Writer's block? Food block? Food Writer's Block?

It's been quite a while since my last post, to be quite honest I haven't had very much blog-worthy food lately. However there are a few places I've been to/things I've eaten recently that were worth a mention.

Tu-Do: I've been hearing about this place for a long time and hadn't had an opportunity to go until my friend Charlotte invited me. First we split the spring rolls, I really wouldn't recommend these. The texture, taste, everything was kind of gross. BUT then I got #38. I don't remember the name but I know it was rice noodles, chicken, shredded lettuce and peanuts. It was HUGE, seriously I got it on Sunday and I'm still picking at my leftovers. It was super cheap too, like 7 or 8 dollars. Loved it, definitely going again.

Tater Tot and Asparagus Casserole: I feel like in the South, food is a bigger deal than in most other places. Food has the power to cheer people up, which I'm sure is why, after my last break up, my house was filled with cake, ice cream, cookies and an assortment of other things to make me fat (and thus still single.) But for real what better thing to bring when someone is in need? Food is one of the three basic human needs, so of course whenever something happens you bring it in large amounts. Well for those of you who don't know me very well or haven't heard me talking about this non stop for the past month, let me rock your world with an awesome story. My friend Fed Barona had a serious accident on Blue Angel weekend that left him paralyzed from the neck down. The doctors gave him an 80% chance of quadriplegia, and of course because he (and God) is amazing he is living in what I like to call 20% chance of awesomeness and is WALKING. It is literally a miracle. So Fed's wife Heather is equally amazing and invited my mom and me over the other night to eat some of the food people have been bringing over since Fed's accident. Someone brought over a tater tot asparagus casserole that was seriously one of the best casseroles I've ever had. I was also so excited to spend some time with Heather and her sons Grey and Alecs. Ever since Fed's accident I have watched people pour their hearts out to the Baronas, it really has been so cool. I love this family so much and am so inspired by how strong they are. I had to google the recipe for this casserole and couldn't find one with asparagus included but here is the Duggar Family (of TLC's 19 Kids and Counting) recipe for tater tot casserole.

2lb ground turkey, cooked, seasoned and drained

3 2lb bags of tater tots

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 cans evaporated milk

Brown meat and place in casserole dish

Cover with tater tots

Mix milk and soup together and pour on top

Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

And I say just throw in a can or two of canned asparagus.

Sutter Home White Zinfandel Wine: Finally I want to write about wine. I LOVE wine. Seriously, I know that sounds bad but it's the truth. I haven't always loved wine, in fact I used to hate it. But all of the sudden one day I woke up and decided I like wine...(which happens to me quite often, for instance I looked up from watching What Women Want when I was 20 and was like I HAVE TO HAVE A PICKLE after hating them my entire life.) Anyway, I love all kinds of wine: red, white, gas station brand or fancy expensive brands (as long as someone else is paying.) But there is one kind of wine that I am embarrassed to say that I love and that's White Zinfandel. I feel like it's the white trash, stripper's wine. Seriously, I love it but I'm always too embarrassed to order it when I go out, I feel like I should order something more sophisticated. Well when I'm buying my wine from the gas station on Bayou I feel like I'm already slumming it enough to justify buying my fave pink drink. (I mean for real, it's pink wine...how could I not love it? ) That gas station on Bayou was exactly where I found myself the other night when my fabulous girlfriends Maggie and Meredith and I had an old school sleepover (with grown up drinks.) I was having a crappy day and my wonderful friends invited me over to Maggie's for a sleepover where we were literally the girliest girls ever. We sat in our PJ's and talked about skin, make up, boys, hair, clothes and nail polish. Seriously, I think I lost a few brain cells because we talked about nothing of substance...just shallow girly crap and I loved it! We drank wine and laughed and Maggie got mad at Meredith and me because we couldn't stay awake past 1 (old ladies.) I am SO thankful for my sweet girls that take such good care of me! They are really two of the best girlfriends you could ever ask for, and they didn't even make fun of me when I showed up with my gas station white zin.

The Best Worst Trip Ever...

