Mabelline

I think the main thing about breading with cornmeal is that it sometimes doesn't meld into what's being cooked, like a wheat product. I like to use a real fine corn flour- that's why I used Bootsie Landry's- it makes up good, tastes great (and I cannot get it up here in trout country) and is really a lot less messy. Lone Star, I'm so glad to hear you say that- about the salty frozen water trick. I learned it myself from one of my trotline pals-all 75 years of him!!

Remember me telling you all about my Lewis and Clark cookbooks/histories? Well, check this out:"JULY 27,1804- Two of our men last night caught nine catfish that would together weigh 300#. The large catfish are caught in the Missouri with hook and line.--Gass" Taken fromThe Lewis and Clark Cookbook, by Leslie Mansfield.

Oh, yes fifi. The catfish I used were from my trotline on the Brazos at Tintop Bridge south of Weatherford. The biggest we caught that way were 28, 59, & 78 pounds. I did every one of them that way. Farm raised cats have that whang from their food. But I have brined with success on 'em. Just remember that they need to totally freeze, then slowly thaw, then batter or bread and fry. My personal favorite is Bootsy Landry's, hands down, made liquid with beer. Betcha Sandra Lee will invent this in a little while!!??!!

I think that any foodstuff that thickened a dish was highly prized because people did not have the control of temps. like we now have. I've a girlfriend who cannot cook frybread in the house with any success. She claims it is because the frying fat does not act the same in the house.

fifi, I truly believe that catfish is 100% better when you have put it in a bag of STRONG saltwater in your freezer. Ziplocks. Then thaw them out without rinsing, get your oil HOT dip them in a tempura style batter. They are even better the next day, FROM THE FRIDGE. I don't know of any other way of cooking them where they'll taste good cold.

My grandmother used to make me dark toast, bananas, and whipped cream sandwiches when I had to stay with her.Ambrosia!! When I was about three, my step-grampa, uncle, and dad were sitting on my gram's good porch. They gave me homemade dandelion wine.I can still remember rolling down the steep stairs, and my mother and gram hollering at the men, while they bundled me upstairs. Oh my God, any meal I had in the morning before going out to milk. We ate some of whatever was there in the cold room, while we waited for grampa Paul's coffee to cook up.It would be dark, and quiet with no one else up, and one time I remember corn flakes, homemade liverwurst,homemade bread, and johnnycake with strawberry preserves. I would give everything right now to go to those places.

Yo, ho,ho, and a bag of dried up yams, me hearties!

Nope...nope.. I was just listing some of her trademarked names she uses. I hope everyone adds to it with more trademarks-that seems to me half the measure of her womanly talents...

Buckwheat and Buttermilk- no denials- the most excellent ingredients.

From everything I ever heard, during war ration years, sometimes people could not get sugars or syrups, and that's when the phenominal numbers of sody pop recipes came to be. Don't knock em til you try em; they are good.

Yep- the straws were going for anywhere between $125.00 and $3500.00. I bought the critters I did because their "babie's daddy" was as good as they came (not intencional).

Ah, Mongo, that's precisely what I am doing. I bought a quantity of twins(bred cows), and spring heifers(first babies this year) at the bancruptcy sale of Leachman Angus cattle. Myself and two other partners are intending to build up a beef herd for our people. These are not your everyday cattle - they are microchipped, and the best possible exemplars of their breed. I am doing it simply because it needs to be done. Also, let me add an aside; during the dispersal, there were a large bunch of OZ and NZ people buying everything from semen to raised cattle; so I have always assumed these boys know their cattle.

Well, you gotta do like an old venerable man told me "Don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see!"

Clueless. Clueless. clueless.clu..... Let's start listing the products she thinks we need: I get to go first Pixy stix...Andre Champagne. Carmex Lip Balm. Campbell's soup. Edit to say: how COULD I forget Evian Water??????????

trillium, you just expressed the sentiments of eG!!! The very reason there are discussions is to postulate different views. By hearing others care enough to give an opinion is great.You all ought to be able to come away with a different set of perceptives.

My oldest daughter pulled the putting cold water into a boiled-dry syeamer. Yep. Chased off critters in at least a 1/2 mile radius. Went to brush hair back just this last"cooking" season, and stuck my wooden spoon in my hair. And by the way, all of us screwups are bravely paving the way for all of you all who have not ever screwed up soooo good it made you laugh!

There was a reason I advised steel ugly over cast iron. Cast iron is made from the slag melting on top of the real metal. When you superheat the cast iron type, it's not really set up to handle the high heat like we're talking about. Beside that, cast iron does react with acidic ingredients. Steel is the 'racehorse' brother of the cast iron cart horse. But I am quite sure that if you find an Asian market, and make nice with an amma, she will surely find you a thing of years' worth of devotion. Good luck!!!

There is one movie no one has mentioned that food is so intimate in, that it needs putting down here. It is "Vatel" with Gerard Depardieu as a master of the kitchens of a French Duc, who gets traded to Louis the XIV after a card game. Has anybody else seen this?

........JAWS........

Okay....Interview With the Vampire(bite my neck, sweetheart)...Silence of the Lambs...Goodfellas...

How about Scarface when Tony Montana freaks TOTALLY out in the restaurant?

Some friends of mine have that 'store' in Red Lodge, Montana, where she bought the wind devas, and they are about to die of embaressment. Seems that quite a few folks have come in there lookin' for them "Sandy things".

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe.

We need to quit beating each other up. Come on, we all love food, and we oughta be helping each other out to the best eats, and if they're cheap, so much the better. I have known some very rich folks, that pinched pennies till they squeaked. By the way, fifi is right about the melting 18 hour brisket. sorry. The truth hurts.

Isn't the whole point in having Sandra Lee do this on tv that the rest of us are spared? I mean, why have ritual sacrifice if others have to suffer? I just want to see what the stuff tastes like. Surely it couldn't be as vile as it all sounds. No, no...we cannot with a clear conscience let you put yourself in jeopardy like that! We fully aknowledge the sacrifice you are willing to make...but stop and think! What about your mate, your progeny,YOUR future?