookbooks, and we have all the usual special family ones, there is one that stands out. It’s not just a cookbook (and a very good one) – it is a time capsule of life on the Gulf coast of Alabama. For those of us who were so fortunate to experience this lifestyle this cookbook takes us back to a time not really gone with the wind but still alive in our hearts and minds. Food, Fun, and Fable from Meme’s on Bon Secour River is a must-read. After that I would say find the old timers from the area, (because) everyone knows Meme’s. Meme brought me out my first broiled flounder supper. I was just barely starting grade school. She explained how this young ‘man’ with the curly hair and raw sunburned nose could eat this fish one side at a time and never worry about eating a bone. I cannot eat broiled flounder out to this day. It just doesn’t measure up to Charley’s and Meme’s!

Diane Meyer, Cullman EC:

I actually have two favorite cookbooks, and both were published by Auburn University in the 1960s. My grandmother purchased them and they were passed down to me. One is a cookbook, the other is a canning book and I have used both. I used the cookbook when I was a child. I learned how to make “standard” butter cookies (we called them sugar cookies) from this book as well as a standard butter cake.

My favorite thing about the cookbooks is that my grandmother hand wrote extra recipes in any open space on the pages. I cherish seeing her handwriting and her comments on the recipes. I am now in the process of teaching my granddaughter to cook using different cookbooks and we are making new memories!

Michele and Gary St. Laurent, Wetumpka, Ala.:

Our first Christmas together in 1980, my husband and I did not know what to get each other. So, we headed to the mall on Christmas Eve. One of the things I picked out for myself was this Betty Crocker Cookbook. I taught myself how to cook from this book. I will always keep it. I still use it but have memorized the ones I use most.

Ashley Smith, Tallapoosa River EC:

When I need a reminder of how much of a particular ingredient goes in a recipe, I call Mama. Each time, she tells me to “hold on while she checks.” On her end of the line, she stands at the kitchen counter and flips the pages of her cookbook until she finds the recipe and then responds. She probably knows most ingredients and measurements by heart but likes to confirm. I know both of my sisters make similar calls to Mama while cooking.

Not only is her cookbook a collection of recipes, Mama’s cookbook holds our family history, connecting the years through the foods we enjoy. My favorite cookbook belongs to my Mama, Ann Dudley Parkman.

Barbara Perdue Middleton, Pioneer EC:

My favorite cookbook is A Taste of Butler County, Alabama: Treasured Family Recipes of The Butler County Historical Society. This special keepsake was published as part of our Society’s 40th anniversary celebration in 2004.

Butler County Historical Society members contributed 250 pages of beloved recipes of yesterday and today, along with recollections and treasured family photographs. And, since it is a Butler County cookbook, we have a special Crawfish Pie to go along with Jambalaya and File’ Gumbo in honor of our native son, Hank Williams Sr. It is truly a book to read and enjoy!

Nicole Law, Central Alabama EC:

This treasured cookbook belonged to my great-grandmother, Mandy Moon Powell, and later to my grandmother, Lu Powell Sample. It includes many of their own hand-written recipes between the worn pages, and when I prepare one of these recipes, it is a little like walking in their shoes. Of course, Mandy did not have the luxury of electricity in her kitchen when she first used this cookbook! I love that their traditions continue to bring my family special treats and enjoyment.

The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo’s beautiful grounds.

Gulf Coast Zoo PHOTO BY EMMETT BURNETT comes roaring back

By Emmett Burnett

Katrina is due for an annual medical checkup requiring a blood sample. As she receives the shot, her demeanor is calm, which is good – because Katrina is a black leopard.

She backs up to the side of her enclosure. Through the fence, the jungle feline offers her tail, allowing healthcare providers to draw blood from it in a syringe. Yet another story of many at Gulf Shores’ Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo.

“The Little Zoo that Could,” so named by Animal Planet, which produced a 2006 TV series chronicling the facility’s recovery from three brutal hurricanes, is a story in itself. Like some of its occupants, the zoo was once an endangered species.

“We may be the only place in the world to evacuate an entire zoo, three times,” says executive director, Joel M. Hamilton. During hurricanes and the aftermath, animals took refuge in area backyards, fields, and employees’ homes.

