Full Belly!

The old saying is still true; the way to most anybody’s heart is through their stomachs. People everywhere find ways to connect and communicate over meals whether it’s dining out, cooking in or taking out. Of all the five primary senses we know that Taste is key…no, I’m not talking about the kind of taste which might cause someone to wear white after Labor Day or drink tea with their pinkie in the air – this sense of taste I’m referring to is more like what are we grilling this coming Labor Day?

Having worked early in my career for a popular culinary magazine, I became well aware early on that dining is a way of life for a huge segment of the population. Whether you can munch on whatever you like or are counting Weight Watchers Points (appearing soon in another post); you’re usually thinking about your next meal well ahead of time (ok, maybe that’s just me). Cooking is a great activity as it’s relaxing, productive, and assuming nothing is burned – rewarding and hopefully delicious. A former colleague in the magazine industry who used cooking as therapy said it best – “I try to cook every evening as it’s the one time I can start and finish a project in the same day!”

My daughter is a self-avowed foodie. While most kids want to run away from home and start a rock band, she wants to start up a food truck. She loves cooking and knows more about hot peppers than I do about gin quality (that’s saying something if you’ve seen my Who’s Wally avatar, or my liquor closet).

She and her boyfriend have started their own blog called Full Belly Blog. This blog is a terrific destination containing lots of unique food & drink recipes, a few how-to videos, and many appetizing photos. As a nod to the season, they are in a grill mode these days, so be prepared to load up on the charcoal and wood chips.

My other favorite part of the blog is photos from their restaurant visits which they upload to Twitter. It gets them a lot of re-Tweets, which I know means something really cool, despite only having one re-tweet in my Twitter-life.

It’s great they’ve found an outlet for their food passion. What’s really nice is we are often the beneficiaries of a lot of their test kitchen activities – although one must prepare to dine on some pretty spicy dishes!

So, if your taste and passion runs to cooking and eating, oh, and drinking…grab a plate & glass and visit those two knuckleheads at Full Belly Blog…soup’s on!