If Indiana is right in the heart of the Midwest, then I must be living on the west coast. Better start learning the language. "Gag me with a spoon"? And why go crazy because someone uses more salt that you want? Don't you think you could, let's see. hmmm, maybe use less?? Recipes are guidelines, not hard and fast rules. Recipes will often vary, even when followed to the letter depending on a number of variables. I seldom follow a recipe to the letter since I might not happen to have the free range grapes, cage free milk or organic Vanilla Wafers that Marco Pierre White's recipe might call for. I often will add spice I like and tone down or eliminate what I don't like. Amish/Mennonite, etc cooking has a lot of crossover with what some people term "Midwest" cooking. If you consider Indiana "midwest" then I exempt this from consideration. However the midwest of the United States are generally or at least were, big farming areas and Amish/Mennonite, etc were also big farmers. Meat, potatoes, bread, coffee, milk, dessert was your typical farm fare. The midwest didn't use much in the way of rice however certain areas, including the upper midwest would have wild rice available and that could be included in the later menus. Native Americans of course used wild rice much more heavily than many others until others found out how great it is. Actually you'll find a lot of crossover in German, even Russian and certain other ethnic types of foods when they're living in a colder climate and doing a lot of hard work, but then again considering the number of Scandinavians. Germans, etc who populated the area, it shouldn't be a surprise. But the food changed to adapt to what's around. You won't go to Norway, Sweden, Germany, Russia, etc and find the same things. Just as "cajun" or "creole" won't be found in France, and probably not much in the French areas of Canada. As Annie said, hearty meals were needed for the heavy workload on a typical farm. You'd rise early and work late and burn a lot of calories. Actually what many people term "comfort foods" is quite common among both the A/M/etc and midwest farmers. You won't find finger sandwiches, consumme or sushi on these menus. You will find hearty soup, stew, roast, meatloaf, pasta and much much more. You'll also find a lot of pies, cakes, cookies and rolls. You'll find great breads, rolls, etc. Around here, mac & cheese is essentially baby food. A blue box and a package of Corn King hotdogs fed many a toddler by a new mother. Never could stomach mac & cheese. No meat, why bother. Watching Cookin' Cheap is different. Two gay guys doing their "cooking" and then dressing in drag to show a gadget of some sort. A pickle slicer, nut cracker or whatever. The "Cook Sisters". Initially it was to show people you could cook cheap. They'd figure out the cost of something and figure per portion. Although if they had a leftover from something before, they didn't include it in the price and would come out with 58¢ per person "meals". One thought he knew how to cook and the other admitted he knew nothing but would try anything. They both fancied themselves far better standup comedians that I would. Watch it sometime, it's, well, different. I wouldn't say it's funny very often, but entertaining usually. Actually hotdish for the food, (and go ahead and debate "food" if you're a Miracle Whip snob) and "hot dish" describes the ladies cooking or the temperature of the plate. Scalloped potatoes and ham is a type of hotdish. Marilyn's Party Potatoes, sometimes called "funeral potatoes" is a hotdish, etc. People stick out their tongues and stick their noses in the air over foods. Yes, some will be a can of cream soup with a can of something and a package of onion soup mix. But then again, people buy "blue box", TV dinners and produce from Walmart for cryin out loud! LOL Contrary to what a couple of you believe, not one of the terms hotdishes, A/M/etc or midwest cooking mean all from a can or a pouch. It can and often is made from scratch. The shortcuts are more publicized since it's a timesaver and many people who hit the net want to save time. I would defy most anyone to have tasted and claim they didn't like the scalloped potatoes and ham that was served at my aunt's funeral, or for that matter the roast beef and mashed potatoes served at my cousin's funeral or any of my mother's holiday meals, all made from scratch. I'll take that any day over foo-foo food! Or for that matter the Tex-Mex you get at Taco Bell, or the seafood from Long John Silver, or should I continue... Back to topic, a couple other shows I enjoyed watching included the Galloping drunk, er, Gourmet though never really learned much from his shows. When Andrew Zimmern was a local cook he was interesting to see on the local channels before he decided to concentrate on bugs and exotic roadkill.

