kayb

Rural West Tennessee, in my experience. A friend in my home town has begun vegetable gardening commercially. Along with selling at his own market, he takes produce to Memphis, 3 hours away, every Saturday to sell at the Farmers Market, because he can get between 3 and 4 times what he gets in beautiful downtown Camden, population about 3,500. By way of comparison, I've bought local asparagus at $5 a pound at the Memphis market, and been happy to pay it, and tomatoes $5 for a 2-2 1/2 pound basket.

Damn. How I'd love to find grouper for $9.49 a pound. Or even find grouper, period. Are you on the Gulf coast?

Damn. That looks worse than after NC State and Jimmy V beat Houston in, what, 1985-ish?

Thanks! I'll likely try that this weekend. I've done one with pimenton, chicken, avocado and fresh corn, all dressed with a little mayo, that ain't bad, too.

We used to strain juice for jelly through a pillowcase. Big advantage was you could hang it up and let it drip, go away and come back after while. Maybe a big, big fabric bag...cord to gather at the top ... something sturdy enough to hang it from...big enough container to hold the juice? And enough time to do something else while it drips? Should be able to handle maybe 25 pounds at a whack.

In spades.

Would you share details on that pimenton chicken salad? I've been on a chicken salad kick this summer.

Sorry I'm just now getting back to you on this; didnt check eG yesterday. I've never frozen pimiento cheese (but I don't put cream cheese in it, either). I've never tried freezing cream cheese, or anything made largely cream cheese, except cheesecake, and that has bunches of eggs in it). My gut instinct is it wouldn't work. But I don't know.

Looks like @Duvel's little one has some serious competition. I always was a sucker for a redhead.... Pizzas looked great, too. If I were more of a pizza eater, or if I didn't have to stay away from wheat gluten, I'd love to have an Ooni.

This brings to mind dried apples, which my grandmother would make by the bushel every fall. First, we picked and peeled lots and lots of apples. Then cored and sliced them about 1/8 inch thick. Then they were carefully spread on a white sheet stretched across the roof of the wellhouse, which caught the south-facing sun, early in the morning, and taken in if rain threatened or in the early evening. They lived tied up in their somewhat-less-than-white, by this time, sheet in a kitchen chair overnight, and went back out the next day. Seems the drying took about four or five days, depending on the weather. Then they were moved to a fabric bag and hung from a joist in the basement, from which they'd be pulled a couple of cups at a time to be rehydrated, simmered, spiced and used as the filling for fried apple pies.

My workhorse for slightly bigger than average jobs is, oddly enough, a Pampered Chef pot, 10-quart, which is also my shrimp boil pot, as it has a deep strainer basket so I can just put all the goods in there (on their staggered time schedule), and lift the whole strainer basket out when the shrimp are done. Also excellent for making stock. It also has a shallower steamer basket I rarely ever use, except as an auxiliary colander, and a glass lid. A friend gave it to me more than 10 years ago. I have no idea if PC still carries it or not. I've used it for that period of time, probably twice a month, and it's held up well.

Oh, what a shocker, for certain! She was a delightful person, and I always enjoyed her posts and her queries. Never heard an ill word from her. I hope her world is now full of birdsong, and that will be some condolence for the family whom I am sure is desolate. My prayers will be with them.

Leftover papadum from last night's Indian takeout. Still wonderfully crispy. With tamarind sauce. Anyone ever make papadum? I've perused a few recipes -- anyone have an old reliable? As I am still hungry, I think I will go for some canteloupe next, as it's conveniently already diced in the fridge.

@shain, please, what is the story behind that wonderful building perched on the mountaintop, and what I presume is the old kitchen and utensils inside it?

@Duvel, that potato salad looks exceptional. I never had mayo on a German potato salad. That is now in the plans.

Thanks, as always, for taking us along.

@liuzhou -- I have no experience with blood sausage. I do know that blood has a metallic taste (or at least human blood does, an experience borne of sticking a cut finger in my mouth, which is certainly not the most sanitary practice, but it hasn't killed me...yet). Does whatever cooking/curing the blood sausage goes through do away with the metallic taste? The cut sections you show above look fairly tasty. Are they eaten by themselves as a snack, in a prepared dish, or with a condiment?

