Mayhaw Man

That's a shame. They sound like a good idea. Then again, come to think of it, so did my plan for fried okra on a stick-but potential investors were a little scared of the downside of that scheme.

Now back to our regularly scheduled discussion of BBQ minutia: What is a corn stick? Cornbread? Fried corn Meal in a stick (I could see this as a good thing)? What gives with this potentially fine foodstuff. I've got to get over there. I have a major hole in my "things Southern" c.v.

People try to cook us down (Talkin bout my Barbeque) Just because we smoke it around (Talkin bout my Barbeque) Things they do look Awful Good (Talkin bout my Barbeque) Barbeque thigh is mighty bold (Talkin bout my Barbeque) This is my Barbeque This is my barbeque, baby Why don't you all just s-smoke away (Talkin bout my Barbeque) And try to dig the Q all d-d-day (Talkin bout my Barbeque) I'm not trying to cause a big s-s-saucesation (Talkin bout my Barbeque) I'm just talkin bout my B-B- Barbeque (Talkin bout my Barbeque) I will not be able to get this song out of my head all day. Thanks Dean. I guess it's better than McArthur Park (Somebody left the BBQ out in the rain ) Edited to say: Apologies to Pete Townsend. He deserves better than this

Dean, The guy doing the double bladed chopping action-what is the yellow stuff on the meat in front of him? Is that just a lighting thing, or do you guys put scrambled eggs on your pulled pork? (not that this would be a bad thing )

Kevin Vizard, a highly underrated longtime chef in New Orleans, has a new place to shine-The New Loew's Hotel on Poydras. Brett Anderson thinks that the place has serious potential. Cafe Adelaide Marcelle Bienvenue covers garden fresh vegetables with a focus on Cucumbers ( I love this woman's columns. She has a seriously informed, but down home style that I really like. Plus, her recipes work!) Marcelle cleans out her neighbor's garden. How about some grilled desserts? Last but not least is a very funny sign off story from long time Times Picayune Food Editor Dale Curry. She tells a very funny story about the first that she ever wrote as editor. It involves frying turkey and, in a strange twist of fate, was the inspiration for the turkey frying disaster that I described here in the "Turkey Terror of Oak St." It turns out that two houses burned because of this article (no fault of hers, incidentally) which shows you the absolute power of good journalism. SHe retired after yesterday's column and with the recent exit of Constance Snow this will leave the Food Section open to all kinds of changes (hint, hint!) to be made by new Food Editor Judy Walker. Hopefully there will be some expansion of the section and more dependance on local writers as opposed to wire service stuff. Burning Down the House, A Stirring Story!

Collard Festival Schedule Be sure to get there in time to have the Collard Queen bless you and make sure to get a t-shirt! This is my favorite combo festival! You can't beat purple hulls and hot rod tillers. They really "tear it up" at this one. ANd yes, thank you very much, I actually went last year as it is not too far from my parents lake house. The t-shirt was worth the trip. You too can look like a Pea and Tiller Queen in this fabulous T-Shirt!

These guys have great tasso that you could order. Or you could call these guys and see who sells the stuff in S. Houston or Galveston. They are in Church Point-hell you could drive over, buy stuff to fill your freezer at Hebert's and Richard's, eat lunch somewhere swell and drive home through Cameron along the beach (the Cajun Riviera ), through the refuge, cross the bay on the ferry and be home in time for cocktails (you'll need one or two after that whirlwind trip). If you do it on a weekend I might even be persuaded to meet you for lunch.

Cheapskate!

Live Softshells Louisiana Crawfish Tails Lump and Backfin Crabmeat Sashimi Grade Tuna Cowain Lemon Fish Skin on Redfish Filets Skirt Steak Not cheap. Price was no object in this menu.