“Hurricane Ivan (Sept. 16, 2004) was the game changer,” the zoo’s director adds. “It was time to move.” The zoo, which began in 1989, moved inland six miles in 2018 for a bigger, better facility, with more animals, extra features, and better protection against storms. The grand opening was March 11, 2020. It closed March 18, 2020. “It was a fantastic day, lots of excitement!” recalls Hamilton about the zoo’s new beginning that lasted just seven days before it was shut down by COVID-19. Down but not out, the Alabama Gulf Ashlyn Kenwright works with Katrina, a black leopard. Coast Zoo reopened again on May 23, PHOTO BY EMMETT BURNETT 2020. With about 25 acres and more coming, over 199 species, 31 sub-species, and 8 endangered species, the Little Zoo that Could is the Little Zoo that Grew. “It’s still one big loop, but bigger,” says the site’s public relations

social media manager Marcale Sisk, as we stroll the boardwalk on a park tour. “Over there is Boodah,” she says, pointing at a massive American black bear, bigger and stronger than you are. “He is 18 years old. When we got him he was no bigger than a football.”

Like most employees here, Marcale refers to the animals by name. In addition to Boodah and previously mentioned Katrina, we greet a wolf trio, Jake, Luna and Jet; one of the giraffe couple, Benjamin; a Eurasian lynx dubbed Casanova; and a pig named – wait for it – Kevin Bacon.

“The exhibits have a closeness feel. It is an intimate experience,” Hamilton adds, while petting a giraffe’s head. “Our staff uses the same public pathways visitors use. We want workers accessible to guests and their questions.”

Caring for all kinds of animals

Behind the scenes

Working at a zoo looks fun, and it is, but at a price. “Running a zoo is a business and an expensive one,” the director says, about custody of creatures on a $5.3 million budget. “We spend $5,000 a week just on animal care and welfare.”

The support staff and behind the scenes work is enormous. Departments here, typical of any other business, include accounting, marketing, social media, food services, a retail gift shop, and relatively new top-notch restaurant. “We are also in the hospitality business,” Hamilton says, “and have a great town for it.”

He says that Gulf Shores is becoming an all-in-one destination. People come for great beaches but while here, they look for other things to do. “We are one of those places.”

In 2021, 234,000 guests walked through the zoo’s gates. “Considering the uncertainty of COVID during that time, that was a good year,” Hamilton says. “We are looking for better numbers in 2022.”

The zoo’s development director, Paula White, agrees. “A lot of people do not realize we are a non-profit. I am thankful for the generosity of people. We could not build this without them and their generous contributions. We depend on visitors coming through the gates, donations, and the kindness of guests.”

Like many of the zoo’s inhabitants, much of the staff is nocturnal. Security personnel patrol the grounds, checking on animals, and making sure all is well, 24/7.

Around 7 a.m., other staffers make their first rounds. With experience, zookeepers learn personalities. Just as no two humans are exactly alike, so are no two animals. “They recognize their people,” Hamilton says. “Baboons call for their keepers as soon as the humans are in sight. Many of our animals distinguish the difference between an employee’s uniform and the guests’ clothes.”

Two kitchens prepare animal meals. For the big cats, the menu is meat, lots of it. A tiger can eat 6 to 8 pounds of chicken and red meat a day. Other inhabitants do not consume as much but require specialized care. It varies by species.

“Some visitors think our reptiles do not take a lot of upkeep because reptiles can go days without eating a bite,” Hamilton says. “But environment maintenance is critical. Most reptiles here bask

