Let's talk about food

Humans have come a long way from poking an animal with a pointed stick and roasting it over a fire pit long enough to kill the bacteria then devouring it solely for the purpose of survival. Just as we have developed our technology, we have cultivated our pallets and altered our dinner plates over the course of time.

Since I’m a Southern girl at heart, there is nothing I like more than a home cooked meal that includes mashed potatoes, fried corn bread, collard greens, and whatever meat is on the menu for the day, but it has to fall apart in my mouth or be drenched in enough gravy to drown a rodent.

My sweet tooth is bad also. A coworker, Danae, was talking about making a cake and drizzling condensed milk over the top.

“You mean sweetened condensed milk?” I asked. “I find a reason to open a can, like if I run out of coffee creamer.”

She said, “Mix it with ground coffee and eat it like that. It is so good! People in the islands use it for everything. That’s why so many have diabetes.”

I actually don’t get to eat like this all the time because my Granny Respress passed away many years ago and my Granny Nobles doesn’t eat like this anymore because of her health. My mother only cooks this way when the family gets together and she comes up every other weekend which, right now, happens to be the weekends I work. I did not inherit this cooking gene.

When my family went to the Orlando area, I was able to loosen my belt at a few notches, literally.

One place we ate was Chevy’s. It is a “Fresh Mex” establishment which means they only serve freshly cooked Mexican food. They make their tortillas in house as well as their salsa and chips.

We eat there every time we go to Orlando and I always get the fajitas because they never disappoint. I made moaning noises and said “Oh yeah! This is SO good!” I think the kids worried about me, but I left full and happy if not a little sore from the gluttony.

The Crystal Palace in Disney World is a buffet. That’s right, it is a buffet. We erroneously thought it cost less to eat there, but were surprised to discover that a Ben Franklin was insufficient to cover all four of us.

Before the bill arrived, I ate to my heart’s content. I love buffet macaroni and cheese. There is just something about the way it’s cooked. I load it next to mashed potatoes and then let them mix together “accidentally.” It’s a game I play, but I really do it on purpose because I want that cheesy starch-on-starch flavor.

The characters from Winnie the Pooh came around and hugged my daughter. Our waiter, Kip, was from Australia. He was awesome and attentive. Was it worth the price? It was a buffet.

Finally, we had breakfast one day at the Whispering Canyon Café in Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. This is the best and most expensive breakfast I’ve ever had. We ordered the Bottomless Breakfast Skillet which had Mickey-shaped waffles, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage, but the home fries were my favorite. They kept bringing more till we said “Stop!”

It was nice to eat delicious food that someone else cooked, but we can’t afford to eat out all the time. Besides, I’d be as big as my car if I did.