Everything And Nothing

Poke Salad (Sometimes) Daily Update: #LeaveAPawPrint

I will use this (sometimes) daily update to collect all of

the interesting things I found throughout the day.

 

It's my own recipe, but, as always, I hope you find it tasty too!

Eat your greens. They're good for you!

The Northwest Rankin Middle School is doing something that makes me so excited: They are reading a book (A Long Walk to Water), trying to make a difference (raising $15,000 so a village in South Sudan can have a well), AND using social media to help (through a Twitter account and the #LeaveAPawPrint hashtag). THREE of my favorite things! If you're excited too and want to help, you can donate here. If you have more time than money, share their message on social media to help out!

Speaking of teachers, I heard an interesting segment on NPR One this week on classroom discipline and how no one really teaches teachers about how to control a class. Before I taught writing in college during my assistantship for my master's degree, I witnessed a psychology PhD student lose control of an intro to statistics class he was teaching and I was taking. I learned more about what NOT to do as a teacher in that class then I did about statistics. And, sadly, he had good intentions. He was not a bad guy or a bad teacher. He just conceded control of his class and could NOT be a good teacher.

October 25th was Make a Difference Day, but if you want to continue making a difference and you're a Mississippi hunter, you may want to find out more about Hunters Harvest (and use some of your bounty to feed the hungry).

Mississippi’s strong record of producing football greatness shined on last weekend as Peyton Manning broke an NFL record that was held by Mississippian Brett Favre beforehand. Manning threw his 510th touchdown pass in last Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, leading the Broncos to a 42 to 17 victory. Favre’s number was 508.

“Just want to say congratulations on breaking the touchdown record,” said Favre in a video on nfl.com. “Well deserved. Not surprised, and hopefully many more to come for you.”

I like both LSU and Ole Miss (and Mississippi State even too!). But no matter who's playing, I'm definitely a fan of using the word "slobberknocker" much more in sports writing.
Halloween is this Friday - and it seems like if you don't dress up, YOU will be in the minority. No need to spend all that money though, just make your own costume! Goth Barbie might be a good one. Barbie sales are plummeting downward, excepting these Barbies with fangs and fishnets. Go figure...

Mark your calendar for a benefit for harp great, Greg "Fingers" Taylor. It will take place on November 8 in downtown Clarksdale from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.. This harmonica festival will honor Taylor's music and will raise funds for his mounting medical bills.

Bands scheduled to perform are Mitch Kashmar, Johnny Sansone, Watermelon Slim, Blind Mississippi Morris, Deak Harp & Lee Williams Juke Joint Duo, Billy Gibson, Terry "Harmonica" Bean, Bill Abel & Jon Popper, Carson Diersing, Kilborn Alley Band, Reverend Robert, and Heather Crosse. Hosted by Deak's Harmonica Emporium, the Pink Bar, and Delta Blues Museum, the event will take place at the Delta Blues Museum Stage located next to the Delta Blues Museum. Taylor played the harmonica in Jimmy Buffett's band and on Buffett's records for many years.

Wristbands are $25 at the gate, and $20 in advance. No coolers or outside drinks allowed, food and beer will be sold on site at Pink Bar. There will also be a harmonica workshop on the preceding Friday at Deak's Harp Emporium. For more information and for tickets, visit www.mississippisaxophonefestival.com.

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Poke Salad (Sometimes) Daily Update: Two Hot Tamales

I will use this (sometimes) daily update to collect all of the interesting things I found throughout the day (for work and play). It's my own recipe, but, as always, I hope you find it tasty too! (Eat your greens. They're good for you!)




Betty Lynn Cameron, Main Street Greenville Executive Director and Delta Hot Tamale Festival Coordinator, swears you can't say the words "hot tamale" without smiling. She convinced me of it this weekend.

In 2012, Greenville held its inaugural hot tamale festival. In 2013, it was officially declared the Hot Tamale Capital of the World. But my husband and I took a birthday trip in December of 2010 to try Scott's Hot Tamales - not knowing the infamy to come for our food trek. I had read an article in Southern Living about Scott's Hot Tamales and wanted a road trip for our birthday weekend, so we took off.




In addition to hot tamales, we were in search of every thrift store, flea market and secondhand store we could find on the way. Once we got to Greenville and started hitting the thrift stores, folks would as where we were from and why we were visiting. I'd tell them the Scott's Hot Tamales story. And every time, someone would point me to some other tamale place that REALLY had the best hot tamales but that would never make Southern Living. Some regular stop-in stores and some along the lines of "Go to the house at the end of the street. Turn left and go down a dirt road. Knock on the door three times and ask for Ralph." Before this trip, I had no idea tamales were such a big deal in the Delta. I had had my share of tamales with knock-you-naked margaritas on the patio at Fat Mama's (and did right before this trip too).




I came back from the trip and immediately started googling hot tamales and the Delta. At the time, I found a Delta Hot Tamale Trail was in the works and learned a little about the history of the tamale in the Delta.



The Southern Foodways Alliance says Greenville has more hot tamale restaurants and/or food stations than any other city in Mississippi! So, of course, I had to add visiting the Delta Hot Tamale Festival to my must-do list.



Because I heart hot tamales, the Mississippi Delta and Greenville!

