Katie Meadow

Okay, I'm a grits snob. Instant grits just aren't as good as fresh stone ground grits. If you want the most freshly milled grits order from a place that actually has a mill. I've been ordering from Marsh Hen Mill (formerly known as Geechie Boy) for many years now. The mill is on Edisto Island in South Carolina. Anson Mills is another purvveyor. It is true that a pot of grits needs attention and close to an hour from start to finish, but it isn't at all difficult. Yes I agree that if you want grits frequently for breakfast you had best figure out how to cook grits ahead. I find leftover grits are just fine for breakfast, but this idea works really well and is bit more elegant. Make a large batch of grits. Pour when still very hot and soft into a sheet pan, making a layer of about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch and try to get it smooth and even. When cooled, you can cut it into portions. These can be refrigerated and used as desired, by sautéing in butter or oil in a non-stick pan. The outside should be crispy and the inside melty. This takes only a few minutes on each side, and can be eaten sweet or savory, not just for breakfast, but for a fast easy easy side dish or a snack. And the squares can also be baked with a a variety of ingredients, like tomatoes and mozzarella.

Hmm. Most of the things I have cooked in my pan are relatively fast-cooking and I haven't had an issue with the handle being too hot. I have a couple of silicone pot holders that are grabby that would do the job.

What isn't great with huckleberries?

Both Al Arz and Soom are made in Israel from Ethiopian grown sesame seeds. I haven't tried Al Arz, but Soom is delicious. And it is never hard to stir.

@FrogPrincesse's idea of citrus curd is a good one, and way less labor intensive than marmalade. I love it on toast for breakfast and there are plenty of tarts etc that use it liberally.

Although peel or shredded zest add flavor and texture to marmalade, as long as you use seeds to set up the end result, you could most likely make a good spread without the peel. I've never done that, but it's maybe worth a try. You can use up lbs of citrus to make a few jars of marmalade. Just curious, why has this fruit already been zested?

Maybe start cooking with the pan by doing shallow fry in oil. For my first efforts with my new carbon steel pan I made some vegetable fritters and then some shrimp cakes and it was a breeze. I haven't cooked eggs in it yet because making two eggs in a 12 inch pan seems silly, One of the surprise bonuses of the pan is that I get to watch my husband swoon over it. Wife number 2: never cranky!

This piece from Eater pretty much sums up how we on the west coast feel about ramps. For two or three weeks a year we have to listen to east coasters ranting on about these over-picked and over priced alliums. I've eaten them. They are delicious on a pizza. Every year I look forward to the end of ramp season. . https://www.eater.com/23706623/ramps-seasonality-overrated-wild-leek-garlic

The 12 inch Made In carbon steel pan from Amazon sells for $129. I'm sure you will love yours! The cooking show host Jamie Tracy, who calls himself the Anti Chef must have a contract with Made In. All the pieces look great.

If you are looking for a large carbon steel skillet this one is great. The price changes, although I am not sure how often. Two days ago it was $27. That's the price I got it for a couple of months ago. Today it's $35, which is still not a bad deal for this kind of pan. Worth watching. I love this pan. It needed virtually no further seasoning and nothing sticks to it. I have another carbon steel pan and it only gets better after 20 years. https://www.amazon.com/Merten-Storck-Carbon-Frying-12-Inch/dp/B08CZWT4XD/

No idea but maybe. I have to tell you I just heard his voice. Eerie!

That's exactly what my long-departed dad would say.

For my last meal before heading home to CA we went out to Lee's Bakery on Buford H'way, which is essentially one very long stretch of ethnic strip mall food, including many Vietnamese. joints. Lee's makes excellent banh mi. They bake their own rolls. I was hoping to score an egg coffee, but they didn't make them, so I settled for Vietnamese iced coffee. In Oakland we used to get Viet coffee served dripping in a glass onto the sweetened condensed milk. About halfway through your meal all the coffee would be dripped. You stir it up together and then a second glass is provided with ice and you pour the coffee mix over the ice. Lately I 've noticed very few places do it that way any more, they just bring you a pre-mixed drink. Too bad. The other way is more fun to wait for and the coffee is always freshly brewed. Our next meal will be dinner on the plane. If inedible as usual, you won't hear it from me. My opinion, not shaken in years, is that the best meal on a plane is the PB &J sandwich that you make yourself at you place of origin and which sits in your backpack for at least six hours until you are starving. My next trip to Asheville and Atlanta won't be until October. If @gulfporterand any other birders are interested I saw two new birds to add to my list, both on Edisto Island: Laughing gulls and Boat-tailed grackles, both probably common on the east coast, but not on the west coast. Here in Decatur and all over the island the cardinals are screaming for their girlfriends, loud and louder. Sadly, my eyesight isn't what it used to be, so major birding in the Carolinas and GA is no longer happening. On the beaches on Edisto there were large flocks of pelicans flying back and forth all the time. So lovely. I did learn one maybe useful fact about South Carolina wildlife, the difference between a Coral snake and a King snake. If red is next to yellow, it's a deadly fellow. If red is next to black you're all right, Jack.

They are different species.

Blinded by the light I am. My grandgirls would think it was the second coming.

Shout out to Gene's BBQ in Atlanta. The best way to describe this place is a bar with a kid's menu. It isn't really a BBQ joint as I think of one, but sort of an Asian/BBQ fusion dive. The atmosphere was warm and friendly with a ceiling full of string lights. The martini was decent, my blue crab claws were pretty good in some variation of an Asian sauce. My son-in-law, a brisket lover, declared his brisket to be very good. The twins were happy with their mac n cheese and thrilled with their dessert which was really just a pineapple coconut smoothie that was deceptively delicious and which we all agreed might be good with a splash of rum. The surprising star was the banh mi with charred crackly sort-of- barbecued pork, proper pickled vegetables in a Viet roll. Highly recommended as a great place for families. Oh, and I don't want to forget the fact that the girls found a basket of free lollipops soon after we walked in and that kept them busy until the food arrived. What's not to love? As always by the end of our visits, my husband and I are fried and no longer in the mood to cook, and also as usual, the new crop of mosquitoes has dined out ON ME, so I'm over eating al fresco at dusk. Another few meals and we are headed home.

