kayb

Has anyone ever seen an unopened peony bud that did NOT have an ant crawling about it? I was always fascinated as a little kid by their ability to attract ants, and used to call them "ant flowers." We had pinks and whites, as well as a very deep pink that was almost a red. Doubles, all of them -- great huge almost snowball-shaped blooms. Beautiful things.

What I know about china could be written inside a matchbook cover by a kindergartener, with room left. But that is a beautiful pattern, and I'd be inclined to keep it and, if I had to, dispense with something else.

A friend went to Denver and brought back some cannabis "gummies." Odd flavor, familiar buzz. I discovered the currently available black market "weed" (it is, I've learned, no longer "dope" and certainly not "grass") is in fact, NOT the same stuff of which I was fond in the 70s. Got me quite inebriated, quite quickly. Decided perhaps I'd stick to single malt Scotch.

Three words: Rabbit and dressing. (Lots of black pepper.)

And I am not very virtuous. An almost exact description of why I no longer shop at WalMart. I found an assistant manager whom I chewed up one side and down the other, to the absolute chagrin of my three then-teen daughters. Of course, WalMart's produce also repulses me. As does its meat. I had already progressed at that time, to buying only things that were packaged elsewhere and sold there. At least at Aldi, the single checker works at warp speed, so the long, long line moves more quickly than lines most anywhere else. I will say, though, at my Kroger, they do a great job of keeping the lines short. If every line has two or more people in it, they'll open new ones. So I limit my trips to Aldi, in loyal support of Kroger. Except for butter and now, fresh pineapple, which is 99 cents at Aldi and $3 and change at Kroger.

Lord have mercy. That looks marvelous.

Gorgeous meals, everyone! @Thanks for the Crepes, a very Happy Birthday to you! I will be in West Memphis tomorrow; perhaps I will go to Pancho's in your honor! Plain old "country cooking" dinner last night: Pork chop, seared in cast iron and finished in oven, skillet fried potatoes with onions, purple hulled peas from the freezer, with sweet tomato relish.

Crop report: getting a good stand on the yellow crookneck and zucchini squash. Cucumbers are a bit slower, but coming along. 64 Kentucky Wonder pole beans have yet to show foliage. Unsurprising, as they were planted a few days later, and take longer to germinate. I won't worry about them until this time next week. Tomatoes all seem to be thriving; I put cages around them yesterday to give them something to lean on as they grow. Lawn care folks were here to spray my yard for weeds today. I warned them sternly that if they got herbicide on my garden plots or herbs, I would come looking for them with a shotgun.

Arkansan though I am, I don't trust anything that says Tyson on it. Factory farming at its worst.

Baked oatmeal muffins. Good, low-cal, and quick.

@Shelby, glad that mystery's solved. I'll know what to do next time!

I remember going to a local catfish restaurant (I grew up on the Tennessee River) when I was a kid and getting choked on a catfish bone. Waitress brought out a couple of slices of soft white bread for me. Worked!

Largely due to this topic, I have taken to going occasionally for stock-up items that are significantly cheaper than Kroger -- butter, cream, etc. But there is almost never more than one checker working, even with a long line. If I'm buying 10 pounds of butter at a time, which I periodically do (it freezes well!), I'll tolerate that as long as I've remembered to go on a non-busy day.

Here in the rural South, buffalo (a relative, I think of catfish, but much bonier) is often considered a "trash fish," but is highly prized by descendants of the rural African-American community and white sharecroppers alike. My eldest daughter had a babysitter who gleefully canned buffalo "steaks," or crosswise cuts of the fish, which she processed in the pressure canner for 45 minutes. The bones became soft and crumbly, like those in canned salmon (another "soul food" staple, in salmon croquettes, which I love to this day). She'd sub it for salmon, and I tried my best to show up to pick my daughter up about dinnertime on those days.

I have had coconut curry with mango, but this did not have it. I thought about fresh pineapple, as I had some; but no fruit in this one. It was ultra-simple curry -- onion, garlic, a plentiful portion of Thai red curry paste, and coconut milk. Fascinating. Must try this. Just luscious. Been out of town for the weekend. No exceptional meals, but for a very good picnic lunch today of chicken salad, pasta salad and marinated veggies.

Apologies for the very bad cell phone photo, but the dinner was quite good. Tilapia in a coconut curry sauce over brown rice, with a side of roasted broccoli which had overstayed its welcome in the oven and was overdone....but still good.

Local strawberries, homemade Instant Pot yogurt, homemade granola. No photo because I forgot, but it surely was good.

I will happily eat lunch with you any day, @BonVivant.

@ElainaA -- Awwww, c'mon. No grilling when it's 30 degrees and sleeting? Where's your sense of adventure? Glad I'm a Southerner. 76 here today. Planted pole beans. Life is good.

Thanks, y'all. I've loved my appearances at TFTS. It's a great show to find and follow online. My own personal favorite of the ones I've done is here. (Which has nothing to do with food, other than free food and drink. Sorry.)

Cook it as though it were pot roast, except with no veggies other than onion and some garlic. Shred the meat with two forks. Marinate in your favorite viniagrette. Serve on a sandwich with Swiss cheese. "Italian" beef.

Thanks, @huiray. The linked posts are informative.

Bumping this up to ask a morel question, inspired by a photo I saw on Facebook today of morel hunting in Missouri. Since I live some 40 miles south of the MO line, I'm wondering what the area of the country actually is where morels grow. When are they "ripe"? In what kind of terrain/ground cover does one find them? Any tips on morel foraging? I'm contemplating a road trip to the nearest morel hunting lands, should they be nearby. The foothills of the Ozarks are within easy striking distance, and I know people who have hunting land who would have no objection to me hunting life forms which do not move about on four feet.

Anova is currently running a $30 off online discount for Mother's Day.

Planting is finished here at KB Farms, all 208 square feet of it. Tomato plants are thriving. Got the yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers planted yesterday. Planted pole beans this evening, to get ahead of the rain that's supposed to come through tonight or early tomorrow. Will sic Lucy the Watchpug on the first bunny to show its face. Here's an amusing take on bunnies and other such varmints pillaging one's garden. It was my inaugural performance at Tales from the South, a storytelling show that's a regular on the local public radio station. One of my favorite things to do. "click"