Mayhaw Man

Pickles should not be hot, so we are close to some kind of agreement (he says while donning his rubber gloves and biohazard suit before checking the mail). Unless they are fried. Fried pickles should be hot. With Remoulade. Not Ketchup. Or Catsup.

Come to think of it, I gave you some pickles this weekend (albeit pickled tomatoes) and they would probably be mighty fine on a Chik-fil A. Before you start filling your envelopes I suggest that you give pickles one more try. After all, pickles on a sandwich beat a stretch at Terminal Island (you may want to read this before you go any further with your little biology experiment).

I have a large project and need some decent recipe/cookbook software. Has there been any improvement on any of the things mentioned in this thread and if not, has anyone come out with anything new that I might consider? My goals are to have the recipes I am working with in usable, readable, printable, and emailable form both in a group and as individual recipes. Do I ask too much? Am I dreaming? Help me out here. I can't put this off much longer. Thanks, Your disorganized pen pal, Brooks

Tremor! Long time no hear. Hopefully you have been sucking down plenty of cool malt beverages in the recent 100 plus days in Austin. Ice, in a light bodied wheat beer can be a very good thing. Yes, it certainly waters it down, but it is still a very pleasurable way to drink it. I'm still hoping to get over your way next month. I'll buy lunch (you can buy dinner )

Pickles and canned tuna go together like, well, pickles and tuna. Dill pickles. Sweet pickles would be wrong. I use a post office box.

I have been kinda budy the last few days and have not been able to keep up with this great blog (not to mention when I could check in I was on a dial up connection-eGullet SUCKS with dial up and a PII). I read it from start to finish and have really enjoyed it. Thanks. Once again-Central Market is the greatest grocery chain in the Known Universe.

I am lucky enough to have a car that gets great mileage and I live very close to my work (I can walk if the weather looks like it won't rain, but this is SOuth Louisiana and it rains almost every afternoon in the summer) so I don't use much gas (I fill up every two weeks or so). My wife, on the other hand uses a ton thanks to kid pick up and delivery and that has been causing some wallet pain. The first time it really hit me, though, was this weekend. I can normally go to our lakehouse for a long weekend with 50 bucks for crickets and gas. This weekend, I easily exceeded a hundred dollars to keep everybody skittering about on boats and jet skis (crickets are rediculously priced as well, but I don't think the price of bait has anything to do with the price of sweet crude ). Where the budget for gas effects food is in how often we eat out. My wife is a serious budgeteer (thank the Lord-I win no prizes in economics in that particular category ) and the money for gas has been coming from the envelope (literally, as she uses the envelope cash system) formerly reserved for eating out. More leftovers, less po boys.

New Orleans is a bad, bad, place for dieters following the Atkins Regimen We'll see you next time or maybe in Hawaii this Winter. That is on our short list of places to take the boys this year.

Welcome to eGullet Melic. I am more than familiar with Farmerville and even more familiar with the Palace (long closed). One of my mother's big stories is about riding the train from Bastrop to Monroe (gloves and hats of course) to go downtown and shop. They did it all of the time My wife's family has a house on D'Arbonne where we spend a good amount of time in the summertime. I am old enough to remember when the lake was new and was a big forest instead of the reservoir it is today. Dave-The Monjuni jars have to do with two things 1) mama likes their products 2) She saves jars like crazy Redfox-I don't mean to sound evasive, but it kinda depends on how full the jars are volume wise with cucumbers. It goes a pretty long way. We just keep it handy and make it as we go when we need more. Thanks everyone for all of the kind words about the piece. They mean alot and I appreciate it. One thing I like about this type of forum for writing is response-I have been writing for various publications (including a weekly newspaper column) for a long time and sometimes weeks go by before you get any response from readers (and generally that is because you pissed one of them off somehow) and there is a level of instant gratification available with this type of publication that is not available anywhere else (not to mention all of the delicious yogurt ). It has been a pretty harrowing week for my mom (and, by extension, for all of us). She went in on Tuesday for a "few tests" and ended up with a triple bypass on Wednesday Morning. She is seventy and looks about 55, I woulda never guessed and she certainly didn't. She is doing fine and seems to be recovering well at this point and the predictions are for many more years of Mayhaw Jelly, Peach Pound Cake, and Seafood Gumbo. My mother is nothing if not tough. I look forward to being able to show her all of the kind things that you guys have said about her when she is able to see them. While she will not be happy about having her laundry hung out in public (believe me-I did some serious thinking about this situation before I submitted the story. Writing about family, no matter the context, can be damn nervewracking and touchy-to say the least), I think that she will secretly be pleased about people's responses to the piece. Thanks again, Brooks

