Mayhaw Man

Depends on where the shrimp came from. The Louisiana shrimp season only started a few weeks ago, for example. ← And in fact, the current brown shrimp season will be closing today for a few weeks. This is determined by monitoring of the brown shrimp catch for immature white shrimp. When the white shrimp count gets high enough, basically when they are large enough to get caught in the nets but too small for sale, they stop fishing and hold up until the shrimp get large enough for sale. This is determined by area, and is not a blanket stoppage. On the current stoppage the areas south and west of the mouth of the river are the ones that are largely affected. It doesn't mean much, supply wise, as the shrimpers just move into another area until the others are opened back up. If you are a genius with maps (or a shrimper), you might be able to figure out the areas affected by today's closing. And as far as the frozen issue goes-I can buy fresh shrimp cheap virtually year round, but those shrimp are being caught on small boats that dock often. The large offshore boats pretty much all freeze on board these days. If done properly, there is virtually no drop in quality of product. In fact, I would much rather buy fresh frozen shrimp than shrimp that I am not sure of the caught date. Shrimp deteriorate quickly and I believe that unless I am buying them straight off the boat (which I am fortunate enough to be able to do easily) or from someone I know, that I am better off buying fresh frozen.

Front left for sauteeing. Right rear for the kettle of for anything fast as it is a larger burner than the other 3 It's funny though. Steven is right about rotating to save the knobs, the knob on the front left has broken twice in 14 years. Admittedly, it is a 1950's O'Keefe and Merritt (same as stove #8), and you would expect some stuff to go wrong-but really the only thing that ever breaks is the knob that I use the most. You can still get them, but as they are made out of bakelight, and not plastic, they don't exactly give the things away.

I know exactly what you mean. I remember the first time I ever saw a 4 row cotton picker. I think that we actually cheered at the possibilities. Shoot, they have combines seemingly as wide as the fields these days. As far as corn holders go, I have three kinds-some old ceramic ones that are shaped like corn ears and have some seriously sharp spikes on them-an assortment of plastic ones with sharp plastic spikes that work marginally well-and finally I have a set of silver plated ones that look like corn. That being said, now that the boys are older, we hardly ever use them unless someone thinks about it ahead of time, and even then, it's really only for the entertainment value. I was thinking about this screw type deal, it sounds to me that they are pretty much like dry wall anchors. If you were having a big party, and felt the need, you could go to the hardware store and get a lifetime supply of the things really inexpensively. Nothing more manly than buying your cooking gear at the hardwares store.

Dean, I notice that you are using corn holders and that they are mismatched-proving that you are human. But what really interests me is that with all of that fabulous new storage space, did you come up with a special slot for the corn holders or do you throe them into the bottom of the "various implements" drawer like everyone else? Actually, a "do you or don't you" thread on corn holders might be pretty fun. We had corn tonight, sans holders. It was delicious. That's a cool ice cream maker. It has a bowl that you pull out of the freezer? I still have a really old one gallon freezer that has a perfectly functional hand crank on it. We only get it out for big holidays (when there is plenty of horse/kidpower around) but they love cranking that thing. That little one looks pretty cool. I've never seen one before.

A meat and three is simply, and at it's best, a restaurant that serves a plate (often called a blue plate, both here and in other parts of the country) that consists of a meat choice and three vegetables with some kind of bread (usually corn bread or biscuits). There will usually be a choice of two or three meats (for example, meat load, fried pork chops, and maybe fried catfish) and there will be four or five choices for vegetables (peas, butterbeans, fried green tomatoes, yellow squash, corn of various preps, rice and gravy (yes, where I live rice and gravy is a vegetable), sliced tomatoes, okra and tomatoes, etc). This meal is usually on your table in about two seconds and hopefully is served with a large (like a quart) tea-and the tea, unlike the stereotype that you might believe is NOT always sweet. These things are located all over the South, one of my favorite areas for this kind of dining is the area surrounding Lafayette, LA-you can swing a cat and hit two or three good ones. It's a pretty great place for this kind of dining. Oh yeah, it's usually really cheap. So, that's a meat and three. Next question.

I, as a Southerner by birth, will stand with Dean anytime anyone wants to challenge him on this point. While he will never be a redneck, he is nothing if not Southern . Besides, just the fact that he started out a foodblog looking for a fight proves that he has learned a thing or two. I am looking forward to seeing Dean put his new cabinets through their paces. I am sure that the "magic corner" holds some suprises for us all.

