Idaho Blogs — 8.16.10

As a kid, my bologna had a first name (it was “O-s-c-a-r”)…and so did my sausage.  It was “J-i-m-m-y”.  And while James Dean may have been a rebel without a cause, Jimmy Dean was a good ole country boy with a hit single that most folks under 50 years-old have long forgotten (“Big John”), and a sausage brand that continues to define the “ground pork” genre for American consumers. As a grade school kid with Grand Ole Opry aspirations, I spent a lot of time singing “Big John”, and even more time eating Jimmy Dean sausage.  To this day I still love to sit down to my Okie mama-in-law’s biscuits and gravy with Jimmy Dean’s culinary namesake as the protein of choice (I prefer the spicy version).  As far as my  mama-in-law is concerned, if it ain’t Jimmy, it ain’t on the plate, cousin. Jimmy Dean passed away a little while ago, but his sausage lives on/ Treasured Valley . More here .

• Summertime boos: Jana Kemp’s war on the poor /Adam Graham, Give Me Liberty
• Challenges of my summer /Colin Mansfield, Dennis Mansfield’s Blog
• Hostility toward minorities is held by GOP majority on right /43rd State Blues
• 1910 fires not forgotten /Susan Drumheller, Idaho Conservation League
• Recapturing the narrative: OK, now what? /Marc Johnson, The Johnson Report

Question: What’s you sausage meat and brand of choice