Tom's lunch

It's a good thing Gin Mill has a variety of selections for both shopping and eating. While we were munching away on our delicious muffaletta, Tom was propped up at the bar enjoying his lunch. Oh yeah, baby, cold beer and monkey dicks, it don't get no better than that......

P.S. Linda called and questioned the MD lingo?? I thought everybody in the south new that Vienna sausage were called "monkey dicks" maybe it was only in my family?? Let me know.....................

Delta Tripin'

Every year for my birthday (yes, it's still going on.....), My buddy P.A.T. demands we take a delta road trip and drink bloody Mary's or vodka crans, eat lunch, and cruise up Hwy 61 to Merigold, Ms the home of the famous "McCarty Pottery" to purchase my birthday piece. http://www.mccartyspottery.com/home.html Check the site to view the history of this one of a kind, made from Mississippi River Clay pottery that is all the rage and a delta must have......

We both have an extensive collection, but that's a whole nuther post of it's own.




Donna Jean joined us for the "girl trip" and we headed out Saturday morning with drinks in hand, bugs on the windshield and money burning our pockets. Pat got us washed up and ready for adventure.
First stop was our friend Tom Bingham's Gin Mill Gallery in Indianola, MS. http://www.ginmillgalleries.com/ Check the website and get information on the 1st Annual Gin Mill Jam happening Sept. 9 -12, 2008 in hand with the Grand Opening of the B.B. King Museum html.bbkingmuseum.org/flash.html which happens to be a stone's throw away from Tom's place. Anyhoo, the Gin Mill has art, blues CD's, handcrafted pottery and woodwork, t-shirts, pepper jelly, cards and postcards, you just never know what new and clever item might slip into the Gin Mill. The juke joint is attached and serves lunch sandwiches, BBQ, all kinds of good eats. The weekend brings live blues and/or rock & roll bands to life and on Sunday there is a killer lunch plate and Sunday night is grill night..... We opted for the muffaletta sandwich, potato salad and pickle spear. Gin Mill makes one of the best muffaletta's in the delta, it will cure the craving until you can get down to the Big Easy . Donna Jean had grilled chicken breast po-boy, pasta salad and pickle spear and it was equally delightful, especially with a few cold Bud Light longnecks, just like DJ likes them, cold, cold, cold......






Hug, hug, kiss, kiss to Tom and we're off to Merigold. With our purchases out of the way, we fixed another cocktail and went site seeing. The old Merigold water tower stands tall and proud as we are leaving town. Back on Hwy 61, the blues highway, we stop for a photo op.......... Now we are officially "road ........" woman of the road, I should say.

On thru Cleveland, MS we traveled and hit a couple of downtown shops. Our usually drinking buddies in Cleveland were all out of pocket so we continued back toward Yazoo................



Back in Indianola we ran across a few sites that could only be found in the delta. This creative mailbox has been placed in front of one of our old friend boy's house since our last visit.


I'm more of a Chevy girl, but I have to give ol' Richard a big Ford shout out for classic style (the caddy) and cunning use of motor chassis and hubcaps..............you must click on the photo for maximum laughability.....On the right is a sign that had been placed outside of an old church and we couldn't resist getting it on film. This was actually in downtown, not off the beaten path somewhere....





We had a glorious afternoon of laughs, eat, drinks and good conversation and some

great Delta music. We cranked up my buddy Eden Brent's new CD, Mississippi No. 1, and that's the highway Eden grew up on outside of Greenville....http://edenbrent.com/ and she boogie woogie'd us back home .

Eden's a sweet magnolia just like us.........

Shreveport

I've got good news------I bought a digital camera (Olympus E510) before I left Jackson so I have been able to document my weekend in Shreveport. So far it has been a blast. As soon as I figure out how ot down load the pictures I'll post some (that may take a few days though).
The big concert is tonight. Emmy Lou Harris and Delbert McClinton will both be there and rumor has it that Willie Nelson will too. How cool will that be????? I can't wait! I'm not sure that you can take cameras in but I'm going to try. Keep your fingers crossed.