Right on. A blog isn't a guarantee that we get ALL the juicy details! FWIW, I post photos using Safari (& ImageGullet) all the time & haven't had any trouble. I do create the JPEGs using Photshop's "Save for Web" function, which makes the downsizing seamless. That may make a difference. I use a program I got off of the net thanks to Ronnie Suburban (I think) called pixresizer. It's free and it works. Even I can do this with something approaching seamless grace, so I am pretty sure that a world traveling, urban dweller such as yourself might find it a piece of cake. Pretty much the hardest part is clicking. The rest is more or less done automatically. As a general tool it might be kind of limiting, but for reducing stuff for web posting or insertion into web pages it is great. What's up with the turkey? Any decisions yet? Edited to say: What a fine repast. That stuff looks delicious!

I LOVE turtle soup. Turtle soup would be good on this meu. Bag the gumbo and go for turtle soup and bisque, I say! I love turtles-just don't ever get roped into cleaning one. Yuck. I have cut up alot of stuff, but those big alligator snapping turtles have to be the worst. I don't even know what all of that goop is, but there sure is alot of it. Actually if he does this I probably will include a little alligator just for grins from Insta-Gator. The son of the guy who owns it is my son's best friend and I am there picking one or both of them up three or four times a week (it is all of a mile from my house). I actually like alligator sausage if it has enough pork in it. Otherwise it tends to be too lean for eating as a stand alone dish.

My mother just turned 70 on Mother's Day (she looks mid fifties tops) and my Grandmother was still going strong at 80. Where is that Atkins guy?-10 toes up, pushing up daisies, 6 X 6 in the doit (that's dirt to those of you not from Brooklyn or New Orleans ), doing the big sleep, down for the last count-that's where! Had he eaten a few more dumplings, pastry, and rice he might have been around today. Yes, a roasting hen-you can also use a bone in turkey breast, but sometimes those things turn out dry-but I've done it. But 4.5-5 lbs is what you want either way. 1 1/2 cups cooked rice. I honestly think that this is a regional Delta dish. My next door neighbor growing up (A lovely woman from a little town in East Texas and all her cousins from Greenville, MS-she had an accent that would have rivaled Scarlet O'Hara's or my Mom's or her sisters) made a similar dish all the time and she said that it came from her cousins. I have found several similar recipes in Miss and East Ark. cookbooks (mainly church ones).

Now I know what I'm going to be doing on the last day of my vacation. Do you grease the bottom of the pan before putting the dumplings in the bottom of the 13x9? And should I put a sheet pan on the rack below the pan in case of spillover? slowday not afraid of lard Yes and Yes I usually go as far as putting aluminum foil on the sheet pan as it makes clean up a ton easier. Pyrex is much mo bettah than a metal pan for this stuff. You have to realize, this is my Mom's and my grandmother's recipe and when she made that book, she was expecting it to only go as far as her boys and her DIL's. Not only do we all know how to cook this stuff, we also know how to cook her way and all of the unwritten instructions are not even noticed by us (there is one whole paragraph in this book that is actually a set of instructions to a guest at her Lakehouse-we didn't notice for two years-like I said, we skip alot of directions ). The thing has traveled far and wide at this point. The worst part is that she wrote it on some bizarre and useless word processing program in the early 90's that translated into nothing else. She should have used cookbook software but she didn't. I will, sometime when I have a bunch of time-maybe at the Lake this summer-put it into real and useful to people besides her children form. This book is as good as any church book ever put together and better than some of the "B" grade Jr League books that abounded after River Road, Cotton Country Collection (mama was on the test committee-1973 was a good eating year at our house ), and Southern Sideboards. Lard is not scary. Biscuits and pie crusts that aren't flaky are very scary.

Actually, alligator on a stick could be fun. Do you think it's EASY to get them to stop wriggling and biting long enough to get them on a stick? Banana's Foster is a good idea, but I really like Cafe Brulot. There aren't many places that put on the whole service and I find talking somebody into ordering it every time it is available. You could make a foster sauce to go with the peach sorbet. Peaches, bananas, and rum are a very good match if you have never tried it. Edited to say: I think that "the Mayhaw Man Direction" should be added as another point on the compass- Maybe South X South

Added to recipe gullet #1026-Lois Oliver's Chicken Pie There needs to be a Southern Category in Recipe Gullet.