By the way, the last few km and the final velodrome sprint are here, complete with a surchauffe commentary by the Belgian announcers. Many bike races are not broadcast in the US, so cycling fans huddle over keyboards, watching grainy videofeeds like this one from a European broadcaster. Since you may not speak French, or at least not surexcited, half-screamed Belgian French, I will narrate. Starting at 2:40 - Cancellara and Vanmarche enter the velodrome together for the final 1 1/2 laps. They pedal slowly, calculating. Vanmarche, the young rider with no contract for next year, has delivered the ride of his life and is seconds from an incredible, career-making victory. A win at P-R will assure his employment for years. And he knows he is the better sprinter. Cancellara, the veteran and nine years' senior, has overcome almost the entire peleton today but desperately wanted to shake the young rider and arrive in the velodrome alone. He's lost P-R in sprint finishes before. They slow to a walk, climb high on the banking, each trying to maneuver the other into the lead. Vanmarche takes it. Confidence, or inexperience? They proceed around the velodrome, Vanmarche checking over his shoulder, listening for Cancellara to jump, Cancellara waiting for Vanmarche to jump and poised to follow. They move high on the banking, then Vanmarche dives down the steep slope, sprinting as hard as 250 km of racing in his legs will allow. Just 100 meters, oh Dieu, just 80 meters more! I don't know what language Cancellara prays in - being Swiss, he is polyglot - but something gives him wings. Cancellara matches the younger man's acceleration, gets tight in Vanmarche's slipstream, builds momentum, and swings out. Vanmarche is the faster sprinter, but he went too early, gave Cancellara too much time, now his legs are cramping, muscles unable to obey his screams, through his tears he sees Cancellara rise up in victory. Cancellara steers his bike to the infield and falls off, chest heaving, immobile but weightless. All the pressure is gone. With every team attacking him for six hours, bruised from two crashes in the prior week, his own teammates long gone, he hurt himself like never before and won his third P-R. (Don't feel too badly for Sep Vanmarche. I'm quite sure he will have a tidy contract with a solid team for 2014.) Here is a link that might be useful: Finish of Paris Roubaix 2013 This post was edited by johnliu on Mon, Apr 15, 13 at 20:41

Woody loves smoked mullet from Ted Peters, he tries to get there when he can. Personally, I can't stand the smell of it. One time in St. Pete, Woody threw the cast net and caught 58 mullet in one throw! He had to get help to pull it all up, it was over 150 pounds. He and his mother then spent the rest of the morning cleaning fish. Ugh.

Rebecca, OMG--the pie! Don't tell Tim. That cherry cheesecake pie is his absolute favorite holiday dessert and I didn't buy the stuff to make him one this year since we are trying so hard to eat in a more healthy way (we aren't getting any younger, so we are trying to make up for that by being more disciplined). I'm hoping there will be so many pies at my nephew's house that Tim won't notice that specific one is missing. It is yummy and a longtime favorite of mine too. I'm taking both a sweet potato pie and a pumpkin pie since both are at least veggie-based and somewhat less sugary and guilt-inducing that some other pies. Reading about all your veggies is making me hungry! It is hard on Thanksgiving to have room in one's tummy for all the yummy food, but I try to take small servings of everything so I don't miss out on any of it. I'm not a big eater anyway, so I get full pretty fast. I don't know how these men who go through the buffet and eat three plates full of food (before they even start out on desserts) do it. Where do they put it all? One plate full more than fills me up and makes me sleepy. Jennifer, Tim used to be that way about food, but slowly has come into agreement with me that food is an issue of quality, so he seems more willing now than ever before to select the healthier foods. I've tried to get him to focus on quality not quantity or cost. Granted, it has taken me 35 years to get him to the point that he understands that it is smarter to pay more for healthier food instead of filling up on junk, but I do think that if he were doing the grocery shopping, it still might not matter to him that he buy organic dairy or pastured meats in the same way that it matters to me. He reverts to his "thrifty Yankee" ways really quickly if I'm not with him. I always tell him I'd rather spend our money eating right to begin with than to spend it on pharmaceutical products to fix whatever is wrong as a result of eating a poor diet. He always agrees with me in principle, but then if he is doing the shopping, he may just be price-driven (which is why I do most all of the food shopping). I'll give him credit--he is trying harder to eat healthy, but I think if I went out of town for a week, he'd revert back to his old habits and just live on chili dogs, nachos and sodas or something similar. Rebecca, I wish we had a Central Market here! I'm resigned to the fact that we will, always and forever, have to drive 85 miles one way to shop at CostCo, Central Market and Whole Foods (really, Whole Foods is in Irving, so it is another 10 miles further than the CostCo in Lewisville). It takes the better part of a Saturday to make that shopping circuit on a Saturday once or twice a month, but then, on the other hand, we rarely have to go to another store in between the