5 things to eat before you die

Thanks to yesterday's "Wall Street Journal" list of notable wine blogs, I ventured to Every Day Wine Pairings and tooled around the site. Found it very interesting, really liked the recipes (I'll have to borrow that idea as the holidays approach), and found I couldn't resist conjuring up my own "5 things to eat before you die", which is the current topic.

1) Homemade coconut cream pie from a country cafe, the kind of place where you know the proprietor got up at 4 in the morning to start the day's baking. I also love this idea because I have yet to be successful with a cream pie of any kind. One sips my cream pies through a straw.

2) Steamed blue crab from Maryland. Having lived on the Texas Gulf Coast for 4 years and having caught blue crab off the jetties, we only knew to boil them. Arriving at a restaurant that spread the table with brown paper and dumped crab steamed and with seasoned salt all over them in front of us, we were in heaven. We returned a second night.

3) All you can eat crab. While pregnant with child one nearly 30 years ago, this special promotion was not uncommon at the local Red Lobster. My husband says I embarrassed him. Nonetheless, if you like crab (and I prefer snow to king), you should have the experience of all you can eat.

4) My mother's ham gravy. Mother would cook a ham until it was leather, but the gravy she made with the drippings was divine. Pass the mashed potatoes and a soup spoon, please. And no, I don't have the recipe. I can't say she took it to the grave with her, but all the instruction in the world did not teach me how. See number 1 above.

5) Next-to-sex, or as it is known in polite circles, chocolate delight. A 13 x 9 pan of this showing up at a church covered dish will have most people sneaking into the dessert line first. A pecan, flour, and butter bottom crust with chocolate and vanilla puddings. I don't remember the exact formula off-hand, but I could find it. I've also had it with butterscotch and lemon and strawberries and cream. One word: chocolate.