kayb

I subscribed to the email to see what the discount coupon would be. It's a piddly 5 per cent.

I begin to despair of my garden. As the yard guy's truck was on the fritz, I ordered garden soil from a local nursery. It was to be delivered Tuesday morning. Midmorning, I got a call; their truck had to go in the shop. I could have soil this coming Monday. Sigh. I take comfort in the fact all this will be DONE next year when I get ready to plant.

I tried these once, early on in the gluten-free days. Mine were not good. The texture looked like yours, but they were grainy to the bite. I think the recipe I used called for rice and tapioca flours. Good luck!

On the other hand, there's the new potatoes classification. Around here, new potatoes are tiny, ping-pong ball size or smaller, and carefully dug from beneath the plant while leaving the plant and some of the potatoes in place. I get these at the farmers' market, many with dirt still on them. They're usually the redskin potatoes, but I have occasionally gotten golds. The skin is so thin and delicate as to just rub off with a hard scrub under the faucet. I love these roasted underneath a chicken or pork chops, or just tossed in olive oil and roasted on their own. They have a sweet, buttery flavor that goes away in the older, cured potatoes. They do take an amazingly long time to roast, though, compared with similar-sized chunks of a matured potato.

There are live armadillos? I thought they came into being dead on the side of the road, on their backs, feet up in the air...

Been through Marshall. Nice part of the world. I'm in Jonesboro.

@md8232, what part of Arkansas? I'm down in the flatlands. Anyway, hello, neighbor.

Used to be in East Arkansas, if you hit and killed a deer, particularly if you disabled your car, you called the sheriff's department to send a wrecker. They'd also send a couple of trusties from the county jail who'd field-dress the deer, give a haunch to the wrecker operator in exchange for your tow fee, and take the rest back to the jail. And there would be venison for dinner in a day or two. Waste not, and all that.

@Kim Shook, here you go. I cut it in half, or maybe a bit less.

I have a recipe that calls for half City ham, half country ham. Good stuff.

Always fun to travel along with the Princessmobile! PJ looks happy to see his very own yard again.

I love the Very Hungry Caterpillar. My grandson used to dramatize the story, which he knew by heart, with caterpillars, a chrysalis and a butterfly made of play-doh.

I love my Echo dots. They play my music and NPR for me (particularly important now there are no sports on TV except old games). But I use my phone for my timer.

Lovely egg porn.

Ah, but if you're going to put mayo on fruit, you must then add a little grated cheddar cheese on top. Off the Kraft block from the supermarket. I will confess to occasionally getting a flashback moment and wanting this. Preferably on a mix of canned mandarin orange segments, canned pineapple tidbits, and frozen grated coconut. With maraschino cherries, if you want to get fancy. Actually, though, I only add the cheese on top if it's pineapple slices or canned pear halves.

Welcome to the Dark Side. You'll love it.

@BKEats -- if you have any shrimp left, make etouffee, then broil that grouper very simply with butter, salt and pepper, and top with the etouffee. A favorite dish on the "Redneck Riviera," i.e., the Alabama-Florida Gulf Coast. Rice is always a good side.

Welcome. Pleased to have you here. I'm just a home cook in the south, but if you have questions on Memohis-style barbecue or southern/soul food cooking, I'm your girl.

Thanks!

Question: is the middle of next week too late to plant asparagus crowns? I am on the border between zones 7 and 8.

I believe that's incorrect. I believe that, legally, the only whiskey that can be called "bourbon" is that distilled in four specific counties in Kentucky. Has something to do with the water, which percolates down through limestone to the aquifer. Well, scratch that. Apparently, since 1964, bourbon can be made anywhere in the U.S. Kentuckians, of course, will tell you differently.

Sigh. Yard guy's truck is still on the fritz, so still no dirt in the beds. I called a local nursery that delivers. Come to find out I need nine yards of dirt (I figured it, thought that sounded like an awful lot of dirt, the nursery people figured it, and got the same amount). A mix of 2:1 topsoil to compost will cost me $35 a yard. It'll come in two loads (I guess they use pickup trucks), and delivery fees are $150 total. So $500 worth of dirt, roughly, still less than I'd spend if I got bagged garden soil at Lowe's or Home Depot, and then I'd still have to get it home. Oh, well, I have to spend that stimulus check somewhere. I have, btw, three 6 x 12 foot beds, a foot deep; and one 6 x 6 bed, a foot deep. That one is the asparagus bed. The others will be: Bed 1: Tomatoes and peppers Bed 2: Viney things -- squash, cucumbers, melons Bed 3: Green beans. Probably all green beans, as I cannot find Kentucky Wonders in any market around here to save my soul, and maybe 210 square feet will give me enough to can for winter. Those and the tomatoes, and maybe a few pickles, will likely be all I'll can, until it gets time to make apple butter this fall.

If I leave now, I can be to Brooklyn maybe in time for breakfast Sunday. Can I have that? It looks absolutely delicious.

I noticed yesterday, when placing my Kroger order for pickup, they now offer the option of paying via SNAP card at pickup. Prior to that, the options had only been Google Pay, Apple Pay, and debit/credit card. I was glad to see SNAP recipients now have that option, at least here.

When I was a kid in the country, I knew several farm families who always served their main meal at noon. When it was over, dishes were covered but left on the table, and the evening meal was the same food, room temp. Houses generally weren't air conditioned, so this could mean six to eight hours in temps of over 80F. Don't remember anyone getting ill from it. Not that I would try that now. I've occasionally left things out overnight that I intended to keep, but wine or getting sleepy got in the way. My rule of thumb is that if it's a cured meat, or pretty acidic (spaghetti sauce, vegetable soup), I'll chance it. Otherwise, it goes.