Hungry Times Two

If you've kept up with us over the years (thanks Moms, for reading) you'll know we moved from Charlotte, North Carolina to Gresham, Oregon in April 2018.  Therefore, deciding to move back to North Carolina this summer definitely raised some eyebrows.  What can I say? When you know, you know. That female intuition is some powerful stuff.  It was harder for Scott to leave the Pacific Northwest. Have you seen that man around tall evergreen trees and all the IPAs one can drink? Yet my insistence that one more winter in dreary, dark rain would end me, coupled with the high cost of living and the diminished shine of his PNW college days, were the reality checks to help make this giant U-turn of life. This was no '90s free-wheeling Oregon. 2019 was all too real.  To quote Marc Maron , we don't know how much time we have left. Rather than harp on what Oregon didn't provide, I'd rather think about what our return to Asheville, North Carolina can. I'm ...

If you review the photos on your phone, you will notice trends. Maybe it's cute baby photos, snaps of your pets doing something adorable and/or ridiculous, shots of your culinary feats or fails, or travel pics. For me, my photo album is bookended with images of mayonnaise.  I can explain -- really. When Scott landed his planning job for Multnomah County, Oregon earlier this spring, we had many details to wrangle and projects to complete. Sell our house in Charlotte, North Carolina - ok, we can do it. Purge or sell many belongings -- that's FUN, let's burn it all! And successfully drive all our belongings for more than 2,800 miles in a 20+-ft. U-Haul truck, with the Ford C-Max with adorable, ridiculous #LorettaDog  following along -- errrr, do what now??? The drive from Charlotte to Gresham, OR was my one hesitation. Not exactly known for my smooth driving skills, I rarely enjoy operating a motor vehicle, preferring instead to take frequently-delayed Amtrak t...

Today's Charlotte Observer feature on grits calls the Southern staple a "warm hug from a bowl." Grits have a thermonuclear nature, taking forever to cool down and often burning the sin off your tongue even when you think they're safe to eat. But there's something about a nice creamy bowl of grits. (Random shout out to Little Milton for singing about them.) I grew up on grits, with my Grandmother Carrie keeping the yellow kind -- preferred to white -- in a canister on her kitchen counter. They were usually served along with country ham, biscuits or on their own with a little butter, salt and pepper. For those of you born outside the South: grape jelly is never an acceptable add-in for grits. They're not oatmeal or Cream of Wheat, y'all. Leave the sweet stuff out.

There's been a lull here at Hungry Times Two (staring at computer all day for work, or job-search), but a recent community garden visit inspired this post.  I always joke that I hate yard work/landscaping and love gardening because you can't eat mown grass and tomatoes are worth the effort. In essence, it's the debate between flower/ornamental gardening and fruit/vegetable gardening.  There's definitely one crop that achieves a beautiful, edible balance between these two camps: okra! We're growing a red okra (delicious when grilled) and this lovely flower's currently on one of four okra bushes (below). The okra shot was taken with a chain link fence in the foreground, which keeps out riff-raff (rabbits, squirrels, etc.) and is also supporting our prolific burpless cucumber plant (below). We've had a bumper crop of cukes and yellow squash, which we've discovered grows FAST in just a day or so!  Erin made sure to document "Attack of the ...

Note: We're back on Blogger! Sometimes you learn if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (Sorry, Tumblr.) "I called New Orleans 'a small model of all the best of America' because I have found here a vivid expression of my conception of what the United States can be at its best -- a truly multicultural place, in which all social, ethnic, and economic elements of the society have somehow managed to fashion a distinct and vibrant culture out of the tensions among their differences.  This embrace of diversity is a beautiful thing, when you can find it."   -- Tom Piazza, Devil Sent the Rain: Music and Writing in Desperate America Amen, Tom Piazza. We found it, we drank it in, gobbled it up, and embraced it. Then we came home and wondered why it took us so long to get there. Our New Orleans trip over the New Years holiday wouldn't have happened if our Nashville friends hadn't initiated the visit. Thanks friends, for the introduction. And hello to our ...

