In what may be a strange sort of obsession for someone who doesn’t cook an awful lot, I love exploring grocery stores. And really, admit it — don’t you enjoy just browsing through the really cool ones? Surely I’m not the only person who does this! While Whole Foods and Fresh Markets top my list of big chain stores, I’m always on the lookout for the small and local, and I’ve found another in Huntsville, Alabama. It’s Kalou’s Corner Market in the Villages of Providence development on U.S. 72 west. Providence is one of those new ”luxury” neighborhoods that also offers shopping, restaurants and offices. It has Mellow Mushroom, a great Thai place and the top-rated Grille 29 — and now add Kalou’s. You can get a freshly made sandwich at the deli along with dessert at the bakery and a do-it-yourself salad. Take your lunch, grab a bottle of beer from the cooler and eat out on the sidewalk for some prime people-watching. Or, if you insist on cooking, you’ve got plenty to choose from. Kalou’s is upscale and gourmet but prices are comparable with Fresh Market. I love wandering around looking at the olive oils, for instance, or the various balsamic vinegars or pestos and salsas. There’s a great beer selection, a ton of wine and gorgeous fresh produce, too. So much food! So many options! I really should cook more … or, at least, eat more.

Have you ever had people say things to you — and I’m talking nice things here — that made you see yourself as someone other than the person you think you are? It always amazes when I see myself from somebody else’s perspective since usually the image does not jive at all with the image I have of myself. I mean, it sort of makes you wonder if the private you — the one that mostly lives inside your head — and the public you — the one that goes to work and the grocery store and PTA meetings — have anything in common whatsoever. This past week I had three people say things to me/ask me questions that threw me for a loop: 1) The person who cuts and styles my hair told me, “You’re always so sweet and cheerful when you come in. It just makes me day,” when really I think of myself as crabby and grumpy, especially when I have to spend $$$ just to make my hair look presentable; 2) the person working in the dressing rooms at my favorite discount-clothing store asked me if I knew where to find a purse with a clasp closure for a Christmas present, when I really think of myself as someone who can barely find her own purse and get outside the door with two matching shoes; and 3) a person in local-theater circles and I were chatting at a local coffee shop about the struggles of writing and what to do when you hit a wall and I said that caffeine always helps and this person said that (insert name of illegal drug) helps, too, and then sort of paused as if waiting for me to suggest we go get some. So in the space of three days, I’ve been identified as sweet, stylish and a drug user  – when really I’m just a grouchy un-put-together coffee fiend. Sigh.

I don’t know what it is about me and my two daughters, but we absolutely adore any combination of bread, fruit and cheese — particularly if it’s all warm and melty. Y’all already know about Younger Daughter’s signature Banana and Peanut Butter Breakfast Sandwiches — http://cathylwood.wordpress.com/tag/food/page/7/ – and it’s true that I’ve been obsessively enjoying a fresh fig and Laughing Cow cheese panini for lunch almost every day this fall, but I think the high point of our bread-fruit-cheese adventures came this past weekend when Older Daughter wanted a quick, tasty and nutritious pre-trick-or-treating supper before introducing 19-month-old Capt. Adorable to the joys of free candy. After much negotiating — Should we use the Foreman, a skillet or the broiler? — we came up with these open-face apple-and-cheese sandwiches. First we toasted thick-sliced whole-grain sourdough bread under the broiler, then we added various cheeses (our favorite turned out to be simple cheddar) and thinly sliced Honeycrisp apples, sprinkling dark brown sugar and cinnamon on some of the sandwiches. Then we popped them back under the broiler, watching carefully since we’re prone to wander away and start entirely new projects while we’re cooking — not good. Anyway, our apple and cheese sandwiches turned out easy, yummy and fun. And the Captain loved trick-or-treating! Maybe next year his mom will actually let him have some of the candy.

And if you’re still struggling to adjust to this past weekend’s time change back to Standard Time as well as Halloween candy overload, you’re not alone. Read my weekly newspaper column at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091106/ARTICLES/911065000 to find out who are the only members of my family remaining unaffected by our annual falling back.

