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'm originally from the village of Metamora in Michigan. I haven't lived in MI since 78' and a lot has changed since. My idea of classic regional is skewed. Most of the family and people my parents associated with then were very much into hunting, fishing and all sports. No one I knew as a child frequented restaurants except maybe a hamburger in a bar. We had one wealthy friend who took us to a steak house once. There was a slant towards German style foods and Irish. Also, it all depended on the time of year and the hunting and fishing season. We had venison, pheasant, wild goose, rabbit and fried fish. Sometimes turtle stew or bear jerky. On Sundays there was roast beef dinners. In the summer everyone got together for cookouts where a few of the above meats and fish was brought as well as hotdogs in the skin and there was always a few different types of potato salad, macaroni salad, many kinds of relishes, garden items, there was always fresh ground bologna salad and sometimes blueberry and rhubarb pie. Wisconsin Colby cheese with Ritz crackers were popular as well as Canadian pepper cheese. In between having wild game or fish there was always pots of ham and potatoes stew, and an American version of goulash made with ground beef. In my teen years after the parents divorce most of my food consumption came from a can unless I was at grandmas house and she could have been a famous chef. I'm now in Florida in an area where everyone is from somewhere else. There is a big mix of cuisines. I cannot think of one dish that would be considered regional.

That makes sense, Annie, since the pan was full. I made the recipe yesterday, and here's what I used for cornbread batter: 1 egg 3/4 cup cornmeal 1/2 tsp salt 5/8 cup (1/2 cup plus 2 tbls) buttermilk Beat the egg in a small bowl until frothy. Add the cornmeal, salt, and baking soda and stir to combine thoroughly. Add the buttermilk and stir well. Oh, and I used t tbsp of dried oregano instead of 1 tsp, and I used red beans instead of pinto. Also, I used chilies from my yard, which included one jalapeno, one Tabasco, one Anaheim, and one Serrano, and I used two cloves of garlic. Also, I used ground turkey instead of beef, and the package had 1-1/4 pounds. I was afraid it was going to be too much, but everything fit in the pan in the end. I used the last of my Ancho chili powder (which I had bought at Penzeys), and so now I have to get more. After the meat had simmered, I adjusted the salt. Actually, I used Better Than Bouillon chicken base instead of salt, but that is just a personal preference. I would have used vegetable base, but I was out. I know it is a flavor enhancer, but I still like it! Kevin liked this recipe a bit too much, and so we barely had leftovers. I told him it was supposed to make four servings, but there is less than one third of it left. Lars