(OK, OK. AND a knock-you-naked margarita with a hot tamale on Fat Mama's patio!)

Regardless of where you get your tamales, remember they freeze very well. Buy extra and stash them away!

I have added making my own hot tamales from scratch to my culinary to-do list this year. I'll have to report back on my experiments! Subscribe to my Poke Salad (Sometimes) Daily Updates and read past updates here.

Poke Salad Daily Update: October 14, 2014 (Money isn't everything.)

I will use this daily update to collect all of the interesting things I found throughout the day (for work and play). It's my own recipe, but, as always, I hope you find it tasty too! If you would like to receive the updates via email, subscribe here. (Eat your greens. They're good for you!)

Mississippi State spends millions less on football than the average power-conference school—and yet the Bulldogs are now the new No. 1 team in college football. So says the Wall Street Journal.

MSU spent $15.3 million on football in fiscal 2013, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education. That makes Mississippi State thriftier than every SEC member. Alabama spent $41.5 million on football expenses. It allocates almost as much for coaches’ salaries ($11.8 million) as Mississippi State does for its entire football program.

Speaking of money not being everything, be sure to support Empty Bowls on World Food Day this Thursday to help end hunger in Starkville. This weekend, Starkville will play host to The Preparathon and Garden Fest. Also, Natchez is putting on their famous Great Mississippi River Balloon Race this weekend and Greenville is getting ready for their Delta Hot Tamale Festival.

Halloween is getting closer and closer and you HAVE to see these Pumpkinsteins! (If, like me, you are nowhere near L.A., here's a Frankenstein costume and lots more Halloween ideas.)

I'm determined to get set up to check out e-books from my library by the end of this month. I keep hearing about how easy it is, but I've never done it. My library offered this resource for free online books that I don't have to check out (when I was trying to figure out how to access the ones I do have to check out). If you need some reading material, here are 10 Books Business Owners Should Read. And, if you're a baseball fan, you won't want to miss former Clarion-Ledger Sportswriter Mike Christiansen's new book, Of Mudcat, Boo, The Rope and Oilcan. He'll be signing copies on Thursday at Lemuria and on Friday at the Book Mart Cafe in Starkville. (It would be a great Christmas gift to sock away now.)

Confession: I have not read the book yet. I cannot tolerate much baseball on TV and my favorite thing about watching a real game is nachos. With extra jalapenoes. Now football...that's a whole 'nother story!

Speaking of nachos (or really un-nachos), I leave you with this hilarious video ofwhat happens when second graders are FORCED to try a seven-course, $220 tasting meal from a fancy restaurant in Brooklyn. (It reminds me of the time I spent hours making homemade mac and cheese for my six-year-old...he promptly turned his nose up after the first bite and asked for the Easy Mac. Ugh.)

Poke Salad Daily Update: October 13, 2014 (Poetry is not dead.)

Poke salad is a bit like moonshine. Everyone has their own definition - and their own recipe. I will use this daily update to collect all of the interesting things I found throughout the day (for work and play). It's my own recipe, but, as always, I hope you find it tasty too!

Poetry is not dead.

Brett Favre wrote a birthday poem to Dale Earnhardt Jr. It's pretty good:

"There once was a man from Carolina / As a driver there's none that were finer / At 40 years old, you're brave and you're bold / But watch it Dale, there's a young guy behind you."

Dale obviously liked it too ('cause he tweeted a link and all). Even though he could have just as well reminded Brett how hard a time he had at letting go of it all at the end. Speaking of at the end, Lucinda Williams 84-year-old father lost his ability to write poetry due to Alzheimer's - so she put one of his poems to music on her new album, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone. (Lucinda Williams once chased Flannery O'Connor's peacocks. This is a luxury of the daughter of the man known as "the Hank Williams of American poetry." Watch Lucinda sing her daddy's poem here.)

The poetry of drones: "The technology of unmanned flight has diversified so rapidly that there are now 1,500 different kinds of drones being manufactured, and they are participants in nearly every type of human endeavor, composing a whole flying-robot ecology so vast that to call every one by the same name can seem absurd." Drones are my current fascination. I have asked Santa for one for Christmas (I've been good!) and my husband has promised to let me hook his GoPro camera up to it. (Just imagine the sunset pictures I'll be able to take then!)

As a child of the 80s, my pride was wounded a bit when I miserably failed on this Ultimate John Hughes Movie Quiz. I consoled myself with pasta. My husband made this Skinny Shrimp Alfredo Pasta Bake for supper. It was damn delicious, as the blog's name promised, but I'm not so sure about the "skinny." Perhaps "skinnier" would have been more honest.

Congratulations to Mississippi State for being named No. 1 in the AP poll. (Even Dr. Lou needed more cowbell. ) Ole Miss remained at No. 3. We're all so excited in Mississippi that we've created a new name, Rebel Dawgs, for those of us excited for both teams. (But I'm a USM graduate. You know the real State fans are saying, "Bless their heart. They are just NUMBER THREE." in a hushed, whispery tone.) I never really knew the AP poll was so important, or so political, but it seems there are reporters who wake up early and read a lot on Sunday mornings just to guess what the AP pollsters will decide. There's voting involved and secret handshakes and everything. I pinky swear... (Beware of Mississippi, regardless.)