I mentioned in another post that I've been doing a book study on Crazy Love with a group of girls every Monday night. This past weekend to celebrate the end of the summer and also the end of our book study, six of us planned a camping/whitewater rafting trip on the Ocoee River. Well...God had other plans. We left Pensacola on Friday at around 1pm and drove up to Tennessee, what should have been a 7 hour car ride somehow turned into a 10 hour trek up to Benton, TN only to find that there were NO campsites anywhere. I mean literally not a single campsite in 3 different campgrounds. So we turned around and drove another hour and a some change back to Chattanooga to crash at my mom's friend Rodney's house. I was lucky enough to get to hardcore snuggle with my sweet friend Bayleigh Boles on the couch while most everyone else slept in the king size bed upstairs....still not sure how that happened. Anyway, we woke up the next morning and drove an hour back to Benton for our first rafting trip. After getting there we realized we had an HOUR to kill before our reservation...obnoxious, but finally after waiting for what seemed like forever we got on the bus to go to the river. The Ocoee is split up into 3 different sections, the upper, middle and lower, the upper and middle have rapids and the lower is pretty still and good for tubing. On Saturday we were going to raft the middle, we met our guide Curly (who we all had a pretty legit crush on) and managed to raft the whole middle section without falling out of the boat or getting any serious injuries (in spite of going through the rapid called 6 Broken Noses.) After getting back on the road to Chattanooga we stopped at the Choo Choo Dive Center to pick up Rodney and head back to his house. Since we were "fake camping" we decided to cook the food we brought to for our nonexistent campsite. Rodney built a fire (which sounded like "far" with his East Tennessee accent) and Molli McMilion, my mom and I made a fabulous chicken burrito dinner, recipe courtesy of our super outdoorsy friend Nathan Hicks of Higher Ground USA. You'll need: yellow rice, canned chicken, black beans, tortillas and salsa. Whether camping or cooking in a kitchen, this recipe is so easy! Throw the rice in a big pot and cook it about halfway (I think) then start throwing in the canned chicken (canned because you're camping and can't bring regular raw chicken), we made the beans in a separate pot because some of us (me) don't like beans. After the chicken and rice have cooked, line a bowl with a tortilla and fill it up with chicken and rice then top it with salsa...trust me, it's awesome.

All day long Rodney had been talking about this amazing dessert he was going to teach us how to make called a "Banana Boat," so we all gathered in his kitchen and watched him give the official banana boat tutorial. This dessert is SO good, it's perfect camping food but Rodney told us he ocassionally makes it in the oven too. You'll need: bananas (duh), tin foil and whatever kind of filling you want, we used Nutella, peanut butter, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and marshmallows.

Step 1: Using a knife, peel back a strip of banana peel about an inch wide, leaving one end still attached to the banana

Step 2: Cut out and remove a wedge of the banana.

Step 3: Fill the hole with your favorite junk food! (I went really heavy on the Nutella right here)

Step 4: Replace the banana peel and wrap the whole thing in foil.

Step 5: Place on the hot coals of a campfire (or in an oven) for at least five minutes.

Step 6: Peel off the foil and loose banana peel and eat it with a spoon!

This was seriously the one of the best things I've ever eaten. We had a blast sitting around the campfire listening to Molli quote the Sandlot ("You're killing me Smalls! First you take the graham, then you put the chocolate on the graham...") and laughing about our best, worst trip ever. The next morning we woke up, packed up the cars and headed back to the river to raft the upper part, which also happens to be the same part they rafted in the 1996 Olympics. We requested Curly again (because he was a hottie) and began our trip down the river. Now, we told Curly not to go easy on us, we said we wanted the rough and tumble ride....and he gave us what we asked for. We got stuck on rocks, did 360's in rapids and at one point we all had to jump into the front of the boat to get out of a sticky situation (resulting in me having to bust out my knee brace.) But we had the best time! We got out and swam in the freezing cold water and sang songs until Curly was probably ready to throw us overboard. We cracked jokes about hitting each other with our paddles and occasionally followed through on those jokes. After leaving the river and hitting the road, we finally made it back to Pensacola around 10pm on Sunday night. We spent so much time planning this trip only to have to turn out completely different than any of us could have imagined. We learned about making the best of a frustrating situation, being loyal sisters in Christ and ultimately I think the biggest lesson we learned was that God is going to be glorified no matter what hard we try to make everything about ourselves. We all got cut down a few notches this weekend and walked away with a different idea of what crazy love is all about, it's about a crazy, out of control love for not only God but each other. I'm so thankful for the girls that went on this trip: Bayleigh Boles, Ashton Mosley, Debbie Norris (aka Mommy,) Paitra Prim and Molli McMilion; and for the all of the other girls that couldn't make it on the trip but were part of this book study. Go check out Higher Ground if you're interested in an awesome outdoors adventure! http://www.hgusa.org/index.php

If you're interested in rafting check out Sunburst Adventures!!

http://www.sunburstrafting.com/default.php

And if you're ever in Chattanooga and feel the need to go diving, go see my mom's friends at Choo Choo Dive Center!

http://www.choochoodive.com/