This southern gal is cooking some good stuff for dinner tonight.

[Maddy McCall]

My mother is out of town, so my dad is dining with us tonight. I'm cooking his favorite meal:

Appetizer: Are you kidding? We're going to feast on the main course.

Main Course: Chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes smothered in homemade flour gravy; snap beans; hot-water cornbread.

Desert: Strawberries and whipped cream on angel food cake.

Sounds good, eh? What are you having for dinner tonight?

[JohnKleeb]

1. Damnit you know how to cook

My mom obviously was adopted since she doesnt cook well, and my grandma is one of the better cooks I know. That sounds great btw, mind if I come over ;).

[Maddy McCall]

2. If you ever visit Mississippi, I promise to cook this for you.

:-)

[JohnKleeb]

7. I am gonna learn how to drive soon

So hey could happen, that sounds really good.

[Burma Jones]

3. Grilled Steak

Artichokes, Salad and Spaghetti Squash.

[Maddy McCall]

8. How are you preparing the Spaghetti Squash?

I've never used it. Please, give me advice. :-)

[Burma Jones]

24. Well...

First you boil it, crack it open, remove the seeds and shread the insides so they look like spaghetti. My wife did that over the weekend and put the insides in the 'fridge.

After that, you could do a lot of stuff with it. Tonight, I'm just going to heat it up with onions, garlic and butter. When our tomatoes are in, we mix diced tomatoes with the squash and either heat it up quick, or just toss it with some olive oil and lemon juice. It goes real well with tomatoes. Some folks treat it precisely the same as spaghetti, using whatever pasta sauses that like. However, I would only use marinara type sauces because spaghetti squash has a much higher water content than actual pasta, so cream sauces would be a wreak....

[Maddy McCall]

30. Can you grill it? Seems I remember someone telling me...

that you can half the squash and then place it cut-side down on the grill. Or am I just imagining something?

[Burma Jones]

33. Sure you could

That might be pretty good.

[Maddy McCall]

39. I'm going to try that sometime in the near future. :-)

[jswordy]

41. hmmm...my wife splits it, takes out the seeds, turns it cut side down...

...in a large pan with some water in the bottom and bakes it. She checks it to see if it is burning on top, and covers with foil if needed. Then scrapes out the "spaghetti" when done and we eat it with homemade spaghetti sauce and lots of parmesan cheese! Mmmm.

I have also had ot halved, baked, with a brown sugar sauce and stuffed with pecans, walnuts and mushrooms and such.

MAN I AM HUNGRY NOW!

[jeff30997]

4. Well this northern guy...

Will cook a delicious Poutine ! Yummm !

[trof]

5. Does your son show any interest in cooking?

I hope so.
Sounds good.

[Maddy McCall]

12. He's the one who tenderized the steak, and he's going to batter it too.

He loves to shake it in the Tupperware.

Yes, I've raised him to be pretty independent...he cooks better grits than I do.

He has a campfire cooking set, so on those evenings that I'm too tired to cook, I light the fire for him, and he cooks over the fire.

:-)

[JohnKleeb]

17. Thats cool that he can cook

Pretty damn smart, I cant cook for crap myself.

[trof]

27. I had a camp cooking set.

The first one was GI my uncle brought back from WW II.
The second was boy scout.
I could char eggs with the best of them.
I remember while the rest of us were trying things out of the handbook or Boys' Life there was one kid who always just brought a half dozen cans of Beanie-Weenie.
He's open a can and sit it next to the fire. He was eating while the rest of us were still trying to peel a potato and have enough left to cook.
;-)
Tell your son that knowing how to cook comes in handy and it's fun.
I guess he already knows that.

[Maddy McCall]

36. Have you ever seen this cook set? It's awesome.

The guy on Campfire Cafe (RFD TV - Channel 379, Directv) uses this one and sells it on his website. We don't have anything nearly this grand, but, since my brother is talented at working with iron, I'm thinking about bribing him to build us one:



Check out the website sometime:

www.campfirecafe.com

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Mmmm...one of my total comfort meals -

checken=fried steak and mashed potatoes and pan gravy. Yum!!

The angel food cake I'll skip, and just have another pile of potatoes. Oh, and another steak while you're up, too. Might as well. Thanks!

[Maddy McCall]

40. I'm probably going to skip the cake, too.

I'm fixing a double recipe of everything so that Dad can take it home and have some for tomorrow, too.

He's been eating with us most every day. Funny, he always stops by at about 5:00, just as I'm preparing dinner. :7

[LiberalEsto]

9. 3-cheese tortellini

with homemade tomato sauce, and green beans with garlic and olive oil.

[trotsky]

10. What, no fried okra?!?

I married me a Southern gal, and let me tell ya, the food is quite the bonus.

[Maddy McCall]

16. I don't buy okra...I grow it...and when it's time to plant...

I'll have PLENTY of okra and eggplants and squash--and at that time, I promise I'll be frying up okra. :hi:

[xmas74]

21. I only eat okra right out of the garden-my garden.

[Maddy McCall]

25. Same here...can't wait to get the garden planted.

I've already disked up the rows, and have bought a few plants and some seed. I'm itchin to plant, but I'm waiting until the 15th.