Thanks for the great reports and I am so sorry that I was out of town and could not meet you this weekend, but a family emergency (a big one) has kept me in North Louisiana since Sunday Morning. Man, Bennachin is directly under my wife's apt. I mean directly under. You have done everyone a great service with these detailed threads and I am sure that future readers (not to mention me) will greatly appreciate it. Glad you had a great trip and arrived home safely. Brooks

Do this if you have an ice cream rig or know someone you can borrow one from 1)Soak a good handful of the stuff in a tupperware container with 2 cups orange juice for about an hour. 2) Boil 2 cups water with 2 cups sugar for 5 min. 3) Remove mint from orange juice and add juice of 2 lemons and 2 limes 5) Blend all ingredients and cool to almost freezing 6) Just before freezing, in a blender, take 6 large mint leaves and whiz up with a little of the liquid 7) Combine all ingredients and put in ice cream freezer 8) When liquid starts to gel add 2 egg whites whipped to stiff peaks and 1 cup heavy cream-finish freezing 9) Remove to freezer in a plastic airtight container and finish hardening. 10) Serve and impress your friends.

I have five 11 year old boys (3 friends, 1 cousin, 1 son), two 14 year old boys, my wife, me, my SIL, and my parents at our Lakehouse on Caney Lake in North Louisiana. It is like feeding locusts. It hits the counter and it is gone with grunts and the occasional grunt of appreciation (from the boys, adults are appreciative . Sunday Lunch Fried Bream (we caught em Sunday Morning) Fried Speckeled Trout (my dad caught em last weekend) Okra and Tomatoes Squash Casserole Cantelope Gelato (fresh cantalope, gelato made this morning by me) Sunday Dinner (we had MORE kids who kindof just showed up in their boat) Hamburgers Hot Dogs Fresh Tomatoes Very, Very Freah Corn on the cob (it was growing at noon) Mint Sherbert (fresh mint outta my mothers yard-See The Cotton Country) Pineapple Upside Down Cake (it was bad ass, my mama made it for the boys) Today's Breakfast Deer Sausage Pork Sausage Bacon (can't have too much pork) Egg Casserole (eggs, milk, dry toast, good cheddar, mozz, spices, chopped bacon) Homemade Cinnamon Rolls (they lasted about 10 seconds out of the oven) Lunch Today will be: Fish Tacos (using specks from yesterday's lunch) Bean Burritos More Mint Ice Cream Dinner Tonight Smoked Catfish Dip Homemade Pizza of various sorts Peach Ice Cream (peaches are just starting here) If it looks like I am not doing the traditional barbeque you are right about that. I am bushed from yesterday and am doing stuff that will not take me the whole day and that they can eat a ton of and I won't need a mortgage loan after 5 days of this. I am grateful as all get out that our children like to invite their friends up here and that their frieds want to get invited back, but it's like cooking for a summer camp and it gets tiring after a while (no matter how much I enjoy it ). I hope that everyone has a safe and happy weekend and that the weather cooperates with your plans. We had a ton of rain late last night as that big front moved across the deep South, but it is beautiful today. Brooks

As far as Tulane vs. LSU in my house we always just described it as: Culture vs. Agriculture Actually, I am a Grambling Man(as far as SWAC goes). I grew up watching Eddie Robinson put more players into the NFL than just about anybody.

Yes they do, as a matter of fact. Try a wheat this time of year, over ice with lemon (yeah, yeah, I know-but it's damn good and extremely refreshing).

