kpurvis

Yes, absolutely I do menu planning. In my job, I make decisions all day. At the end of the day, I don't want to make any more decisions. When I know what I'm going to cook, I can come home, put my brain on automatic pilot and just relax into the enjoyment of cooking. Two things about planning vs. spontaneity: 1. Sitting down on Saturday morning to sketch out a menu plan (and it really is just a sketch that changes depending on what's at the store and what mood I'm in) and make my shopping list only takes about 15 minutes, and it gives me a chance to stop and think about the week ahead. It saves me money and keeps me from wasting food, but it's also become a brain oasis, a chance to just think about what's going on in my life for a minute. 2. To keep from getting complacent with my cooking skills, I include a "pantry night," when I have to come home and make something out of what's in the freezer and the cabinets. It makes me use up all those things I buy and toss in the deep freeze, and it keeps me on my toes. I'm the anal type, though -- I got sick of forgetting to use great stuff I bought at the farmer's market, so I often sketch a list of what I bought and stick it on the refrigerator, too. It helps me remember to use the baby squashes and fresh garlic I bought on a whim.

?em esucxe (Greetings from Charlotte. North Carolina.)

My husband is a very funny man -- that's why I married him -- and he can come up with things very quickly. One night, we were cleaning shrimp together and I mused, "I wonder what these shrimp ate that turned their vein blue?" Without missing a beat, Wayne crooned (to the tune of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"): "She asked me if I knew, Why shrimp shit is blue?" Nineteen years and the man still makes me laugh.

Yea! I'm just catching up after a couple of weeks on the road and was worried my personal favorite, Texas Pete, got left off the list. I did a story on Pete a couple of years ago and did a comparative tasting of hot sauces -- Pete, Frank's and Tabasco. When tasted straight, Tabasco is all heat. Pete definitely has more flavor. It has the vinegar twang we North Carolinians love. One more word in Pete's favor: Ardie Davis, aka Remus Powers, author of books on sauces and founder of the Diddy Wah Diddy sauce contest, tells me that of all the sauces he has in his collection, Texas Pete is the one he carries in his briefcase when he travels.

If it isn't too late: Fried pickles at the Ajax, and the duck hash at Yocanna River Inn.

Buffalo wings. We got married on my lunch hour, and there was a hurricane coming. So I picked up wings on the way home (the bartender gave me a Fosters on the house while I was waiting) and anybody who made it through the storm got to join the party.

I haven't tried the sweet corn, but I tested a recipe today from Norman Van Aken for a charred corn salsa that was wonderful. When you caramelize the corn in a skillet with butter, it starts to smell like kettle corn. Then you saute green pepper, red onion, jalapeno and sliced garlic and toss it all with sherry vinegar and cilantro.

Yeah, but think of it this way: Years from now, when you're a great chef, your favorite story will be getting fired from a Ruby Tuesday! This is just the first in what will be a long, long career. One of the best motivations I've had was that I never wanted to go back and repeat my first job, as a cashier in the speed lane of a Winn Dixie. I can put up with a lot of crap -- just never make me put that blue suit and the nurse shoes on again. Bet you won't get fired, though. You'll just learn and get it behind you.

I'm partial to Terra's sweet potato chips (NOT the flavored ones, just the unsalted, plain ones). They go particularly well with bourbon.

Last weekend's haul: Blueberries, the first of the good peaches, the first of the wild blackberries, three kinds of lettuces (one of my regular vendors makes "salad in a bag" with lettuces, herbs, edible flowers, radishes and small cucumbers), unidentified heirloom cucumbers (tiny sweet ones with bumpy white skin), corn (the first of the year), skinny eggplants, several stalks of gladiolas, artisan bread, cantaloupe, yellow beans, green beans and flat roma beans, tiny newly dug red-skin potatoes and fresh garlic. Made so far: Bruschetta, caponata, grilled corn wrapped in basil leaves, yellow beans with dill butter, flat green beans and tiny potatoes, salads, salads and more salads, cantaloupe and blueberries for breakfast every morning, and blackberry crisp.

A pepper grinder, individual packets of Texas Pete, a bottle of soy sauce and those MRE-size bottles of Tabasco. Two miniature bottles of olives oil. And Pepcid -- never travel without it.

Dorothy Parker: "If you don't have anything nice to say, come sit next to me." (I've used it often as a philosophy when deciding where to sit at a large dinner event.) Dorothy Parker: "What fresh hell is this?" (Also a philosophical consideration when the plates are being placed on the tables at large dinner events.)

Rats, you took my favorite one. So I'll just add this one, from Roy Blount Jr.: When my mind's unsettled, When I don't feel spruce, When my nerves get frazzled, When my flesh gets loose, What knits me back together's grits. Grits with gravy, Grits with cheese, Grits with bacon, Grits with peas. Grits with a minimum of two over-medium eggs mixed in 'em: um! Grits, grits, it's grits I sing -- Grits fits In with anything. Rich and poor, black and white, Lutheran and Campbellite, Jews and Southern Jesuits All acknowledge buttered grits. Give me two hands, give me my wits, Give me forty pounds of grits. Grits at taps, grits at reveille, I am into grits real heavily. True grits, more grits, Fish, grits and collards Live is good where grits are swallered. Grits Sits Right.

I went with a friend in May and we had a delightful meal. I did skip the pastas, though, and went with a roasted chicken dish that was excellent. We were very pleased. The service was good even though the place was packed and we were walk-ins who got lucky when somebody else didn't meet their reservation time. My companion got the pasta dinner and we shared bites. I did find that most of the pastas we tried were disappointing -- tough, and the sauces didn't shine, although the risotto that night, wild nettle, was very good. Maybe trying to turn out too many house-made pastas in that quantity is the problem? My companion, by the way, is Italian-American, and that was also his opinion on the pastas. We also had the dessert tasting tray -- two were disappointing, but two were very good and one, a panne cotta, was stellar.

What area of town are you staying in? I could probably streamline the suggestions if I know you were in Ballantyne vs. Fourth Ward. Also, if you're going to be uptown, there is a Saturday morning farmers market across from Reid's in Seventh Street Station that has a lot of kid-friendly activities. Not a big market, but they usually have enough crafts and vegetables to make it worthwhile, and they usually have a special activity every week. Also, Seventh St. is also a fun place to take a kid -- it's an interactive parking deck. It plays music, and it has clues scattered around the building that you can use to make it really light up and play music. It's close to Discovery Place, the Museum of the New South and the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, if you're doing the full-out visitor thing.

All the places from Mert's through the rest of the list would be. In addition, for kid-friendly, Ethans is a really nice, white-tablecloth place that I'd still be comfortable taking a kid to. Mark Martin named it after his own son, Ethan. It's in an old house in Elizabeth. Also fun/funky places to go with kids: The Penguin, one of my favorite places (former dive diner that was remade just enough to be cleaner and get a fun menu, but not enough to lose its style), and Fuel Pizza. There are Fuels all over town now, but my favorite is still the original one, in an old A-shaped gas station on Central Avenue in Plaza-Midwood (right around the corner from Penguin). There's also AnnTony's, the Caribbean place in Elizabeth, and the Roasting Company is very popular with families. The food is good (I have a think for their Tico sauce) but the atmosphere is nothing to speak off -- counter service and booths.

There's a place here that does a barbecue salad. It's actually roasted, pulled pork with their Costa Rican style sauce over a green salad. Yes, I've ordered it. And it was weirdly tasty. (Oops, sorry -- edited to define "here." Charlotte, N.C.)

Zuni Cafe Cookbook has a recipe for a pistachio sauce, sort of like a pesto, served over asparagus. I really wanted to make it, but it calls for "fresh pistachios," which I am finally concluding are a myth. Has anybody ever seen "fresh" pistachios? Don't they have to be roasted to make it possible to open the shells?

