I like 'The Waltons' just as much as the next guy...

but.

I was freezing peppers and watching an episode of The Waltons. A mother leaves her little girl, who can't or won't speak, on the Walton's doorstep. John Boy figures out she can't hear. Using happy and sad faces, he teaches her "happy" and "sad" in American sign-- the sign where words are spelled out in individual letters.  That's all well and good. Happy, sad, cat, dog, proper names, lots of active verbs, ... I'm sure there are a host of words whose sign representations can be taught and learned in just a few days without knowing how to spell. (Turns out all of the Waltons can sign, by the way.)

Elizabeth runs away-- no one is paying her any attention-- and the little girl, Holly, follows after her. Elizabeth gets trapped in a trunk in an abandoned house. Holly naturally saves the day. Seriously? 

b-o-x | i-n | e-m-p-t-y | h-o-u-s-e 

seems like a lot of letters when you can't spell. Seems like a lot of letters when you've never heard a sentence. 

That was just too much for me.

"America's Creed"

It was my intention, some time ago, to 

... post some quotes from a crappy old book of very short essays written by a man my father admired greatly.  These quotes have nothing to do explicitly with BIG Food or BIG Gardens. But they do-- explicitly and implicitly-- have something to do with living a BIG Life. 

The first was "The Privilege of Being American." In that post I explain why the essays will be without citation for a while.

The second was "Who will Start at the Bottom." 

Here's a third-- two short paragraphs-- titled "America's Creed"

Once again, the nation in reflective mood should gather about our shrines in our sanctuaries of sacred freedom to pledge anew its devotion to those inalienable rights and liberties for which the sword of Cornwallis was demanded. Once again the nation would do well to bare its head, bend its knee and in unison repeat the American Creed:

"I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic;

"Remember that? Remember those days? As far as we can tell, they are gone forever."

Just this morning Mr. Big Food and I were reflecting on how much freedom we-- Americans-- have lost in the past eleven years.

Roger L. Simon at PJMedia has some thoughts along those lines.

September 11

A sky with no airplanes.

Coconut Cream Pie Thoughts

Recipe tomorrow

Next year I am going to grow some tobacco. I've grown it before. I can grow it again.

The little lozenges work very well during the day, but they just don't satisfy after supper in the same way a burning cigarette does. (I'm thinking of you, Uncle James.)

[Click of the lighter]

Yes.

As I recall, there are two kinds of tobacco. One kind needs to be smoked cured, the other can be air cured. ...

Out of cigs. Back to an unnatural delivery system.

Recipe: Traditional Southern Barbeque / The Smoked-Cooking Bag Pig Shoulder

After two hours of smokin'

Recipe below the fold. As with the turkey and the brisket, the pork shoulder, a.k.a. Boston Butt, was smoked for a few hours, and then finished off in a cooking bag-- the pork according to cooking bag instructions. (That's what threw me. No special cooking bag recipe.) The recipe itself includes the sauce, the remainder of which-- after smoking--Mr. Big Food  added to the cooking bag!

Big Food!

About the Pig Shoulder... UPDATED

Mr. Big Food sent me the recipe for the BBQ sauce he used to smoke & cook the pig shoulders, but I'm afraid he didn't send the recipes for the smoking and cooking. I'll remind him. If I remember.

My mistake. It was the correct recipe. Reading is hard.

Recipe: Turkey in a Cooking Bag

After having smoked for about two hours. Smoking recipe here.

Mr. Big Food says, "Getting’ tired of smoked and fried turkey? Wanna do something different and impressive for Thanksgiving? Try this."

TURKEY IN A COOKING BAG

Turkey sized cooking bag

1 Tbsp flour

Turkey, any size

Olive oil

Salt and cayenne pepper

4 big white onions, chopped coarsely

1 bunch parsley, chopped coarsely

2 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole

3 oranges, washed and quartered (leave skin on)

1 C dry white wine

1 C water

Preheat oven to 350^o. Shake flour in cooking bag to coat. Rub olive oil on turkey, inside and out. Salt and pepper turkey inside and out, and place in bag. Place bag in a roaster with plenty of room to spare. Surround turkey with onions, parsley, garlic, and oranges. (Some vegetables and fruit can go inside the turkey cavity. Add wine and water. Tie up bag and poke six slits in its top with big kitchen knife. Bake until brown and done (timer pops or breast temperature reaches 170^o).

You can also stuff the turkey with your favorite dressing. If doing so, omit the oranges and proceed as above. Bake the remainder of the dressing in a pan next to the turkey roaster.

