Eating my words and more

Well, I've already had to eat my words...the ones about it being a long time before I fried anything for Wayne again.

It's Dee's fault! Or, to be more exact, Annie Mae's fault. Annie Mae ( I don't think I know her, although it's possible I have met her) is 96 years old. If that isn't enough to marvel at, she also has a garden. That she apparently prepares, plants, tends, and harvests...herself. And if that isn't enough, she also shares them with friends. And if that isn't enough, when she drives herself to the friend's house, the vegetables are washed and ready to cook! In the case of the okra that she took to Dee, not only were they washed, but also sliced...as precisely as if she had some kind of magical okra slicing machine. They were not in angled, uneven, haphazard shapes...they were all about 3/8 inch thick. No pointy ends or stem ends to be found. In short, they were beautiful!

Dee wanted to share with me, so she brought a large ziploc bag of the little gems over. One look at them propelled me into action and the ban on frying was suspended.

While the harvest is going on Wayne often has a later lunch, so when 1 PM rolled around I decided to get started on cooking that beautiful okra. I thought that the Louisiana Fish Fry product would really be good on it, but wanting to make it crispy enough to satisfy him, I poured a small amount of Egg Beaters into a pan and added a little cold water to thin it out. I dropped about 1/2 the okra in and stirred it all up so that each slice was moistened. Then I dropped the whole batch into a large plastic container along with the Fish Fry coating and shook it up good. I heated oil in a large stainless skillet and then added about half of the coated okra, prying clumps apart so that each slice had it's own space. After a few minutes, I turned them all over and let them cook a few minutes longer. I fished that batch out to drain and put the remainder of the coated okra into the oil and repeated the process.

Wow! I want to tell you that okra was absolutely delicious! If Wayne had walked in at that moment, he would have been in hog heaven. Instead, he showed up about an hour later. It was still good, but not nearly as good as when it first came out of the skillet.

I didn't season the okra at all...the Fish Fry coating has plenty of seasoning in it. There are several variations of the product at the grocery store. This one has a lot of yellow on the little package and it is "New Orleans Style." The photo of the okra is only half the batch that I fried, the rest was still in the skillet.

Can't wait to cook up the remainder of the okra that Dee brought over. This time I'll wait until Wayne's is in the house to get it started. They've finished shelling corn, so meal time might be a little more predictable.

Thanks, Dee! Thanks, Annie Mae!

A fried fish tale

I went down to Carolyn's Sunday morning to sit with Jax while the rest of the family went to church. He was very cooperative...asleep when I got there and stayed asleep the entire time. I did look in on him a couple of times to make sure he was okay.

I stayed for a little while as Carolyn started lunch, then headed home to make lunch for Wayne and I. When I was at the seafood market at the grocery store a few days ago, I saw basa fillets. The tag said they were similar to catfish (which I am not partial to,) but they looked very much like trout...long and narrow, unlike the tilapia that I usually buy which is wide and short. They were also about half the price of tilapia. So, I bought three fillets along with a product called Louisiana Fish Fry Products - New Orleans Style Fish Fry. (You didn't notice, but I was gone about an hour. When I went downstairs to see what the product was called, I got distracted doing other things...included among those things was trying to remember why I had gone downstairs.)

Anyway, you just dip the fish in ice water, shake it off and then roll it in the fish fry stuff. I didn't even season the fish. Then I fried it and served it along with potatoes with onions, black-eye peas (frozen, not the dried ones) and cornbread. Pretty good meal, I thought. I had mentioned to Wayne that I was using this new--to me--fish fry coating, so after we ate I asked how he like the fish. Mainly I was asking about the fish, not the coating, as we had never had basa before. He said he liked the coating to be crisper........................BRRRRRRGHT (insert sound of buzzer here..........wrong answer! I commented that mine was crispy. (And his was, too) He said that he liked a thicker coating. I didn't make any other comments, but my mind was working like crazy. Crispy, to him, is cooked to death...hard. For instance, proper fried okra for him would be crisp throughout, any resemblance to okra would be accidental.

