kayb

I guess SO! That looks phenomenal.

Can you give us a source for that dried okra? I got mine at Fresh Market, in the section where they have all the snacks and trail mixes and such. I really don't remember looking at the original source. I bought it because it was an "I'll be damned, I've got to try that" moment. Pretty tasty!

Andie, if you grew up on a farm in Western Kentucky (I grew up on one in West Tennessee, and I'm not sure why one is "west" and one is "western," but that's the case), you are certainly familiar with the very exacting measurement -- the "mess." Which, of course, is enough to feed however many there are for dinner, a "big mess" being enough to do so and have leftovers. I always heard "mess" used to refer to vegetables, fish or game birds; never to domesticated animal flesh, and only rarely to fruit (I believe I remember hearing about a "mess" of fried apples). Not sure why that was so.

Wine-braised lamb shanks with herbs d'Provence, from Bon Appetit Yorkshire pudding, from Nigella Lawson's How To Eat Brioche, from Shirley Corriher's Cookwise Lobster Risotto, recipe I cut-and-pasted from the NY Times Dorie Greenspan's genoise (with fresh strawberries on top!)

I WILL cook a live lobster this year.

Quinoa. Couscous (it had somehow escaped my notice; I'm not certain how). Cured Spanish chorizo (my God, that's wonderful stuff). Dried okra (think okra-flavored popcorn). I know there was more, but these come to mind.

New Year's Day traditions covered in dinner today -- black eyed pea cassoulet, and kraut (hey, it was cabbage once!) with smoked sausages, potatos and apples.

Forgive me for being a homer, but I've always thought Memphis is a fine restaurant town. Not up to New York, Chicago or Philly, certainly, but a wide variety of cuisines and a lot of good food in all price ranges. And of course, there's the barbecue...

I love chicken and dumplings, but don't make them a lot, for whatever reason, possibly because there are so many little meat-and-threes around here that make wonderful ones.... One excellent cook I know told me to always start with just two or three dumplings, as they'd disintegrate and thicken the stock; then go ahead and put a big batch in. The best dumplings I ever had were made with homemade pie crust. No added seasonings in the dough; plenty of black pepper in the broth. Being not much of a pie-crust maker, I use the rolled ones from the pastry case when I make my own C&D. Sara, if you're still wondering what tweaks you need to make in your recipe -- I'm saying one big change would be to NOT skim that fat. You want that wonderful deliciousness permeating the finished product.

I use it to coat roasted chickpeas for a snack. Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas (or soak and cook dried ones); pat dry with a paper towel. Toss with a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon or two of wasabi powder, and roast on a greased cookie sheet for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, stirring or shaking every 10 minutes or so. Making some today to go in Christmas gift boxes.

It's been heartrendingly cold (or what passes for it here in the South; in the mid-20s for the lows), so I've been on a soup kick. First, chili (definitely non-traditional, with black beans and whole-kernel corn) with fried sweet potatos with paprika and cayenne: And another evening, cannellini bean and Italian sausage soup, with cheese toast:

Hope you haven't already done the West Tennessee/East Arkansas leg of your trip. In the event you have not: Trolinger's, on U.S. 79 just west of Kentucky Lake in Paris, TN. It's a combo grocery store and barbecue joint and meat market and gas station. Order and pick up at the counter, grab a soda out of the cooler, eat, go to the register and tell them what you had so they can ring you up. And you can buy salt blocks for your cows or corn to bait the fields for your next dove hunt at the same stop. Take U.S. 641 out of Paris and go about 20 miles to Camden, and eat at the Smokehouse, right there on the highway. Some of the smokiest pork I've ever encountered. Agreed with the comment upthread about the place in Lexington. When you get to Memphis: Have a beer at the Rendezvous, or maybe a cheese and sausage plate, just to sample the atmosphere. Don't do it on a weekend. Ribs are good if it's early, dried out if it's later. Pulled pork is little more than average. In order, my favorite Memphis pig palaces: 1. Germantown Commissary, only place that gives you a deviled egg with your bbq plate, and it's a good deviled egg. Two bbq plates will feed three people unless they're defensive linemen for the New Orleans Saints. 2. Central Barbecue. All in all, best overall experience with sides and a great beer list. Meat is not QUITE as good as the Commissary. And they don't have the eggs. 3. Interstate. Ribs. Ask for sauce on the side; as someone upthread commented, they DO slather on the sauce. Go at noon; it's not in the greatest neighborhood. 4. Three Pigs, corner White Station and Quince, off I-240 South. Good pork, best slaw. Someone upthread said they don't eat slaw on the sandwich, to which I have only one word: Heretic! 5. Barbecue Shop, on Madison in Midtown. (about the 1700 or so block, I think; in any event, between Belvedere and McLean). Best overall quality over a variety of meats, including brisket, should you for some reason want beef barbecue, as well as chicken and ribs. And their barbecued bologna is not to be missed. 6. Cozy Corner, for the barbecued Cornish game hen. Outstanding. In Eastern Arkansas, there are two I'd strongly recommend -- Dixie Pig in Blytheville, and Couch's in Jonesboro. Institutions, both of them, and rightfully so. If you get as far as Little Rock, try Sims. Carolina-style mustard sauce. I'm not crazy about it, but others are. Have fun!

Another great grits source: War Eagle Mill in NW Arkansas, www.wareaglemill.com, which has a sizeable variety of not only cereals and whole grains, but lots of flours and meals and jellies and jams and preserves. My personal favorite grits are the old-fashioned ones, seasoned with salt and bacon fat during the cooking phase, cheese of choice stirred in, and topped with a couple of over-easy eggs fried in the fat from the bacon or sausage you're serving alongside it....and a big fluffy cathead biscuit with butter and fig or pear preserves. (Points to anyone who knows what a cathead biscuit is.)

Things I haven't tried, but will: Truffles Foie gras Jamon iberico Bisteeya Lobster roll in Maine Dinner at the French Laundry If I thought for a while, I could come up with several hundred.

For several years, I've done boxes with fudge and pralines and roasted chickpeas with wasabi and spiced pecan. Great gifts for co-workers, kids' teachers, you name it.

I've seen the words experimental and adventurous used in previous descriptions; I'd sign on to both of those. I'm of the "try anything once" school of cookery -- and of life in general. Cooking is something I've done all my life, but only for the past two or three years as anything other than what had to be done to stand between me and hunger. It's a way to explore other lands, cultures, histories. It's a way to sample new experiences and tastes; in the past year, I've cooked things I'd never eaten before. It's just another way of learning.

Agreed on hot chocolate. And hot spiced tea. How about potato skins/stuffed potatos? I use the fairly small ones, convenient to pick up and eat by hand. Having a variety of toppings on hand (bacon, olives, chrimp, cheese, peppers, whatever else strikes your fancy) and condiments (sour cream, more cheese, other dipping sauces), and a convenient broiler means everyone can build their own, and they can be substantive enough to stand for a meal. Other ideas...popovers, gougeres, a big sandwich built on a baguette and sliced into manageable slices.

I made an eggplant and chickpea casserole recently for a dinner that included a vegetarian as a guest. Sliced and roasted the eggplant, brushed with olive oil, until soft; layered in a tomato sauce that started with sauteed onions and garlic, added some oregano, a little basil, the tomatos, a touch of cinnamon, and a can of drained chickpeas. Really good.

I do a fritatta with chorizo, cotija, queso fresco and black beans (and a diced, fried potato, if I'm ambitious), and top it with more cheese, some salsa and diced avocado when it comes out from under the broiler. I also love it in chunks in a traditional chef salad. Best chef salad I ever had included avocado, blue cheese crumbles, and lovely rare tenderloin medallions. Love it on a bagel with some cream cheese and some pico de gallo.

I do what is, I guess, essentially a latke, with zucchini, and I've done it with yellow squash as well. It uses crushed saltines instead of matzoh meal or flour. I use my food processor for the potato and onion, the regular processing blade, just in a series of pulses until I get the texture I want, and then I drain that in a colander for a bit before adding the egg and crumbs and/or flour (I've done both). Has anyone done sweet potato latkes? I'm anxious to try this, being a fiend for anything you can do with a sweet potato.

The hamper I'd give is somewhat different than the one I'd want to get. In my "give" hamper, homemade goodies would include chocolate covered cherries, pralines, and fudge; spiced pecans and walnuts; roasted chickpeas with wasabi; old-fashioned popcorn balls, from my mother's recipe. Maybe some fresh peach sauce, if I could find out-of-season peaches somewhere that were decent enough to cook. And just because it's cold and any hamper ought to include some comfort food, a crock of Tuscan white bean and sausage soup. In my "get" hamper -- wine, cheese and charcuterie will do me just fine.

Will happily trade you bran muffins for plantains fried in butter and olive oil.....

Makes a wonderful meat loaf, with some pork fat added. Use your favorite meat loaf recipe. Also, it makes great pasta sauce, in a basic tomato/basil/oregano/garlic preparation. I like the chops just floured, seared and then braised in broth or red wine. Ribs are great baked in the barbecue sauce of your choice; ditto roasts. I generallly prefer my venison ground, as deer down here have a tendency to be tough. If it's a roast or even a chop, unless it's a very young deer, I cook the livin' h*** out of it.

I made butternut squash soup with chile recently -- it was excellent. I sauteed a small, diced onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, peeled and cubed two small butternut squash (maybe 3 pounds total) and tossed those in to saute as well, and added a tablespoon of ancho chile powder, two tablespoons of Santa Cruz chile paste, and two teaspoons of diced chipotle in adobo. When the squash began to soften, I added two cups of chicken broth and simmered until the squash was completely done. Pureed it in the pan with my immersion blender (you could do in batches in the blender or food processor if you wanted a smoother consistency). Then I added two ounces of crumbled goat cheese, stirred that until it melted, and a cup of half-and-half. It's thick, so if you want a thinner soup, use more chicken broth or more cream. I freeze it in single-serving bowls and take to work, or use it for a sauce over pasta or rice as an entree for two. It's excellent like that if you add some crisp crumbled bacon or diced ham.

I too grew up on a farm with hog-butchering, sausage-making, and lard-rendering. The lard stayed in the cellar, in gallon buckets filled to the top and covered so there was little if any air space. When a gallon was opened, it then stayed in the refrigerator. As well as I recall, the covered lard,stored as it was in a cool place, lasted for the full year (or until we ran out). Lard was used in pie crusts, biscuits, and most everything else.