It's her bag, baby!

It’s her bag, baby If I wake up pre dawn and decide it’s time to organize tote bags, it’s nobody’s business but my own. Is it excessive to be refolding to categorize all the H-E-B city tribute bags, seasonal skeleton and flamingo bags and Trader Joe’s lunch bags by theme, size, texture and preference? Some personalities can relate. They are my tribe. Then there are the NPR canvas bags, commemorative conference bags and some made from promotional T-shirts. These carriers prevent waste and also spark conversations. I know other women who love their bags and collect bags of bags. It’s okay if I’m a nerd to curate the collection from time to time. There’s pride there. Am I extreme? Take this example. I once mentioned to a woman that I’d recently reorganized my sock drawer. She glanced over with a tad of shock in her voice. “How did your sock drawer become disorganized?” she queried. From that day on, there has not since been a sock out of place. I’d like to see how her socks look. Bonus to this friend/fan should she recognize herself and contact me about this memory.

Sauce like a boss You know the kind of bottle ketchup comes in, right? Reimagine a natural ketchup in a tall glass (reusable) jar, that has some tasty friends. Good Food For Good is into healthy foods and good causes. Butter Chicken, Mild Taco Sauce and BBQ Sauce are the “friends” flavors to which I referred. Invite some real, human ones over for a taste. Secret blown: The sweetness comes from dates. I enjoyed all the tastes, and here’s why makers are proud to present: “All products are certified organic, USDA certified, Keto, Paleo, Whole30 approved, vegan-friendly, non-GMO, gluten-free, soy-free and nut-free. No preservatives, artificial flavors or additives – just mouthwatering sauces that are healthier for you without compromising flavor.” Good Food For Good's Buy One, Feed One program has donated more than half a million meals to food banks. www.goodfoodforgood.ca. Doughp Life is raw. Cookie dough helps, says the Doughp gang, offering “legit cookie dough” that goes both ways. Eat it raw, heat it into a cookie or my fave: half bake it into a sweet goo for your ice cream, etc. I’m half-baked all the way with Beast Mode Brownie and Main Squeeze elderflower lemonade dough as the flavors I’ve tried, loved and suggest. More sweet stuff: makers support mental health and addiction recovery. That’s legit. By the way, it’s pronounced “dope.” www.doughp.com Crumbs of caramel Clarkson Avenue Crumb Cake Company has their famous crumb cake in a salted caramel version that elevates coffee breaks. Designed to share but crumbs are messy, right? So maybe it’s better if you just get one of these babies shipped and save it for yourself. No need to bother anyone else to coral those little tasty crumbs. It’s a treat yourself kind of deal, with natural ingredients and no preservatives. They’ve got a lot of choices, but this could be my always choice www.clarksonavecrumb.com Different twist There’s no fruit juice in Xtract Energy, but the all-natural CBD isolate catches your attention. This stuff is showing up in something new every week, it seems. This one has a good flavor, especially for an “energy drink.” It’s Aspartame free with B vitamins and is also gluten free. www.xtractenergy.com Darragh Castillo is a Port Arthur area foodie who has a bag for that. Sharing ideas is her bag. Tell her about your favorite bags at darraghcastillo@icloud.com

Making Do and finding comfort, together and alone

                  You don’t know how good you have it until it’s different. While I’m always up to a challenge, I don’t expect the whole world to have to go it along with me. If I ever made a joke that most American pantries have enough to feed a family for weeks on end, I didn’t want to have to prove it.

                             We’re together, alone for a stretch and we’re giving it our all. Some food writers are craving comfort food. I’m in a “making do” mode.

                             After Harvey flooding when a house guest noted we were down to eating leaves out of the yard, I corrected her that we were harvesting fresh herbs I’d planted on purpose.

                             It’s always been the advice to rotate pantry goods each hurricane season, but it sounds like many of us haven’t been doing so. And grocery runs for self quarantine times have focused on potato chips. It’s time to get creative and I’m still praying the lights stay on and we always have safe water.

                             I’m looking at fresh food first, then to what’s frozen, then the cans. Here’s what we’ve been creative with at our house:

                             * Tortilla pizzas with cheese, tomato sauce and toasted pecans. It happened and they’d have passed the taste test under any circumstances.

                             * Relish with a fresh Serrano pepper that was waaaayyyy hot; avocado mayo to calm that down, crunchy jicama  (the last of the first one I’d ever bought) green onions and oregano from the garden and waaaayyyy tart cranberries that my niece convinced me were easy to cook with sugar for Thanksgiving. Umm, those cranberries were still in the freezer, but not forgotten.

                             * Eggs cooked in seasoned oil and topped with home-grown oregano

                             * The last of the radishes, sliced and substituted for crackers with cheese.

                            That comfort food angle does have its appeal and marketers are on the job to make sure I have experienced the following:

                  A crumb of comfort

            New York is famous for slices of pizza, but I didn’t know that crumb cake was a thing over there. Clarkson Avenue Crumb Cake Company is shipping comfort food to your door in classic form as well as blueberry, salted caramel and gluten-free. Cakes are made in the USA with natural ingredients and are preservative free. Forget coffee break. I didn’t mind that some of my crumbles mixed in with an over-easy egg for breakfast. We all need to start our days best as we can now! You’ve got to give them extra credit for flavors of the month: Danny Boy for March was a chocolate stout cake with Irish cream topping. See what they did there?

                             Just the Cheese – One of my home “accidents” is already a thing and now it’s a winning thing. That time a glob of cheese came out like a crunchy disc in my skillet resulted in a heavenly bite I’m always trying to recreate at home. Just the Cheese is an actual product made from 100 percent Wisconsin cheese baked into mini bars and bites, and has been for sale. It is now the first-place winner in the Natural Snacks category of the prestigious World Championship Cheese contest. That’s the “preeminent cheese authority in the world,” proud Just the Cheese makers tell us.

                             My sample of jalapeno cheese, low-carb bites were oven baked to caramelize the texture. Wisconsin Cheddar is another of their popular flavors for on-the-go snacking. Tip: I served these for breakfast as an egg side dish. It was Just the Cheese… and the egg.

                  Absolutely Gluten Free Potato Crisps are hyperbolic paraboloids that come in a canister, so we’re familiar with that concept. The new deal is that this no-artificial ingredient brand is guilt-free for our gluten-intolerant snacking partners in Culinary Thrill Seeking. Sometimes you’ve got to have that stand-by salty crunch and these crisps are ready to please.

                  Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie who knows food is still a big topic no matter what’s going on in the world. Reach her at darraghcastillo@icloud.com