Recipe: Nicely Spiced Smoked Turkey Breast

Nicely spiced indeed!

This smoked for about two hours. It was finished off in a cooking bag using this recipe.

NICELY SPICED SMOKED TURKEY BREAST

Serves 10-12

7-8 lb whole turkey breast, bone-in

2 lemons, each peeled and cut into 6 slices

4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced

1 tsp dried rosemary

½ tsp ground black pepper

3 bay leaves

FOR WATER PAN

4 quarts water

2 tsp dried rosemary

1 cinnamon stick

½ tsp nutmeg

Put lemons, garlic, and spices in breast crevices and under skin of turkey breast. Soak 3 wood chunks (hickory is good for this) for 1 hour in water to cover before placing on hot coals. Light coals in smoker and let burn to grey, about 30 minutes. Fill water pan with listed ingredients. Place soaked wood chunks, shaken dry, onto hot coals. Assemble smoker with turkey breast in center of smoker on sprayed grill. Smoke 4-6 hours or until breast meat reaches 185^o.

Recipe: Cooking Bag Brisket

The second part of the smoked brisket.

~~

The creator of this recipe, ‘mcrageous,’ writes: “My original recipe! The brisket takes 4 to 5 hours to cook. Meat must shred apart. Use shredded brisket for meal with mashed potatoes and gravy, tacos, nachos, taco salad, BBQ sandwiches (just add BBQ sauce to meat) and Brisket Veggies Soup … I am known for my Cooking Bag Brisket!”

COOKING BAG BRISKET

Beef brisket, 15 lbs or more (can trim up to half the fat from brisket, if desired)

Salt, pepper, to taste

Garlic salt

Steak seasoning (dry—your favorite)

2 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp liquid smoke

4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

2 C water

Turkey-sized cooking bag with tie, inside sprinkled with 1 Tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 350^o. Slide brisket into cooking bag fat side up, sprinkle brisket with salt and pepper, garlic salt, generously with steak seasoning, lime juice, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, and dry onion soup mix. Pour water inside bag, seal bag with tie, poke 6 holes with sharp knife tip in top bag surface (to allow steam to escape), and place in large metal roaster. Bake 1 hour, then reduce oven temperature to 325^o and bake up to 4 hours longer, checking every once in a while for fork tender. Strain liquid and use for gravy, or refrigerate overnight, remove fat from top, and use for gravy or soup.

Recipe: Smoked Beef Brisket II

After three hours of smoking

The recipe below calls for smoking the brisket eight hours. As we were serving the briskets cold, and not the day they were smoked, Mr. Big food smoked them for three hours and then put them in turkey sized cooking bags. He finished them off in the oven using this recipe as a guide.

Recipe below.

Recipe: New Orleans Red Beans

If you've been following along, you know that this recipe is easily multiplied to serve scores. Mr. Big Food omitted the ham/ham bone, and cooked the rice with olive oil rather than butter for the vegetarians and vegans among us.

Simmer two hours

Recipe below.

Presence of Mind

While in Starkvegas doing errands last Friday morning, I had the presence of mind to know that I'd probably want something different to do on the day after Game Day. And so I stopped in at Palmer House Thrift Store to look at crappy old books. 

Sure enough-- I was right! I did want something different to do today-- the day of doing absolutely nothing after days & days & days & days of preparing for Game Day. 

I picked up five dollars' worth of crappy old books and made an obligatory and involuntary 35₵  contribution to the coffers of the Sovereign State of Mississippi. I have to say, although they are all valuable to me, I think the newest of the crappy old books is the most valuable. 

Quick reviews starting with the oldest... .

1906. A First Course in Physics by Robert Andrews Millikan, Ph.D., and Henry Gordon Gale, Ph. D., published by Ginn & Company of Boston, New York, Chicago, and London.

... a simple and immediate presentation, in language which the student already understands, of the hows and whys of the physical world in which we live

[emphasis in original]

 intended for high school kids. For purposes of this post, I will set aside  discussions of "how" and "why" talk and just comment that "language which the student already understands" would be a highly optimistic assumption 106 years after the book was published. 

Whenever any measurement has been reduced to its equivalent in terms of units of length, mass, and times, it is said to be expressed in absolute units. Furthermore, since in all scientific work the centimeter, the gram, and the second are now universally recognized as the fundamental units of length, mass and time, reducing a measurement to absolute units consists simply in reducing all lengths involved to centimeters, ass masses to grams, and all time to seconds, The measurement is then often said, for short, to be expressed in C.G.S. (Centimeter-Gram-Second) units. 

