The Belle of Louisville

The Belle of Louisville is a national treasure

Story and photos by Pamela O’Meara

The Belle is parked at a wharf in Louisville

There’s nothing like nothing quite like a dinner cruise on the Belle of Louisville, an old steam-generated river boat turning 100 years old in 2014. Friends and I glided along the Ohio River from the downtown wharf in Louisville, KY, while we selected various dishes from the dinner buffet line, listened to a band and stood at the rails of the observation deck to watch the sights go by – a sailboat, old buildings, bridges, an old brickyard and finally, a stunning sunset.

The Belle is a National Historic Landmark

Sights along the Ohio River

Now owned by the city of Louisville, the Belle of Louisville was designed to be a ferry and freight vessel but was later refitted as an excursion boat. Completely paddlewheel-driven – visitors can watch the steam-driven paddles move rhythmically back and forth in the engine room -- the boat was able to travel on nearly all navigable inland waterways in the nation. It is the oldest operating Mississippi River-style steamboat in the world and a National Historic Landmark.

The sun sets.

In its early years, it hauled cotton, lumber and grain from Memphis. During World War ll, it was outfitted to push oil barges and then became a USO nightclub for soldiers stationed along the Mississippi. By 1962 it had fallen into great disrepair when Jefferson County Judge Marlow Cook bought it at an auction for $34,000. Then it was completely restored.

The Belle, back at the dock.

Besides lunch and dinner cruises, the Belle of Louisville offers a concession café and full service bar for guests choosing the sightseeing-only ticket. Next year special birthday events will be held.

For more information go to http://www.belleoflouisville.org.

Shelly Young's Best Apple Pie

Shelly Young peels apples.

Shelly Young’s best apple pie

By Pamela O’Meara

Photos by Pamela O’Meara

With fall coming and the apple season approaching, I’d like to share an apple pie recipe from the Chopping Block on Chicago’s near north side. Owner Shelly Young, who runs the busiest cooking school in Chicago, demonstrated how to make her mouth-watering apple pie in a cast iron skillet, which she said cooks the bottom crust evenly. Then she gave us all a generous serving of her delicious pie, which was full of thick apple slices, not the goo often found in store-bought pies.

Outside the Chopping Block in Chicago.

. "Pies have two purposes – dessert and breakfast the next day," she said with a chuckle and offered to give us her recipe.

For more information go to http://www.thechoppingblock.net.

Apple Pie

Preheat:                        375º

Prep time:                     20 minutes

Bake time:                    1 – 1 1/2 hours

Makes:                          One 9” pie.

3½ pounds                    Apples (Granny Smith or Pippin), peeled, cored and cut into 1/2” wedges

1/3 cup                          All-purpose flour

1 – 1 1/2 cups               Sugar

1 teaspoon                   Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon                Fine sea salt

1 recipe                         Pie or tart dough

1 1/2 tablespoons         Unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Shelly puts the apple mixture into a skillit

As needed                    Heavy whipping cream, for garnish

As needed                    Sugar, for garnish

1.        Prepare ingredients:

           -Toss apples, flour, sugar (vary amount depending upon taste of apples), cinnamon and salt in a large bowl to mix. 

           -Let sit while rolling dough.

                                     

2.        Roll out pie dough:

        -Divide chilled dough into two unequal parts (about 2/3rds for bottom crust and 1/3^rd for the top)

        -Place the smaller portion of dough in the refrigerator.

-Lightly dust a clean surface with flour and roll out bottom crust to ~1/8” thick, being

         certain to lift and turn the dough occasionally to ensure it does not stick.

        -Roll dough onto rolling pin, lift, and place into 9” cast iron pan. 

        -Gently push the dough to fit the pie dish, allowing excess to hang.

3.           Assemble the pie:

           -Add filling to the pie.

           -Sprinkle pieces of butter on top of the filling.

           -Remove smaller portion of dough from the refrigerator and roll into a 1/8” circle.

           -Insert a knife in several places through the top crust to create vents.

           -Place top potion of dough over filling and trim excess crust, leaving about 1” excess.

           -Close crust by folding over and pinching excess or using a fork to crimp.

           -Brush top of pie with heavy cream and sprinkle generously with sugar.

4.        Bake the pie:

                       -Place pie on a baking sheet covered in parchment and bake until filling is bubbly in the center,

                        apples are tender and top crust is golden brown, about 1 – 1 1/2 hours.

                       -Allow pie to cool before cutting and serving.

