"... are you Southern or do you just appreciate the finer things in live ...." It's the latter. Somehow I found out how good Southern cooking can be. For a while now I've been trying to learn as much as I can about it, both how to grow it and how to cook it. My garden has things like cow peas, butter beans, okra, mustard greens and turnip greens in it. It's not easy for a Northerner to learn these things because there is so much a Southern "just knows" about the food that he or she doesn't realize is totally absent from a Northerner's experience. And much of the basic terminology is different. Peas for example, doesn't mean the same thing in the South that it does in the North. To a Southerner peas means cow peas, crowders, whippoorwill peas and the like, which are actually beans but are never called beans. To a Northerner peas are what Southerners call English peas, a term never used in the North. That's just the beginning. BTW, the cornbread recipe is from "Butter Beans to Blackberries" by Ronni Lundy. Jim Here is a link that might be useful: Butter Beans to Blackberries

Tuna Causa Potato base: 3 large potatoes 1/3 cup olive oil ají amarillo powder salt and white pepper Boil, peel, and mash the potatoes. Add the olive oil a bit at a time, to taste and until it has a nice smooth consistency. Season with salt, pepper, and the ají amarillo to taste - you could also use chopped or pureed fresh peppers - this is a mild yellow pepper (spicier than a bell pepper, but mild). Form it into the base of your presentation on a platter and chill in the refrigerator for ½-1 hour just to firm it up a bit. This dish is generally served cold or room temperature, though IÂve seen hot causas on a few menus. Tuna layer: 3 cans of tuna (I like to use the water packed) 1 small red onion, chopped mayonnaise salt and white pepper This is pretty much just a simple tuna salad. Mash the tuna, add the onions, and enough mayonnaise just to make it moist and hold together. Season to taste. Assembly: Potato base Tuna salad 1 tomato, seeded and diced 1 avocado, peeled and sliced 1 rocoto or other medium hot pepper 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced chopped black olives chopped parsley juice of 1 lemon You should have a nice, firm mashed potato base to build on. Layer the tuna salad on top of it. Top with chopped tomato and parsley. Lay a layer of avocado slices on top of that, sprinkle or brush with the lemon juice so they maintain their color. Then the hard boiled egg slices (you can hard boil your eggs along with your potatoes above, just donÂt leave them in the water the entire time) and the pepper rings. Scatter the chopped olives over the top of it. Set it on the table, ooh and ahh a little, dig in.

This is a recipe I picked up from the South Beach Diet forum. Baked Oat meal 1/2 cup olive oil 2/3 cup splenda (I think Splenda is bitter so I use Wheylow) 2 eggs 3 cups dry oatmeal 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup fat free milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon baking powder Wisk oil, splenda, and eggs. Add cinn, baking powder, salt, vanila and wisk again. Add oatmeal then milk and mix. Spray 9X9 cooking pan with non-stick spray. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Serving size 1/2 cup. VERY YUMMY! Variation: 1/4 c canola oil and 1/4c unsweetened applesauce, and 1/2c skim milk and 1/2c of plain yogurt. I did use 2 eggs. I think my glass baking dish is 8x8, and I baked it @350 for 30 mins. I think I could have baked it even longer to get 'crispier', but it came out great as is. small variation (not that this excellent recipe needs it) however since i have a piece of this daily it's nice to mix it up now again. I omit the cinnamon add 1/2 of blueberries, substitute the olive oil for 1 cup of apple sauce (I have those individual cup apple sauce on hand and use one whole one, i think its a cup. I have added a tablespoon of canola oil as well sometimes 2. Whey low brown sugar sprinked on top is nice too. Blueberries are in season and really go well with oatmeal. I make this recipe weekly and use it as a tote-able snack. Here's a link to the Wheylow site. Meg :) Here is a link that might be useful: Wheylow Sugar Substitute

Carol heres one for you if you like italian sauces I make up a big batch of this tomato sauce and freeze it in serving sized containers. You can use any vegetables that you have on hand 1 large onion clove garlic crushed stick of celery small green capsicum small red capsicum mushrooms carrot, brocoli large tin crushed tomatoes couple of spoons of tomato paste bottle or tin of tomatoe puree chicken stock cube herbs fresh or dry It doesn't matter if you chop them up fine or chunky, its up to you and what you prefer Start with the onion and garlic in a big pan with no oil, sweat them, just stir it till onion is clear then add the other vegetables till combined and stir to stop them sticking Add the crumbled stock cube tomatoes and tomato paste and puree and allow to simmer with lid on pan for an hour or so. Take lid of pan and continue to simmer until sauce thickens stirring occasionally. When done you cook up some pasta 10 minutes only drain put it in the base of a deep baking pan. Put leftover chicken on top then the sauce on top and bake in mod oven for 15 minutes. No fat at all except whats in the chicken! Also grated low fat cheese sprinkled on top before baking if desired and you can use this with veal and other left overs or just use the sauce on its own for a vegi meal.