Nothin a Little Fried Fish & Potato Salad Won't Cure

So, if you've been reading my blog, you probably recall this evil car shug pie, usually referred to as Sylvia:

Now, I am tryin to give her the benefit of the doubt. She is used and she ain't a spring chicken anymore, but she also ain't over the hill. I (meaning my brother/husband/auto zone/sweet guardian angel Richard) have dealt with the following on dear Sylvia in just a few short months: 

• battery
• fuel assembly/inaccurate gas gauge
• crank position shaft
• check engine light for various reasons
• traction system lights

... and we finally got her back to glory. PSYCH! I mentioned before that I think she does stuff for attention. Soooo, this past weekend, when my parents are visiting for the Davis Fish Fry, Sylvia decides Hey, wouldn't it be funny if I start to hesitate and jerk violently at stop signs and act like I don't want to crank and rattle like a roller coaster at 60 mph? Yeah, that sounds fun! I think maybe Sylvia has a crush on my brother and she just wants him to take a look at all her parts like once a week. Floozie.

Anyhoo - I. Was. Pissed. And moreso terrified that the hubs and I bought a lemon and we are going to be stuck with it. But, I am trying to keep in mind, it is a used car, and hopefully, this is just the fact that the Engine Variable Timing Solenoid (don't ask how I know - see lovely pic below)

See how the two sections furthest to the right have screens over them? Wellll, the one that's second from the left is supposed to have one too. Instead, it is MIA and there is TRASH stuck in that little valve/hole/thingie. Thank God Eric can find this mess and knows what the deuce those codes mean. I sure haven't the slightest idea.

... Back to what I was sayin - the Engine Variable Timing Solenoid and the crank position shaft are partners in crime and they encourage each other to do stupid stuff to jack my car up. Let's not worry about the check engine light throwing a code about the fuel sending unit WHICH JUST GOT REPLACED. Ughhh! I am getting stressed thinking about it. SO. ANGRY. But, I try to remember there are worse - much worse - things to be going on in this life than car problems. There hasn't been anything so far that the Lord hasn't taken care of. I doubt He's going to stop today, right? 

Then, the new fancy Droid X2 went black randomly and wouldn't turn on. Awesome sauce! Ugh! Together these two things made me feel like there must be something in my blood that is jackin up the wiring of everything around me. Maybe my pump and my sensor are runnin some kinda conspiracy to interfere with the wiring of everything within a 5 mile radius of me? 

Anyhoo - enough rantin. Today is another day. And there's a lot to be grateful for. Like, the delivery of this shug pie's baby, Layla. This shug pie and I have been friends since we were 8 (we are sooo old) .... and she is my Sister in Dia-bee-tus, so I am extra proud of her, and thankful to God for getting her, her hubby and Little Miss Layla Pie through this pregnancy, so they can start making wonderful memories as a family. I haven't met Little Miss Layla yet (because Sylvia is SICK and I don't mean that like a 19 year old white boy means it). But here is her mama lookin magical here below:

Photo by Stephanie's Creative Photography in Roxboro, NC

Also, here is a tiny glimpse of the Fish Fry magic from this past weekend. I should have done less talkin and eatin and more picture takin. Y'all know I can never have enough pictures - or talkin or food.There were just too many things goin on. I was overwhelmed. Sorry.

Yummy Flounder

Hushpuppy Prep

Silas's (father in law) lesson on why the water pitcher ain't workin.

One of my fav things about Silas is his shirts.

Davis men at work.

Make sure the oil's hot enough.

These hushpuppies were D-VINE as my mama would say. To the left you can see just a widdle bitty glimpse of the delicious fried pickles they made from Me and Lois Ellen's pickles last year. Yumm-o!

Mmmmm....let's eat! Fish, slaw, hushpuppies, potato salad (told y'all that was my job), watermelon, and Yaya's AMAZING salsa and pico de gallo, pineapple cake, chocolate chip cookies. Man! How can it get any better?!

