Vacationing Chef

I’m no longer a working chef but to keep my foot, or at least my big toe in the door, I still do culinary demos in grocery stores from time to time.  And this week I did a demo of Jimmy Dean Sausage Breakfast Biscuit.  It comes frozen and you remove it from the package, wrap it in a paper towel and nuke it.  It’s OK if you need breakfast in less than a minute but not really my thing.

 It got me thinking that Jimmy Dean passed away just a few weeks ago on June 13^th.  He was a country singer, actor, and creator of Jimmy Dean Sausage.  On the rare occasion that I buy breakfast sausage at the grocery store, I only buy Jimmy Dean.  My favorite is the Sage Pork Sausage and the Turkey Breakfast Sausage Links.  Jimmy Dean was from Virginia.  Don’t ask me why I know that, my head is filled with some of the most useless information in the world but I can’t remember my own phone number.

 Virginia is for Lovers.  That’s what the tourism board says.  I’m not sure what that means because as far as I know anyone can have a great vacation in Virginia lover or not.  You can find Summer sports, Winter sports, Theme Parks, History, Ocean/Beach, Mountains, and Culture.  Very few states have both great Beaches and great Mountains so that’s very attractive to me when I’m looking for a place to go on vacation.  Arnold and I haven’t traveled there as much as we would like but we love the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley that were among the stops on our very first vacation together. 

 My cousin lives on the water in Virginia Beach and I’ve only been there once but it’s made quite an impression on me.  Now that we live in Florida, it’s not too far to drive so I hope to visit there again soon.  Wouldn’t it be fun to have Thanksgiving at your house Claudia? Hint Hint Wink Wink…

 But Virginia isn’t just for lovers, Virginia is for Foodies.

 http://www.virginia.org/site/features.asp?FeatureID=124&Rgn=10000