Hello world. So last Thursday, I met my buddy, Taryn, for lunch at The Lazy Goat. I was in Chef Vicky Moore's restaurant and did not even ask to see her, speak to her, hug her, take her picture or otherwise be a weird stalker-like blogger person. What is wrong with me? I did eat her food and it was delicious. (We started with hummus and I had the salmon with kale and tomatoes on couscous and garbanzo beans.)
Afterward I popped into Palmetto Olive Oil Company on Augusta Road. It was magnificent. When you walk in the door they hand you a little bowl of bread cubes that you use to walk around sampling the plain and flavor infused olive oils and white balsamic vinegars. Then they hand you a little cup of vanilla ice cream and a spoon which you use to sample the dark balsamic vinegars in flavors like Fig and Chocolate and Raspberry. I walked out with a Mushroom and Sage Olive Oil, a Peach White Balsamic and a Strawberry Balsamic and I've used them almost every single day since. The vinegars are awesome on spinach salads, the strawberry is amazing on vanilla ice cream and I've used the Mushroom Sage to cook green beans and it was heaven.
What's up with the healthy food? I joined Weight Watchers. (What?! I know, right?) At my doctor's suggestion. So apparently my love of food is packing on the pounds and I need to get it under control. The thing is, that it hasn't been so bad thus far, though I did cry for like three straight hours when I got home from my appointment. (Who, in their right mind, would want to give up really good, bad for you food? Not I.) The doc sent me on my way with this website Skinnytaste.com marked on my phone and I swear it has saved me. I've been cooking up things like Chicken and Mushrooms with Garlic White Wine Sauce and Cuban Crock Pot Picadillo. I'd die if I couldn't cook real food.
On that front, my rice cooker is a POC. I am so sick of cooking rice and it sticking to the bottom of the thing. Does anyone else have this problem. Even adding oil and spraying the inside does not help. The thing spends more time soaking in the sink than it does actually cooking. If you have a stupendous cooker, I'd love to know what kind it is so I can purchase one like it. Why do I need a rice cooker, you ask? Because I can cook darn near anything BUT rice. I know, I'm a freak.
Did anyone else run outside and immediately plant stuff in the garden when the time changed? I got my parsley and cilantro in the ground, but past experience with Easter time freezes kept me from planting more. Now, if the little mole will stay out of my garden, I might have something growing by late spring.
Yesterday, I sat glued to the James Beard Award Nominations. You'd think it was the Oscars. Well, it kind of is in the food world. One of my favorite mags, The Lucky Peach, got several nods in the Journalism category, The Ordinary in Charleston is nominated for Best New Restaurant and Charleston Chef, Sean Brock, got a nomination for Outstanding Chef. I was cheering. More evidence of my weirdness. My bff says I am such a fan-girl. (She's so right.) You can see the winners on May 3 at #jbfa on Twitter.
I'm playing around with Twitter again. I still don't feel the love like I do on Facebook, but I'm starting to get there. Follow me @gapcreekgourmet. Being a little OCD, it's hard to walk away from the conversation, though. There are always new tweets to read! Did you hear Facebook is going to be incorporating hash tags in the near future? This should be interesting.
On the pop culture front, the season finales of Girls and Banshee just rolled through and Walking Dead is winding up. I am so bummed that I have to wait until 2014 for new episodes! Game of Thrones (March 31st), The Newsroom (hopefully), and Strike Back start up soon. That's some relief for the summer entertainment drought. Any shows on your must see list?
On the must do list, there are several Greenville things that need to be on your calendar. Euphoria Greenville has a concert event coming up on May 5 at The Greenville Little Theatre with musician Rachel Farley and the Blue Dogs. Event attendees will get a first look at Euphoria's 2013 schedule of events. VIP tickets (food/wine/beer/concert) and General Admission tickets are available. Bovinova is happening May 10-11. Artisphere is that same weekend. Greenville's Downtown Alive starts back up March 21. And it should be time for Taste of the Nation Greenville, too, but I can't find any info online. If you have the scoop, please comment.
That's all for today! Have a good one.
2 comments:
I had an Asian person tell me that in addition to spraying the cooker with a little olive oil, that once the rice is done cooking to leave the machine off and the lid on for an extra ten minutes. Essentially it's supposed to steam the rice to where it won't stick. I know that's a terrible explanation but I swear it works better than not doing it!
Welcome to WW. I've lost 40 pounds with them, and am still on my journey. I'm Heatherskib on the online site if you want to look me up. I found you looking up info on Palmetto Olive oil. I'm probably going to put in an order soon, I just can't narrow down the selections!
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