The last time I ate barbeque, I gotta admit, was after my grandfather’s funeral in (I think) 1993; I broke my normal no-warmblooded-animals rule for the occasion, eating one last time at his favorite Wilmington BBQ joint. But I grew up in Chapel Hill, and that’s the style of BBQ I was used to: very vinegary, somewhat spicy. Loved it as a kid.
Daniel
Oh man! Shrimp 'n grits!!! I had the best I’ve ever tasted at Blue Heaven in Key West.
I’m planning this weekend to have as much of all this stuff we’ve been talking about as I possibly can…
definitely cornbread, cheese grits, fried fish, black eyed peas, boiled peanuts (gotta find a good stand), and I’m gonna slow cook some killer bbq.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 
For pork chop gravy, or any other pan gravy:
After the pan has cooled a little, but still hot, and with the stove on low, add enough flour to the drippin’s to make kind of a thin dough. Stir it with a fork and break up the chunky bits until it gets a little past golden brown. Then slowly add 1 cup of water while you’re still stirring, and scraping the bottom of the pan. When it starts to simmer, keep stirring for about 1 min. Take it off the stove and add lots of black pepper.
Ah, they’re 1920’s style boiled peanuts!
I was raised in the north by Southern Immigrants (Ark & Miss), so I consider myself a bit of an anthropologist. I love my Northern woman dearly (heh, her maiden name was actually Yankeh) but she’s a vegetarian, so I get no lard pie crusts 
And I miss grits. Can’t find the fixins in the grocery or the hardware stores around here. Been too long to remember how ma made 'em.
Oh yeah, has nobody here murdered frogs? With a gig? Or, dare I admit this…with a 12 gauge?
I have to report that this thread drove me to eat barbecue last night! I forgot how good it is with a pickle. And just in time – they offered a special side dish: garlic cheese grits! Oh, I was so happy. The only disappointment was that the cornbread served was sweet and cake-like. I don’t know where that came from. Maybe it’s because we’re a border state. Usually here you are asked if you want your tea sweet or unsweet. It’s always available sweet – I suppose we’re close enough to Yankees that they have to consider that one or two may have drifted over.
Oh and my other side dish? Black-eye peas! Yum!
I don’t care for country ham. Well, heck I’ve been mostly vegetarian for the last 10 years; I’m not even usually that wild about barbecue. But anyway, I’ve had country ham with raisin sauce, in addition to redeye gravy.
Anyone know the origins of raisin sauce? The first place I had it was Claudia Sanders Dinner House, a restaurant begun by none other that Col. Harland Sanders himself, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and his wife, Claudia. Although for some reason, growing up, we always called it Colonel’s Lady Dinner House.
Now I’m thinking about fried chicken. The good kind. No grease. Like they make at Mrs. Wilkes’ Boardinghouse in Savannah.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by pork chop gravy. Are you talking about that thin brown stuff cafeterias give you on your mashed taters? That’s typically referred to as brown gravy. I don’t know how to make that, as I never eat it unless it’s put on my plate by someone else, and I’ve never heard of anyone making it from anything but beef. What my momma always served with pork chops was milk gravy made with pork drippings. You just mix flour into the grease, add milk, salt, and pepper, and cook it down. It’s milk gravy, but it’s usually got a brownish color to it, and oh my sweet Jesus is it good.
(And yes, even atheist and agnostic Southerners tend to interject God, heaven, and Jesus into their exclamations. It’s just a speech pattern, not necessarily an expression of religious fervor.)
Thanks!
You can also mix the flour and water together before you add it to the pan. That helps keep the flour from forming lumps.
-Plnnr, in who’s mother’s house gravey is considered a beverage.
While we’re on the subject of gravy…who can tell me how to make country fried steak and cream gravy. I’ve always loved it and would like to make it myself.
:o
Concerning vegetables… No sugar added. Ever. (OK maybe when boiling sweet corn early in the season before it gets sweet, but that’s it.)
One of my aunts* originates in Boston, but I love her anyway. And because I love her, I make her favorite preserves for her every year. Tomato preserves. Nasty vile ungodly crap. You would think that 7 cups of sugar would make anything worth tasting… but you’d be wrong. Each year, Mom and I dare each other to taste it before canning, but it’s jut nasty.
(* All true southerners have lots of aunts, some blood kin, some not.)
I was just giving one example where “yall”-singular was used everyday.
Try working around this one:
At a diner, “What’ll y’all have for dinner?”
I’m the only person sitting there. I really don’t think she cares what other people I’m related to might want for their dinner wherever they are in the world.
Like I said, the difference between what Southerners think is true and what is actually true is astonishing.
Don’t know as I can support it bein True South. How ‘bout a kissin’ cousin?
Q.E.D.
What the heck do you eat on New Year’s Day?
I have the need to feed as many of my friends as possible on New Year’s Day. So, I spend New Year’s Eve cleaning collards (hint, a couple of drops of dish washing liquid in luke warm water will get the grit off nicely. Rinse each leaf thoroughly, of course), looking and soaking black eyed peas (I use the quick soak method), making potato salad, and cooking the peas and collards (generous portions of ham hock in both). New Year’s morning I fry lots and lots of chicken. make corn bread and make a big peach cobbler. Now that’s New Year’s dinner y’all!
If my friends don’t get rich and have lots of good luck all year, well it ain’t my fault, is it? 
Eastern Texas (Houston - East) has strong roots with the rest of the south, once you get west to Dallas & San Antonio it starts taking on a different personality. (IMHO)
As long as they eat pimento cheese sandwiches, they’re Southern.
:eek:
Oh, gotcha.
:eek:
Well… it’s just different here. <big grin>
I don’t consider Texas a full-blooded “South” member for reasons of geography, if nothing else. You have to remember that Texas is HUGE. East Texas, right next to Arkansas and Louisiana, may be pretty culturally similar to The South, but by the time you get to El Paso, you’re in the Southwest. The Texas Panhandle is part of the plains. Then there’s south Texas and the Rio Grande valley, which has a much heavier Mexican ethnic influence. We’ve got unsweetened tea, beef BBQ (best in the world!, says the po’ ignant bastard who’s never even tried the vinegary Carolina pork), and a dearth of pickup trucks with confederate flags.
That said, Texas is a helluva lot more like Georgia than, say, Massachusetts.
:rolleyes:
Bless your heart.
Left Hand of Dorkness, I made up a big ole’ mess of black eyed peas tonight, if you can make it up this way, you’re welcome to have yourself some. No fatback in mine, but you don’t do warmblooded animals so I think you’ll agree that they’re good enough to make you want to slap your Mama even without.
Feel free to bring the wife, I have potato salad, a mess o’greens and of course, cornbread. I could be persuaded to whip up some catfish if y’all are so inclined.
This is, of course, part of my nefarious plot to get some good home folks up nawth to keep me company.