kayb

Egg salad (eggs, cheese, mayo, Worcestershire, Dijon mustard, Tabasco) on sourdough, broiled: Earlier, quiche with sausage, asparagus, and goat's milk and cow's milk farmers' cheese.

Steak, grilled squash, garlic mashed potatos, tomatos. With fresh peach sauce (amaretto and brown sugar,simmered until the peaches were soft) over ice cream for dessert.

As best I recall, Mama would do this in the morning and it would be usable by that evening. She'd leave it room temp for the day, and then put it in the fridge from that point on, although that's probably not necessary. I do not recall any other condiments; if there were, they'd be nothing other than salt and ground pepper. I see no reason why you couldn't add other herbs/spices to your personal taste. Truth be told, I never used it much, because it was mostly used on greens, and I did not then, and do not now, eat cooked greens. Not certain how I managed to grow up poor in the rural South and not eat greens, but I managed.

Actually, I'd never thought of it, but I suppose you could put a pan on the grate where the coals general stay to catch the juices, since there are no coals directly beneath the bird, but on either side. Quite honestly, I can't see a lot of advantage to cooking this kind of bird like this as opposed to in the oven, but it was hot, and I didn't want to heat the house up. You don't get a great deal of smoky taste, as you would on a traditional smoker, because the time isn't long enough. My grill is just a homemade one, a barrel cut in half and hinged, grate in the bottom to hold the coals, grate on the top of the bottom half to hold the meat.

It did. I usually do this in the oven, and the stuffing always cooks. I think the key is a lower heat, longer time. And the stuffing keeps the chicken from drying out.

The peppers used can vary, but I've always seen Apple Cider vinegar used for this purpose. If I'm not mistaken you can put the peppers in a jar, and pour the heated vinegar over them and let them sit. I have not personally done this, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Agreed with NCSU Foodie. The peppers were slim, smaller than my little finger; left whole (stems and all), and picked quite young, as they were two inches or so long. They were mostly green, although the occasional red one would crop up. We grew them in the garden, and they were always just referred to as "hot peppers," as opposed to the bell, or "sweet peppers" and the jalapenos. They were not as hot as, say, jalapenos, but had a bit of a kick to them. And yes, the cider vinegar is just heated to an almost boil and then poured over the peppers; in our case, they were usually in a cruet with a shaker top. Mama would just add more vinegar when that ran out. We later, because of my father's love of hot things, did somewhat the same thing with sliced jalapenos.

While this is really more of a roast chicken, it WAS prepared on the grill. It's stuffed with a mix of ground beef, herbs, ricotta cheese and spinach, has a paste of fennel, garlic, onion and oil rubbed beneath the skin, and then the skin was rubbed with oil and sprinkled with kosher salt and black pepper. Grilled about 2 hours on the center of the grate, with coals heaped on either side. Started on its back, turned once to get a good sear on the breast, and then finished on its back.

I grew up in the rural south with a bottle of "pepper sauce" on the table, which was a bottle filled with a mix of sweet and hot peppers over which a heated cider vinegar had been poured. The vinegar was then applied, via a shaker top, to most anything, particularly to cooked greens or braised meats and vegetables. It was one of the four condiments always on our table, along with salt, black pepper and Tabasco (which was "hot sauce" as opposed to "pepper sauce").

I love pork loin. In the summer, it's probably my favorite cut, because it's so simple to prepare and so good and feeds a good-sized crowd. This was on the grill Sunday: Tonight, it was stuffed pattypan squash. The stuffing was scooped-out squash flesh, cheese and sausage. OK, but it needed a lighter sausage; I'll make that adjustment next time.

Tortilla with potatos, andouille sausage (since I had no chorizo at home) and eggs. Plated with tomatos, sourdough toast, and another dollop of fig jam. About time for figs to come in, too; can't wait! Sorry for washed-out photos. Not sure what happened there.

I love salmon on the grill with just salt, pepper and olive oil, and then glazed the last couple of minutes with a glaze of plum jelly and minced chipotle peppers in adobo.

RobirdsTX, once again you and I have the same idea, this time the black bean and corn salad. Don't you love it? I've also been known to just spoon it over sliced avocado and eat it...or spread crostini with mashed avocado and lime juice, and spoon that on top. Dcarch, I had my first deep-fried crispy spinach recently in a restaurant....I don't normally care for cooked spinach, but this was wonderful. How hot do you have your oil, and what kind of oil do you use? Dyjee, love the look of that stir-fry. I have some pork in the freezer that may call for that.... It's been a nutso week, so little cooking. I did make chicken quesadillas last night. And today I've put my first-ever attempt at corned beef into the brine and popped it into the fridge. Had to adjust the Alton Brown recipe slightly, because I could not find plain old saltpetre, and wound up using Morton Tender Quick, the sugar-salt-saltpetre combo. I used two cups in a gallon of brine for a six pound brisket, which is reposing in a giant zip-loc in my fridge for the next 12 days. Half of it will be corned beef, the other half I'm going to put on the smoker and make pastrami. Wish me luck.

Getting away from eggs, because I didn't feel like cooking: Fresh strawberries, sweetened creme fraiche, pound cake.

Kim, can I come the next time you host brunch? Those dishes looked just gorgeous.

