Ole Miss

Just wanted to say congrats to the Rebels for defeating Florida in the swamp - NOT!!! Where in the world did that victory come from - ooohhhh, I know - we lost 2 very good friends, Jere Barrier and Sidney Chaffin within the last few months - they were both die-hard Rebel fans and I just know that they had something to do with this - I will say this just for them (and nobody else):
Hotty Toddy - Gosh A'mighty - Who in the hell are we - hey, flem flam bim bam - Ole Miss BY DAMN!!! -
I love and miss you both!!

oh, yeah - Linda 1; Brett 3 - I'm not digging this score at all! Looks like I MAY possibly be buying my own bottle of wine to go with that lasagna BUT I'm not giving up - after the LSU game it looks like Coach Croome has finally realized that Lee needs to be our QB instead of Carroll - Wesley tried hard but he definitely needs some more work or needs to be moved into another position - hopefully they can regroup after being off this weekend and come back bigger and better - I have faith in them and I know they won't let me down!

Vidalia

This past weekend was the Jim Bowie Festival in Vidalia, LA. The Sassy Sows were the reigning champions of the BBQ contest -in fact we have won the past 2 years. We went down there with great anticipation - could we pull off a Three-peat??? We got there Friday morning and began setting up our area and prepping our ribs.

The weather was perfect - light little breeze blowing, sun shining and we did not have many love bugs to deal with. By late afternoon we had our area all decorated, the ribs were safely tucked in for the night and we were ready to relax for a while.

Brian (aka Beeve) had a surprise b'day party planned for Dr. Father Vivian down at Ubon's site Friday night. The Sassys had not one but TWO cakes hidden safely in the coach (courtesy of Baby Kay and Becky, Egg Roll's wife). Egg Roll (aka Bob) and Dale were busy cooking none other than egg rolls and sweet potatoe fries for our dining pleasure and as usual, they were both delicious (thanks guys!) We had a "ride about parade" prior to the birthday

celebration. Now this did not compare to the grocery cart parade we had in Memphis but it was still fun. As soon as the parade was over the girls (Erin & Claire) got the banner that Baby Kay made and walked around the area where the cooking teams were to round everybody up and then we wished Dr. Father Vivian a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

After this it was time to go home, rest up and get ready for the big day on Saturday.

Now, back to The Sassy Sows - we were expecting great things from our ribs that day. The color was perfect, the flavor was perfect and the tenderness was perfect. I must apologize for not having a photo of the finished product but I was too busy to stop and take one and my "official photographer" Baby Kay was busy judging. Come to find out we did not make finals but after all was said and done we came in 4th which is not bad considering the competition that was there. I have to congratulate Ubon's for taking the #1 spot in whole hog - Beeve, job well done, hog was wonderful!!!

Also, congratulations is due to Mark and 10 Bone team for taking the #1 spot in shoulder and ribs - we apparently didn't take Mark thru the drive-thru liquor store enough (and that is a private joke)! Here's the Grand Champion photo - we are very proud for you I can not end this post without showing you a photo of the winning tropical drink done by our friends at Diamond D from Newton, MS. The name of the drink is the Blue Sunomi and here it is - Tracy outdid herself this year by adding the goldfish - I would love to come up with a drink to compete with her next year but I'm not sure that I can get this creative - I'm taking any suggestions that you readers want to contribute. Her father-in-law Mike came up with the actual drink recipe and he said that there is nothing in any bartender guide that duplicates it so it is a one of a kind. Tracy was kind enough to give me the recipe so we can have this any time we want but we will never enter it in any contest - EVER!

Congratulations again to all my friends - hopefully we will all be competing against each other soon. And many thanks to Donna, Regina & Findley and their helpers for taking on the job of orgainzing the contest and taking such good care of the teams and judges - we appreciate your efforts more than you will ever know.

The Bet

After this weekend the score remains Linda 1 and Brett 2. Unless miracles happen in Oxford and Starkville I'm thinking that the bet could be decided at The Egg Bowl. Both teams have rather difficult remaining schedules (with the exception of 1 game each) so I'm not looking for any either one of us to jump out with a huge lead over the other one.

I never thought that MSU would be doing so bad this year - we didn't lose that many players from last season. We can't seem to find an offense anywhere. Yesterday we started Carroll as QB and then late in the game switched to Lee. Now Lee did get us one touchdown on the board which made losing a little less painful. There is a lot of work to be done. Come on Bulldogs, PLEASE don't let me down.

Ole Miss started off good yesterday but in true Rebel fashion gave away their lead and the game. GO REBS!!!

Good Times In The Delta

I left Jackson Thursday morning headed to Indianola. It was a perfect day for a ride thru the Delta - sunshine and good music on the radio. I love riding up there when the cotton is starting to bloom and the farmers are working in the field.

Thursday night The Gin Mill was having their first annual blues contest. They had 5 bands signed up to participate. The winner was Mark Massey Band from Senatobia. Friday and Saturday night the band entertaining us was The Legends of The Blues from Tupelo. If you ever get a chance to hear either one of these bands take it - they were both good.

Friday afternoon I did find time to go check out the BB King Museum. It was buzzing with people trying to get ready for the big party that night. I highly recommend that everyone go check it out but be sure to give youself plenty of time. They have a lot of things to look at, videos to watch, music to listen to and things to read. I'll definitely go back again as I didn't have enough time to spend there.

Kay, Pat, Donna, Tacy, Alexis & Anna Beth came up Saturday afternoon. While at The Gin Mill I got to meet a lot of interesting people - Sonny Payne was one of them. He is the host of the radio show King Biscuit Time. He has been doing this for 40+ years. In fact he had to leave early Saturday because he had to get back home to do the show. I think by far the most entertaining group that we met was the boys from Chicago - Paullie, Eric and Sammy.

