Photography by Diane Harvey

Name: Emily Dawn Long, Senior

Hometown: Atlanta, GA

I am inspired by tactile things.  I love the idea of making my own fabric from scratch.  I can get inspired by almost anything.  I just recently made a fabric sample entirely from dangly fringes from children’s squishy stress balls.

My favorite style decade is the late 1950s-early 1960s Mad Men era.

The designers I most admire are Kenzo, Missoni, Dries Van Noten and Chris Benz.

The best advice I ever received came from my professor Anthony Miller, who told me, “To be creative, you have to be able to open your mind enough to allow the world to come in.”

Tell us about your collection.

I recently visited my brother in Amsterdam, and I immediately became enthralled with the vertical architecture. While visiting the city, we were constantly moving from one place to the next, and there was almost always a climate change within everything we did.   My collection is made up of interchangeable outerwear; each piece can be transformed into almost 10 different ways to accommodate said climate change: inside out, backward, forward, upside-down.  I am a double major in fashion and fibers, and I’m interested in hand weaving, and the geometric cross between the threads reminded me of the Amsterdam architecture.  Due to the time given, I didn’t have the time or resources to hand-weave 70-plus yards of fabric, so I decided to digitally print a scanned version of the fabric samples I made, playing with scale and allowing you to see each woven structure.

What’s next?

Once I wrap up the double major, I would love to create textiles for one of my favorite designers.  My first love is Europe, so I hope to travel there and retain a job.

Meet Blake Smith HERE>>

Meet Samantha Shanks HERE>>

Roberto Leoci, owner of Leoci’s Trattoria, fashions gnocchi by hand, cures his own salami and preserves his own jam.  In the May/June issue of our magazine, he teaches us how to make duck breast proscuitto—the inspiration for this Crispy Goat and Duck Salad. Photography by Chia Chong.

Crispy Goat and Duck Salad

(Serves 4)

A play of textures, this salad is crunchy and creamy, salty, sour, sweet and hot.

One 10-ounce log of goat cheese

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

1 large egg, beaten

3 cups panko bread crumbs, lightly crushed

Canola oil

8 ounces (one breast) Duck Breast Prosciutto, thinly sliced on the diagonal

4 cups fresh pea shoots, washed

12 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1 recipe Raspberry Jalapeno Vinaigrette (below)

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and set aside.

Cut the goat cheese log into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Place goat cheese balls onto the lined baking sheet and refrigerate the cheese balls until firm, approximately 15 minutes.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. In a second small mixing bowl, place the beaten egg. In a third small mixing bowl, place the panko.

Working one goat cheese ball at a time, dredge each ball first in the flour mixture then dip it into the egg, and finally roll the ball in the panko until it is fully coated. Return the coated goat cheese ball to the lined baking sheet, and repeat the process until all 12 balls have been coated.  Place the baking sheet in the freezer for approximately 15 minutes, just until the goat cheese balls are firm.

Line another baking sheet with paper towels and set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat approximately two inches of canola oil to 360º F.  Remove the goat cheese balls from the freezer.  Working in batches, fry the goat cheese balls until they turn golden brown and crisp, approximately 2 to 3 minutes and turning occasionally. Using a slotted spoon or spider skimmer, transfer the fried goat cheese balls to the paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain.

To assemble the salad: Divide the duck prosciutto, pea shoots, tomatoes and goat cheese balls evenly between four plates or one large platter, and decoratively arrange. Drizzle the salad with Raspberry Jalapeno Vinaigrette.

Raspberry Jalapeno Vinaigrette

(Yields about 1/3 cup)

 2 tablespoons Leoci’s Raspberry Jalapeno Jam®

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic glaze or balsamic vinegar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the jam, olive oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper then drizzle over the Crispy Goat and Duck Salad.

Behind the Scenes: Portrait of an Artisan

Video: Juwan Platt

Music: Soles of Fire (Chauffer) by Theophilus London

Owners: Ashleigh Spurlock and Emily McLaughlin

Boutique: Fabrika Fine Fabrics

Website: fabrikafinefabrics.com

Our runway “look” for the SFW Fashion Show on May 17 is…we have our 12 best local customers showing one-of-a-kind garments made from fabric purchased at our store.

We were inspired by...our customers.

Our favorite piece this season is…everything. We are so excited to share with Savannah what we get to see on a regular basis: beautiful, handcrafted garments and accessories made right here in our town!

