Letter to the Teacher

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

Sorry, Ex[, but I disagree with you. If you are eating chicken fried steak, you just gotta have the gravy. It’s very nearly inedible without it.

We heard from our folks (co-workers and suppliers that we are friends with) down New Orleans way. Everyone is okay, although no one has been allowed to get back to their businesses or homes. So it could be worse, I guess.

Somehow, I left for work today without my wallet, ChapStick, lighter, comb, checkbook, and the checks I have to deposit at lunch. So I guess I’ll be going home for lunch to pick up said left-behind items. I never leave the house without my ChapStick. I don’t know how it happened today.

82

It’s not all bad, swampy. The biscuits are good. I like the biscuits.

Most of the other stuff has to go. I mean, the things you people do to innocent beans…

83

I was 25 before I realized Hush Puppies weren’t just shoes.

As for the chicken fried steak, nope, doesn’t need that cream gravy. And this is coming from someone who luuuuurves gravy, but that stuff is vile.

I don’t like so-called “Southern-style” biscuits, either.

Have I totally branded myself a heathen in **swampy’s ** eyes?

84

I’ll take the plunge–I’ve never tried grits, and I can’t imagine I’ll ever care to. Why would you call something you’re suppose to eat grits?

But what do I know? I think macaroni and cheese is fine dining.

85

Cream gravy is when you add milk, flour, salt, and pepper to pan drippings left over from frying steak, right? That stuff’s okay- it tastes like regular gravy, only a bit milky. But I like white sauce.

Sausage gravy is weird. Fry up sausages, break them into chunks, and simmer in white sauce.

I really like real barbeque.

My primary memory of Southern food was that kind people were trying to feed us all the freakin’ time. Breakfast was three courses, lunch was entirely deep-fried, and they kept trying to feed us in between meals to prevent us fainting from hunger.

86

That’s cause you’re so svelte you look like a sudden gust of wind would just blow you away. A good southern host would die of embarrassment right there on the spot if she or he ever heard a guest’s tummy rumble. Or, as ACBG puts it when he sees me cooking for guests, “Well, hell! Are a couple hundred people showin’ up I don’t know about?” It’s all about not just having enough. Enough is not enough. It must be a gracious plenty! Plus I am infamous for my doggy bags. You cannot leave my house without taking something with you. I blame it on my mother. She taught me that.

Heehee! Sean has CRS today. I’m glad all your Nawlins folks are ok. It’s lookin’ less tornado-y here now.

87

I got yur back, swampy! Pay no attention to them nawthreners. They eat the wings right offen poor lil bufflers and such. Not trustworthy worth a hoot, I say.

rue, looks like you better dress up the curtain climbers in oil skins tomorra. Maybe blow up the rubber dingy while you’re at it.

I feel so bad for all the people hurt by Katrina. So much damage and so widespread. Makes Flawduh’s canes from last summer look puny.

Actually, we’re all gonna suffer from the effects. I filled up my gas tank last night and the price per gallon was already up by ten cents. What’s up with that?

Tupug

88

Katcha had a great day at school yesterday. (Despite being “yelled at” that one time. But the situation changes with each telling and the teacher didn’t send home a note, so I don’t think it was actual “yelling”. And Katcha knows from being yelled at.) While I was still rousing Soupo for school Katcha bounded out of bed (and Katcha doesn’t usually bound) and ran downstairs for breakfast. “It’s time to go to schoooooooooool!”

He was very excited to be going back.

So I guess things are working out OK for him.

I like hushpuppies. They are bread(ish) and they are fried. What’s not to like?

I’m ambivalent towards grits. They aren’t bad, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get some.

I like biscuits and gravy as long as I don’t have to look at the sausage gray. Sausage gravy is not attractive. Especially first thing in the morning.

89

Oh Sean, out of all of that stuff, I’d miss my ChapStick the most. I see we are kindred spirits.

I made sure when I was in Tennessee to have biscuits and gravy. I never eat like that, but DAMN it was good.

90

Well, now, we aren’t as cruel as all that. It’s not like we go around ripping their wings off or anything. Those are specially-bred bufflers with teeny-tiny little wings that fall off every year, just like antlers. All you have to do is go around and collect the buffler wings after they fall off. And they’re not exactly little. The bufflers, I mean, not the wings. The wings are little. :smiley:

Food: I’m real sorry swampy, you know I luvs you and everything, but…<shudder> I’ve had boiled peanuts, and that stuff y’all call “gravy” and…yuck. Just YUCK. I also think chicken-fried anything, and especially steak, is nasty, but then again, I don’t like fried food in general, so feel free to just ignore that.