Brooksie's Peach Cobbler Serves 12 as Dessert. This is the peach cobbler that we eat all summer. The peaches we use are fresh from the farms around Ruston,LA-but any very ripe (almost overripe is a good thing here) will work just fine. My 14 year old can make this-so I am sure that you can stumble through it. Peach Cobbler Pastry 2 cups sifted SR FLour 1 tsp salt 2/3 cup crisco 1/2 cup whole milk Sift together flour and salt. Cut in shortening until it resembles corn meal. Gradually add milk until it forms a ball. Roll out and cut into 1 inch wide strips and place over filling after it is poured into the pan. Filling 4 cups peeled and sliced peaches 2 Tbls AP Flour 1 3/4 Cups Cane Sugar 1/4 lb. melted butter Mix all four ingredients and pour into a WELL GREASED 13 x11 pyrex baking dish. Bake at 350F til golden brown Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Snack, Pie ( RG1027 )

Brooksie's Peach Cobbler Serves 12 as Dessert. This is the peach cobbler that we eat all summer. The peaches we use are fresh from the farms around Ruston,LA-but any very ripe (almost overripe is a good thing here) will work just fine. My 14 year old can make this-so I am sure that you can stumble through it. Peach Cobbler Pastry 2 cups sifted SR FLour 1 tsp salt 2/3 cup crisco 1/2 cup whole milk Sift together flour and salt. Cut in shortening until it resembles corn meal. Gradually add milk until it forms a ball. Roll out and cut into 1 inch wide strips and place over filling after it is poured into the pan. Filling 4 cups peeled and sliced peaches 2 Tbls AP Flour 1 3/4 Cups Cane Sugar 1/4 lb. melted butter Mix all four ingredients and pour into a WELL GREASED 13 x11 pyrex baking dish. Bake at 350F til golden brown Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Snack, Pie ( RG1027 )

I would have ditched the men from the get go. Who needs 'em? The women were (and generally are) much more fun than the men and seemed to know where the sure enough, real deal eating and drinking was going on. Back to our regularly scheduled topic-

If I had been out fighting fires, I would be looking for a few cold ones before anybody fed me a chicken pie or anything else.

Like I said at the end of my post, you can add as you wish. The broth that the chicken is cooked in, and subsequently the dumplings, is pretty strongly flavored so that the dumplings and the chicken are carrying all of the onion flavor-but you would certainy not be wrong in adding more to taste. Your call.

I am not going to lecture on the difference between what Mrs. Swanson called Chicken Pot Pie and what people in the Mississippi River Delta call Chicken Pie, except to safely say that when you have had the Delta version, you will be kicking Mrs. Swanson's yankee ass into the kitchen to keep her busy washing the dishes and keep her away from the stove. This stuff looks simple and plain, but it is one of the most sublime dishes in the whole traditional Delta cookbook of tricks. It takes some time, and you will probably never get the same amount of satisfaction out of cooking it that I do (I can remember begging my Grandmother to cook this stuff-I like it cold as much as I like it hot and when a dish was made i would, literally, eat it for every meal until it was gone) as it brings up memories of hot kitchens, old stoves, and the memory of a smell that I am certain will be the first thing I smell after St. Pete opens The Gate. It's really, really good. Really. Serve with peas, fresh corn and cold, lightly vinegared tomatoes. This is from my mother's cookbook-a gift of love like no other-I will be forever grateful to her for doing it for us boys. Mom's Chicken Pie Cook 1 whole roasting chicken in 3 qts. of water seasoned with onion, celery, carrot, salt, pepper, garlic, (your choice-I use tarragon, basil, and parsley), a little tabasco and some worcestershire. When chicken is done (falling from bone) debone and cut into bite size pieces. Strain and reserve stock to cook the dumplings in. Dumplings: 1 1/2 cups SR flour 1 tsp. salt 1/3 cup shortening 1/2 cup milk Cut shortening into flour until it resembles corn meal. Add milk just until it will hold the mixture together. Roll onto a floured surface until very thin Cut into small squares and drop into simmering broth (do not stir the dumplings-just shake the pot to keep them from sticking. Cook for 15 or 20 minutes in a covered pot on very low simmer. Pastry 1 1/2 cups SR flour 1/4 cup crisco 1/4 cup lard (you can use 1/2 cup shortening if you are scared of lard) 1/2 tsp. salt 1/3 cup milk Roll onto a floured surface and cut into strips. Dough will be pretty sticky before rolling out. Make 1 1/2 cups cooked rice while you are doing all of the other stuff Layer a 13 X 9 dish in this order 1) Dumplings to cover bottom of dish 2) Rice-spread evenly 3) Cut up chicken 4) Repeat layers 1 time 5) Crack black pepper over the top layer before putting on pastry Lay pastry in strips on top of the above layer (my grandmother latticed the stuff-it looks cool but I never do it and neither does my mom) Dot the top with butter chunks and bake at 350F until golden and bubbly. I usually add some chicken broth to make it pretty soupy before baking and that will guarantee that it will not be dry. Make this stuff. You will do it again and again. Sublime Southern eating at it's very, very best. Brooks I should also add that my wife, who although born here is from a family of Iowans adds carrots to this (never peas-that is just plain wrong-I feel as strongly about that as all of those Texans do about those damn red kidneys in Chili). I have added very thin bell pepper strips of various colors under the pastry and that looks nice and adds a nice flavor.