So I'm being a little dramatic with today's post title, but uh, Scott and I are both ill this week. Between his strep throat and my sinusitis, we're a sniffling, hacking sorry sack of sickness. What kind of tasty treats have we had this week? Unless you count OJ and hot mint tea as cocktails, cough drops as appetizers, or  comfort foods like tomato soup and Mac & Cheese as five-star dinners, it's been pretty lame. However, no less than three local peeps have offered to bring us the ultimate comforting cure of chicken noodle soup. If it wasn't 102 degrees outside folks, we might have a deal. My plans for canning strawberry jam were dashed this week due to illness and I'm not even sure local berries are still available in this sweltering climate now. I did, however, snag a tasty cantaloupe. It's been a healthy, cool treat that's soothing to our aggravated throats. ********************** Boo to sickness. Want to know what didn't suck recen...

A friend in Tennessee sent this along, and I thought the sheer ingenuity behind it was worth sharing. This is a fish-stick I wouldn't mind eating. (I ate enough of the other kind in elementary school). As he noted, these are "stockers", so unlike wild-caught trout (catch and release), these are fine for all-you-can-eat grilling. Yum.

We're not dead yet, to borrow from mighty Monty Python. Just kind of sick, tired, and overwhelmed to get back into the swing of things post-holidays. Anyone else feel like a total slug getting back to work after ringing in the New Year? So. damn. painful. Well, I'll stop my griping and promise you this: we turned it OUT this holiday season, taking lots of photos and making and eating our share of tasty holiday yum- yums . And by that I mean we stuffed our face with: - Shrimp & Grits (made by Sir Scott, coming soon to a blog near you!) - Potato Gratin with Rosemary Crust (made by yours truly madly deeply...I rocked it - post coming soon.) - Southern goodies like pimento cheese (pronounced " puh - menna " if you can get your Southern drawl going) and boiled peanuts - A new thing I credit my mother dear for showing me: Pickled Okra! Holy cow, they are good with cocktails. Or just eating them straight out of the jar at 2am , barefoot, as you try your hardest not to ...

It's surreal, y'all - Scott and I are now a one car household! What the what! It all came down to money - we want to save more of it. No we will have waaaaay less of an insane car insurance premium and I now have no car payment. Also, we longer will suffer the embarrassment of being car twins. We went from double Matrices to ein silver Matrix. I've always driven Toyotas, so I always gave my cars Japanese names - Yoko for my old green Camry, and Yoshi for my recently departed blue Matrix. Scott's not a fan of nicknaming his - I mean, OUR, silver Matrix - so when I pressed him for suggestions, he came up with...Momo, Japanese for peach. I kind of love it. What do you think? The other was a non-Japanese moniker - Dot, as in Dot Matrix. Kinda ridiculous, yes? I think we're going with Momo. Sidenote: To celebrate our newfound one-car-ness, we hit up Sardi's , our favorite Peruvian charcoal chicken joint in the area (so far.) Their churasco de pollo will cure what ail...

Here's one mystifying, frustrating and yet occasionally beautiful thing about the Southern U.S. - change comes slowly. I find it even more beautiful when, after decade, some things don't change at all. By this I mean Gary's Barbecue , an institution I grew up on in the 1980s and 90s in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Its provenance is China Grove, NC - a funky-named place between Kannapolis and Salisbury, and pretty much in the backwoods where somehow, someway, the subdivisions and ho-hum strip malls invading the greater Charlotte area haven't caught up with little China Grove. I hope they never do. I hope Gary's remains untainted by growth and development so it can continue as the best damn Lexington-style barbecue joint out in the middle of nowhere. Anytime pork on a bun comes up in conversation, Scott's probably learned by now to tune out my odes to Gary's glory, in the nearly nine years (!) we've discussed the finer points of barbecue. He grew...

