Pyewacket

Yeah, you gotta "flush and run" down there-otherwise, you get soaked!

If everyone is so concerned about estrogens in our food having an effect on the sexual development of our children, don't you think a discussion of the added hormones in milk and meat, especially chicken, might be in order? Chickens and beeves are fed grain that contains huge amounts of estrogens and other hormones to make them grow larger breast muscles and more evenly fatted meat. Milk cows are given hormone injections to lengthen the period of milk production and milk output. Growth hormone is contained in most milk products on American market shelves. The stuff is everywhere. I have serious doubts that the "over-estrogenization" of our youngsters comes from soy. One of the symptomatic trends is that over the past fifty or sixty years boys and girls have been beginning puberty at an earlier and earlier age. While 15 used to be an average age for girls to start their periods, 10-11 is now the norm. I'm inclined to think it comes from a diet high in cheap animal protein since most kids don't really that much soy.

Oh Man! I love those noodles! Mom used to make them with butter and poppy seeds or chopped parsley. Worcestershire sauce seems to be another ingredient that folks don't use much anymore. Just a little in a meatloaf really seems to enhance the meaty flavor. I always keep some on hand and sometimes I run out of it. Sure thing, about a month later, I'll reach for it and Oh No!

I love salads too!!!!! and have two favorites that I don't see listed here. Both come from a restaurant in Chapel Hill NC that sadly, no longer exists. I chose my moniker as a salute to Pyewacket restaurant owned and run by David Bacon (great name for an owner, don't you think?) The first one is the Morning Star Salad-greens topped with a blob of cottage cheese, surrounded by sprouts and shredded carrots, topped with sunflower seeds, raisins, and sliced apples in the form of a star. The dressing was their own signature Lemon Tamari dressing. Fit for the Kitchen Gods and all the rest of us too! Second was their Parisienne Deluxe. Romaine and Boston lettuce topped with avocado, slivers of red onion, wedges of hard cooked egg and crispy croutons. The dressing was Moutarde de Meaux-kind of a coarse mustard vinaigrette-wonderfully delicious! I try to reconstruct these at home, but again, not as good as at Pyewacket. Salutes to David, Muskie, and Tom!!!!! if you stumble upon this post. Miss you guys.

Fine with me. That leaves more for the rest of us! I make banana pudding (multiple pans) for our Memorial Day Pig Pickin' every year. In trying to find the best recipe I stumbled upon thickening with flour and a bit of cornstarch and, of course, lots of egg yolks. The combination of the two thickeners really works well with the cornstarch contributing a silkiness that's really nice and the flour maintaining the thickness after baking the meringue and chilling. The second exposure to heat seems to make the custard watery if using only cornstarch. I know this is not traditionally southern, but I also use vanilla beans instead of extract.

I'm so thankful to you guys for educating me on how to pronounce the name of this product. I love it too, but when asking for it at my local store asked for fage (rhymes with sage) or faggie (rhymes with baggie). the manager looked t me like I was insane! thanks all!

I know exactly what you mean by the "greasy" taste and texture of these apple, carrot and pumpkin cakes. In general, they do call for a lot of oil. Over the years, I have experimented with both reducing the oil and changing the mixing technique and have come up with some good results. For my carrot cake (1 lb. carrots, 4 eggs, etc.-make 2 9" layers or 3 8") the recipe originally called for 1 1/4 cups oil and yes, the cake was moist, but greasy. I did two things: 1) cut the oil to 2/3 cup and mixed it up the same way-good, but still a little greasy. then.. 2) beat the eggs and sugar until kind of thick and with the mixer still running on medium-high, I gradually poured in the oil. This is kind of like making mayonnaise. Then I added the flour and walnuts and grated carrots. The resulting cake was lighter, yet still moist, and the greasiness was gone! I think emulsifying the oil into the eggs helped to suspend the oil in a finer structure. Give it a try. You may be happy with the results.

I've had some good meals al El Faro-they sing for you too! I have to concur those who mentioned good vegetarian (God, how many hummus and tabouli plates must I eat?!?!?!?) and decent southern-style food, both high end and low country. What passes for a biscuit in this city is criminal and any gumbo I've eaten here is so bland it makes me cry. When I complain, they bring me a bottle of Texas Pete----can this be construed as aggravated assault on the palate? Shrimp Etouffee is abominably gummy-yes, there is more to Etouffee than undercooked roux. Greens are usually overgrown (stemmy) and undercooked. Chard is passed off as turnips and if I mention a pickled beet I'm treated as if I'm from outer space Don't get me started on the barbecue. Is there anywhere that doesn't bathe the pork in ketchupy sauce? Mexican-- Anyone who opens a good fish taco stand would make a million dollars in the first year.

We used to have contests to see who could drop the most perfect pyramid of soft butter on the toe of a coworkers shoe without him noticing. Also to see how long it would stay there. Anyone who dropped a buttermid that lasted through the end of the night would get free drinks.

I just received this in an email. It seems appropos. Credit goes to Garrison Keilor- "As Frost might have written, "The woods are lovely, dark and thick. But I have many butts to kick and some to poke and just one stick."

All TV food personalities are trying to do is make a living doing what they love to do and what they get good feedback for doing. I'm sure that most of them understand that they are only the "Flavor of the minute" with a limited half-life of popularity. So why begrudge them the act of making hay while the sun shines? It appears to be a complete waste of time, energy and creativity, in my view. Yeah, RR kind of rubs me the wrong way with her little idiosyncracies, but I'm sure others feel the same about me. As far as "paying dues" -there are many ways of doing that just as there are many types of vocations that involve food other than foodservice. To assert that the only way to gain experience is by working in high-end restaurants and going to culinary school is horse dooky and elitist in the extreme. Believe me, I've done both and knowledge gaps exist in everyone with those backgrounds. I actually learned more about food and it's place in America after leaving school and foodservice to work in consumer coops, specialty foods manufacturing and culinary media and communications. It seems that Americans are rapidly becoming a society that enjoys hauling around gunny sacks of grudges for imagined slights. Many relish spewing out their hatred for anything they didn't think up first. Excoriation of others with differing views is the new popular contact sport. It's also a chicken-shit form of interaction because, for the most part, it's all done anonymously through internet blogs and postings where no requirement for integrity or credibility exists. I'd really like to see people put their creative energies into more edifying pursuits, but meanwhile, I just try to find the good ideas in what's presented and ignore the rest. All the agita is bad for heart, personally and collectively. Enjoy it while it lasts. Leave them alone and they'll all go home eventually.

My favorite cocktail is an Old Fashioned made with Jack Daniel's instead of Southern Comfort. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to explain to a bartender how to make the drink. It seems like a classic of the bartender's repertoire, but many have no idea how to make it. Half the time they forget the bitters or the splash of club soda. The rarely smash the orange, cherry, sugar and bitters together preferring to just drop it all in the glass One other suggestion to bartenders-learn how to properly pour a draft beer. Most times there is little head or too much (I hate paying for a full glass when only getting 2/3) and make sure the darn glasses are clean! Soap and other chemical residue on the glass interferes with the quality of the foam on the top of the beer-it should be a mound fine bubbles not a popping froth!

Has anyone tried using almond milk or hazelnut milk for these truffles? I really like these new dairy alternative milks in cooking. They are very tasty and might give a pleasant nuance to the chocolate flavor. I once made a very nice white truffle using El Rey bianca and a strong infusion of chamomile tea with a little extra cocoa butter in the ganache for smoothness. The sweet herby flavor was quite nice with the white chocolate. The ganache seemed to remain stable and did not break down, although we ate them pretty quickly.

While not technically "kitchen shears" I love Joyce Chen shears. They are sharp and strong! You can cut through dowels and just about any bone, then turn around and make the tiniest snips of chives with ease. They don't come apart, yet I regularly put them in the dishwasher and they come out as clean and sharp as when I bought them. Here's a link to them: My Webpagehttp://www.viecokitchen.com/510220.htm

As Tarheel expats living in the Barbecue wasteland of New York (yeah, yeah, Blue Smoke, Pearson's, Dinosaur, et al-all somewhat disappointing) we satisfy our 'cue cravings by having a big smoke-out several times a year. We have fine-tuned our recipe for sauce and smoking technique to the point where all our neighbors (and even the firefighters down the street) ask us when the next barbecue will take place. Happily, we are planning on Memorial Day weekend this year. I thought I'd share our recipe and technique with you. The sauce is really a marriage of eastern and western NC style-a bit of tomato, but tart, vinegary and runny to please the down-east style lovers. Hope this helps. Carolina Barbecue Sauce Makes about 3 quarts 1/2 cup honey 1/3 cup molasses 1 bulb garlic, unpeeled and broken into cloves 2 tablespoons whole cumin seeds 3 tablespoons whole coriander seeds 1 tablespoons whole black peppercorns 8 dried New Mexico chilies 2 dried ancho chilies 2 bay leaves 3 tablespoons tomato paste 2 cans (26 oz.) whole peeled tomatoes, with juice 1 quart apple cider vinegar 4 cups water 1/4 cup salt In a large stock pot combine the honey, molasses, garlic, cumin, coriander, peppercorns, chilies, and bay leaves. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything is caramelized, but not scorched. Add the tomato paste and tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes, stirring frequently to break up the tomatoes. Add the vinegar, water, and salt; the sauce will be thin. Simmer, uncovered for at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours (much better), stirring occasionally. Remove any large pieces of garlic skin and bay leaves. Puree sauce in a blender or food processor. (I like to use a food mill using the smallest sieve-plate.) Note: This sauce will keep for at least 6 months in the refrigerator, but tends to loose its hot-kick, though the flavors are, otherwise, just fine. It's the perfect combination of the eastern and western North Carolina pork barbecue disciplines. It's great on chicken, turkey, stronger fishes (tuna, salmon, grouper) and beef, but just plain weird with lamb. Goat I have not tried, but who knows? Scott Howell (the chef at Nana's restaurant) suggests you marinate pork shoulder in 1/3 of the sauce for 2 days, mop the pork as you smoke it with 1/3 and reserve the rest to drizzle over your pulled pork. I find all that is a lot of trouble. It wastes a lot of sauce during the marinating process and leads to tomatoey-tasting pork. If you try to mop the pork during the smoking process, you loose a lot of heat and smoke by constantly removing the lid lengthening the cooking time considerably. Here's how to smoke Carolina-style barbecue on a Weber kettle grill: Prepare a brine by dissolving 1 cup of kosher salt in 1 gallon water. Submerge 2 7-8 lb. pork shoulder picnics in the brine, cover with cheesecloth. Allow to soak for about 24 hours, turning occasionally. Soak 2 cups of hickory chips in water for 30 minutes. Start a slow fire with natural chunk charcoal (DON NOT USE BRIQUETTES!). Pile the chunks on top of several wads of newspaper, then light the paper and allow to burn for 15-20 minutes-never use lighter fluid! When coals are lit, push them to one side of the kettle. Drain and sprinkle half the wood chips on the coals. Place a drip pan with 1" of apple cider, beer, ginger ale or water next to the coals. Attach the grate and arrange the pork shoulder on the opposite side from the coals and above the drip pan. Cover with the lid, adjusting so the smoke hole is above the pork. Maintain the heat at about 200°-210?F (you should be able to hold your hand about 2 inches above the grate for 10 seconds without becoming uncomfortable). You'll need to occasionally add more charcoal and wood chips as the fire burns low. This is the only reason to lift the lid! Smoke in this fashion for about 1-1 1/2 hours per pound of meat until internal temperature reaches 165°-170°F. We usually smoke 2 pork shoulders at a time for about 8-9 hours leaving lots of time for preparing side dishes and drinking long-neck Buds. When the pork is cooked, tear it from the bone for delicious pulled pork. I also like to chop it gently with the back of a chef's knife to break and separate the threads of meat. Drizzle with sauce, serve with ice-cold slaw and soft, fluffy buns for the true 'cue experience. Hope you enjoy!

Some movie theatres here offer brewers yeast in shakers for popcorn. And it's tasty. Also a secret ingredient in home fries. But I can't imagine it in a smoothie. ← Ok, as if there were not enough reasons to move to Portland, OR (my sister, Voodoo Donut, the Columbia River Gorge, and bicycle commuters)-they have BY in shakers at movie theaters?!!!! WOW! I'm there, man, ASAP!

WOW!!! You guys have made my day! Alsmost as good as the last UNC/Duke game! I am so happy to meet others who like nutritional yeast on popcorn! It's my absolute favorite! I crave the stuff and everyone who I tell about it treats me like I'm crazy! Woo-Hoo! Go Yeast! I like to add a bit of Spike and a few shakes of Tabasco too! Go 'Heels! Another Championship coming up! I wonder if Tyler Hansbrough and Rashon Terry know about Nut. Yeast on Popcorn? Could be the key to slappin down that Red-ick! Please excuse me , March Madness is in full swing here.

I've shopped in a variety of TJs in several states-CA, NY, CT and others-probably about 8 different stores. Each store is a little different in its selection. However, I love the place. I don't go there to buy everything I need, but for staples in our household kitchen, the place can't be beat. Their prices and quality are terrific. Their private label items are contracted directly with high quality established manufacturers. They pay cash for each delivery-no extended terms-therefore the manufacturer gives them a better price, the middleman is cut out, the product is fresher and consumers pay less for the product. For example-go to Whole Foods and buy a box of Fantastic Foods Instant Refried Black Beans (I know, you food snob folks will think it an abomination, but it's really a very good product) for 2.99. Then go to TJs and buy their identical product for 1.79. It's manufactured by FF under the TJ private label. Same thing, better price. Training for the employees is extensive and focuses on customer service-not really a high point in most NYC stores, I must say. The packages of dried fruit and nuts are great and a great price. Also, French Bleu D'auvergne cheese for 4.99.lb when everyone else sells it for 9.99? I'm going to TJs. A few other superlative products w/ great prices-spiced chunky apple sauce, the peanut butter, marionberry preserves (wow!) the olive oil selection, greek yogurt, rice noodles, soy sauce (produced for TJs by San-j) organic chicken and vegetable broth(WF 3.99 TJ 1.99) I usually do not by fresh produce there, but go for the staples. If any one is going to draw similarities to Wal-Mart-look no further than Whole Foods. They engage in aggressive predatory marketing where ever they open. They look for communities that already sustain quality independent natural food stores (who buy from local produce growers), open within a mile or two, drive the established markets out with initially lower prices, then raise their prices afterward. This happened in my home town and another place I know of. I think WF produce in NYC is marginal quality at best-they just make a big show of their high priced, average stuff. Also in NYC, they carry no bulk items what so ever. Do I really have to buy my brown rice in 12 ounc increments? Not this girl. As a stylist who needs impeccable quality WF is my last stop when looking for the good stuff.

Buttermilk pie Lemon Chess pie Blackberry cobbler Strawberry Shortcake (sweet biscuit, please-no dumb pound cake) Any double crust fruit pie Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote w/ ice cream Boston Creme Pie Mocha Eclairs (Ok, Grandma was a terrific baker) Tapioca Pudding with fresh apricots

I was wondering what effect the spillage from oil and chemical processing plants during Rita and Katrina would have on the crawfish and other agricultural interests in the area. The draining of wetlandsacross our nation has proven to be a multifaced problem. Maybe folks will finally wake up and realize how important to our environmental infrastructure these wetlands are.

Thant's the place! did you ever end up in the wrong bathroom? Too funny. Going back in the mists of time this sounds very familar. We used to hang out at a bar (that I think it no longer in business or has another name) in Carrbaro that I seem to remember had these bathroom doors. The place I'm thinking of was the left hand side of the main Carrbaro drag (coming from Chapel Hill) and was just past the RR tracks. (Basically, it was across from Carrbaro 'mall') and near the split in the road. All the booths in the bar were pine and were heavliy shellacked. And, as it turns out, not perfectly level, so there would be fun times with sliding beers. Was this the same place??? Oh--- I just remembered the name of the bar--it was "Sidetrack" or "Sidetracks". (Sorry if this is a silly OT comment...) ←

I was playing darts in a pub in Carrboro, NC one night (can't remember the name of the place) but when I went to the loo, there were two doors marked "Pointers" and "Setters". Was there some sort of hunting theme to this place? Can't remember. Anyway, after a few brews, I could not for the life of me figure out which one to go in-so I picked door #1-only to find myself next in line with a bunch of "pointers". I get it now, but when you are kind of drunk, it can be too much of a puzzle to figure out.

Always found Cinnabons to be dangerous while driving. Once you take the first bite, the wwhole thing unrolls itself into your lap! Additionally, the buns are so wide, you really can't take a small bite, so your cheeks get all sticky right out of the gate!

My husband and I regularly do Carolina style pork barbecue on the Weber for our Yankee friends and ex-pat southerners. One thing that always helps is to brine the pork butt for about 8-12 hours before smoking. This gives you a beautiful smoke ring on the crusts. Also, you just need to give those boys more time (7 hours has been the barest minimum and 8-9 hours produce a much better 'cue) and less heat. Those temp spikes are hard to controll, but it helps a little if you add some cool water, beer or ice to the liquid in your drip pan as you add more charcoal. Since natural lump charcoal tends to burn hotter than briquettes, we add a few of the briquettes along with the natural lumps to slow them down a bit and control the temp spike. I did eventually cut and past your butt picture onto a new page. A Very, very pretty butt! However, I can tell it needs more time because of the whitish cracks in the crust. Those need to be dark mahogony red-brown. Don't worry about the blackening of the crust. It's delicious anyway.

"Bartenders" who do not know how to make and Old Fashioned or think you're crazy to ask for it with Jack Daniel's instead of Southern Comfort.