Jaymes

I'd love that approximate recipe. It sounds divine for any kind of cold seafood.

Avocados are great to stuff with any kind of salad....especially a seafood salad. A salad of avocado slices, grapefruit slices, red onions and vinaigrette dressing is a favorite in our house. And sliced avocados always top Mexican seafood cocktails. They are used in Panama and many other countries as a sweet....especially in a sort of Avocado shake with sugar and cream. And also along the lines of avocados as sweets, in the Caribbean they make an avocado pie that is very, very good. You can google 'recipe avocado pie sugar cream' and 'recipe avocado shake sugar cream' and find more recipes than you can possibly imagine.

Well, there you go. Excellent solution.

Well, those little "Nature Sweet" tomatoes on the vine ARE better than the usual supermarket ones that are as hard and flavorless as tennis balls. And I buy them at Sam's. They're not that expensive at Sam's, and in the wintertime, they're worth every penny. They ship them up from warm, sunny Mexico. And they are beautiful little red jewels of flavor.

And don't I recall something about a praline cookoff?

That's my pet peeve as well. And its cousin, the "You better hang on to that," as they give you back your dirty fork.

Which makes me think of something that one has to be a native to love....balut. And not even all the natives will eat that.

Well, I've strolled through Harrod's food courts on several occasions, and I'd be willing to bet that there might very well be some creole mustard on sale there.

My son used to live in St. Louis. He's a BBQ aficionado, like the rest of his family. He often remarked on the puzzling lack of good 'cue there. As he put it... When the world was created, the gods sent the Great BBQ Barge down the Mississipi. It stopped at Kansas City and Memphis and quite a few other river towns, but it seems to have sailed right by St. Louis.

Just reread this thread and thought I'd add my favorite tip for food when cruising. And that is that most first time cruisers, when presented with the menu in the main dining room, think that the rules are: one from column A; one from column B; etc. In other words that one can order one thing from the appetizer selection, one soup or salad, one main, one dessert, and so forth. When in truth, you could order every single thing from the menu if you were so inclined. I usually order ALL the appetizers, a soup and dessert or cheese plate. And skip the entrees. For some reason, I find the appetizers to be tastier than the mains. It's been my experience, anyway, that the appetizers are quite good, and they're things I like -- smoked salmon, caviar, shrimp and other seafoods, carpaccio...stuff like that. And they are usually costlier ingredients, as well, which is why they're served in small portions.

But, aha, will I find it in the book I've already ordered?

It looked great to me. In fact I ordered the companion book, Cooking Under Fire, simply because I hope that recipe is in it.

Funny about deviled eggs. They seem so homey, so retro, so cliche, so made-by-Betty-Crocker-in-her-red-checkered-apron. But even at the most sophisticated parties, deviled eggs are the first things to go. We've always loved them in our house. And last Mother's Day, my kids even gave me a cookbook all about them: Deviled Eggs -- 50 Recipes From Simple to Sassy So many options. A favorite chapter entitled "Lucifer goes uptown," says this: "These little devils go gourmet with caviar, proscuitto or smoked salmon. Travel the globe with flavors from India to Italy, no reservations required." And my family has particularly enjoyed this recipe (paraphrased, of course): Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs 6 hard-boiled eggs, halved 1/4 C finely grated sharp Cheddar cheese 1 T plus 1 t drained and chopped pimentos 2 T mayo or Miracle Whip 2 t Dijon mustard 2 t grated Vidalia or other sweet onion 1/2 t grated garlic S & P to taste additional chopped pimento for garnish Combine egg yolks and all other ingredients except for garnish. Fill whites with mixture and top with garnish. This is really very, very good. And combines two southern favorites.

Sadly, I did not have the chance to reciprocate and descend upon them and their families. I have absolutely no doubt their parents would have been most gracious hosts. And likely would have been quite horrified to learn of their children's behavior when I was the one doing the hosting. I know I would have. And you speak of sightseeing. Boy did I haul them around. We were living in Tucson at the time, and I took them all over southern Arizona, paying for everything, including the city's then most famous and atmospheric steakhouse. At one point, we were driving along in the car and I was pointing out the stately and, I thought, impressive saguaro cacti that loom over the roads. Suddenly they began chattering excitedly and pointing. "Aha," I thought to myself. "At last they do seem to be learning a little something about the Great American Southwest and the Sonoran Desert." But when I looked in the direction where they were pointing, it was no cactus or other point of cultural interest that finally had caught their eye It was one of those pickup trucks that had been jacked up on 6' high monster tires (and that if it rear-ended you, would decapitate your entire party). I was immediately deflated again. Although I guess you could say that it was a point of cultural interest. It certainly did help to illustrate how the locals (at least the young males) live.

