Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I know this will sound crazy to most, but during my first pregnancy, I thought I would die if I couldn't eat some dirt. Not just regular dirt, but rich dirt, out of the garden, preferably after it rained. It smelled so good, it seemed irresistable. But I never indulged. My doctor said this craving that I was lacking in some kind of mineral. He put me on a mineral supplement.

We live in Food Lion land. The first Food Lion store was in Salisbury, NC, and there is now one on almost every corner. They are clean, and have decent meats and produce. Not as cheap as Walmart, but I prefer their products to the Super WM store here.

About 15 years ago, I prepared a complete Chinese dinner for about 10, and it was as good or better than you could get in any Chinese restaurant. There were chicken wings, chow mein, egg foo yung, shrimp fried rice, and a few other dishes that I don't remember any longer. It was really a LOT of work and trouble, but it was delicious.

Wow, talk about timing! My daughter took me to TJ's yesterday...it was the first visit for both of us. I bought frozen steelcut oatmeal, apple dumplings, braided walnut bread, blueberry scones. canned onion soup, frozen chicken vindaloo, garlic and herb pizza dough, frozen indonesian style veggies, 60 bucks worth of stuff, the rest of which I can't remember.

My daughter was only going along for the ride, just to take me, but she ended up buying about 50 bucks worth herself. Some of her prizes were the chocolate covered espresso coffee candy, blueberry juice, a reisling wine, a sparkling wine, some scones, almond butter, blueberry jam.

Oh, and one thing I found that was a real treasure - boysenberry jam. I LOVE boysenberry, but you can't find either the jam or the syrup around here, so this was great. I like TJ's, and will be going back frequently when they open the one in north Charlotte. It took us almost an hour to get to the one in south Charlotte that we went to yesterday.

Favorite blessing:

Good bread,
Good meat,
Good Lord.
Let's eat!

Turkey breast, mayo mixed with Frank's Hot Sauce, and iceberg lettuce on honey wheat bread.

Scrambled eggs
Link sausages
Wheat toast
No juice
Black coffee

I usually also order either crisp hashbrowns, or grits with plenty of butter.

Monday is bean day at our house - either pinto or white dried beans, coleslaw or fried potatoes with onion, and homemade cornbread. Friday is fish day, usually fried tilapia fillets with french fries and coleslaw. Saturday is cookout day. Either hot dogs, burgers, or ribeyes. Sunday is for things that take a while to prepare, like chicken and dumplings or beef roast.