Dude, I know you know, but we only have about 100 Vietnamese places that have SUPERIOR iced coffee and will set you up with the whole rig, as long as you don't mind waiting for the drip to occur, and a go cup full of ice. I love that stuff. It's kind of funny as I always thought that they used CDM because they were in New Orleans, but it turns out that it the Vietnamese standard all over the country. The majority of those places use CDM, inspite of the fact that there is some excellent coffee coming out of Viet Nam. Also, any CC's can put together a reasonable good iced coffee and they will actually give you a full on coffee, with no milk, and not give you a hard time about it. New Orleans is a coffee town, you are right. We are the largest coffee port in the US and have several of the largest roasting plants in the country. St Tammany Parish has the largest coffee warehouse and packaging facility in the US. Hell, if you are driving in on I10 from the east on a still, humid night you can smell the coffee roasting as you cross over the high rise over the Industrial Canal. It's a great smell on the right night.

OK, so tonight I did the following. There was no recipe, as there rarely is, but I can basically explain what I did, and mostly in accurate amounts. Anyway, it was outstanding (unlike my photos, sorry, I am too lazy to go clean them up in Photo Shop, so you will just have to live with the crummy photos, but at least they get the point across). For those of you that would like to try it, I highly reccoment smoked meat loaf. It's pretty much like the best meatloaf that you have ever eaten, just better-and smoked. Here is what I did: (I will put the recipe in RecipeGullet as soon as I finish this post) I took the ground beef and mixed in the cracker crumbs, the spices, and a medium yellow onion. This was well mixed and then formed around some reallly, really good italian sausage links (made at a local butchers). This loaf was then put into a pan and it looked like this: As I was making this I was heating up a large chimney of Royal Oak Briquets (my favorite brand) and I set them on the fire grate in my weber in a neat pile. I had the vents wide open on the bottom of the Weber as I was looking for some real heat at about 350F. I added a hunk of pecan to the top of the coals. I then placed the meatloaf on the grate and put the lid on with the vent pretty wide open. I cooked the meatloaf for about 90 minutes at 350F. When it was finished it looked like this (actually, in real life, it looked alot better than this-I ended up with terrible pictures tonight): It smelled great. Nice and smoky. Here is what it looked like sliced up. This is an end piece and that is why you only see one link of sausage. In the middle part it really looked cool with four links in the center. The meatloaf ended up moist and delicious, cooked through perfectly with a nice crust and a cool smoke ring. Ever had a meatloaf with a smoke ring? It doesn't suck. I highly reccomend this as a nice Saturday afternoon project. It was really good. Really, really good.

This is almost unstoppable in most states. The liquor wholesale lobby, coupled with the beer leagues (or whatever they are called in their respective states) HATE this decision ( the recent decision by the Supreme court allowing direct shipment to homes is what is spurring all of this stuff, it scared the hell out of the wholesalers). These guys have bottomless budgets and are perfectly willing to spend it to get what they need. I live in Louisiana, a state where, for years, it has been legal to have wine delivered by mail from about anywhere, anytime. There was a bill passed, just before our otherwise do nothing legislature retired for the Spring, to make ALL of this kind of business illegal-much like the law in California. You can look for this to be happening in state after state. It's easy for them to pass, as almost no one is for it, industry wise, because this recent decision basically allows all of the middle men to get shut out of the chain. No one likes getting shut out and these guys have some serious stroke in almost every state that has private sales. To a very large degree, especially here in Louisiana and in a few other states, liquor, beer and wine sales are subject to more local regulation than statewide. Hence dry precincts, different closing hours for different parishes, etc. It's kind of crazy but it usually works out for the best. In this case, probably not so much. They don't want vintners to have the ability to direct ship, so consequently they see this decision not as a negative, but as a wake up call- a call to action, if you will- to go after something that has bothered them for a long time. No middle men is not something that they want to see. Ever. If there are no middle men, they have a hard time making a buck. I could be wrong here, but I believe that the point of this California statute is not to cut off retailers or to cut down on the variety of offerings-the point is to make it so that retailers HAVE to buy their stock from wholesalers. It's all about the wholesalers wanting to get control over something they don't already have in California (but do in most other states). I hope it fails, but it will take a miracle I suspect.

And if you put a couple of corks in it, there will be no sticking. Of course, I bet you wish that I would put a cork in it.

