Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Are any of you folks in therapy because it sounds as if you have some serious control issues! For years I had to eat my last bite off my husband's plate. We moved and got a bigger table and now I can't reach his plate. Hmm, maybe i need that therapist's name.

apple pie with cheddar cheese and vanilla ice cream

pumpkin bread pudding with caramel sauce

Pooch, I am so envious of both you having your Mom and aunt still with you, and that they can still fry a great chicken!

I loved the beef stew and the sugar cookies. This was when there were lunch ladies who cooked the food and served it lovingly to you. I was a picky eater (I would be skinnier if I still was) and I remember eating many things that I would not have eaten at home. In high school I ate a lot of salads and saltine crackers with butter.

Gosh I hate to admit this: my gym is across the street from a Wingstop and I swear I can smell it when I walk out the door. About once a month I am overwhelmed and dragged in the door by my lack of self control to order the original hot wings and their phenomenal fries. I am so ashamed.

We always had bacon and peas with mac and cheese when I was a kid. Honestly, that Martha recipe is so rich and wonderful and filling that I could make a meal of just it (and it costs $30 to make) but last time I had it with frozen fruit salad and a honeybaked ham.

I keep it in a bowl on the stove but am careful to use it within a few days. My mother and grandmothers did the same. Anyone remember when everyone received a bacon fat keeper as a wedding gift? Mine said Bacon Grease right on the front.

My very favorite is one by Tyler Florence called Country Meatloaf with Tomato Relish. The meatloaf is very subtle and the relish is tomatoes and red peppers cooked down into a yummy fresh relish.

There was a rock service station on the road from Wichita Falls to Greenville, Texas when we were kids. They had one of those big boxes full of almost frozen water in which were suspended glass bottles of Grape and Orange Nehi sodas and Coca Colas. These were the best things ever when you were driving the 1955 Chevy with no AC in the summer to see Grandmother. They also had a nifty cage with squirrels in it and of course.

This may not be what you are looking for, but I put our family cookbook together using all the recipes I already had written down. It became a patchwork of my mother's and grandmother's handwritten recipes, mine, those from other family and friends, some cut from magazines as far back as the 30's, printed ones from newspapers, etc. I didn't redo all of them to be formatted the same way because I wanted the memories of the people who gave me the recipes. I just organized them into sections of food types, copied them using both sides of the paper on 3 ring paper and put them in binders with an original watercolor on the cover. Then I handwrote the index. I have printed a dozen of them so far and each time someone marries they get a copy of "The Cookbook".

It was gin for us after Charley and the other 4 that year. We solved some of the problem by installing a whole house generator that comes on 30 seconds after the power goes off. However, i have been hurricane ready all my adult life as we lived in Houston and then south Florida and i always have several cases of water, nutrition bars, chunky soups, chili and stew, canned fruit all for use after you and the neighbors have eaten every thing from the freezers and fridges. If the power still isnt on, you can flee to family up North or a hotel ( if you can find one that isnt full of electric company workers). Charley was a moveable feast as we ate our way through the neighborhood. It was a good time for a while.

@lemonfair speaks truth. My heirlooms gave me far less than my hybids this summer. One plant produced 3 tomatoes and another around 20 while my Celebrities gave me over 100. The cost of growing them would necessarily make them pricier. I will still grow them because they are wonderful, but I don't buy them at the store.