AGGIE FOOTBALL WEEKEND

Hello Loves!

How did your weekend go?

We were down in Austin and College Station 

celebrating a birthday and an Anniversary!

We planned this special weekend way back in the summer

and it turned out to be just PERFECT!

Our first stop was at Bucc-ee's....we received a special

request from our youngest to please stop and take a photo

with Bucc-ee Beaver....which we did....reluctantly!

For those of you who are not familiar with Bucc-ee's....it

is a huge gas station, outside and inside...

it's similar to a huge and crazy busy convenience store!

We love being back in Austin and decided to 

enjoyed the cocktail hour at one of our favorite places!

Fresh oysters for the boys......

We then walked over to another one of our favorite pizza places....

it was SO fun and absolutely delicious!!!!

We had so much fun on this Friday night!

Austin is indeed a bit weird and great for people watching!

Plus, we were celebrating with one of our children....

We were lucky enough to catch .....

We left Austin early Saturday morning to drive

down to College Station and y'all....

it was a beautiful drive...the Texas

countryside was full of cattle ranches and

lovely cotton fields.

We had to snap a photo with our youngest Aggie!

It brought back all the memories of their college days!

Happy happy days!!!!

Perfect football weather too!

Thank goodness the rain held off for the game!

Of course, as you know, the darling

and I went to Ole Miss and love the Rebels....

however....our money and our children are Aggies

and the Aggies are in our hearts!

AGGIES WIN!!!!

It was WONDERFUL to be back at the hotel,
relax with hot cup of coffee and talk about the game.
College Station has really built up since we had been back
and it was so good to see old favorites!

We returned to our favorite Texas Roadhouse for dinner....and....

we ran into some great old friends of ours.....

Life was good this weekend....

lots of fun and celebrating along with a fabulous college football game!

GIG EM' AGGIES AND HOTTY TODDY TOO!

TWO FAVORITE APPETIZER DIPS YOU WANT TO MAKE THIS FALL

The big game is coming up next month

down in College Station, and I am over the moon excited!

I am hoping that the weather will be perfect

football weather calling for a jacket and light stadium blanket!

Since fall brings with it many football games

and tailgate events, I want to share

two of my favorite autumn dips that will

be perfect for you to take along for your next party!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 Cups Cooked Shredded Chicken

 8 Ounces Cream Cheese, Cubed

1 1- Ounce Package Dry Ranch Dressing Mix

2 Teaspoons Garlic Powder

1 1/2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1/2 Cup Buffalo Hot Sauce

In a 2 quart or larger slow cooker add the shredded chicken, cream cheese, dry ranch mix, garlic powder, shredded cheese, and buffalo sauce. Stir well to combine. Cover the crockpot and cook on low for 1-2 hours until hot and bubbly. Serve dip with your favorite chips, crackers, and vegetables.

Pumpkin Dip

2 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

 1 can (15 oz.) Pure Pumpkin

 2 cups sifted powdered sugar

 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

Beat cream cheese and pumpkin in large mixer bowl until smooth. Add sugar, cinnamon and ginger; mix thoroughly. Cover; refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve with fresh fruit, bite-size cinnamon graham crackers or gingersnap cookies.

ELEGANT BAKED TILAPIA

There is an inseparable association between eating and hospitality.....the eternal connection between food and fellowship. It need not be expensive to create a beautiful dining table when entertaining those that are special to you. Perhaps just dried florals and a few autumn gourds can make an elegant statement. 

When I was a student at Ole Miss, we gave faculty dinners and were expected to plan the menu, do the grocery shopping with an established budget, prepare and serve the dinner to the honored guests, in addition to creating our own table arrangements. Our task was to create a tablescape with whatever we could gather outside on campus and this counted toward our grade. It appears southerners will go to great links to  make visitors feel at home among them. I doubt they even teach classes on this anymore.....but how fortunate I was to have been a part of that time. 

Everyone loves fish cooked this way.

 A fabulous recipe from

 "Of Magnolia and Mesquite"

ELEGANT BAKED TILAPIA

1 1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 T. creole mustard

Juice of one fresh lemon

1 T. Tabasco

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

2 t. garlic powder

3/4 t. curry powder

8 Tilapia fillets

Ritz Crackers

Mix the first 7 ingredients well and spread over each fish fillet. Sprinkle with crushed Ritz crackers and bake at 400 degrees F. for about 20-30 minutes, uncovered. 

MISSISSIPPI PLANTATION PIE..A SOUTHERN FAVORITE!

