onrushpam

Oh... I just have to tell this FOF story!!! Last fall, a little black greyhound girl came to the track and was terrified of everything. On her fourth night in the kennel, the regular trainer was off and the fill-in guy didn't really understand how freaky this little girl was. When she went out to "do her business", something spooked her and she jumped the fence outside the kennel. I didn't hear about it until she'd been gone more than a week. We tried to find her, but there is a LOT of empty land, woods, swamps, etc. around the track and we live an hour away. We never saw her. Then, FOUR MONTHS later, we got a call... She started visiting a plant nursery across the road from the track, hanging out with the owner's dog. He called us and we started trying to catch her. We tried for DAYS, but no luck. She'd come close, but not close enough. So, my DH drove 8 hours round trip to borrow a live trap large enough for her. We told the nursery owner not to feed her that day. When DH arrived with the trap, I went to Mickey D's and bought 2 FOF. (I was trying to think what would be the most enticing thing I could put in the trap and my dogs LOVE fish!) We baited the trap and went away for a few minutes. When we came back, Beth was in the trap!!! After four months "on the lam", FOF brought Beth to safety! She's now in a wonderful home and I got a cute framed photo of her for Valentines Day! I've since told other greyhound folks about our FOF success and they've used it to capture several lost dogs. We ordered them sans tartar sauce, because I think it has onions, which is a no-no for doggies. Do ya think Mickey D's would want to do a commercial featuring the FOF as bait??? Pam

If you want to do pot roast again in the future, my favorite way came from a wonderful diner in Raynham, MA (it's no longer there)... Put the roast in the pot (works in a slow cooker or in the oven). Sometimes I sear the meat first, sometimes I don't. It's good both ways. Lay thinly sliced onions all over the top of it. Pour V8 juice (original flavor) into the pot until it comes about half-way up the meat. Cook 6-8 hours on low in a slow cooker, or 3-4 hours covered in a 300F oven. I add new potatoes and carrots and crank the heat up to 350F or so for the last 45 min - hour, uncovered... just enough to get the veg done and not leave them totally mushy. This is the BEST pot roast I've ever had! Pam

Down here in the South, we have What-A-Burger... Their fries are FAR superior to any of the national chains. I'm sure they are frozen, but they just seem much less "processed" than the other places. Every couple of weeks, I cave into my craving for What-A-Burger fries. I get the What-A-Burger Jr. meal... a little burger and a smal carton of fries.

I've used that Amish bread starter and this is not the same. I THINK this starter begins with grated or mashed potatoes. It makes a light, white sandwich type bread... just a little bit sweet. It is wonderful for cinnamon rolls, but is also good just for sandwiches or toast. Pam

Rachel, I just love the tales of your childhood, because you write so beautifully and also because your memories are so closely aligned with my own! For some reason, my Gramma never made biscuits. Instead, my twin and I argued over who would stand on the special step-stool and help with the making of "light bread". When the bread was baked and cooled enough, Gramma would give us each a slice, slathered in butter and sprinkled with sugar. Depending on the time of year, the bread/butter/sugar would be accompanied by a steaming pot of hot tea or a big pitcher of cold sweet tea steeped with mint. Gramma's bread was made from a sweet starter... nothing at all like sourdough. She always said it came from a friend whose cook brought it from the West Indies. Years after gramma was gone, DH and I went on a sailing cruise in the West Indies. I was delighted when we were served "Gramma's bread" at every meal! Speaking of which, I have some of that starter in the freezer and it's been there WAY too long! I need to see if I can bring it back to life! Please keep telling us the tales of your childhood! I look forward to every one. Pam

They live in GA and they can't get muscadines??? They have them in every grocery store here, starting in August. Remind me in about 6 months and I'll send some off to wherever they need to go. We just got home from our jaunt to Perry, GA and back, including the stop at Striplings. I have two kinds of hoop/rat cheese to sample and a jar of muscadine jelly. Pictures and taste-test results later. I'm still full from the big sausage-on-a-bun I got at Striplings. Their sausages are SO good! I love how they "snap" when you bite into them. Pam

I've only made one batch... been trying to get another one done, but life has interfered... Maybe I did a stupid thing. But, after I whacked off the dough for the first loaf, I dumped the rest of the dough into a smaller container. After the second "whack", I dumped the rest into an even smaller container. The dough didn't seem to mind! I'm so NOT exacting about all of this... That's why I really like this bread method. It is forgiving of all my sins! Somebody else posted a photo of using a cake-saver for the "bucket". I used the exact same cake saver for mine and figured out it was WAY bigger than I needed. Next time, I'll use a smaller container to start. I'm hoping to make two more batches this weekend... one "original" and one rye. Pam

Ummm... okay... Or, I could just send her several gallons of muscadines (when they are in season again... now is not the right time)!

