Mayhaw Man

I believe that the 21st amendment was much weakened at the end of prohibition. The "tied house laws" and a number of other things that were put in place with the repeal of the Volstead act were enacted in order to encourage competition between brewers rather than the domination of a couple of brewers who had managed to stay alive during prohibition by making malted milk, near beer, refrigerators (oddly enough, Anheuser Busch built them ), and soft drinks. Up until the enactment and enforcement of the Volstead act I believe that states rights pretty much took precedent over federal laws. Wth the Volstead Act and the subsequent use of FBI and ATF agents to enforce the law, the line between states and the federal government was muddied (forever, IMHO). I sold beer to the Beer of the Month Club (Abita Beer) for years and there was always a question as to whether what they were doing was legal or not. The labels and crowns were often not in compliance with the regulations being enforced in the states where the beer was ultimately shipped and in a number of cases I believe that the beer was shipped to states where we were not registered. I know that the same questions that I have mentioned above are pretty much the one's that affect the interstate shipment of wine. It would be great if the court would take it up and clear up some of the gray areas that have existed for years.

Jason, There is a very familiar looking jar (not very full, but very familiar looking). Were you putting green tomato relish on those babies?

Exactly what I was thinking. Nice work. I can't think of a better way to spend the day than manufacturing WoMD.

Fried Sac a Lait (crappie, white perch, whatever) that we caught (I took her fishing on our first date. Pretty romantic, no?) Hush Puppies Okra and Tomatoes with Basil Peach Cobbler She asked me to marry her shortly thereafter (really, she did. She is a very smart woman). Edited to say that twenty years later she still likes to fish and she still lets me do the cooking.

Your grocery store may not be typical. Most of us would not have that broad a choice of anything, much less chipotle items. Don't you work at the Single Greatest Grocery Store in the History of the Western World?

First the merliton question: Merlitons are not planted at my house. THey just happen! I planted a couple of vines (when, in retrospect, one would have been plenty ) when we first moved into this old barn of a house. Every year we eat, freeze, pickle, give away, etc. a ton of them but inevitably a number of them end up on the ground. Every spring they just come up and start up the fence. I have taken to planting these cool swan neck gourds right in the middle of the merlitons and they don't seem to mind each other and it makes a great cover for an otherwise unremarkable section of picket fence in a far corner of my yard (yard is about an acre and a half). I love those gourds. Picking day for them is usually like a treasure hunt, as the vines are so leafy you really don't know where they will be and they make a ton. As far as seeds go I still am able to get everything locally (although that is changing as the Northshore of Lake Ponchatrain has become suburbia to a large degree (at least Mandeville, Slidell and Covington) ) at a couple of really old (over 100 years) family owned feed and seeds. My favorite is Marsolan's in Covington. They sell seeds by the pound and you weigh them your self on a scale that was new during the first FDR Administration. The floors are 2X12 heart pine and the building is framed in cypress. Bay doors on both sides that are always open and they sell biddies, pea fowl, shoats, racing pigeon supplies, stuff for cockfighters (which is legal here, don't any of you animal rights people sed me anote, I don't have anything to do with it) odd feeds of all sorts (many of our new "gentleman farmers" (think the same people who buy "Ranchettes" in Blanco ) like to raise exotic stuff and Marsolan's has neatly moved into this niche market. I think that all of those varieties of weird looking chickens are fun and am glad that people like to do it. It makes them feel like real rural folk and they make nice, live yard art. They sell actual farm supplies (tanks, gates, cattle gaps, vet stuff, allkinds of agricultural implements and poison. They also will sell virtually any kind of home canned item anybody brings in and wants to put on the shelf-jelly, preserves, pickles of all sorts, etc. It's a great place and I hope they an make it through the invasion of the big box retailers (we recently got a Lowes to add to the Home Depot, Wal Mart Traffic jam in Mandeville). The zipper cream seeds come from my mom. She orders them from some guy in Georgia. I will get his name as he is a pretty good resource (he is also on line, but I can't figure out which pea guy he is from google) We have always saved seeds. Peppers, watermelons, gourds, yellow squash, and poppies all seem to do pretty well year after year. Poppies in particular are something that I have had really good luck with from seeds. A couple of years ago someone gave me a double pink variety (yes, the same ones used in opium production) and they are not only gorgeous, but great bloomers. I have managed to start them from seeds for three or four years running. It is very satisfying and the economic thrill is pretty extreme as well. Plants just cost too damn much and I like starting from seeds anyway, as it gives you the opportunity to pick out the really healthy starts and bag the rest without feeling cheated.