Pie or Tart Dough

Prepared by:           Partners

Prep time:               10 minutes

Makes:                   One double crust pie or two tarts

2 cups                    All-purpose flour

1-2 tablespoons      Sugar

Pinch                      Fine sea salt

6 oz (1½ sticks)      Unsalted butter, chilled

¼ cup                     Shortening, chilled

¼ - 1/3 cup             Cold water

1.      Prepare ingredients:

         -Put flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade.

         -Cut butter and shortening into small pieces and add to processor.

2.      Mix:

         -Pulse mixture until crumbly and butter is in small pieces throughout the flour.

         -Working quickly, start processor and add cold water until the mixture just forms a ball.

3.      Chill:

         -Turn out dough onto a work surface and flatten into a disk.

         -Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.

Shelly's pie is ready to eat.

Joe Ley Antiques in Louisville

Joe Ley Antiques in Louisville, KY

By Pamela O’Meara

Joe Ley Antiques in Louisville

Joe Ley discusses his antique business.

As an orphan who had no toys and was passed around unwanted from family to family, Joe Ley bought up all the old toys he could find – dolls, carousel horses, sleds, cradles – when he grew up. He bought up junk other people were discarding during urban renewal in the ‘50s and refurbished some of it to sell. All of this and far more – old posters, records, dishes, furniture, jewelry, chandeliers, doors, hardware, musical instruments, military memorabilia-- is now crammed into his 1890s three-story red brick former schoolhouse and yard in Louisville.

“As time passed, what once was junk became very collectible,” he said.

A carousel horse is on display.

His place is now popular for filming movies, for buying special pieces for decorating restaurants like TGI Fridays and for restoration projects.

All sorts of lights are featured.

In business here for 37 years, he buys and sells all over the U. S. though about one-third of his calls are from the Louisville area. He said 100,000 people come through in a year on a recent Saturday, 600 people stopped to look through his crammed rooms of stuff. He said he gets 40 to 50 calls a day to buy things. Sometimes he buys a whole estate, selects what he wants and disposes of the rest. He has bought salvage rights on buildings about to be torn down.

House Beautiful, Travel and Leisure and Southern Living magazines recommend Joe Ley Antiques as a source of unique and special items for a home or garden.

 “You could call me a “buyaholic,” he said. “It’s like surrounding yourself with beautiful things.”

Photos by Pamela O'Meara

For more information go to http://www.joeley.com.

Crawfish in Baton Rouge

A crawfish danced on the table.

Each crawfish makes one bite.

Dancing with crawfish in Baton Rouge

by Pamela O'Meara

Two red-shelled crawfish danced on the table
at Boutin's Cajun Restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The larger one stood on its back legs and waved its front legs in the air. The smaller one rolled onto its back and waved all legs. Then they met their fate in a pot of boiling water.

Out came the server with large dishes piled high with cooked crawfish. The server said to twist off the tail, crack the shell and squeeze out one bite of delicious meat.

Baton Rouge is a big oil town located on the Mississippi River 157 miles north of the Gulf Coast, Every day of my visit, I ate crawfish, served plain or grilled over salad greens or in an etouffee (gravy) served over rice or poached eggs. The area is famous for its delicious Cajun food, music and history.

Crawfish live in the freshwater swamps and marshes of southern Louisiana and
many are harvested from the Atchafalaya Basin, one of the largest swamps in
the U.S. They are also farmed in rice paddies. After the rice is harvested
and the water cools down in the winter, the crawfish rise from the mud and
can be caught. February to May is the height of the season, and crawfish
boils are popular with locals then.

At McGee's landing overlooking Atchafalaya Basin, we ate lunch in a large
windowed room overlooking the swamp. I ordered a salad topped with grilled
crawfish, continuing to focus on the specialty of the area.

Crawfish etouffee served over rice.

Dinner at Randol's Cajun Restaurant in Lafayette included a big dish of crawfish for an appetizer and a traditional Cajun meal of crawfish etouffee over rice with sweet potato pecan pie for dessert. The restaurant raises its own crawfish and crabs.

Wherever you go, the crawfish are tasty in season.

Photos by Pamela O'Meara
 

For more information on great places for crawfish, go to http://www.lafayettetravel.com
or http://visitbatonrouge.com

On the road to Sells (Arizona)

This memorial marks a traffic death 

on the road to Sells.

On the road to Sells

Pamela O’Meara

 

The road to Sells begins in Tucson, AZ and heads about 60 miles southwest, crossing into the Tohono O’odham Indian reservation where Sells is located.

