You should check out the produce auctions in Shilo and Homerville. Do a websearch for either and you'll get the schedules. There's also one in Mt. Hope, but I haven't been to that one.

It's a big state. Can you specify a region?

We ate at SOHO South last week and very much liked it.

I did a search here and couldn't find a thread re: which are the Junior League cookbooks one should have. (I'm especially interested in, but not exclusively interested in, Southern Cooking.)

I have Charleston Receipts, Talk about Good II, River Road Recipes, Savannah Style, The Plantation Cookbook, Some Like it South, Simply Simpatico,

Are there any obvious ones I'm missing...Junior League Cookbooks that are considered "must have"?

Bombay Sitar is very good. Also, there is a very good italian restaurant in a totally beat, nearly abandoned shopping strip out from North Canton. I gotta run but I'll look it up when I get back.

The brats at West Side Market. Nick's on Lorain at 41st. Ohio Burrito. Sandwich shop right around the corner from OB that I haven't tried but my kid says is good. Souper Market. You can probably come in at just over $10 at University Inn for a lot of food.

I agree....something wrong with the fridge. I wonder if the door didn't close tightly.

I put hot off the stove stock in the fridge and have never had a problem like that Thanks describes.

Thanks, everyone, for the replies.

I've noticed that cake recipes can differ quite a bit with respect to the amount of flour, even when the same number of the same size pans are the same and for the same type of cake.

What's the story here? My concern is that the recipes with lots of flour are more likely to be drier.

When I put just a bit of oil in my 10" cast iron pan it doesn't coat the pan evenly. Rather it runs to the perimeter of the pan leaving the center high and dry. Did I warp my pan somehow or is this normal with cast iron pans?

I'm still not clear why you tipped a full 20% after all that.

In Savannah, you should try Masada Cafe at the United House of Prayer. I haven't done Mrs. Wilke's but have heard the wait can be long. Not so at Masada Cafe and hard to imagine the food would be any better.

I did cream the butter and sugar. Thanks for the insights about the eggs.

I made a yellow cake for my wife's birthday yesterday and it came out fine except that I thought it was a bit tough/dense. Not dry or overcooked. Recipe had four eggs, 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of butter, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup milk and the usual other stuff (salt, baking powder, vanilla).

Might a denser crumb be the nature of this cake/recipe (e.g., nobody expects a light, airy carrot cake)? Or might I have mixed the batter too much/too long with my new Kitchen Aide mixer (a definite possibility)?

We've been canning quarts of tomato sauce (tomato only...nothing else added) using the water bath method. We haven't been adding citric acid or lemon juice. I'll vouch for all our other methods, e.g., sterile jars, hot temperature sauce, adequate canning time (40 minutes).

Assuming we take pains to adequately cook the sauce, i.e., heat it to boiling for an adequate time before eating the stuff, do the veteran canners think we'll be OK?

I will say we've canned just this way in previous years and eaten the product with no ill effects. I just want to know how much I should worry, if at all.

From here on out, I'm going to start adding lemon juice or citric acid but I'm hoping I don't have to toss out what we've done.

Very good reviews. You have a good style.

I have one question, though....who visits Charleston and goes to a Thai restaurant? :-)

In Charleston, you should get out to Gullah Cuisine for the lunch buffet. It's on Hwy 17 in Mt. Pleasant. Also, good in Mt. Pleasant is Boulevard Diner and Page's Okra...something. Maybe Cafe. The Wreck in Mt. Pleasant is kind of hard to find without a GPS but worth it. Great ambiance on Shem Creek. I'm not as familiar with the places, new or old, on Sullivan's Island but they seem to get good reviews on Yelp, etc. and the ambiance is good.

In Savannah, you must get to Masada Cafe at the United House of Prayer for All People. You read that right. You'll love it and, trust me, you'll be the only out of towners there. Also in Savannah, the Sweet Potato Kitchen.

There's a great post in some of the "looking for good places to eat along I-95" threads in this forum that lists lots of out of the way places in the low country.

There was an article in Saveur magazine about some of the soul food restaurants in North Charleston that I subsequently found online. I didn't get to try any on our last trip but definitely will in the future. You'll certainly not be bumping elbows with tourists or surbanites in North Charleston.

The places downtown C'ton and S'nah are great but you and 10,000 other tourists already know that. Get to some of the out of the way places, some of which the suburbanites don't get to (My niece's Savannah in-laws didn't even know about Masada Cafe.), and you'll both get some really good food and be able to impress even the locals with your foodie knowledge.

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Boulevard Diner
1978 Maybank Hwy, Charleston, SC 29412

Gullah Cuisine
1717 U.S.1717 U.S. 17, Mt Pleasant, SC 29464

The Crazy Donkey is in the small strip next to a Walgreen's across from the Enmark Gas. Very good, honest Mexican food. Some of the best I've had. Known for their tres leches cakes.

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Crazy Donkey Mexican Grill
108E Chestnut St, Brevard, NC 28712

Great advice. Thanks.

Thanks to everyone who has replied. Turns out that we're going to need to go a different route after all on this trip but we'll be making other trips between Jax and Cleveland, so this info will definitely come in handy in the future.

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Jax
8205 Victoria Lake Dr, Waxhaw, NC 28173

My wife and I are traveling the back roads from Jax to Asheville this week and I'm just checking to see if there's a fish camp or southern/soul food restaurant that's a "must stop". Absent any other suggestions, we'll stop at Coleman's Lake Fish Camp, where I've been once before. Anything that good or better that we oughta check out?

Just got a new Mixer yesterday afternoon and already made two batches of cookies and a cake.

Question: I notice at low speeds, a heavy batter (cookies) pretty much hangs on to the flat paddle. I worry that not much mixing is actually occurring. Should I worry?

Also, at slow speeds with heavy batters, the machine will begin to shake, rattle, and roll a bit. Is this a concern?

Thanks.

Smoked ham is cooked and just needs to be heated.

I save it but end up tossing it out after the can is full. What can one use it for and does it require any prep?

Even when I ask the butchers they don't seem to have a great answer. "One has the bone in and the other is semi-boneless." Or something like that.

Gullah Cuisine on Hwy 17 just south of the big "mall" on the east side of the road for lunch buffet.

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Gullah Cuisine
1717 U.S.1717 U.S. 17, Mt Pleasant, SC 29464

Crazy Donkey in Brevard. Very good Mexican food. Often full of Mexican workers when I've been in there.

It's just as your coming in to Brevard from Pisgah Forest in the small shopping strip w/ the Walgreens.

We do the microwave approach. Not always perfect but never completely gummed up. It's on the Mahatma site.

Thank you. All responses were helpful. Any suggestions as to amounts? I gather from the posts below that a little goes a long way with these products. Is that the case?

Thank you. This was very helpful.