Road Trip

As most of you know my friend Linda moved from Jackson to Shreveport a few months ago. I have not seen her since the move so this weekend I will be going over for a visit. We were having a dilemma as to what to do. She hasn't lived there long enough to know the town and hasn't met a lot of people. Well, to our amazement she found out there is a festival going on downtown and that is what our entertainment will be for the weekend. She was going at noon to purchase our tickets but as luck would have it she won some on the radio this morning! I think that is a sure sign that this is where we are supposed to be this weekend. Here's the website
http://www.jamesburtonmusic.com/index.html - check it out. One of my FAVORITE musicians of all time will be there - Delbert McClinton. I have not heard him in quite some time and am really looking forward to it. I hope if I get to meet him again he does not remember me from our first encounter as "the friend of the girl with all the panties" (yep, that would be Mary Lee) - she pulled one pair out of her purse for him to autograph, then another - he looked at her and said "damn, girl, how many pair of panties do you have in that purse?" and then he signed each and every pair.
I now have another dilemma - I do not have a digital camera to document the weekend - I'm thinking that I must go purchase one on my way out of town - hhhhhmmmmmmm!!!!
Tune in next week - there will be photos and stories to share.
Have a good, safe weekend!

Leo's Rule !!!!!!!

I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to help me celebrate my birthday with style and grace. Being "the LEO" that I am, my birthday is all about ME......centered around ME....and last a whole month, at least. Usually it runs from my first present received, which this year my super efficient friend Delta Mae that lives up on the big River at Memphis sent me some cool Elvis stuff before August even arrived...........go Mae !! And I'm sure I have a couple more gifts out there to stretch the celebration on out till Labor Day !!



Linder (see post below) came and slept over, my friends all met for cocktails and good eats and then we ventured out to the local bar and drank and danced the night away with "High Frequency". Great dance band !! Darell only dropped me on the dance floor once, but we recovered nicely !!

Sunday started out with "crack" coffee, which consist of good strong Community Coffee, with a touch of Half & Half, Kahlua, and Bailey's Irish cream or any combination of your choice. I just happen to receive both liquors for gifts........are my friends great or what?? That helped ease the bad head from the fun night out. My hubby and his friend Sam treated us all to a birthday fish fry Sunday afternoon. Much beer and fried white perch were consumed and people trickled by through out the afternoon, we had several shifts and the "boys" cooked mess after mess of fish !!

We had plenty of filets but the best is "butterfly" White Perch, it gives all the flavor of whole fish on the bone, which is the BEST way to go, but you don't have to pick with the nasty bones. Here is a good shot of a standing perch.......they didn't last long.



The day ended with everyone fat and full and headed home to start a new week.....but I have a feeling my celebration is NOT OVER YET !!!!! I"ll keep ya posted........bug

Weekend Fun

This Sunday, August 17th will be my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. I am taking them and some other family members to dinner at Bone Fish Grill Saturday night. I haven't been there in a while and am looking forward to it - the food is really good. After dinner I will be motoring on over to Yazoo City because the 17th is also Cudi Bug's birthday. We will be celebrating the 19th anniversary of her 30th birthday. "The Widow Woman" has invited the girls over for a birthday celebration. On Sunday Darell has promised to cook us some fried fish that he personally caught at Wolf Lake. We'll have photos and stories to tell on Monday I'm sure - have a good weekend and tune in next week!

Update

Just thought I'd remind everybody that it is only 14 more days until football season starts - woooo hooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Thursday Night Beer Club is shaping up nicely - we will be meeting at The Bulldog on Ridgewood Road (how could you possibly go wrong with a name like that??) on the 28th at 6:00 - anyone interested in eating, drinking, and college football should come join us.

thought for the day

My friend Brett sent me an email that had several motivational posters. I just had to share this one with you all.

