kayb

Kerry, your corn chowder is a thing of beauty, and I think a version with shrimp is on my menu for next weekend, soon as I get back from the market with fresh corn and new potatos. If I don't go to a produce stand and get both, before then.

dcarch, I remain in awe. Lovely! Norm, I may have the solution for those eggplants reposing in my fridge. Crawfish pie here. Details on the eG Cook-Off 56 thread.

Goodbye Joe, me gotta go, me-o mi-o.... Oops. Sorry. Disclaimer: I am not Cajun. I have never lived in Louisiana. But I've eaten crawfish all my life, and tonight, as the Independence Day weekend is traditionally the end of crawfish season, I decided I'd have myself some crawfish pie. Cue Hank Williams. I started out with four pounds of boiled crawfish from the crawfish truck that lives right out in back of the flea market and across the street from my favorite bar. I could've had andouille or boudin sausage to go with it, or potatos or corn. I opted just for the mudbugs, at $4.50 a pound. Sigh. Four pounds of crawfish yields 7.5 ounces of crawfish tail meat, and a pair of sore hands that are burning from the cayenne-heavy boil. I told you I wasn't Cajun. Proof positive is that I don't use the Trinity. I don't care for celery, and I loathe and detest green bell pepper (and will eat the red ones only when they're roasted). So my "Trinity" is Vidalia onions, chopped green onions, and a chopped green tomato. I swear. And it worked. I forgot to take pics during the interim, which involved sauteeing the veggies, adding the tail meat and some stock made from the heads, into which I'd dissolved two tablespoons of flour. Then it went into a standard pastry crust. I had really planned to make individual hand-held pies, but by that time, I was tired. Jambalaya and a crawfish pie, file gumbo.... Great start to a holiday weekend!

If there's anything in the world I love more than tomatos, it's fresh corn. Some of my favorites: Corn and black bean salad. Boil the ears, cool, cut off the cob, combine with black beans (I used canned, rinsed, drained) and roasted red bell peppers. Make a dressing with lime juice, vegetable oil, cumin, pimenton de la vera, and powdered pico de gallo seasoning. Add cilantro if you like it. I use this stuff on everything; add fresh diced tomatos to make a salsa, put it on a fish taco, and it's one of my go-to sides with barbecue. Proportions are about four ears' worth of kernels to a can of beans to a single big bell pepper. Creamed corn. Barely cut the tops off the kernels, then scrape the cobs with a table knife; saute the result in butter until it starts to stick. Add a half cup of heavy cream (for about 4 ears' worth of corn). Cover and simmer. Don't bother to salt and pepper. Chipotle corn. Dice and saute 2 strips of bacon until crisp; remove the bacon. Saute diced onion in the bacon fat until soft; add the corn kernels and a diced chipotle pepper with some adobo (or two, if you like it hot). Add a half-cup of so of water, cover and simmer. There are a bazillion versions of corn pudding. I have never had a bad one. Corn is always improved by being served with sliced tomatos and fried okra.

RRO -- That Chinese style risotto is absolute genius. It goes on the list to try!

I love me some Groupon. I got three pounds of the best cured bacon in Arkansas, along with the best cured (spiral-sliced, yet) half-ham in Arkansas, from Petit Jean Meats, for $35, plus about $6-something shipping. Believe that I jumped on that. I've cooked half the bacon, will get into the other package this weekend; the ham's reposing the freezer for future use. I use their restaurant deals on a regular basis, as well as several others. We're starting a new, similar service here in Hot Springs (the nearest one is for Little Rock, which is an hour from me), called Try It Local, so you might see if you have one of those in your area as well.

Vegetables, redux: More of those marvelous tomatos (Shelby, wish I could get some of them to you!), butterbeans, new potatos roasted with black truffle oil, sea salt and grated Parmigiano, an ear of corn on the cob, and a slice of leftover ham from Christmas, vac-sealed and frozen until this week. Ham had a sort of watery taste/texture to it. Anyone had that experience with cured, vac-sealed, frozen ham? I didn't do anything other than thaw it out. open the pouch and eat it; I tend to like my ham cold.

Very cool! I'm gonna try that!

I started my herbs as tiny potted seedlings around Easter, but I'm a lot further south. I recently did a pot of basil for a friend's birthday gift, and bought two sizeable plants in a 6-inch pot and repotted them together in a 15-inch pot (like me, he really LIKES basil, and makes a lot of pesto). I have most of my herbs in 15-inch pots; some I don't use as much of may share a pot, two varieties per pot (i.e., my oregano and thyme are together, ditto my sage and parsley). I use a lot of basil and mint. Rosemary is a perennial, so it gets a big pot to itself. Mint dies down in the winter, but comes back in the spring for me; ditto chives and thyme and oregano and parsley.I'd think with a good southern exposure, you should be able to grow any and all of those. Be sure and pinch off the flowers at the top of your basil stalks when they appear, so your plant won't bolt.