Hope you don't mind me posting in the Texas forum (I know it's a whole nother country ). I got my garden planted out yesterday. Creole Tomatoes, Big Boys, Hawaiians (they do really well in humid, hot S. Louisiana), and a couple of plants each of about 5 varieties of heirlooms (mostly for looks, I like all those weird purple ones and funky shaped red ones), and I potted some cherry and grape tomatoes (which are cool because they will make all summer if I keep them out of the heat). Butter Beans, cow peas, lady peas, zipper cream peas, various bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, japanese eggplant, more garlic, elephant garlic, giant assortment of herbs, carrots, blue potatoes (which do horribly in damp riversand, but I get a few and I like the way they look) and finally Okra , lots and lots of okra (it goes with the tomatoes and the basil perfectly and will make all summer if you keep it picked). Usually okra is the first and the last thing to make in deep south Gardens. I also potted a whole bunch of varieties of hot peppers. Most of the seeds were in unmarked bags saved from good ones I got last year. I started them last month in the house and I have no clue what I am growing, except that they were saved because they were either really prolific last summer or because they were really hot. Peppers, much like the okra, will continue to make all summer if watered and picked frequently.

This is an interesting article concerning scotch (primarily single malts) that I thought some of you whisky wonks might be interested in. It also references an online tasting that will occur Sunday, March 14. The live tasting will occur at d.b.a. at 4 p.m. est. I suppose some of you New Yorkers who are interested in seeing what the deal is for the tasting could give them a call, as it is not very well explained in the article. Sounds like it could be fun.

O.K.- I have a confession to make. Until a couple of months ago I had never eaten any pre done guac. Then, unbeknownst to me, the lovely Mrs. Mayhaw put some in a bowl during burrito night here at homemade central. Not only did I like it, but I made a comment like "I sure am glad you didn't mash the hell out of this stuff, I really like it much better chunky". Well, a smarmy looking Mrs. Mayhaw whips out the box and shows me that it is not homemade. Stunned, I reached across the table and hit her in the face with the avacado mush and my children notified the police............not really. But I was amazed. I have yet to hear the end of being fooled like that. It is not as good as homemade, but damn close. Especially if you add a little chopped tomato and a little lime juice. The avacado is only about 2/3 mashed and there are some pretty big chunks in it . This stuff is produced by Avoclassic and I have only had the classic version of the stuff, but it is pretty handy to have at work for lunch or for a little afternoon snack when I am feeling particularly lazy. The only inredients are avacados, jalapeno puree, onion, salt, granulated garlic. No preservatives and it is dated and actually doesn't last very long, so check the date. We have it at a couple of groceries around here and it is in the produce section over the avacados in both stores. I am not saying it is the best thing I ever ate, but it is pretty good for what it is and reasonably priced to boot (especially when avacados are high).. I feel better after a good, cleansing confession. Don't you?

Rather than bottling, I wonder if they would be willing to put it into smaller casks where you could end up with something spectacular at the end of your bbl? (if you make it to the end without a liver transplant or some other life threatening health problem ). It would be cool if they could put the whiskey into Pins (4.5gal) or Firkins (9 gal) and give you the ability to go for the "superaged" whiskey.

I haven't eaten at Wendy's in years, but I am wondering why this sandwich is an example of something that "tastes good but isn't"? Is it the ingredients? Perhaps it is the fact that it comes from a fast food place wrapped in paper or maybe the fact that anyone can get the same sandwich no matter what Wendy's outlet they go to? Maybe the nutritional content is not up to snuff? I have completely missed the point that you tried to make in your first post. If it is that food made from scratch is somehow more satisfing than something mass produced, then I would probably agree (although a pretty good argument can be made that any restaurant from El Bulli down to a neighborhood pizza joint does the same thing over and over again and at some point the line between scratch and pre fab becomes unclear-no matter the price or the technical skill involved). If I am understanding your diatribe correctly I suppose that I disagree with you. I think that there are some foods that are really good that might contain items that may or may not have a large amount of "soul" in them from the get go. There was a fair amount of discussion in this thread about a dish that contains canned cream soup. Certainly there is nothing amazing or soulful about the canned cream soup, but the particular dish that several of us were discussing (King Ranch Chicken) is absolutely a soulful experience for many people who were raised eating it. I think (generally) that the resulting dish is often (not always) more important than the sum of the ingredients so I suppose that I am more broadly in the camp (to paraphrase Duke Ellington) of "If it tastes good, it is good". Now that is not to say that I choose to eat stuff that contains alot of crap. I haven't eaten fast food for years as I would rather ingest salt and fat in more entertaining and satisfying ways than cramming it all into a fast food meal (I can count the trips through fast food window lines that I have made in the past 5 years on one hand). But on the other hand I am a sucker for a well made oyster po boy and eat a couple of them a week for lunch-I am sure that there is as much salt in that delectible sandwich as there is in a spicy chicken sandwich but it is made to order and served on delicious, fresh bread and has more soul in one bite that 10,000 Spicy Chicken Sandwiches. Incidentally-the differences between corn syrup and cane sugar and the differences between farm raised, hormone laden salmon and the wild version do not equate. While there are dramatic taste differences in hfcs and cane sugar ultimately it all comes down to sucrose. Sugar is broadly sugar. On the other hand hormone laden, farm raised fish certainly doesn't taste as good and might not even be good for the consumer in the long run (no one actually knows at this point). These are two totally different levels of seriousness. What is your point here? Clarify for all of us as this might be an interesting topic if we knew what the topic was (although that clearly doesn't stop anyone here, including me, from chiming in with an opinion ).