Makes you go "hhhhhmmmmmm"

Here's something to ponder - what is one to do when one has to put one's self on movie probation?? I joined Netflix a couple of months ago and so far I have done nothing but pick crappy movies. The write up on all of them sounded good and they had good actors in them but I have yet to say "damn, that was a good movie". Perhaps I should just go back to reading books. Any suggestions???

Salmon Fax Paux

Well, I guess I'll have to tell on myself for my culinary talents gone awry.......

My hubby loves Salmon Croquettes and my mom gave me a very quick and easy recipe years ago that I love to do for a quick summer meal. (recipe at the bottom of post for those interested). I had stopped at the Yazoo Market and picked up fresh new potatoes, when we have croquettes you MUST have new potatoes with butter and green beans as side dishes, Why you ask? ...well, because that's the way "momma always did it".....it is one of my favorite meals !! Any how, I whipped up my salmon mixture (RED salmon only, please !! Why you ask??? see above) and fried up some beautiful croquettes, potatoes were done, green beans cooked down greasy with bacon drippings, and a fresh ripe tomato from Hubby's bucket garden. The perfect summer meal, OH WAIT......I need some type of sauce for my croquettes. I have several I like with them, comeback sauce or Danrie's dressing are favorites but I didn't have either on hand. Sometimes I just squeeze fresh lemon juice on top and let it go at that. But while the small town girl was visiting Linder in the "Big City" we went to the fancy grocery store and I picked up some small capers since they are hard to find in Yazoo. I took a little mayo and a little sour cream, added some lemon juice and a sprinkle of dill weed and mixed well. Then I got my little jar of capers and added about a Tablespoon of them to set it off. Our plates looked lovely and Hubby and I sat down to dine. I tasted my salmon croquette and first thought "man that caper is a little tough to the bite".....then I thought "gosh, something in my sauce is spicy and hot"....... Hubby agreed but thought it was delicious and I agreed.....the more I tasted the more I realized that those were not your ordinary capers...........they were "Green Peppercorns" in a vinegar base and jarred to LOOK just like small capers.....I ran and checked the label and proved myself correct. Our meal was still delicious, in fact they gave my sauce a great zing !!

Easy Salmon Croquettes
1 can RED salmon (11oz) preferable Pillow Rock
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
salt & pepper to taste

mix salmon, salt, pepper, & beaten eggs. Sift flour with soda and add to mixture.
Drop batter from a spoon into deep, hot fat (325). Fry until golden brown, turning
once. Drain on paper and serve with lemon garnish. Serves 6

Sweet!

I have to say congratulations to Elizebeth Ann & Dave Shipp on the birth of their first baby - Annadell. Elizabeth Ann is Trudy's neice. The baby is one week old today. Isn't she just precious????

This could be a future Sassy Sow-------------

Just shoot me NOW!!

I have been in an insurance class for the past 2 days. Unfortunately I have to endure this pain once a year so that I can keep my license and my CIC designation. This class is on property - do you know how boring that crap is? The only way to teach a class on this is to go thru and read the actual policy forms (you should only do this when you are having trouble going to sleep at night, it is the cure for insomnia). PLEASE, won't someone come and get me out of my misery-----------------and the real tragedy is I had to pay $400 to do this. If it had not been for my "find a word" puzzle book I wouldn't have survived. 2 days down and one more to go - HELP ME!!!

Football

OH JOY!!! - Do you realize that we only have 23 more days until college football starts?? I can hardly stand it!! Do you really know just how excited I am about this???? Not being able to watch football for 6+ months is just cruel punishment. Maybe this year I'll record some games to get me thru the off season next year (withdrawals are HELL). And with football comes Thursday Night Beer Club. We used to do this on Wednesdays. We took turns picking out the bar for the next week so we ended up checking out some places that we might not have normally gone to - it was quite interesting. I'll post more detail on TNBC as it gets closer to the first game (did I mention that was August 28th?). I only hope that my team, MS State, does good this year and makes it to another bowl game - GO DAWGS!!!!!

