Jennifer Brizzi

Thanks, all--I have made reservations at Le Petit Cafe. Everything I've found out about it sounds wonderful. Can't wait.

I will be in Niantic one Saturday night in July without my small children and want a fantastic dinner in an un-child-friendly place, the kind of place we normally never get to go to with them in tow. We like ethnic (to include French and Mediterranean) and excellence, eschewing elegance. Any suggestions? I have heard good things about Cafe Routier and Gabrielle's in Westbrook. Has anyone been to either? Thank you for your tips!

Welcome to Dutchess County, adegulio. You'll love it here. I bought some killer asparagus yesterday across the river for at Gill's Farm Stand in Hurley for $1.49 a pound. Oops, just realized this is the Jersey forum. Sorry..well we're only a couple hours north...

To iriee: There was no fish monger involved. These came straight from the fisherman. There was no smoked roe involved either. What was smoked was sides of shad, just as bony as the fresh but unbelievably tasty. I ended up freezing one of the fish and the other one I stuffed with sices of lemon, orange and onion, sprigs of parsley and some kind of strange thyme from the garden and then I baked it at 400º F for about an hour. Bones and all, it was great: soft, sweet fishflesh.

I practically gave my two tiny tots whiplash today, hitting the brakes when I saw the sign for shad roe and fresh and smoked shad in Rhinebeck. Due to the demise of shad smoker Bob Tator, there was none at that spot last a year, but son-in-law Tom Weckesser has taken over and is selling the goodies at three bucks a pop for each big fat fresh shad, three bucks ditto for half a sweet smoked side, and a variety of roe sizes that vary from five to seven bucks a pair. They are open Saturday, Sunday, Monday and other times by appointment. They're on Middle Road in Rhinebeck, which you can access from 9G between its intersection with Rt. 9 and the Kingston bridge approach, or from the little road (can't remember name) in Red Hook across from Hannaford's. Call (845) 758-2216. I asked for two of the fresh shad that were pulled out of the water this morning. I assumed that because they were so cheap they would be small. But they weigh three pounds each (a buck a pound for fresh fish!!!), too much for the two adult eaters in the family, plus two smoked sides and a pair o' roe. I dug into the smoked stuff as soon as I got home--not quite as intensely sweet as the way Tator did it but delicately rich and wonderful. It's worth a trip from anywhere. I have to figure out what to do with the fresh shad and roe. The roe that I've gotten in the past I have woefully overcooked. I have no bacon on hand, which seems to be <i>de rigeur</i> for cooking it. Fresh shad I haven't tried cooking yet and I have to figure out how to get around the bone issue. Any suggestions will be welcome. I don't know which local restaurants are serving it, but I would bet on Mina in Red Hook, who makes a big effort to serve delectable renditions of local, in-season treats. Anyway, I'm doing this week's "Ravenous" about shad & co., and it may be on Woodstock Times' website by late Thursday.

My Arkansawyer mother made macaroni and cheese with shell pasta, grated cheddar and milk rather than white sauce, some sautéed onions, dried mustard, and cayenne, with fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs and butter on top. I do not know if this was an Arkansas thing or her own embellishments, but I do know that it was damn good. When she made it I would sit at the table long after everyone else had left, having thirds, and fourths, and ... One of the best versions I ever had was in Barbados. It was called macaroni pie and I think it had a little ketchup in it. Suffice it to say, it is one of my most favorite dishes and when my lactose-intolerant husband is out of town, I make some and pig out.

To follow up on a thread I began a few weeks ago about what grits really are, I ordered some of those high-end, organic, very chic grits from Anson Mills, both the quick (half hour) and the regular (1-2 hours). Both versions are amazing. We had the quick ones for breakfast with fried eggs and bacon, and the regular with my take on a classic Lowcountry Shrimp and Grits (not as good as Hank's in Charleston). I didn't use as much milk as recommended due to a lactose-intolerant diner, but they were creamy, corny, and full of soul. I had some Mill at Riverside stoneground grits I had brought home from my trip to S.C. (I have four kinds of grits in my house right now--I must be nuts) and I did them overnight in the crockpot on low--excellent and easy. I put the leftovers in one of those plastic takeout pint containers and after it chilled overnight I fried the sliced round moons in butter and drizzled them with maple syrup. The moons would have been great topped with something saucy and savory, too. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one in the universe as crazy about grits as I am; glad there are more of you out there...

My three-year-old daughter insists on "Jelly Bean." If we try to call her "Pooky" or "Punkin" or "Sweetie," she insists, "I'm Jelly Bean!" Not sure where she got that one. There may be a few around the house this coming Sunday but we don't usually have them on hand.

I actually enjoy cleaning squid, and feel a little cheated that it usually comes pre-cleaned these days. I used to love peeling off the thin purple skin, reaching around inside for the cartilage, squeezing the guts out. I'd have to clean pounds of it before I'd get tired of it. I also love stuffing things, from Chinese dumplings to Greek stuffed vegetables or grape leaves--I don't know why stuffed food is so much fun to make and eat and so universally popular. So it goes without saying that I love to make stuffed squid... I don't have a dishwasher, and am the only person in the house who will wash the dishes. I cook like a fiend and abhor doing dishes...they're the fly in my ointment, but I keep on cooking anyway. Does anyone know anyone else that doesn't own a dishwasher? Sometimes I feel like the only one on the planet...

Come tickle my newborn baby blog, Tripe Soup, at http://www.angelfire.com/moon2/jenniferbrizzi/

That's 383 for me.

I did way too much research on this topic, and wish to thank everyone who helped. The final conclusion I arrived at is that grits, whether called "hominy grits" or not, are almost always made from coarsely ground dried corn. Period. It remains a mystery to me why Quaker grits has "hominy" on the label, and why James Beard, Betty Fussell and many many other food writers (including myself, before I did my research--oops) have said they are made from ground hominy escapes me. It seems that perhaps grits have been made from hominy, or corn thats been treated with lime, lye, baking soda or something else, that such a thing exists somewhere, but I do not know how to find any. The greater mystery to me, though, is why all these years I thought grits tasted like masa harina and hominy! Thanks again for all your input on the topic.

I have recently realized that I love iceberg lettuce. It's bland alone, but mixed with other lettuces its wet sweet crunch is quite satisfying. I make pigs n' blankets (with Hillshire Farms l'il wieners and crescent rolls out of a can) for every Super Bowl party, kids' party, any kind of party, and they disappear fast.

Thanks so much for all the help and information I've gotten so far. Since posting the question, I have looked at a copy of "Hoppin' John's Lowcountry Cooking" by John Martin Taylor, and he says that grits are merely ground corn, and the only reason "hominy" is sometimes written next to grits is because of grits' physical resemblance to lye-soaked hominy. He adds that grits are only very rarely made from lye-soaked corn. I guess that in the past when I've perceived a hominy flavor in my grits, it was merely a gustatory hallucination--but I will continue to love them and keep trying them in different guises (except maybe not with a half gallon of cream). Thanks for the cooking tips as well, all of you. Now if only I can figure out this html business...

I've long been a big grits fan, and although my southern parents never cooked them when I was a kid, I seek them out whenever I head south and also make them at home. But as much as I love them, they confuse me. I believed until recently that hominy grits were related to hominy, the unique-tasting lye-soaked corn product you'll find in the Mexican soups menudo and posole, as well as in good corn tortillas. I thought that I was tasting the same flavor when I ate grits. Not long ago I bought some stone ground grits and some corn meal from War Eagle Mill in Arkansas, and to me the grits tasted exactly like the cornmeal, only with a much coarser texture (they were both yellow). Although they were good, I could not taste that distinctive, delicious hominy flavor. Now, after a recent trip to South Carolina, where I ate grits every morning and sometimes for dinner, too, I am even more confused. Can someone tell me what is the difference between grits and polenta? Are grits just a very coarse cornmeal or are they made with lye-treated hominy? Or are there perhaps different kinds of grits? I plan to write a column about grits soon and would love some illumination from anyone more expert than me. Thanks. Jennifer Brizzi author of "Ravenous," a weekly food column for Ulster Publishing (Woodstock Times, Kingston Times, etc.)