The DISCOVER GOURMET site has such delicious, gourmet foods. My dad has a mild diabetic condition and has to watch what he eats.  He does love his sweets, so he is allowed to eat natural sugars, fruits, or items that are not TOO processed.  He likes breakfast foods  alot, which routinely have way too much processed sugar. My mom uses a whole wheat pancake mix, she found on JLHUFFORD; but I thought I could augment the healthiness of his meal-as well as flavor- by having him try the natural syrups on the sister site DISCOVER GOURMET. Initially I sent him the Acai Black Currant Syrup & the Pomegranate Maple Syrup. It was cool to discover that that neither syrup had ANY corn syrup, or fillers or fake flavors. He mentioned that eating foods like this are more satisfying than blander foods he used to eat.  Regular pancakes with cheap syrup just don’t cut it anymore for him.

My crock pot is my favorite kitchen item. I use it about 2-3 a week. My husband and I, work, have two kids, & I’m finishing a bachelor’s degree. At night we select a soup or stew to make for the evening meal. One of his favorites is chili, but sometimes we change up the ingredients. Beef and bean gets old for me, so we will do chicken or certain game meats that our friends give to us during the hunting seasons.  In order to get a bit of unity to the flavors and help the chili along, we use the Maggie & Mary’s Chill-Chasin’ Chili mix that is available on the JLHUFFORD web site. If I add this with the pre-cooked meat, and follow the directions on the side of the box, this product makes a great standard chili that everyone loves. We typically put crackers and shredded cheese on top of a bowl of deliciousness.

My daughter’s grandmother grew up in England during WWII. She has been in this county for over 50 years, yet her British accent is still strong and often comical to translate. Her taste in foods also remains true to form and self-assured “picky”.  During the holidays, I try to surprise her with a gourmet food or recipe idea; but rarely does she like anything I present to her. HOWEVER, after scouring the Internet for new ideas, I found King’s Cupboard Brand on the  Discover Gourmet Site.  Now I know that the “royal” connection may be what is swaying her opinion, but she really liked this sauce over some store-bought plain cakes that were made at their bakery. I purchased the CRÈME CARAMEL & the RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE.  The small disks of Vanilla-Based cake were moist and thick, but not too large in diameter. I’m catching on that she likes SMALL food- (again maybe this goes back to her childhood days of meager eats). I warmed the cakes slightly in a toaster oven then drizzled the Caramel over 3 and Chocolate over the other 3. She tasted these and (I thought) her eyes lit up just a tiny bit. She ate the whole thing, but would take seconds. Well at least I got THAT one right (YES!)