Well now... We'll be going right by Striplings on Saturday, after we deliver 11 greyhounds to our fabulous adoption friends from Atlanta! We schedule our meet-ups at Priester's Pecans, so I can replenish my stash of pecan meal, browse their cookbooks and stock up on other goodies. Striplings has a gorgeous new store and I haven't been there yet. DH has munched there several times, but he doesn't "do" cheese! I'll be HAPPY to stop in and taste test their rat/hoop cheese. I KNOW they have great housemade beef jerky (it's speecy-spicy), excellent bacon and good green tomato pickles. Anything else y'all want me to taste test? Pam

I never lived in a house without one until we moved to the boonies of far South Georgia... A disposal if one of the VERY few items NOT ALLOWED here, where we have a septic system. I've lived in houses with disposals and septic systems and never had a problem. But, I only used the disposal to deal with the little dregs of stuff... not big hunks of anything. But, we've had huge issues with our septic system here... We've had it cleaned/pumped/etc... and still it "glugs" when we do laundry after a hard rain. I think it has to do with the dense red clay here. So, we do all we can to go easy on our temperamental plumbing. No disposal. Pam

It will be just DH, myself and a friend here tomorrow night... We will be doing doggie adoption related stuff all day tomorrow. So, tonight I made Jayme's carnitas (her recipe has become my jumping-off place for porky goodness)... 2 lbs. pork butt, a couple of Meyer lemons worth of juice, a couple of chipotles, some onion, good toasted/ground cumin, etc... I tasted 'em before putting in the fridge and OH MY!!! I think these carnitas might be one of the best things I've ever cooked!!! I also made pinto beans ala Fat Guy... 90 min. in the oven with a good smoked ham hock. Again... I tasted, and tasted and tasted.... just the broth was SOOO good! I have 6 nice avocados waiting to become guac and a few other goodies... I'll make some rice, grill some peppers and onions... warm up some tortillas (no time to make them myself)... We'll have a FEAST! Why are we doing Tex-Mex for an East Coast game? I was just in the mood for it! Pam

Rachel, Your glasses (yes, they are heavy & clunky) were made by Fostoria in the 60's and 70's. They came in clear, pink and moss green... maybe other colors.

Would it work to do the refrigerated rise for 20+ hours? Could I put a loaf in the fridge one night and bake it the next? We had pizza from the last our my first batch of under-hydrated dough. The dough was 2 weeks old and the pizza crusts were even better than our first try at them last week. I stretched them over a couple of bowls and was able to get them thinner than my last attempt. I'll never eat frozen pizza again!!! I plan to mix up a new batch or two tomorrow... after I go hunting for some rye flour. I'm hoping maybe Fresh Market will have it. Much as I love Publix, they don't have rye flour. Pam

Oh, Rachel, I'm loving this chronicle!!! I have those same pink Fostoria glasses... and the footed dessert glasses... My mom and grandmom both had them and I now have the whole collection, along with the cream/pink/green Haviland Cherry Blossoms china. I can't wait to see the rest of your b'day saga! Pam

My favorite easy way with these is low and slow in a pan with some apple juice or cider for the liquid... an hour or two before you want to take them out, slide the meat towards one end of the pan and fill the other end with good kraut... sprinkle a little brown sugar and some of the pan juice over the kraut... Serve with baked sweet potatoes and a salad or some fruit... It's one of our favorite cold weather meals (down here, cold weather means anything below 40 degrees F!) Pam

Believe it or not, the best knife I've found for slashing loaves is the red serrated knife from this cheapy set I got at Target: Clicky Pam

Made the pizza tonight. Awesome!!! I made three little pies (sort of oddly shaped). Baked them on parchment on top of pizza stones at 550F with convection on. They took about 15 minutes. I don't think I let the stones get hot enough (it was late and I was rushing). Next time, I'll wait a bit longer before putting the pies in. They were by far the best pizzas I've ever made. I love crisp crust and these were nearly perfect! Pam

That looks fabulous!!! Did you increase the water, due to using the bread flour? I munched a left-over piece of my first loaf last night... didn't even warm it up and it was GOOD! Pam

Well, it certainly looks pretty and has nice crust and flavor. The crumb is a bit dense, no doubt due to under-hydration. I'm betting this batch will make great pizza and know what's on the menu for one night this week. I'll try again next weekend with different flour or more water. It's certainly a recipe worth fiddling with to get it right. I'm off to order the book...

Well, my first loaf is in the oven and I just read Zoe's post... I think I'll probably need to try again. I used KA AP flour and when I shaped the loaf (probably 20 seconds) I thought, "WOW! This isn't as wet as I expected! It's VERY easy to handle/shape!" Uh-oh... methinks the dough wasn't hydrated enough. It was so easy to mix up and looked wonderful after about 4 hours at room temp, before I put it in the fridge 2 days ago. So, we'll see... I'm certainly willing to try again with more water or different flour! Pam

I haven't been, but this place is high on my list of places to try when I'm down that way: The Ravenous Pig

Our group met at the Denny's next door to organize for each day's activities and I did notice the butcher shop. But, it wasn't open at 6 am and it was closed by the time we returned to town in the evenings. Maybe next year! I'm trying to figure out how we can swing spending more time out there... like maybe a month! I just learned that if we return in February, we'll be going to Roswell, rather than Deming.

Darn it all! I just returned from spending a bazillion hours driving to/from a long weekend in Deming, NM and may well be doing the 48+ hours round-trip drive again in a couple of weeks. (If Jensen is reading, she'll know why I was there.) I wish I could be there for your Silver City "do"! We had an absolutely awful trip, food-wise. The non-food parts of the trip were awesome! Wonderful weather, wonderful people, and a bunch of other good stuff... This was our 2nd year-end driving marathon to NM and back. I'm a GRITS who never imagined I be happy living anywhere that's not green 365 days a year. After spending a few days there, New Mexico is now #1 on my list possible retirement spots!

I use the bottom part of my broiler pan... very, very shallow.

That place looks amazing! We may try to hit it on the way home, Jan. 2... we'll have a bit more flex on time then and a Wednesday lunch may be less crowded. Too bad it's not soft-shell season... I LURVES me some soft-shells!