Lois Oliver's Chicken Pie Serves 8 as Main Dish. This recipe is referenced in this thread I am not going to lecture on the difference between what Mrs. Swanson called Chicken Pot Pie and what people in the Mississippi River Delta call Chicken Pie, except to safely say that when you have had the Delta version, you will be kicking Mrs. Swanson's yankee ass into the kitchen to keep her busy washing the dishes and keep her away from the stove. This stuff looks simple and plain, but it is one of the most sublime dishes in the whole traditional Delta cookbook of tricks. It takes some time, and you will probably never get the same amount of satisfaction out of cooking it that I do (I can remember begging my Grandmother to cook this stuff-I like it cold as much as I like it hot and when a dish was made i would, literally, eat it for every meal until it was gone) as it brings up memories of hot kitchens, old stoves, and the memory of a smell that I am certain will be the first thing I smell after St. Pete opens The Gate. It's really, really good. Really. Serve with peas, fresh corn and cold, lightly vinegared tomatoes. This is from my mother's cookbook-a gift of love like no other-I will be forever grateful to her for doing it for us boys. Make this stuff. You will do it again and again. Sublime Southern eating at it's very, very best. Brooks I should also add that my wife, who although born here is from a family of Iowans adds carrots to this (never peas-that is just plain wrong-I feel as strongly about that as all of those Texans do about those damn red kidneys in Chili). I have added very thin bell pepper strips of various colors under the pastry and that looks nice and adds a nice flavor. Lois Oliver's Chicken Pie Cook 1 whole roasting chicken in 3 qts. of water seasoned with onion, celery, carrot, salt, pepper, garlic, (your choice-I use tarragon, basil, and parsley), a little tabasco and some worcestershire. When chicken is done (falling from bone) debone and cut into bite size pieces. Strain and reserve stock to cook the dumplings in. Dumplings: 1 1/2 cups SR flour 1 tsp. salt 1/3 cup shortening 1/2 cup milk Cut shortening into flour until it resembles corn meal. Add milk just until it will hold the mixture together. Roll onto a floured surface until very thin Cut into small squares and drop into simmering broth (do not stir the dumplings-just shake the pot to keep them from sticking. Cook for 15 or 20 minutes in a covered pot on very low simmer. Pastry 1 1/2 cups SR flour 1/4 cup crisco 1/4 cup lard (you can use 1/2 cup shortening if you are scared of lard) 1/2 tsp. salt 1/3 cup milk Roll onto a floured surface and cut into strips. Dough will be pretty sticky before rolling out. Make 1 1/2 cups cooked rice while you are doing all of the other stuff Layer a 13 X 9 dish in this order 1) Dumplings to cover bottom of dish 2) Rice-spread evenly 3) Cut up chicken 4) Repeat layers 1 time 5) Crack black pepper over the top layer before putting on pastry Lay pastry in strips on top of the above layer (my grandmother latticed the stuff-it looks cool but I never do it and neither does my mom) Dot the top with butter chunks and bake at 350F until golden and bubbly. I usually add some chicken broth to make it pretty soupy before baking and that will guarantee that it will not be dry. Keywords: Intermediate, Main Dish, Chicken, American ( RG1026 )

