Lan4Dawg

and I suppose if some one asks for a "short one" you would use Vienna Sausages? But a thought....would not the chorizo work better in tequila? I am waiting breathlessly for the day that I sit at a base ball stadium and hear a vendor yelling loudly and proudly, "Get your weenie-tinis heah! Ice cold weenie-tinis! You know you want one! Weenie-tinis!"

and when you say "some thing different" what about chicken and waffles. Is it not "Gladys and Ron's" owned by Gladys Knight and Ron Waynans? Some one help me here as my memory is acting like my tennis game and double faulting. As for Atlanta "institutions": Majestic Diner on Ponce, Evan's Fine Foods near Emory, and the place in Tucker whose name escapes me right now. For that matter head up to Athens and hit Weaver D's and Wilson's Soul Food and tie that in to the Athens music scene. (edited for clarity)

head over to Son's Place off of Decatur Rd (near the MARTA station) for some serious fried chicken and the story behind the place (formerly Deacon Burton's) is wonderful. Watershed's in Decatur is probably a great idea--again a great story, owned by one of the Indigo Girls (Amy I believe), chef's relationship w/ Edna Lewis and formerly chef at the Governor's Mansion, &c. If you are on the fried lobster idea then the folks who initiated fried lobster in Atl are Pano & Paul's in Buckhead (Buckhead Life group). Of course Thelma's Kitchen, Mary Mac's Tea Room and The Colonnade have stories

Atlanta diners are known to be extremely fickle. They also prefer trendy to good and will flock to a restaurant for its first few years but then will leave it for greener mesclun at the earliest opportunity. (Granted there are known exceptions as the Buckhead Life Group can attest but those are few and far between). Couple that with the general move fr/ formal dining to a more casual atmosphere, the issues w/ Buckhead (losing its appeal to Midtown & the new Atlantic Station--esp. for restaurant goers, the crime, the parking and traffic, the opening of new restaurants in the suburbs taking market share (esp. w/ gas prices as they have been), and the restaurant not being located in prime convention area and you can under stand the problems. Seeger's has a local reputation of stuffy service, high prices, and food that, quite frankly, scares some folks (as "trendy" as people in Atlanta are they are not in to experimentation or venturing too far fr/ the basic). Hopefully things will work out and Seeger will stay but it was great for him to be here for as long as he was and if he does leave we will probably see a fresh face fill the void.

A couple of things that might work for you. Have you done crepes? Chicken or sea food work exceptionally well and it is a great way to stretch either and use any "left overs". You can purchase the pre-made crepes and they are not that expensive then make a standard chicken or sea food filling. Serve them over rice w/ a basic white sauce. Another thing I like to make (& ovens would make it that much simpler) are chicken "cakes". I use smoked chicken as I like the flavor better but any chicken will work (when I smoke chicken for dinner I just smoke an extra and shred it then freeze but you can get the rotisserie birds if easier). Shred it and make like you would a crab cake (eggs, bread crumbs, &c) then scoop and bake in the oven--or pan fry if desired). I serve them w/ a creole mayonnaise but you could be inventive. You could do vegetarian versions of either w/ little trouble and kids tend to like crepes and "cakes" just b/c they are different.

I have enjoyed reading also and have some experience as I feed some where between 30 & 40 for all of our tail gates in the fall and since I supply every thing you can believe that I budget well! I picked up some great hints and tips. I am some what constrained in that cooking out side I do not have an oven so must do every thing either on grills, stoves, or similar which can be interesting and some what limiting. I do not know how practical it would be for you but have you thought about doing prep work for a Sunday on a Th? If you have fridge or freezer space it might work for some of those stews & marinades and would save you all the prep time on your own (I do not know how fair it would be to your assistants to do prep work on TH for a Sun). If you plan on some thing relatively simple for a Th dinner it would free time for getting things ready. Just a thought..... And I can sympathize w/ you on a couple of things. There will never be enough mashed potatoes. No matter how well you plan there will be a monkey wrench thrown in to the mix at the last minute.

