The other day I got an e-mail from a gastronomic scholar, requesting information about the Moxie Recipe Contest. Who knew a person could get a Master’s degree in gastronomy from a program co-founded by Jacques Pepin and Julia Child? Maybe I should get a Tee Vee. This scholar and foodie asked me what I thought about the current Boston trend of cooking and bartending with Moxie.
I said I was excited and happy about the trend because first and foremost, I am a Moxie girl with a big heart for home. If a can of Moxie in Puritan & Company’s next batch of lamb belly and oysters is going to increase the social and economic capital of Lisbon, I’m all for it. As my friend Jay likes to say, “Bring it.”
It may also increase the interest in my Moxie Recipe Contest and since this is my 2013 promotion, I must “always be marketing” (ABM). Here is the status of the Moxie Recipe Contest as of this moment:
- The name of the contest will be “Make Mine with Moxie, Please” with a tip of the baseball cap to a piece of iconic Ted Williams Moxie memorabilia.
- The contest will take place on Friday afternoon, July 12, at Chummy’s MidTown Diner, located at 580 Lisbon Road. Chummy’s is owned and operated by brothers Tim and Ben Berry; they’ve got moxie and they serve breakfast all day long. What’s not to like about that? Their diner also has a horseshoe-shaped bar for sipping coffee and an upper-level dining room which features the paintings of local artist Frank Gross.
- There will be 3 recipe categories:
- Moxie Savory (main dishes, meat dishes and casseroles)
- Moxie Sweet (desserts, pies, pastries)
- Moxie Kitchen Sink (everything else, including dressings, sauces, and garnishes)
- The first 25 entrants will receive a “swag bag” including gifts from Wicked Whoopies, Better Than Average, LLC (jams, jellies, and sauces), and Raye’s Mustard. More interesting and tasteful gifts will be added between now and the contest date.
- A panel of celebrity judges has been selected and a few of them will be well-known to people who watch Tee Vee. How’s that for a tease?
- There will be prizes for the first place winners of each category, plus a grand prize for one overall winner.
There are additional details developing and I’ll write about them in future blog posts; they’ll also be featured on The Moxie Festival’s Recipe Contest page.
I tried cooking with Moxie the other day; I made a batch of the easiest lentil soup ever and I added a 16 ounce can of the magic elixir with the other liquid ingredients. It added an interesting tang to the soup and it reminded me of some baked beans I bought at Barnie’s on Main Street in Lisbon Falls. Barnie’s is a variety store located at what locals recognize as the “Kitty Corner Store.” Every Saturday, Barnie makes a batch of baked beans based on his Memere’s secret recipe. They are bold and nostalgically tasty; I think they would be delicious with a bit of Moxie added to the other secret ingredients. I’d like Barnie to create a Moxie version of those beans and enter them in the Recipe Contest.
I’m not going home this weekend, so I won’t be able to pick up baked beans and talk to him personally. Can someone get a memo to Barnie (AM2B) and let him know what I’m thinking?
Barnie, bake some beans with Moxie this weekend; your Memere would want you to!
Julie-Ann Baumer 
What, no olive oil in the swag bag? No company with the moxie to get involved?
Frank Gross was my first guitar teacher back in 1970-something. Good for him.
Ah, morning has broken and LP is on the “loose!” I’m working on the olive oil…Frank’s paintings are magical and sometimes local faces are mixed with historical. Maybe I’ll write a post about him.
Would he give you permission to photograph them? I’d be interested in what he paints.
LP, I’ll investigate photographic permissions. There are a few of the paintings that are in the “public domain” (so to speak, painted on buildings) and others at the MTM Center. Stay tuned.
LP-
I didn’t realize the Frank was the same guy; didn’t he also go by “Ozzie” and was in the band that did the song “Radioactive”? The one that led to some of our local “artwork.”
Jim,
I think LP took lessons from Frank’s son who did have a band with a song called “Radiation.”
The lyrics went something like this: “There’s a ape breaking out of the city zoo, the cops can’t find him, I sniff glue.” The chorus was “Radiation!” It had a good beat; didn’t you play it from your dorm room in Gannett Hall in solidarity with the Clamshell Alliance? 🙂
I played the drums on the recording “Radiation.” I listen to that recording now and I cannot believe I played that way. My name was never included on the recording or on the website.
David, I wish I still had the record so I could listen to it again. It’s funny how the comments on a blog post about baked beans and Moxie turned into a remote song about radiation. The power of the internet! Thanks for stopping by.
Get me an email and I will get you a copy of “Radiation”. I will share a story with you concerning this time period. This recording was banned when it came out in much of the Northeastern States. As a matter of fact after the recording session in Brunswick I was pulled over by the police and taken to the police station for questioning concerning unrelated sundry practices by the recording studio of which I had no knowledge. I remember saying to the policeman doing the questioning – “Gee, I didn`t know radiation was so illegal.” They just sat and looked at me and let me go home. A few years after this recording and playing any gig I could get, a friend shows up at my house and asks me if I want to perform with Terry Stafford. I don`t know who this guy was but the money was very good for that year. We go to a Holiday Inn in Bangor, Maine and I set up the drum kit. I don`t know any of the musicians. Terry doesn`t show up until the show and walks out on stage and opens his mouth to sing and the whole place is totally quiet. He sounded like an angel. I couldn`t believe it. Later I found out Terry Stafford was with Atlantic Records and sung better than Elvis Presley. He was a country singer. About two weeks into the gig and Terry has a birthday and some of his musician friends drove from New York to celebrate with him. After the second set one of them takes me into a room and offers me a 3 year $1300.00 a week contract with all expenses paid and drum instruction with Buddy Rich (who was still alive at the time). This just doesn`t happen any more. I didn`t take the offer because I knew the business was going bad and the oil embargo was affecting the recording industry because everything was recorded on plastic records. I joined the US Navy and worked in physics calibration labs and played jazz around Norfolk, Va for about 15 years. Funny how some things work out.
Thanks for the Gross family history lesson. Yes, I may have. Solidarity!!
Great post, Julie-Ann. Thanks for the mention.
I’ve started brainstorming for the Moxie recipe contest myself. Let the experimentation fun begin!