91

I’ll admit that sausage gravy piled on a biscuit looks like the dog threw up on a biscuit, but it’s gooooood! I don’t eat stuff like that and chicken fried steak and boiled peanuts all the time myself. Still it’s all good eats. Boiled peanuts must be fresh. If you’ve had those things that come in a can, then you’ve had bad.

I’ve got beef stew and a green salad for supper tonight. See, I do eat regular stuff. However, when I want me some biscuits and gravy or some catfish and hush puppies or some bald peanuts and all that other stuff, I’m gonna get me some or make me some.

I made the beef stew last night. It simmered all night in a slow cooker. All I gotta do is warm it up. Ok, we will be eating beef stew for two or three days actually cause I only know how to make it in big batches. Some of it will get frozen for later purposes. That’s the good thing about soups and stews. Some for now, some for later. :smiley:

92

It is common practice in the fuel industry that if anything bad happens anywhere in the world that might affect the price of gas, to hike said price up immedietly in anticipation. Unfortunately, the reverse is not true. If something good happens, a new refinery comes on line or the price of crude declines for instance, said goodness is not reflected in the price at the pump until it works its way down the food chain, and often not even then.

On the subject of Suthern food, I lived in Flawduh from the age of 4 to the age of 19, (when I was invited by Unca Sam to join some of his friends for a little soiree they was havin), and can say with some authority that Suthern cookin is generally very good eats. I cannot recall ever eating boiled peanuts however and will not comment on those, but I have always been of the opinion that if the source ingredient of Suthern-fried steak had been any good in the first place they wouldn’t have grinded it up. On the other hand, hush puppies can be, if properly done, the food of the gods. Lesser gods though they may be. (Biscuits and sausage gravey is the food of the medium-sized gods.)

BTW, as I heard it, the reason most Suthern food is soft is ‘cause most Sutherners ain’t got a lot o’ teeth.

93

Stoopid busy mondays. See how much I missed? I get to put my last baby into Kindergarten next week. I’m not worried about bears gettin’ his chocolate milk. He’s plenty tough enough to hold his own against a bear or any gooch-like eighth graders for that matter. But you know he is my BAY-BEE! Yep the last one. I’m having empty nest syndrome 15 years too early. Betcha I cry.

On the other hand though, with all three in school, there will be no one in the house all day. I may just call in sick so that I can run streaking through the rooms NEKKID!

Oh and this weekend, I picked all the pears off of the pear tree in the back yard. This year the squirrel was um severely discouraged from eating them before they got ripe. No pears for five years and now I have so many I have to learn how to can them. Anybody have any tips?

Also I finally taught myself how to make that nice simple tomatoey sauce that they have in the Italian restaurants. With my own tomahtoes. Yay me!

94

So, yesterday afternoon, I had to drive down to Miami and back. Miami is a good 300 miles and at least four hours away from me. On the way down I drove along I-75 to Naples, where it left turns and is referred to as Alligator Alley. There is a $1.50 admission for this attraction.

Now, I should mention that I saw not one alligator this whole time, nor was it much of an alley, more like an interstate highway. This IS Florida, and there was water, so I’ve no doubt that there were plenty of alligators, but it’s kind of hard to peer into murky water and search them out when you’re cruising along upwards of 80 mph. They really need to put let some on the road or median so that I can get me a better look.

Miami was okay but a bit confusing. I did eventually find some nice southern cooking about 10 pm, just some boliche, platanos maduros and congris with toasted pan Cubano and a glass of Rioja. Very, very southern. Tasty, too. Mebbe not as good as boiled peanuts and beer, but not a bad repast.

Being the adventurous sole that I am, I decided to take US 27 and Florida 70 back around Lake Okeechobee via Clewiston, Arcadia and La Belle and see the sights a bit. It’s pretty dark in these parts after 10 at night, so most of what I saw was the glare of oncoming headlamps, but it was still very scenic. I also saw lots of insectidae as they splattered across my windscreen. And there were some signs and the occasional traffic signal. Once a raccoon scampered across the road just in advance of my small but quite lethal bumper, but he made it across just fine. I assume he was trying to show a 'possum or an armadillo how it’s done. I did hit one multi-banded speed bump, but he was dead long before I got at him. But beyond that, not so much to see on the trip back.

Oh, yeah, besides the thousands of squashed mosquitoes and other flying vermin, I did see a sign that had the outline of a bear and beneath that said “Next 12 miles”. Apparently this is an area favored by gay men who are burly and hairy. But I didn’t see any, unless they were in the trucks, which is certainly possible. Still, it seems an odd area of the world for that sort of thing, but you never know. There was also eventually a sign that had an outline of a bear and just said “End” under it. I’m not sure exactly what that one meant.

