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Homesick Texan has a good recipe in her archives. I've made it, and while my kolaches weren't quite up to Czech Stop or Kolachek (a little farther into West) standards, they were quite respectable and not difficult.

A good recipe (I sometimes add some minced pickled jalapeno) from Fiery Appetizers:

4 green chiles, skinned & chopped (canned are fine)
1 TB prepared horseradish
1 6&1/2 oz can minced clams, drained (reserve liquid)
1 8-oz package cream cheese
1 small onion, minced
2 TB finely chopped fresh parsley

Combine all ingredients. Add enough clam juice to make mixture smooth. Allow to sit at least 1&1/2 hour to blend flavors.

I'm rather fond of it. My dad, having been in the army, would never eat it himself, but it was a popular lunch special at his first restaurant. I love what Nika Hazelton adds to her recipe: "If avid for a less stark dish, add about 1 cup sauteed sliced mushrooms and/or 2-3 tablespoons sherry, or season with a dash of ground nutmeg or mace."

@MaresyDotes--Oh ick! I'll happily leave it to the birdfriends. They need it, especially in the winter. Paula does not; nor do I.

One of the very few Hints From Heloise that I have remembered over the years is to bake the meatloaf not in a loaf pan but on a baking sheet or in a pie plate with a couple of slices of bread underneath the meat. The bread soaks up the grease and the suety "trencher" makes the neighborhood birds very happy.

I'm a sixth-generation Texan and am quite picky about chopping one's own meat (must be trimmed VERY lean & NO ground beef or "chili grind" will do) and about not using commercial chili powder (though if you must, Gebhardt's is the best) --a combination of ground pure chiles (pick your hotness level and store in freezer), comino, and Mexican oregano, plus salt, garlic, onion, etc. is better. Also, beer will do wonders to round the flavor.

Heretically, I do not regard beans as anathema unless they are kidney beans. I often add my spicy pintos.

I would have said that that I had wrongly located the apostrophe--should be "Chefs'" for plural possessive, but I just looked and it seems to be altogether missing from the name of the catalogue. So much for exactitude.

Made this tonight (although I had to use sour cream for the sauce b/c that was what I had). It was delicious. I highly recommend.

Harking back to the "Texas" hot dog: I am from a small town in the Texas Panhandle and grew up on a version of these. They came (and still come) from an appropriately long and skinny little space called The Coney Island and opened in the thirties by a Greek immigrant. His sons ran it all the while--and long after--I was growing up and it is now owned by a former schoolmate of mine who waitressed there for years. The original had mustard, a thin "chili", and onions (as did the ham sandwiches). Nowadays, one can have cheese also, though this was not an option in my youth. In the unlikely event that you ever find yourself in Pampa, don't miss the Coney, where nothing is ever written down and the pies are to die for.

Salpico--I have taught the Checkers speech for years (for material fallacies--what is unethical, but alas, effective). Loved your pastiche.

As a Southerner, I've been eating blackeyed peas on NYD forever, though I could use a bit more luck lately. The combination of rice with the peas (some people cook together--I don't) is called Hoppin' John. Traditionally served with cabbage--the peas are for luck in general and the cabbage for money.

The story I've heard about the luck of the peas is that after Sherman went through Georgia, among the few things left to eat were the black-eyed peas still in the fields--the Yankees, being unfamiliar with them, took them for cattle fodder and left them alone. I don't vouch for this story, but it is the tale that I heard told. But they are definitely nutritious food for hard times.

Grilled, with Swiss and Dijon.