I have never met a guy that owned more shoes than me but I think I have now. One of them (I will not reveal which one) has to have matching shoes with every outfit. Now I'm not dissing this by any means. I just find it quite interesting and no, he is not gay! They had a long drive on Sunday - 10 hours to get back home. Thank goodness I only had an 1 1/2 hours. After being in Indianola for 4 days, working at the bar/restaurant and virtually getting no sleep I could not wait to get back to my house and on the couch for a long nap. I'll rest up for a day or two and then I'll be ready to go again - not sure what the next adventure will be but I'll keep you all posted.

Kubbee, and Meatpies and Wine....OH MY !!!!!!!

This is my dear friend Natalie, aka "Crazy Lady", not because she is insane but because she would have to be crazy to keep up the pace in her hectic life of family, church, friends, grand kids, church, community, a full time job, church, and Dirt Cheap..........She has been promising "the girls" a Lebanese cooking demo for over a year now.....to teach us to properly prepare kubbee (aka; kibbee, cubbee, heaven in a ball) and meat pies, and the only way to learn is "hands on" because the recipe goes like this......
6# lean, lean, double ground beef that you get fresh, fresh, fresh from the Sunflower by calling D.C. the butcher and saying, "I'd like 6 pounds of Natalie's kubbee meat, please"....
He will know exactly what to do. 5 cups #2 wheat, ice water, onion, salt, pepper, allspice and cinnamon......no measurements or directions to go by, you have to go learn how to do it....and Natalie's the Kubbee Diva of the Universe (only now that Big Nat has moved up to higher ground did Baby Girl get this honor.....)


We finally settled on a night to gather and gather we did.....wine, cocktails and appetizers were first on the list of steps. We can't do anything without eating and drinking !!! We started off with a toast to the evening and our hostess....





Being Episcopal I thought the Trinity was onion, celery and bell pepper but I found out from the Kubbee Diva that the Lebanese Trinity is lean meat, onion and wheat. Add the spice and work the mixture until it is right....you take a bowl of ice and water and dip your hands into the water mixture and work the meat.....over and over until ready to place in pan, layer with filling (more meat, onion and spices cooked till very brown), then more meat on top, score and bake....or make into balls and bake or fry (we baked ours).......

The raw Kubbee must be eaten to adjust the seasoning and that is the best part. You place the raw mixture on a plate, top with the hot filling, add a dribble of extra virgin olive oil and eat with pita bread or flour tortillas......divine......









While waiting for the dishes to bake we proceeded on to make meat pies, rolled out biscuit dough with the cooked filling in the middle, crimp and bake until golden brown and serve with Lebanese cheese (like sour cream, but thicker, get at the Mediterranean grocery store)....



Delicious......by this time we are getting a bit full....... we also had heart of palm salad with red bell pepper and peppercorn ranch dressing my Big Sis brought and Natalie made her traditional salad with garlic, oil and vinegar dressing...both were wonderful................

The evening wrapped up with promises of round two demo to learn how to make Tabbouleh (wheat, mint, & tomato salad) and unleavened bread..........and more Kubbee !!!!!!!!!!

Everyone enjoyed the night immensely and we went home fat and happy !!!




The Lebanese Connection

Blues

Today I'm off to the big city of Indianola for the weekend. Kay and "the crew" will join me on Saturday. The grand opening of the BB King Museum is this weekend. Our friend Tom owns The Gin Mill Galleries located next door to the museum www.ginmillgalleries.com. He is having a blues contest this week and I'm going to help him in the restaurant/bar. The festivites at the museum kick off on Saturday www.bbkingmuseum.com. Check out both websites for music details - if you get time ride on up - there will be great entertainment all weekend.

Sad Day

Today has been a very sad day for me. One year ago today I had to put my dog to sleep. Hard to believe it has been that long - seems like yesterday. I still miss her terribly but I know in my heart that I did the right thing. She was 13 years old and had a wonderful life. I miss you Miche!

Pay ME!

For those of you that read http://www.spectacular-toast.blogspot.com/ you know that Brett & I have a bet on the football seasons of MSU and Ole Miss. For reasons unknown to me he thinks that I am going to lose this bet.

I must point out that Ole Miss could have and should have won this past weekend against Wake Forest but in true Ole Miss fashion they chose to give the game away in the second half - not only in the second half but how about in the last quarter - oh, no, wait, it was actually in the last minute of the game - go Rebs!

MSU on the other hand put on a good show and won their game 34-10.

I'm thinking that 12 year old bottle of cabernet sauvignon I'm going to win will go nicely with my homemade lasagna.

Tales of the road trip

Well, Linda & I had a great weekend in Shreveport. Friday night we went out down town where the festival was going on. We went to The Blind Tiger for drinks and dinner. I was sadly disappointed in the food. Linda ordered a cup of gumbo and crab cakes. I tasted the gumbo and I have to say it was the worst I have ever had. You would think that a coon-ass could cook good gumbo but I'm here to tell you those in that kitchen could not. Perhaps they had some transplants from another state or country. The crabcakes were also terrible. They were definitely the frozen kind that you would find at Captain D's. I had a grilled chicken breast topped with a slice of tomato and melted swiss cheese and it was okay, my salad was bagged lettuce (YUK!!!). The drinks, however, were great but it is hard to screw up a Johnny Walker Black & water. After that we ventured out into the streets where the bands were playing. We found the most delightful little bar and hung inside there for a while. I did document the night with my brand new camera and like I've said before - I've got to figure out how to download the pictures, maybe I need a computer/camera class??? I'll try to get on that some time this week - I got some really good photos at the concert that I want you all to see.