Last night while dining at the Korean place and Washingtonian "Cheap Eats" pick Lighthouse Tofu in Rockville, a discussion came up over cooking rice. (Sidebar: I had bad Korean food once in San Francisco - beef tasted "off" and the hot tea was like licking shoe leather. Not good. Long story short, Lighthouse Tofu redeemed Korean food for me - beef bulgogi is now the jam. YUM. Get some.) I can't seem to figure it out, but ever since I tossed out my non-stick cookware and switched to my All-Clad pot (the awesome one we found in the backyard of our first rental house in Nashville, but that's another story), rice at our house continues to be a rocky deal. I've tried lowering the heat on our gas range or upping it just a tad. I've played with the water to rice ratio, now working with a one and a half cup of water to one cup rice situation. I've washed the rice in a strainer, even. Sadly, sometimes the result is too sticky/gluey. Often the rice drie...

Yes, it's super sweet and chock-full of high fructose corn syrup and Red 40 food coloring, and I should eschew all of that, but hell, I'm a North Carolina girl and one of the best things to come out of the state - other than (in no particular order) Mr . Andy " Matlock " Griffith, public radio's Carl Kasell , author Thomas Wolfe, musicians Tori Amos, Ben Folds, Nina Simone and James Taylor; Duke basketball, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts - is Cheerwine . Don't know about Cheerwine ? Bless your little ignorant heart. Check it out, please, if you're ever in North Carolina. You'll be glad you bypassed the Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Sprite and whatnot for some carbonated cherry yum- yums . (I love that http://www.cheerwine.com/ converts into http://www.itsasoftdrink.com - it's kind of a weird-ass page. Do take a look-see.) Made by Carolina Beverage Corporation of Salisbury, North Carolina, since 1917, it's a fine tasting soft drink, indeed. A friend...

What did I have two, no....make that THREE, cups of today? It wasn't gravy, or Coca Cola, or Bourbon, or Cranberry Juice. It was TEA, wonderful tea. Ever since I was younger, tea has been a pleasure to enjoy, both hot or cold, sweet or unsweetened, as long as it's not adulterated as that Fruit Tea business you know I can't get behind, or Jasmine (too much like drinking Potpourri water to me). But - Japanese Green Tea, English style, Chai, Thai Iced - it's all pretty much marvelous to me. Luckily, Scott shares my love of tea. We jokingly have "tea and book time" (in bed too, but I swear, it's totally PG-13 rated) as our British alter-egos Russell and Margaret -- our first names, as we both go by our middles. Ol' Russ and Mags are just simple homebodies who like scones, a spot of tea, a good historical novel or quaint little series on the Public Television station, and a nice gentle rainy afternoon. Or something like that. Can you tell we've really t...

So, here's a random run-through of my summer. Erin's already gotten a lot the choice writing out of the way, so I'll leave this as more of photo montage with comments, etc. LuLu's, a great restaurant next to Richmond, VA's old train station and farmer's market. The sign itself has a cool Bauhaus-like vibe. That chef should be mixing up a batch of Duke's Mayonnaise, given that it's one of C.F. Sauer's signature products. Perhaps Richmond, VA is a hidden food-town? Funky painting at comfort, a Richmond, VA restaurant with few pretenses and knock-out comfort food. The name says it all - along Broad St., Richmond, VA.

It's amazing what you can find on these crazy Interwebs. Exhibit A: Yep, Little Debbie tries and tries to wear me down with her promise of cheap, sweet thrills but somehow I've managed to stay away from a box of Oatmeal Cream Pies in my own home for over a week now.* Scott's responsible for this devil woman's merchandise taking up space in my pantry. He has a bit of a sweet tooth for foods that aren't really, well, food. Looking at the box of OCPs, here's the ingredients: Corn Syrup, Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1] Riboflavin [Vitamin B2] (Folic Acid)Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil with TBHQ to Preserve Flavor, Dextrose, Water, Oats, Sugar, Molasses, Raisins, contains 2% or less of each of the Following: Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Ammonium Bicarbonate) Whey [Milk] Emulsifiers (Soy Lecithin, Mono and Diglycerides, Sorbitan Monostearate, Polysorbate 60)Salt, Cor...

Forget fashion, fancy cars, all that bling-bling; when it comes to brand names, we aren't usually ones to be sticklers for the high rollin' stuff, 'cause we're cheap, I mean, frugal. BUT we do have our exceptions; such as: Yeah, I know it's not healthy and some people tend to hate on this condiment, but seriously, mayonnaise is a good thing, Martha. It adds so much flavor and moisture and creamy delight to so many foods. And as much as I'd love to think I am a "from scratch" kind of gal, I am not about to crack up some eggs and whip up a batch of homemade mayo any time soon, especially with that salmonella scariness going around. If I'm going to revel in the full-fat, high calorie content that is mayo, I might as well use the GOOD stuff - no crappy Miracle Whip (which is not even really mayonnaise, let's get that straight right now) or ho-hum Hellman's. I mean to tell you, y'all, Duke's Mayonnaise is the best. Moving to Maryland, ...

Confession: Visiting Richmond, Va. this weekend, I had a couple moments where I seemed to channel my late grandmother of fabulousness , Coxey . Whenen taken aback by a sinfully wonderful dessert or food, she would exclaim (with hand to her chest as if clutching a strand of imaginary pearls) "My my, that is almost too rich to eat." I held off from breaking out her famous little expression but if the truth be told, I would have worn myself out using it. I didn't know it before I visited, but Richmond has some pretty amazing restaurant offerings. Big ups to my friend and resident of Richmond, Victoria, for selecting unique and gobsmackingly -good places. Let's get started with Lulu's , which started our trend of visiting comfortable, intimate cafes with lots of original, local-themed artwork this weekend. Though originally we planned on visiting the Shockoe Bottoms Tomato Festival, the 106 degree weather killed that plan, so we hit up Lulu's for some A/C and co...

Let's just all acknowledge this for a second: barbecue is an art form. It takes time, effort, patience, and a lot of smoke, heat, and know-how to create the final masterpiece. Luckily, Scott and I were invited by a new friend to a 21-year gathering centered around the glory of pork in Cheverly, Md. last eve. I figured it would be a casual deal so I made some blue cheese potato salad and prepared to eat some grilled meat. I had no idea that I was about to take part in quite the ceremonial affair. Our hosts' home was decked out in pig paraphernalia - pig string lights, tin signs, porcelain figures, photos, framed note cards, and even a pig in a tree. After the hosts and I chatted and they learned I was from North Carolina, instantly I had to ante up and confess my favorite regional style of 'cue in the Good Ol' North State. As I pledge allegiance to the Lexington style of pulled pork with a red ketchup and vinegar-based sauce, I was told that I should have been there la...

I'll admit it - my food preferences bounce all over the spectrum from sophisticated to tacky. Case-in-point: my love of scones (at end of this post) and banana pudding. I made the latter, Southern dessert for a visit to a friend's hootenanny on Saturday in Takoma Park. (THANKS for hosting, Chris & Isabelle!) If you're going to drink lots of beer, sit out in 100 degree heat and listen to autoharp , banjo, accordion and washboard music, you need a suitable dessert and banana puddin' is just-right. The photo below is the Southern institution in progress, me just having realized that the cool whip was still part-frozen - DOH! That discovery was all the more reason to dig out the frozen bits for immediate consumption! (and to foster quicker heat-up, pliability of the remaining cool whip for topping off the puddin') Banana pudding (or puddin', if in proper form ) is easy to make and a summer treat! Here's my mom's take on on it. Miss Laurie's Bana...