under ultraviolet light in a room with a constant 78 to 80 degrees.” Deviation beyond those temperatures may result in the animal’s death. To ensure those needs are met and to discuss other issues, the morning staff meets daily. Animal concerns, maintenance, construction, events scheduled, and other topics are reviewed. “Our people are trained to know their animals,” Hamilton continues. “Any abnormalities are reported at meetings, and to our veterinarians who immediately take action.” Which brings us back to Katrina the black leopard, a gift from Jack Hanna, TV host of “Jack Hanna’s Animals Adventures.” Why would a wild animal willingly submit to a shot? “We train our large cats to work with us,” Hamilton says. “Initially they are nervous about being stuck by a needle. But like humans, they get used to it. “We learn to offer our shoulder for a shot. Cats learn to offer their tails. It makes diagnostics easier on humans and felines and is safer than knocking a big cat down with anesthesia.” Cleaning animal environments is daily, sometimes hourly, depending on the species. Obviously one does not walk into a lion’s den and announce, “housekeeping!” Cleaning the homes of aggressive animals, such as giant cats with giant fangs, is done by luring the animal into a side room adjacent to their enclosures. For many, these side rooms also serve as their hurricane shelters. How do zoos obtain animals? Online, sort of. Hamilton says, “We are in a network of zoos and constantly see what is out there. If we want a particular species, we inquire, and sometimes trade an animal we have for one another zoo has.” Most animals in zoos today are raised in captivity, not caught from the wild. Gulf Shores’ zoo occasionally accepts donations from people who thought they could raise exotic animals as pets. They can’t. The number one donated animal at the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo? Brittany Garlipp with Bruce Quillis, an African crested Parrots. porcupine and one of the popular animals on the Zoo’s With a day done, some animals bed social media. PHOTO COURTESY GULF COAST ZOO for the night. Others are just getting started. For employees it is another day of what many animal lovers consider a dream job. “There’s never a dull moment here,” Sisk says with a smile from her administrative office. Reflecting on working at a zoo, she adds, “A great thing about this job is when having a bad day, I can walk out here and talk to a lemur or sloth and life is good again.” Zoo employee Paula White has lived in Gulf Shores since childhood. She remembers the zoo’s early days. “It is rewarding to see the zoo come full circle, to see it develop, to be enjoyed by future generations,” she says. “It is nice to see the legacy continue.” Meanwhile, Katrina the black leopard’s check-up was fine. She’s good to go, just like the Little Zoo that Could, and did. The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is located on 20499 Oak Road East, Gulf Shores. More information is available at alabamagulfcoastzoo.com.

Variety of cuisine influences set Southwood Kitchen apart

By Jennifer Kornegay

Daphne, Alabama, sometimes takes a backseat to its flashier neighbor, Mobile, but while this quaint community is quieter, less big-city excitement doesn’t equal boring, especially when it comes to eating. If you know where to look, you’ll find Daphne’s dining scene is diverse and delicious.

Case in point: Southwood Kitchen. Don’t let its strip-mall location fool you. The exterior is styled with the welcoming look of a house. A large carved-wooden sign announces its name. And inside, there’s plenty of palate-pleasing action in an intimate atmosphere, thanks to owner and executive chef Jeremiah Matthews’ ability to blend his formal culinary training, interest in international foods and an appreciation for the flavors of his home.

Matthews moved to the area in 1983 and left to attend the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris, then went to college in upstate New York before a stint cooking out West. Then, he came back to south Alabama. While he was the chef at lauded Magnolia Springs’ eatery Jesse’s, an opportunity to open his own restaurant popped up and was too good to not to pursue. “I’d spent enough time working for others and felt like it was time to do it for myself,” he says.

In August 2017, he opened Southwood Kitchen. The spot has a neighborhood bistro vibe, thanks to friendly, chatty servers, a relaxed ambiance and the regulars occupying bars stools and tables. “We’ve got people who come in and eat here three and sometimes even four times a week,” Matthews says.

They’re drawn to a menu whose selections lean toward fine dining but are devoid of any pretense and defy any rigid classification. While a close look reveals Matthews’ classical French background in technique and some ingredients – duck-fat whipped potatoes, braised items with jus reductions – there’s plenty of Alabama too, like a lunch starter featuring a generous dollop of creamy, sharp pimento cheese waiting to be scooped up not by regular ole crackers, but crunchy, just-fried pork rinds still crackling from the hot oil. The midday meal continues with sandwiches like hot-sauced chicken with house-made pickles and hefty burgers anchored by patties of 100-percent certified Angus beef ground in-house daily. “I love a good burger myself, but our salads have big fans too,” Matthews says. The fresh and filling salad options share a common leaf. “All my lettuces are grown locally and hydroponically,” he says, “and our diners love the difference you can taste from that.” A standout is the black and blue beef tender salad with bite-sized bits of grilled steak, pickled okra, tomatoes, bacon and crumbled gorgonzola topping a blend of romaine, iceberg and spinach.

