Tasting Lab week 4, hosted by Annie Sloan and myself

Materials and Methods (ingredients and recipes):  Sweet Tea (Black tea with lemon and passionfruit, organic cane sugar), Grits, Brown Rice, Stew (Crushed tomatoes, black beans, corn, onion, garlic, chillies, salt, pepper) With cheese, butter and other mix-ins on the side

Tasting Lab Questions in relation to weekly assigned texts: (Or in winter quarter’s language, “Inquiry for Critical Eating Studies, or The Mouth as Organ of Eating and Speaking”)

“It was my birthday but it was a Thursday and we didn’t have any money. My mother said to wait until Saturday but I just couldn’t. I wanted it when it was. I had no faith. Because the same thing had happened on Christmas. They told me that Santa would come on the Saturday after Christmas but the rent was due on that Saturday and he didn’t come at all”, (Smart-Grosvenor, 31).

“I’m looking for a great day, when I see my Jesus face to face.”
– The late Emma Lou Dailey, Beatrice, Alabama
(Walking across America, Podcast 25:17 – 30:20)
Please consider as you eat Grits and stew:

After 9/11 as a kid, my father lost his job, and my family went nearly three years before being able to celebrate Christmas. The second year after not celebrating Christmas, my older sister sat on Santa’s lap, and told him what she wanted for Christmas was a job for my dad, and made Santa cry.
To this day, I still find and take everything I am gifted and appreciate everything a lot of people may look over.  When was the last time you were faced with a challenge and how did you overcome it? When was the last time you were put in a situation being given very little, and how did going through this experience change your appreciation? What or who do you turn to for comfort? What are these foods you enjoy?