One of my oldest obsessions has also become my latest—walking the beach in search of shells. Not long after I’d learned to tie my shoe and crack an egg, Mama taught me that the best time for beach-combing on the Outer Banks is in wintertime, after a storm. This was a lesson passed down from Nelly-Myrtle Pridgen, our neighbor on Soundside Road and an Old Nags Head fixture, who walked the beach every day of her life and whose drafty old cedar-shake cottage was a mausoleum dedicated to the Atlantic. Nelly-Myrtle had possession of the kind of treasures about which a small girl can only dream, and growing up, the abundance of shells was the only thing I really liked about winter, a season I defined very clearly by what it was not. It was not summer. Summer was my favorite. And then autumn came and the summer people closed up their cottages on the Beach Road and by winter, the long light and the heat and noise were gone and summer seemed as much a ghost as the others who haunted Nags Head. But there were shells.
And this winter, that is still true. Walking the beach in the sinking light, I have found abalone and baby’s ears; moon snail shells and jack-knife clams; cockles; scallops; mussels and oysters. Starfish. Conchs. More than my pockets hold. Reder, who walks the beach with me, likes the huge conchs with their coral-orange lining, and the blue-black scallops that give Coquina Beach its blue-black sand. She likes the symmetry of the little white bivalve clams, each half a mirror of the other. I trail behind her, seeking out baby’s ears as I always have, getting lost in the track of the last high tide until a wave crashes over itself into the afternoon.
It's those moments, like my sister arriving home this morning with a loaf of freshly baked buttermilk bread, still warm from the oven, that remind me to be thankful for where, and who, I am. And these days, that is no small feat.
Lauren's Buttermilk Bread (makes 2 loaves)
adapted from cookingbread.com
5 - 6 cups bread flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 package dry yeast (rapid rise if possible)
1 cup water
Add buttermilk and water to a saucepan. Warm liquid to a lukewarm state over medium heat. Do not make it to hot or you will kill the yeast. The buttermilk may look a little curdled. In a large bowl add 2 cups of flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and yeast. Add the lukewarm buttermilk from the saucepan to the dry ingredients. Using a wooden spoon or your hands and mix for 2 minutes. After mixing for 2 minutes add another cup of flour. Pour dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 - 10 minutes. Adding the rest of the flour a 1/2 a cup at a time till the dough is smooth and silky. You do not have to add all the flour. Place dough into a large clean bowl with a little oil. Rol the dough in the oil to coat all sides. Cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm area till double in size. After the dough has doubled in volume, punch it down gently. Divide the dough into 2 equal sections and place into a greased bread pans. Cover and let rise till doubled again about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 F. Brush dough with a mixture of egg and water. Place in oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool.
