Garlic Lovin’ Me

All my life, I’ve been enamored of garlic.  If I smell garlic bread, garlic pasta, garlic cloves (even the “faint” aroma that lingers on my hands after cooking), my mouth will water.  In fact, if I was told that I could only use one seasoning (other than salt and pepper) for the rest of my life, it would definitely be garlic.  All this is to explain my upcoming plans. 

I’m in the middle of planning a vacation to California and discovered that I must love garlic even more than I thought.  I’ve figured out a way to detour over to Gilroy, garlic capitol of the world.  Unfortunately, we won’t be there during the Garlic Festival, but it will be close enough that I should be able to get some good garlic ideas anyway. 

My hubby has learned that, in our house, if I’m cooking and you don’t smell garlic, it must be dessert!  (Not really true, but he does think I’m a garlic fiend.)  I’m planning on checking out garlic ice cream (if they have any when the festival isn’t going on).  Then, from now on, he won’t be able to claim that I’m making dessert if there’s no garlic smell!!    It’s definitely an interesting concept (garlic ice cream), but I’m not sure I’ll enjoy it.  We’ll have to wait and see.  In the meantime, I have planned other activities for the vacation trip, so he doesn’t think I’ve gone completely over the deep end on the garlic love. 

So, what’s your favorite seasoning/flavor and have you ever made a trip somewhere to enjoy it even more? 

“What is food to one man is bitter poison to others.” ~ Lucretius

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Baking for our Soldiers

I was reading an article in one of my favorite magazines…Taste of Home.  Yep, I love to cook and subscribe to several magazines that have recipes in them.  But Taste of Home beats them all…a magazine dedicated to cooking!  Love it!

This particular article, though, struck another love.  I love our soldiers who give up so much to do their duty.  And they appreciate any little thing.  What makes me sad is that some of our soldiers don’t get much mail…or any mail.  Well, this article in Taste of Home was such an inspiration, that I wanted to spread the word.  There is a woman who blogs about baking (Susan’s blog) and she asked some of her followers to send goodie packages to her cousin who had deployed to Iraq.  She was amazed to find out he didn’t get the 4-5 packages she thought would arrive.  He received SIXTY boxes!  On that day, Operation Baking GALS (Give a Little Support) was born.  She created a new website called bakinggals.com and people can search through the list of soldiers who are waiting for baked goodies.

Please spread the word.  Our soldiers still need our support.  We cannot forget them, because time has passed since the beginning of this war.  Please think of our soldiers and find ways to thank them.  If you can’t bake, find someone who can and help them by donating the packaging and time going to the post office. 

And thanks to Susan for starting such a wonderful thing.

“Look up, and not down; Out and not in; Forward and not back; And lend a hand.” ~ Edward Everett Hale

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Men and their Toys…

Beau just broke down and bought a DVD/VHS recorder/player and he’s spent a good chunk of his day reviewing the instructions. Yes, he’s one of those strange anomolies…a man who reads instructions. And then he’s decided it’s my turn to read them. Yummy! Talk about fun reading for the weekend! So, I need to figure out how this works, but I wasn’t planning on spending my off-time this weekend learning how to work it. Maybe just 5 minutes before I need to deal with it, but otherwise, …well, I guess I do have a few male hormones running through my system.

This makes me think of that old saying, Men and their toys… Well, I’ve altered it somewhat to:

Men and their toys and Women and their gadgets… Yes, I am so guilty of that. I love gadgets. Especially kitchen gadgets. I just can’t seem to get enough of them. I am in female heaven when I can visit places like Williams-Sonoma or Function Junction. And a Pampered Chef Party is my idea of a perfect evening of entertainment! Between the three, I’m in heaven! Who couldn’t just love a crinkle cutter, some great German knives, egg slicers, panini makers, a food processor, immersion blenders, really cool microplanes and every kind of silicone item for baking and basting available, not to mention the latest in spatulas and mixing spoons. Ooooohhhhh! I am blissfully planning my next Pampered Chef party in my mind as I type. What should I serve? Who should I invite? When should I have it for optimum fun, purchasing of gifts (and stuff for myself, of course) and availability of friends? Well, I think it might just have to be soon!! So, off I go to see what month would be the best “special” item and that should dictate when I hold my next food/gadget celebration. See you later…

“What a strange thing man is; and what a stranger thing woman.” ~ Lord Byron

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Fun Weekend

We spent today visiting some of the small towns in the area I hadn’t seen before. We hit the road this morning and stopped in La Vernia, TX, for a BBQ cook-off. It was HOT! The temperatures were in the upper 90′s to lower 100′s without the grills going, so we were pretty well bbq’d ourselves. I had never been to a bbq cook-off before, but I was surprised at how different it seemed at this one that at the one in Kansas City I had heard about from friends. They mentioned that as they walked around, they were constantly being offered samples of the bbq at each entry and left stuffed. Today, we were offered ribs (I shared one with Beau and it was delicious) and brisket at one entry and we got “lei’d” at another, but overall, it was not the friendly environment I was expecting. Most of the bbq people seemed pretty stand-offish. Oh, well. We had an interesting time, then hit the road for Seguin, Texas, which had a beautiful historic district. After we went through Seguin, we went to New Braunfels and, although I’d been there before, we saw things I didn’t know were there. We also stopped and bought some new shoes for Beau at the Bass Shoe store and then we headed home. It was such a hot day and we were so roasted from the day, we laid down for a nap. Three hours later, I woke up and realized it was after 8 o’clock! A quick trip across the street to feed a neighbor’s fish (they’re on vacation) and I was ready to relax for the night. So, I turned on the boob-tube and watched an episode of Iron Chef America while Beau and I shared a big bowl of popcorn I had made with a little olive oil and some Mazola butter-flavored spray. It was enjoyable and relaxing! Now, it’s a little time on the computer before bed (again) and then tomorrow is another day. Who knows what kind of fun I have in store for me.

“Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.” ~ M.F.K. Fisher

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