What..my boring life???

       I don't want to blog about fruits and vegetables, I ain't no vegetarian, vegan or biased eater of any sort really. I don't really want to blog about healthy eating at all. I don't want to blog about un healthy eating either! I was raised on great home cooking. By my Mom and a lot of great women -Aunts Grandmothers etc; Fresh fruits and vegetables which I shopped for weekly with my Dad and desserts on birthdays and holidays mostly. No soda or chips in the house almost ever. There really wasn't such a thing as junk food when I grew up. Just because I'm a baker, I don't want to blog about eating dessert all the time (even though Jeff thinks he can't go one night without it) because I don't. People assume when you're a baker that you eat all your goods all the time. Actually, if you're baking for someone, of course you can't eat it. Tasting yes. Testing during the experimenting phase, yes. Yeah, sometimes I just have to make myself a coconut cream pie or a coconut cake or a strawberry rhubarb pie (I like milk and ice cream on my fruit pie -that's the way my Mother liked it) Sometimes Jeff mentions how much he loves eclairs and I just have to whip some up. I try to keep things in balance. I don't want to blog about diets and weight loss. I abhor diets. I abhor the fact that it about kills a girl to lose some pounds but putting it all right back on seems to simply take one container of ice cream. I don't really like ice cream (except mint chocolate chip with hot fudge and whipped cream) and I can do without chocolate most of the time. Yes- true!  I'm no authority on cooking, I just love doing it and sharing it and sharing how to do it if anyone ever wants to know. I am an authority on horses and maybe someday if I have enough life, I may like to blog about the beauty and overflowing joys and heart-wrenching pain and sorrow and death defying physical labor and financial sacrifices of my life spent with my beloved equine children...and all my precious daughter -students (that belonged to someone else) that I've been lucky enough to have an influence on over the last 35 years.         I don't want to blog about politics because I was raised that your politics are private and you don't talk about them. Ten years ago nobody really talked much about politics. People throw the word conservative around all the time these days with political context. I've always been more conservative than anyone I've ever known but I ain't no republican. Most people couldn't even imagine doing without and sacrificing the way I have in my life. It's trendy now. Ever since the economic downturn everybody thinks they're "vintage" and "old fashioned" ha!  If they only knew. I don't want to blog about all the things I wish I didn't know that the idiot box (that's what my Mom called the TV) has brainwashed into my head. Sanguination... that means when you cut someones arteries or jugular and let all their blood bleed out of them. Kandahar- and lots of others names of places and bad stuff in the Middle East that I don't want to know. Honey booboo and all the moronic reality TV show stuff... the bachelorslutte and misstreswhores, some bad maids and all kind of inappropriate immoral new shows what the world is going on????? Or as my Mom used to say (and my Grandmothers and I'm sure all your Mom's too) "what's the world coming to!!"   Of course I don't want to blog about religion, nuff said. Marriage maybe. Morals and moral standards maybe. Ethics maybe. Restaurants and food of course. Pies, cakes and every kind of baked good -definitely. Spelling (misspelling) and other pet peeves -absolutely!! My varied life and times living in a barn here in the mountains of Appalachia....hard as it is, lucky as I am (and these mountains do want me to keep some secrets!!)       ...But!  I DO want to blog about some of all these things!! a little bit of this and a little bit of that... just a little bit of everything! A "balanced" blog! When it's raining or something cancels and I get some time! ...blogging takes soooo much time and holy shit I gotta go clean stalls! -B