I love that stuff.

Generally the bottle purge in high speed bottling operations will be done with nitrogen, as it is an inert gas and will have no effect whatsoever on the product. Some producers may use co2 for the same effect, but this would ADD no carbonation as co2 needs to be injected into a liquid, under pressure, and held at a relatively low temp in order for it to be absorbed into the liquid. Injection carbonation is very common in beer bottling operations and you will notice that the bubbles in most commercially produced beer are very large as opposed to those that are produced in a decently made homebrew or Champagne (these bubbles are produced by secondary, in package, fermentation. In the case of champagne that is the reason for the wire basket on the bottle as the process for removing yeast from the bottle is good, but not always complete, and there may be some yeast remaining in the bottle. There is almost enough residual fermentables for the yeast to react with and eventually this could cause the cork to blow.

My Favorite Sports Mascot But then there are these guys-

Well, it is entirely possible that there was some residual yeast in the wine when it was bottled and this is what caused the carbonation. Did you notice any sediment in the bottom of the bottle? It would not take much to cause this to happen.

I was a resident of this bizarre hotel in Tecate, BC, MX for almost two years. I ate dinner in a completely empty dining room a couple of nights a week and used to enjoy ordering a Ceasar Salad when I had guests in for the evening (I was building a brewery and there were lots of contract workers in for a day or two). This was prepared table side with great ceremony and supposedly was EXACTLY the way that Pierre Cardini prepared it in Tijuana in the Thirties (supposedly he was the guy who invented the salad). The salad was prepared with a ton of rediculous but entertaining flourish and contained fresh garlic (used to flavor the oil), cold, dried heart of romaine leaves, fresh ground pepper, a dash of salt, imported olive oil, fresh lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce (where the anchovy flavor came from), coddled egg, homemade croutons and Parmesan cheese. It was really good and the tableside thing was always fun. The hotel itself often reminded me of the scenes in The Shining where Jack Nicholson would go in and enjoy a cocktail with Lloyd, the ghost bartender. I would walk into this unbelievably elaborate dining room, loung, piano bar (complete with piano and Hammond B-3 organ played by a very talented guy from Mexicali several nights a week) and be greeted by a bartender in a bowtie who would make fabulous and elaborately prepared cocktails for my drinking enjoyment. I could order anything on the menu (check it out on the website) and it would soon arrive at my table. The food was always fresh (don't ask me how) and the fish, in particular, was always great. I never could figure out how they did it, considering on the weekdays I was often the only guest (on the weekends the place is usually packed with guests of the various weddings that were held there-they were great fun and everyone always went out of their way to make me a honored guest as I was generally the "gringo in residence" and I didn't mind being made fun of as long as I got to eat all of the great sweets that invariably came along with a weekend long wedding).

That product has been around for over 100 years. Those little bottles are on the shelves in grocery stores everywhere down here, which pretty much attests to the contimuing popularity of using it to make drinks at home. When I was a kid we used to whack a teaspooon or so of extract along with some finely granulated sugar and hit it with the soda siphon. Pretty refreshing instant root beer.

If you are looking for a really good extract to bottle and practice your carbonation technique on you might try this. I have been drinking beverages made with this all of my life (both in still and carbonated form) and it is really good. It also lends itself to the addition of other ingredients (vanilla for example). One of the hardest things to do in home soda making is getting the carbonation right if one is using yeast in order to get natural carbonation. There are so many factors that can affect the result (temp, available fermentable sugars, viability and source of the yeast, etc.) that it often takes a few tries to get a consistant product. Extracts offer an easy way to practice (as opposed to wasting your valuable natural herbs, etc.) as they are so much less expensive than doing it from scratch.

And you still live? This is a portrait of a man living a happy and fulfilling life.

