Varmint

I drink quickly-made iced coffee at work most afternoons. It's not Nirvana, but it does the trick. Our standard office coffee is Starbucks, about 6 different varieties. I pour a cup of Starbucks Sumatra, add two teaspoons of sugar and stir. I then fill a tall glass (we have pint glasses for water) with crushed ice straight from our filtered water dispenser. Onto that I pour approximately a quarter cup of half and half. Then, while stirring, I add my coffee. Instant iced coffee. I've had to show several of my co-workers how to do this. We also have nasty flavored coffees here (hazlenut is the most popular) -- they aren't too bad in iced coffee.

. . . coming from one who knows all about that type of childhood -- right, Steven?

Reports, please!

Thanks for the Currituck info. My father-in-law is from Currituck County, and although it's been several years since I last visited, I have to go there this summer.

Well, you're not going to find anything GREAT within 2 hours, unfortunately. You may want to try Lane's Family Barbecue in Edenton, and while you're there, head over to Williamston to try the Sunnyside Oyster Bar, which is certainly a blast from the past. Here's a thread Now I also think you should try Bubba's Barbecue in Frisco, where they purportedly cook over hickory. Mind you, I don't know if this is NC barbecue or anything else about the place, but it may be worth a shot, and it'd be a pretty drive. Finally, Random Alias' suggestion of Pete Jones Skylight Inn is a solid one, as is Bum's, which is also in Ayden (they're only a few blocks apart -- and I actually prefer Bum's). However, that's a LONG haul from Nags Head.

Trish, did you notice FG's clothing? Tres chic, eh?

Would Diana care to hold a master class in gutting and scaling? I'd pay money for that. Huh. Come on over, and I'll teach ya - take maybe ten minutes. I let other people do the fishing (I have my hands full with shellfish), but I can clean, scale, gut and filet like nobody's business. The nice thing about fish is, there's only so many moving parts - not a whole lot of anatomy to worry about, and most of what you don't want is all conveniently clumped together. Convenience food, really. Almost. EDIT to add: Here's a piece of our family language: anything (fish or otherwise) that is guaranteed perfect, done, just so, is called "thousand-dollar-fish." This is because my mother and her brother used to bet each other $1,000 on just about any point on which they challenged each other or disagreed, and when my uncle handed my mother a fresh-caught bluefish and she did the job on it, on returning the filets she'd promise to pay him $1,000 for every bone he found (and bluefish is a bit more complicated than, say, flounder - lots of little floating peripheral bones). I don't know whether they ever held each other to the $1,000 sum - generally I figure they didn't have $1,000 - but I do know she never paid him a penny in bluefish-bone forfeits. Ok, let's see them filet a shad with no bones remaining. THAT would be a thousand dollar fish!

I can cook a whole fish that I just acquired from a fishmonger (that has been cleaned, of course), but don't ask me to filet and skin it. All those butchery skills are ones I don't possess.

Like Bond Girl, my nemesis is Chinese food. Part of my problem is my range, which just doesn't generate enough heat. The real source of my shitty abilities is that so many of the ingredients are total mysteries to me. I'm just not good at working out the flavors. I'll take crappy Chinese take out over my cooking any day of the week. Pie crusts and biscuits are something I'm proud to have mastered. Come by and I'll give y'all a lesson! Don't have a clue how to deal with a whole fish, or to cut up a chicken. Oh, and I'm still very, very bad at making caramel. But then, bad caramel is better than no caramel at all, right?

If you let us know where on the Outer Banks you'll be, we'll point you in the right direction!

The days of the romantic old-fashioned wineries may be coming to an end, according to this story.

Some of this information might be a bit dated, buy you might want to look at this thread or this one or perhaps this one. Please be sure to report back here with your discoveries!

Sorry, I can't make it this time. Mrs. Varmint has a soccer game that night, so I'll be watching the L'il Varmints.

Brooks, I've been in Florida the past week with nary a decent internet connection, so I've just had a chance to read this amazing blog. Needless to say, you are a treasure, and I don't think I'm going out on a limb to let you know how much we appreciate your appreciation of food and the South. I believe that many of our members are getting an inkling of how important food is to us as a result of your blog. Thanks so much!!!

C'mon Atlanta-based eGulleteers. If you've been to Blais, then give us the details here!

Driving through North Florida on my way to my parent's house in Central FL, I must have passed at least 10 trucks sitting beside the road, selling boiled peanuts. They had propane tanks, and a bit pot to boil the peanuts. If the L'il Varmints weren't in so much of a hurry to get to their grandparents, I would have stopped a number of times. Alas, I bought nary a boiled peanut.

Hardee's has been selling Angus beef burgers for some time now, and they're noticeably and substantially better than the crap they used to serve. They're now my favorite fast food burger that is located in these parts.

The Independent just ran a story about the growing black truffle industry in North Carolina. Click here for the Article. The question I have is not whether they can be grown (obviously, they can), but are they even remotely comparable to the European versions in taste?

Looking through my copy of Marion Brown's "The Southern Cook Book" (1951), I found recipes for the following cakes, which purport to be Southern: Lane Cake Robert E. Lee Cake Lady Baltimore Cake Sally White Cake Jennie Benedict's Rum Cake Williamsburg Orange Wine Cake Tennessee Jam Cake Georgia Pecan Whiskey Cake Kentucky Pecan Bourbon Cake Tarboro Tipsy Cake Southern Hot Milk Cake God, I love this cook book!

Pig Pickin' cake has coconut and mandarin oranges in it, I believe. Banana cake and caramel cake are two other Southern standards. I'll check my wife's grandmother's book of recipes, as they're loaded with lots of cake recipes.

I think we need to set a date several weeks in advance, not just one or two weeks away. Some time after Easter would probably be ideal. Random Alias, I hereby name you organizer of this effort!!!!

Why is it that there are probably 500 of the country's "top 5 restaurants"?

Actually, Roy is his middle name, if I recall correctly, and the one that people called him from days gone by.

I think I said I wouldn't include photos of just you, but I don't want the switch, so I've removed the photo!

My mother-in-law broke her ankle today, so I won't be able to spearhead this event nor will I be able to attend. We probably need to set a date further in advance. Someone please assume this responsibility, please!!!!