We don't count ice here-we weigh it-in pounds, the way that God intended. I used about 6 corks to what I would guess would have been about 4 lbs. of ice. I will count the cubes tonight. I have this vision of Canadian guys sitting around a table drinking beer, and counting cubes and corks. A fight breaks out as one guy suspects that another is using too many corks (or not enough cubes-it's all about perspective).

I want those. But does that mean I have to use smaller corks? ← You're all a bunch of non-believers. ← Perhaps this only works in areas a bit less humid than the Southern US Coast, but I have a kind of neat art project in my freezer. It is a mixed media installation consisting of plastic bags, corks, and ice. Kind of one big blob. I am going to call it, "Canadian Technology Dreams". It didn't work for me, and yes, tonight when I get home I will put up a photo (it was too early this morning), but it is pretty much a solid mass. Maybe I did something wrong, maybe it was just too technically advanced for me, maybe I should have used a different kind of ice, or corks, or plastic bags. There are entirely too many variables in this experiment to call it a failure yet. I am certain that I have done something wrong. Marlene would never, ever, lead me astray.

Oh. My. God. That sounds fan-freakin'-tastic. That's sheer genious, Brooks. ← It was really good. All I did was put it on when I pulled the meat was to do the usual soak in evoo, cracked pepper and some sea salt- I then put it away from the charcoal pile, put the vent holes right on top of the cauliflower and opened the thing up, top and bottom, wide open. It heated up quickly and the stuff took about twenty minutes to reach the califlower level of "al dente" that I like. It had a nice, but not too, smoky flavor to it along with the usual roasted cauliflower flavor. I will do this again and again. It was simple and really, really good.

Yeah, well, that doesn't mean much to the rest of us. After all, Texas is a whole nother country.

OK, so there were a few changes: There was no decent okra to be found, but there was some really nice, pencil thin asparagus for $2.39 a pound. So we had Butt-It turned out great. I pulled it at 185F (it took pretty much all of 8 hours) and let it rest for about 1/2 hour. It was tender and delicious. Really couldn't have been better. I grilled the asparagus and made a little hollandaise for it (I never make hollandaise, but I had some time to kill). I also roasted some cauliflower in the Weber. Both of them turned out great. Peach ice cream for dessert. It's great ice cream and I just put the recipe in RecipGullet as there was not one in there for peach ice cream. It's pretty fabulous and makes a ton (or two small batches). There was none left. I will come back and add a photo ot two, but apparently I left the cord to my camera at work on Friday.

Peach Ice Cream Serves 8 as Dessert. This recipe is really easy to put together. It tastes great and is as good, or better, than any of the recipes that I regularly make with cooked custard. The riper the peaches, almost to the point of overripe, the better. 6 eggs 3-1/2 c sugar 10 fresh peaches, pitted and chopped fine 4 c heavy cream 2 c cu half and half 1 tsp vanilla extract 3/4 tsp salt Blend together(in a blender) the eggs and sugar until emulsified completely. Set aside in a large bowl. Blend together the peaches with some of the cream to make enough liquid to blend it smoothly. Add to the egg/sugar mixture. Add the rest of the cream to the other ingredients along with the vanilla and the salt and mix them all together well. Put into ice cream maker and freeze (if you are using a standard one quart mixture this will make two batches. It will keep in the refrigerator overnight. Place in container and put into freezer to harden (cover the surface of the ice cream with saran wrap to keep it from being exposed to the air-it will be much better that way). Keywords: Dessert, Ice Cream, Vegetarian, Blender, Intermediate, Ice Cream Maker, Dinner ( RG1309 )

Peach Ice Cream Serves 8 as Dessert. This recipe is really easy to put together. It tastes great and is as good, or better, than any of the recipes that I regularly make with cooked custard. The riper the peaches, almost to the point of overripe, the better. 6 eggs 3-1/2 c sugar 10 fresh peaches, pitted and chopped fine 4 c heavy cream 2 c cu half and half 1 tsp vanilla extract 3/4 tsp salt Blend together(in a blender) the eggs and sugar until emulsified completely. Set aside in a large bowl. Blend together the peaches with some of the cream to make enough liquid to blend it smoothly. Add to the egg/sugar mixture. Add the rest of the cream to the other ingredients along with the vanilla and the salt and mix them all together well. Put into ice cream maker and freeze (if you are using a standard one quart mixture this will make two batches. It will keep in the refrigerator overnight. Place in container and put into freezer to harden (cover the surface of the ice cream with saran wrap to keep it from being exposed to the air-it will be much better that way). Keywords: Dessert, Ice Cream, Vegetarian, Blender, Intermediate, Ice Cream Maker, Dinner ( RG1309 )

I am often accused of muddling things beyond repair. Good to know that I measure up on the Maggieometer. I will sleep soundly tonight.

