kayb

How very cool! What's the going rate for macarons? A cupcake shop here makes them. Decent sized -- between 1.5 and 2 inches in diameter. Charges $4.50 apiece for them. I was mildly astounded.

What a great trip. Many of my ancestors were Scots. I will go one day soon.

@Kerry Beal beat me to it. I love posole, but made with Rancho Gordo hominy, it's several planes above that made with canned. @Chris Amirault, if memory serves me right, posted a posole recipe years ago that he credited to his mother-in-law. It was my introduction to posole. I make it two or three times every winter, now.

It's a rice wine (as opposed to a vinegar) that's slightly sweet. I always add it in any kind of marinated veggie I'm doing that has rice vinegar and sesame oil. Also put it in fried rice, and lots of different vaguely Asian sauces and marinades.

How stunningly gorgeous (and the sunset ain't bad, either).

I have called a moratorium on further purchases of RG beans until I work my way through the stock I have. I can testify that the cranberry beans, cooked in the IP with nothing but diced onion and a sliced up kielbasa, then drained and stirred up with a sauce of ketchup, barbecue sauce, soy sauce, molasses and spicy brown mustard, makes a wonderful dish of baked beans for any occasion calling for them. I bought some wax beans today at the farmers market. Contemplating cooking up some bits of bags of different beans, draining and chilling, and then mixing with lightly blanched wax beans and green beans in a viniagrette for a bean salad.

My father hunted a lot, so we periodically had rabbit (wild, of course, having something of a different taste than farmed). Mama would frequently boil the rabbit, then use the resulting broth to make cornbread dressing with lots of sage and black pepper, into which she'd stir the shredded rabbit meat. Pretty good stuff.

Guilty confession: I put mustard AND ketchup, along with the mayo, in my potato salad. Although I made one this year from the NYT that's dressed with a dijon viniagrette, and that wasn't bad at all.

And then you stir those up in some cornbread batter and make the best cornbread you ever had in your life.

Pimiento cheese is a matter of proportion. Use the same weight of extra sharp cheddar and Velveeta, shredded (you can sub American if you have an anti-Velveeta bias). If you use, say, 4 oz of each, then about 1/3 cup of mayo, a scant tsp. of sugar, a shake or two of Lawry's seasoned salt, and a small splash of cider vinegar (way less than a tbsp.). That would take a small jar of pimientos, as would anything up to 6 oz. each of cheese; above that, go to the bigger jar.

Hellman's. Hands down. And the full-fat, no bells and whistles variety, please. Ketchup (Heinz or Hunts, or the Aldi store brand, Burman's, ain't bad) as a glaze for meat loaf or a dip for French fries or the basis for shrimp cocktail sauce. And nobody asked but one should have a spicy brown mustard for sandwiches, a sweet hot mustard for dipping, and ballpark mustard for making potato salad.

I am so envious of y'all. My mama died 23 years ago, at age 59. Gone much too soon.

I'm fortunate to live within an hour's drive of Memphis, and I'm there at least once a month. A couple of my stops are always the International Market, which has a wonderful supply of Asian and Indian spices and ingredients, and the Middle Eastern market, where I always feel self conscious as the only woman not in hijab, but no one has ever seemed to pay me any mind as I spend 40 minutes perusing the bajillion kinds of olives they have. The big thing I've had a problem finding is Toulouse sausage. I could get it online, but damn, I hate to pay the shipping, even when I'm jonesing for a cassoulet

Be still, my heart!

Patsy just calls for some serious drinking. Trivia for the day: The site of Patsy Cline's fatal plane crash in 1963 is about 4 miles from the house where I grew up. It was, in point of fact, in the county dump, before they graduated to landfills. We heard about it at church, and like the rest of that part of the world, drove out there after lunch and joined the procession of hundreds of cars filled with either gawkers or those paying respects. My favorite Patsy tune is Walking After Midnight. What's yours?

Never tried making it in the CSO. Don't see any reason why you couldn't.

Lord have mercy, but you look like your mama! I know she had a marvelous birthday celebration. I'm thinking you had a pretty good time, too. Happy for you and all your family! Looking forward to the rest of your visit!

I'm not sure I love my kids more than okra. Well, most days I do. Most days.

You need to teach that kid to drink the milk from the bowl after the cereal is gone. Best drink of milk in the world.

Welcome! I'm anxious to learn about the local cuisine and ingredients and how you adapt them. I'd also be curious about things you'd like to have but can't get, and how you adapt and work around their absence. (I chose not to move to Iowa once because I was afraid they didn't grow okra....)

This thread should tell you just about anything you want to know, and possibly a lot more than you wish to know. But to address your question quickly, if you're cooking for an average family, the six-quart is about right. It'll make a gallon of yogurt (well, from a gallon of milk, I should say). I like the Duo, as it has a few presets I use, but you can certainly get by with a Lux. I wouldn't use an eight-quart with my size family (two of us, with frequent dinner guests), but I could see times when I could use the three-quart. Check Amazon on Prime Day.

The IP ranks next to the CSO as the appliance I use the most. It's a wonderful critter.

I purely love my CSO. It probably gets more use than any small electric appliance in my kitchen, save the coffemaker.

The IP is your friend for making yogurt. I've found amount of starter doesn't make a lot of difference. I use a single-serve container of Fage as a starter, because I can't be arsed to use part of it for starter and save the rest. I'm lazy like that. I use Nido Fortificado dry milk, too. If you mix two cups to two quarts of water, it doesn't take a lot of straining to produce good, thick yogurt. Plus, you don't have to boil first. Throw it all in the IP, whisk i the Fage, punch "yogurt," and let 'er go. I know you don't need an IP. But, as I said, I'm lazy like that.

Damn., but I'm proud of myself. I resisted. Happy Independence Day, y'all.