By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon Count Comet

I can cook. My mother started early in my life when I was paid an allowance to come up with the family meal with food she left out to be dinner.

As I mentioned to her at 13, “Mom, I don’t know how to cook,” she handed me a Betty Crocker Cookbook and said, “If you can read, you can cook.”

By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

When I was a kid, I really didn’t care much for butterscotch candy. I went as far as to tell people I couldn’t eat it or I would get sick. That was true with some foods, but butterscotch was not one of those foods. I just didn’t want to be made to eat it.

As I grew older, my taste buds did change some, but I still stayed clear of butterscotch as a flavor.

By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon Count Comet

One thing that I ate often in Asia that I never ate in the USA, and I mean never, was tofu. I saw it on menus in Chinese restaurants while living in the Washington D.C. area, but I was not a vegetarian, and I don’t remember ever going with someone who ordered a tofu dish for me to try.

That is, if I would.

Tofu is made from bean curd.

By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

Although bourbon was made the official liquor of the USA in 1964 by an act of Congress, a spirit that should have been in consideration would have been rye whiskey.

Lunch Lady Corner

C.J. Lindsay

By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

July 4th is here and America celebrates with fireworks and parties. Many of these parties celebrate with alcoholic drinks. What many Americans might not know is that the United States has had a national spirit since 1964.

It is bourbon whiskey.

By Mike Armstrong    

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

I was in the grocery store the other day and I saw two packages that made me say I know what I am making for dinner in the next day or so. One bag had sea scallops and the other a mixture of different seafood, such as octopus, clams, mussels, small shrimp and squid. 

I had some shrimp at home and some fresh Roma tomatoes that I knew I had to cook soon. 

By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

As a kid whose parents were both from the South, iced tea was in both homes. Sometimes it was sweetened and sometimes not.

Weirdly, I did not drink much iced tea, but my mother had hot tea in the morning, and as I got older, I would drink hot tea with my mother and stepfather.

By Mike Armstrong    

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

I eat a lot of chicken.

It is not actually my favorite fowl to chow down on, I prefer turkey, duck and cornish game hen to be honest.

Still, chicken is easy to come by and I do enjoy it way more than any other meat, not counting seafood.

By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

The first time I tried a pomegranate, I was hooked. I was about 8 or 9 years old, living in Houston, Texas and my next door neighbor had a pomegranate tree (they can be a bush too, depending on how you prune them) and when it produced fruit, it was truly bountiful.

By Mike Armstrong    

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

Not all the food I learned to cook came from restaurant exposure. There are a few dishes that have come from friends.

I have this buddy I met in Hawaii when we shared a room at the hostel I had worked at prior.

By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

In today’s bourbon world, small craft makes up a good percentage of many different brands out there. Not really in sales, although they certainly are taking on more and more market share, but Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark and more established distilleries are still dominant.

It is really hard to keep up with all the new distilleries and the products they put out.

By Mike Armstrong    

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

When I lived in the Washington D.C. area, one of the best friends I have had in my life loved to go to Denny’s, a restaurant that is famous for being open 24 hours and serving huge breakfast meals that are reasonable.

KC was a fanatic about eating at Denny’s if we were coming back from a bar, nightclub, or a party at some friend’s house.

By Mike Armstrong

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

The other day I got some ripe mangoes and they were really good. I was talking with a friend  and we both said how much we enjoyed a good mango.

Then I told her about how I discovered I enjoyed eating them.

If you read my story about how picky I was with seafood in this paper, it should be no surprise I could be picky about fruit.

By Mike Armstrong    

Reporter, Carbon County Comet

Growing up in Florida, Texas and then the Washington D.C./Baltimore metro area, I was always had seafood around to eat.

The problem was, during my years in Texas and Florida, I only ate fish. Even then, I was very particular on what fish I would eat. Flounder or red snapper was my go to.