I do it when I want something different, when "nothing sounds good," or when I don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It's often a frittata, an omelet, or a quiche. Occasionally pancakes. When I was a kid, pancakes for dinner had cherry sauce, as opposed to pancakes for dinner that had syrup. Oh, and bacon was always a breakfast (or bfd) meat, with two exceptions: the ubiquitous BLT, which I still adore, and bacon, canned tomatos, cracklin' cornbread and "new sorghum," when the first sorghum molasses of the season was available in the fall. I can taste it now....

1. Always more garlic. 2. A bit of sugar added to anything with canned tomatos. 3. Always omit the bell pepper and celery (hate 'em!). This makes stuff interesting when cooking Cajun. I'll typically use some green onions, and maybe a mild Anaheim chili.

Bumping this up with a bit of shameless promotion for a local company. Smith's, which has operated in Hot Springs for 124 years, started out with whetstones and expanded into a broad range of sharpening products. They recently split their line to offer sharpeners for hunting/camping/etc., and those for the kitchen, the kitchen products being under the Edgeware brand. The Edgeware Mandoline is their first venture into actual cutting implements. As a hometown cook, I got an early trial of the slicer, which will be available via Williams Sonoma later this year, and is currently available at www.edgewareproducts.com. It's wonderful. Cast aluminum body, German steel blade, adjustable thickness with an easy-touch knob, comes with julienne and crinkle-cut blades. Will also carve a slice of your finger off in a heartbeat (I speak from experience). I think it looks like a Porsche.

Best reason in the world to move to Hot Springs, Arkansas -- you can buy double-yolked eggs at a store here, fresh from the hatchery (they specialize in broodstock, and so the double-yolkers go out for sale). I love, love, LOVE a double-yolked egg! It made this breakfast: Bacon that I overcooked, a biscuit with an indecently large dollop of fig jam, a smashed potato and one of those lovely, lovely eggs. I was a happy woman.

My new favorite: cucumbers, sliced thin on my new mandoline (!) with rice vinegar, mirin and ginger.

dcarch-- as always, beautiful plates! And I am so anxious to try the "souped-up" pesto; I have some red snapper filets in the freezer that I think may call for that. Prawn -- Gorgeous steak! Last night, a quick saute of corn, shrimp, basil and chives (didn't have scallions) in butter, with caprese salads, in which I can eat my weight. Thanks, Kim, for that recipe tip, and you're right, the whole is significantly more than the sum of the parts! One evening this week, it was a pizza. I tend to pile too much stuff on top, but, hey, it's all good. This one had tomatos, cucumbers, tomatos, fresh mozzarella, sheep's milk farmers market cheese, and grated parmesan. Mark Bittman's pizza dough recipe. And finally, there were grilled pork loin chops, squash gratin, black bean and corn salad, and the can't-get-enough-of-them caprese.

One thing I love to make when I have plenty of time is moussaka. My recipe here: http://kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/one-blog-post-two-disparate-topics/. It may be a bit heavy for a beach meal, but should be easy enough to make with locally available ingredients. With it, I love couscous with dried fruit, and a tomato and feta salad with dill. Another great one I tried last night is a saute' of fresh corn, shrimp, chives and basil in butter, served with caprese salads. Couldn't believe how good it was. Finally, depending on availability of grouper, there's nothing better than broiled grouper topped with a shrimp or crawfish etouffee.

Re: Barbecue nomenclature -- In Memphis barbecue circles, "barbecue" is pulled pork. Can be either whole hog or shoulder. Chicken cooked in similar fashion is "barbecue(d) chicken. Turkey, however, is smoked turkey; not sure why. Ribs are just ribs, the presumption being no one would be foolish enough to do anything with ribs other than barbecue them. Oh, and they're pork. Always. Beef, when you see it on a Memphis menu, and you do more and more, is "barbecue(d) beef." Likewise bologna (which is a thing of beauty, barbecued). Re: chickens. As a youngster, I was annually roped into helping with the annual American Cancer Society fundraising barbecue in my home town, where we generally cooked 1,500 chickens -- 3000 chicken halves -- and sold plates with chicken, slaw, beans and a roll for five bucks. (OK, it was a long time ago.) The cooking method was to grill about 24 inches above the bed of coals, flip every 30 minutes, and baste every time they were flipped with this sauce: 1 qt cider vinegar 1/2 cup salt 3/4 lbs butter 1 1/2 cup cooking oil 1 bottle Tabasco (small bottle) 1/2 bottle Worcestershire (small bottle) 1/2 tsp garlic powder This is from a 1964 University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service publication. I can't imagine that a half-teaspoon of garlic powder makes much difference in the overall taste, but I promise, that baste (applied liberally with a dish mop) did in fact turn out some succulently juicy barbecued chicken. Best I recall, it took about three hours for a half-chicken. I use this same basting sauce to cook my pork shoulders and/or Boston butts, if I'm not using a dry rub. But I like it better on chicken.

Not too unusual for barbecue joints in this part of the world. I suspect it's because they use a different sauce and cooking time, perhaps a hotter fire. Should have gone to Purity; they have it every day.

Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. Cook up a pound of bacon at a time, in the morning when it's cooler, and keep it in the fridge to use when you want it.