Too simple and not exotic enough, Doc. You'll need to do better than that.

Well, it's Father's day. Kid #2 is at his grandparents for what seems like the rest of the summer and kid #1 is upstairs sleeping til 2. Mrs. Mayhaw has gone to a meeting and I am left at home reading the Picayune and the NYT. What does a dad do when left to his own devices? He cooks a 9.5 pound butt on the Weber! Tonight I will take the butt over to the newly relocated from Austin brother's house and feed everyone (they don't cook a lick-you are either going out to eat or bringing the food when you go to their house-but they have a kitchen full of basically unused kitchen gear that I would kill for, so it's kind of fun to do it sometimes). Today's theme is SUMMER and FRESH. It will include (photos later this evening) Creole Tomato, Feta and Basil Salad Lady Peas (from last year, fresh one's are about two weeks away) Okra and Tomatoes Roasted Cauliflower (roasted in the weber with the meat) Homemade Peach Ice Cream (first of the local peaches-good, but not quite there yet) Maybe peach cobbler to go with the ice cream, but it all depends on the organizational level that I achieve. I am going to be going over to the Father's Day Bike Festival in a bit, as it's all of two blocks from here. It's a beautiful day and it's always fun to see the bikes and my ne'er do well friends with the bikes (my son always builds one-but this year he isn't finished and won't be entering-artist angst transferred from Mrs. Mayhaw, I suppose). It's usually alot of fun and has become an event that attracts people from all over the South. Later, I will continue tearing the top off of my deck in hopes that I can get it finished this week. One more check of the total renovation list. Maybe by this time next year I will actually have a fabulous kitchen to make Father's day dinner in. My dad is up at his lakehouse and I wish I was there, but it just didn't work out. He's a hell of a guy. Tulane won yesterday and that probably was about all the gift that he was looking for, and I'm glad he got it. Go Wave! I hope that all of you Father's out there have as beautiful a day as we have here on the Gulf Coast. It's really nice and not too hot, which is good because we hit 96F a couple of times last week and it was a pretty good reminder of the downside of living in this part of the world. HAVE A HAPPY FATHER'S DAY. CALL YOUR DAD, IF YOU CAN AND DON'T MAKE IT A COLLECT CALL ;)

These are superior to all others. CDH is right Sure you can spend more, but in terms of bang for the buck, these are off of the scale. I bought a box full of them (2 sizes) when I used to live in Mexico, and, along with wooden spoons and unfired clay bowls, they were the best value in the market in my little town (Tecate, BC, MX). They work, they are easy to clean. They will break though if you try to squeeze fruit that doesn't fit and you mash too hard. But who cares? They are dirt cheap. Two thumbs up on these things.

I think that it's a brilliant idea and I am SOOO greatful to you for sharing it. It's great just being able to correspond with you. We are all very lucky. Dave, of course, just has not gratitude for this kind of thing. Thanks Marlene! You are the greatest!

Kegworks-Cocktail gear cheap. Lot's of tacky stuff suitable for Florida usage, as well. Yeah, yeah, they're my clients-but still, they have good stuff at reasonable prices and shipping is cheap.

This is the kind of information that I have come to expect from eGullet. I have just filled a 1 gallon ziplock with those little half moons of ice and some corks. If this works I will immediately notify my father, the King of Cocktails (this is not always a good thing, trust me) and let him know. Paranoia about ice usage and supply is an overwhelming worry in his life. On the other hand, I suppose that Canadians should be experts on this subject. It's going to be 96 here today, so what do I know about ice?

Well, I have an oldie but a goodie. I live in Louisiana and roaches happen. Big ones. Giant man killing flying roaches. Not much you can do about it. We also have Mardi Gras which means that we have bead shops where maskers can buy their trinkets to throw to the crowds. They sell all kinds of stuff, but my favorites are rubber roaches. These are good for all kinds of things but the best is hiding them below the surface of the sugar bowl. Nothing like a good late morning sleep that is ended by the scream of a loved one who has fallen for the "old roach in the sugat bowl" trick one more time. In fact, I might go hide one again tonight. It never gets old.