Opinion
Kara’s Sights and Bites: North Carolina trip highlighted by fresh Appalachian cuisine with a Southern flair
By Kara Kimbrough A week in western North Carolina offered breathtaking views of the Great Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains as well as a chance to explore charming towns like Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Lake Junaluska, Clyde and Canton, all within scenic Haywood County. Seeing the mesmerizing stacked blue layers of the Blue Ridge was…
Read MoreA Coffee Connoisseur’s Tips for Beginners
Welcome to the wonderful world of coffee! If you’re ready to move beyond your morning cup and start exploring what makes a truly great brew, you’re in the right place. Here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we have a growing coffee scene, especially in places like Long Beach, where local shops serve up some seriously…
Read MoreCoffeeTime: Don’t just quickly apologize
Send responses to: andybowman839@gmail.com You know you stepped in it. Big time. Didn’t really mean to do it, but it happened. Now your spouse is hurt and angry. And they are not really waiting breathlessly to hear your apology – they’re way past that. Seeing you hanging by your bleeding ears from a dead…
Read MoreKara’s Sights and Bites: It’s fall…can apple baked goods be far behind?
By Kara Kimbrough Finally, it’s fall…the all-too-fleeting season that brings only a few cool days in the south in between heat spells and cold weather. Instead of thinking about ways to incorporate pumpkin spice into everything from coffee to bread, I’ve been dreaming about apples. When fall arrives, there’s nothing more satisfying that…
Read MoreCoffeeTime: “Employers and spouses do not like lazy”
Send responses to: andybowman839@gmail.com Nothing wrong with relaxing. With the right timing and amount. Being lazy? Nothing wrong with it – in moderation. After a fifteen-hour workday, certainly anyone would want a chance to just do nothing for a while. But when you decide that your thirty minutes of computer work warrants the next…
Read MoreKara’s Sights and Bites: The ‘red box’ is from the past…let’s leave it there
By Kara Kimbrough Don’t ask me why…but someone, somewhere thought it was a good idea to make Hamburger Helper relevant again. Yes, you read that right…the bright red box adorned with the animated white glove character pointing to a pan of…well, I’m not exactly sure what the dish consists of…is being touted as…
Read MoreKara’s Sight and Bites: Finally…a new food trend I can embrace
By Kara Kimbrough Covered in red sauce (or gravy, as Italians lovingly call it); paired with sauteed vegetables, shrimp and more red sauce for a delicious Shrimp Creole; stirred together with chopped vegetables and pepperoni and doused in a vinaigrette dressing for a zesty pasta salad and perhaps my favorite method, topped with…
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Send responses to: andybowman839@gmail.com If we were all childhood siblings and behaving the way we fellow citizens are acting and reacting, Mom already would have taken away every last one of our toys and privileges, restricted our food to vegetables and water only for a couple of months, and wore out our sorry tails…
Read MoreKara’s Sights and Bites: Gulf Coast visit on emotional anniversary brought renewed hope; restaurant and hotel finds
By Kara Kimbrough Visiting the Mississippi Gulf Coast on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina proved to be an emotional journey. Highlights were moving commemorative ceremonies and candlelight vigils; riveting documentaries and personal stories from those who lost everything but never considered not rebuilding. I discovered a hidden gem hotel as well as…
Read MoreCoffeeTime: “FAIR BE HANGED, I WANNA WIN”
Send responses to: andybowman839@gmail.com Fighting fair. Not a spouse’s favorite saying when they are currently in the middle of “Who’s Gonna Win This Time” with their dreaded enemy of the moment. Face it, any married human female whose spine isn’t yellow jello, wants to come out of the latest skirmish with a feeling of…
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