Dish and Sip

Lemon Thyme Grilled Chicken Lemon Thyme chicken with red peppers, onions and spinach. Served over mashed potatoes and gravy. Photo taken by Chad Morgan. It’s a new year! And we all have made those resolutions to get healthy, eat better, workout and some more stuff. This year I vowed to give up pork, and Lord knows I LOVE bacon and pork chops. However, I do find some comfort in knowing that I’ll never eat chitterlings and pig feet. Fourteen days in, and I’m still going strong. It’s the little things that bring the most joy. With that being said, this weekend I decided to challenge myself by keeping track of everything that I ate and drank. It started off well. For breakfast, oatmeal with brown sugar and blue berries served with turkey bacon. Next, sixteen ounces of water followed by an 8 ounce fruit smoothie. But then, the cravings kicked in. When I searched my refrigerator, for items to snack on, I saw cookie dough, spinach leaves and more blue berries. It was then...

Beef and mint stir fry, served with jasmine rice and asparagus. Photo by Chad Morgan Mint Beef Stir Fry It’s been over 1 month since my last blog post. And, frankly, that is far too long.  Forgive me, please.  I must admit that I probably cooked twice the whole month of September. Most due to laziness, but mainly because my mother came to visit and there is truly nothing like food from home! She cooked every day for 2 weeks, multiple times a day. I had so much food in my house. I felt rich.  Normally, I would not let a guest come to my home and cook for me, but my mother is a busy body. She needs something to do constantly. So she cooked and cleaned.   Back to reality now!  I began to notice that I cook a lot for fish, chicken and pasta. Those are my go to items, but I’m much more than that. So this month, I plan to get away from those items and work with some flavors that I don’t normally use at home.  In DC, we call our Chinese food ...

Cherry Rum Cake When I lived in New Orleans, I sampled everything. The creole food, the parades, the atmosphere, and, of course the alcohol. One of my favorite things to partake in was the drive through daiquiri shops. The music was always loud, the daiquiris were always good and that was the place to be. Looking back, I realize how dumb it was to get an alcoholic beverage and drive off with it. However, those were the younger years. As I scroll drown memory lane, I am reminded of all the crazy drinks that I had in New Orleans. From the hand grenades to the Hurricanes: Category 5. And extra shots of ever clear in everything.  This was also the first time I was exposed to vodka soaked cherries. Within minutes of eating one, I was intoxicated. Who knew a cherry could hold that much alcohol yet be so smooth and still sweet. That was the inspiration behind this cherry rum cake. Soaked cherries in rum with cake batter. The idea swirled around my mind, and I h...

Summer pasta salad This week I attended an Atlanta blog meet up group because I’m committed to bringing you the best content in food and drinks. But also committed to becoming a better blogger.   When I first started this blog, I envisioned it to become a social media frenzy. I figured, with all my Facebook friends and Twitter followers this should be easy.   However having a weekly blog is much more than a popularity test. Over the next few weeks and months, I plan to bring you more focused content. A schedule of food of sorts. That way as the reader you will know what’s coming and can be on the lookout for dishes will spark your interest. So let’s get to it. This week, I have highlighted a nice summer seafood pasta salad.   I chose the tri color pasta because it’s 3 colors will really make the dish stand out amongst the other summer goodies. Ingredients: Tri-color Rotini pasta ¼ cup of pasta water 2 cups of sandwich spread 3 tablespoons of sweet ...

Eat with your eyes     I am such a visual eater and I should probably seek help for my food addiction.   I try not to watch commercials because the food presentation on some commercials will cause me to leave my home and drive miles for food. So it’s no wonder that when I saw Elote, Mexican style corn on the cob, on the Food network, I had to try it. Elote is corn on the cob grilled and topped with mayonnaise, cotija cheese, cayenne pepper and freshly squeezed lime juice. So very yummy. When I found out that my boyfriend was planning to grill this weekend, I knew this would be one of the few opportunities for me to try this dish. I mean, I’m not a griller. I can bake my tail off and cook a good meal, but, me, outdoors with lighter fluid is just dangerous.   I had to set a plan in motion. The idea of mayo on corn is fairly odd, so I could not let him know what I was up to, but I quickly volunteered to bring the corn to this bbq. As the summer season...

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...

Oxtails are interesting for a few reasons. The most obvious reason is that it's literally OX tail. This is a meat that can be prepared so many ways, and the longer it cooks, the more tender and flavor filled the meat becomes. Although I've had oxtails before, it was not until recent years, that I knew what an oxtail looked like. My mother is partly to blame for this. She is the type of woman that likes her food fresh. So fresh that if an Ox could be found within 5 miles of D.C., she would lace up her boots, put on some fatigues and go hunting.  With that being said, we ate everything as kids from deer to rabbit and scrapple to souse meat. For those that do not know, souse meat is usually pig ears, feet and head.  For this reason alone, I do not consider myself a picky eater. However you cannot ask me to try monkey brains and expect me to place a handkerchief in my lap. It takes some deception and creativity to get me to eat certain foods. And boy, was I dec...

 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...