kayb

After the farmers' market this morning, I treated myself to breakfast at a local diner. Decent corned beef hash (I suspect it may have come from a can, but was fried crispy and had a good flavor about it); over easy eggs, grits and toast. Coffee, OJ. For the princely sum of $12. My only quarrels with the place were that they use margarine instead of butter, and I really wanted one more refill on my coffee, but got tired of waiting for it. In their defense, the place was packed at 8:20 a.m. on a Saturday.

Pimiento cheese is one of the several foodstuffs that make me so VERY grateful I'm a Southerner. Every Southern cook has his or her own recipe (the stuff in the tubs from the supermarket is nasty). I love it on crackers, dipped on corn chips, on a sandwich by itself, with bacon jam, on a blt, and I've used it to pimp up some grits, along the lines of Deep Run Roots. If you want my recipe, I'll be happy to PM you. It's easy enough to make.

Re: fried zucchini on the sandwich -- blt's down here often have fried green tomatoes added. That, with a slathering of pimiento cheese, makes possibly the best sandwich ever made. Lettuce optional.

Good God. There are more cucumbers this morning. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when the zucchini take off. I'm thinking these latest ones will turn into sweet pickle relish, something i use a lot of when I make potato salad, etc., so I might as well make my own. If you're coming through northeastern Arkansas for anything, let me know and I'll load you down with cucumbers.

@rarerollingobject-- I am so very sorry to hear your sad news. May you and your family find comfort and peace.

I've always thought Southern cities could hold their own with major northern/coastal ones when it came to cooking. New Orleans, of course, is in a class all its own; Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta all offer some culinary jewels (People swear Frank Stitt's Highlands Grill is the best restaurant in the South outside New Orleans, but I am hard-pressed to rank it ahead of Murphy's Wine Bar in Atlanta or its neighbor, the Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham.) And now Food and Wine is moving to Birmingham. "Clickety." One wonders what seismic shift in the food world will occur next. Me, I'm pulling for an Eataly outpost. Birmingham's road-trip distance. And I could have tomato salad at Hot and Hot, which is the dish I would request for my final meal.

Been gone for a week. There were a few small cukes when I left, too small to pick. I got back to The Cucumbers That Ate The Back Yard, a dozen of them as long as my forearm and about that big around. They were firm and a good color, though, so I went on and brought them in, along with a half-dozen more reasonably sized ones, and made pickles (see preserving thread). Also on the pickage list today: a couple of small zucchini, one large yellow squash, and a few tomatoes. Killer cucumbers. Tomatoes and squash. These Sungold yellow/orange cherry tomatoes are the sweetest, best things I've ever tasted. I eat them like candy.

Today we pickled some more, because we took advantage of a break in the rain to dash out to the garden and see what had transpired in the week I had been gone. In addition to a good handful of tomatoes, two small zucchini, one oversized yellow crookneck, and two peppers, there were a dozen MASSIVE cucumbers (and four or five reasonably sized ones). The giant ones weren't soft, though, so I went ahead and brought them in. What to do? Pickles! I made six half-liters and a half-pint of bread and butter (as I had a big bag of Vidalia onions), and four pints and two quarts of a new recipe, sweet spicy hot pickles, along with a couple of half-liter jars of those for refrigerator pickling. Cucumbers on steroids. They were as long as my arm, and two inches in diameter. Bread and butter pickles. First water-bath effort in the Weck jars, as Kroger was out of lids for my wide-mouth pints. Sweet spicy hots. Brine is 4 cups cider vinegar, 4 cups water, 2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup salt. Jars are prepped with garlic cloves, peppercorns (I used a combo of red/green/black and red pepper flakes, and whole coriander. Weck jars are the refrigerator version; remainder are shelf-stable. Tomorrow: 50 ears of sweet corn to cut off and freeze, and a batch of blueberry barbecue sauce to make and can.

I dropped into Aldi today, to pick up a couple of things I always go there for, and glanced at the meat counter (hoping they will have eye of round on sale again, so I can get one and corn it). No such, but I actually thought I spotted chuck eye steaks. Until I looked more closely and saw they were, in fact, eye of round steaks. Sigh.

