Good Press

I'm all about food, and sometimes that's a bad thing. Like when I can't get to a grocery store that carries chorizo, Manchego and membrillo (quince paste). Or when I don't get my expected freelance check and have to eat canned soup instead of another "splurge." But I digress. I had hoped this would be a light-hearted post about how food-centric and quirky I am. I noticed it a few months ago when I responded to a silly MySpace game asking me to blog about six weird habits/things associated with me. Four of the six were about food. Here's the text of that post. "Tia tagged me to blog about six weird habits/things associated with me. It wasn't easy coming up with them probably because there are some really weird things about me that I consider perfectly normal. And further, if I consider it weird, then why do I want to point it out? "All this to get to No. 1: I tend to overthink things. "2. I put ketchup on my scrambled eggs, too,...

It's cooler now in north-central West Virginia than this time last week when record-setting heat made my clothes feel like they were plastic shrink-wrapped to my body. This summer we discovered some low-calorie fruit slushes I make to keep cool. It's also a good and easy way to get in an extra serving of fruit. I'll be honest -- I use real sugar, cane sugar specifically, instead of Splenda. A little bit of natural sugar beats anything artificial, modified or engineered any day. Our favorites are the cherry limeade, peach and watermelon lemonade. I love that they're all made with frozen fruits so I don't have to buy and keep fresh fruit onhand worrying if it's going to spoil before we use it up. The most labor-intensive part is de-seeding the watermelon -- don't be fooled, there ARE seeds in seedless watermelon. But one watermelon, once de-seeded and chunked, has lasted me all summer in the freezer. Whipping up the drinks is so easy I can even let 4-year-old...