My daughter’s in-laws live on a mountain (OK — I guess it’s only a really really big hill, comparatively speaking) in northwest Alabama. I love going to visit — you can see 
why. Thankfully, they consider me part of the family, so I get to go often!
You know how you always tell your parents, “You really should write those stories down.”? Well, my friend’s dad has done that, and the stories in “Before and After” are fascinating. Woody Stanley, 93, was born in rural Colbert County, Alabama. He owned and operated several businesses and restaurants in the area and still lives there, where he’s just closing his latest venture — a restaurant-supply store. In his lifetime, as the book says, he’s gone from kerosene lamps and candlelight to TVA electricity, from mules and Model Ts to the space shuttle. Reading his book is like sitting down and talking to him and learning about the ways things used to be. Folks in this part of Alabama know him from the famous Woodymac Drive-In restaurants he owned from 1947 to 1968. Everybody went there for burgers and shakes. Even Elvis Presley ate there after his history-making concerts at the nearby Sheffield Community Center. You’ve got to read the book to find out what Elvis always ordered — and why! You need to read it, too, to see how Woody defused a potential racial conflict on a bus he was driving during World War II — before Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Woody also witnessed Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s visit to the Shoals to announce the beginning of TVA. My friend, Susan, said her dad wrote the book in about a year on a yellow pad with a pen at the dining room table. “He was inspired to write it because of the history and changes he’s witnessed and because he wanted to share things that ‘people in the last 30-40 years wouldn’t know about’,” Susan said. The book is $24, including shipping. Email jcant1@hughes.net to place an order or to pay by credit card with Paypal. Or mail a check to 1101 Brookford Place, Muscle Shoals, AL 3566. Or stop by Commercial Equipment Supply, 2613 North Jackson Hwy., Sheffield, this week to meet Woody as the store clearns out inventory with a yard sale, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday-Saturday. There are all sorts of great kitchen and restaurant items left – and Woody might even autograph a book for you!
Grandson Nolan Thomas Behel with grandfathers Buddy Behel, left, and
John Pitts, right, during a Labor Day family cookout. Adorable, right? What a lucky little guy Nolan is to have these men — and others — as role models in his life. Sort of makes you feel good about the future, doesn’t it?
Something happened with my favorite peanut-butter cookie recipe this weekend and I’m not sure what. Usually when I make this, the cookies turn out thick, soft and crumbly. However, when I stirred up a batch on Monday morning for a family Labor Day gathering, the cookies ended up flat and crunchy instead. Why? This has happened a few times in the million years I’ve been making this recipe and I never know why. Monday, I could tell I was on the way to flat and crunchy because the dough was smooth and glossy — more like a batter than a dough — as I mixed it up. When the cookies turn out thick 
and soft, the dough is thick and solid and definitely has to be spooned. Luckily, the cookies were a hit — some people prefer thin and crunchy — although my daughter immediately noticed that they weren’t my usual. I guess it’s good that I’ve got a go-to recipe — it’s so quick and easy I can do it in my sleep and probably have — but I’d love to know why it turns out one way sometimes and another way other times. Alton Brown, where are you when I need you???
Here’s the recipe (it’s also one of my favorites because, with no eggs involved, you can eat the dough with abandon. Not that I do that or anything.):
Peanut Butter Cookies
Melt one cup butter. Stir in one cup each white sugar and dark-brown sugar. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Stir together 2 1/2 cups flour and 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda and add to mixture. Stir in 1 cup peanut butter. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet and bake about 10 minutes in preheated 350-degree oven. Let cool in pan a minute or so before removing to cooling rack.
I used to get sort of excited when hurricane news took over TV. I mean, who doesn’t like the idea of cozily hunkering down in your home safe and sound while a big storm rages outside? But then Katrina came, and nothing would ever be the same. As Gustav approaches and people in New Orleans and others in the projected path get ready, we can only hope and pray that this time won’t be as bad.
But Alabama folks did get a diversion this weekend, as the Crimson Tide beat Clemson 34-10, effectively taunting naysayers: “We’re baaaaaack!” If you were in the Georgia Dome or watched it on TV (and really, wasn’t the entire state tuned in Saturday night? It would have been a great time to go to Wal-Mart if you needed to.), 
you could feel the power of the Tide. And everybody is asking this morning — it surely will be the main topic of conversation at church and Sunday dinner — “Is Nick Saban the One, after all? Is he the one destined to return us to greatness?” Stay tuned. It’ll be an interesting season.