P.A.T's Equation

Linda and I tried to hook up this weekend at the Grillin' for Life BBQ contest in Madison, MS but I just had too many irons in the fire. I just don't think the school year should start before Labor Day is even close to being here, it is WAY too firecracker HOT in Mississippi to be buying school shoes, uniforms, notebooks, etc. SOOO....I spent the weekend cleaning house, throwing out old stuff and getting the slate clean for the new semester.

At least on Saturday night I got to have a little F.U.N at P.A.T's house. P.A.T is our dear friend that is crazy as a loon, fun as all get out, can drink us under the table, keeps us all together when there is a crisis, nurtures all the kids, lines out the husbands, you know "that Friend".......

P.A.T. is also the one who opens up her house and patio and has the WHOLE HEE HAW GANG over to party, eat, socialize, eat, talk, eat, drink some more, eat. This week I'm giving her equation for a Saturday night social.

1st step is she invites EVERYBODY..........young and old, blind cripple or crazy from eight to eighty (if Uncle Jack is there we have a 90yr old).

At left is my mom, The Big "O" (86) and Anna Beth (6) The Baby Girl. We had everyone in between to come for drinks and hor devours'. Tacy brought some boiled shrimp to start us off

....that was Step 2.... Drinks & hor devours' ......

Step 3: P.A.T. has learned the best and economic way to feed the brood is with a whole beef tenderloin. The Belle's marinate and trim the meat, we get the guys to crank up the grill, sear it up good, wrap in foil and cook until thickest side is rare. Throw in salad, green bean casserole, rolls, and I whipped up hash brown potato casserole that would make you "slap yo mamma", though no one did, or Big "O" would have had a hissy fit right then and there...... The meat was cooked to perfection and no one left P.A.T.s hungry.....so remember

Friends + Food + Drink + P.A.T = F.U.N.................

BBQing

Kay & Darell, wimped out on me Friday morning and did not come over for the BBQ. I had good intentions of going Friday evening but I got sidetracked and didn't make it. I did, however, go check it out Saturday afternoon and boy am I glad I did! Our friends, Ubon's, won Grand Champion. This was their first time to cook in a KCBS (Kansas City BBQ Society) contest so to get Grand was quite an acomplishment. We are so proud for them. I just hope this doesn't mean that they are "crossing over".
In true Ubon's fashion we got to see the famous (or shall I say infamous??) X-Man. Check him out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8whE27DJnc, it is definitely worth your time.
Sorry, Beeve, it just had to be documented (thanks to Doc & Leslie for the video).

bloggin'

As you can see Kay & I are not very good at posting on our blog. Bear with us, we are beginners, neither one of us have a computer at home and you know from 8:00-5:00 this work thing gets in our way. Oh, well-------------until one of us wins the lottery I guess it will continue to be that way but look out if we ever do----------I'll be sitting on a beach on some remote island with an umbrella drink in my hand and some hot boy fanning me with a palm branch or maybe I'll be fanning him, you just never know.

The pasta last Friday night was exceptional. I found the recipe on http://www.foodtv.com/. I wish I had a picture of it to show you but I am still in the world of camera and film. It was a beautiful dish and the taste was superb - in fact, Julie said she thought it was the best thing I had ever cooked for them (and that's saying a lot).

Saturday at the lake was quite nice. I was dreading going out there since we had been having 100 degree temps but there was a nice breeze blowing and to our surprise the fan that had been under water for months (because of the flood) had dried out and was still in working order. The kids rode on the intertube, the adults played horseshoes, we ate BBQ and went home - quite enjoyable and uneventful. Anna Beth was our entertainment.

This weekend may prove to be another story. There is a BBQ contest in town and our friend's at Ubon's are cooking. The Sassys are not cooking because this is a KCBS and we do not participate in that. They cook chicken, brisket, boston butt, and pork ribs (and you have to cook all 4). I'm going out tonight to check them out and see who is being the Bad Roark. My money is on Leslie - she does a great job but we all knew she would, she had a great teacher (Elaine). I'll definitely give a report on Monday - hate I don't have a digital camera in case anything needs documenting.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend!