kayb

Same situation here. Decent, but not great, meat; for dry-aged, someone at one of the city's better restaurants is going to have to cook it for you. But I had good success with Mark Bittman's method and a sirloin recently; as it was a less-than-ideal grade (I'm not even sure it was choice), I marinated it for a couple of hours on the counter in a wine-olive oil-freshly ground pepper mix and sprinkled it with unflavored meat tenderizer. I heated my cast-iron skillet on the next-to-highest notch on my garden variety electric stove (setting 7; the next one up is High) until it was smoking. Added a liberal shake of coarse salt to the ungreased pan; seared the steak for 2 minutes, flipped it and seared for another two minutes, finished with 5 minutes in a preheated 500-degree oven. Perfectly rare/medium rare for a two-inch steak. I added a couple of pats of butter during the last minute or so in the oven. I sliced it in thin slices across the grain and served it with pumpkin risotto and steamed sugar snap peas tossed with butter and tarragon. Good stuff! One of my other favorite preparations is to do filets essentially the same way, minus the marinade, but during the last minute in the oven, top them with a pile of caramelized Vidalia onions and some crumbled blue cheese.

My local market periodically has what they call an "arm roast." I've never been able to tell much diff between it and a chuck roast, and use them the same way, either cut up for stew or in a pot roast.

Goat Cheese Lasagna Serves 6 as Main Dish. Very rich, good, flavorful lasagna; use your favorite marinara (mine is simply olive oil, garlic, tomatos, oregano) Lasagna noodles 3 c marinara sauce 2 eggs 4 oz fresh goat cheese 1 c grated mozzarella 8 oz fresh mozzarella 1 lb Italian sausage 1/2 c grated Parmesan 1/2 c minced fresh basil leaves salt and pepper Beat eggs; add crumbled goat cheese, grated mozzarella and basil, salt and pepper to taste, and stir until creamy and well mixed. Remove casings from Italian sausage, crumble and fry over medium-high heat; drain. Assembly: Begin with a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a deep 9 x 13 casserole. Add a layer of lasagna noodles. Spread slightly less than half the goat cheese-egg mixture on top. Cover with thin slices of fresh mozzarella. Sprinkle on half the browned sausage. Drizzle with a cup of marinara. Sprinkle with 1/3 the grated Parmesan. Repeat layers. For final layer, use a layer of noodles and the remaining goat cheese mixture; drizzle with the remaining sauce; sprinkle with final 1/3 of Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, in 375-degree oven for 30-35 minutes. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Cheese, Dinner ( RG2159 )

Oh, and Brother Juniper's, out near the Univ. of Memphis (Go Tigers!) for breakfast.

Wish I'd seen this earlier; hope you're still in town. Harry's Detour, just off South Main on G.E. Patterson. Take your own wine. Felicia Suzanne's. I'd take Interstate barbecue over Payne's, but I concur with Cozy Corner cornish hen. Concur on Bari, too. Have heard Restaurant Iris is wonderful, but haven't been there yet. Raffe's Deli has great falafel and a marvelous selection of beer.

My "favorite" cookbook changes from time to time, according to what my current cooking craze is. Currently I'm exploring different ethnic/national cuisines, and enjoying cookbooks that focus on different regions. But I'm also learning about new ingredients and techniques, and I like cookbooks that have an educational component; Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything and Shirley Corriher's Cookwise are a couple of my favorites. And as many other posters have mentioned, an easy-to-read ingredient list, a book that lies flat when opened, and an index that can be easily read -- with the main ingredient in bold or larger type, and the permutations of it it in lightface. Stories and anecdotes are great, too. Make me WANT to try that recipe! And if a specific ingredient is absolutely essential to a recipe, let me know that (I'm fond of tweaking, and appreciate being told if something's just not subject to a tweak).

Linguine with Squash, Goat Cheese and Bacon Serves 4 as Main Dishor 6 as Side. I stumbled on this while looking for recipes with goat cheese. It's from Real Simple (and it is!). I couldn't imagine the combination of flavors, but it was wonderful. 6 slices bacon 1 2- to 2 ½-pound butternut squash—peeled, seeded, and diced (4 to 5 cups) 2 cloves garlic, minced 1-1/2 c chicken broth 1 tsp kosher salt 4 oz soft goat cheese, crumbled 1 lb linguine, cooked 1 T olive oil 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 5 minutes. Drain on a paper towel, then crumble or break into pieces; set aside. Drain all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat from the skillet. Add the squash and garlic to the skillet and sauté over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the broth and salt. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the squash is cooked through and softened, 20 to 25 minutes. Add half the goat cheese and stir well to combine. Place the cooked linguine in a large bowl. Stir the sauce into the linguine and toss well to coat. Drizzle with the olive oil and add the reserved bacon, the remaining goat cheese, and the pepper. Serve immediately. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Vegetables, Dinner ( RG2158 )

Grew up in rural West Tennessee and we'd have them at least twice a month. I agree with previous posters -- they were cheap, quick, easy, and something to break the pork monotony. While there was a plnetitude of fish, the only way anyone ever cooked it was fried, and that was a lot of trouble, so it was a special event or an outdoors meal, so this was a way to get fish into the diet. As I recall, it was chopped onion, salmon, eggs, flour, salt and pepper. I've also made 'em with tuna, and have come to substitute cracker crumbs for part of the flour; better texture. A key is to drain the salmon first, and use only one egg per can, and just enough cracker crumbs/flour to bind it. Usually accompanied by green beans and mashed potatos, for whatever reason. I get the urge and make them occasionally. Bought a can of salmon the other night for that very purpose, in fact.

You'll find a lot of Silver Queen and a lot of Peaches and Cream. That's what I see most of when I go home for a weekend.

If you're in Mayfield, you MUST go to Trolinger's Barbecue in Paris. It's also a grocery, feed store and meat market, on Highway 79 between Paris and Paris Landing. (Good steaks, chops, bacon, roasts, other cuts, as well.) Other than that and some other barbecue spots, and some good catfish here and there, you're pretty much limited to meat-and-three (some good, some awful), Chinese (some fair, some awful) Mexican (some good, some awful) and Italian (some acceptable, some awful). Church dinners are a great place to eat, though. And volunteer fire department fundraisers. And small-town festivals. And you will not find friendlier people.

Actually, pretty succinct. I do maybe half my cooking now from recipes from the internet; it's easy to search for an ingredient, or a technique, or a combination of the two, to get a collection of potential recipes for what I want, and I can peruse through them at my leisure. But I continue to buy cookbooks, as much to read (I will read one much as I do a novel) as to cook by. To learn the history, the background, the language of a food, or the science of a technique, or for fuller instructions in the "how-tos" of not specific recipes, but specific methods, so far, cookbooks cannot be touched. I do have to find a simple way to reset the length of time my screen will stay live before the screensaver comes on, though, for those times that I move the laptop into the kitchen for regular reference. It's awkward, darting back and forth to my office or the den to check regularly.

Last night -- pan-grilled, oven-finished sirloin, marinated in garlic and herb marinade, served over risotto with leeks and sweet potatos, with steamed sugar snap peas with butter and tarragon. Recipes on my blog, www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com (nothing for sale!) This morning/brunch, a Mexican frittata with black beans, fried potatos, chorizo and guacamole, topped with salsa and grated cheese. No photos as I can't find the charger to the camera battery. Kim, a make-it-quick tomato soup that beats canned all hollow -- 1 1/2 cup V8 juice or Bloody Mary mix, 3/4 cup plain yogurt, stir and simmer until hot and well blended. Spice to your personal taste (I usually add a shot of Worcestershire if using V8, nothing if using Bloody Mary mix).

I go to Nashville periodically, and will go more often now that my daughter and son-in-law are moving there in June. I thought the hellfire bitters would be worth a trip in and of themselves, but I have GOT to try a bacon old-fashioned! Can't wait. See y'all this summer. If it's a success, maybe a branch in Memphis....

A few weeks ago, I was in Washington DC, and my Moroccan cabdriver was eating the spiral flatbread (I forget its name). He told us that bread had been baked by his mother in Morocco the day before and brought to him by another relative who had flown over for a visit. We began talking food and I mentioned I needed to buy a tagine. He immediately offered to take me to the local suk, and when I agreed, turned the meter off and away we went. He haggled for a tagine on my behalf, carried it out of the suk for me, and delivered me and my tagine back to my hotel. I got his card and made peanut brittle and sent to him when I got home.