Asheville Food & Restaurant Blahhhhg

        Anybody who knows me or has ever eaten out with me knows my reputation as the ultimate hard-to-please food/restaurant/atmosphere/service etc; etc; critic... AND that  I am also extremely and outwardly complimentary, appreciative, and grateful for excellence!!             Yesterday I was meeting a friend for lunch and decided to have a long overdue try at a new (-ish they've been open for a little over a year) little place in Weaverville called "The Glass Onion -Global Italian" (from the Beatles song)  The location formerly the Sunnyside Cafe and others over the years.   The treasured little town of Weaverville, slightly north of Asheville, is experiencing a sort of  "boom" right now.  It's bustling with shops and places to eat and cool businesses like Curtis Wright the fly fishing place, the Well Bred (wonderful) Bakery/Cafe, a new Creperie (more on that later) upscale outdoor outfitters, art galleries and pottery studios. I have always loved it up here so I'm really happy for the attention it's getting. I know the Glass Onion is sort of upscale so I for that I am prepared.  I have read that the owners are two chefs from "The Hamptons" that chose Weaverville out of all the places in the "whole country" for their personal venture, so my food expectations are high!  As I pull into town, I see the busy bustle I am used to seeing around here these days. We are meeting at noon with no reservation ...this is my first test as I HATE more than anything to walk into a restaurant and the FIRST thing they say is "do you have a reservation?"  My friend is late so I decide to go on in alone to get a table. There's hardly anybody in the place so I get the best table in the front window. (too bad they have put up big signs in the windows so you can hardly see out!) The specials on the sidewalk board sound amazing. The chef makes a fresh unique ravioli every week so I'm excited about the artichoke and sundried tomato ravioli which is my absolute favorite flavor combination and the Steak salad with bleu cheese also another fave. I order a glass of wine ($7-$8)  and check out the menu while I await my companion. The owner bio description is "Simple delicious meals made of top quality ingredients, expertly prepared, promptly served and courteously priced." (Also locally sourced when possible)                              I always check the burger price as a gauge... 12 dollars. (Amazing favorite burger in town -loaded Kobe beef burger at Biergarden 12.95 -Lobster salad burger at Wicked Weed, bursting at the seams with lobster at 13 dollars!) OK... I really want to like this place! ... several really good looking appetizers, truffle fries (Yum) for 5 dollars, an eggplant stack for 7.  Glass tabletops, linen napkins, nice, warm, friendly waitress. My friend arrives and our server comes to describe the specials. The ravioli I was excited about has a pesto sauce which turns me off with the artichoke and sundried tomatoes- she offers a different sauce but I don't want to be difficult. She describes the Steak salad as romaine with steak and bleu cheese. "what else is on it?" I ask. Maybe some tomatoes- maybe he puts some green beans in there...hmmm not sounding so great. I'll stick to the regular menu. There's a curry chicken salad with dried cherries and apples and chicken salad is my favorite food so I order that, the truffle fries are shoestring and I can't resist them and they have gazpacho -which I love to try every where I can- this one with grilled corn. My friend orders something called Grilled organic Chicken Diablo which was highly recommended by our server. The truffle fries are fantastic! It's a bowlfull and I would come back just to have these and a glass of wine. The rest, I'm sorry to say, was disappointing. The presentation of both our chicken dishes was pretty. But the large plates full of fruits and vegetables with a small amount of chicken were both extremely heavily overdressed. I think I found 2 or 3 cherries and walnuts and a few more pieces of chicken in my pool of heavy, tangy, green mayonnaise-y dressing surrounded by lots and lots of thinly sliced green apples over a big foundation of spinach. The server offered more spinach but I believe it would have taken a whole bag to use up the amount of dressing on this salad!  -Were I the chef what would I have done???  Marched right out there into that nearly empty restaurant, snatched that plate up lickety split, returned it to the kitchen and redressed it. Simple. (Instead he chose to take a glass of wine off the bill) The Diablo was similar. Had great flavor but was a little bit of chicken slices atop a bed of fruits and beets swimming in a sweet, spicy puddle of sauce. Did I say the gazpacho was nothing special? There are some pretty amazing gazpachos around here (White Duck Taco, LAB, Corner Kitchen etc etc) Not much more to say. I usually make the mistake of going right in as soon as a new place opens because I'm so excited to try it, then I get disappointed and never go back. As I mentioned, this place has been here over a year.  Lunch $10-$14 Dinner $16-$25  -I would definitely go back for the fries!