I do love to cook. When my husband asked me to marry him in 2008 my obsession with cooking began. I immediately subscribed to six cooking magazines including the late Gourmet magazine. I've spent the last 8 years collecting and jotting down recipes from them. I take the used magazines to work and let my French students create collages with them. This website has evolved into my food diary and digital scrapbook. Restaurant Diary describes almost every restaurant I have visited in the last two years. Food Destinations has pictures and descriptions of places I've traveled and where I ate. I'm slowly adding more content to What I'm Cooking This Week and I Ate This Today. Below I describe what I've been eating lately, my new discoveries of delicious food.
June 4, 2016 - Today I went to the Main Street Festival in Dodge City, KS with my friend Crystal Morales. We went to two Mexican grocery stores early in the morning and hit them up for fresh salsa, chicharrons and Mexican desserts. I felt like I was in a different country having an amazing foodie experience. I didn't even have to leave Dodge City to experience this! Below are the fresh chicharrons. We ate them right out of the paper bag! Pork heaven!
April 2016 - During my spring getaway to Wichita I discovered these cookies in Whole Foods and now I'm hooked. They may be my favorite gluten-free cookies ever!
March 16, 2016 - I found this popcorn at Trader Joe's during my spring break trip to Kansas City. It is now one of my favorite snack foods. It tastes just like biting into a really crunchy sour pickle!! And it's popcorn so it's got the crunchy, satisfying buttery snack quality in your mouth. I want 4 more bags of these, please.
January 12, 2016 - I made this into a cheese ball yesterday. Paul loved it. We ate it with almond crackers and I can't wait to make it again. It tastes like a very yummy and creamy spicy pimento cheese.
January 2016 - I'm panicking over how fast my Christmas goodies are dwindling in the kitchen. They need to last until spring break! Stephanie Wilson gave me a box of Harry and David popcorn bags. The flavors are delicious!
Thanksgiving 2015 - I have loved fresh cranberry orange relish ever since my mother-in-law introduced it at the Thanksgiving table 9 years ago. Mine is never as good as hers but I made some before the holidays and discovered it is delicious as a topping on waffles with a side of 3 sausage balls. A very yummy breakfast indeed.
So, I shouldn't eat anything with wheat flour in it but sometimes I cheat. The Halloween party at Laura Woolfolk's house had a lot of yummy foods (like peanut butter brownies) so I tried some.
October 2015 - Now that Paul and I have lived in Kansas for a while I've learned more about the state. Russell Stover candy is made here in Kansas and even though I've always liked it, especially for Valentine's Day, I now love it. I discovered these in Walgreen's yesterday.
January 26, 2015 - I have started taking my lunch to my new job. I have to because I no longer have the ability to leave work for lunch. I like my new job as a long-term substitute in Dodge City. I really like eating lunch with the teachers in the teacher's lounge too. I've been taking Amy's frozen bean and cheese burritos every day. I also pack a Coke and some chips. It's easy to assemble in the morning and easy to eat in 20 minutes.
January 17, 2015 - I went to the Dodge City Conquistadors basketball game tonight because my hubby's pep band was playing. It was my first social activity in town. I bought a bag of popcorn and a bottled Coke at the concession stand and enjoyed the game. It was a close game. We won and the band sounded great!
January 1, 2015 - My mother-in-law made Cornish hens, potatoes and a beautiful and yummy parfait for our holiday meal. We opened Christmas presents afterwards.
December 19, 2014 - Today is my last day of work in the Memphis City/Shelby County Schools. I will move to Dodge City, KS to join Paul in mid-January. The students gave me gifts and cards and lots of hugs. For lunch I quickly ate a tuna sandwich with buffalo bleu Kettle Chips after students were dismissed at 12:15. I began dismantling my classroom and then we had a faculty meeting where I was given a huge plaque that everyone signed. Cupcakes and cider were served and I was given a really delicious Whole Foods gluten-free chocolate cupcake bought especially for me. I will truly miss the students, teachers and administrators. I will miss referring to Middle College as "my" school.
November 19, 2014 - This morning I ran home for lunch between classes. My mom spent the night last night and brought over some gumbo made just for me by a lady in her church's Stretch and Flex class. The gumbo was delicious with pulled pork, smoked sausage and a dark, muddy seafood roux that tastes like Louisiana. I ate a bowl of it with a piece of toast and raced back to work.
September 26, 2014 -
I wasn't supposed to eat this Tasty Kake from Superlo Grocery but I went to this grocery store looking for inexpensive Kind Bars. I found them! $1.19 instead of $1.59 everywhere else. Unfortunately I also ran into the aisle with all the inexpensive mass produced baked goods. These apple Tasty Kakes smell like a doughnut shop and are packed with crisp apple bites inside a thick hard pastry shell. Heaven!
September 4, 2014 - This week I have hit a groove with eating fruits, veggies and especially super greens from Whole Foods.