[emphasis in original]

I struggled with this a bit on Thursday night. (See "math update" and "9:06 update" here.) 

1938. Soils & Men: Yearbook of Agriculture 1938. United States Department of Agriculture. 1231 pages. 

BIG Government circa 1938.

1950. The Pasture Book.

Click to enlarge

 State College, Mississippi. 

A lot of the books at the Palmer House are discarded library books or donations of a person's private library-- likely after the person has died. This one once belonged to "W.R. Valentine, State College, Miss." 

1951. Feeds and Feeding: A Handbook for the Student and Stockman by Frank B. Morrison assisted by Elsie B. Morrison, Spencer H. Morrison, Roger B. Morrison, and Harriet E. Morrison. Published by the Morrison Publishing Company in Ithaca, New York.

A 1207 page family project. Mine is the twenty-first, 50th anniversary, edition. A cursory look suggests it has some valuable information.

1987. American Voices: Prize-winning Essays on Freedom of Speech, Censorship and Advertising Bans published by Philip Morris USA and discarded by Lowndes County Library System. 

I spent the afternoon of my do-nothing day skimming through this 25 year old book that I picked up for a buck + 7 cents and is selling on some sites for 50+ bucks. 

No such thing as a free book. Look for the review soon.

Keep Guessing: Grasping at Summer

Keep Guessing: Grasping at Summer: There were exactly seven missed opportunities last week to wear my cool white jeans before outdated notions of propriety and good tas...

~~

Check out Becca's Zucchini Bread recipe made with some apple cider vinegar. Sounds & looks good!

Recovery Sunday

Aside from a handful of things that I absolutely had to do, my intention was do do absolutely nothing today. I've been wildly successful!

Game Day! We Did It!!

Company arrived shortly after 8am and the male folk set off for the game.

Leaving us female folk to enjoy our morning coffee and load up the truck.

Thanks to Mr. Bruno  & Lique, and a note from Walter to the Parking Patrol folks, set up went well.

Joe (L) and Albert (R) volunteered

to carve nature at its joins the meat.

Meanwhile...

Score. (See the fireworks?)

This is OUR STATE. Take that That School Up North.

Let's eat!

Mike & Lique, welcome to Mississippi!

We beat Auburn! Go Dawgs.

How to Cook... : Part 4? No Rest for the Weary

Updated as I'm able. Scroll down for parts 1-3.
~~
I am so mother...  tired of this. I hope I hear someone complain about the seasonings. So I can go off. There is no end in sight. It's 8:30 and there is no end in sight. Holy Crap.


~~
Post supper update. Mr. Big Food is so smart. When it dawned on me that we were having steak for supper, I declared I'd have a martini. And now Mr. Big Food has me right where he needs me. 

We should be done with all of the cooking before midnight. 


~~
5pm update. Today has been a production line. It will continue into the wee hours. Only one brisket fits in the oven at a given time... . Obviously, we need a Viking Range.

How funny is it that I was thinking about volume last evening? This funny. Mr. Big Food got up sometime after midnight and discovered that the volume of dry beans had expanded well beyond the volume of water  in which they were soaking. Or more precisely, he discovered that the entire volume of water had moved into the beans. He made some after midnight adjustments--  moved some beans to other pots, added water. And so on.

You should see what 40 cups of soaked red beans looks like! I'd show you but the kitchen is a mess. I hope to remember to put the turkey fryer full of red beans on the bathroom scale tomorrow morning. I'm curious how much 40 pounds of beans plus all that onion, etc. weigh. 

~~

4pm update. One thing has become obvious. We do not have enough refrigerators. The first batch of red beans is done. Mr. Big Food decided that the turkey fryer pot would be more appropriate for carting and serving those than a tinfoil roasting pan. But now the question is, where are we going to put it tonight? Humm... . We'll think of something. We always do.

~~

10 C red beans (soaked over night) + onion, peppers, parsley, celery tomato sauce, thyme & bay leaves

There will be three more batches like this! The food processor is a wonderful invention! 

Just passing this along

via Instapundit.

CHANGE: Wayne Root leaves Libertarian Party, backs Romney.

Wayne Allyn Root, 2008 Libertarian Party’s Vice Presidential nominee and political commentator, resigned this morning from the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) to, according to his resignation letter, “elect good people and change the direction of this country outside of a third party.”

