chopsticks guest post: e-i-e-i-o

recently i took a road trip.  what was supposed to be a quick drive to clayton, turned into a very long excursion to dunn.  first i drove to a small produce stand/nursery called "lee's."  guess what?  wrong lee's!  


thankfully, the iphone is here to help...  wait!  this place is where?!  


figured i was already this far east so i might as well keep going.  so, i drove through the north carolina countryside and eventually made it to my destination.  this was no stand.  this lee's, the correct lee's, had about 7 dogs, a very talkative farmer, and his wife.  these super friendly people had the most southern accents and seemed excited that i had driven that far for their jarred goods.


while it was originally a quest to stock up on a few jars of the spicy sweet dill pickles, i left with their salsa, candied jalapenos, pickled okra and, of course, more than a few jars of pickles.  after getting back in the car to make my way back home, i immediately opened the pickled okra (something i hadn't had since i was a kid).  it was delicious!  


although i came to find out that the lee's have a stand at the raleigh farmers market, i would certainly go out there again if i wanted to buy in bulk.  so glad i met them!

chopsticks guest post: i'm no peter piper

i'm no peter piper.....

so today i decided that it was time to do something with those jalapenos.  i know that poppers are the easy thing to do (and by easy i mean the simplest idea).  although they weren't difficult to make, they were time consuming as all heck and a ton of steps.  

i got a little adventurous and made two different kinds - a creme cheese/sharp cheddar mixture and a creme cheese/ monterey jack mixture.  i preferred the cheddar.  spoon preferred the jack.  go figure.