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We visited mom over Mother's Day in Savannah, Georgia. When you're from the South and you go back to the South, you realize how much great food you're missing by living in the Northeast. I mean we have great Italian food here. Lots of food from other parts of the world, like my new local fave Royal House Cambodian Cuisine.
And then you go to Sunday brunch at the Savannah Golf Club and they have fried oysters, collard greens, pimento cheese and pecan pie. Really it's just overwhelming. You wish, in the remote recesses of your coagulated gall bladder, that you could grow a second stomach like a cow, and then fill that one too. Sadly, I did not grow a second stomach and I resisted the temptation to start squirreling food away in my handbag. Really only to save face for my mother -- because she has to go back to the club some day and face my would-be accusers.
"JoAnn, was that your daughter stuffing fried seafood in her purse?"
On our last day in town, we stopped by a little burger joint on Broughton Street. Even though this is Savannah, I really wasn't expecting much more than the usual hamburger. My mom ordered a BLT. Then the waiter asked slyly, "Would you like to try the B&D Loaded BLT?"
Here is a description of the B&D Loaded BLT:
We gave this classic a B&D twist. Apple smoked bacon, green leaf lettuce, homemade fried green tomato and pimento cheese.
Oh yes, we tried it. My mom and I split the B&D Loaded BLT and it was worth every ounce of fattening, carb-laden goodness. Now, after two run-ins with pimento cheese in just two days in Savannah, I'm on a quest to find it here in Fairfield.
I told my mom, and she was horrified at the thought of my ingesting store-bought pimento cheese.She said, "Beck it's just grated cheese, pimentos and Duke's mayonnaise." I didn't have the heart to tell her, I don't think we have Duke's mayonnaise in these parts. I'm going to look. But I don't recall seeing Duke's brand.
So I emailed my neighbor this morning to ask her where in the world, or in the the great state of Connecticut, could I find pimento cheese -- because she knows all the best places. Her response, "What's pimento cheese?"
This does not bode well for my quest.
There's a weird little grocery store in Bridgeport called like Food Bazaar. I'm going to look for Duke's mayonnaise there. In the meantime, I googled recipes for pimento cheese and found this one featuring what main ingredient? Duke's mayonnaise.
May the fork be with me!
NB This image is a map from the Duke's Mayonnaise website that shows availability in the US. Look at this. It literally stops at Connecticut.
This spring in Connecticut has been unusually cold. Even for Connecticut. Where it's cold a lot. When you're a Texan like me, living in a place as cold as this, it wears on you. You get a little stir crazy. You start to contemplate things you wouldn't even consider under normal circumstances. And that's why I went tanning. Not spray tanning. Actually tanning in a bed.
It all started when a client asked me to attend their big annual event in Vegas. It's called Hexagon Live. I spent two weeks ahead of the event researching case studies from their clients that I'd been asked to interview. These are companies from around the world doing very cool stuff with our client's geospatial mapping software. Very technical stuff, very complex applications. Lots of studying.
But in the back of my mind, because after all I am a girl, I was thinking what will I wear? I hadn't even swapped out my winter clothes for summer. Because it was still so cold. It was not cold in Vegas however. The weekend I arrived the weather forecasters were predicting the temperature would be in the low 100's. I panicked. How could I dress for 100-degree weather and not put my hideously white legs on display?
So I started with a little bronzing. I had some left over from years ago. It was probably expired because even after two applications, I didn't really have a tan.Off to Vegas I went in all my pastiness, praying I wouldn't have to wear a skirt.
When I came back to Connecticut it was still cold. Enough already. I got a new, stronger bronzer. Oy that was a disaster. Stripes and swirls everywhere on my arms and legs. My wrists were orange. Ridiculous is how I would describe my look.
That's when a girlfriend from work and I decided to go check out the new tanning salon nearby. We'd stopped in weeks before but the place was still under construction. This time, they were open for business. We decided to try one session on the spot. You could choose to sit in there for up to 20 minutes but Julie decided to do 10 instead. The check-in girls looked at me and politely suggested I try 8.
In we went. Everything was new and clean. I had to walk back out to ask for those little mini goggles. Then I got into the bed, for the first time ever, and sat there for 8 minutes.
Without pulling the lid down. Because I didn't realize you're supposed to do that.
In the end, I'd tanned about 2/3 of my body. So my back and part of my right arm looked somewhat tan and the rest was the same.
I know Julie wants to go back but I think I'm out. When you grow up in the South and you're used to the actual sun on your skin, tanning just isn't the same. And then there's my deep-seated fear of looking like Magda from There's Something About Mary. Or that crazed tanning mom.