Our favorite thing about Savannah Fashion Week is...the support of local business and the opportunity to work with people we don’t normally get to.

Don’t miss...the after party for a chance to meet the designers.

Go Inside Fashion Week with Cate Lyon HERE >>

Go Inside Fashion Week with Glow MedSpa’s Courtney Buntin Victor HERE>>

Go Inside Fashion Week with Custard’s Tara Kirkland HERE>>

Courtney Buntin Victor Shops Fashion Week

The Glow beauty maven behind many of Thursday night’s runway looks took some time out of her busy social schedule to “go for the gold” at participating boutiques.

“I love this amazing statement necklace from Trunk 13!”

“I’m having an arm party with Sheila Fajl jewelry from Custard.”

“These Aliceand Olivia shorts from BleuBelle would up the style-ante of any outfit.”

“Love this purse from Fab’rik.”

“These luxury blotting papers have a built-in bronzer to make sure you look bronzed and beautiful—never oily or shiny!”

Check out all the events for Savannah Fashion Week HERE >>

Discover Fashion Week finds by Brooke Atwood, Shelley Smith, Jaclyn Schott, and Erika Snayd and Sarah Jennings.

Food television has been my solution to reality TV’s blubbering bachelors and housewives that are anything but “real.”  From the Food Network’s Iron Chef America to Unwrapped, any way you fillet it, fry it, slice it or dice it, I’m going to tune in.

I’m not a cook.  At best, I’m a “microwaver.”  Nonetheless, feel-good food TV inspires me.  Mostly it inspires me to eat Hi-def dishes I can’t actually sink my teeth into.  But as Savannah becomes the stage for a growing number of foodie shows, including Jesse Blanco’s Eat It and Like It and Jamie Deen’s new series, Home Cooking, I feel a deep appreciation for what the Hostess City is serving up.

Watch It and Like It

Now in its second season, “Eat It and Like It” (Sundays at 10 a.m. on WJCL-TV) scouts the alleyways of the Lowcountry’s food scene to find its most tasty treasures.  It’s like a local version of Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-in and Dives,” and like Fieri, the show’s foodie front man, Jesse, can probably throw a touchdown pass as adeptly as he can dice an onion.  He’s a big guy with a Cuban-American heritage, but it’s his underlying sweetness that makes him a comforting presence in the wings of the fast-paced kitchens he visits.  Plus, Jesse isn’t interested in going undercover to expose shoddy practices or substandard servings; he’s simply a good guy on the hunt for good food.

“Ever since the show began, we got people saying, ‘Hey, try this place,’ and ‘Hey, there’s a barbecue place in Statesboro you need to go,’” says Jesse.  “So I’ll ask the people I’m working with to take a trip out to Statesboro and try that barbecue place.  If it’s good, then I’ll go.  And if I like it, we’ll put it in.”

Jesse introduced Savannahians to a variety of trending food experiences in the first 12-episode season, which premiered in September 2011.  Each show had a how-to segment hosted by a local chef.  In an episode dedicate entirely to chocolate, he talked shop with the best chocolatiers around and sizzled up a batch of chocolate bacon with chef Roberto Leoci of Leoci’s Trattoria.  Watching the series, it appears that Savannah has an endless array of eateries and food avenues to explore.

The second season kicked off with an episode on “wedding fare,” and Jesse says that future shows will cover “sushi, barbecue and beach food” and more familiar faces behind the city’s foodscape.

“We’re shooting a show on the legend of Leopold’s,” Jesse says.  “Stratton and I are going to put on mics and he’s going to take me through the old neighborhood.  Apparently he has the original counter from the old Leopold’s in storage at his house.  So he’s going to go in there, kick off the dust and show me around.”

Jesse’s kitchen studio, where he films recipes and how-to segments, is just six doors away from his historic downtown home.

“The first time we shot there, we forgot garlic,” says Jesse.  “My mom was there watching so I gave her the key to my house and said, ‘Can you run home and get the garlic?’  So far it’s really worked out.”

The home is the actual residence of an orthopedic surgeon and his family, who invited Jesse and his crew to film in their downstairs kitchen.

“They have a secondary kitchen upstairs, so they say, ‘Take over our house for a Sunday—we’ll be upstairs!’” laughs Jesse.

