Mabelline

markf424; this is totally off-topic, and I've been wonderin' how to bring it up---how come ALL the kool-aid commercials are African-American folks? Anyone know??There are all kinds of A.A. folks, but what's up with that? WORD>

WineMiles, welcome! The second mouse may get the cheese,but carnivores go for anything!!!

Yeah, howdy, we've had some good get-togethers, but I guess the most memorable F*Up was my pops on Christmas 1979. We had our whole family, and 12 Navaho friends of my dad's who were codetalkers, right? So we had all this special stuff made up, chilling in both the fridges,, and what's my pops decide to do? F*** with the electric!!! One of his running buds told him we could pay less for electric with a different sized fuse!!!Ack, gack,,40 folks standing around with no frigging electric!

Off topic, Chris, but please, next time you're in China Buffet, would you respectfully ask if they are related to the folks in Billings? I'd be intrigued to know. We have one here too, and the folks and the place are so darn good, I can't believe it's a coincedence.

Anytime you go, you will be sated and happy. MM will give specifics. Trust him, he will tell ya whose peppercorns are the freshest!

Awright, that's a dispensation--morning qualifies as any time after night!!!

Chris, watch the commercials...I swear he's either holding an ostrich egg lookin' like how's he gonna crack it, or it's a piece of pottery! NOT...

OOH, lala, pizza's for breakfast!!

My fondest memories of Sunday are the interaction of family, kin, clan, and friends. I remember stuff like my mom and dad having a water duel, and my gram-who was quite laconic--coming undone when she set fire to a tea towel...the monstrous fish my uncle brought up from the crick just as we were about to sit. No matter how poor we may have been, our Sundays were a set table with every good piece of dining accutrement -sp?- we possessed. I try to carry this on, and Sunday is a day for friend or foe to set it down, be civilized, and eat up. This is a sacred thing to me, and I may cook for two days before, when we don't even expect anyone. It always works out, it's always consumed, and we are always blessed by the tradition. Tell you what, a ChiliDog Fiesta in the middle of winter'll do the same for ya. Try it, you'll buy it.

Jaymes, I gotta second your recipe,and though I know the restaurants began using the yellow dye, the achiote does what it's supposed to, as well. But this'll turn out a Pollo Loco that'll make your tongue slap your face.

Hi, Camdon,welcome...do you ever do your fries with vinegars? That is my lifeblood, I tell ya. Fries with hot chili palm vinegar, or real nice malt vinegar---YUM.

I'm probably out of my league, but fatback may or may not be salted, depending on if it was used immediately or not. Sometimes we only ended up with trimmings, which were salted, because the fat was so good it got rendered. But the salt problems are easily done away with, if you stick it in low temp water, and leach the salt, it would seem. Edit to say, I totally spaced on milk. Then your fat won't have to be heated before it is in the dish.

Yeah, love and three bucks will get you a cup of coffee!

Gahhhhh! I'm gonna stop action tonight!!! I swear I saw him looking at what was an ostrich egg. Very intriguing!

I am equal opportunity. Anything good at the time is d..o..o..m..e..d. It comes from my upbringing, where the pantry and cold rooms were plumb full, and anything out was open season. But I reckon my favorite would be posole, over rice...YUM!!

Don't know if this helps, but my grams and my mama cooked the crap out of their catsups to can, and they beat the hell right out of any mass product. If you can come up with an old Ball Jar or Mason Jar cookbook, they've got probably the spice mixtures in the amounts to get a GOOD product...one that'll have you bleatin' while you're eatin'! Good Luck, and Happy Stains to You!!!

Ah, Trish, that direct quote from Rocco was a far worse statement than any of us could've made. I've heard of folks hanging by their own tongue, but rarely is it so "out there". The Roc needs to go into seclusion or something...jeez...now he's just comin' across as a brat. By the way, Rocco, keep the kilt in the cupboard. I DID not say closet, did I---cupboard.

and then on to the Cherry Festival? Or have I gotten the order backward here?? Duh, I dummied up there, but it seems as if you have the Testicle Festival first, there should be NO obstacle to the Cherry Festival proceeding

There's a Peach Festival in Weatherford, Texas in June. It's a good time. I remarked on another thread about all our testicle festivals in Montana. Either we've got TOO much time on our hands, or all these cowboys are nuts!!! If you can get to any Native American Pow-Wows, Rendevous, or Rodeos, you can have a real good experience.

Okay, Chris, I've bit hard on my tongue so your conf. was not compromised, but answer me this: did I see Morimoto on the blurbs with an Ostrich egg?

...Waiting for a jail sentence? Okay, Trish, you are now the Champion of the pithy Rocco quips!!

Indeed, Chris, I have only half-jokingly mused that in 20 years, WalMart will RULE THE WORLD

Billings is a town of a little less than 100,000 people, albeit spread out over a 15-20 mile stretch along the Yellowstone River,and the Rimrock. When I first got here in 1999, I was thrilled to find a Gibson's, which every good Texan would recognise as a state institution to generations down South. There were also, as close as my SO (a native) and I can reckon, 14 different grocery stores. First Gibson's went away after about 8 months of 2 Walmarts in Billings. Then the grocery stores started tumbling. We've now got five still struggling. Beside that impact, I see something else about WalMart that I've not seen mentioned. I put in time at our food bank. We have a main repository, which then allocates as per need to the five other local distributors. We used to have a very good all-around participation from all of our grocerys. But we have far less donations now--obviously--however, allow me to say, I've never seen ANY WalMart products, and their so-trumpeted civic participation amounts to frogspit. John spoke the truth about their modus operandi; the Heights WalMart is fixing to close as we discuss. What gripes the piss out of me is how the big boys manage to get tax cuts that small purveyors would be laughed out of commissioner's hearings over. Now I will go get my paperbag and breathe real slow.....

WOW...perhaps you'll be able to translate it to meats...then there'd be no question of its source? That could only be good news for the conscientious producer!

Do you ever stop and think about who is happy when you buy Happy Meals? Ronald....that despicable evil scary clown.