Food Day

My landlady, for lack of a better term, runs the Family Development Center for the University here and I work at the Center a couple days a week to help out and kill time as I wait for my approvals. There are quite a few teachers there, but I mostly work with 4 other people in a little room downstairs, so we talk a lot and it is often about food! So today we decided to have a little food day for everyone and we would each bring in something that is representative of our family or country (there is also a girl from Barbados). It was great! I made Chili and of course Cornbread and Hot Dogs. For those of you who are American and have never in your life heard of Cornbread and Hot Dogs, don't worry, you are not less American. It is really a family thing...and in our family we top it with syrup (although there is a great debate going on at the moment with those marrying into the family, they would like to change the condiment to ketchup, but really they are just talking crazy).

So after I had decided what decidedly American/Lee foods I would make, I headed off to the store in hope that they would have all that I needed and that it wouldn't cost me a small fortune. After a great deal of searching, I found one kind of cornbread mix hidden in the back of the cake mix section...obviously this was not an often purchased item. This was actually the first time I had ever made Chili, that was usually mom's job, so finding the ingredients for that was a bit of a challenge. I walked up and down the canned foods isle about six times to find the beans and diced tomatoes I was looking for. The bill wasn't too bad (especially since I now have 3 days worth of left overs!) so I headed on home.

I don't have an oven and I have an ity bity pot that is just big enough for me to make one serving of pasta let alone chili for the masses, so I headed to the Logie's main house to do my cooking. Dr. Logie first asked if I needed a pan to boil the "sausages" aka hot dogs, I laughed and said no. She was astounded by what happened next. I mixed up the cornbread, poured it into the pan, just covering the bottom, and plopped two jumbo hot dogs right in it. I set the timer and tossed it, ok gently placed it, in the oven. She was in utter amazement, turned the oven light on and proceeded to check on the cornbread every 2 minutes, continually commenting on how I just put the "sausages" right there in the pan and that the cornbread was rising over the them now. She called her mom in to see what I had done. Her mom, who makes the most amazing food, now wants me to show her how I did it! If you are not a member of my family and have no idea why this is so funny...Cornbread and Hot Dogs is the easiest and most simple meal possible. You have cornbread mix, add what the package says to add, pour it in a pan and put hot dogs in it. It is cooking for second graders...why do you think I love making it so much!

But what was even better then their reaction to the cornbread making process was how people responded to it today...they loved it, couldn't get enough of it. I had to steal myself a piece to bring home so that I could actually have some. They didn't even know what it was called at first and now they want to know how I made it! The Chili was also a hit. I got shredded cheese for it, which they referred to as "fancy cheese," and crackers. Only a few of them actually but the Chili in a bowel with cheese and crackers...the rest thought it was a sauce that you put over macaroni pie (Trini food) or the flying-fish (Barbados addition). I guess it could be used as a topping, but I had never in my life thought of that! So I guess even food can become good and Trini-ized!