Dear sweet baby Jesus. They're alive!

The P&H, under Wanda's ownership/management, would have been a fine prototype. It was, up into the late 90s, the only bar in Memphis, at least that I knew of, that still had Kingston Trio on the jukebox. And Wanda was -- well, she was one of a kind. Sadly, she is no longer with us; all those decades of Marlboro Lights got to her. One of the many obits, and one which pretty much captured the nature of the place, is here. I went there for the first time in 1978, when I was a senior in college and working at The Commercial Appeal. Wanda found out I was from Camden, TN, just about 30 miles from her hometown of Parsons, and immediately decided we must be kin. ("My Daddy was a travelin' man...") From then until I moved away, I'd get off at 9:30, head up to the P&H, and wait tables in exchange for my tab. Early evenings, before the serious drinking began, the P&H was a family bar, and my kids grew up eating burgers and fries, learning to shoot pool, busing tables and watching TV in the kitchen with the cook. I miss it, and her.

I'm reminded of my favorite bar in Memphis, the P&H Cafe, whose proprietress, Wanda, allowed amplified music only two nights a year (August 16, the Dead Elvis Ball, and September 17, Hank Williams Sr.'s birthday). "This is a conversation bar," she contended.

Speaking of which, I've had a mashed potato salad. Kind of weird.

Any of the church pot-luck salads (green stuff, pink stuff, etc.) with miniature marshmallows. I will eat most of them that don't have the marshmallows. Ham aspic was always pretty nasty. And my late mother-in-law, God rest her soul, had something she did with canned salmon and unflavored gelatin and Campbells Tomato Soup and chopped up olives and hardboiled eggs that was truly horrific.

I like all different kinds of potato salad, and they DO fall into distinctly different camps. All, in my house have in common that they do NOT HAVE: 1. celery 2. green peppers 3. raw onion Most anything else is fair game. Basic potato salad that I grew up eating and continue to make probably 80 percent of the time is either red or gold potatoes, peeled, diced and boiled, with a dressing of mayo (Hellman's, please), mustard, sweet pickle relish, garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt and lots of paprika. I've been known to add a dollop of ketchup to this; it's pinkish anyway from the paprika and the seasoned salt. Sometimes I'll add boiled eggs; generally not. Then there's new potato salad -- tiny new potatoes, halved, boiled, sprinkled down pretty thoroughly with white wine vinegar immediately after they're drained. Dressing is, preferably, a light garlic aioli. Additions include diced cornichons, chopped boiled eggs, parsley, marjoram, chives, whatever other fresh herbs you feel like adding. I make my own take on German potato salad when I cook German: red potatoes are sliced, not peeled, and boiled to just done. Chop up and saute some bacon til almost crisp, add onions. Remove from heat and stir in caraway seeds and a good portion of coarse mustard. Pour over hot potatoes and toss gently; serve warm or at room temp. Every once in a while I sail off into the unknown. I did a salad once with fingerling potatoes cut into chunks and boiled, then doused with rice vinegar and light soy sauce. Dressing was mayo, ginger, more mirin, and a little sesame oil. Additions were shelled edamame, cocktail shrimp and julienned carrots. Sprinkled the bowl with toasted sesame seeds. I always cook potatoes for potato salad cut into bite-sized pieces, whether peeled or not, and cook in salted water.

I've had goat several times. There's a Caribbean restaurant in Memphis that makes a FINE goat curry (and a pretty good Dark and Stormy to go along with it). I did notice the butchery issue mentioned upthread, with small bits of bone in almost every piece of meat. And goat barbecues are pretty common up and down the Delta. In those, the goat is split open down the belly, ribs cracked away from backbone -- a reverse spatchcock, if you will -- and the critter laid out flat on a rack. He's basted with barbecue sauce and the rack is flipped every couple of hours. Good barbecue; obviously much different from pork. Have never had it ground; have had shoulders braised.

I paused my Misfits box during the summer as I buy most of my produce at the farmers market, and grow some of my own. Through the winter, Misfits has been, for the most part, both cheaper and better quality than grocery produce. YMMV.