Yes Annie, I totally "went off the wagon" diet wise this weekend, but we walked like 5+ miles each day. Back and forth to the hotel. That has to count for something! The chargrilled oysters are grilled in the half-shell, then drizzled with garlic butter and parm cheese. You would think this would overpower the oysters, but it didn't; they tasted like little grilled steaks. To die for! Usually I don't like my oysters messed with, just straight-up, raw on the half-shell, but these were sublime. I bought Uncle Bubba's cook book and he was there giving autographs, so I got it signed! It was worth it...some really good recipes in there and not as ooey-gooey as some of Paula's recipes.

Olychick, you are right, that is the best explanation for how I feel and how I want to reply to Magglepuss. I am taking the liberty of copying and pasting here. By Janus Adams, Emmy Award-winning journalist, historian and producer When news first broke of Paula Deen's indelicate turns of phrase, I ignored it. C'mon. What American hasn't used the word [the N word]? We teach children the word each time Mark Twain's Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer are assigned in class. After the initial headlines, there came anecdotes so salacious that she was a no-show on The Today Show, where she'd been scheduled to give a mea culpa and get on with her life. Through it all, my admiration never waned for her along with Martha Stewart and B. Smith, women who'd turned housework into home-making, built empires and given millions of women immense pride in the work they do for their families. Then, I heard Ms. Deen speak of her great-grandfather's having gone into a barn and shot himself because the Civil War had been lost and "he didn't know how to deal with life with no one to help operate his plantation." "There was 30-something people on his books and the next year's census it's like zero," she told a live audience. "He couldn't deal with those kinds of changes." Never did she mention the price paid by Blacks, pre- and post-change, over centuries of enslavement and segregation. She did say that "Black folks were such an integral part of our lives; they were like family." She even called a Black male employee, Hollis Johnson, "black as a board" onstage. "We can't see you standing against that dark board," she joked. To Matt Lauer on The Today Show, she offered her critics a self-serving monologue and a defiant "I is what I is, and I'm not changing!" Hence, this open letter: Dear Ms. Deen, I know that you're in great pain at this time. Your world -- and everything you've worked for -- has been rocked. Much as it was for your great-grandfather, it must seem that life has brought "terrific changes." I cannot, however, sympathize with the plight of your great-grandfathers who, for centuries, victimized mine. I will not mourn the "way of life" lost to those who joined the Ku Klux Klan, lynch mobs and "picnics" where white families spread blankets, shared baskets and "picked [n-word]" to dangle as "strange fruit" from their hanging-trees. You are suffering because you refuse to understand that lives have been lost to the "I is what I is" mentality in which you take such pride. Given a forum, you gave a diatribe. "Someone evil out there saw what I had worked for and they wanted it." Do you understand that millions of hard-working people only want to hear you say: "I said the things I said. I was wrong. I'm willing to learn and to grow?" Given a lifeline, you chose a lie when you said the only time in 30 years you used the word [n-word] was when a Black man had you at gunpoint in a bank robbery. Playing to stereotypes instead of humility, you sought to justify bigotry. Forget worrying that what some say about you isn't true; it's what you're saying about you that's causing outrage. Do you know what it means to me, a dark-skinned person, to watch a man who looks like me publicly humiliated for his skin tone? His family had to see that. What were you thinking? Should you tolerate being "white as puss?" If you won't, should I sneer at you for being politically correct? Your laugh-line was the work denied me for being "dark enough to offend." "Were you 5' 9" and blonde, I would've hired you in a minute," said one network news executive. Your employee's humiliation was my first day of college. A white dorm mother had me stand for inspection -- as if on an auction block -- to give my assigned white roommate's parents the option of having me removed from "their daughter's room." My family paid the same tuition with no such option. And, do you really think a wedding celebrating the heyday of plantation life is a good idea? No, Ms. Deen, this isn't just about the N-word. It's about the picnics of your youth. It's about your lack of remorse -- or compassion -- today. It's about your timing. You misused your platform for self-pity two days after George Zimmerman's defense attorney opened a murder trial in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, dark-skinned teen, with a knock-knock joke. This is about what you're willing to do for yourself, for the millions of people who've believed in you and the thousands whose livelihoods depend on your "brand." And, it's about your caring enough about them to use your pain to move others toward the healing our nation so desperately needs and rightly deserves. Sincerely, Janus Adams

I sent this one yesterday to country bumpkin and it's the one I have used quite a few times. Smoked Sausage Jambalaya So very good, so Louisiana style good. You are not going to believe how easy this dish is to prepare. Serves: 6 Cook Time: 30 Minutes Smithfield Product: Dinner Sausage Ingredients 1/2 pound Smithfield Smoked Sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices 2 1/2 cups water 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce 1 bay leaf 3 tablespoons dried minced onion 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 3 beef bouillon cubes, crumbled 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup long-grain rice 1/2 to 3/4 pound medium, fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined. Steps In a Dutch oven add water, tomatoes, tomato sauce. Add dry ingredients, smoked sausage and rice. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add shrimp and cook for an additional 5 minutes, or until shrimp are pink. You do not want to overcook the shrimp. A tip from Paula: Never cook the shrimp before you add it to the jambalaya. You want all of the wonderful shrimp flavors to cook into your jambalaya and cooking it before would make the shrimp overcooked (rubbery). Shrimp cooks so quickly, it is best to add it at the last few minutes.

I don't really like Paula Deen either...I hate the way she portrays the southern woman. Many people will look at her (idiot acting) ways and think that all southern women act and talk like her. orie I think the same thing especially when I see food on her chin or coming out the corner of her mouth. Glenda I think I saw on the food network a show about the waffles and fried chicken...seems like a restaurant that stayed open late for the late night crowd invented the chicken and waffle meal. Their two big meals that people ordered were waffles or fried chicken after a night out and lots of partying (drinking. Gladys Knight and Ron Winans have a place in Atlanta but I don't think they were the original ...I'll have to check that out. Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken and Waffles