Speaking of curry, my nephew's wife has discovered that she is allergic to turmeric. She breaks out in a rash. It took her years to figure this out. Weird, right? I'm glad I didn't make Lemony Turmeric Tea Cake for her. That's Alison Roman's brilliant recipe, which does not taste like turmeric at all but had a fabulous color. Speaking of grouper....OMG this is really my favorite fish of all time. Last night, courtesy of the remarkable DeKalb Farmers' Market, I made blackened grouper. This was probably my last time eating grouper for this trip, too too bad. I prefer the red grouper to the black, and that's what I got. It was delicious. Every time I come to visit my daughter and her family I bring her Hot Cajun Blackening Spice from Oaktown Spice in Oakland. It's simply the best. I can buy about twenty different versions of the stuff here in Atlanta, but all of them are too salty and not as good. So last night I had west coast blackened east coast fish.

Research them on line before eating. They can have unpleasant side effects.

Of course I stopped in at Marsh Hen Mill to say hi. The couple who owns it were not there, but someone I suspected was Grandma was. I bought several things, including Carolina Rice-- can't remember what kind exactly. The store is small and lovely. I could not resist also buying a salted chocolate popsicle. Like a fudge sickle, only woke.

I just returned to Decator, GA from a week on Edisto Island, one of the sea islands off the SC coast. This is gullah land. Much of the island is a State park that includes Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve. Before I came I pretty much knew nothing except for the fact that the grits I order from Marsh Hen Mill (formerly Geechie Boy) come from the island. The Island has managed to remain NOT upscale; no glitzy restaurants, no frills food or tourist shops. The Botany Bay beach is pristine and incredibly beautiful. You are not allowed to take anything you find on the beach, such as shells or fossilized shark's teeth. Nothing. There were plantations before the civil war, growing rice first and then cotton. The plantations were evacuated or abandoned during the war because the confederates said the island was too hard to defend. They weren't able to take all their slaves with them, so the slaves who remained became a village of sorts, for a whlle. There is a lovely little museum of island history. There's a learning center where the twins asked a million questions and were shown several different types of turtles. The big draw on the island for tourists and school group is the Serpentarium. Lots of venemous snakes, among others, including open air displays, heavily fortified, where snakes had room to roam and swim and guests had paths to follow and gawk. South Carolina appears to have a LOT of snakes. Our AirBnB was two blocks from the public beach. The back of the house looked out over the marsh with egrets flying in and out. ALL houses are on stilts. We ate fish almost every night. There appear to be two fish markets on the island, both family owned. It seems that flounder is king here. We had blackened flounder, flounder fish and chips, pan-fried flounder for dinners in and dinners out. Our last night was at a simple restaurant called the Sea Cow, so I guess there are manatees about. Their special that night was red snapper. Really great blackened. There was a Low Country boil on the menu. Very good cheese grits, better than expected collards, and some field peas that everyone liked, especially the two yr old among us. We were six adults and four kids under the age of 5, so going out was kind of an epic chaos, mitigated by the restaurant providing crayons and paper with games and pictures to color. Winning! All in all a fantastic vacation. My granddaughters got to meet their second cousins, the kids of my favorite nephew. And we lucked out with weather: mid-seventies and almost every day was sunny. In this humidity I have hair to spare. Now back at my daughter's place. Surprise surprise she's learned to cook! She made blackened catfish one night that was really good, and on the island she made the best pulled pork I ever had. For my last few days on the east coast I plan to eat a lot of grouper and a lot of oysters. The giant market near her house literally has a GIANT ROOM with fish on all four sides. Staggering. Also twelve different types of collards, big, medium and baby sized. Also twelve different kinds of plantain.. The herbs are not sold in little bunches. They are sold in what appear to be whole bushes. \

Gorgeous. I would be in heaven if someone would make those for me.

I would prefer not to.

@liuzhou, that is hideous, and not in a good way.

I've always loved fresh pineapple with chile powder and lime juice. Yesterday I tried out a new one on my granddaughters: sliced pineapple with cinnamon sugar and lime juice. They went crazy for it. I liked it too, a lot. Both ways were great alongside rice 'n' beans, which I made last night. These girls are also proud fans of pineapple on pizza. They will be four in June; blessed with youth they don't now how many people make fun of pineapple on pizza They are so stubborn and very naughty. And hilarious.

Sad to leave Asheville. Next time we will stay longer. We stopped off on the way out of town at Hole Doughnuts, which are, I'm sure, the best doughnuts on earth. There's inside and outside seating. This time it was gloomy and chilly, so we ate inside. All doughnuts are fried to order, and you can watch them behind the counter rolling the dough and frying your doughnuts. The menu has not changed. All are yeasted. There's vanilla glazed, cinnamon sugar, and my go-to: the toasted almond sesame. There is a fourth one that varies weekly. This time it was blueberry. I'm not a person who ordinarily eats doughnuts but if this place existed at home I would weigh 400 lbs. We arrived at our daughter's with an obscene number of doughnuts and two enormous loaves of Owl Bakery bread. If I had my life to live over again I would go to Black Mountain College, which of course is no more, although there is a wonderful museum dedicated to the artists who taught there and their students. That museum is not in Black Mountain, but in downtown Asheville. The current show is lovely.