95

You could make you some Pear Relish. Good stuff. Or some pear preserves or pickled pears or pear cobbler. You’re own your own to figure out how to make those. I can only be so helpful.

Shibb are you going back to see if you can spot some of them bears in daylight? :smiley:

96

If you don’t like southern gravy, then whomever cooked it did a lousy job. That thin, salty brown ‘gravy’ some people ladle over everything is nasty. Chicken fried steak is also yummy num, when done properly, which my mom did. She can even cook liver so you’ll ask for seconds. Everybody knows those things they call hushpuppies, at Long John Silver’s aren’t actual hushpuppies, right? Those things are what the shoe Hushpuppies are made of I think.

Yesterday afternoon was horrible! It’s back to school time, so I can sneak a post once or twice (I’ll deal with all y’all didn’t lament my non-posting last week. **Gardentraveler ** is on the right side of the voodoo doll this time, just sayin’). I had to run errands and it was 117 degrees, not counting the heat index which nobody around here ever tells me. I missed my exit! There are only two exits for my town and I missed the last one because of wicked trucks, semi’s, and Cadillacs who conspired against me.

So I drove four or five miles to an exit to sneal in the back way to town and miss traffic Ha HA! Only when I went to turn into town the road was gone! Stupid super WalBarf, digging up the whole road! So I drove practically to the next city to turn back and then there was a pit in the road by Target that nearly swallowed my car. Inside Target I couldn’t find half of what I wanted, plus there was a wonky wheel on my cart that made a huge racket. Driving back home there’s a huge long train cutting through town during rush hour! When it’s eleventy bajillion degrees!

Then the pharmacy tried to charge me a hundred dollars for my medicine and so now I have to call my insurance and see why they won’t cover it and the OTC stuff that was on sale wasn’t in stock. Oh, and my shoes hurt my feet and the office was closed so I couldn’t get my package and then I maybe got three hours of sleep last night because my dreams were much too loud and self-important.

If the pachysandra patch is moving, yikes indeed! Pachysandra is planties and ought not move about too much.

I was reading **Cartooniverse’s ** post but I thought it was taters for some reason and was very shocked when it was revealed a nice girl like **taters ** had gotten herself nekkid in the wilderness. Is it wrong that I feel a bit of glee that nobody showed up to that concert? I hate this new country music. Every time Garth Brooks sells an album Og chicken fries a kitten y’know.

Which reminds me, I don’t think there’ll be a problem getting chocolate milk out of the schools, the way things are going, so most schools will be very bear-safe, thanks for the tip Swampy. What is the deal with the soda machines not selling soda? I thought that stupid thing wasn’t going to start for years. What do I care, though, I drink crystal lite. Not coffee or soda so jest hesh up missy.

Anaamika, you’ve done much better than I in the gardening harvest department. I got three weensy little beets from my flower box o’ beets. They were extra delicious though, since I grew them myself, funny how that works.

I hear the clompity whomp of giant teenager’s shoes, gotta go earn a living.

97

The weirdest thing is,

The cukes didn’t do so well.
The radishes got COMPLETELY EATEN by caterpillars, those rat bastards.
But the beans & the bell peppers, yum! Also, someone gave me pansies (quiet!) and they died, someone else gave me mums and they not only thrived but took over the pansy pot* even though they were about ten feet apart*. :eek:

I’m not really positive what a Hush Puppy is (other than a shoe) someone care to enlighten me?

98

Hush puppies are a fried cornmeal mixture, sometimes containing kernels and/or onion or other seasonings. Ubiquituous with fried southern food, especially at banquets. Go order something from Long John Silver’s and you’ll probably get a couple.

99

Here’s you some learnin’ about hush puppies. I’m all about enlightenment. Specially since I bought some light bulbs last Sunday. :smiley:

100

I envy you Miamouse, our (Bartlett) pear tree got some sort of fungus or sumpin this spring and all its leaves curled up and turned black. It never happened before, but I sprayed it with some stuff and the tree’s alright now, but we aren’t getting any pears this year. (I know that sentence ain’t right - deal) I looooves me some fresh-off-the-tree pears, too.
I’m never gonna shop at Target ever again! See, I bought a stick blender there in May and last week it broke. Well, not all of it broke, just the little plastic thingie that connects the shaft of the motor to the business end of the blender/chopper/whatever. So I looked at the booklet that came with, and under where it says FULL ONE YEAR WARRANTY) it says: In order to address warranty issues, simply take the product back to the retail location where it was purchased.. So I took it back to Target and they said “We have a ninety day return policy. we can’t help you.” GRRRRRRRRRR!!! I guess I’ll call Philips sometime today and bitch at them. I fully expect to be consigned to answering-machine Hell. :rolleyes: