The Beginning...

About a week ago, my husband and I were eating at a local place in Easley called BTB (Between the Bun) Bistro, where I had a delicious portobello sandwich with broccoli salad.  I ate the entire thing.  In the middle of the meal, I started telling my husband how much I loved to find local places with great food.

After the meal, I simply said to my husband, "I just love food.  That's all.  I should write a food blog.  I could talk about local restaurants to try to help them stay in business.  I could talk about cooking and baking and how everything turns out (or not).  It would be so fun!  Do you think anyone would read something like that?"  He said, "The only thing you can do is try it," so here I am.

I like spicy foods, in general.  My favorite type of food is northern Indian.  Yum, curry!  It's actually hard for me to tame down spices for folks that don't really like a spicy dish, but I try my best.  That is currently my challenge in making Christmas dinner this year.  My grandpa can't stand annnnyyyyything spicy.

I also like simplicity.  If I can find an easier way to do it, I'll do it.  I will not, however, sacrifice taste.  My favorite shortcut for lots of recipes lately is a can of Rotel: no need to chop tomatoes and peppers, add diced onion, cilantro, salt, and lime for quick and easy salsa, throw a couple cans in your favorite chili recipe, and the list goes on.

So, Christmas dinner...
I am in the process of cooking my Christmas dinner in stages.  Yesterday I did my desserts: two pumpkin pies (Grandma R's recipe) and a cherry cobbler (Nannie's recipe), since Mom doesn't like pumpkin pie.  For pies, I don't make my own crust.  I know.  I'm a cheater.  I've tried in the past, and they were always ugly, and I just had to piece them together.  For crust, Marie Callendar is my friend.

Today I'm taking care of sausage balls (Gene's recipe), turnip greens (with advice from a teacher friend), carrots, and bread (yay Breadman).

Here's hoping....