[xmas74]

31. I am afraid to plant too soon

we had a dusting of snow last night (it melted this am).
The weather has been really screwy this year.

[Rowdyboy]

11. Roast beef and gravy, scalloped potatoes, butterbeans,

biscuits and lemon cheesecake....

You and I have similar taste in foods :toast:

[Radical Activist]

13. drool...

Are you single?
haha ;)

I mis southern cooking.

[Maddy McCall]

20. LOL...yep, I'm single.

But, I promise, we don't always eat like this. :7

[lpbk2713]

14. Sounds delicious to me.

I know I could eat chicken fried steak and collards seven nights a week.

[n2mark]

15. Dinner tonight

Tuna fish, lettuce salad with the tomatoes and sliced cukes tossed with seasoned rice vinegar, raw asparagus and cauliflower and lowfat cottage cheese. I really don't feel like cooking tonight.

[xmas74]

18. I made some deer chili for lunch

with sweet cornbread and a salad.

[Maddy McCall]

26. That sounds delicious.

I've got to get my hunter friend to bring me some deer sausage.

[xmas74]

32. This fall I will be overwhelmed with

sausage, ground venison (we mix ours-otherwise, it can be too greasy), roasts, etc. They also usually bring me some wild turkeys too. Sometimes, I even get duck.
Now is the time that I will soon get fish-yum!

[Misunderestimator]

19. No Okra?

...a month from now I'll be eating well, but for now... I can hardly feed myself... I'm so hopeless... I hate to cook. :hi:

[Maddy McCall]

23. See post 16

If you and NSMA ever head this way, Rowdyboy and I will surely cook up some good fried okra for y'all.

:hi:

[Misunderestimator]

28. Excellent... I guarantee you (or GuarRONTEE, as we say in Texas)

that we will be visiting you in the near future!!

[Maddy McCall]

38. Let me know.

I'll cook for both of you if you both promise to make the mixed drinks. :D

[Misunderestimator]

42. You betcha! And we can also provide the entertainment!

(You know... like music...)

[Maddy McCall]

44. No, I'll have to take you to some of my favorite bars around here.

Some of the real hole-in-the-wall rat traps that are uniquely Mississippi.

We can drink bourbon and coke and listen to George wail about how he "stopped loving her today." :7

[Misunderestimator]

45. Hmmm.... now I'm beginning to wonder if you might just be on the way....

to California... We will be driving there together at the end of the month.

[Maddy McCall]

49. I'm only 120 miles north of New Orleans.

Let me know. :-)

[Left Is Write]

22. We are having chicken soup and homemade bread.

My husband picked up the bug that's been plaguing me for the last week and a half (and I'm finally getting over it!), so I thought I'd surprise him with some comfort food.

I'm also baking chocolate chip cookies at the request of my children.

[GumboYaYa]

29. You are killing me.

You can't find a good chicken fried steak in St. Louis. My mouth is watering hearing about your dnner.

[Maddy McCall]

43. Awww. I'm sorry.

Tomorrow night, it's chicken and dumplins, but I'll spare you the details. :D

[wideopen]

34. I've got a chicken

on the rotisserie, loaded baked potatoes,homeade coleslaw,stir-fried veggies,and several pints of homebrewed ESB.

[texas1928]

35. Brisquit

Slow cooked over hot coals. No sauce on it just a dry rub. Pinto beans with a peice of hamhock cooked in them, and corn on the cob.

good Texas BBQ. dry rub with sauce on the side. and not that sweet stuff. Nice and spicy. to quote Hawkeye from MASH " I kept a cut on my lip open just for the sting of the sauce."


DAMN I AM HUNGRY!!!!

[jswordy]

37. Girl, I can't even get close to the stove for another couple hours...

...and you've got my stomach grumbing already. Mmmmmm.

[Ripley]

46. Hmmmm, I made Greek, Japanese and Southwestern USA food

over the last three nights. Maybe tonight I'll Fondue!

Hey, I live in the South too and love my blackened catfish, hushpuppies and Brunswick stew.

But experimenting with world foods is the only way to keep oneself from getting bored to death and becoming a Police. You remember? The song from that band where they said "I hate the food I eat!"

Cooking is so easy! Why do so many folks have a fear of it? All you have to do is read up a little bit, experiment a little bit and dive in!

Damn...dessert sounds great Maddy!

[Huckebein the Raven]

47. White or Brown gravy on the Chicken-fried steak ?

what you're having sounds good

[Shakespeare]

48. flour gravy = white gravy....and another thing....

If you put brown gravy on it (shudder), it is NOT chicken fried steak!

I actually had it served to me that way ONE time when I lived in DC. When the waiter put the plate down in front of me, I must have looked at him like he had three heads or something, because he immediately asked me if something was wrong. "That is NOT chicken fried steak. Chicken fried steak has WHITE gravy on it." They didn't have white gravy, so I ended up sending it back.

I just do not understand some people. :P

[Huckebein the Raven]

50. I'm the same way. I hate brown gravy on chicken fried steak.

Luckly, I haven't had that mistake when ordering it down here.

:)