It is official. I have gone completely over the edge. Costco (at least the one in our area) is offering coupon specials. Most of the items are $1.00/2.00 off or buy one/get one. I admit I am a sucker for these deals. The latest round was bone-in chix breasts and boneless chix thighs--buy one/get one. I stopped by on my way home on Friday and picked up two packages of each w/ a couple of other small items (at least small for Costco). I went to put the packages in the freezer and the freezer door would not close. I had to un-pack and re-pack the freezer and move some of the stuff in to the freezer of the "extra" refrigerator in the garage (it usually holds mostly ice) in order to make every thing fit. Now to add insult to injury I had it in my head all day that I wanted shrimp for dinner. I have no idea why but I had a craving for it (may be it was the Pinot Grigios, dry Rieslings, & Sauv Blancs I had been tasting at the store for most of the day made me think "shell fish!"). Any way I could find no shrimp despite the fact that I knew there was some in the freezer some where (which is why I did not buy more at Costco) so on the way home fr/ getting Fuss I stop by the market and get some shrimp for dinner. We return home and I get ready to P&D and reach in to the in side freezer for the shrimp shells for stock making and "BAM!" out on to my foot falls the bag of shrimp that I knew I had but thought it was in the out side freezer. Well at least the out side freezer is some what organized and I know there is no shrimp in it.

funny you should mention that.... I think it was late last summer we had made a pilgrimmage to the farmers' market and come home w/ a bushel or so of corn, pounds of beans, some zipper peas, &c and were sitting out back shucking corn, snapping beans, and shelling peas. Fuss was surrounded w/ vegetables & looked a tad teary-eyed. I asked what was wrong and she seriously misted up and could barely say, "this reminds me of my grand mother and aunt when I was a child. We would sit out on the back porch and they would gossip back and forth while we shelled corn, snapped beans, and shelled peas. I was just sitting here thinking of them." They have not been with us for years but sitting there doing that work took her back.

there is a phenomenal sea food market (the most gorgeous shrimp I have ever used) in Brunswick. It is on the main drag going in to town on the left. I can not remember the name but do remember that it shares the parking lot w/a barbecue type restaurant and is about three blocks before you get in to d/t proper. There are the usual assortments of markets, &c in/around Brunswick but not a lot on the island it self.

I have heard great things about Lynn's Paradise Cafe but can not recommend personally. We had a wonderful meal at the Dining Room (the Oak Room?) at the Selbach but it was several years ago. Some one just did a big article on Louisville. It might have been Southern Living (unfortunately you can not trust their dining recommendations). If I find it I will report.

Mike, follow Dave's advice and get thee to a Kroger. The grill/smoker is the best deal I have seen out there. They had one at a Kroger near me that included the smoker box for $99.00 (I am certain it was mis-marked and the grill is supposed to be $99.00 w/ the smoker box extra but if you can take advantage of their mistakes then so be it). It is a great unit--esp for the price--and will allow you to grill and smoke. The ones that Kroger is selling are designed to be used as charcoal grills but have the ability to have a smoker box attached. Some of the older models (which is probably to what Jason is referring) were not made of heavy enough mat'l in the larger portion to take repeated charcoal fires and would burn through the bottom after not too long a period of time. As for Barbecues Galore---I find their prices some what high. As for books--Costco almost always has a grilling/barbecuing/smoking &c book in their book section fr/ Raichlen to Cook's Illustrated to Weber and at great prices (they also have the best price on Kingsford which is great for getting any wood started). As for wood--convince your parents to purchase 100 acres of prime NW GA forest land--thx c'bagger ":^)--and keep apple, peach, pear, and pecan trees growing that need to be culled. Barring that become friends w/a land scaper and ask him to save any wood you can use for smoking (I get some fruit wood fr/ a neighbor who is a land scaper) or buy an inexpensive chain saw and wait for one of our infamous local thunder storms or tornadoes to fell a couple of big oaks and just show up and ask if you can help w/ the clean up. btw, I also own a trusty Weber that is, unfortunately, about to fall apart after twenty years and I still use it for most of my regular grilling.