And if you want to kick off a what we all hope will be a successful year, go to http://www.erolltide.com/ , where for $18.95 you can order a celebratory “Game Over” T-shirt with the Clemson score.
And oh, yeah, Auburn won, too.
We 50-something-year-old women are supposed to eat a good healthy breakfast for the sake of our bones, hearts, arteries, brains, waistlines and whatever else needs help. But when a friend (thank you, Susan!) shares with you some fresh homemade fig preserves, deliciousness trumps nutrition and there’s nothing to do but dig in and enjoy and be grateful for talented and generous friends. And really, is there anything much better than the sweet taste of summer lathered over a slice of toasted sourdough bread? No, there is not. And that sounds pretty healthy to me.
You know the rule that if you wore a trend the first time around, you should excuse yourself when it reappears? Well, rules are made for breaking, right? Because I know for a fact I had a dress exactly like this in eighth or ninth grade — we’re talking late 1960s/early 1970s — but I could not resist a redo when I saw this at Reed’s Department Store in downtown Tupelo, Miss., today. This funky KLD dress is hand-wash polyster but feels just like soft brushed cotton. Cannot wait to wear it with black tights and boots or flats and channel my inner Stevie Nicks. And speaking of Reed’s, http://www.reeds.ms/, it’s one of the few local and family-owned department stores left. The downtown flagship location anchors a vital and growing Tupelo and includes a gift shop, bridal registry and Reed’s Gum Tree Bookstore that specializes in Southern writers and writing. There’s a smaller store in Tupelo’s The Mall at Barnes Crossing and ones in Starkville and Jackson. A signature of Reed’s, besides its local community focus, is its friendly and helpful staff. Take my dress, for example. The downtown store didn’t have the size I wanted, so the woman helping me called the mall store and found my size. So, of course I had to bring it home with me after that, right? It wouldn’t have been polite not to, after all that effort. That’s my story, anyway, and I’m sticking to it.
I am fascinated with the coffee setup at my car dealership. I mean, this thing has every possible flavor of coffee you could want, as well as tea, sweeteners and creamers. It’s like a mini coffee shop right there in the waiting area. For free. And it’s way fun to use, too. You pick out the little foil packet with the coffee or tea you want and insert it into the maker (on the far right in the photo above). Follow the prompts, press a button, put a cup under the spout and in a minute you’ve got your drink — and the machine has swallowed the packet and is ready for the next. I don’t even like instant coffee, yet I can’t help but play with this every time I’m there. There’s also a drip coffee maker with both leaded and unleaded (as my husband calls “caf” and “decaf”) — I’m guessing that’s for folks who aren’t patient enough for instant. And speaking of cool things in businesses, this mouthwash station is in the women’s restroom (and I assume the men’s, too) of a downtown business center, and I’ve noticed similar ones in a couple other places. A great idea, especially for those of us quilty of carrying toothbrushes in our purses — a holdover habit from having to wear braces. Twice.
Wine has come to downtown Florence, Ala.! While it surely was fun to buy wine at Mapleton Cellars (in the almost 200-year-old George Coulter House on South 
Pine Street), it’s equally fun to buy wine downtown now that The Wine Seller is open. The Mapleton folks needed the space back in their home, so they closed the business earlier this summer. But a new downtown wine shop is 
filling the empty niche Mapleton left. Open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, the Wine Seller is at 324 N. Court St., on the corner of Court and Seminary where Lori Davis Gallery most recently was located (and where Culpepper’s Bakery was 40 or so years ago — you almost still can smell the cinnamon rolls and cheese bread). The new shop is stocked with wine for any budget and any occasion, with a helpful staff to help you figure out what you need. But wait, there’s more! What’s wine without cheese? Find the perfect accompaniment to your bottle in a small cooler stocked with delicious hard-to-find-locally choices. There’s also crackers, bread, vinaigrettes, oils and other gourmet goodies, many under The Wine Seller’s own label. Plus, you can find jewelry and other gifts here. The store is elegant yet cozy, with space set up for wine tastings (planned for twice a month, including First Fridays) and other events such as after-hours private parties. Get on the e-mail list at wineseller@att.net or call 256.766.1568.
Coffee with Cathy 