Dish and Sip

Baked Catfish This month, I decided to take a spin on the healthy side. And in doing so, I’ve realized that I’m not a healthy eater, which has been a tough pill to swallow. I do eat salads often, only when I’m lazy and do not want to slave over a stove. I sauté mostly in olive oil. However, eating healthy is about much more than that.  As I started to think about what kind of dish I would prepare this week, I realized that my eating habits were pretty much atrocious. I love bacon on everything and in everything.  Like bacon cheese dogs, chicken salad sandwich with bacon, bacon cheese burgers, bacon deviled eggs… You get the picture.  Then my next addiction, cheese.  My love for cheese is kind of crazy. I have at least 8 different kinds of cheese in my fridge. I can’t even being to justify why. I just do! Why do I have Feta cheese, Parmesan, cheddar, Mexican blend, Cijota, queso, pimento? What am I using them for? So, this week, I was determined, no ...

Recently, I’ve been pigging out on all the wrong snacks. A box of Gushers a day, a box of Salty Nuts, ooey gooey chocolate toffee cake, peach cobbler. The list goes on. And I haven’t been excising as much because of a pinched meniscus. So this week, I wanted a more refreshing snack to enjoy in this summer heat. Something that would not make me feel like pig. Salsa!  The great thing about salsa is that it can be made in thousands of combinations all freshly put together. I am normally a big fan of eating fruit and veggies. But my sweet tooth has been in over drive, and I have to put it to rest now. Especially since all of the blog posts next month will be desserts. I’m guaranteed to gain 5 pounds, and if you follow my blog, be careful.  I’m not responsible for your weight gain! Chunky Mango Salsa Ingredients : 2 mangoes 1 large tomato 1 lime 1/3 cup diced red onion 1/3 cup of red pepper with seeds Diced cilantro Directions : Peel mang...

Chili cheese hot dog with mustard and diced onions.  The sound greets you from a block away and the aroma of the food intoxicates you. This is going to be a good day, that was my thought.  And it was. This weekend boasted a festival which featured great bands and a barrage of food trucks with varying cuisines. There was crawfish and jambalaya. Oven bricked pizza, pulled pork, Vietnamese food and Jamaican jerk. With my love for food, I could have gone broke. But the responsible adult that I am grabbed a Bacardi Peach beverage and set a budget. Many of the bands, I had never heard. But that did not s top me from enjoying the music or atmosphere. I picked up a hula hoop laying in the back of the park, and with 2 other people, we went at it. I was almost stuck by a freebie. And had to protect myself from kids running blindly around the park. Right before a New Orleans brass band went on to play, I went back to the food trucks. Yes, I ate twice. Once when I got there ...

Rabbit leg over rice with sweet carrots.   I love rabbits!   As a child I had three of them, and they all died very unfortunate deaths. The one rabbit I remember most was Petey; he kind of resembled the dog from the Little Rascals. Hence the name. Petey was so cute; he had a black patch around his eye and ate everything, even cake.   But that is neither here nor there. One evening, my nephew decided to give Petey a bath. It was so innocent of him, but that was the last time Petey was ever seen alive. And, although this is a food blog, I feel compelled to tell the story of how my beloved rabbit passed. That bath was more like a deep cleaning. Petey was bathe in Comet cleaner, bleach, toothpaste, and bath soap. Pretty much anything that could be found in the bathroom. And the look on his face when he got caught was so priceless. I wish I had a picture to share. That was Sept. 12, 1996. The next morning I woke up to find out that Tupac Shakur had passed. And my...

 pulled corned beef, shredded lettuce, onions, honey mustard, swiss cheese on ciabatta rolls Happy Mother’s Day It is said that home is where the heart is. If that is true, then my home is truly Washington, DC. Most of my love is there. The old neighborhood, the brown stoned lined streets, that loud neighbor that you can hear from a block over. My heart lies in the streets of DC, in the home of my mother, and with those that I call family. When my mom first told me that one of her favorite foods to eat was corned beef, my first thought was, “What is that?” I could not recall eating corned beef at ANY period in my life. I had no idea what it looked like. How it tasted, or smelled. Or what was the texture? I had a lot to learn pretty quickly if I was to prepare it. Initially, I can across a picture of corned beef in a can which reminded me of spam.  Truthfully, I was scared. I did not want to prepare a canned meal and disguise it as a tribute to my...

Same dish; New Preparation     When I first began to cook, my mom started me with the basics. Bacon, eggs, grits, and grilled cheese. I literally ate breakfast for lunch, dinner, and snacks too. But it wasn’t until I moved out on my own that I learned to cook other things. Tacos, pastas and desserts were my favorite. Not only were they easy to make, but they were also easy to change up. The varieties were endless. I made shrimp pasta, chicken pasta, shrimp and chicken pasta. Ground beef tacos and ground turkey tacos every week. Amazingly, I never grew tired of the same mundane meals. However, in looking back, I do feel bad for the people that I invited to dinner because every week, same dish; new preparation. The one thing that each of those meals had in common was the lack of inventiveness.   Thus, hundreds of boxed tacos later, I think it is only fitting that I redeem myself of those seasoning packets, lettuce, cheese, and sour cream days. ...

I’m a “Foodie” and I love it!   This shall be the first of many blog posts. When I thought about creating a blog, I asked myself, “What the heck would you blog about?” I mean, I like a bunch of stuff. Music, reality shows, videography, working out, but food I love.   A few friends have nicknamed me, the black hole and Big Shirley, but name is Sheena. As a matter of fact, one friend has said that I would drive to Africa for some good food. That’s not true because it’s impossible to drive from the US to Africa J . But, trust me, if Africa was close to South Georgia, I’d drive there! I am currently in the city of Atlanta, and though I have questioned if I should have gone to culinary school many of times, I think about the good cooks that I grew up with. The household cooks. The ones that cook to nourish their families and create memories at the same time. Who knows, maybe later in life, I will find myself in   someone’s culinary school, but for now I inv...