major shopping trips so I feel like that helps---I hate having to pop into a grocery store for 1 or 2 things because then you cannot get out of there without buying 10 or 12 things. I'd like to think that someday Denton will at least get a CostCo and maybe either a Central Market or a Whole Foods, but that's still gonna be a long drive. On the other hand, when we moved here, we had to drive to either Denton or Sherman just to go to a Lowe's or Home Depot, and now we have a HD in Gainesville and a Lowe's in Ardmore, so that's a hopeful sign of retail progress. Maybe decent grocery stores will keep migrating north towards us (eventually). Nancy, You're welcome. Four o'clocks are a very sentimental favorite for me. My dad had them in our back yard (in morning sun, afternoon shade), though he generally didn't grow a lot of flowers, so I always think of him when I see them. I agree that guys who y'all charged to come and hunt likely were more trustworthy and careful that some of the locals. You know what I mean! It drives me up the wall. As deer season approaches, we hear loud trucks going up and down the road all night long---guys spotlighting or at least hoping to. We don't hear those vehicles at all the rest of the year and it makes me sick that those so-called macho men (as they think of themselves) show so little regard for the law and no regard for personal property rights. We have, upon occasion, driven our car down to the end of our driveway and just sat and watched them, cell phone in hand, to make it clear we are watching and will report them. If they are going to break the laws, let them go somewhere else---we have people's home and animals scattered around here and don't need jerks firing indiscriminately into our pastures and woodlands. My other gripe? As soon as hunting season starts, we begin getting lots of fires in wildland areas and I blame careless hunters for starting those fires. There's 5 VFDs out on one of those now on a game reserve, a sixth VFD on stand-by (oops, we'd likely be next up after that!) and the game warden is on his way to another area in the game reserve to check reports of a second fire. If these guys are old enough to go out and camp and hunt, they are (or should be) old enough and mature enough to make sure all campfires are thoroughly extinguished. Not all of them are---hence the sudden spike each year in fires at the exact same time the deer hunting season begins. I think the toy trick could work. I do that with Pumpkin, who is more kitten than adult cat even now, and he's a lot younger than the other cats so he plays like mad. He does scatter the toys around, and I gather them back up and refill the toy box...and he removes them again. Yesterday I had a delivery that came in a large cardboard box, so after it was empty, I put the box in the cat room, and three of the six cats slugged it out for control of the box. They all three slept together in the box last night as none of them was willing to cede control of the box to anyone else. Who has to buy cat toys? Give Pumpkin and the other cats a cardboard box (even better, sprinkle it with a little dried catnip) and a couple of old socks and they can play for hours, or even days. I don't want to say they are easily amused, but sometimes they are. Pumpkin can amuse himself for hours just chasing leaves as they fall. I guess they are a substitute for chasing mice or something. Kim, I've only been in WInCo 3 or 4 times, and I do think I've seen the Aldi in that general area somewhere. With WInCo, I think it depends on what you're buying. They have had some good prices on fish and pork when we've been in there, and a friend of mine has switched a lot of shopping from Sam's to WinCo because they eat a whole lot of pork. I mostly went into WinCo this summer to get the Dixondale Farms melons whenever they had them in stock, which was for at least half the summer. Once our melons were ripening, I stopped buying theirs, so maybe they had them all summer but I didn't go in there after midsummer because we had our own. They also had a low-carb, low-sugar type sports drink that Chris likes better than Gatorade and Powerade, so I would go in there to buy a couple dozen bottles of that drink when he was still living here near us. He liked them for his CrossFit workouts. I don't think we have a long enough growing season for Cassava as it needs warm weather for 8-10 months. I also think that grinding down the roots into flour would be a ton more work than I'm willing to do----and you'd have to first grate the tough roots (might be possible to do it more easily with a very good, sturdy food processor) and then dry them out...and maybe grind them into flour after that? I'd be worried I wouldn't process it 'just so' and would end up with too high of a cyanide content in it. I have grown some of the ornamental varieties of Esculenta manihot, like 'Variegata', in containers and they are gorgeous plants but frost will kill them, so I think they only do well here outdoors, even in containers, for roughly 6 or 7 months. I cannot imagine it would be possible to grow cassava in the ground this far north, although....it might be possible with a hoophouse or high tunnel that is heated in the winter time. I wonder if cassava is grown in the parts of south Texas where they can plant onions as early as mid-October? They might have a long enough growing season for it down there. I kind of suspect all the cassava used in products we buy here may be imported, but haven't read the labels to see that...and our fire pagers are going off---gotta go. Dawn