Category Archives: Food and dining

Strawberries

Posted by Santi on February 25, 2013 Comments Off

I always enjoy hearing and seeing pictures how these wonderful little migrating birds come into people’s yards right around this time of year. I’ve never had the pleasure of a nice glass hummingbird feeder and thought it might be nice to look around and find one to put in my backyard this year, since I seem to spend a good amount of time outside during the nice warm weather. I was surprised at how affordable they were when I went online to research the ones that are available these days. And the variety of styles that they have now is pretty cool. I definitely want one made of glass, it seems that they would be much easier to keep clean. Look what I found at birdfeeders.com, now I really would like to have one and they certainly are not expensive on this site that has a whole lot more to it than just bird feeders.

hummingbird feeder

perky-pet strawberry hummingbird feeder

My strawberry patch did so well last year with all the rain that we were blessed with over the strawberry growing season. Every day I was out there picking and plucking those babies up as fast as I could. I am anxious to see how well they are going to come in this year. Getting 20 strawberries each day was awesome. I’m so glad that they were able to be frozen for future use, which I have made sure that we have been eating up.

Unsafe Food On The Rise

Posted by Santi on February 19, 2013 Comments Off

Everyday it seems we have more and more unsafe food in our world. How long will it be and there will be no good food left, unless you grow it yourself do you really know how safe your food you buy is. I try to buy the best produce possible and the best meat but everyday there is a recall of one sort or another. Everything we eat is processed to one degree or another, it is very hard to raise your own meat when you live in a city, maybe moving to the country is one option.

I have found a great little market that when I am in the area I do stop buy and some of their home grown meats and milk that really taste great but do cost a bit more than what we can buy in any of the grocery stores in town. Well worth the extra money for the taste and for the health benefits as well. Supporting a local family run small business makes me feel good as  well. They are always very nice to me and make me feel appreciated and liked. I’ve turned a lot of people onto this new little market that is tucked away in a strip mall, so it isn’t really easy to see and find off of the main road. I wish I could remember the name of the place as I’d love to place the link here on my blog, I can’t even put my fingers on their business card that was floating around in the kitchen for the last couple of months.

When I either find the card or remember the name I’ll be glad to post it here and encourage any local readers to stop by and try some of their products.

Awareness Training

Posted by Santi on February 18, 2013 Comments Off

One thing that I really loved about working for Nationwide Insurance so many years ago was all of the training that they provided us. Most of it took place at the Regional Office which was over fours away, so that meant that we were usually put up in a hotel and were provided with an expense account which was always such a blast for me and the other employees that I drove down with. I just loved the idea of spending a night, some times two, away from home in a nice hotel and being able to eat out instead of having to do the cooking myself. A mini vacation for a working mother such as myself.

These days the Internet has made it possible to keep employees from having to travel so much by bringing a lot of training right to them, saving companies a good amount of money along the way. Now a days there are sites like securityawarenesstraining.com that have everything that you need for employees to learn about all kinds of awareness training. Managers are crooked, video tapes get lost or erased and the many types of abuse just keeps on keeping on, a sad state of affairs.

 

 

Memories of Early Family Holidays

Posted by Santi on February 17, 2013 Comments Off

Back in the day when the family would have Easter Brunch, the family would get dressed up in their nice new Spring clothes, with new Easter hands and nice clean white gloves and all go out to brunch after the Sunday church service. The restaurant was always crowded with large families, many of them from the same church as we, and it was a happy, celebratory event with wonderful food and a huge dessert cart loaded with every sweet cake, pie and custard that you could ever want.

That was a sorely missed part of moving away from the DC area and their fantastic restaurants. People in the South eat a lot, but they don’t eat well. And most of the food is fried or needs vinegar or ketchup to go with it. So this up and coming Easter, I’ll be cooking our own Easter dinner and keeping it simple but healthy and tasty, focused around a Honeybaked ham and cheesecake for dessert.

At least we still see most of the family over the Thanksgiving and/or Christmas holidays. I never would have dreamed that all these years later that my family would have drifted so far away from the old homestead, scattered all across the country, with a few that have ventured overseas.

 

Soft Serve Machines Serving Ice Cream, Yogurt and Gelato

Posted by Santi on January 25, 2013 Comments Off

Last year I was thinking of buying a coffee vending machine and the route, a typical turn key business that sounded real good from the woman trying to sell it, but after looking over all of the paper work involved and going along on her typical weekly trips to where the three machines are located at. All being used for and paid for by the health care industry.

It was a lot of work, a lot of travel time and all three vending machines were getting old and in need of more maintenance then I cared to get involved with, considering the distance I would have to drive each time someone called from one of the hospitals with a problem with the machines. It was generally the cup dispenser that would jam up and only take a couple of minutes to get them unjammed, by the time I went down there and back I had just spent almost 2 hours so that a cup would drop down. That got old real quick and was, by far, the deciding factor in coming up with my “Thanks, but No Thanks” to the owner/woman.

soft serve

Soft Serve Machines | Frozen Yogurt Machines

The whole experience was interesting and it really opened up my eyes to the vending machines of today in so many ways, good and bad. So when I found out that my brother and his new wife were mulling over the idea of starting the same type of business, only with soft serve machine for ice cream, gelato and/or yogurt instead of hot coffee, mocha, hot chocolate and other hot beverages options, I wanted to discuss with them some of my experiences along with some ideas and opinions that I wanted to share with them. So this Friday night we are going over to their house for dinner and some brainstorming. My sister-in-law is a good cook and she knows what we like and what we don’t, so I am looking forward to the evening of good food and good conversation, just the four of us.