Lois Oliver's Chicken Pie Serves 8 as Main Dish. This recipe is referenced in this thread I am not going to lecture on the difference between what Mrs. Swanson called Chicken Pot Pie and what people in the Mississippi River Delta call Chicken Pie, except to safely say that when you have had the Delta version, you will be kicking Mrs. Swanson's yankee ass into the kitchen to keep her busy washing the dishes and keep her away from the stove. This stuff looks simple and plain, but it is one of the most sublime dishes in the whole traditional Delta cookbook of tricks. It takes some time, and you will probably never get the same amount of satisfaction out of cooking it that I do (I can remember begging my Grandmother to cook this stuff-I like it cold as much as I like it hot and when a dish was made i would, literally, eat it for every meal until it was gone) as it brings up memories of hot kitchens, old stoves, and the memory of a smell that I am certain will be the first thing I smell after St. Pete opens The Gate. It's really, really good. Really. Serve with peas, fresh corn and cold, lightly vinegared tomatoes. This is from my mother's cookbook-a gift of love like no other-I will be forever grateful to her for doing it for us boys. Make this stuff. You will do it again and again. Sublime Southern eating at it's very, very best. Brooks I should also add that my wife, who although born here is from a family of Iowans adds carrots to this (never peas-that is just plain wrong-I feel as strongly about that as all of those Texans do about those damn red kidneys in Chili). I have added very thin bell pepper strips of various colors under the pastry and that looks nice and adds a nice flavor. Lois Oliver's Chicken Pie Cook 1 whole roasting chicken in 3 qts. of water seasoned with onion, celery, carrot, salt, pepper, garlic, (your choice-I use tarragon, basil, and parsley), a little tabasco and some worcestershire. When chicken is done (falling from bone) debone and cut into bite size pieces. Strain and reserve stock to cook the dumplings in. Dumplings: 1 1/2 cups SR flour 1 tsp. salt 1/3 cup shortening 1/2 cup milk Cut shortening into flour until it resembles corn meal. Add milk just until it will hold the mixture together. Roll onto a floured surface until very thin Cut into small squares and drop into simmering broth (do not stir the dumplings-just shake the pot to keep them from sticking. Cook for 15 or 20 minutes in a covered pot on very low simmer. Pastry 1 1/2 cups SR flour 1/4 cup crisco 1/4 cup lard (you can use 1/2 cup shortening if you are scared of lard) 1/2 tsp. salt 1/3 cup milk Roll onto a floured surface and cut into strips. Dough will be pretty sticky before rolling out. Make 1 1/2 cups cooked rice while you are doing all of the other stuff Layer a 13 X 9 dish in this order 1) Dumplings to cover bottom of dish 2) Rice-spread evenly 3) Cut up chicken 4) Repeat layers 1 time 5) Crack black pepper over the top layer before putting on pastry Lay pastry in strips on top of the above layer (my grandmother latticed the stuff-it looks cool but I never do it and neither does my mom) Dot the top with butter chunks and bake at 350F until golden and bubbly. I usually add some chicken broth to make it pretty soupy before baking and that will guarantee that it will not be dry. Keywords: Intermediate, Main Dish, Chicken, American ( RG1026 )

Varmint, it occurs to me that this might make an interesting party blog. Amateurs, seafood, knives, drinking, fire--I'd watch it if it were on TV and nothing else was on.

You're right. Chopped barbequed brisket makes great chili. Very, very thinly sliced and then marinated in that bad ass Spiracha Hot Chili Sauce (the one with the rooster on the bottle) can make a great little hot snack on some good toast points. Re: The Beans in the chili........yeah, yeah, whatever