That dish, to those of you that have never had the pleasure, is one of the sublime dining pleasures in all of true Southern Dining. Unbelievably good. If there is a dish that I can literally smell and taste just by reading about it, this is it. I became instantly hungry and, in fact, I do have some doves in the freezer. Not many, but just enough to sate me on my Tuesday a.m. off when no one is at home but me (the only quiet in my week lately). Thanks geekdoc. You have made my night.

I may have told this story in another thread, but if I did it still bears retelling. Before my wife and I were blessed with two fine boys we regularly had lots of people over to eat on Sunday afternoon. There were some regular, permanent guests and they would usually bring a friend or two. THis would pretty much add up to 15 or so people for a Sunday afternoon in the country (these are mostly Quarterites from New Orleans and they think that my old hotel in the woods is Outermost Siberia). All manner of food was served, usually with a loosely pre arranged theme-crawfish boils, shrimp 20 ways (literally), Crabfest, Fried and nothing but Fried, pig roasts, goat roasts (don't knock it til you've tried it) etc. This was fun and we still do it occasionally, but not like we used to. Usually on Sunday we are just too tired from the week to put on a big show for city folk. Anyway, on this particular Sunday the theme was "Starters, All Apps, All the Time". Everything served was some sort of starter and we had the usual collection of fabulous ingredients. Lots of wine and beer ( I forgot, I ran a brewery for 15 years and beer was how I knew these people in the first place, mostly, and at that point we all drank with gusto and no guilt-as twenty five year old Beer Gods are wont to do ) and other spirits were consumed and there was plenty of laughter and smarty pants word play. It was a hell of a lot of fun. My wife Robin, aka The Lovely Mrs. Mayhaw, was in the kitchen (which is open to a very large sitting area where most everybody was) was whacking up stuff in my Cuisinart preparing the spicy/veg mixture for crabcakes (with backfin, not lump-what a waste of good crabmeat lump is in crab cakes). I was happily stuffing muchrooms with more crabmeat and not really paying much attention to her. All of a sudden she let out a howl like someone who had just cut off the end of her pointing finger and sliced through (clean through-to the bone) two others. The reason that she howled like this is that is exactly what she had done. Don't ask me how. I don't know and to this day she can't tell you. I have actually tried to recreate this and have never been able to get the top off fast enough to hit the blades with something while it is still spinning. Anyway, she was immediatly screaming "I'll never paint again!" (she makes her living as an artist and art dealer) and other less savory statements. We grabbed her up and my friend Fred Flames threw her in his truck with me in the back and we flew to the emergency room, leaving ten or so stunned diners in our house who (we realized later) didn't really know why we had left in such a hurry. When we got to the emergency room it turned out that the doctor on duty was a friend of ours and he whisked her into the work room and whacked her with something to lighten her load a bit. Her hand was a mess and when we got the dish towel peeled off it was clear that we had not arrived at the hospital with her whole hand. We had apparently not noticed (it was pretty gross, you wouldn't have wither) that she had actually cut off the tip of her pointing finger just below the nail. Fred hopped in the truck and went back home to locate the finger (yuck, thanks Fred). It was neatly nestled in a cuisinart bowl full of onions and garlic. They got the other two fingers sewed up and by that time the missing digit had arrived. It was cleaned up, pronounced useable, and reattached. The guy did a fabulous job. While she is still missing a little feeling in it, otherwise it is completely normal. Three hours later (about 6 p.m.) we arrived home to a whole array of finely prepared appetizers and she actually sat down and ate (she couldn't feel a thing thanks to modern chemistry and a friend in the emergency room). Mrs. Mayhaw is a well known trooper and absolutely never a wet blanket at a party (except for the time that I ACTUALLY put on a lamp shade for a party hat, but that is another much more ugly tale) and wanted to let everyone know that everything was going to be fine and that they could all lighten up. The moral of this story is (sorry I can't help myself) Sometimes in life you get appetizers, other times you get finger food.

Yes you can. And Hormel seems to see the humor in this fine meat product. You can read all about it atspam.com

57-y 23-n-(I only counted a thousand times no once) 1- sometimes- as it is better than nettles or termite queens It would seem, at least among the supposedly sophisticated palates that inhabit this board, that okra is not as reviled as reputation would lead one to believe. I will be planting my first okra of the year in the morning. I plan on occasionally posting photos of the growth progress and of the many uses to which this fine pod lends itself.

Let's take another run at this one. I have to go through Oxford at the end of next week and I am going to be going back in October for the SFA. I could do a little scouting for the October trip if some of you could advise a hungry traveler.

Anybody venture in this weekend? The report in New Orleans is that the place is doing o.k. and that everybody is comfortable enough with the operation and supply sourcing that the menu will expand a little more rapidly than planned.