Ugh. You said shrimp paste, kp. Bad memories of concentrated sweat socks are returning. Hey, you ordered it, kemosabe. The nice lady did say "you no like." And I deserve credit: I haven't publicly mocked your unwillingness to try it. At chowhound, somebody would have snapped your fork in half, like the opening credits on "Branded." But if you've never tried Peacock's shrimp paste, I urge you to do it. Not stinky at all. It's basically just potted shrimp, and it makes an amazingly wonderful cocktail nibble, sandwich spread, pretty pink swirl in grits. The basic directions: Cook shelled fresh shrimp in 6 tablespoons melted butter in a skillet with salt and pepper until pink. Use a slotted spoon to remove the shrimp and drop them in a food processor. Add 1/4 cup sherry, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and a shake of cayenne to the skillet, return to heat and boil until reduced. Add to shrimp and process. Cut the rest of the butter into bits and drop it into the food processor with the motor running. Pack the shrimp into a crock and refrigerate up to 1 week. Serve at room temp. See? No dirty socks. sorry, edited to add amount of shrimp: 1 pound.

By "this country" do you mean the US? If so, I've seen it in every supermarket here in Seattle that sells the white (which they pretty much all do). Sorry, I forget I need to specify. Yes, I meant U.S. I live in the South and I've never seen it, even at very well-stocked wine stores. So, how does it taste, and how does it stack up to white?

Extensive scientific evidence (meaning, of course, I spend a lot of time watching people eat) shows that the biggest mistake the "regionally challenged" (the people formerly known as Yankees) make when first confronted with grits is that they try to eat them plain. Red-eye gravy, bits of egg yolk, salt, pepper, butter, corn syrup, your sleeve -- all are fair game to stir into your grits. But don't eat them plain until you've eaten a whole lot of them. In the interest of throwing out another grits possibility: Grits souffle. It's really good. Oh, there's Scott Peacock's shrimp paste stirred into grits. Lovely. And Frank Stitts' grits timbales. And ... well, I could get carried away.

I love it, over ice with a twist of orange or alone. Does anybody know why it's so hard to find Lillet Rouge in this country, though? I've looked for it for several years, just out of curiousity, but have never had the chance to try it.

Ha! Found it -- and it has stains on it from when I cooked it. Lucious Peachy Grits Cheesecake, in the same chapter with Grits Pudding and Creamy Butterscotch Grits. The cheesecake is 2 eggs, 2/3 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 8 ounces of cream cheese, 2 cups cooked, cooled grits. Beat together for 10 minutes on high speed, pour in 2 graham cracker crusts and bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Raise temp to 400. Remove pie from oven and cool 10 minutes. Mix 8 ounces sour cream and a 20-ounce can peach pie filling. Spread over pies and return to oven for 10 minutes. Just proves another theory. From spackling wall crackers to sticking posters on the wall: Ain't nothing grits can't do.

I seem to recall a grits cheesecake. Wasn't it in Bill Neal and David Perry's grits cookbook? I think I even tested the recipe somewhere along the way and it wasn't bad. But maybe I'm dreaming.

If you want to get away from the hype of Palm Beach -- or your Lily is at the cleaners -- head to downtown Lake Worth, which about 15 minutes south by A1A (20 if you take U.S. 1.) It's cool in a hipper sort of way, and has several good places. Bizarre Avenue is one of my favorites, and Coco Pazzo, a couple of doors down, is good. One street over is Paradiso, which is a truly wonderful Italian-inspired place with a wine cave. Paradiso is pricey, but in general, Lake Worth has better prices than Palm Beach, equally good food and is fun for strolling on Lake Avenue. If you need a great cocktail, go to Bamboo Room and ask for Cheryl, a gifted bartender. (In the interest of full disclosure: My husband works for Bamboo Room from his remote office here in North Carolina. But even if he didn't, I'd like it very much.)