Open range is the norm along narrow two-lane Highway 86 and cotton fields dot the countryside. In the distance, mountains ring the area, including Kitt Peak, which has the most diverse collection of observatories in the world and the National Solar Observatory. Baboquivari Peak, the sacred mountain of the Tohono O’odham people, is just to the south. 

This memorial marks another
unfortunate traffic death.

But most noticeable are the many crosses and other memorials along the road marking deaths at those spots. The road has no shoulder and a reputation for many fatal accidents, often alcohol-related, though there is no drinking on the reservation itself. One memorial has three white wooden crosses, others are single crosses decorated with wreaths or colored streamers and flowers. One looks like a church icon and yet another elaborate one has a motorcycle wheel in front, suggesting a motorcycle accident. Many memorials are marked with stones circles. A few have fences around to keep cattle out.

Along the way a couple of stores are selling Indian art along with snack foods and simple meals but it was mostly just the Sonoran desert and thousands of saguaro cactus.



Mexican goldpoppies cover the ground.

Beds of Mexican goldpoppies provide a cheery yellow ground cover between the palo verde and mesquite trees, and prickly pear and cholla cactus on long stretches of the road, probably thanks to a recent rain. What looks like birds’ nests or Spanish moss but actually is mistletoe hangs in many trees.

Near the border patrol station, half a dozen cameras on tripods are pointed at the road. Four border patrol officers stood talking to two illegal detainees sitting on the ground wearing handcuffs. The area is a runway for illegals crossing the border.

Border Patrol cars are visible all along the way, and on the lane heading back to Tucson, they stop everyone driving through. We removed our sunglasses while the border patrol officer peered in the back of the car, checking for any unintended ‘”guests” and then waved us on.

Our destination in Sells was the Desert Rain Café, a non-profit project of the Indian community to promote traditional and healthy Tohono O’odham foods and support their education system. We went there for the delicious Thursday lunch special of tender prickly pear glazed pork ribs, brown tepary beans, a whole wheat tortilla and side salad of dark greens with pieces of apple and strawberries with a touch of cactus nectar.
 

Adjacent to the café, the Desert Rain Gallery sells high-quality Tohono O’odham baskets in assorted sizes, blankets, jewelry, dried food and books about these native people, who have lived in the Sonoran Desert for countless generations, their once-enormous nation artificially divided by the Mexican-American border.

The road to Sells can be lovely and dangerous, but as we left the reservation the many huge ancient saguaro cactus with their arms outstretched seemed to be waving goodbye.

Photos by Pamela O'Meara
 

Urban Bourban Trail in Louisville

A mint julip is featured at the
Brown Hotel.
 

September is National Bourbon Month; Follow the Urban Bourbon Trail in Louisville

by Pamela O'Meara

Louisville, Ky, gives visitors like me a chance to visit some of the best bourbon bars in the world to taste the drink in various forms -- straight, with champagne, in a mint julep. My tour included a mint julep (bourbon with minty simple syrup and mint sprig over ice) at the Brown Hotel, which in 1926 became the home of the Hot Brown sandwich which is  composed of bread, fried green tomatoes, turkey, cheese, bacon and morney sauce. Hundreds of hungry flappers enjoyed them after dancing half the night away, and I had a sample.

Bourbon mixed with champagne
is featured at the Seelbach
Hotel in Louisville.

At the nearby Seelbach Hotel, which F. Scott Fitzgerald mentions in "The Great Gatsby,” I had a glass of the hotel’s classic bourbon with champagne. The story goes that Fitzgerald wrote part of Gatsby on napkins there, and characters Tom and Daisy were married in the ballroom. Listed on the National Historic Register, the hotel is also famous for a secret back room where Al Capone would regularly meet with associates during Prohibition.

Bucks Restaurant and Bar is filled
with flowers.

Bucks Restaurant and Bar, set among Victorian mansions, was filled with vases of white flowers and glittering candles against a dark green background. We sampled 12-year-old bourbon and a meringue dessert while listening to a young woman play a piano.

The Brown Hotel serves mini
Hot Brown sandwiches.

These bars and restaurants are among the 27 listed on the Urban Bourbon Trail, which includes bars that stock 50 to 150 different brands of bourbon. Collect a stamp from six bars and you’ll earn the rank of official Bourbon Country Citizen and be awarded a special Urban Bourbon Trailblazer T-shirt. Trail passports (but not the drinks) are free at any participating establishment and at the visitor’s center.

Photos by Pamela O'Meara

For more information go to http://www.bourboncountry.com/things-to-do/urban-bourbon-trail/index.aspx.