We didn't eat and drink and run our mouths the entire time. See:

This was Silas's daddy's truck that they had on the farm when Silas was growin up. Ain't she beautimous?

Lois Ellen drivin our friend Steve's truck. I should've taken a pic of the outside ... it is a seriously jacked up Chevy with monsta tires and LE was so excited about this opportunity. Thanks Steve!

And, I said before that I would tell about the potato salad. (In addition to drivin monsta trucks, Lois Ellen takes time to teach her sister-in-law, little ole me how to make bomb diggity potato salad). It's pretty simple, but I like to add one extra ingredient when I make it at home and also, at home, I like to leave some of the skins on. Totally up to you, shugs. Oh, and please remember, these pics were taken with my phone - so forgive the fact that these food pics won't look insanely realistic and edible like if I had a $600 camera. Sorry, it's the best I can do for now.

1) Ingredients:

• Mayonnaise (Duke's light is what I use at home, and I swear, it still tastes yummo. If you want it to have a little more of a buttery/fatty flavor or if your husband will trip out if he finds out it has light mayo in it, then you can just use the regular Duke's).
• Mustard - plain old regular mustard
• DILL pickle relish - NOT sweet
• yellow onion
• green pepper
• salt
• bacon (this is what I add at home because me and Anj Davis love anything that contains bacon. Mmm!)

I usually just buy a 5 pound bag of potatoes and cut off bad spots plus a little dab more of the skin - depends on your potato skin preference and I cut them into chunks about 2 inches wide. Just makes em boil faster and makes my life easier. Put the water about an inch or so above the potatoes. I don't know how long to boil em. I just go in, stick the potato masher in there after about 15 mins and if the potatoes are soft, I take em out. If they're not, I let em keep boilin. Profound, I know. But you don't want em to boil too long or they are like mush, like pureed turnips. Scary stuff.


VERY IMPORTANT: 
1) When you take the potatoes out and drain them, mash them with the potato masher, but leave them a little bit chunky because they will break down even more when you go to stir in the other ingredients.
2) After semi-mashin, put the potatoes in the refrigerator with the top of the bowl or whatever OFF and let them cool. They need to be cool to cold when you stir in the mayo, etc. or it just won't stick right. They will have a creamy goopy consistency. Naisty.

I usually use about half of a small onion, and about 1/3 of a large green pepper. Chop them up really fine.

Finer than this. I took the pic before I was satisfied with the consistency. Sorry.

 I like to cut the bacon in half before I fry it. I think it makes it crisper. But, hey, I could be just makin that up. Who knows. About 3 pieces is what I use (because I fight the urge to put in about 7 slices, but I certainly don't think it would hurt to do more than 3 pieces).

 Then, after it's cooled and is reallll crunchy, break that mess up into bits.

Okay, so this is the part you gotta kinda eye ball and just keep tastin it til it tastes right. I'd say for a five pound bag of potatoes, I'd start with 3/4 cup of mayo and about 1 teaspoon of mustard. Stir. The potatoes should be coated in the mixture but just barely because when you add everything else, you don't want it to get runny. I like my potato salad to be light yellow - maybe a hair lighter than a post-it note. Darker than that = too much mustard. Give it a stir and then gauge what you need more of.

Now we can add everything else. We already talked about how much green pepper, onion and bacon to add. Now, I'd say I use about 1 tablespoon of pickle relish, and then I drain about another tablespoon of the juice into it.

I don't add the salt until everything else is stirred in because the bacon and pickle will provide a good bit of the flavor and you don't want to over salt cause you can't get it back out and you don't wanna ruin all your hard work (especially the potato peelin and the stirrin - shew-wee!). 

And there it is, folks. Like I said, the pics don't quite communicate the color...it's more like a little bit lighter than a post-it note. ;)

Thanks for not judgin me for the way my brain will randomly dump a crap load of unrelated information at one time.

Happy Monday! (Please pray for Sylvia - she is one sick sister and my whole family is tired of dealin with her tantrums. Thanks.)

Love,
   Shug and Anj Davis and Brotha E/Sylvia's crush