Welcome to Carolina Bon Vivant!
Up until about a year ago, I blogged about meal planning, family dinners and other culinary adventures at Another Marvelous Meal. At the point that I quit posting to AMM, I was busy confronting some pretty unpleasant realities and dealing with a potentially disastrous transition from seemingly-happy-family-of-four to single-mom-with-two-teenaged- boys. A year on, I am relieved that we have a new normal that is not all that different from the old. We still have family dinner almost every night and Meatless Mondays most weeks. I don’t meal plan nearly as thoroughly as I once did, but there’s food in the fridge and no one is starving. When I really don’t feel like cooking, I drag the boys into the kitchen and we all make dinner together. They are not exactly enthusiastic, but they have learned some basic skills for which I am sure they will one day thank me. And I’ve made the difficult decision to start over with a new blog for a variety of reasons discussed at great length with my therapist.
Carolina Bon Vivant is about moving on and enjoying the good life in the Carolinas. I’ll still be blogging about family dinners, entertaining and culinary adventures. But there will also be more restaurant reviews and posts about weekend getaways, road trips, shopping, hiking trails, drives and vistas, farmer’s markets and roadside stands, events and festivals, some decorating tips and whatever else strikes my fancy. First up will be a couple of posts tagged Quick and Easy — Brandy Milk Punch for Two, followed by Shrimp and Grits for Two. In the next month or so, I’m planning reviews of Knife & Fork — a wonderful little restaurant in Spruce Pine — and a cool new spot here in Boone, the Appalachian Mountain Brewery. We’ll be taking road trips to Memphis, Oxford and the Mississippi Delta and to Beaufort and Fripps Island in South Carolina . I’ll also be writing about making Irish bacon and posting about a few new family favorites including great recipes for Kung Pao Chicken and Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce.
I hope you join me!
Carolina Bon Vivant 