We are going to be on LBK the first week in October this year. How is it down there that time of year? We usually go in the middle of summer.

Strictly food related, don't you know. : )

I put the tasty deer in my dutch oven. : )

They are so bad here that I quit gardening for several years. Those chain link panels in my picture are tied to steel posts with baling twine. Quick and easy to move out of the way. So far they have kept the deer out. I think since the garden is relatively small it feels like a trap to them.

That end of the garden gets early morning shade, especially in winter through early spring. I expect you would find a meaningful difference in soil temperature in mid April. I'm going to sell timber in the next year or two and plan on getting some of those trees cut even if I have to hire a tree surgeon to put them on the ground.

Probably would also find factors like that in big fields. Some shade from fence rows or along a roadside. Maybe not getting tilled or cultivated as well at the ends of rows if they have to stop and get a big tractor turned around.

BTW, the cabbages have fist size heads now.

I use King Arthur bread flour. I wouldn't worry about the flour too much at this point in your pie making career.

Seemed like the cool and rainy spring would never end here but it has got warm and the garden is taking off. I love this time of year.

This is what I don't get. The hamburger rolls I make have two tablespoons of sugar per dozen largish rolls. We will save our sugar consumption to eat freaking caramel sticky buns?

Some of my ex co-workers were on a strict no carb diet, except if the carbs were in cake, pie or other pastries.

The last time we ate at Outback I noted that the two couples at the next table over had ordered TWO blooming onions.

I think a fourth of one would do the two of us just fine. They should do that.

We go to Outback occasionally (1-2 times a year) and I put it firmly in the acceptable category. One of the better places to get a steak within a reasonable drive of our house.

If the HFCS doesn't kill you the gluten or sugar will.

I agree that they should have said the price if it wasn't on the menu. Most restaurants, in my experience, do when they are reciting a special that is not on the menu.

Was it a per person price?

If you do wash them use tap water as hot as your hands can stand to be in. I have read that using water warmer than the egg makes any migration of bacteria go outward.

I really have no idea if it's true but I have seen that advice many times and follow it.

As far as whether to wash them or not; if they look dirty when I gather them, I wash them.

I like open table a great deal. We seem to get better tables and service out here in the Provinces by reserving that way.

Very good. I've been on a kick lately of expanding our consumption of grits in meals other than "normal" breakfast.

I have posted here before about how to hard boil very fresh eggs so that they peel easily but I don't think anybody believed me. I'll try again.

In a sauce pan bring water to a rolling boil, take egg(s) from refrigerator and drop gently into boiling water, turn heat to low, cover and cook for however long you want. Drain water off, bang the egg(s) around in the pan. Run cool water over them. Peel.

I generally can hear the shell crack a little when I drop them in but the membrane is tough enough that I've never had any egg leak out.

This is with my homegrown eggs, ymmv.

Is the Rotelness and cheese cooked into the grits or is it a sauce on top?

It was an exercise to see how thin I could stretch dough without any yeast in it per our discussion above. It was actually quite good, I broke it up into cracker size hunks and we ate it with a salad for our dinner.

I just scanned this list again and it occurred to the reason between a large group at 98% and the middle group between 73-87% might be because of buttermilk versus sweet milk. It does take a good bit more buttermilk.

Neither one is best or correct. Try them both and see which one YOU prefer.

When I make any other kind of bread I weigh the flour and water. For biscuits I just keep adding milk a little at a time until the dough is right. Right meaning the way I like them.

They would also be very good cooked on a charcoal grill. That's my favorite way for whole red snapper.

Until it is just done. Seriously, don't go by time.

Nothing about that strikes me as being not southern.

@ debbiel: Collard greens and grits are one of my favorite combinations. On the side that is, I wouldn't mix them except as I was eating.

Thanks for that recommendation. We don't go through Forsyth that often but this place is on my list now.

A standard 30" range has always been sufficient for us but I surely do wish I had a place to put a wall mount oven.

We recently bought a new five burner range and the extra burner has not been as excellent as I thought it would be. I don't think they are arranged properly as far as BTUs.

It stretched so well I really couldn't do much with it. Finally blobbed it up on a piece of parchment paper, brushed with a little oil and sprinkled some cheddar and salt on it. Into a 550 oven and hot cast iron pan.

The cornicione was doughy but tasted pretty good in a stand over the sink and hate yourself for eating it kind of way.

I cut that off and the middle of the thing measures .060-.075 thick. Less than half the thickness of a saltine cracker.

Played around with this some today. Three ounces KA bread flour, two ounces water, a pinch of salt and a dash of olive oil. Let set in in a bowl on the counter for about four hours, stretched it with a spatula a few times.

It stretched very well.

I'm curious to know if those that are in approval of the profanity here do or would use that language in front of their own young (reading age) children or grandchildren or care if strangers do so?

Another Gulf Coast fisherman here. I would gladly pay $50, or more, for a small "genuine" Red Snapper, would not be happy to pay that for a Redfish.

When the local oysters are done for the year do they start serving Apalachicola or other Gulf oysters in Charleston?

I eat them all summer long. Pretty good to me.

You should get better scales. I assume you are going for 65% hydration but it's off a little. Need a few more digits to the right of the decimal.