One of the problems with getting good food in the South is that they sure love to fry everything. When you are trying to stick to a heart healthy diet or if you cannot eat a lot of fried foods because of gall bladder issues, eating out in a restaurant can become a real challenge for finding healthy foods. Even the Chinese food is a Southern version and almost everything on the Chinese take out menu is fried. I almost never use my frying pan at home any more. I would much rather broil or grill my meats and either boil or nuke the vegetables.
Chex Mix
The grocery store had all the flavors of Chex Mix on sale today, so I bought a bag of the original recipe Chex Mix. I used to make this mix myself, back in the day. One of my neighbor from when I used to live in Fredericksburg had a party at her house and invited me. She served homemade Chex Mix at the party and I was hooked! She was sweet enough to give me her recipe for it and I made up a batch for every party or special occasion that came up, like picnics and pot lucks. But it has been a long time since I made up a batch. I just realized how long it has been since I even had a party here. That needs to be rectified ASAP!
Peppermint Bark
Santa brought me some Godiva peppermint bark candy for Christmas. I found a big bar of it in my Christmas stocking! I have never had it before and figured that if it is Godiva, then it HAS to be good. And it WAS! I love this stuff – I hope to find some on clearance at Target or KMart so I can stock up!
Cake Decorating Class
The local craft store here has classes at the store for ll kinds of crafts. I went in looking for some Christmas decorating ideas and saw that they have a cake decorating class on the weekends. The classes don’t start until January. I’m sure the Christmas shopping takes precedence over crafts classes in December.
I’m going to see if my girlfriend, Felicia, wants to take the classes with me. She likes to decorate cakes but is self-taught. She always talks about wanting to learn more professional methods – this might be the best chance for her to get thatunder her belt and it will give me someone to ride with.
Cake Pops Fad
Everyone is raving about a dessert called cake pops. Have you seen them? They are balls of cake about the size of a golf ball that are stuck on sticks like lollipops. But they cake is completely covered in icing and then decorated very elaborately. Most of the ones I’ve seen have been decorated for a holiday or as animals.
Lat night I saw an infomercial for a special set of pans to make them at home. I think they are about $20 for a set of pans that have a special locking lid to force the rising cake better to form into small balls. I think that is a cool idea – I wish I could find the pans in the store instead of ordered from a toll free number. I didn’t write down that number from the commercial so I don’t know how to find them.
Special Dinners
A friend of mine was talking about the menu for their Thanksgiving dinner. He said they are buying a turkey, at least 20 pounds and bigger if they can find one. I asked if he has ever had anything else besides turkey for Thanksgiving and he looked shocked.
The truth is that a lot of people have other foods for their Thanksgiving feasts. In San Francisco, the preferred main course is fresh caught Dungeness crab. In New York, I was served quail when dining at a good friend’s family estate.
So, don’t assume that everyone eats turkey.
Tummy Grumbles
The worst thing about making a dentist appointment right before lunch might be that your mouth will be sore and you won’t want to eat lunch. Sometimes the dentist even says, “Don’t eat anything for at least 4 hours.” and then I’m like, “What?”
But the worst thing about that is not the food and eating. It’s the embarrassing tummy grumbles that fill the room.
More Than Just Fireworks
Of course this weekend is all about the Fourth of July fireworks. But it is also about picnics and barbecues. I’m going to firing up the backyard grill and making some potato salad. What are your plans?
Ground Beef
It seems to me that when my mother would go grocery shopping back in the day, she would stop at the butcher counter and ask for a pound of ground chuck. She sometimes asked for ground round, although I admit I do not know the difference between chuck and round. But it was important to her. I’m just happy to find ground beef, whatever the original cut, at a fair price. It has gotten so expensive lately that I am not buying much of it.
No Time for Lunch
My friend, Alicia has been asking me to meet her for lunch for several weeks. I cannot believe how crazy busy I have been and have not yet been able to meet her for lunch. We used to have lunch at least once a month, sometimes more often. But this time of year seems to suck the life out of me. I miss my friend and am going to try to meet up wither this week. Surely we can grab a fast lunch near her office and enjoy at least an hour chatting and catching up.