Yum!

So as usual in my life, when it rains it pours. Yesterday morning BB comes to my desk around 10:33am and ask will I take her at a press luncheon for General Mills' Serving Up Soul platform and B.Smith will be there. I am excited I am able to go, especially as I try and kick up my cooking and entertaining. After walking in and meeting the fab publicist for the event I'm quickly offer me a sweet potato pie smoothie.

Yes, it was as decadent as it sounds.

Well, I take that back. It was better than it sounds! A cinnamon stick in the glass added a nice touch and made me feel Fall had definitely made its way. And sweet potato smoothies are definitely now a part of my repertoire! Jonte at work (who sits right across from me and lives right across the street . . .freaky, we know;) already told me about this sweet potato cheesecake I want to master for Thanksgiving. So after two sips of the smoothie it was time to go inside and for the presentation to begin. I scurry to a table in the front and sit next to two guys from Sandbox TV. The setting was nice and intimate. There were fruit kabobs in the middle of the table and this tasty fruit dip that I know I could make with yogurt, brown sugar and a few other ingredients.

So the presentations begin. They talk about how soul food is alive in well in the Black community and Black woman want it to stay that way but just have two problems: it's unhealthy and takes too long to cook.

The whole time I’m like wow, this is stuff I have wanted to know and discuss and I am getting to come hear about it for work. They continue the presentation. Tell us about the Serving Up Soul website and how it is a great resource and I’m thinking this is just what I need! My whole sweet tooth, isn't just because my brother always supplied me with now and laters and got me hooked, but part of our culture. We like sweets! And one of the ways we get em is by fruit.

They also had interesting tidbits of info like enslaved Africans (I don't like the word slaves) bought watermelon seeds from the continent.
So they brought a course at a time and by the end of the hour we had cole slaw with cranberries, this chicken jambalaya (using chicken helper, who knew?) and these desserts. All the recipes used general mills products and the exciting part was they were all practical like the jambalaya and stuff I probably already have. Like this peach dessert that is basically a biscuit and crystal sugar with some whip cream.

I had to try the cinnamon fried ice cream! It was so good and something I could do. Did they spend an hour mixing up a cinnamon mix to use? Nope, they used Cinnamon Toast Crunch! That's what I’m talking about.

I loved Sylvia from General Mills view on cereal:
"If food were fashion, cereal would be Black"

Think about it. We eat cereal for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and a midnight snack! And now it is my special ingredient for fried ice cream!

And B. Smith? Amazing and so cute;) She inspired me to start a supper club! She was charismatic and it’s easy to see why she has been so successful. She's gorgeous and has a daughter my age. Talking to her afterwards was kinda fab. But the best thing about her hands down was her husband in the back of the room. Comedy! When she was saying how she cooks and prepares for friends he yells out "I cook too honey" And for the rest of the time she was up there he kept her honest. I thought they might have been newly weds because of that spark they had that usually is so strong when a relationship is new. Then she goes, "my daughter, well, our daughter is 21" and I’m like wow, they've been together over 20 years and still got "it." beautiful!

So after snapping a few pics with B and Kenya we hustle back to work. It makes us all smile as we talk about how good the sweet potato smoothies were while waiting for the elevator and the kitchen assistant who made them happen to be standing by and is really touched. A genuine compliment is always most appreciated. I also caught up with Bisi from Heart&Soul who I met last week at Zandile's party. My network is growing I tell ya! And to think this weekend I was starting to worry I wouldn’t make new friends since I’m missing the ones I have like crazy.