Today was a resting day. We slept late, then went out to breakfast. On the way home, we stopped in to the local independently owned grocery store. Going to the grocery store in a new location is one of my favorite things to do–you never know what you’ll see in there in there. While the basics are the same in every part of the country because everyone eats eggs, bacon, bread, and tomatoes, it’s the local or regional things I like to see. They had chicken feet and pigs feet in this one, as well as fresh catfish and buffalo, a local fish.
In Utah, I couldn’t find turnip greens of any description–not frozen, canned, or fresh. And okra? In Flagstaff, they had some but it was $6.99 a pound, and the produce guy told me it was a “gourmet item”! When I asked for pimento cheese spread in Kanab, they looked at me like I was crazy. When I went it the Gene Stimson’s Big Star in West Memphis, Arkansas today, I found all of these, plus some in store made pork sausage, and some mustard greens. I was in Southern Girl heaven!
I brought my purchases home and cooked up a big pot of greens. I put in the turnip greens, mustard greens, the lacinato kale that I bought in Flagstaff, a bunch of fresh parsley, a bunch of green onions, a jalapeno pepper, two yellow onions, and some garlic salt and pepper. A big hunk of salt pork for seasoning, then let it simmer all afternoon. With fried okra and a pan of cornbread, it was a most tasty meal to eat on the banks of the Mississippi River.
geogypsy says
Sounds like your in heaven there.
diane says
It is interesting that you can’t find the same stuff all over the states. You would find it hard here as I haven’t heard of half of those ingredients but the meal sounded yummy.
Sallie (FullTime-Life) says
Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! You already know how we share your love for finding regional foods at the local grocery. I’ve never really known how to cook greens in the Southern way — Oregon groceries are pretty good for stocking different ethnic and regional foods so I may be able to locate most of these and I’m going to try!