Jesse seems surprised by the success of a show that aims to spread the good word about great food, which in just one season raked in enough viewers to get picked-up for a second season.  “It’s amazing how many locals have told me, ‘You know, we’ve always wanted to try that place and then we saw the food on the show and went,’” he says.

(Near) Home for Dinner

Out on the islands, a more family-focused division of the Deen Empire is taking shape, cast in the form of the charming, deep-dimpled, tousled-topped Jamie Deen.  Like his younger brother Bobby, Jamie acknowledges the influence of his “momma” (celebrity cook Paula Deen) and her home cooking, but he aims to do something beyond her Southern tradition of big, battered and buttered.  His new television series “Home for Dinner,” scheduled to air on the Food Network in early summer, brings fresh and healthy family meals to the small screen.

“The big trend now is cooking for families,” explains Deen.  “What I’m trying to do is show that instead of cooking one dish for me and a different one for the kids, I can make something that my wife Brooke and I can enjoy that is easy, affordable, healthy and tasty for Jack and Matthew.”

Jamie is a hands-on father.  He can maintain an adult dinner conversation—albeit about comics—in the same breath that he directs his 5-year-old son Jack on bathroom etiquette.  And when Matthew, 11 months, launches into what can best be described as a seagull’s battle cry, Jamie snaps to attention, whipping out a tried-and-true technique used by parents who prefer not to make a scene: distraction.  Within seconds, Jamie’s uninhibited antics will have transformed Matthew’s squawks to delightful giggles and dinner will continue mostly uninterrupted.  It’s a natural role for Jamie and, consequently, one that he’s not willing to compromise.

“When I was doing ‘Road Tasting’ with Bobby back before Jack was born, the show had found some success,” says Jamie.  “The Food Network wanted to pick it up and order more episodes but I said ‘No’ because I just couldn’t go on the road anymore.  Everybody involved in the entertainment industry said, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life by walking away from this successful show.’  But everybody at home who knew me understood.  At the time I was almost 40 years old and about to have my first child and I didn’t want to travel six months out of the year.”

Jamie also wasn’t willing to film in his own home—a lesson he learned from watching film crews invade his mother’s kitchen to shoot “Paula’s Home Cooking.”

“When given the opportunity to shoot at her home in Savannah rather than go to New York, Mom was super excited,” says Jamie.  “Then, after a couple of seasons, she was like, ‘This is terrible!’”

Brooke shares her husband’s interest in keeping work close to home, just not in the home.

“Filming literally destroys your house,” she explains. “It’s not just the number of people, but there’s also so much equipment.”

There are other, more surprising, disadvantages as well.  Real or imagined, Brooke recalls how Paula would struggle to find her kitchen utensils after filming had wrapped.

“We laugh all the time about how she would say, ‘They took my spatula!’” says Brooke.  “She refers to ‘they’ as the ghost of the film crew.”

Eventually, Jamie got what he wanted: a 10-minute commute and a workplace that encourages his family to be underfoot.

“We found a great space to shoot out on Tybee,” he explains.  “And I’m excited that Brooke and the boys could be in the pilot.  We shot a lot of footage of Jack.  We got him on the playground and playing on the beach.  We shot stuff at The Lady and Sons and me picking up Jack from school.  We’re just portraying the life that I live everyday”—a life that he’s successfully managing to live on his terms.

Photography by Katie McGee.

Welcome to Ground Zero for Savannah’s foodie scene: the restaurant that has put us on the map worldwide.  If you think that The Lady & Sons is just for tourists willing to wait in lines longer than those at a St. Patrick’s Day portable potty, feast your eyes (and appetite) on this insider information straight from the mouth of Jamie Deen: locals can call ahead for a reservation.  That’s right, with nothing more than a local phone number, you can use your VIP status to bypass the tired and hungry trolley riders.  Inside, you’ll enjoy the comfort food, friendly waitstaff and dining-room chatter that actually caters to laidback locals—especially those with kids in tow.

I decided to test the restaurant’s limits (and my own patience) by herding three families together for libations and lemonade in order to discuss the future of our city’s foodscape and to answer the eternal question, “Will our kids eat it and like it?”

Savannah Magazine:  What do you think Savannah’s food scene needs in order to be considered a “foodie town?”

Jesse Blanco (host, Eat it and Like It):  (To Jamie) You want to go first?

Jamie:  I’ll let you go first, and I’ll just agree with what you said.

