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My absolute favorite venison roast is to prepare it as a type of sauerbraten. Marinate in red wine/brown sugar/vinegar/spices for a couple of days, then drain and cook slowly until almost falling apart in beef broth - which makes a delicious gravy when thickened slightly with cornstarch. It kills the "gamey" flavor that makes a venison roast less popular with the masses.

I've never cooked okra or had it except in the Campbell's Chicken Gumbo as a child, but I'm a fan of the Sweet Potato Queens and a description in one of the books about how you can stick the gluey trimmed ends onto your face and they'll stay there all day, and how it's good to go about your business in town just for the looks you'll get.

As kids, we always ate our hot white rice with butter and sugar. Still yummy to this day.

My favorite sandwich! Add a little fish sauce to the mayo, too. Liverwurst works in a pinch instead of pate. Buttering/toasting the bun is a nice touch.

I'm adding zucchini to most everything lately - penne pasta with bacon and zucchini and Parmesan creamy sauce; added some grilled zucchini to morning cheesy grits, and most ingeniously and popular with the office girls, is to keep a baggie of chopped zucchini in the kitchen and sprinkling it onto the obligatory lunchtime frozen entree before microwaving. It really stretches out those teeny "lean" meals and works with pretty much everything.

I'm pretty adventurous but was served a small taster portion of chitlins by someone who had lots of experience cooking and cleaning 'em; they LOOKED good. But honestly tasted of poo/sewage. Unable to go with Bite #2.

I have a horseradish plant growing in the yard but never bothered to harvest - any tips on digging up the roots?

Hi - I'm in Minneapolis too, and luckily have a job (again) but the majority of my friends are out of work. I live alone but love to cook - and find that the biggest waste comes from letting things GO to waste. My favorite money-savers are buying the "ends & pieces" bacon that comes in big blocks, then separating into small portions and freezing and just using crumbled cooked bacon to flavor and enhance most everything. And shopping for bargains at Trader Joe's. In particular, their goat cheese logs are great priced and obviously wine.

But general just being inventive and using everything instead of throwing out something that's gone bad because you never got around to using it.

Before giving up on it as a drink, have you tried the real "whiskey old-fashioned" recipe? Some muddled fruit, bitters, sugar cube, splash of sweet/sour/seltzer? Heavy on the bitters (if you like that flavor) could help.

@BangieB - are you living in Minnesota now by any chance? :-)

OH - and be sure to visit SummerFest which starts soon - great food, music, beer and people!

Sorry - didn't process your earlier requirement to be vegetarian. But the German side dishes are wonderful.

More info....cheese for sure and get it from the local dairies along the highways. Curds have to be FRESH to be authentic! They should be almost room temp, squeaky and slightly watery in their little plastic bag. The deep-fried curds have to be the lumpy ones, not the pellets.

Cedarburg, just north of Milwaukee, is an attractive little tourist town with a unique, low-priced lunch spot in the Woolen Mill Settlement called Creme & Crepe.

I bought some halloumi for the first time recently; the price wasn't posted and I was surprised at how much it cost. What are some average prices? This was in an upscale grocery store.

But I did get a kick out of how it didn't melt. Squeeze of lemon and some red peppers.