I rarely fry anything anymore. In fact, I had gotten to where I baked fish more often than I fried it. I know when something isn't good, although I don't think that happens too often. You would think that after more than 44 years of eating my cooking, he would have learned what the correct response to my original question would be...."It's really good! You know I like fried fish!"

I don't know what he was thinking...but, he'll be damned lucky to get anything fried around here for awhile!

One tired Cookie

What a busy day! I'm exhausted and I know Robin is, too. But, she's 36 years younger than I am, so she'll probably spend the rest of the evening playing games, while I'm hoping to spend it in the recliner.

Last week she told me that she wanted to go to Victoria to see what the wedding decorator has planned for the tables. She planned to do that this morning and then go to Houston this afternoon for a wedding gown fitting. Fortunately, she needed to work half a day, so we were only able to go to Houston. Her fitting appointment was at 3:30. She had supplies she need to find at Hobby Lobby and had plans to go to three of them...all roughly in the area where we would be.

We left the house at almost 1 PM and made our first stop at Academy where she exchanged some shirts that she and Chad gave Wayne for Father's Day. We decided to wait until we were on our way home to visit the Hobby Lobby across the freeway from there . We went straight to Pappadeaux for lunch since we were both hungry and then hit the Hobby Lobby at The Fountains. From there we headed up Hwy. 6 to Weddings by Debbie. It's just past the West Oaks mall, but always takes longer than we expect to get there. We were just a couple of minutes late, but it wasn't a problem. Robin got into her gown and one of the assistants was going to give me a "bustling" lesson, but the head lady said to wait until it was closer to the wedding. She thought a bridesmaid should do it anyway. Fine with me. About 10 minutes later we were out of there, and on the way to a Barnes & Noble which was nearby. We both found things in there. Then, while at the Barnes & Noble, Robin made a series of phone calls. She needed to set up the appointment with Glenn for the bridal shoot, which meant she had to set up an appointment with Esther for her hair for the same day. After 4 or 5 calls back and forth (they both have vacations coming up; one leaving about the same time the other gets back) she finally managed to set a date. That meant calling the bridal shop to arrange to pick up the dress before the photo session. You have to have an appointment for that, because the dress has to be inspected by the customer (and the staff, I guess) to make sure that both parties agree that everything is perfect at that time. She also had to make arrangements to pick up the dress a few days before the wedding. We should have had a little desk set up at Barnes & Noble. We were writing everything on the back of an appointment card I happened to have in my purse.

Next we took FM 1093 and headed for Hwy. 99. Turned right onto Fry Road and then into the shopping area that included the 2nd Hobby Lobby and an HEB Plus. We found more of the items that Robin was looking for plus some things we didn't know we were looking for. Since we were next to the HEB Plus, we also stopped there so Robin could look for a bottle of wine that she hasn't been able to find at the local HEB. They didn't have it there either...the wine steward (imagine that!) said he didn't think it was made anymore, but suggested another bottle in it's place.

Back in the car, now heading down Hwy. 99 toward Hwy. 59 and the shopping area at Rosenberg where our first stop was the 3rd (and last) Hobby Lobby. Found more of Robin's items there and then made a quick stop at Best Buy before our final stop at Starbucks. Thank heaven for Starbucks! Carolyn had placed an order with us several hours before, so we picked up the three frappacinos and headed back to Wharton County.

We dropped off Carolyn's frappacino and tried to leave. Carlee and Kate rushed us and had to have lots of hugs and attention before we could get back in the car. Seven hours and 131 miles after we left here, we finally arrived back at the house.

I have no idea what I'm doing writing this instead of having something to eat. It's nearly 9 o'clock now. I heard Wayne come in and I guess he fixed himself something to eat. I don't know whether he has to go back out. They are watering cotton as well as shelling corn.

There are two showers for Robin tomorrow. Give me strength!