Tasty versions of horrible foods

[Larry Bratton]

My parents have never been big on Christmas. Gifts were most often functional rather than fun - with the exception of the year I got a chemistry set and a microscope. This year for Christmas my mother gave me about ten pounds of fresh sausage and a big bag of cracklins. My cousin and his wife grow their own pigs and make and sell the sausage, along with lots of other pork parts. The day that my parents went to pick up my Christmas gift my cousin and staff had made 700 pounds of sausage. They were already sold out of smoked sausage - dang it! I made cracklin cornbread last Wednesday night. Does it count that I had roasted carrots with it?

well Belinda, the cracklin cornbread tells me your a bona fide southern cook. I'm not sure what the roasted carrots qualifies you for? I guess if I knew what the rest of the menu was I could make an educated assessment. My dad used to process people's meat into sausage. They would bring in the meat, he would add the seasoning, run it through his grinder for them. That was good stuff also. People used to smoke hams, bacon and sausage in a smokehouse. I have to admit though that I found some of that stuff I saw questionable as far as human consumption.
You probably know Paula Dean huh?

[Belinda Barfield]

I don't know Paula Deen, though I have laid eyes on her from a distance. The rest of the menu for that night was venison roast with gravy, crowder peas, rice, roasted carrots, and the cornbread. This was a combo dinner - the SO doesn't like cracklin cornbread and I'm not a huge fan of rice and gravy. Any way you look at it, not really a healthy meal. In my defense, I've been eating a lot of rabbit food lately.

[Larry Bratton]

Sounds pretty southern to me, especially if the deer meat was whitetail variety.
I figured all you Savannah folks made a point of meeting Paula. I reckon though when you get to be rich and famous you don't hob nob around with the local folks too much. Does she still have a restaurant in Savannah?

[Belinda Barfield]

Sounds pretty southern to me, especially if the deer meat was whitetail variety.
I figured all you Savannah folks made a point of meeting Paula. I reckon though when you get to be rich and famous you don't hob nob around with the local folks too much. Does she still have a restaurant in Savannah?

A lot of locals do make it a point to meet Ms. Deen. As far as I'm concerned she's just another resident of Savannah, albeit a very famous one. She still has the Lady and Sons restaurant here. In 2007 I volunteered in Ware County when southeast Georgia was being destroyed by forest fires. Ms. Deen agreed to go halves with me to provide one of her famous meals for a group of volunteer fire fighters. She gives a lot back to the community and is, by all accounts, a fine lady.

[Larry Bratton]

" Ms. Deen agreed to go halves with me to provide one of her famous meals for a group of volunteer fire fighters."
Did you do the meal? I'm sure u did, what was it? Bet it was a hit.

[Belinda Barfield]

" Ms. Deen agreed to go halves with me to provide one of her famous meals for a group of volunteer fire fighters."
Did you do the meal? I'm sure u did, what was it? Bet it was a hit.

The Lady and Sons agreed to provide 75 meals at a discounted price and I covered half of the cost. As best I recall we served Ms. Deen's famous fried chicken, mashed potatoes, some type of greens, corn on the cob, biscuits and cornbread, and peach cobbler. Seems like there was something else but I can't remember what right now. Oh . . . and lots of sweet tea.

[Rick Markham]

I guess none of you good people would like scrapple or pig stomach, so I won't even mention it.

I LOVE Scrapple!!!!! But it has to be sliced thin and pan fried crispy on the outside... that's how my Grandma made it! (scrapple is where my father's saying, posted above, comes from)

[Rick Markham]

Cebeza, is Excellent!!! I agree completely... You sir, are awesome!

[Larry Bratton]

The Lady and Sons agreed to provide 75 meals at a discounted price and I covered half of the cost. As best I recall we served Ms. Deen's famous fried chicken, mashed potatoes, some type of greens, corn on the cob, biscuits and cornbread, and peach cobbler. Seems like there was something else but I can't remember what right now. Oh . . . and lots of sweet tea.

Sounds like that would be good for enough energy to fight a fire (assuming you could get by lying down and taking a nap!) Oh and glorious sweet tea! Love it.

[Ben Franz]

Hash is a time-honored way to serve leftovers in a way that tastes good. Corned beef hash is probably the best known since people had to find some way to make the boiled, tasteless hunk of leftover beef edible. Now, before you punch the screen, I know that YOUR corned beef isn't mushy, tasteless and nasty and neither is MINE. You do have to admit, though, there have been a lot of culinary sins committed in the name of corned beef. Add in the equally uninspired cabbage and you have a truly serious problem - something we need to get the government addressing NOW! Oh, wait, we actually want to help the situation? Maybe just invest in a decent cookbook or two.

I make hash from almost any leftover meats and even serve a smoked salmon hash to company (store bought salmon, usually) with a little chive and lemon sour cream and a fried egg on top; good for brunch or dinner.

Grits are like most starches - they have to have salt during cooking or they never taste right. Lots of places are selling stone ground "artisinal" grits that have the whole grain, not just the germ. There's more flavor but the uncooked grits are more perishable and have to be refrigerated. Cheese is a great additive but doesn't take the place of quality grits - forget completely about Instant Grits, Quick grits - IMO a waste of money and time. If you STILL don't thinks grits are food, just double the price and call 'em polenta.

If you're interested in making a better Pop-tart, Alton Brown did an episode of Good Eats that had a homemade toaster pastry - didn't use puff pastry dough IIRC.

[Bill Cunningham]

If you want to try something simple and tastes great try this..
1 Can of Campbells Italian Wedding soup
1 Can of Stag Chilli (or any good chilli)
mix em together and heat n eat..

This was discovered by accident. A friend of my son-law has a son that plays hockey for the Ottawa Senators, one day while waiting for a game I suppose, he was looking for a quick meal and that's all he had on hand, mixed them up, and bingo a great new soup with body and bite. I swear, campbells could make a fortune canning, and selling this stuff..

[John Coloccia]

As a child I was known to put animal crackers in my beefaroni, straight from the can, cold. Yuuuummmm!

[Don Alexander]

Grits are like most starches - they have to have salt during cooking or they never taste right. Lots of places are selling stone ground "artisinal" grits that have the whole grain, not just the germ. There's more flavor but the uncooked grits are more perishable and have to be refrigerated. Cheese is a great additive but doesn't take the place of quality grits - forget completely about Instant Grits, Quick grits - IMO a waste of money and time. If you STILL don't thinks grits are food, just double the price and call 'em polenta.

personally i think that anyone who wastes money on instant grits could have just gone to the beach and eaten some sand ................same stuff and doesn't cost as much

[Belinda Barfield]

personally i think that anyone who wastes money on instant grits could have just gone to the beach and eaten some sand ................same stuff and doesn't cost as much

There should be no such thing as instant grits, or instant oatmeal for that matter.

[John Coloccia]

There should be no such thing as instant grits, or instant oatmeal for that matter.

Even *I* know this, and I'm a Yankee.