At night, dinner brings a variety of options, some with international influences that invite your tastebuds to take an adventure. Elk tenderloin is embellished with green-garlic chimichurri, black garlic lacquer and shitake-spinach risotto. A Korean barbecue-style dish with ginger-scallion noodle stir fry and soy caramel is a favorite. But standards like shrimp and grits and beef filet, which Matthews calls “fail-safes,” are almost always available.

“I like a lot of different foods, so I took a little from everywhere I’ve worked and traveled and all my training to create the menu,” he says. This interest in a wide variety of cuisines keeps the menu changing, as does his commitment to cooking with the seasons and using locally sourced ingredients. “A lot of my veggies come from the same farm where I get lettuces. Often the eggs we use come from my own farm,” Matthews says.

And proximity to the Gulf means offers of practically still-swimming fish dishes at night. “At dinner, there are three to four fresh fish specials. I get fish from the Fairhope Fish House, and usually, what I get was caught that morning,” he says. He also keeps a few Alabama-farmed oysters available. “I love the boutique, farmed oysters, like those from Murder Point and Point aux Pin.”

Matthews is picky about the quality of what comes into his kitchen and goes out on diners’ plates, but he’s also always striving to find new and tasty ways to approach foods. “Really, whatever I can get my hands on, I try to make something nice out of it,” he says. “It’s all about pleasing our customers. When people are done eating here, I just hope they leave feeling like they can’t wait to come back.”

Southwood Kitchen

1203 U.S. Highway 98, Suite 3D Daphne, AL 251-626-6676 southwoodkitchen.com Hours: Lunch, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday dinner, 5 p.m.- 9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday l

Clockwise from bottom left: Executive chef Jeremiah Matthews trained in Paris and New York before coming back to Alabama and opening his own restaurant. PHOTO COURTESY OF SOUTHWOOD KITCHEN An appetizer of sharp pimento cheese on crunchy, just-fried pork rinds is just one of the many dishes that are Alabama-inspired with an unusual twist. PHOTO BY JENNIFER KORNEGAY The black and blue beef tender salad with bite-sized bits of grilled steak, pickled okra, tomatoes, bacon and crumbled gorgonzola.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER KORNEGAY Southwood Kitchen’s exterior has the welcoming look of a home, with its large carved-wooden sign, in the small town of Daphne.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER KORNEGAY

My house is already festooned for Halloween thanks to a large, industrious and talented crew of eight-legged decorators, and judging from social media posts, it appears similar crews have been at work everywhere.

These decorators are of course the spiders — mostly the orb weaver varieties — that we’ve been running into (literally) in our yards and gardens ever since summer and which tend to become even more noticeable in the fall as they mate and lay eggs or prepare to overwinter as pregnant females.

The prevalence of webs may be one reason spiders are closely associated with Halloween, but their seasonal ill repute is no doubt compounded by age-old superstitions portraying them as the wicked consorts of witches and bearers of bad omens. However, some superstitions cast spiders as harbingers of good luck and wealth, and one medieval-era superstition even asserts that seeing a spider on Halloween means the spirit of a deceased loved one is looking out for you.

Superstition aside, there is no doubt that the fear of spiders is real; in fact, arachnophobia is one of the most common animal phobias in the world. There’s some speculation that this is a genetic or pre-programmed human trait, though studies have also shown that it’s their bulbous abdomens, hairy coverings and especially their long legs and erratic movements that elicit the greatest “eek” factor.

Still, there is little to fear and much to appreciate about spiders, says Drew Hataway, an associate professor of biological and environmental sciences at Samford University in Birmingham. Hataway, who wasn’t born a spider fan, fell under their charms as an undergraduate student when he helped former Samford biology professors W. Mike Howell and the late Ronald Jenkins take photographs for their 2004 book, “Spiders of the Eastern United States: A Photographic Guide.”

