Louisiana and Ohio

Wow.  Louisiana is a serious challenge.   So many good things to choose from!   I wanted to make muffaleta, but was outvoted.  We ended up making shrimp and okra gumbo.  We made a quick version from Cooking Light (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/shrimp-okra-gumbo-10000001973609/), but it still wasn't too quick.   It was great though.  Which is good, since the recipe made a lot.

We had the opposite problem with Ohio.  It's not a state known for it's food.  Cincinnati chili would be an option, but we've done enough chili, and we wanted a main dish from Louisiana.  Another food many people think of for Ohio is buckeyes.   They are a peanut butter candy dipped in chocolate.  My DH doesn't eat chocolate, however, so we didn't make them. 

In the end, we went with the fact that Ohio has the largest Amish population in the U.S.   Amish Friendship bread usually requires a starter that takes weeks, but I found a recipe for a version that simulates the starter with other ingredients http://www.food.com/recipe/quick-amish-friendship-bread-or-muffins-no-starter-required-109140.  Much easier than dealing with the starter, and the end result was excellent.  We did substitute applesauce for half of the oil, and added toasted pecans.   There's some question as to whether Amish Friendship bread is really Amish.  The sharing of bread starter certainly is, and the recipe is on lots of Amish recipe websites, so we decided to go with it.

Mississippi & Indiana

These two were a challenge because we have a rule against deep frying in our house.   I actually had a hard time finding anything specifically related to Mississippi - it's just generally Southern.   And the main food related to Indiana seems to be a fried pork cutlet sandwich.   They also make a particular pie called "sugar cream pie".   It's basically sugar and cream in a pie crust.  We passed on that too.



I was very happy when I finally came across the information that Indiana is the biggest producer of ducks in the U.S.!   That led us to making sauteed duck breasts with a blackberry-madeira sauce for Indiana.  Everyone was happy with the result :-).   For Mississippi we made "Mississippi Caviar".   There are many variations on this dish, but it is usually a black-eyed pea salad.   Ours had cider vinegar and jalapeno in it, among other things.

We also made baked "hushpuppies" for Mississippi.   For those not from the South, hushpuppies are basically deep fried cornbread balls.  They're really tasty, but with our no deep frying rule, we went for a baked version.   They look just like mini corn muffins, but there's grated onion in the batter and they do have a distinct taste.  Not as good as the deep fried hushpuppies of my youth, but still good.

Alabama & Illinois

Illinois immediately brings to mind Chicago-style pizza.   My officemate, whose family lives in Illinois, claims that Chicago isn't Illinois, but we went with the pizza anyway :-).   We followed the recipe from Cook's Illustrated http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=21349.   It takes a fair amount of time since the dough rises twice, and you have to simmer the sauce.   It was worth it though!  The pizza ties with the Texas style chili for my husband's favorite meal so far.

For Alabama we made the pecan pie at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pecan-pie/Detail.aspx.  I used two cups of pecans though.   Much more expensive, but also a much better ratio of pecans to goo.   The filling was very buttery tasting and not too sweet - really excellent!.