Serge's Southern Chicken Salad

If you haven't read him, read Tim Dorsey. NOW! This recipe is what happens when I'm reading, have taken my sleep pill and cooking a salad that was originated by a fictitious serial killer with a purpose.

Here goes my version:

Left over chicken from KFC. Chop all chicken including the 'fry'. I had a biscuit so i crumbled that in as well. Chop one APPLE, 1/2 cup SALT AND PEPPR CASHEWS, one handful of VARIOUS HERBS. Add 1/2 cup LITE MAYO and a table spoon of BALSAMIC VINEGAR. Mix well.

I took 1 cup of mixed greens and drizzled them with basil olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste. Add Serge's chicken salad. awesome!

Happy Val-um-times!

Dinner for my sweetie tonight. It's kind of a tradition for me to cook dinner for my darlin on Valentine's Day. I did have to work tonight for awhile, so I wanted to have a quick but elegant dinner. I stopped by Paul Anthony's in Jackson and picked up a few things including some AWESOME fresh scallops. Here's what we had tonight:

Start out a pot of boiling, salted water and add some thick linguini. Surprisingly, this took longer than anything else. Finely dice one SHALLOT. Add about a tablespoon of OLIVE OIL to a pan and then the shallots. Cook for about 1 minute until shallots are translucent. Add 1 cup of SEAFOOD STOCK, 1 cup of WHITE WINE of your choice, 1/2 cup of LEMON JUICE. Allow this to reduce until it's nearly dry. (called au sec for you nerds that need to know.) Add about 1 stick of BUTTER one small pat at a time. I'd wait until the very end to add the butter and whisk whisk whisk! Make sure the butter is cold. I used some cultured butter that I found at Paul Anthony's and it was fab. OK, on your Viking Griddle (or your lame-o skillet) spray with a non stick spray and place SCALLOPS. Let these begin to sear and form a brown caramel crust. After there's some color on both sides, add 2 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 cups of lemon juice. Salt and pepper the scallops.

Place 4 or 5 cups of SPINACH in your colander and pour your pasta over the spinach. The heat from the water will wilt your spinach and not overcook it so it will be fresh and delicious. Add the pasta and spinach into the lemon burre blanc sauce. (yup, that's what it's called.) Add some salt and pepper as needed. I finished with some really good lemon infused olive oil.

I kept saying that this was very pure, very bright flavored. (Modest huh?)

Ireland, Mississippi Delta, it's all the same

The summer after Heath finished medical school we went to Ireland with some of Heath's family. What a place. We wound around country roads, we stopped to look at water or trees or the beach or the ruins of a keep. We roamed the Burren. We saw Druid burial sites. On one of our best days we visited the Allwee Caves (http://www.aillweecave.ie/). At the center of the road leading to the caves there is a cheese shop. The cheese shop housed a bakery as well. We enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch of baps and wine. (A bap is a sandwich made from homemade rolls, homemade cheese and homemade chutney.) As I sat there drinking wine, eating fresh cheese and taking in new sights I was fairly sure that there is nothing at home anywhere close. I maintained that thought until today.

My mom had surgery on her ankle last week and has been homebound. Today she felt like getting out and I talked my family into doing a baloney run. We left Yazoo City and headed down the levee in Panther Swamp. We stopped and threw some rocks into the channel, we saw a weir, we listened to some of my dad's Mississippi Folklore. We wound around levees and dirt roads and forgotten highways until we got to Holly Bluff. At Mike's Grocery in Holly Bluff dad, Heath and Jacob went in and got us a snack. We had saltine crackers, hoop cheese and baloney. As we sat in the middle of that little Delta town I realized that maybe there are some universal truths:

Home is just as pretty as far away if you remember to look at it.

If you forget to look for a long time, sometimes home is the prettiest place in the world.

Hoop cheese, baloney, crackers and mustard make a damn good delta bap.

Oh sweet mother...fried mac and cheese!

Yes, today I created food porn. We're always looking for something new and exciting and different. Lots of my restaurant customers are there a couple of times a week. My customers in the restaurant are my best audience. I've got a few who are also my best guinea pigs. (you know who you are, Tony!)

Today in my ever enduring quest to find the perfect food...I may have found the most delightfully unhealthy, most delicious combo in the world.

How, you may say, could you make macaroni and cheese even less healthy? by frying it of course. Here is what I did to make my Mac and Cheese Fritters.

Make your favorite Mac and Cheese or use your left overs. Dont be ashamed if your left overs are from the boxed kind. (I can't really live in a world where there is left over mac and cheese...but we'll assume) To cold or cooled Mac and Cheese, lets say about 4 cups of mac and cheese, add 2 EGGS, 1/2 cup FLOUR, 1 table spoon SEASON T' UP, and EVEN MORE CHEESE! I'd add 1 cup of SHREDDED CHEESE. Make sure that your mixture is pretty thick, if it's not, add more flour. Roll about 2 tablespoons of your mixture into a ball and then roll in seasoned flour. Drop into 350* oil. They will be golden brown. I'm pretty sure you could form into patties and fry in a shallow pan like you would a johnny cake.

These things were awesome.