Hataway went on to assist Howell and Jenkins in a study using the Santa Rosa wolf spider, a small white spider that lives on beach dunes, as an indicator species to measure pre- and post-hurricane dune health along the Gulf Coast. After spending time with spiders, Hataway became fascinated — dare we say enchanted — by these amazing arthropods and has continued to study wolf spiders as harbingers of other environmental changes such as wildfires and beach development.

According to Hataway, spiders are diverse, fascinating and abundant in Alabama. With some 95 species indigenous to the state, “You’re never more than eight feet away from a spider (pun intended),” Hataway says, but they are here to help. They manufacture stronger-than-steel silk, which in some species creates those amazing and gorgeous webs and also has medicinal applications and was even used to make a spooky-cool brand of Nike shoes, and spiders are also incredible engineers. Just look at a few webs for proof.

But it’s their role in our ecosystems that make them especially special.

“Spiders are predators that (primarily) eat insects but they are also prey for birds and bats,” Hataway says, which makes them integral to our food web. “In the major food systems of Alabama, they sit right in the middle of everything.”

In addition, as spiders eat insects (and sometimes larger prey like worms, snails, frogs and lizards), they help control pest populations, which also benefits humankind. Some, such as granddaddy long legs (also known as “harvestmen,” which aren’t true spiders but are in the arachnid family) are used as biological control agents to control aphids and other crop borers in farm fields and gardens.

All true spiders do produce and use venom, but few pose a significant threat so there’s no need to get rid of them. As with snakes, Hataway’s advice is “Don’t touch them if you don’t have to.” Instead, appreciate them from afar for all their many attributes and, as Hataway says, especially for “what’s most important — spiders are part of the greater creation.”

To learn more about spiders, Hataway suggests using the iNaturalist app, where you can also become a “citizen scientist” by reporting spider sightings. Or check out the al.com article “Spiders of Alabama: 58 Spiders You Should Know.”

Katie Jackson is a freelance writer and editor based in Opelika, Alabama. Contact her at katielamarjackson@gmail.com.

Spider magic:

Finding the spectacular in the spooky

OCTOBER TIPS

• Plant shrubs, trees, wildflower seed, spring bulbs. • Look for fall plant sales. • Divide perennials. • Sow seed for a cover crops. • Harvest herbs and late-season vegetables and fruits. • Keep bird feeders and baths clean and full for fall migration.

Alabama Bookshelf

In this periodic feature, we highlight books either about Alabama people or events, or written by Alabama authors. Summaries are not reviews or endorsements. We also occasionally highlight book-related events. Email submissions to bookshelf@alabamaliving.coop. Due to the volume of submissions, we are unable to mention all the books we receive.

Of Mules and Mud: The Story of Alabama Folk Potter, Jerry Brown, by Jerry Brown, edited by Joey Brackner, The University of Alabama Press, $22.95 (Alabama history/folklore) Folklorist Joey Brackner met famed folk artist and traditional stoneware pottery maker Jerry Brown, who was from Hamilton, Alabama, in 1983, and the two became friends who collaborated on a variety of documentary and educational projects. A year before Brown’s death, Brackner sat down with him to record his life story; the result is this book. An annual festival in northwest Alabama honors Brown’s memory. Dear Denise: Letters to the Sister I Never Knew, by Lisa McNair, The University of Alabama Press, $19.95 (family memoir) This book takes the form of 40 letters from the author to her sister, one of the four little girls who died in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. McNair apprises her sister of all that has come to pass since her death, both on the intimate level of their family and on the large scale of the struggle for racial equality. The letters are accompanied by 29 black-and-white photographs, most from the McNair family collection and many taken by their father. Alabama Baby: A Baby’s Book of Firsts from the Yellowhammer State, written and illustrated by Allison Dugas Behan, Pelican Publishing, $24.95 (family and relationships) Keep track of a baby’s essential Alabama firsts in this unique baby book. Capture his or her first experiences with food, including fried chicken and an Alabama-must-have – banana pudding! Colorful pages provide guided journaling of the baby’s first football game, visit to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and more. Includes baby shower sign-in pages.

Rock Killough’s Front Porch Stories, by Rock Killough, God Manifest Publishing, $21.99 (short stories) Born and raised outside of Greenville, Alabama, Killough is an accomplished songwriter who’s written songs recorded by The Oak Ridge Boys and Randy Travis, among many others. After retiring to the porch of his country cabin near Guntersville, Killough began to reflect on life and music, and wrote down his musings; he would later publish them on social media, which earned him a following. One of his followers suggested he publish his stories, and the result is this book. The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance, by Frye Gaillard and Cynthia Tucker, NewSouth Books, $25.95 (history) The award-winning authors present a series of essays considering the role of the South in shaping America’s political and cultural landscape. They examine the morphing of the Southern strategy of Nixon and Reagan into the Republican Party of today. They also find hope in the South, that a legacy rooted in the civil rights years might ultimately lead the nation on the path to redemption. Lost Towns of Central Alabama, by Peggy Jackson Walls, Arcadia Publishing and the History Press, $21.99 (Alabama history) Settlers came to central Alabama in the early 1800s with big dreams. Miners panned the streams and combed the hillsides hoping to strike it rich. Demand for cotton led to the establishment of multiple mills and mill villages built for the workers. But when such booms went bust, they left ghost towns in their wake. The author walks the empty streets of these once lively towns to revive the stories of the people who built them and lived in them.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Why it’s important to report life changes when you receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

Did you know that certain life changes can affect your Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments? Sometimes your circumstances may change after you apply for or begin to receive SSI. When that happens, it’s important for you to tell us about these changes. This will ensure that you receive the benefits to which you’re eligible.

Here are some common changes you must report if you have applied for or receive SSI:

• Changes in income, wages, or self-employment income; • Starting, stopping, or changing jobs; • Changing your address or persons moving in or out of the household; • Changes in marital status (including any same-sex relationships); • Having more than $2,000 if you are single or $3,000 if you are married in resources that you can cash in, sell, or use to pay for food and shelter; and • Changes in resources, including money in financial accounts and buying or selling extra vehicles, stocks, investments, or property.

For a complete list of reporting responsibilities for all our programs, please read our publication, What You Need to Know

Kylle’ McKinney, SSA Public Affairs Specialist, can be reached by email at kylle.mckinney@ssa.gov. When You Get Supplemental Security Income at ssa.gov/pubs/ EN-05-11011.pdf.

How to report changes in wages

You can conveniently report your wages using our: • Free SSA Mobile Wage Reporting app for smartphones. • Online Wage Reporting Tool using your personal my Social Security account. If you don’t have an account, create one today at ssa.gov/myaccount.

Be sure to sign up for monthly SSI wage reporting emails or text reminders, so you never forget.

Other options include speaking with a representative by calling toll free at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) or visiting or writing your local Social Security Office.

Report changes in a timely manner

You must report a change within 10 days after the month it happens. You should report a change even if you’re late. Failure to report timely may cause you to: • Receive less than you should and take longer to receive the correct amount; • Receive more than you should and have to pay it back; • Have a penalty deducted from your SSI payment; or • Lose SSI for not reporting information that we use to determine whether you are still eligible for SSI.

Securing your today and tomorrow starts with being informed. Please share this information with your friends and family—and post it on social media.

October crossword by Myles Mellor

Across 1 Like a haunted house 4 One who casts spells 7 Detective Chief Inspector, for short 8 Entomb 10 Loud utterances of horror, perhaps 11 Put down, in slang 12 Former 13 Halloween automaton 15 Backyard pond fish 16 Dark area 17 Maple, for one 19 Jack o’ Lantern, when carved 22 Scary 25 Angry 26 Withered old witch 27 Gets close to 29 Kid 30 Not good/not bad, 2 words 31 Scatter Down 1 Insects often found all over the place at Halloween 2 Responsibility 3 Barbie’s boy doll 4 Well-known witch description 5 Halloween greeting, 3 words 6 Unfriendly 7 Spanish for devil 9 Do away with 14 Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ ___

Prayer”, 2 words 16 Bats and cats are often seen as these in Halloween decorations 18 Spirit-raising event 19 Hocus ___ (magic trick) 20 Maintain 21 When bats fly and vampires hunt 23 French for summer 24 Toward sunrise 28 Go bad