Rain? Here in Georgia????????????? Are you sure it wasn't a mirage?!?! I think we had a grand total to 1.5" of rain for the entire month of August and first week in September here in NW burbs of ATL. Scott, of course you do realize that you are in BIG trouble for coming up all the way this way and not even thinking about dropping by to say hey! :-)

Dorothy, I have been watching your county on the drought maps and had noticed your usual waterfall of rain had stopped falling. At least you probably have good, residual soil moisture a few inches down which is great for the trees, although it doesn't do much for the more shallow-rooted plants, does it? Recession and drought together. Perhaps we are about to relive the 1930s. Doesn't that sound depressing? My dad told me that they lived on what they could grow during those horrible years, and about all they had to eat was red beans and corn....corn bread, corn meal mush, etc. At least they had food though. And, for the rest of his life, one of his favorite meals was red beans and corn bread and he ate it at least once a week. Jessaka, Y'all are not supposed to have drought up there is lush and lovely Tahlequah! It isn't fun, is it. I am sure you are watering enough. Your plants ought to be fine on 1 to 2" of irrigation a week. If you want to measure how much moisture you're giving them, and if you are using sprinklers, just set empty, clean cat food or tuna cans around the yard (you only need a couple) and turn on the sprinkler. Once the cans have an inch of water in them, you can turn off the sprinkler, or empty the cans and refill them again. Most winters, I only water my landscape if we're getting less than 1" of rain per month. However, because our drier than average conditions are in their 18th month here, I am trying to give the landscape area around the house 1" a week to make up for all the moisture that didn't fall in 2008. Y'all, this drought is starting to worry me. Last time it was this dry, even my native pasture grasses and forbs died and it took a long time for them to make a comback. Some of the pasture land around us where cows actually graze was so overgrazed in 2006 that it really hasn't even recovered well yet--the pastures are thin and patchy and now they're overgrazed again. I'm glad we don't have cows because, if we did, we wouldn't have anything growing for them to eat. The deepening of the drought really concerns me. Our ponds have never stayed dried through the whole winter before...even in 05-06, there was rain in Sept.-Oct. 2005 that kept water in the ponds for part of the fall and winter. This is the first time they've gone through the whole fall/winter empty. One still has a foot or so of water but it is very stagnant and yucky looking. The wild ducks are swimming on it every day though. Dawn

Beignets, if you are lucky enough to know anyone who can make them. And I guess put chicory in the coffee. I also think of "po' boy" sandwiches, shrimp or crawfish etouffee, trout Marguery, grillades, Bananas Foster, and bread pudding with whiskey sauce. If you care about being super authentic, a lot of the stuff you mentioned I think is really more Cajun than New Orleans cuisine. But I doubt your guests will be picky about that when it tastes so good!

I love bean and split pea soup, and I also try to squeeze a pot of green bean soup out of the ham bone broth. There is a German restaurant we frequent when we are in the area (an hour from here), and I always have to have the green bean soup and try to make something similar at home. I don't have a recipe, it's by-guess and by-golly. I sprouted Great Northern beans for two days and made soup with them and ham hocks yesterday. With the cold weather moving in, it's as Martha would say, "a good thing...." :-) I also like to make a Christie Brinkley recipe for "Bean Soup" which includes navy beans, cabbage, bay leaf, potatoes, carrots, celery. It's a vegetarian recipe, but it's great with a ham bone or ham hocks added to the recipe. -Grainlady