Jessie:  Man, I’ve asked the chefs this a million times.  We need a new arena downtown that will bring major acts through here.  Revitalize this.  Then you get the next rock star chef to open a restaurant here because then you will have that kind of traffic.  You need one guy, and it would put the word out about us being more than—

Jamie:  More than Southern food?

Jesse:  Right, right.  We do have great food.  Everybody comes here for this (gestures toward the table).  It’s wonderful.  But I know you (to Jamie) have been asked a million times, “We’ve gone to Lady & Sons, but where else should we go?”  And nobody knows.  That’s the whole premise for what I started doing, to answer that question.

Jamie:  I think we’re already known for other things, and I don’t think “foodie town” fits into that.  I think we’re known for a big St. Patrick’s Day celebration, for the art school, River Street, Gulfstream—there are so many things here that you may go to first—there’s just so much that we are.  When you come here, you can drink outside!

So many people visit here looking for Southern food, but I say go to Wall’s BBQ.  Go to Ele.  Sean and Ele (Tran) are doing great food.  Their place on the Southside—

SM:  Tangerine?

Jamie:  Yeah, Tangerine.  When I started eating there four or five years ago, it was phenomenal.  I was like, “You guys have got to come out to the islands,” and they finally did.  And now they’ve opened that new place downtown—Fire—which is going to be super-good.  And then Jesse finds places that are small and have great food.  So you’ve just got to look for it.

SM:  We all have our children here tonight, and they seem to be enjoying themselves.  What are some other family-friendly restaurants in Savannah?

Jesse:  Alexandra eats where my wife and I go.  I’ve taken her to a steakhouse in New York City, and all she does is talk about that steak.  So she eats where we eat, and she’s cool with it.  We have a rule: you don’t have to like it, but you have to try it.

SM:  See, I’ve been taking a chapter from your book, telling Ava to “eat it and like it.”

(Laughter)

Jamie:  We turn every place we go into a kids’ restaurant.  We’ll take our kids to Ele out on the island.

Brooke:  We don’t order off kids’ menus.  We just get them something healthy off of the adult menu.

Jamie:  That’s something new we’re doing here—the kids’ menu will incorporate smaller portions of healthy adult fare for the kids.  I wouldn’t order off the kids’ menu here, you know?  It’s grilled cheese, little corn dogs.  There’s a lot of kid-friendly healthy food on the buffet, like seasoned rice.

SM:  But if you’re going to a nice place like Ele, with its elegant dining room complete with white tablecloths, what do you do to prepare your kids for that experience?  Bring the iPad?

Brooke:  We started out doing that.

Jamie:  The first thing I do is move silverware and glasses.  Especially at Ele, you know?  They’ve got four glasses and all those pieces of silverware.  I remove it all.

Ray:  Andrea does that for me, too.

(Laughter)

Jesse:  We’ve gotten into letting Alexandra bring her iPod touch.  And it’s somewhat discreet.

Brooke:  For the first three years, we traveled around with a portable DVD player, and everyone looked at me like, “That’s a good idea!”  It was the only way we could eat, but I knew it was a stage and that he’d grow out of it.  With kids and eating out, you just have to keep taking them and taking them, and they finally get used to it—like this one here—(she pats Matthew on the back).

Ray:  Make sure you indicate in the article that she’s pointing to Jamie.

Jamie:  (Laughing) Because I carry on like I do?  No matter what, it’s going to be challenging.  And if (Matthew) gets vocal, and I gotta get up and walk around, then I don’t really need another fried okra, you know?

SM:  Have you had any dining disaster?

Brooke:  We’ve left before the food arrived.  But I think Jack is even better at a restaurant than he is at home.

Go Behind the Scenes on Jamie’s and Jesse’s shows.

To get the unadulterated truth about dining out, I wander over to the kiddie table.

SM:  What are y’all eating over here?

Alexandra:  Black-eyed peas, mashed potatoes, macaroni—

Jack:  You guys are gonna be so scared!

SM:  Why?

Jack:  I’m drawing something that’s gonna make you scared. (He draws an incredible alien that does, in fact, scare me.)

SM:  What’s your favorite thing to order?

Alexandra:  Steak.

SM:  Steak?!  Kind of expensive isn’t it?

Alexandra:  (Giggles and nods)

Jack:  The Westin!  Pancakes!

Brooke:  The Westin brunch has French-toast pancake batter that you can mix in sprinkles, blueberries, whatever you want.

Alexandra:  I like a place if it has really good food and if it has a coloring sheet while I wait.  And I like to bring my iPod touch.

