Oh So Thankful

I am feeling really thankful this year for sooo many reasons-being back in the South, living in the most beautiful city in America and being amongst lots of old friends and having the chance to make so many new ones. I'm not making it home to Mississippi to visit my family this year so I'm house and dog and kitty sitting for an old friend (and former roommate and PF supporter!), Ruby Verbena.

And oooh how I'm thankful for Ruby Verbena (ok, her real name is Danielle). I arrived at her double shot gun house that she shares with a husband and 4 critters, walked into the kitchen and first found this:

3 things I am grateful for: ZAPPS Potato Chips in my 2 favorite flavors, Cajun Dill and Spicy Creole Tomato spiked with Tabasco and a can of Ro*Tel. I've already eaten one bag of chips and I'll take that can of Ro*Tel and add it to a hunk of Velveeta and make a Tackett Family traditional holiday meal. Some call it queso, others just cheese dip, but real Southerners just refer to the whole cheesy concoction as "rotel dip" or simply "rotel".

So I checked the fridge for the other vital ingredient and found this!
4 more things I am so thankful for! Wickles, Gundelsheim Barrel Pickles and 2 varieties of Van Holten's Pickles which always remind me of Xmas and the holidays.


I may not be home for Thanksgiving but I sure do feel At Home.
Thanks Danielle!

Yes, It's True

I've made a lot of changes in my life since August: I left my job, apartment, city, you know...stuff like that, but perhaps the BIGGEST change in my life is this: I now watch football. College, professional, highschool, whatever.

Highscool football? Yes. My sister teaches art at New Albany High School in MS and this year, we (I mean they), are undefeated! Go Bulldogs! (That's me eating a pickle at one of their games). College football? An invaluable member of my family played for Alabama and so we roll with the Crimson Tide, except for when my sister, her husband and their 2 children attend every single Mississippi State game they can. Maybe I carefully avoided football during my own college days at Ole Miss because I didn't want to be the lone rebel in attendance during family holidays...ok, no that wasn't it at all, but it does make me laugh every time my young nieces shreik in horror when they are reminded that I went to that "other school" in Mississippi.

Professional football? Yep. The problem began a couple of years ago when Eli Manning took the NY Giants to the superbowl, I mean, I was living in NYC and I graduated the same year as Eli from Ole Miss so how could I NOT get a little involved?...and then, well, the next year I visited New Orleans and fell in love and that same year, the SAINTS went to the superbowl and WON! For the first time ever! Bless You Boys! It's amazing to see how much love there is for the Saints down here and its impossible to not get swept up in it. IMPOSSIBLE.

OK. Enough making excuses. Football is awesome when you live in New Orleans and the whole ENTIRE town is racked with nerves and pride and prayers and rituals that the SAINTS WIN...and it sure don't hurt nobody when you can watch the game with a bucket of chicken AND a bucket of pickles! There's no turning back now! Now excuse me, I gotta stand up and get crunk.

Thanks to Nick Horman of Horman's Best for the awesome bucket of spicy pickles he sent for my birthday!!!!!

NYC's BEST PICKLE?

VOTE for New York City's Best Pickle!!!
Just follow the link above to vote in Gothamist's poll for best NYC pickle. I've voted, ummm, a few times...all of this is to celebrate the "other" pickle holiday: National Pickle Day which is celebrated on November 14th.

WHO did I vote for?
Brooklyn Brine...and Horman's Best...and McClure's...I'm hoping for a huge 3 way tie. SO VOTE NOW!

Vote For New York City's Best Pickle

The Multi-tasking Mirliton

You can do anything with a mirliton... and at the Mirliton Festival last weekend it was all done.

So,we all know you can obviously pickle it, but you can stuff it with seafood and ham,

...and you can fry it up(my favorite cooking method of all time)...

...and you can put it on stuff, like make a slaw and garnish a taco with it or you can put it on a pizza.

And in New Orleans you can sit in the perfect fall sunshine and listen to the Mardi Gras Indian funk band the 101 Runners and eat to your heart's content.

I'm too relaxed and happy to write anymore!

Nola Foods

Halloween weekend I got really lucky and was hooked up with a free pass to VooDoo Fest, a 3 day music festival in City Park in New Orleans. While I am usually opposed to large, crowded music festivals, when it's free I won't turn anything down. And so I made my way to VooDoo Fest.

My friend and I hopped on the street car and began our journey but first we made a pit stop for a few festival supplies: sunglasses, Zapp's Potato Chips and, ummm...pickled pig lips? I spotted this lovely display of tastebud treats at Walgreens-2 jars for $7!!

I figured outside snacks wouldn't be allowed in (and I was right, the rest of my bag of Zapp's was confiscated at the gate) so I snapped the pic with the plan to return and when I do, you're gonna eat a pickled pig lip!

VooDoo Fest was amazing-City Park is the most beautiful setting I've ever experienced for a festival. There was plenty of space for everyone, lots of beer and booze and the food choices were unBElievable!

My only complaint?

No pickles. Not even a pig lip. Next year I hope pickles make the Nola Foods list at VooDoo Fest!

Mirliton Festival!

This Saturday, November 6th, is the 21st Annual Mirliton Festival in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans, but it will be MY FIRST and I am super, super, excited!

Have you ever heard of the Mirliton? You can read about my first encounter with this delicous pickled vegetable here.


It's new to me, but down here in New Orleans they have been celebrating it for over 20 years. According to the website for the festival there will be a second line, food, arts, beer, and more music (there's a band called The Mirlitones!). I can't wait to learn more about this vegetable that lends itself so beautifully to pickling, to taste it in other dishes and hopefully I can grab some seeds and try growing my own. Has anyone out there ever pickled or cooked with the Mirliton?

I'll see you there and back here after, Mirliton Freaks!