August 29, 2014 - Yesterday I only had time for a quick lunch between classes. It was a smoked ham and mustard sandwich with salt and pepper Kettle chips and half a can of Coke. I'm still trying to lose weight as well as eat organic. I have not been able to give up sodas, though. Coke tastes so good! For dinner I opened a can of Amy's medium chili. I added cinnamon and Penzey's chili 9000 seasoning to make it taste like Cincinnati chili. I ate this with Frito's corn chips and an arugula, spinach, sliced peach and Parmesan cheese salad, no dressing. I have been well-behaved in a way this week as far as not eating out much. Only once because friends from out of town visited.
August 26, 2014
Last week Daddy passed away after a year of cancer. He was so brave through his pain and poor health before his death. I felt joy for him when he drew his last breath. I felt strengthened by the love everyone showed at the funeral. I was glad so many people came to celebrate Daddy's life. I also could not believe the amount of delicious food my mother's Sunday School class brought over. Within hours a full picnic was delivered to my parents' house. I had no idea Piggly Wiggly cheese was so good or that two whole smoked, sliced hams are a perfect idea for a grieving, hungry family. A huge pan of brownies was delivered. A whole caramel cake wrapped in pretty foil was delivered from The Caramel Company. Since it's August, brown bags of fresh tomatoes and hulled peas came over with next door neighbors. Two huge boxes of fried chicken with bags of barbeque potato chips and liters of sodas came with a visit from my best friend from high school. In one hour's time two grown women that had been my closest neighborhood friends squealed with happiness as they asked, "Can we see your old room?" I had not felt the carefree giddiness of being a teenager racing to my bedroom with friends in tow in 24 years. It felt so good.
After the funeral the ladies at First Baptist Batesville known as the Caring Hands Ministry had a feast of Southern food ready for our family and pallbearers. These ladies handed my mother a list of every dish that was brought and who made it.
August 20, 2014
This morning I noticed I've started the new habit of having fruit with every meal. I have peaches and plums on the counter and figs, dates and pineapple in the refrigerator. I grab some to go along with each meal.
I wasn't supposed to eat this Tasty Kake from Superlo Grocery but I went to this grocery store looking for inexpensive Kind Bars. I found them! $1.19 instead of $1.59 everywhere else. Unfortunately I also ran into the aisle with all the inexpensive mass produced baked goods. These apple Tasty Kakes smell like a doughnut shop and are packed with crisp apple bites inside a thick hard pastry shell. Heaven!
September 4, 2014 - This week I have hit a groove with eating fruits, veggies and especially super greens from Whole Foods.
August 29, 2014 - Yesterday I only had time for a quick lunch between classes. It was a smoked ham and mustard sandwich with salt and pepper Kettle chips and half a can of Coke. I'm still trying to lose weight as well as eat organic. I have not been able to give up sodas, though. Coke tastes so good! For dinner I opened a can of Amy's medium chili. I added cinnamon and Penzey's chili 9000 seasoning to make it taste like Cincinnati chili. I ate this with Frito's corn chips and an arugula, spinach, sliced peach and Parmesan cheese salad, no dressing. I have been well-behaved in a way this week as far as not eating out much. Only once because friends from out of town visited.
August 26, 2014
Last week Daddy passed away after a year of cancer. He was so brave through his pain and poor health before his death. I felt joy for him when he drew his last breath. I felt strengthened by the love everyone showed at the funeral. I was glad so many people came to celebrate Daddy's life. I also could not believe the amount of delicious food my mother's Sunday School class brought over. Within hours a full picnic was delivered to my parents' house. I had no idea Piggly Wiggly cheese was so good or that two whole smoked, sliced hams are a perfect idea for a grieving, hungry family. A huge pan of brownies was delivered. A whole caramel cake wrapped in pretty foil was delivered from The Caramel Company. Since it's August, brown bags of fresh tomatoes and hulled peas came over with next door neighbors. Two huge boxes of fried chicken with bags of barbeque potato chips and liters of sodas came with a visit from my best friend from high school. In one hour's time two grown women that had been my closest neighborhood friends squealed with happiness as they asked, "Can we see your old room?" I had not felt the carefree giddiness of being a teenager racing to my bedroom with friends in tow in 24 years. It felt so good.
After the funeral the ladies at First Baptist Batesville known as the Caring Hands Ministry had a feast of Southern food ready for our family and pallbearers. These ladies handed my mother a list of every dish that was brought and who made it.
August 20, 2014
This morning I noticed I've started the new habit of having fruit with every meal. I have peaches and plums on the counter and figs, dates and pineapple in the refrigerator. I grab some to go along with each meal.
Summer 2014 - I was cleaning out cabinets when I found these two food items. I didn't want to drink/eat them because they were old. I took a picture of them and tossed them. The beer is from a wonderful trip to Petit Jean Mountain with a dear friend. We made Mexican food and hiked all weekend. The scuppernong jelly is a purchase from Charleston. A more common word for scuppernong is muscadine. These bushes grow wild in the South and the fruit are like a cross between a grape and a plum. They're delicious and if you eat too many the skins will burn your lips.