SM:  Did you have to show your parents how to use it?

Alexandra:  I had to show my mom, but not my dad.

(Back at the grown-ups’ table…)

SM:  People recognize you, Jamie and Jesse, from your shows when you’re dining out.  Do fans sometimes interrupt your meals?

Jamie:  You know, people just want to visit.  Jesse’s from South Florida, people are friendly out there—they visit with everybody.  I’m from South Georgia.  It’s the same way.  I’ve been talking to everybody that’ll talk to me since before anybody even wanted to talk to me.

Jesse:  Right!  Yeah, that’s a great way to put it.

Jamie: Walking down the street, I’d always say, “Hey, y’all!  How you doing?”  It’s an extension of who I am.  Being in this service for so many years, I’ve been talking to strangers for half my life.  It’s never a problem.

SM:  Even with Paula and the family making the headlines so much as of late?

Jamie:  It’s been kind of a tough quarter.  You know, all these here are brand new tables.  We took all the old tables and donated them to Habitat for Humanity.  You’ll never hear about that.  We’ve fed over a million people through food donations as part of Smithfield Foods hunger initiative.  You’ll never hear about that.  It’s not really a market for good news, you know?

SM:  True.  And that’s what I like about Jesse’s show, “Eat It and Like It.”  It promotes some good restaurants that are starting to pop up in unexpected places.

Jamie:  I think that trend is driven by affordability.  The (downtown) prices are driving them out.  I’m thinking of Green Truck and Wall’s BBQ and other places in midtown.  You know, there are a lot of people in midtown who’ve got to eat, like in the Medical Arts district.  That’s where we started The Bag Lady.  There’s traffic there at lunch.

Jesse:  It’s even out in Sandfly now.  Wright Square Café is out there.  So if it’s good food, people are going to find it.  You know, Tangerine does well, and they’re way out on the Southside.  Jamie will drive all the way out there to have it.  I know people who drive from The Landings to Ele.  That’s not a quick drive.  It’s good food, though.

Jamie:  It’s like that around Starland, too.  Back in the Day (Bakery) is great.  Cheryl and Griff (Day) are awesome, and their cookbook is gorgeous.  And Starland Café is super great.  It’s casual and good.  People are going more organic and cleaner.  You know, you don’t need white tablecloths.  Starland is scaled down, but you get a panini with cheese and bacon, and it’s good.  Green Truck is that same way.

SM:  I went to Butterhead Greens for the first time and it was delicious.  I ordered a salad and a cup of soup because I wasn’t sure I’d have enough food.  That salad was so big, I couldn’t even digest it.

Jamie:  I’m going.  Salad is my favorite food.

Jesse:  There are a lot of “stuffy” restaurants out there, but I would think that the trend is more where you can see the kitchen.  It’s loud.  It’s great food.  But it’s also an experience.

Jamie:  It’s high-end food but served in a casual atmosphere.  I think that’s a sign of the times, too.  I can’t stand to go sit in a stuffy place.  No matter where I am or whom I’m with, it’s not my thing.  I just want to go eat because I’m hungry.  But a place that doesn’t care about their food or care about you as a consumer?  I don’t see how places like that can stay in business.

Preservation Fest Highlights

Preservation Festival Launch Party, May 3, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Enjoy an evening of hors d’oeuvres by local caterers and live entertainment at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum Garden. Guests can preview the Pennies for Preservation poster contest as well as items for the art auction and raffle.  Tickets are $75.

Work Day at W.W. Law House, 710 W. Victory Drive, May 5, 8 a.m.

Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation invites volunteers to paint the exterior of this Places in Peril structure. Volunteers will meet at 802 W. 42nd St. at 8 a.m. To register, contact HSF at 233-7787.

Test your preservation vocabulary HERE>>

Awards Luncheon, May 10, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Join HSF in Ships of the Sea Museum’s outdoor assembly hall as the Historic Savannah Foundation recognizes builders, homeowners, architects, craftsmen and other preservation champions for their exemplary projects and efforts.
Note: Tickets are available exclusively through sponsorships and awards. 

Preservation Wine Tour, May 18, 6 to 9 p.m.

The Preservation Wine Tour launches at the Green-Meldrim House and takes visitors through private homes near Madison Square. Enjoy boutique wine and food pairings at each of the HSF award-winning properties on tour.
Tickets are $45.

