Southern Nuggets

"Anna, I bought some curry sauce mix and all the directions say are to add onions, then the meat, then the vegetables before adding some water and breaking these cubes apart and adding them. It doesn't tell me how much water or how much curry. I've never done this before. Help!" That was the Snapchat I sent to my Asian friend Anna who lives in Sacramento shortly after I read the instructions on the side of the curry box. I've had curry before. I love curry....never cooked with it. Things were not starting out on a good foot. It wasn't long after she sent a reply. "That's weird. I've never seen it come in cubes before. Try just adding a little water and one cube at a time and adjust it to your taste." With that understanding, I dove into my next attempt. This dish would in fact be 100% vegetarian (unless they snuck something into the curry sauce, but it says "no meat contained." So, I think we're good.) What is...

Thai Vegetable Stir Fry Saturday night, I figured I would give a more Asian-ie recipe, compared to the Ramen Noodles, a try. Mostly, because I wanted to start to figure out how to use some of the ingredients in my "Asian cupboard." After searching the web, I found one that seemed both tasty as it was simple to throw together. As a reminder, I'm a beginner at cooking vegetables as an entree and also in using the unique flavors such as fish sauce and oyster sauce. Things didn't start on a good note when, while mixing together the sauce, I became aware that I lacked ginger and lime. I searched the cabinet for anything I could substitute in, but in regard to ginger - the only thing I could think of was lemongrass. I didn't have that either. My sister is a Southern girl and the spice cabinet is very much a reflection of that: steak seasoning, garlic powder, cumin, Cajun seasoning, dill weed, pepper, salt, the list continues. Fish sauce - let me say right now,...

As stated in the previous entry, the inspiration for the blog and the first exploration...becoming a vegetarian. To quickly recap, I was born and raised in Northern Nevada. Our family business, raising cattle for beef (There's a Tyson Chicken and something of a Tyson Beef. HA! HA! Who knew?) and recently moved to Central Georgia where I fell in loved with Southern Cooking. I decided it's time to devour just vegetables...and fish....occasionally.  This is something that I've considered for about a year and a half to two years - honestly. However, the obstacles comes down to two things: I do love meat (yum!) and despite how much I love vegetables, unless I can master making vegetable only dishes tasting BOMB-DIgGITY, yes, let's revisit 1999, I just said that - I'm going to come to dread eating. And I love food!  I asked my friends on Facebook for their favorite vegetable only dishes and although this generated a response, it mostly just got me to surf ...

My name is Tyson. These days, when I meet new people you might hear me introduce myself as, "Hi! I'm Tyson - like the fighter or the chicken. But I'm more of a chicken." It usually generates a good laugh and an easy way for people to remember who I am. It is something that I've worked on my entire life, however. I don't know why, but I have always been annoyed when people say, "Tyson? Like Mike Tyson." My irritation only grew when I found out that I was born in 1985, BEFORE Mike Tyson became famous so I wasn't named after him. In addition, my family used to make Tyson Food jokes all the time growing up. I hated it. One such name, "Tyson Chicken Nuggets" that was coined not only because of my name, but also the fact that I was pretty heavy as a kid. Especially in grades 4-8. Just as I turned the memory aides into something I actually liked. For the record, I really am a chicken. I hate violence. I thought I'd play upon one of...