To Thine Own Self, Be Food

Today marks the 458th attempt at reviving this blog.  I make no promises.  I tell no lies. Read on. Life is good.  Life is crazy.  Life is busy.  It has always been this way, it seems.  I am very, very lucky to be working in the foodservice industry - change is inevitable and forward movement is desirable.  I have many exciting projects under my belt, and there are many more coming my way, if I keep myself open enough to the universe. I find that I do not have the time today to bring you all up to speed on everything happening in WanderLunch World, so I'm going to stick mostly to pictures.  However, you'll notice I've changed the blog's URL, as well as the look.  I've owned a food truck for nearly three years now, and it's time to adjust this space accordingly. The parade of photos below represent food I've either eaten, made, or helped students create in the last month .  Ready?? Chicken Spiedini, which is Italian for 'sk...

Standard American refrigerators have many shelves and compartments and drawers.  Because we like keeping our milk separate from our apples and our soy sauce separate from our blue cheese crumbles. Fair enough. My refrigerator has this small drawer positioned just underneath the top shelf (where I keep the milks, the Gatorades, and the wines/beers).  This little tucked-away compartment is labeled "Fresh-Lok Meat Keeper". Two things. I don't like how they spelled Lock.  You're insulting my intelligence, Frigidaire. And, I keep everything BUT meat in that drawer.  At present, there's a bunch of string cheese, a huge knob of fresh ginger, a bag of shredded mozzarella, a wrapped stack of Havarti cheese, a tub of blue cheese crumbles... It would appear we adore cheese more than meat in this household.  Excellent. All right, all right, there was a package of Black Forest ham in that drawer as well.  But, tonight was the night to clean out the Fresh-Lok....

I am going to say it right now. I have a terrible memory.  Really.  My dad, on the other hand, says he can remember things happening around him when he was a toddler.  He's the one we always ask stuff like: Remember that time we went to Yellowstone?  What year was that?  And who was it that puked and had diarrhea all the way home (answer: That was your brother.)? Good old Dad.  Remembers everything.  Mostly. I don't need ancestry.com or 23AndMe to know that I didn't inherit that gene from him. Recently, I found a wrapped circle of dough in my freezer that I'd labeled "Pâte Sucrée".  Okay, cool, right?  Because it's Labor Day weekend and I actually have time to do something with it.  The funny thing, though?  I'd dated the dough disk August 12, 2017.  Roughly three weeks ago, then, I'd made two batches of the sweet dough, used one for something, and froze the other half (unearthed today). But I could NOT remember what ...

With the 4th of July come and gone now, us Americans have entered into that gray void-like time of the summer I call "The Restless Gap".  Vacations have been taken, all camps and the like are done, summer sports are done or close, sports or band practices for the new school year are just weeks away, and the fall plans are now being thought about (or worse, entered into Google Calendar).  There's not much to do, a lot of time to do it in, and the days and weeks stretch out...waiting to be squandered, or put to good use. So, chocolate. It's hot here.  Like, stupid Midwest hot.  And humid too.  I spent a whole ten minutes outside today, pulling out those clumps of weeds hat had grown in the cracks of my driveway. I come back inside, and I feel wet, dirty, and uncomfortable. So, chocolate. If you were to ask my husband his favorite pie, he'd say French Silk.  And while that is a great pie choice, French Silk is incredibly heavy and rich.  Kind of l...

Yes. You read that right.  Keep reading, friends, it's about to get good. Photo by Brent Nelson...who doesn't quite know about shadows and things in photography. Photo by your trusty author, who doesn't quite know about taking knockout food pictures. So, the caboose (Elliot) was in charge of meals this weekend...as part of his requirement for one of his Boy Scout badges.  Even though we'd be eating meals easy for a 12-year-old to put together (usually not healthy), I was totally ready to hand over the reins for the weekend. Saturday night's dinner was supposed to be simple.  Spaghetti.  But then, I remembered I had Justin's Chapple's Mad Tips article for Pasta Bundt Loaf .  I handed that over to the Boy Scout...and things just got awesome. The ingredients here seem to be a cross between those of a lasagna and an alfredo.  One pound of spaghetti noodles is cooked, and to which a bunch of cheese, milk, eggs, and seasonings are added.  All...

Today's blog will cover two things: 1. Assonance 2. Hominy Assonance is a literary device in which words with similar vowel sounds are placed close together.  Example: I feel the need...the need for speed.  The repeating sound? The long 'e' sound.  Especially fetching in poetry (see what I did there?). Holy Pozole Rojo.  Ho-lee Po-zo-lay Ro-ho.  All those long 'o' sounds... In the Mexican Aztec language, 'pozole' means 'hominy'...and thus, we're looking at a traditional soup/stew that contains a lot of....wait for it...hominy.  And typically pork, chile peppers, garlic, broth.  Along with some other good stuff. Rehydrated guajillo peppers, cocoa powder, and garlic constituted my pozole's "base", to which I added the sautéed onions, hominy, black beans and veg broth... Oh yeah, and those weirdo Boca veggie crumbles (number one ingredient: Soy Protein Concentrate) since it's Vegetarian Week at Chez Nelson. While al...

About a year and a half-ish ago, I stumbled into a parent organization called Choir Boosters.  Just about every learning institution in America has one (or several).  If there's a sport or activity, there are parents who want to be involved because their kid's in it. My daughter, who was a freshman at the time, joined her high school's choir.  Actually, she was asked to join the elite Chamber Choir, and for the first time in my parenting history, I had a child in an organization with a booster club I wanted to join.  My oldest son, who is two years older, participates in minimal activities, and not any with booster clubs, so no chances there.  Until now... A very pleasant side benefit of doing this "stuff for my kids" is that I've grown close with a few of the other women, so much so that when our big fundraiser was done in December, we wanted to keep getting together. Thus, the Mad Moms (our big fundraiser is called a Madrigal Dinner..."Mad...

In my wise and well-researched opinion, February is the month with the most haters. Because: 1. Valentine's Day.  There's a lot of pressure on men and women alike.  What if you really hate the color red?  Or are allergic to chocolate?  Or just don't enjoy the contrivedness of fresh flowers? Or you treat your man/woman special EVERY day of the year? February is the month those people just wish would go to a galaxy far, far away.  And, 2. Weather.  Here in the temperate Midwest US where I live, February is the grayest, coldest, gloomiest month of the year.  January is great...we're all still riding that Christmas high.  We have something to live for - paying our Christmas credit card bills, usually.  But, with February, the harsh, cold, bitter truth slaps us many times across the face: Winter has just truly began. Your suffering has just began.   It is the month of dirty, slushy roads, bitter subtundra-like winds, and SAND-BUT-NOT-BEACH ...

I keep asking for forgiveness from my readers every time I take an extended break from TTOWBF, and I'm not sure why.  Like reading my daily sound-off about food was the only thing you all lived for and cared about in this universe.  Very self-centered of me. Sounds like the only person I need to forgive is myself. Very well. Thanks, Amazon.com! Shortly before the holidays, my sister-in-law bought me this book.  I'd heard of it before, but never beyond a passing interest.  Then, I start reading, and suddenly, I am reading recipes and instructions out loud (not in front of my children, natch).  Yes, the schtick is profanity, and there is plenty of it in this book. But, the recipes are actually really really decent!  And clever and easy. And vegan. Right?!  Not a cookbook genre I normally pick up, and I don't know if my sister-in-law knew it as well.  So, yes, there's a few unusual ingredients (nutritional yeast, tempeh, seitan), b...