Isaiah Davenport: The Carpenter, May 19, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

This event highlights the work of master builder Isaiah Davenport. Guests will view Michael Jordan’s short film featuring the Davenport House. A walking tour of additional Davenport-built properties in Savannah will be narrated by some of Savannah’s notable historians and architects. Greg Guenther, master craftsman and expert woodworker, will share his workshop offering insight to the trade.
Tickets are $95.

Lecture by Evan Thompson, May 24, 7 p.m.

Evan Thompson, Executive Director of the Preservation Society of Charleston, will discuss modern-day preservation issues in The Holy City, including tourism management and cruise ships. Tickets are not required and a reception will follow this event at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum’s garden.

The Garden Party, May 31, 6 to 9 p.m.

Celebrate the close of the inaugural festival with live music, hors d’oeuvres, wine, an exotic plant auction and container gardens by Savannah’s finest floral designers in the Isaiah Davenport Garden. Winners of the month-long raffle will be announced. The winning entries for Pennies for Preservation Poster Contest will be on display. Tickets are $75.

Meet the local women behind the vision. Photograph by Marcus Kenney. Styled by Rebecca Gardner.

Saltedandstyled.com was born from the imaginations of photo stylist and author Libbie Summers and photographer Chia Chong.  Each week, online, the members of this culinary design collective celebrate the organic beauty of one new food-related item.  They abandon all inhibitions as they twist it, turn it, ponder it, eat it and photograph it to produce seven days of inspired-living content.

Since Libbie and Chia believe clever and thoughtful work is nurtured through a collaborative process, they’ve invited some of the most talented women in the industry—all of whom happen to live in the Hostess City—to lend their hands, words and eyes as regular contributors.

Art curator and stylist Amy Zurcher is the infectious and magical talent who shares all things bright and slightly bizarre through the artists she highlights.  Humorist Andrea Goto (who moonlights as Savannah magazine’s associate editor) writes about the strange, messy real-life beauty she finds in each culinary muse.  Brenda Anderson serves as the producer and co-host of “Simmer Down,” the site’s irreverent podcast.  Designer and fashion stylist Brooke Atwood shares secrets of her unique boho rocker-chic style through food-inspired fashion picks, designs and tips.  Talent abounds in artist and storyteller Katherine Sandoz as she creates a new piece of thoughtful artwork to celebrate each week’s star subject.

Two creators.  Five contributors.  Seven ideas.  One vision.  Now, who’s hungry?

The Making of Savannah, Salted & Styled

Video: Juwan Platt

Music: Earthquake Heart by The Dirtbombs

Seasoned (and multi-hyphenated) freelance writer-stylist-editor and brand consultant Amy Flurry shared her secret ingredients for being your own best publicist in her first book, Recipe for Press, when she was in town April 18 for SCAD Style.

To avoid being pegged a rookie by editors, Flurry cautioned budding freelancers from making four common mistakes when preparing portfolios and pitching their ideas to print and online publications:

1. Overstyled Photos

Editors and bloggers prefer crisp, well-lit product shots against a plain white backdrop.

2. Wrong Pitch to Wrong Editor

Because editors assemble pages, sometimes as far as six months in advance, changes are an editor has moved up or on to a different publication. It takes time to check and double check who the correct editor is for the page you are pitching, but the energy invested is worth it. (Flurry offers helpful instructions how to conduct this type of research in Recipe for Press.)

3. Outdated Marketing Materials

All the information an editor needs to know about you should be found on your website, and a solid e-mail pitch should lead directly to your website.

4. Wrong Pitch to Wrong Publication

Failure to read the magazine or blog you are pitching will send your pitch directly into the trash.

There is something inherently old-timey about Jefferson Kirkland, as if he was plucked out of 1852 and dropped into a modern-day Savannah.  He’s thoughtful and poised beyond his 32 years, and his full beard disguises what I think may be a very youthful face.  Jefferson’s father, Talley, on the other hand, hunches forward enthusiastically and always appears as if he’s on the verge of laughter, so much that I wonder if he’s ever met a bad day in his life.  He’s an entertainer by nature—throwing out punchlines like confetti—and a park ranger by profession.  However different, these two men share a quaint, timeless spirit.  It’s a quality I’ve seen in Southerners who have a profound reverence for history and tradition.

Jefferson and Talley are active members of the 48th New York Volunteer Infantry—a group of approximately 20 men reenacting the characters of the real-life unit that fought during the Civil War.  The founding members launched the reenactment unit in the late 1980s, and the Kirklands became involved when they started doing programs at Fort Pulaski.  Unlike men who parade around fields declaring, “The South will rise again!” while taking calls on their cell phones, this particular reenactment unit puts a premium on education and authenticity.

“We dress from the underwear out,” explains Jefferson.  “And the food we eat, the things we do are all as near as we can get to period.”  The unit’s campaign-style camping means forgoing all modern conveniences.  For Jefferson, the biggest sacrifice is going without a chair.

I try testing the waters of the Civil War experience.  After all, Talley tells me that a handful of women disguised themselves as soldiers, only to be found out when they were injured or killed.  I, however, am not passable as a reenactor, let alone a soldier.  In my rented Civil War costume—er, uniform—I feel more like Buffalo Bill in drag than Robert E. Lee.  I have to be informed which side I was fighting on and only learn I’m a general when Talley greeted me as such—the kind of offenses that will get you traded to the enemy for hardtack.

Additionally, I have a very healthy relationship with bug spray and running water, so I opt to lose the itchy clothes and try a new approach to living history.

“What did they drink?”

Cocktails, anyone?

Andrew Tice, the owner of Angel’s BBQ by day and student of historical recipes and techniques by night, hands me a recipe for Chatham Artillery Punch and a warning that people have strong feelings about the drink.

“After Prohibition,” he explains, “Chatham Artillery Punch evolved basically into a fruit cup.  And that’s not what it was supposed to be.”

He explains that the punch originated when soldiers of the Chatham Artillery, the oldest organized artillery regiment in Georgia, basically threw together the booze they had on hand.  They liked what they concocted, and this evolved into a recipe they would serve to visiting dignitaries.  It is said that the punch is stronger than the gunfire from the two brass cannons George Washington presented to the Chatham Artillery in 1791—the same guns on display on East Bay Street.

The recipe Andrew gives me is intended for an entire battalion.  I don’t have that many friends—nor do I have a swimming pool to mix it in.

“Can’t I just order a glass at a bar?” I ask.

He stares at me, unflinching.  I guess that’s a no.

I find a willing participant in George Woods, a West Point graduate, former Artillery Captain and self-proclaimed mixologist.  To boot, he’s also a member of the Honorable Order of St. Barbara, and has consequently participated in numerous Artillery Punch ceremonies, which sound to me like a mix between a Catholic wedding and Shakespeare community theatre.  It’s jam-packed with tradition as the “Master of the Punch” calls forth men to dramatically present the “charges,” or ingredients—a list laced with obscure metaphor.  For example, “corn squeezin’s” are said to somehow represent the Artillery’s “American heritage as citizen-soldiers who served honorably and well at a moment’s notice.”

The overwhelming stench of alcohol makes my nose hairs dance as we pour the various bottles together.  Although the recipe calls for the punch to sit for two days, I’m a modern woman—I don’t have one minute to wait on a Pop-Tart, let alone two days for my drink to marinate.  But three sips in, I forget that I have to be anywhere ever again.  The flavor is surprisingly mild considering the gunpowder we loaded it with.  I take comfort in George’s assurance that it tastes authentic—and even more comfort in sipping it inside a bug-free home complete with running water.

The Kirklands, Andrew and George surely have a better sense of the past than I, not only because they read about it in a book, but also because they put a premium on authenticity.  Consequently, they seem bigger than this lifetime, as if their authentic experiences allow them to jump across time.  Or maybe that’s just the punch talking.

Chatham Artillery Punch

Recipe courtesy of Andrew Tice of Angel’s BBQ 

1½ gallon Catawba wine

1½ gallon Chinese gunpowder tea, brewed

½ gallon gold rum

1½ quart rye

1 quart gin (Old Tom, Dutch or Plymouth)

1 quart brandy

2 pounds brown sugar or cane syrup

18 oranges, halved and juiced

18 lemons, halved and juiced

½ pint maraschino liqueur

Mix all the ingredients and age for two days, then add:

6 bottles Champagne

Fresh pineapple for garnish

1 block of ice

For your own history lesson, visit

Old Fort Jackson >> 1 Fort Jackson Road, 912-232-3945

Fort Pulaski National Monument >> U.S. 80 East, 912-786-5787

Wormsloe Historic Site >> 7601 Skidaway Road, 912-353-3023