Ah Dixie, we hardly knew thee...

Fifteen years in the south, and it wasn't until moving waaaay-north that I truly came to appreciate southern food.  Of course I always loved the baked mac & cheese, and fried chicken.  I was forever stymied by the fact that southerners can cook white rice absolutely perfectly.  I've been making rice for over 30 yrs, and it's always, always, always sticky.  I loved the sliced cukes & onions soaked in vinegar before I ever got there, but I have never and will never understand "red velvet cake."  A good low-country boil is a heavenly experience, what with the red potatoes, corn on the cob, smoked sausage, clams, crab, shrimp, crawfish, served with cornbread and lots of cold beer.

Seven years ago, we moved here, and suddenly, I was eating fried okra!  Of course, I dip it in lots of horseradish-spiked mayo, but OKRA!  And the next growing season, I was introduced to greens by our CSA.  Greens are terribly southern.  At the time we began eating them, we were nearly-vegetarian, so we cooked them the way vegetarians do.  Steamed, or sauteed in olive oil, sprinkled with a tasty vinegar.  Palatable and good for you, so they became a frequent occurence.  They're also quite yummy tossed into soups, near the end of cooking.  But southerners cook greens in an entirely different way.  And truly?  Their way is best.  Because Emeril is right about at least one thing:  Pork fat RULES!  So now I have a jar of bacon grease in my fridge at all times, just in case I want to cook greens. (And I'm eyeing the beet greens in the garden jealously - hoping the neighborhood bunnies don't cheat me out of some of the best eating around).  There is really nothing quite like greens fried up in bacon grease.  And you can fancy them up a lot, with chunks of feta and actual bacon bits, etc., or just sprinkle the ubiquitous flavored vinegar and go.

Other southern things that have become staples of our diet:  
fried, green tomatoes (Yu-um). 
shrimp grits (to die for).
a "vegetable plate" meal, usually consisting of greens, something fried (okra, cauliflower, green tomatoes), and beans and/or rice, served with various hot sauces and fresh biscuits on the side.
HOPPIN' JOHN! - I make this now, and it's soooo easy.  You just have to allow enough time - a minimum of 2 hrs.  Who can argue with a creamy black-eyed pea "stew" laden with salt pork?  Alright, I hear you, nayad, but still.  Pork fat!  served with greens on the side! Yes!
Blackened anything (yes, even tofu).
Gumbo (more okra).
Jambalaya.

This is all to explain this morning's menu.  I'm not sure it qualifies strictly as brunch, since Mavis is at a sleepover, and Rupert is even now still snoring, and because we ate around 0900, but, our breakfast consisted of a creamy puddle of cheesy grits (cheddar & parmesan), topped with a fried egg, and a slice of toast (sourdough's a throwback to my CA roots) smothered in butter and raspberry preserves.  Delicious and satisfying.  And I'm really looking forward to the pulled pork sandwiches and buttermilk-fried chicken the boys put on the menu for this week.

As easy as breathing

Yesterday's dinner guests kind of surprised me with their enthusiasm and appreciation of a fairly simple meal.  See, they've been our dinner guests quite frequently over the past 7 years, so I guess I thought they'd just get used to our style, and stop commenting on it.  I still remember some of those first meals we served to busman1994, because his orgasmic delight was apparent throughout the meals.  See, I've always held that food = love, but not in that unhealthy way that produces 200-lb middle schoolers.  barley52 calls it "food of love," which is by no means a phrase original to him, but it does express where I'm coming from more precisely.

So yesterday, bzdchris and busman1994 came for dinner, bearing 10 ears of fresh corn and dessert fixin's.  barley52 peeled and grilled 2 lbs of medium shrimp, and bzdchris shucked and grilled her corn right alongside him.  busman1994 and I assembled the dinner plates in the kitchen.  Starting with the large glass fish-shaped platters I got for a buck apiece several years ago, for each person, I mounded about 3 cups of freshly harvested and washed, tender young lettuces in the center.  Topped those with grape tomatoes, cucumber slices, garden-fresh radishes and baby carrots, and slices of yellow bell pepper.  Scattered on top were several edible pansies, I had purchased because Mavis loves them.  My helper then grated parmesan over top of that.  At the tail-end of the platter, a generous cup of 3-cheese tortellini salad leftover from earlier in the week.  At the head, about a half cup of homemade hummus (also a leftover), thinned with some fresh lemon juice, decorated with kalamata olives and drizzled with olive oil.  Nestled between the hummus and the salad bed were some home-marinated mushrooms.  Arranged along the "back" were fins made from pita triangles.  When the plates were brought to the table, we topped our salads with the grilled shrimp, and dressed them with a vidalia onion vinaigrette.  I buy it in a big ol bottle from Sam's Club - it's the only place I've ever seen it, and it is lightly sweet and creamy, but not thick.  We used traditional salad plates to house our corn cobs, dripping with butter.

The thing is, this was just salad and leftovers on a big plate.  It wasn't hard to do, and the only thing we picked up "special" for dinner was the shrimp, but we always do at least one seafood dinner each week, so we usually have shrimp, scallops or tilapia on hand.  I use the fish plates so rarely, that it was a special treat to haul them out (they're too big to wash in the dishwasher, so I don't use them all that often, and usually only with seafood), but the dinner would have been just as yummy and lovely on my plain white china.  It's just what we do around here, and it's not at all difficult.

For dessert, bzdchris brought fresh meringues, chocolate ice cream, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and freshly picked black raspberries from her yard.  We put the ice creams on top of the meringues, and the black raspberries in the glasses of prosecco we had with our dessert.  De-Lish!  This dessert wasn't any more or less difficult than dinner - she had the meringues on hand because she's a pastry chef.  Store-bought, high quality ice cream on top.  Done.  You could do the same thing with cookies or bars or fruit.  

The only thing a meal like this really takes is intent.  You just have to pay attention to what you're doing.  Will this look better on a plain plate, or in a bowl?  Is there a way to punch up the flavor of this? (I am the queen of condiments - among other things).  Which colors will look nicer next to each other?  Do the wine glasses match the wine?  Do they match the other dishes?  Or is the table setting more eclectic this evening?  Are we serving wine, beer or cocktails?  Sure, at some point you have to make a conscious decision to approach your meals this way.  You have to give yourself permission to use cloth napkins and fresh garlic and the pretty glasses, and to light those decorative candles you keep on the table.  Is it any harder to put on the music channel than it is to leave "the Simpsons" blaring through dinner?  Is it really so inconvenient to carry the meal to the outdoor table when the weather is nice?  Improving the view or the atmosphere automatically improves the meal.  Honest.  Put that mac n' cheese in a pretty bowl, carry it outside to a table with a placemat and a cloth napkin, pour a nice glass of wine, and tell me it still feels like you're eating Kraft dinner.  The intent is to make the meal a pleasant respite from the rest of the day, or even the week.  I think it's easier to do than get in a walk every day, or take time out for a bubble bath, or drive to a gym for a workout.  And I'm convinced the mental benefit is the same.  Of course, if you're not careful, you'll really need those walks and workouts ::g::  

So now you know my biggest secret of culinary success.  I don't make really complicated dishes very often.  Three to five ingredients and less than an hour of effort are my typical parameters for trying out recipes.  I love slow cooking (not necessarily crock-pot cooking), but I tend to save that for wintry sundays.  I also really love things like spring rolls and dolmades, but sheesh, I've got to be in the mood to invest the time in those. 

Go forth!  Spread the love!