I must have gotten the only four French children that hadn't learnt all these wonderful manners and willingness to eat anything. I hosted four French boys, about 12-14, for a week in my home. They were with a French boy's choir touring the States. They were very picky, arrogant little shits. They turned their Gallic noses up at everything except steak and pomme frits. Which they expected me to provide for them at every meal. And which I didn't. So I watched them pick off the green bits and the white bits and the black bits from the pizzas. And dump the contents of the tacos out onto their plates and push the lettuce and tomatoes and salsa and cheese off to one side and laugh openly at the refried beans and announce that they weren't about to even try to eat anything but the taco meat and that I'd better hustle up and get them more of it. And just in general let me know that in so far as the food went, they were decidedly unimpressed.

I think Misa's attitude is perfectly mature. She's not dissing other people for having kids; she's just not into them herself. It seems to me by not having them over she's avoiding being rude to them. I love kids. A lot of my friends have them, including young ones, and I often have them over. It does lend another dimension to entertaining, though. And I'm lucky that my dog loves kids. Oh, and that my friends have trained their kids to eat whatever the adults are eating. People have a perfect right to want to entertain grownups at a grownup party without children there. No matter how adorable or well-behaved children are, they are still children. And smoked salmon and caviar appetizers and Martinis and your crystal and good china, for example, are not appropriate for them. There was a time in my life where, for about 15 years' worth, because of my husband's profession and position, we had some sort of party, or dinner, or luncheon, or tea, or coffee, or other meeting, or hosted something in our home, or elsewhere, that involved food and drink, at least three times a week. Everything from elegant brunches, to small dinner parties, to all-day bridge parties including breakfast and lunch and table snacks and prizes, to patio parties, to backyard BBQ's, to a Halloween party in a local cave, to road rallys, to enormous dinners for 60 and more. I raised three kids and am perfectly fond of children. But not every event is well-suited for them. If I was having an adult-only event, I'd say (to the people that I knew were problems regarding having to bring their children everywhere), "And I really haven't made any plans for children this time. Perhaps we'll have a family picnic sometime soon." (And I would.) Yes, I did have some folks that refused to attend without their kids. And most of them seriously believed that they could coerce and intimidate me by saying, "Well, then, we can't come if our children aren't welcome," thinking I'd relent (talk about rude). But instead, I'd just say, "Certainly they're welcome another time. But not this time. I'm sorry. We'll miss you." When I had an "adults only" get together, I'd hire a babysitter to sit in the back bedrooms and entertain my children. Or take them to a kid-friendly restaurant. Or a movie. Or skating. Or something. If Misa's home does not lend itself to hosting children, then that's her perogative and she shouldn't be pilloried. And also, to those folks that think they can't reciprocate because they don't have the space. There's ALWAYS something you can do, if you have it in your heart that you want to do something. We once spent three months in Montgomery, Alabama, while my husband attended a school there. Another couple, who were also attending that school, invited us (including our children) for dinner twice during the first month. They happened to live in Montgomery and had a lovely home. We, on the other hand, were jammed into a small 1-bedroom apartment with a "kitchenette," that was really just a small fridge, two burners, and a sink. My husband and I and our toddler and our newborn barely fit in there ourselves (what with cribs and playpens and big wheels and other assorted Kid Krap), and there certainly was no way to entertain. We were young, just starting out, and couldn't afford to take them to a nice restaurant. So we did a little scouting, found a pleasant city park with some BBQ grills, picked up a few steaks and some weiners for the kids and a bag of briquettes. I made up a big pot of beans, and bought some baking potatoes and a couple more sides. And a cooler which we stocked with soft drinks and beer. And there you go. A lovely evening, eating and laughing and talking while the kids, ours and theirs, ran and tumbled and played on the swingsets. Reciprocity. It's a beautiful thang. But it ain't the only thang. And now, I entertain when I want. And I entertain whom I want. And I don't give a rip if they invite me back or not. Although, frankly, most of them do.

That's me, too. Other food folk would not even be impressed, but my "regular" friends ARE intimidated. They've said so. One woman said to me, as my husband and I walked in through her front door for a dinner party she felt obliged to give for work reasons, "I'm a nervous wreck. It's like the IG is coming for dinner." That hurt my feelings. I'm always just happy to be invited. I enjoy the camaradrie, the wine, the laughter and being out of my house far more than I am interested in judging the quality of the food.

Not to mention as an excellent substitute for those annoyingly healthy apples in apple pie.

