So whats we gonna be eatin' tonight?

Well, Kit of Mango & Ginger tapped me to tell you all about my top 10 favorite foods. The problem has been not what foods to include but what foods to eliminate from the list. Of course, I had to retest some of them to make sure I really like them enough to make the cut.

1. Bacon- The though of eating wonderful smoky, salty fat makes me feel a ‘lil faint. I love thick cut slab bacon fried up crisp. I love the though of bacon rind cooked up with greens. I love how the salt cuts through the overpowering sweetness of syrup or pumps up the ripeness of summer tomatoes. Tony claims that he has heard me murmuring sweet nothings to bacon in my sleep. Bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon - now I know how that dog feels!


2. Salt – There are days when I could eat a big old spoonful without blinking. Those are the days when men should stay out of range. Hell - women, children and small household pets too!


3. Cheese – Yes. All of it. From Cheese in a Spray Can to runny ripe Brie, cheese has won my heart. It was a favorite after school snack when I was a kid, cheese sandwiches saved my life in college and now that I am a woman of wealth (comparatively speaking) I love buying new and exciting cheese to try. Curds and Whey in the North Market and Whole Foods have a siren call that I cannot resist. Cheese, cheese, cheese - put some bacon with it and you can have your whey with me.


4. Pasta Puttanesca – Let me start off by saying that I hate all jarred pasta sauces. Sure, sure, sure…I know you will tell me that such and such a brand is very good and I will have to spit in your eye. When compared to a real sauce made at home, they all pale. So about 14 years ago, I picked up a book on pasta at the library and saw a recipe for pasta puttanesca. I never turned back. In our house, the dish is known as “Good Woman Pasta”, as the word puttanesca was too hard for our daughter to say and “Whore’s pasta” just sounds wrong coming out of the mouth of a six year old.


5. French Toast – My love affair with “Pain Perdu” began when I was a kid, like so many others of my favorites. My mom would make French toast for me and my brother on snow days. I remember the Blizzard of ’78 especially well – we ate a lot of French toast that winter. The big difference between my French toast and my mom’s is that I use denser bread and soak it for a little bit. Mom used stale Wonderbread. It was a way of transforming the mundane into something special. Anytime you can perform culinary magic like that – you know you have a winner.


6. Biscuits – I owe my biscuit making savvy to my ex-mother-in-law. (Yes I was married before – but that is a story that needs to be told over lots and lots of alcohol.) Glenna was a nice Southern lady who had grown up making biscuits and cornbread every day of her life. She used a coffee cup to measure out the self rising flour and always had buttermilk in her refrigerator. I make decent biscuits. They are acceptable, but they cannot even hold a candle to Glenna’s. I do not miss my ex, but I sure miss his mom’s cooking.


7. Chicken Livers – Ok, I know I heard several of you make retching noises. Shame, shame. You just never had liver prepared correctly. My favorite way is lightly dusted with seasoned flour and fried in bacon grease. (Hmmmm – back to bacon, are we?) They come out crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. With some cornbread and greens -damn fine eatin’!


8. Mashed Potatoes – Mashed potatoes are essentially four ingredients: Taters, milk, butter and salt. Who would have thought those four basic items could create the food of the gods? I’ve been known just to make mashed potatoes as a snack - but I love them best with number 9 on my list.


9. REALLY GOOD Gravy!- I think it’s a shame that its been such a long time since I’ve eaten gravy (other than my own) that had been made from scratch. Sorry folks, really good gravy can’t be had from a bottle, can or powder. You have to brown meat, you have to roast meat, use the fond and the juices from the meat. So simple, yet done wrong too often! It’s time for a gravy revolution brothers and sisters! More meat! More good gravy!


10. PIE! All things PIE! – Some people love ice cream, some love cake, but I love pie. Pie in the sky and pie in your eye! The dessert of comedy! No one ever got hit in the face with Crème Brule! Fruit pies, cream pies, custard pies – put that filling in a flakey crust and you have my love forever. As a child, the yearly church picnic would send my heart into palpitations as I surveyed the dessert table with its spread of tarts and meringues. My contribution? Need you ask? Banana cream pie, of course.

So there they are my favorite foods laid out for your perusal. Surprised that chocolate wasn’t on the list? Well, to make it up to myself, I am gonna make a chocolate cream pie this weekend. Who says I can’t have my chocolate pie and eat it too?

Since we are playing tag, I am tagging Sher of What Did You Eat? for the Ten Favorite Foods meme. And to prove the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished, Kit of Mango and Ginger gets tagged for the Ten Random Facts meme. Good luck ladies! I look forward to reading your entries.