In the letter to the LNC, which is available at Independent Political Report, Root explains that his decision much is not unlike those of previous Libertarian Party presidential candidates, including Ron Paul and David Koch; both of whom left the LP to become prominent Republicans.

When I asked if he was now backing Mitt Romney, Root responded, “I am,” adding, “I don’t deny that Romney and Ryan aren’t libertarians, but Romney is a pro-business capitalist and Obama is a Marxist-socialist.”

“The economy has been trashed. This is about my kids’ future, it’s about my businesses,” said Root. “There is no hope for America if Obama is re-elected.”

Ouch.

http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/11150-wayne-root-leaves-libertarian-party-backs-romney

How to Cook For / Feed 150 People: Part Three, Smokin'

Updated throughout the day with newest on top.

The take away message is that Mr. Big Food is very organized! 
~~
FINAL UPDATE.  Done. 

Did I mention that we have company coming?

~~
9:06 PM UPDATE. (Working on over 15 hours of this.)

In about an hour,  I'm to put the 9-pound pig shoulder, a.k.a. "Boston Butt," into the fridge.

And that's it for today.

So, 36" * 2.54cm/in = roughly 72 + 18 = 90cm * pi = 270+ centimeters cubed or 
270+ ml. Beans are dense b/c 10 pounds of beans weigh way more than 270+ grams.
~~

10 pounds of small red beans in Mr. Big Food's Gumbo Pot. It's about 9" tall and filled at least 2/3 full of beans.

MATH UPDATE. We are trying to find the volume of a cylinder. (Nothing to do until 8:52.) I don't remember but I bet I can look it up. And I bet if the lights go out, I could still look it up in some crappy old geometry book.

V =3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164 06286 20899 86280 34825 34211 70679 ...[*] * r-squared * h

*Also known as π

where "*" (unless used as in a footnote sense) denotes the function, "times" as in multiply. 

So we have

pi = 3.14;  

h = 2/3 of 9" = 6";

and r = 1/2 diameter = ~6".

Our answer will be in cubic inches. (π is unit-less, right? That's irrational!) 

Wow. This is deep.

Moreover, π is a transcendental number – a number that is not the root of any nonzero polynomial having rational coefficients.

3.14 times 6-squared equals 113.4 cubic inches of small red beans.

Here's where it gets tough. Cubic inches is not a common unit of measure.

8:52. Gotta go.
~~
Post-supper update. We pulled the last brisket off the smoker about 30 minutes ago.  There're  still things to do. The last of the hunks of meat to come off the smoker-grills are cooling in the Bunkhouse where I turned the A/C way down today. (We're so green.) They need to be transferred to a refrigerator as soon as they are sufficiently cool.

Mr. Big Food tells me that at 8pm we'll get the small red beans soaking. I exaggerated earlier. It's not 20 pounds of beans-- only 10. Silly me.  

It's been a challenging day, made all the more so by yesterday's unfortunate incident. I was inadvertently leg slammed in the pasture by either a 48 pound dynamo or an 85 pound lumbering happy go-lucky doggie running at full speed-- or both. I fell. Suffice it to say I was not running at full speed today. (See the lunchtime update for thinking ahead if I'm still not up to speed Saturday.)

Fifteen more minutes and then we do 8pm stuff. Then stuff at 8:52 & maybe later. 

Did I mention that Mr. Big Food is getting paid for this?? Hahahahaha. ROFLMAO.

~~
3:45. The first brisket has come out of the oven. This one will go in next.

Smoked over mesquite for three hours.

Fifteen minutes until we get the last pork shoulder off the grill, and the third turkey breast. 

Mr. Big Food announced a little while ago that he will not be making supper tonight. I'll run to The Grill in town and pick us up a catfish po' boy and a burger. 

~~
2 o'clock update.  Whew. Mr. Big Food has everything timed to a tee. Another pig shoulder and turkey breast have just gone on the smoker-grills and I've lost track of what all else is going on. 

I will comment that there's been a fair amount of cussin' this last go-'round. And he's no where near done.

Did I mention that there are 20 pounds of small red beans & a similar quantity of Basmati rice involved? Vegans have to eat, too!
~~

Lunchtime update. All three grills are smoking-- one pork, one turkey, one brisket. And there's a brisket with marinade in a turkey cooking bag in the oven.  