 

What are your favorite things about the South?

Friendly folks in abundance

Well-mannered children

Front porch visits

Covered dish lunches after church

Sweet tea

Local farmers markets

Saturdays in Autumn

Ole Miss football Saturdays

Moss draped Mississippi Oak trees

The Square in Oxford

Ole Miss Tailgating in the Grove

Antiquing

Low country boils at the beach

Pretty tablescapes with family treasures

Storytelling amongst family and friends

 

 

 

This Plantation Pie recipe has always been one of my most requested recipes. It is from long ago when we were attending Ole Miss. I cannot count the number of times we all met for lunch and a day of shopping on the square in Oxford and finished off a southern luncheon with this fabulous and yes, fattening pie! What can I say....we were younger and did not have to really count our calories since we walked all over campus! It's a southern delight for sure!

 

 

 

MISSISSIPPI PLANTATION PIE

Pastry for single-crust pie
3 eggs
1 cup light-colored corn syrup
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup pecan pieces

 
Unroll prepared pastry into a 9-inch pie plate. Ease pastry into pie plate without stretching. Trim pastry to 1/2 inch beyond edge of pie plate. Fold under extra pastry. Crimp edge. Set aside.In a medium bowl, combine eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt.In pastry shell, layer semisweet chocolate pieces, coconut and pecan pieces. Pour egg mixture over all, spreading evenly. To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pastry shell with foil.
 Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil; bake for 20 to 25 minutes more or till set. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and store in refrigerator within 2 hours. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream or whipped cream, chocolate syrup and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

The Reading Corner....A Beautiful Novel of Dreams Gone Awry

If there is one thing that interests me in reading fiction, it is anything in which the story takes place in Mississippi. I love reading about someones thoughts, what is inside their hearts and what their dreams are. The main character must be someone that I can identify with...someone that I know would become a dear friend in real life.

Miss Judy introduced me to Penelope Stokes, wh0 was featured in one of my previous posts. I think you will enjoy her writings, her penchant for storytelling and the manner in which her stories will touch your heart.

Twenty-three years ago, Mississippi beauty queen, Priscilla Bell (nicknamed "Peach") sauntered out of her mama' s antebellum home in Chulahatchie, Mississippi, shook off the dust on her pretty pumps, and vowed never to return. Now, God help her, divorced and lonely, she's back trying to figure out how her life went so terribly wrong.

Upon the advice of her psychiatrist, Peach bumps around her childhood home, remembering the old times, looking at the old photos and seems to lack any real purpose in her life. In order to escape her mama's scrutinizing gaze, we find her visiting The Heartbreak Cafe, sitting in the back booth and scribbling away in her private journal, an aging beauty queen and lonely. She quietly observes the unlikely group of folks that visit the diner everyday with all of their hidden secrets and past hardships.

 She meets Charles Chase at the Piggly Wiggly (part of my childhood-we loved the Piggly Wiggly) and realizes that she may be ready for another try at love after all. He was sweet, considerate, down to earth, cute and pretty understanding. What secrets could he be hiding? She never took him home to meet her mama.

"I see mama sitting here in her blue striped housedress and no makeup, watching the sun go down over the river. She can't understand how the evening light sets Mama's white hair aflame with the auburn tints of her girlhood or illuminates her face like candlelight. I'm not claiming it'll stay this way. I'm sure there will be times she'd like to kill me and I will want to wring her neck. But I meant what I said with all my heart, about wanting her to stay. I still mean it. Like everyone else in this world, I'm just doing the best I can. Sometimes you have to go home to find out who you really are."

The Best Down Home Barbecue in Mississippi!

GOOD MORNING AMERICA....HOW ARE YA'?

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. Steadfast in our faith in the Almighty, we will advance toward a world where man's freedom is secure. To that end we will devote our strength, our resources, and our firmness of resolve. With God's help, the future of mankind will be assured in a world of justice, harmony, and peace. President Harry Truman 

Teach Your Children Well...I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag..of The United States of America...One Nation Under God...

What is more celebratory on the 4th of July, than a big family barbecue? Estelle's has selected the best of Mississippi recipes of course, so get your grill ready and your appetities geared up as we celebrate our blessed freedoms and the good ole' USA!

A dream of an Ole Miss boy....starting his own barbecue business! Just a dream which he turned into a reality..now known as........"The Shed!"

The Shed’s not a fancy restaurant, as a matter of fact, it’s not a restaurant at all….it’s a full fledged JOINT….The Shed is an Experience, a Destination to enjoy! ShedHeds bring their families, sit around the bonfires, hug their kids, and eat the best darn BBQ on the bayou. (Of course… it’s the only BBQ on the Bayou). On Friday and Saturday nights the sounds of live Blues radiate from the stage bringing with it the essence of old school, down-home southern, tacky charm.

The Original Shed is located in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Within the last two years The Shed has not only grown in size but there are now five other Sheds in the Southeast covering a five state area from Louisiana to Florida. Oh, how I love Mississippi!

The Shed's Pulled Pork Sandwich

1 1/4 pounds deep dark brown sugar

 ¼ Cup paprika

2 Tbs black pepper

1 Tbs chili pepper

 1 Tbs garlic salt,

2 1/4 Teaspoons white pepper

2 1/4 Teaspoons onion salt

 2 1/4 Teaspoons cumin

Shed Spred:

4 Cups Tomato Sauce

1 Cup Tomato Puree

¼ Cup Ketchup

2 Tbs cane syrup

 ½ Cup Worcestershire Sauce

 ¼ Cup Cajun Seasonings

2 Tbs Soy sauce

2 Tbs yellow mustard

2 Tbs crystal hot sauce

 ¼ can of beer and a few cold ones for the cook

1 fresh lemon (juiced, no seeds)

1 ½ tsp. black pepper

 1 ½ tsp. cayenne pepper

 1 ½ tsp. garlic salt

Now throw in a mere 2 ½ pounds of deep dark brown sugar

FACT: "Music is a must every time the rub is made or it just won't taste the same. Then just a little taste to make sure the flavor is that perfect blend that conjures up good times around the table with friends and family. Now we gather up our Mississippi grown pecan wood to stoke the fire in our old school pit. Our pit has been burning for eight straight years with the exception of the three days Katrina put her out."

"Our main ingredient is our fresh organic pork. We choose the best of the best pork shoulders. Our secret here is to inject about one quart of "Sugar Cure" into the shoulder to ensure that the meat will accept the slow smoke properly (old school secret)."

Now it's time for the dry rub to the applied to the shoulder, Southern Style: That means use a bunch of it and cover every inch. At that point we let it rest for an hour and a half.

The smoker is set at 225 degrees and stoked again before we place the seasoned meat in. The process of the low-slow rhythmic cooking continues on for 12 hours. Many more trips are made from the wood pile to the smoker during these 12 hours to make sure a continual flow of seasoned smoke rolls all around and into the meat.

"As everyone knows ya' gotta' have a killer sauce to go with a real pulled pork sandwich and we have it at The Shed."

"The kicker to the ShedSpred is that every pot is hand stirred with tender loving care making sure all the ingredients have come together properly. After a soft boil for an hour the golden goodness has made a ring of thick BBQ sauce around the pot and we know we have reached perfection."

" A Kosher dill, a slice of Vidalia onion and you are on your way to Barbecue Heaven."

The Shed's Macaroni Salad

Mac Juice:

2 ¼ C Mayonnaise

1 ¾ C Sour Cream

1 Tbs Dijon Mustard

½ Tbs Black Pepper

1 tsp Kosher Salt

¾ C white sugar

1/3 C Cider Vinegar

1 ½ tsp onion powder

2 tsp garlic salt

Mix all ingredients in large container starting with the wet ingredients and stirring in the dry. Refrigerate and let rest for a couple hours.Save some juice to refresh the next day’s leftovers or to add a little goodness to anything. This is a great base for recipes!

Mac Ingredients

2 large purple onions diced

2 large green bell peppers diced

3 Cups shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese

5 Cups large pasta shell noodles

Salt the water before boiling the noodles. Add noodles and 1 Tbs oil to keep noodles from sticking together. Mix it all together and enjoy!

Mississippi Slaw for A 4th of July Crowd

4 ½ Cups Hellman’s Mayonnaise

3 ½ Cups Sour Cream

2 Tbs Dijon Mustard

3 Tbs fresh black pepper

3 Tbs Kosher Salt

2 ½ Cups white sugar

1 ¼ Cup Cider Vinegar

Mix together

25 Cups shredded Green cabbage

5 Cups shredded carrots

5 cups shredded purple cabbage

Special note:

For a Cajun twist to this traditional recipe put in a little Crystal Hot Sauce. For another flair try some ginger or garlic. Enjoy!

The Reading Corner....Heartbreak Cafe!

Miss Judy and I were having one of our long phone conversations the other day, when we began discussing our latest reads. She was telling me about "The Blue Bottle Club" authored by Penelope Stokes. It sounded like a book I would like, so off we went to our local bookstore to browse about and spend the afternoon drifting from aisle to aisle until Darling and I both found two or three books a piece. They were out of "The Blue Bottle Club", but I did come across another book authored by this Mississippi-born writer, "Heartbreak Cafe."

It begins by......"There's two things in life a man can't get enough of," my mama told me. "Good cookin' and good lovin'." I was hooked! The story takes place in Chulahatchie, Mississippi with mentions of Ole Miss and flawed characters known as Peach Rondell, Tansie, Scratch, Boone, Fart (real name Theodore) Unger and Dee, the main character. Dee finds herself fifty-one, untrained, a new widow and pretty much penniless. Her life has crumbled before her, but she forges ahead, relunctantly, and falls back on her one true ability, cooking. Hence, the birth of the Heartbreak Cafe, which becomes the meeting place of this group of unlikely friends. There are a few "special recipes" included toward the end which are each inventions of the characters!

Scratch's Comfort Sandwich

With a Nod to the King of Rock N' Roll

This is pretty unhealthy, especially coming from a man who had dreams of becoming a surgeon. But comfort food is all about comfort, now isn't it?

2 slices of white bread

Creamy Peanut Butter

Strawberry Jam

2 Slices of Spam

Spread peanut butter on the two slices of toast. Add strawberry jam to the peanut butter on both sides. Fry up the Spam in a skillet. Lay the Spam on top of the peanut butter and jam and close er' up. Perform a surgical incision diagonally from corner to corner. Good with Milk!

Penelope Stokes was raised and received her formal education in Mississippi. She left the South after graduate school and spent fourteen years in Minnesota, teaching and editing. It was here she began her writing career. "I did a bit of wandering—Georgia, Connecticut, back to Mississippi for a while—but it didn't take me long to realize that my soul's home could only be one place: Asheville, North Carolina, a small city in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains."


Penelope states that being a southern writer is, in many ways, bred in the blood and the bone. "Place is very important to me—not just the physical environment of my home and office and the vistas I take in on a daily basis, but that "sense of place," the internal compass that keeps drawing me back to where I belong, to the connections that nourish my soul."


"Because in the long run, fiction is about people. Not just about what happens to them, but about what happens in them—the spiritual, emotional, and psychological passages that lead people to an understanding of their inner selves, and of one another. I write about the heart, the mind, the soul. I want to write novels that combine authenticity of character with profound spiritual dimension—books that are original, imaginative, and intrinsically true to life. I want to draw readers in, allowing them to perceive a different kind of world—one marked by purpose, significance, and most importantly, hope."


" I believe that ultimately, our character is determined not so much by the certainties we cling to, but by the uncertainties we are courageous enough to face. When we're committed to going deeper, to following the unknown path, our journey can lead us to an understanding of our own inner being, to a connection with a power that is both within us and beyond us. And that understanding, that connection, gives meaning and purpose to our days."

A Final Word From Dell

Right before she died, my mama said, "Dell honey, lemme tell you something. When you come to the end of your days and are looking down the barrel of eternity, ain't nothin' gonna matter in this life or the next, except how well you loved the people you love."

Mississippi and An Affectionate View of "Pappy!"

I received a lovely surprise gift from Sweet Melissa this week..."Every Day by the Sun...a Memoir of the Faulkners of Mississippi!" Be still my heart...not only do I LOVE biographies, I love William Faulkner and Mississippi...everything about my birth state....everything.....from the beautiful southern accent, (and it is nothing like Paula Deen's accent...nothing), to the vibrant azalea's, the towering pine trees, to the best food in the south, and the roots of the Mississippi Delta! I can just envision visiting up in the Delta where everyone knew everyone and the Bourbon over ice clinked in the highball glasses,  as "our people", refined and southern, reminisced about old times!

When living in the little town of Oxford, Mississippi in the 1970's, Darling and I used to ride our bicycles to Rowan Oak, William Faulkner’s home, who happened to be one of the greatest writers that ever lived.  We would stroll around the grounds of the primitive-style Greek Revival house he purchased in 1930, and would sit on his front porch to rest before we rode our bikes back to campus. This is the place where he wrote the novels that earned him a Nobel.

