Daily Cravings - Food and Feelings

My food diary - definitely not that dieting kind of diary!

I'm going to just add from the top now, so most recent "cravings" will be on the top, also only postings from 2006.

December 2006 - I have had some other packages and one person to person cheese delivery, but this was when my blog was being blocked. So, now that I have access I would like to thank Matt's parents for another wonderful package! Soooo many good things! But I just have 3 words for y'all - Butterscotch pudding galore! Thank you so much and just in time for the holidays (thanks for the cold medicine too, that will save us some potentially scary trips to the doctor!)

October 2006 - Another package!!! This one from my good friend, Jerry! THANK YOU!!! Okay, so being away from the States in the fall is hard because I miss out on all of the tasty pumpkin and apple delights. So, Mr. Govert sent me a whole package of tasty pumpkin treats just in time for my birthday. But not just pumpkin stuff, a whole lot of goodies such as: ginger snaps, goldfish cracker, sour patch kids and CHEESE! Thank you so much. I owe you when we are back stateside!

October 2006 - I didn't want this to get buried by my travel log. The log is now up, just have to keep scrolling down. I want to give an especially oooey-gooey thank you to a fellow cheese fan! I just got a fabulous chesehead care package from Gfarb and Mike (M-Dawg? Hmmm, have to work on his nick name). No, not a Wisconsin football reference - I'm a Minnesota fan! But whole box of the life blood. Cheese. Thank you both sooo much! Even though we are in Beijing and can now get a lot of western products, they sent us things that I haven't seen here! And things that I really get cravings for, i.e. pasta and cheese in various forms. Now, just for you - to the tune of "No Diggity", remember the roller rink in Beloit? "Thank you for your package, (Sarah Goldfarb), I wanna eat it up. An' I love all the products (cheesy goodness), and I'm drooling now. Way-o, way-o, way-o, way-ohhh...they sure look good! Way-o, way-o, way-o, way-ohhh.... Okay, so not so good my mind is toast right now. But, thank you sooo much, I can't tell you how much appreciate your package and enthusium for one of my favorite food items!

August 2006 - THANK YOU Anjali! Okay, for those of you who don't know her, she is one of the fantastic VIA vols in Nanjing (she also has a really interesting and entertaining blog - see link at right). She went back to the States during the last break and brought back some goodies for us from home - when I saw the Mexican Hot Chocolate, I think I spontaneously shed a tear of joy. I was a foodie at home, but here...well...let's just say that food has taken on a more significant role in my China life. Good thing we sprung for that gym membership!

May 29, 2006 - THANK YOU Ed and Chris! What a caboodle of tasty treats! We have already started to consume all of the treats inside. I actually hugged the box of Cracklin' Oat Bran for a little while longer than what is "normal/appropriate" when it comes to hugging cereal. Hmmm.... We're eyeing a box of mac and cheese for dinner tomorrow and Matt, well, let's say that he is very excited about the possibility of making pancakes. So, thank you, thank you, thank you! Goodbye potatoes!

May 15, 2006 - OHMYGOD! We just got a care package from another couple of Beloit buds! I can't even begin to tell you how much we appreciate it! Matt has made me hide the cherry sours as he can't control himself with those little tart but sweet delights. I can't wait to crack open the hummus! We just kept on pulling out treat after treat after treat from the box. Bri, keep rockin' in the free(er) world and Debz, well, you're just hands down awesome and I don't what I did to get such a great friend, but I count myself very lucky! PS - we already ate the Jambalaya and Red Beans & Rice with one of the sausages. Yummmm!!!!

May 11, 2006 - Today is rainy and cold. Nothing like tomato soup and grilled cheese, or at least the closest we can get to it. Actually, I write this because I am thinking about pizza. After our visit to Yinchuan, I wrote about our good and bad pizza experience. I was just reminiscing about the wonderful tomato and basil pizza I ate. Mmmmmm.... Man, we are going to get soooo fat when we are back! Will have to engage "Project: Iron Rice Bowl" (my diet fad vision) so we don't blimp up too much.

April 25, 2006 - We got a wonderful care package from one of my Beloiter friends. I truly have the most awesome friends! Ahhh...cheese, couscous, soup and oh my! That was just a few of the delights we found within. Also, kudos to Jerry on the crumpled up copy of The Onion for padding! We have already devoured that. Ooooh, so much fun to get that kind of mail! Usually it is just Beloit College annual fund requests - yeah, get back to me when I am making more than $200 a month. We found some good bread on the corner and today (Wed.), we had the bread with Jerry's hot pepper cheese, how delightful! As you may have guessed by the number of posts, I have a few days off as my kids are taking their mid-term exams. Then we begin our vacation - hopefully we will be heading off to the Tengger Desert for some dry, dirty fun! Oh, the big news for me in Guyuan, the grocery store started to sell Skittles. I will try to put up another video post today. Later!

March 31, 2006 - Last week, we, gulp, finished our last box of mac and cheese. Sob! Lately, we have been hitting our cheese products pretty hard. The discipline has just melted away (much like cheese, yum, gooey, melty cheese....) Cheese junkie. I have been asked for more care package ideas, so, I consult the spreadsheet (Matt calls it my sheet of gastronomic greed): Cherry candy (can't get it out here), Mac and Cheese (non-powder as we can't get butter here), Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal, vanilla extract (we just bought an oven and I can bake on a limited basis), bisquick, zebra cakes, and that dried tortellini stuffed with cheese. We thank you all for you very generous packages, we treasure each and every one! They help me diversify my 3 potato a day diet.

February 19, 2006 - We just got two wonderful care packages from Matt's mom! Thank you! Anyhow, some of my dear friends were looking to ship some stuff off to me, but did not know what to send. Here are some ideas: Parmesan cous cous, Twizzlers, Cinnamon Graham Crackers, Nerf Football, Cherry & Grapefruit Jelly Bellies, Post Selects Cranberry & Almond cereal. I have a nerdy spreadsheet going with all of the food Matt and I have been craving. So, if you ever need any ideas...! Our vacation was really good for eatin'! We got in quite a bit of Western food - Mexican even! But now we are back to our 3 staple dishes at our 4 staple restaurants. I can feel the food blahs already coming.