My Mom read the thing the other night. She seemed to like it quite a bit. I am terrible about presents, but she seemed to like this one. She lurks here occasionally (I think) but is polite enough not to admit it to me. She already knows where to eat in New Orleans as she has been doing it since 1940. She and my Dad actually have a group that were in Law School at Tulane with my Dad who have been eating and drinking together all over the world and in New Orleans two weekends a year since 1958. Dinner at Antoines the Friday before Tulane Homecoming for almost 50 years. They have a great tradition of the person who guesses the price of the whole meal for twenty or so people doesn't have to pay. My father is remarkably good at it. b

I do know a little about the beer. For ten years "my friends" were me and one other guy. I would give you the recipe for that too, but I would get my ass sued off by the current ownership. Have fun at your conference. I spent the night in the quarter last night and met friends for dinner. There are a ton of convention type folks in town. I guess that this is the last hurrah before the summer doldrums set in. Hope you are staying cool. Pretty hot already. Thanks for all of the great reports. Brooks

The best part is that there is real food in that book. No tuna hot dish and no green bean casserole with canned fried onions (although I like gbc w/cfo-hard to improve on a classic ). I'm going to see her this weekend for the first time in a couple of months. There will be kids everywhere and she will be cooking up a storm (even though everyone there (but my Dad-who is useless in the kitchen) can cook, she insists and that's ok by us). Chicken Pie for Sunday Dinner (that's lunch for some of you city folk ). We're into the nineties and summer has started. It's so hot only about half of the blooms are hanging on my tomatoes and I have actually had to water a couple of times. Have a nice weekend everyone. I'm planning on one myself. Brooks Edited to say that not before I go meet a couple of happy go lucky (I hope anyway) eGulleteers for a late night meal or an early morning breakfast in New Orleans-it all depends on their driving habits, I suppose

Belly Wash Sody Water Cold Drink If you look at the parish in "other" in Louisiana I am sure that this is what the other is. It is a common term for soft drinks in that part of the state (Tensas Parish-One of the poorest and least populated areas of the South-They went for years without a doctor or a dentist-you had to go to Natchez, Vicksburg, or Monroe for medical care)

Or people that call poboys "subs".

Here's what people that frequent egullet call sugary, carbonated beverages. It will be interesting to compare the two (or amybe this is where they did their research ). Edited to say that this would be a much more interesting survey if the names for "other" were listed by catagory.

This might be the second or third time that I've read something on eGullet that actually made me tear up. Thanks, Brooks. You're someone who definitely "gets it." What a girl. Man, go out and teach your boys how to fight or build fireworks or something. Thanks Dean.

Thank you for the kind words. I am sure that he will appreciate your gift greatly. I wish him luck. That's way too many muffin tins, but you can never have too many sheet pans.

I thought that some of you might be interested in this article about Shavuot written by Mildred Covert, the New Orleans woman who has written the Kosher Kajun cookbook series. The article appeared in today's Times Picayune Food Section.

Nellie and Joe's makes a fine bottled juice. They are out of Key West and their products are available elsewhere and by mail. They have a particularly useful website with FAQ's (scroll down to the bottom of the page) that are very helpful if you have never made the pies before. There are also some pretty interesting recipes on the site. Hope this helps.

Would that be an Abita Amber in that schooner pictured with the crab claws? I happen to know the guys who developed that fine beverage. And Rachel is right. This is working out to be a fine vacation Blog. Between the Perleaux's vacation and yours, we are getting a nice collection going. The batter on the shrimp is a single dip in egg wash and into a tub of self rising, spiced flour and done again (2 dips, two flours). The catfish is a single dip in egg wash and into 1/2 fine ground yellow corn flour and 1/2 medium grist yellow corn meal with salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. (I ran the kitchen in B.R. for MA's for a few years, so I know how they do it). MA is a freak for clean oil (peanut oil) and between that, proper battering technique and having the oil at the right temp, it usually comes out pretty close to perfect. Edited to say for those of you frying at home: The egg wash is cold-ice cold-in fact, in the main restaurants it is often kept in large buckets in a freezer and changed often as the stuff on the line warms up. The oil is in a fast recovery fryer at 350F for both the shrimp and the catfish.