What @Jacksoup said. Best wishes for safe travels and a good outcome. Will say a prayer.

That looks just excellent. I've been wanting to make a more brioche-y loaf, and this looks like a great one to try. Hopefully next week. (I am, btw, loving that I can bake all summer without heating up my kitchen by using the CSO!)

Bless you. Hope you recover quickly. Before you starve.

Ohhhh....my. I have never had the opportunity to go to Eataly. It will be on my agenda the next trip to Chicago.

Different one from when you were here, I think, though in the same location. New ownership, much better food. Will report.

I am at a conference in Hot Springs, where I used to live, so I have been visiting old favorite haunts. Food has, unfortunately, not lived up to memory. Sunday night pasta. Tried an old favorite, penne in vodka cream sauce, at an old standby favorite. Vodka sauce was so garlicky as to be almost inedible. Monday noon, Mexican, again at a favorite. Again, disappointing. Monday night, dinner at a friend's craft brewery. Beer was marvelous, but she's changed her menu and taken many of my favorites away. Different chef, too.Today, Greek. Meh. Tonight, however, I will eat at my second favorite German restaurant in the world. I have faith it will be marvelous. Headed home right after lunch tomorrow. Breakfast this morning was at a new coffee shop which, in addition to excellent coffee, had a marvelous breakfast bowl with yogurt, granola and fruit. I may return tomorrow. Yesterday's breakfast was at a 60-year-old pancake shop -- eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Probably why yesterday's Mexican lunch didn't hit the spot; the spot was still full.

Pickage! Cherry tomatoes, a couple of Romas, an Arkansas traveler or two, a banana pepper and cucumbers. Headed out of town so will take them as a hostess gift.

Well, I have two more cookbooks than I did yesterday. My copies of Feasts od Eden, a book of recipes from the regionally renowned Red Apple Inn on Eden Isle at Greers Ferry Lake, and my Unforgettable Paula Wolfert both came in. And my duck confit and saucisses de Toulouse for her cassoulet are due in today. Cassoulet in the summertime? Why not? I have RG tarbais beans in the fridge...

And Paul Newman, his gorgeous blue eyes firing icicles like 30.06 slugs, is doing double back flips in his grave. "God? I know I might be what you might call a hard case. But you got to admit, you ain't dealt me no cards in a long, long time."

Still haven't used it yet. It's been a rather hectic month to this point, and promises to be so for the remainder of the month. Perhaps I will get to it, not next week, when I'm going to be gone most of the week, but the following. I'm thinking butter chicken with rice; would you put the rice in the bottom pan, or the top?

This looks like an absolutely glorious idea. How long does the Rx specify one should boil quail eggs for soft-boiled? (My local Asian market has them; I have just laid in eight, count them eight, pounds of mortadella from Aldi against the next time I want pickled quail eggs and sausage, and it would be simple enough to do some of this as well. They have gotten used, bless their hearts, to the crazy gaijin woman coming in and buying them out of quail eggs periodically...)

My Weck jars came in today. A half-dozen each 1-liter tall cylinders (pickles, asparagus, etc.); 1/2 liter mold jars (oh, who knows what these might hold?) and 1/2 liter tulip jars (SO pretty -- will hold such pretty pickles!). Think I will try the mushrooms in them, water-bath processing instead of boiling the mushrooms first. Will now be haunting Aldi until they put mushrooms on sale. My mother is laughing at me from her grave. I do love to can.

Wonderful!

My first thought was what the impact of Amazon's pricing, which is generally quite good, might have on WF's prices. Disclaimer: As there is not a WF in town, but there are three other quite good natural markets, I don't go there much. When I do, I generally peruse the "sample cheese" basket, the small pieces for less than three bucks, that will let me sample something I might otherwise be reluctant to purchase. Will be interested to see how it develops.

Well, they have two of my all-time faves on there -- Cool Hand Luke and Pulp Fiction.

I'm very fond of Pick-A-Peppa. It's not as hot as Tabasco, Crystal, Louisiana, etc., but it's a much more complex flavor.