No, I meant I didn't think yeast dough counted in this particular cookoff. If it does, wonderful!

I hate a cereal bag, inside the box, that is all but impossible to open without a knife or scissors. I don't eat a lot of dry cereal, and I'm convinced this is why.

Bullock's Barbecue? It's something of an institution around here. I'm another NCSU Alum living in Apex. That's it! ETA: I'm a Memphis State alum, but I always loved Jimmy V....

Kim, have you posted or can you link to the recipe for the shrimp cakes? They look scrumptious. And yes, the pork was superfluous. But I feed a 16-year-old male who is convinced he has not dined unless he has ingested animal protein.

There's an easy enough answer for why it goes in two supplements at the same time. If you'll look at the pieces, you'll see the reporter is ID'd as being with the Observer. Observer pays him, runs it first, then puts it out on the news service wire to which they subscribe (Reuters, AP, whatever), and other papers are free to pick it up for the price of their subscription to said wire. Pretty common journalism practice. It just sucks when you run a feature in a supplement the same day your competitor (if they're competitors) does.

I take it yeast dough does not count? I've recently discovered the joys of making calzones....

Oh, I wish I could remember the name of the barbecue place. It's one of those "It's an institution" type places that everyone in town knows. I want to say Bull's, but I think I'm just channeling the movie. Rockwood Filling Station sounds right; that's been several years ago, and I don't even remember what I ate, but I do recall thinking it was good. Good looking fish and chips. I so miss being in a place where they sell Yuengling. I bootleg mine from Memphis whenever I go.

Hot Springs, Arkansas. The market is the Downtown Farmers Market, every Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday from 7-11.

Chopping herbs with my Alaskan ulu knife (looks like a small mezzaluna, but with just one handle) that a co-worker brought me back from Alaska. It makes short work of what used to be a tiresome job. Grating cheese. And throwing the tiny piece left that's too small to grate to Lucy, the pug, and watching her snarf it up!

I've made duck confit twice, once cooking in the oven, submerged in fat, for 12 hours, per Colicchio, and once for eight hours. The 12-hour duck fell apart. The 8-hour duck looked and tasted just fine. I may try to trim it back, two hours at a time, until I get to an optimum time. Other than the falling apart -- not a problem if you're using the meat in some preparation other than a full, crisped leg quarter -- I could tell little if any difference in meat taste or texture.

Visited Durham a few years back, ate at a restaurant that was in what used to be a filling station or garage or some such, not far from the Duke campus. I don't remember the name, but it was good. We also had barbecue; I have to preface my comment by saying I'm a West Tennessee girl and therefore firmly in the Memphis barbecue camp but, sorry to say, I was underwhelmed with the Carolina style.

Our farmers' market has been going great guns since the middle of April, but we're getting into prime season now; from mid-June through late August, the bounty is just overwhelming. If I have a complaint, it's that sometimes the variety is a little lean -- no one sells asparagus, for instance, nor artichokes, nor some of the more "exotic" fruits and veggies. But there's a solid base of typical Southern garden and orchard produce, some good baked goods, and some crafts. Oh, and the tamales; I do love the tamales! (One yesterday was proscuitto, feta and artichoke hearts; howzat for a cool tamale? Unfortunately, I did not photograph it.) Here's one of my favorite stands -- the Stutzmanns, an Amish family who grows greenhouse tomatos all year round, and some of the most delicious ones I've ever tasted! They also have baked goods and jams and jellies. Shelled butterbeans and purple hulled peas; $3 per box. Green tomatos and carrots and eggplant in the background. My guy from whom I buy my eggs weekly. Some are brown, some are green, bringing to mind Dr. Seuss. Assorted pickles, jellies, relishes, sorghum: My other favorite stand, the Vietnamese farmers, who offer the only "exotic" veggies at the market, along with a wide selection of more common produce and gorgeous flowers! And finally, the entertainment: a pretty respectable bluegrass band!

Last night, it was my birthday. My houseguest and I were headed to the Joan Jett concert, and invited me to dinner beforehand, but I'd been to the farmers' market, and had tons of fresh veggies, so I cooked my own birthday dinner: Fresh tomatos, creamed corn, fried okra, stewed squash and onions, and a grilled pork chop. You can take the girl out of the country, I guess, but...

Cheese biscuits with bacon jam. No photo.

I use a combo of cornstarch and soy flour when cooking anything with a white sauce when my daughter, who has a gluten allergy, is around. When it's just the rest of us, it's King Arthur A/P, which is my standard flour.

Whereabouts in NC? I'm headed over that way in August to Asheville and again in September to Charlotte. Nice state!