kayb

Have skimmed through...what is it with no table of contents? Several things I'm anxious to try.

Cinnamon with apples is ok. Apples without cinnamon are also ok. I have had wonderful curried fruit, but it's an occasional thing. I will confess to a fondness for strawberries macerated in a bit of sugar and white balsamic vinegar.

Does it have his recipe for tortilla soup in it? That's the best tortilla soup I ever ate in my life. ETA: Never mind. I bought it on general principles.

Just sick I had to leave early. Crisis at home successfully resolved, but I'd much rather have been up there with y'all! At least I did get one excellent meal, at Vicia, although I know Bulrush would have topped it.

Darto paella pan. It works for a bazillion different things. I dearly love mine.

Don't know the origin of the others, but Dockery Plantation and Poor Monkey's are both near Clarksdale, Miss. The burger place looks familiar, too. Dockery Plantation is now the home of the Shack Up Inn, a must-stay place when you're in Clarksdale. Clickety...

Emphatically agree with No. 9.

Probably my favorite bread recipe is a dinner roll recipe made semi-famous by a woman in the local Methodist church in the town where I lived. She made them for every church dinner, including the fundraising "turkey dinner" before Thanksgiving for which she made 1,200 of them over a period of several weeks. You can make this in loaf form, but it's too soft and a little on the crumbly side to make a good sandwich (you can remedy that by kneading longer). I like to use it for all sorts of filled breads, from cinnamon rolls and savory versions baked the same way, to hand pie-type constructions. I also make the rolls, flatten them somewhat, leave them room to spread on the cookie sheet, and they make great hamburger buns. 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour, divided (this needs to be a "soft" flour -- she specified Gold Medal or White Lily) 1 1/4 cups hot tap water 3 tbsp softened butter 1 tsp salt 1/3 cup sugar 1 package instant yeast 1 egg, beaten Melted butter and sea salt to glaze (optional, but real tasty) If you are using regular yeast instead of instant, take 1/2 cup of the water and 2 tbsp of the sugar, mix in a measuring cup, and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside for 10 minutes until it foams nicely. Combine 2 cups flour, sugar, salt, butter, yeast and water. Stir, or mix in stand mixer, until nicely combined. Add egg and continue to mix. Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time (you may not need all 2 1/2 cups) until you have a soft dough that pulls away from the side of the bowl. Knead, either with the dough hook in the mixer or on a counter with as little added flour as possible, for just a couple of minutes. Transfer into oiled bowl and cover. Allow to rise until doubled. Punch down and form into rolls. I make mine by pinching off 2-oz pieces of dough, rolling into a smooth ball, and putting them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. You can make them in muffin pans, or in a nine-inch cake pan so they all rise and crowd together, or you can form them into Parker house or cloverleaf shapes if you're feeling fancy. Let them rise again for about 45 minutes. If desired, brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Or you can brush tops with melted butter after they're baked. Bake at 350 until they're a light golden brown. Cool briefly on a rack, and transfer to a towel-lined bread basket to keep warm.

I'd be in on that as well. Always up for a good farmers' market. Heck, I might even get stuff to take home with me.

@Ann_T, what are they stuffed with? They look marvelous.

I have only once sent a meal back. I'd ordered a steak, medium rare. The steak came out just past the still-mooing stage. I like rare meat, but that was a bit too rare, so I sent it back, asking nicely that it be cooked just a bit longer. It came back with the barest tinge of pink in the center. I gave up. Never ate there again. On the other hand, I went to one of my favorite restaurants, Mary Mahoney's on the Gulf in Biloxi, Miss., and ordered my usual, shrimp and crab au gratin. It was about the first day I'd eaten anything, after a week-long stomach virus, and the very rich shrimp and crab dish was just too rich. I put it aside after two bites. The waitress expressed concern, but I said no, it's my issue, I'm just getting over a stomach bug and it's too rich, but it's wonderful. She took it off my bill. Which is one of the many reasons I eat at Mary Mahoney's any time I am in Biloxi, or anywhere nearby.

Nope. I took one for the team when I tried the duck sandwich at Arby's. Someone else's turn in the barrel.

Love the little hats on the rice! Presentation is so much a part of all the Asian meals I've had and seen. It's one of the things I loved about meals in Japan -- edible art!

The next-to-last piece of coconut cake, from the July 4 holiday. Because I could.

You travel to some of the most interesting destinations! How do you choose them? Perhaps it is by the preponderance of street markets, of which I would never tire. Thanks for taking us along.

Being a Southerner, I have to cast my vote for good ol' Co-Cola. Specifically in my case, Diet Coke, as I got in the habit of them years ago and now a regular Coke tastes way too sweet.

Aldi used to carry a Moser Roth bar that was filled iwth a runny caramel. I look for it ever time I'm in there. Haven't seen it of late.

Ouch. Do take care. I find I do not recover from those indignities the way I once did.

I seem to recall some nice sausages from the meat vendor among the grocery shopping the other day. Brown them, saute some onions, throw in the sauerkraut, add Reisling, some juniper berries, some caraway seeds, an allspice or three, and a healthy portion of spicy brown mustard. Nestle the sausages back into that, and simmer. Choucroute garnie!

Coming in Friday, staying downtown. Looking forward to seeing the crowd at Vicia Friday night, and obviously looking forward to Bulrush on Saturday!

You can usually find it at small country stores and farmers' markets. I get mine when I go up home, at a local market; they are the outlet for a local maker. I do know you can order from Broadbent's, the country ham people. If you'd like, I'll get you some this fall when the new crop comes out and ship it to you.

Here in Arkansas, the home of WalMart, we don't have Costco, and I'm really not sure how well Sam's compares. At Sam's, my standard purchases are paper products, laundry detergent, rotissiere chicken (how is it they cook a ginormous chicken and sell it for less than I can buy a whole, raw one at the grocery?), frozen seafood, fruit, and some frozen food. I will occasionally buy Wright's bacon, which is a couple of bucks cheaper than at the grocery. Oh, and snack foods -- Rice Krispy treats, oatmeal cakes (Little Debbie brand), and such. Oh, and the protein shakes my doc told me to drink.

That cake is a gorgeous creature, and I'll bet it tasted wonderful! I don't know that I'm up for that much detailed work, but it's surely something to which to aspire.

Fascinates me that you can read the history of an area by the foodstuffs offered. In the Mississippi Delta, particularly along the river itself, one finds lots of Lebanese food, a legacy from Lebanese immigrants who worked on riverboats and railroads. Back in the 70s, there was a big influx of Vietnamese refugees into Memphis, and today there's a wonderful selection of Vietnamese restaurants. After the 1927 flood and the ensuing African-American exodus, a lot of Italians moved to the area as farm labor, thus there are many Italian restaurants up and down the Delta. Every small railroad town has its Chinese restaurant and grocery, a legacy of Chinese peasants who labored on the railroads. Wish we had had more Germans in the area. There's a dearth of German restaurants in the Delta.

Welcome! We're happy to have you. Please share some of your favorite pasta dishes!