menus for this year's foot ball tail gating are ready to go in case any one is interested. I include an appropriate cocktail and some commentary: menus for 2006 season: 2nd September: Athens--Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in keeping w/ the location of the school and the big red blob they use as a mascot… Bloody Marys / Argentina Malbec Barbecued Mutton w/ “red blob” (Kentucky Heirloom) sauce, Kentucky spoon bread and succotash 9th September: cola—socar Gamecocks what does the evil genius have in mind for this season? Columbia cocktail/ Pinot Noir Herbed game cock fricassee over white bean puree, sautéed zucchini 16th September: Athens—UAB Blazers We struggled w/ them a few years back. Dragons are fire breathing, hence: Green Dragon (1 part lemon, 1 part kummel, 2 parts gr crème de menthe, 4 parts gin, peach bitters) / Shiraz Spicy dragon (pork loin) and pepper stir fry over rice pilau, spinach salad w/ spicy Thai-peanut dressing 23rd September: Athens—Colorado Buffaloes This one was simple: Buffalo Grass Martini / Zinfandel Buffalo stew w/ root vegetables / Mixed Green Salad w/ Rocky Mountain vinaigrette 30th September: Oxford—Ole Miss Rebels It has been a while since we took our trip to Oxford (did we ever lose to Eli?) A classic setting for a classic tail gate; we will use John T. Edge’s book, A Gracious Plenty, specifically the section entitled “Tailgating in the Grove” (it seems only fitting since I did invite him to join us): Magnolias (since Mississippi is the Magnolia state)/ French rose` Hot Sausage Balls Dill-Stuffed Devilled Eggs Artichoke Dip w/ Chips Fried Chicken Cornbread Salad Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches Devil’s Food Cake Southern Pecan Pie Chess Pie 7th October: Athens—tenn Volunteers do not tell them in Knoxville but it looks as if the streak is going the other way. Taking advantage of their “ernjeness”…. Blood Ernj Margaritas (that is what will be left on the field---bloody ernj) / Rhone Smoked ernj pork, parslied new potatoes, pan- braised broccoli and cauliflower 14th October: Athens—Vandy Commodores Speaking of “streaks” and this is home coming (I think). In keeping w/ their school colors of black and gold…. Commodore Cocktail / Riesling Show us your black / show us your gold sesame seed chicken stir fry w/ green beans and shiitake mushrooms, rice pilau 21st October: Athens—Mississippi State Maroons The bull pups, maroons, faux dogs come to Athens Bullpup cocktail ( version of the bulldog) / Cabernet Sauvignon McInnis Salad—a Mississippi original Maroon braised beef over creamy polenta 28th October: Jax—fla gators Back to Jax—hope fully the out come will be better for us since we are in Jacksonville--named for Andrew Jackson-- the Jackson cocktail seems appropriate / German Riesling “Swamp Cabbage” salad Alligator Sausage and Peppers and pasta—like the traditional but w/ Alligator sausage 4th November: Lex—Kentucky Wildcats Another trip to the beautiful Blue Grass State Blue Grass Cocktail / Kentucky Chardonnay & Pinot Noir(Equus) Chicken Cordon Blue Grass over “Wildcat” Rice Pilau , haricots vert 11th November: auburn—auburn what evers—Eagles? Tigers? Plainsmen? Since they can not decide what they are we will take advantage of their indecision and their school colors (orange & blue)... Golden Eagle (equal parts Galliano & peppermint schnapps) /Chardonnay Grilled kebabs of marinated tiger shrimp, war eagle, and plainsmen vegetables served over “sho nuff”grits w/ an orange & blue berry compote 25th November: Athens—the blight on North Avenue Terrence Moore wrote an article about how the blight fans pelted ND w/ fish in the 70’s. In keeping w/ that theme….. Blue Jacket (what we expect them to be when they leave Athens, "blue jackets") 2 parts gin, 1 part curacao, orange bitters / Viognier Pan-fried tilapia jacketed w/ white and old gold sauces, traditional caesar salad w/ gold fish croutons Picture Day—19th August @ Athens Salad Nicoise SEC Championship Game--@ Atlanta ??? Bowl Game--??? HDHD

a couple of tips: use your cutting board w/ the channels to collect any blood/juice fr/ the pork (there will be some) open the package at one end and slide the pork out w/ the open end up right to reserve what ever blood/juices are in the package save the blood/juices and what ever fat you trim to season soups, greens, beans, &c. label every thing! a couple of months fr/ now when you open the freezer and are standing there muttering, "what the....I wonder what this is?" you will appreciate it. I like to place all of the cuts in a single bag and re-label that to keep things organized. use a good sharp knife and remove the "fell"/silver skin when carving (this is actually easier if the meat is slightly frozen) just slide the tip under one end and scrape--some times the back of the knife works better than the edge if you can get the proper leverage but use best judgement. good luck. I buy whole loins all the time and cut in to roasts, chops, and pieces for stews/soups/&c all the time as it is so much cheaper.

now you serve those along side some pork brains and mixed up "cackle berries", country ham, red eye gravy, rat trap cheese, muscadine preserves, saw mill gravy, and greased collards and you have your self a break fast!

Thanks for this, I did see the lowfat buttermilk but thought it kind of defeated the purpose! We have gone through a few jars of jam already over here! ← Okay, once and for all and forever, there is no such thing as full fat buttermilk. You can culture whole milk and call it buttermilk, but it is actually farther from the real item than the cultured skim milk product marketed as buttermilk. Real buttermilk is the liquid left after butter's been churned from clabbered (cultured, soured) cream, and it is essentially fat free (because all the fat's been globbed up into the butter). You can only buy it from somebody who makes butter this way, and because there's almost no cultured butter made for the U.S. market you cannot buy real buttermilk in the U.S. Instant grits are the work of the devil. Instant cheese grits are too foul for words. Fortunately it's not too hard to find decent normal grits. I get mine at DFM, where you'll find them in the aisle with the pasta and flour (look in the back left corner of the "U" shaped aisle). I can't remember the name, but they're fine. And while I'm at it, don't ask about putting sugar in cornbread. That's corn cake, not cornbread. ← re: butter milk----granted and you are correct but the regular is better than the stuff they pass off as "low fat" As for grits---I was in a small "Mom & Pop" type market and asked about "real grits" figuring if any one carried them they would and the woman said, "Oh! you mean 'sho 'nuff grits'. We do not carry them b/c no one asks for them." I like to road trip up towards Helen every couple of months and swing by Nora Mills for grits, polenta, flours, &c. They are not the best in the world but reasonably priced, ground there, and it makes for a great trip as you can also visit lots of water falls, hiking trails, mountains, and scenic spots while in that part of the state. It is not terribly far fr/ Alpher Tater. Avoid Helen if possible (well go once to say you have been) but the surrounding area is lovely.

"Hello...my name is er, um.....Lan4Dawg and I am a hoarder." Response fr/ board, "Hello Lan4Dawg!" Since there are only two of us but I am cheap so buy things in bulk we tend to have lots of every thing. Two refrigerators (three if you count the mini reserved for beer/wine), a massive chest freezer, a laundry room that doubles as a pantry and shelves in the garage filled to over-flowing. (Athens forbid there should ever be an extended power outage. I would have to invite every one I know and every one they know to eat the stuff fr/ the freezer before it went bad.) I can not resist any thing that we might could possibly ever use if it is at a good price. We shop at Costco (naturally). Having been in the restaurant business for ever I can and do cut my own meat so buy whole beef/pork/&c and carve it at home, portion as necessary and then throw it in the freezer. I also do the same w/ grits, polenta, rice, &c. A while back I discovered that markets mark down meats, &c left over fr/ the week ends on Tuesdays and you can get some great buys. Tuesday Morning and Big Lots some times have some great deals on specialty foods---vinegars, oils, coffees, teas, &c and I will stock up if I see some thing we can use at a good price there. We are still trying to recover fr/ a major "mess up" a couple of months ago. I had my Costco list in the truck and stopped while Fuss was at work and bought every thing on the list. By the time she got home fr/ work I had put every thing away and did not even think of mentioning to her that I had been to Costco (big mistake!) nor did I think to take the list out of the truck and throw it away (worse mistake!). The next day I was at work and she had some errands to run. I got home and she was so proud of her self as she had seen my Costco list in the truck and stopped there in the midst of her errands so "you will not have to go later!" It is going to take us a while to go through 4 x 2 liter bottles of cranberry juice, 2 x 10 lb bags of rice, 2 x 40 lb pails of cat litter, 24 cans of tuna, 2 x 4 lb bags of fresh spinach, &c. Luckily most of it is not perishable but we had a lot of spinach salads and potatoes every which way you can imagine.

Fuss makes the biscuits and we are not allowed to show up for foot ball games w/o her biscuits. She prefers in descending order: Martha White, White Lily, Gold Medal but will use what ever if she has to do so. Just find real butter milk and not that low cal imitation slop they are peddling.

Amen! and Amen! Only a heathen would use some thing besides Duke's--unless it is home made. I do make home made on occasion but usually just grab the Duke's. I might have told the story before but....we went to Charleston, SC a few years ago (fr/ near Atl) and just after we left the inter-state we passed a Piggly-Wiggly w/ a sign out front, "Duke's Mayonnaise $0.99 (w/ card)--limit 1 per customer. So the Fuss & I went in to the Piggly-Wiggly. We both registered for our cards and each bought a jar of Duke's mayo. We planned the rest of our drive to and from Charleston zigging and zagging across Socar purchasing jars of Duke's mayo. Yes, it is that good. When she was a teen-ager the Fuss worked at one of those old-fashioned type pharmacies w/ the lunch counter in Covington, GA. Thursday was pimento cheese sandwich day. People would line up out side the store starting at 11.00am just for pimento cheese sandwiches. She and the others who worked the lunch counter would hand shred blocks of cheddar and blend it w/ Duke's mayo, pimentos, &c. One day they could not get Duke's and substituted another brand and had complaints all day long that the pimento cheese was not good.

sausage patty or sausage link? I think a link would work better--at least it would be more aesthetic ":^)

The Fuss gave a smoker to me several years ago (1996?) and one of the first purchases I made was a cover for it. The cover lasted up until last year when it finally just disintegrated (there was more black electrical tape than original material). In the few months the smoker has not been covered it has noticeably deteriorated and I plan to get a new cover ASAP (due to lack of space the smoker remains on the patio exposed to the elements).

Has any one seen Kummel in Georgia? (note: it is illegal to ship to Georgia so I need to find it in state) Barring that I can road trip to Tennessee, SoCar or even NoCar if any one has seen it in those states.

The photos in the slideshow were wonderful. Thanks for posting the info for the link. Since sweet tea is so prevalent in the southern U.S., it makes me wonder what kind of tea do you get down there at the national restaurant chains/fast food restaurants? Logically, I'd think they would offer unsweetened tea and then you'd sweeten it yourself (which is how it's done here in Southern California). Or do they offer both? ← McDonald's was just doing a huge advertising blitz about its "Southern style" tea. I assume it is sweetened but having not stepped foot under the golden arches since I was a freshman in college (& let's say that I am getting calls fr/ the alumni committee about our 25th re-union) I have no idea. I was wondering if this was just a promotion in the Southern US or if it was national.

carpetbagger......i hit the wrong reply button and replied to your post with lan4dawgs content. sorry about that. ← I just feel so......used. ":^)

Good luck w/ it. I am very happy not to be in the restaurant business any longer but I did enjoy it while I was doing it. Of course owning the business changes your perspective of things (and I marked your blog to keep up w/ your progress). Unfortunately I do not foresee us heading in that direction in the near future which is too bad as I really want to try it out. If we do ever get in that direction I will definitely darken your door way.

Bright Star! Bright Star! Bright Star! We make it a point to stop at Bright Star every time we pass B'ham (actually just o/s of B'ham) and schedule our trips so that we hit that area at lunch time. They can get very busy on Sunday w/ the "gay, after church crowd" so as long as you can beat the Baptists to lunch you should be okay. ":^)