It's awfully hard to second guess what the friends and neighbors will be bringing over. In my experience, there have been a lot of sweets....cookies, cupcakes, cakes and pies. And the sorts of things easy to pick up at a deli, and easy to have around the house, like cold cuts, crackers, cheese. Another poster said that in his experience, there are not so many sweets, so desserts would be a good idea. I don't know. It's really kind of a crapshoot, but I've unfortunately been to a lot of funerals...part of the price for growing so old. And I've found that a lot of the kinds of things people take are darn hard to make a filling meal out of. I take soup. A big pot of nutritious vegetable soup. Or a chowder or stew. That way, they can leave it simmering on the stove and dip into it when the mood suits. It's good with a sandwich, or by itself. You can make a meal of it, or just have a 'little something' to tide you over. The only drawback is that you do have to take it in a nice big stewpot or Dutch oven, which means someone has to deal with it. I've always been in a position to be able to take care of the pot myself. But if you're not, then obviously the disposable type of container is far preferred. Like people suggested with the lasagna option. But the bottom line is, as others have said, not to worry about it too much. The family is comforted by the fact that you show up with anything. And that you care.

Try googling, and searching for "Poke Salet" (with a T, or 'salat'). And 'pokeweed' and 'Poke Salet Annie." Supposedly the spelling comes from the German word for 'salad'; the Germans being the first folks to use pokeweed routinely in the New World. (Disclaimer: I have absolutely no idea if that is correct. That's just what I've always been told is the origin of the spelling.)

Careful, a little vacuuming goes a long way. I did that one time and all the air was sucked out of the cookies too. Airless cookies. I'll bet that was a shocker.

If you've got one of those vacuum things that sucks the air out, that's good. Put a few into one of those plastic bags, suck out the air, then layer them into a sturdy box or tin. Or. Wrap them individually in plastic wrap and layer them into a cookie tin that you've saved. The extra wrapping on each cookie protects one from the other. I've never had a problem with them 'sweating.' The bigger problem, and the thing to avoid is the cookies drying out.

Fried mush? Certainly not. Here's how!First, make some grits. Better yet, make some cheese grits! Next, put them in a cake pan and let them cool there over night in the icebox The next day (we eat these for breakfast, but who am I to tell you when to fry grits?) heat up some bacon grease (you can use some namby pamby stuff like canola oil or something, but I wouldn't tell anybody that you did it if I were you) and cut the grits out of the pan into managable pieces. Fry them in pretty hot oil, like 375 or so until they are crispy and brown on the outside and warm and delicious on the inside. Fried mush, indeed. Um....ask an old person. I think they'll tell you that's EXACTLY "Fried Mush." After you put the grits in the fridge to set, you've made mush. Years ago, folks made grits by soaking the corn with lye water, or ashes from the fireplace. Some folks make their mush with regular cornmeal. But it's all mush. Some folks roll the squares or wedges in a pancake-type batter before frying. Some folks in a fried-chicken-type of flour mixture. Many folks roll them in cornmeal to give them a crunchier crust. Some people like them topped with a fried egg; others prefer a slice of cheese; still others like syrup of some sort, often sorghum. "Fried Mush" as a name may not have much modern appeal. But rest assured, folks, no matter what you call it, y'all are making Fried Mush. In honor of this thread, I've got some mush settin' up in the icebox right now.

Fried mush? Certainly not. Here's how!First, make some grits. Better yet, make some cheese grits! Next, put them in a cake pan and let them cool there over night in the icebox The next day (we eat these for breakfast, but who am I to tell you when to fry grits?) heat up some bacon grease (you can use some namby pamby stuff like canola oil or something, but I wouldn't tell anybody that you did it if I were you) and cut the grits out of the pan into managable pieces. Fry them in pretty hot oil, like 375 or so until they are crispy and brown on the outside and warm and delicious on the inside. Fried mush, indeed. Um....ask an old person. I think they'll tell you that's EXACTLY "Fried Mush." After you put the grits in the fridge to set, you've made mush. Years ago, folks made grits by soaking the corn with lye water, or ashes from the fireplace. Some folks make their mush with regular cornmeal. But it's all mush. Some folks roll the squares or wedges in a pancake-type batter before frying. Some folks in a fried-chicken-type of flour mixture. Many folks roll them in cornmeal to give them a crunchier crust. Some people like them topped with a fried egg; others prefer a slice of cheese; still others like syrup of some sort, often sorghum. "Fried Mush" as a name may not have much modern appeal. But rest assured, folks, no matter what you call it, y'all are making Fried Mush.

Fried mush?