"FRIED!"

My diet is FRIED, literally! It ain't southern cooking unless you batter it and slap it in a skillet full of lard! That is the God's honest truth! Growing up, every meal I consumed included at least one and usually two fried items. Our bread was the most common food fried as my mother normally served fried Corn Bread for every dinner. But she also served up a whole lot of other foods fried, such as, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, chicken, pork chops, apples, potato cakes, salmon patties, french fries, okra, corn, onion rings and even our eggs! It's hard to believe that we are not overweight but in fact, I'm a size 6 and my Mom's even smaller than me. I'm guessing that our arteries are probably not as healthy as our weight is. In fact, my Dad had to have open-heart surgery a few years back and was advised to stop eating a lot of fried foods. However, his view is that the surgery gave him all new "plumbing" and it should be like starting over for him. So, no, he has not followed his doctor's advice.

Out of all the fried foods we have consumed over the years, I am shocked that I have only tried two of the items listed on the 25 awesome foods you never knew could be deep fried. I've had fried pickles and fried macaroni & cheese. Both delicious, I must say. After looking over this list, my mouth was watering for the fried cheesecake and fried Oreo's. However, it does leave me wondering who in the world first picked up an Oreo and thought, "hm, I'm gonna try it fried,"? What thought process results in someone frying up a piece of cheesecake? These are truly southern artists and should be awarded recognition for their creativity. I'm surprised my mother didn't think of these herself.