I've contact Daughter C-- who in turn contacted Matt-- and both have agreed to help in any way necessary. At issue is the fact that the game's a morning game and so the tailgate will be after the game. And although the powers that be are working hard on this, there's no sure way to know for certain if I'll be able to drive the truck to the tailgate site to unload the food after the game has started. If not, Bruno, Joe and Joseph will help. But that still leaves the truck with no place to park. Enter Daughter C & Matt. It will be an exercise in generating order from chaos, à la Stewart Kaufman. 

Oh! Something's about to happen. Later!
~~

Turkey breast coming off the grill at 10:00

 Note the bulge under the skin. It's lemon, garlic, rosemary and bay leave. 

Coming off the grill

I keep saying grill, but Mr. Big Food is actually using these grills as smokers. Note the water pans sitting in the coals.

Earlier in the morning below.

How to Cook For / Feed 150 People: Part Two, The Big Thaw

A raw glimpse of the Bunkhouse

Two beef briskets, 13 & 15 pounds,

three pig shoulders, 10, 9 & 9 pounds

four turkey breasts, 10, 9, 9, & 7 pounds

thawing overnight on the bar in the Bunkhouse.

And yes. That is earless Fivel siting there next the sewing machine next to to my complete collection of  crappy old Zane Grey Western novels.

You got a problem with that? Sure you do if you believe you belong to the Government.

~~

I ask you-- those of you who read this blog to keep up with Rocky & Missy, or who stumble upon the site on account of a Pintrest recipe post-- do you want to belong-- do you want to be owned-- by someone other than your self?

"The Seven Best Colleges For Free Speech: 2012"

#3 That School Up North University of Mississippi*

#4 Mississippi State University

#1 James Madison University (Virginia)

#2 College of William and Mary (Virginia)

#5 University of Tennessee Knoxville

#6 University of Virginia

#7 University of Pennsylvania

From FIRE's the announcement at HuffPo:

Many readers also noted that the institutions on last year's list weren't evenly distributed across the country, and some folks suggested that the lack of perfect geographic balance undermined the credibility of the list. It doesn't. While we'd love to have a model institution for student speech from every state in the union, some states simply aren't living up to their end of the bargain! Take California, for example, which has exactly zero green light schools out of the 45 we review, and where the president of the University of California System is currently being asked to ban protected speech.

Again, we'd love every state to boast at least one college that seriously respects student speech. But the truth is that some states -- like Virginia, for example -- start with one college earning a green light, and then other campuses see how easy it is to protect students' First Amendment rights and decide to join in as well. The most recent example of this is Mississippi: Once the University of Mississippi received a green light rating, rival Mississippi State University followed closely on its heels. Given that general counsels of universities talk to each other, and that many policies apply throughout a state's entire public university system, it should probably be no surprise that some states have good policies with regard to free speech, while others don't. The good news is sometimes just one school's decision to repeal outdated and unlawful speech codes can trigger change across an entire state.

[my emphasis]

*When it comes to free speech I'll honor Ole Miss by using it's rightful name.

Recipe: Stewed Tomatoes with Peppers, Onions, and Celery

Roma tomatoes

This recipe is easily doubled or halved. Use a food processor to do the chopping.

STEWED TOMATOES WITH PEPPERS, ONIONS, AND CELERY

For every four cups of skinned, cored tomatoes add

1 pepper chopped fine

2 stalks celery chopped fine

1/2 onion chopped fine

1 clove garlic

1/2 tsp. sugar

sprinkle dried parsley

Simmer over ow heat until celery is soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Zombies

Fittingly, the PJMedia contributor who writes under the pen (keyboard?) name, "Zombie" posted this video from RevealPolitics. Here's what Zombie says,

Until this moment I had just assumed, apparently quite naively, that Democrats and liberals deep in their hearts of course loved freedom, and only appeared to embrace the incipient totalitarianism of “big government” Democratic politics because they were actually unaware where Nanny-Statism leads, blocking out any consciousness of the downside of collectivism and purposely putting on the Happy Face Blinders. Back when I was a liberal that was my sin as well: absolutely refusing to acknowledge any potential flaw in my political philosophy.

But this video reveals a horrible new truth: They do know that Big Government leads to a nation of slaves — and they’re glad about this fact!

Thomas Paine would not agree.

And now... back to tomatoes!

Common Sense

Of the origin and design of government in general. With concise remarks on the English constitution

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the later negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one... .

Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776 [emphases in original]

Full text here.

They sure had some silly ideas back in the crappy olden days, didn't they?