Never mind that Faulkner was, arguably, America’s greatest writer. Never mind that the house has been restored with such sensitivity that you get the sense Faulkner just walked out the back door, in search of a pack of smokes and a drink of whiskey.

We would peer through the windows in our attempt to get an up-close look at Faulkner’s bookshelves, his bed, his kitchen. You could almost imagine him sitting at his desk writing and sipping a morning cup of coffee! In reading about this interesting character of a man, I learned of a cook, in the employ of the Faulkner family, who refused to clean and cook doves that he shot, for she knew in her heart of hearts that upon death, doves bear souls to heaven. It is said that Faulkner’s favorite dish was salmon croquettes, and that the recipe he favored was easy to come by.

 Sockeye salmon. Red salmon. And yes, pink salmon. My daddy favored all of these and used to eat this canned Salmon on saltine crackers....as I child I thought this was disgusting, but later learned how delicious and healthy salmon can be. There was no single can that contained pink salmon and came with a recipe printed on the label, but I did spot a can that looked like a holdover from Faulkner’s era.

One of my "go-to" cookbooks is  Martha Foose’s, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea. (Like Faulkner, Foose is a Mississippian.) Her recipe is of the Community Cookbook School. It involves crumbled saltine crackers. And minced onion. And dill pickle relish. It somehow recalls Mississippi in the 1950s, when Faulkner was in his salmon-croquette-eating prime.

Mississippi Salmon Croquettes

1 16-ounce can pink salmon, drained and picked clean of stray bones and skin

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon lemon pepper

Dash garlic salt

2 tablespoons minced yellow onion

1 teaspoon dill pickle relish

12 saltine crackers, crumbled

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients except the flour and vegetable oil. Gently shape into 6 to 8 cakes about 1/2 inch thick. Refrigerate for an hour. Heat a large skillet to medium-high. Sprinkle the croquettes with flour. Add the oil and cook the croquettes for 6 to 8 minutes, or until brown, turning them halfway through.

Southerners rarely suppress the temptation to cultivate eccentricity;

“Half of us,”

a Southern editor once said,

“have natural rhythm and the other half is just naturally nuts.”

"We May Not Win Every Game, but We've Never Lost a Party"

On the great American Calender of revelry and seasonal rites, fall equals football. And pigskin equals parties....tailgating parties in particular!

Our Alma Mater, the University of Mississippi, frequently referred to as Ole Miss, hosts a tailgating tradition that tops all others! The Grove.....the glory of The Grove is 10 acres of thick oak, elm and magnolia trees...it is legend and the mother and mistress of outdoor ritual mayhem. Tailgating at The Grove can be described as cocktail party, picnic party, formal dinner party with white linen and silver candle holders , fraternity and sorority inspired party-hearty tents and family reunions! Taking the "Rebel Walk" is walking back in time for us! The Rebels.....powerful...."Are you Ready?".....Hotty Toddy!!

Every tailgating party MUST begin with a good Bloody Mary Cocktail!

1 46 oz. Can V8 juice
1 t. pepper
1 t. salt
1 T. Worcestershire Sauce
1 lemon, juiced
1 cup Vodka
1 T. celery seed
4 shakes of Hot Sauce
Ice Cubes
10 Celery Sticks
10 pimento-stuffed olives












Crock Pot Pulled Pork


5 lb. Boston Butt Roast
4 T. dark brown sugar
3 T. paprika
1 1/2 T. salt
1 1/2 T. pepper
1 T. onion powder
1/2 T. garlic powder
1 t. cayenne pepper
2 C. apple cider vinegar
1 C. water
3 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 t. vegetable oil
1 1/2 T. liquid smoke

Make a rub using all dry ingredients. Rub vigorously into all areas of the boston butt roast. Cover tightly and refrigerate 24 hours. When ready to place your roast in the crock pot, combine apple cider vinegar, water, Worcestershire sauce, vegetable oil and liquid smoke in mixing bowl and whisk until well blended. Place marinated roast in crock pot and pour liquid mixture over the roast. Cook in crock pot 8-10 hours. Remove roast and shred with two forks until the roast is a ready for creating your sandwiches. Place shredded roast back in your crock pot and toss with all liquid. Fabulous served with fresh bakery  buns and coleslaw! Savor that aroma....everyone will want to join your tailgate party!!

Whether it be our beloved TEXAS AGGIES..GIG EM'....
The TEXAS LONGHORNS..HOOK EM' HORNS...or LSU...GOOOOO TIGERS!....a party roar is rising!