Photography by August Selckmann

This year’s holiday menu comes to us from Hardesty Haven Catering in Prince Frederick. For the past six years, Dee and Richard Hardesty have brought their 30-foot-long mobile kitchen to sites around the area for weddings, banquets, and events ranging from Rolling Thunder to the St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Department Concert Series (they catered for the bands and their staff throughout the concert season).

The below recipes are perfect for a family-oriented holiday dinner. With lots of easy, comforting recipes, this menu is sure to make your holidays a little happier.

Story by Caroline Miller King and Photography by August Selckmann

What better time for a review of Southern Maryland’s barbecue joints than the summer? These spots offer simple, satisfying fare that’s perfect for enjoying at the picnic table – whether at the restaurant itself or a family gathering some place else. Almost all of the places listed below cater, so consider them before your next event.

Photography by August Selckmann

Roast Prime Rib of Beef •  Butternut Squash Soup
Beautifully Bright Green and Perfectly Cooked Asparagus
Roasted Turned Vegetables •  Wild Rice Pilaf
Apple-Oatmeal Pie •  Pumpkin Bars

This beautiful and festive holiday menu was provided to us by the new Canards Catering and Event Production, based in Solomons. Chef-owner Michael Kelley and executive sous chef Christopher Chesbro prepared the meal, and the descriptions were written by Kelley. Many thanks to Canards for allowing us to share these recipes with our readers!

This delightful spring menu was shared with us by chef Loïc Jaffres of Leonardtown’s Café des Artistes. He and his wife Karleen, along with their original staff, have been running the elegant “country French” restaurant for the past 11 years. Their devotion to its success has paid off - readers of Maryland Life magazine recently voted it “Best Restaurant” in the central region of Maryland.

Nothing says summer like a good old fashioned hot dog with all the right fixings. Beef franks are part of our American heritage right up there with baseball, apple pie and the Fourth of July. In this issue we are excited to bring you some hot dog fixings- recipes provided to us by Tyler Radez, owner of “On A Roll.” Radez has been operating his hot dog cart for more than two years.

Richard Pelz, founder and CEO of the Circle C Oyster Ranch in Ridge, Maryland, stands on a modest pier that stretches out into St. Jerome Creek near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. “There used to be thick black muck here,” Pelz says of the beach, “now I leave footprints in the sand.” The water here is clear and teeming with fish, crabs and shrimp. Ospreys nest just off the end of the pier; this is the vision that Pelz has for the entire Bay.

Carrots thicker than coke cans. Tomatoes the size of softballs. Cantaloupes the size of basketballs. Yellow heirloom tomatoes, white and lavender eggplants, chocolate peppers and local honey-these are just a sampling of the treasures that can be unearthed at Southern Maryland’s roadside produce stands. While you may need to hit the grocery store to find out-of-season fruits and vegetables, you’ll find a wide variety of seasonal produce at roadside stands. Okra: yes. Lima beans: sure. Figs: if you’re lucky. Peaches, apples and melons: yes, yes and yes.

They are the first berries to ripen in spring. Sweet, juicy farm-grown strawberries begin life nestled within rows of bright green leafy plants. Under optimal conditions of rain and sunshine, these bushy green plants form fragrant white five-petal flowers with a yellow center. From the yellow center emerge small green strawberries that ripen in the spring sunshine, gaining in size and changing color from pale green to vibrant red.

Louisiana is famous for crawfish. Maine is the land of lobsters. Alaska is the state for salmon.  Mention Maryland and you’re talking crabs.  And when you’re talking crabs, you’re talking crab cakes— Maryland crab cakes.

Crabs are as unique to Maryland as tumbleweeds are to Texas. For those of us born and raised in the region we were taught to eat this crustaceous delicacy somewhere between walking and talking. For native Southern Marylanders eating a crab is just plain second nature.