Shelby

I have never, ever taken a sample. Ever. Judge me if you want to. I just don't have any desire. At all.

He sounds like a wonderful person. My sincere condolences to family and friends.

Bagel dough must be the downfall of the KA

I haven't tried it on speed 1 for a longer time. I'll see if that works.

I just must be one of the lucky ones lol.

Thank you for the link. That is a cool looking mixer! I just wish it wasn't so dang expensive....but if it works as well as Andie says, it would be worth it.

Yep. It overheats at the drop of a hat. I could NEVER knead at a speed higher than 2 for more than 3-4 mins. I've used the pasta maker a couple of times--didn't like it due to it all globbing together as it comes out so I bought a different kind--but anyway, it overheats during that process, too.

No more than three years ago my husband bought me this mixer for Christmas. It was beautiful. Stainless steel bowl, heavy metal dough-hook, shiny gun-metal color stand. I knew this mixer and I were going to have a long, romantic and productive relationship. I was wrong. After reading extensively online, I've come to realize that this mixer has huge design flaws that prohibit one from mixing ANY kind of dough--even the softest--for more than 5 mins. at a time or it overheats and shuts down. I've religiously only used speed 2 for dough mixing because the manual said that anything over that is too much for the machine to handle. This mixer is currently selling for around $320.00. Frankly, I'm more than a little angry that a mixer of this price is such a piece of junk. After all, I wanted a mixer so that it would do the hard labor of mixing stiff doughs. Of course, it works just fine if I'm whipping cream. So, I'm stuck with babying this thing by only mixing a few minutes at a time and letting the poor machine rest for about 10 mins. before I turn it on again. If and when it finally dies, any suggestions for buying a new one?

You're beautiful!!! OMG my mom and step dad will love reading this last part. They've been reading along and loving it, I'm sure. Isn't it funny how the men-folk are in charge of the cooking there? If you think about it, Cajun cookin' is very forward thinking.

Seriously, someone help me. Take this away from me before I eat the whole thing.

WOOO HOOOO!!!! Went to Wal-Mart today and there it was. Only two left, and I got one of them. I am now taking my third bite and I LOVE it. Definitely the only ice cream out in regular supermarkets that has the sweet/salty aspect. The only thing I want is MORE of the chocolate covered chips in there. Love it!

NOOOOOOOOOO *cry* It can't already be a whole week?????? !!! Really, your blog hit home with me...loved every minute. Need. Fresh. Crawfish. Now. Thank you for all that you did --I know it's a ton of work, but you really invited us all into your home and made us feel like one of your own!

Heck, I'd get the veal, too. I always figure that little old me isn't going to make a difference if I morally choose not to order it lol. Everything looks delicious.

I've always wanted to make a salad with figs and bleu cheese...it sounds so good. I love your fleur de lis drain!

I love that she peeled the cukes! Heck, maybe she started a new trend! I've been on a life long mission to eat a fresh fig. You just can not find them here. I've even tried to find a place that will mail them to me. You aren't that far away.....I may just have to take my own field trip lol.

We love Swamp People!!!! My mom and step dad watch it, too.

Balut? Never had it. I'd like to try it, Filipino friends tell me it's delicious. I just couldn't get past the baby bird thing inside....*shudder*

I don't know the correct name for this, but I bought what I thought were hard boiled eggs from the Asian market. They were hard boiled....with little birds in them. I was like and then and then never again.

What a beautiful presentation. *drooling*

I did it the hard way. First, gather the recipes. Sounds easy. Everyone wants a family cookbook, and they want you to do it, but you would be surprised at what it took JUST to get the recipes. Then, you have to publish. I was naive and I just started typing in Word. Then, I learned that Word does NOT like long documents, so then we (I) broke everything down into chapters. Then, page numbers. They have to be automatic to be efficient, and I have about 15 chapters. That's when I learned about table of content and index entries. (Yes, go back to every single recipe and input the data.) I could go on and on... I wanted to have a theme *and* a title, so I finally decided on Honeysuckles and Huckleberries. There were 3 things that were consistent. First, every recipe was from a family member; that's a given. Then, and because of the title and theme (and because I love Mark Twain), at the beginning of every chapter there was a quote and illustration of his, and then on the back of every page I had a funny food quote -- most of the time accompanied by a family member's picture and a written memory I had of them telling the reader about the person. The first cookbook was published in 1990. Then, I did an upgrade maybe in 1998 or so. Then, I did it again in 2005 with lots of family pictures, stories that brought the recipes home, etc. We started in a 1-inch binder with room to spare, and now I'm we're over 2-1/2", printed on both sides. I've had so many people ask me for a cookbook... not even knowing what that meant. It's a very labor-intensive and expensive process. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! It's all about memories! Memories are associated with the food, and if no one writes that down, then it's lost forever, and that would be a shame. FWIW, at the end of the cookbook, I sign my name as "keeper of the cookbook" and that's what I am. I try to keep things real, and at the end of the day you just have to go forward on faith that someone in the future will care and they will pick up where you left off. It's a labor of love! Rhonda This is so cool. You should publish it and sell it! I'd buy it!

What a GREAT place! I WANT a bit of that hogshead cheese. It looks really good. Is that a Myrtle tree in the picture by the flowers? We went to New Roads, LA a few years ago and I loved seeing those trees.

I STILL can't find it <insert crying face>

I second this!

Count me in on the skins! YUM!!!

Hi Pop!!!!! I already feel like we're kindred souls. *pulling my chair up beside Blether*