Variety, spice, life...you get the gist

It's truly a great time to be alive and eating. The prevelant number of people with food allergies and restriction is now easily offset with the ready availability of specialty foods, tailored to fit any and all preferences and needs.

Jan 1, I got together with some old friends for a Kegs-N-Eggs New Year's Day thing. I got there early enough to push my way into the kitchen to help with prep. As friends filtered in, everyone brought something different to contribute, ending result -- six types of breakfast meat! There was turkey sausage and turkey bacon and pork sausage and pork bacon and vegetarian sausage and MSG-free hot and spicy sausage. It was all pretty friggin awesome and afterwards, it felt a lot like Thanksgiving all over again.

Actually working with and around peoples food preferences and restrictions is one of the things I like most about cooking. It forces you crawl out of the food box and look at recipes with a new eye. It's challeging, but fun, especially if you can pull it off (successfully). Maybe in this new year, Wendi and I can come up with some specialty menus and recipes to pass along for those of you with a Dos & Don'ts food list of your own.

I hope everyone had safe passage into 2009. Stay tuned, more to come!

k2