Southern Word of the Week - Hosepipe

Hosepipe
(n.) Hey son, go get me that hosepipe please.  These tomatoes look like they need some water.

A garden hose and a hosepipe are the same thing.  I thought everybody used the term hosepipe until my officemate brought it to my attention that it was a wierd term.  He saw it as a redundant statement, a hose which carries something through it, and a pipe that does the same thing.  I had never seen it that way, but I see it as saving a syllable. 

Plus I see a pipe as an inflexible tube that carries a great deal of substance through it and a hose as a flexible tube that carries a smaller amount through it but much more flexible.  So a hosepipe will send less substance through it than a pipe, but be more flexible like a hose.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

We start noshing on Wednesday evening with my Grandparents-in-law for a non-traditional meal, and then Thursday at lunch for a more traditional meal and Friday I'm cooking and having my folks over so this will probably be the last post of the week.

This is the first Thanksgiving I've ever done at my house but I'm not too worried.   I'm smoking a turkey (not grilling or BBQing it, more on those definitions later) and my wife is cooking the old standby of green bean casserole which I actually like since my family didn't cook it very often.  Mom and Dad are bringing seven layer salad, spinach dip and a pecan pie.

So since I have to work for a bit on Friday and can't start the fire until about 9:00am Mom and Dad are coming around noon to snack on spinach dip and Bloody Mary's.  I like Bloody Mary's especially before a cold football game and after having one at Pat O's in NOLA I like to fix mine like theirs.  It seems like they put every pickled veggie in there: olives, pickled okra, pickled green beans and maybe even a pickled onion.  I have also had them where they rimmed the glass in a spice mixture.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it and hanging out and watching what is shaping up to be a very interesting Iron Bowl. 

If you are going to fry a Turkey this week please read these safety tips!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  Make sure you give thanks for you have and sometimes we should give thanks for what we don't have.  I'm thankful for my wife and daughters, all of my family and in-laws, my music friends and all of y'all for reading the blog!

What are you serving or fixing for the holiday?  Do y'all have weird traditions or food for Thanksgiving?  What are you thankful for?  Share recipes and blessings in the comments.  Peace.

ADDITION (12/14/2009)
Stuffing is in the bird, dressing is made in a dish like a casserole.  Stove Top stuffing can be made into dressing, but please don't call it stuffing unless it is stuffed into something.  You can have Stove Top stuffing/dressing, cornbread stuffing/dressing and even oyster stuffing/dressing; there are many regional differences.  My family hardly made stuffing from scratch so that is probably why I didn't mention it to begin with or have strong feelings about it.  Thanks Tim (Martha) for the reminder!

Southern Word of the Week - Sweet Milk

Sweet Milk
(n.) Hey Jeanie, could you get me some more sweet milk at the store when you go out?

Butter milk is butter milk, goats milk is goats milk and sweet milk is, well . . . milk.  Plain old, run-of-the-mill, fresh-out-the-carton/jug whole, 1%, 2% or skim milk.  I do now people that call anything but whole milk, milk colored water, but either way as long as its plain milk you're talking about then it is also sweet milk.

By the way, if you need butter milk and all you have is sweet milk you can add one tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice to a one cup measure then add milk to the one cup line.  Stir and let stand for 5 minutes then use as you would butter milk.

Tomato Sandwiches

You can call them tomato sandwiches, 'mater sammiches, whatever; I'll just call them delicious. It is literally slices of tomato on bread and I think most people add mayo and a little bit of salt and pepper. I can't believe this a foreign concept to some folks!

I think the best tomato sandwich is one with homemade sourdough bread and a fresh tomato from your garden or patio that's still warm from the sun. Buying or planting tomatoes in the spring are one of my highlights for the year. I love being able to pull a few off for salads, sandwiches or just on a plate with a little salt.

This may be a little highfalutin' but sometimes I combine the humble tomato sandwich with a Tyler Florence recipe for a grilled cheese. Sourdough bread with pesto sauce (I buy mine, but have made it before with walnuts, easier to find and cheaper than pine nuts) and thick slices of mozzerella and tomato, on a panini press, or if you don't have a panini press, in a cast iron grill pan pressed with a foil covered brick. Yummy!!!

How do you like your 'mater sandwiches and which varieties of tomato do you like to use for sandwiches, salads, sauce etc.?  Let us know in the comments!

BACON!

Bacon is all the rage right now and you all know I prefer to do it in a cast iron skillet but our friend Alton Brown has another, very interesting idea for no turn, no shrink bacon.  Cooking our beloved cured pork belly in a waffle iron.

The link below is to the Lifehacker page that has embedded video that skips right to the hot bacony action.

link via Lifehacker.com

Southern Word of the Week - Buggy

After getting a write up at AlabamaBloggers.com I was inspired to define a new Southern Word.

Buggy

(n.) Hey mama, go get me a buggy; I can't carry both gallons of milk and this loaf of bread.

A buggy, to those outside the south, is a shopping cart.  In the U.K. they call it a trolly which is more like our term rather than the generic shopping cart.  The people that call it a shopping cart probably also call a Coke a soda, and a Kleenex a facial tissue.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, its just not how we do it. 

Bless your heart

Everybody in the South has at least heard this expresstion before; Bless your heart, bless their heart, bless his or her heart.  It's an expression that makes you sound less like your talking bad about someone.

"That Jimmie knows how to repair engine blocks, but he ain't got a lick of buisness sense, bless his heart."

It can also convey sympathy.

"You've just been through so much lately with your dad passing and your son's surgery . . . bless your heart."

It can be used multiple ways and you'll hear it anywhere from the grocery store, to the beauty shop to the tire store.