How to Cook For / Feed 150 People: Part 1

Mr. Big Food & Co. are hosting a tailgate after the MSU / Auburn game which kicks off at 11am central next Saturday.

We expect about 150 people. Here's what we've done so far.

We have procured 28 pounds of beef brisket.

We have procured 28 pounds of pig sholder.

We have procured 35 pounds of turkey breast.

We stored it in the Deep Freezer.

That was Day One. We visited all three of the Big Grocery stores in S'vegas.

On Day Two-- this morning-- we went to Walmart to procure the rest of the list.

30 Vadalia onions & such.

Stay tuned. There's some smokin' comin' up.

And Now for Something Really Unappetizing

"The stench is overwhelming," Waveland Mayor David Garcia said.

"They can blow up like a basketball and explode," he said.

"They" are dead nutria which drowned in the Louisiana gulf marshes during Hurricane Issac and are now washing up on the Mississippi gulf coast. Officials estimate there are at least 16,000.

I heard on Mississippi SuperTalk that county cleanup crews are ill-equipped for the job-- many have gotten ill trying to do their jobs. So we called in the Feds.

A federal contractor, U.S. Environmental Services, will dump the bodies in a landfill rated to take household garbage.

You know what nutria are, right? Large, semi-aquatic, herbivorous rodents that can tear up commercial catfish ponds.

Recipe: Stephen Pyles' Ranch Barbeque Sauce

This would be the "good barbeque sauce" needed for Barbeque Style Chicken Wings.

From the acclaimed “New Texas Cuisine” chef

STEPHEN PYLES’ RANCH BARBECUE SAUCE

1 Tbsp corn oil

2 onions, peeled and chopped

3 jalapenos, minced (can use pickled)

6 cloves garlic, minced

½ C light brown sugar, packed firm

½ C cider vinegar

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (1-2 lemons)

½ C strong black coffee

2 Tbsp chili powder (preferably Pure—see instructions in Basics section)

2 C catsup or chili sauce (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)

1 tsp salt

Heat corn oil in large enamel or stainless steel saucepan, and sauté onions, jalapenos, and garlic about 3 minutes or until lightly caramelized. Whisk in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Strain sauce through medium strainer.

Recipe: Barbeque Style Chicken Wings

Mr. Big Food's contribution to Chiggerfest!

BARBECUE STYLE CHICKEN WINGS

About 32 wing portions

3 lbs chicken wings, disjointed, wing tips discarded

2 C good barbecue sauce (use one of the recipes in the Barbecue Sauces subsection)

Preheat broiler. Place chicken pieces on unheated rack of broiler pan, and broil 4-5 inches from heat source for 10 minutes or until browned, turning once. Transfer wings to a 3 ½ or 4 quart slow cooker. Pour sauce over chicken wings, cover, and cook on low heat setting for 4-5 hour, or on high heat setting for 2-2 ½ hours.

Recipe: Baked Chiles Relantoes

Eat your veggies!

BAKED CHILIES RELATOES

Serves 6

6 eggs, separated

1 Tbsp flour

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

4 oz whole green chilies, seeded, cut down middle to open up (can use canned)

½ lb mild cheddar or Jack cheese, sliced

Hot sauce or salsa (for serving, and preferably homemade—see recipes in Appetizers … section)

Preheat oven to 325^o. Beat egg whites until stiff. Mix flour, salt, and pepper into egg yolks, and fold yolk mixture into egg whites. Pour half the mixture into a greased 2x7x13 inch baking dish. Spread chilies over egg batter, cover with cheese slices, and pour remaining egg batter over cheese. Bake 25 minutes. Cut into 3 inch squares, and serve with hot sauce or salsa.

Recipe: Fritter Fried Okra

Veggie night!

FRITTER FRIED OKRA

Serves 6-8

1 C flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 eggs, well beaten

1/3 C milk

5 C okra, sliced thin

Deep hot fat

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine eggs and milk, and stir into dry ingredients until smooth. Stir in okra, spoon into deep hot fat, and fry.

Recipe: Baked Cheese Grits I

Served with homemade hunter sausage

BAKED CHEESE GRITS I

1 C uncooked grits

1/3 C butter, melted

3 eggs, beaten

¼ C milk

8 oz shredded cheese (any variety—cheddar is good in this)

1 tsp Tabasco

¼ tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 325^o. Cook grits according to package directions. Combine remaining ingredients, whisking to blend thoroughly. Pour mixture into hot cooked grits. Stir to mix. Pour into a greased casserole dish. Bake 55 minutes or until completely set.