I don’t want to sound all grumpy and old — I mean, I know who Monsters of Folk are, after all – but aren’t we rushing the holidays just a little bit? Look, it’s only early November, but I’ve already seen enough Christmas-shopping commercials and front-door Christmas wreaths to last me through December. And the thing is that I love the holidays. I am definitely a Christmas kind of girl. I believe you can never have enough wassail and frankincense and festive good cheer, not to mention yummy food, fun parties and presents for all. It’s just that I also am a fall kind of person. I love autumn leaves and pumpkins and brown and orange sweaters. I adore warm days and cool nights and those lovely 5 p.m. sunsets. And I know, I know — stores started  selling Halloween merchandise in August so technically we’ve had enough time to celebrate fall. But, still, it’s the first week of November. I’m just not ready to flip the switch to Christmas yet — particularly since that means Thanksgiving gets sort of lost. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays — you get all the fun without any of the pressure. What’s not to like about that? This arrangement I saw in a Tupelo, Mississippi, hotel lobby this past week would make the perfect Thanksgiving decoration — although it’s probably gone by now and replaced by a Christmas tree. Sigh. And, really, why fight it? I have been thinking about going ahead and unearthing the holiday CDs that every year I put away so carefully so I can find them easily the next year, which never works, of course. It usually takes me a couple weeks to track them down, so that should be about right. Feliz Navidad!

I love going to cooking classes, mainly because that sort of gives the illusion that I actually cook — you know, much like driving past a gym while you’re wearing tennis shoes makes you think that maybe possibly you might work out sometime eventually. But I do truly learn things in cooking classes, such as the one I took recently at the Shoals Culinary Complex in Florence, Alabama. Justin Letson, chef de cuisine (I’m not really sure what that means, but I’m impressed anyway) at the nearby Robert Trent Jones Golf Course, demonstrated a fall menu featuring apples, pork and one of his favorite dishes — Pommes Anna. This potato dish is known for its beautiful spiral design of thin and delicious potato slices, and Justin shared his secrets for making it perfect: Patience, a steady hand and patience. And a mandolin you can use — several class members admitted to buying one, taking it home, getting frustrated at not being able to operate it and taking it back. I haven’t even taken mine out of the box … since I bought it a couple years ago. And, granted, while patience is not my strong point. But this dish is so stunning and lovely, I may finally face my mandolin fear and summon up some patience and give it a try. And you should, too. Justin’s recipe for Pommes Anna is below, and if you want to find out more about his apple recipes — which really were the stars of the class — read the TimesDaily story  at http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091104/ARTICLES/911045000

Pommes Anna

Prepare 1 cup brown butter (melt butter over medium heat until nutty brown), 6 tablespoons minced garlic and 6 tablespoons of a fresh herb blend (suggestions include thyme, rosemary, oregano and sage). With a mandolin, slice 4 potatoes 1/8-inch thick and arrange slices in a spiral pattern in a buttered non-stick oven-proof saute pan. Drizzle potatoes with butter and sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper and herb mix. Repeat layers as often as desired. Place pan on stove top for a minute until sides start to lightly sizzle and bubble. Place pan in 350-degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes until cooked through. Test with knife — if insertion and removal are easy, it’s done. Invert onto plate, slice and serve.

Any store with a sign on its front door requesting customers to “check their firearms at the customer-service desk for safety purposes” goes straight to the top of my favorites list. This is Scruggs, in Tupelo, Mississippi — a sort of combined feed store, general store and John Deere dealership. Think Home Depot, farmer-style. My husband swears it’s the best place to buy mouse traps and other mysterious manly things he uses around the house and I’m happy to let him be in charge of those chores. And even though we don’t have a horse or cows or cornfields, I still like to wander around Scruggs’ aisles and browse. I think I like this store because it reminds me of one of my all-time favorite retailers — Rural King. And my all-time favorite Rural King store is in my mother’s hometown of Effingham, Illinois. When we’d go visit my grandparents, we’d usually stop at the Rural King, which anchored the local mall. (Who needs a JC Penney’s or a Sears when you can buy everything from jeans to seed at the Rural King?) For the longest time, that Rural King was the only place my dad could find Carhartts, and I’d usually find a comfy and cozy sweater while my brothers would head for the toys and my mom to the flower-gardening aisle. Maybe I’m just a country girl at heart. Check out Scruggs at http://www.scruggsfarm.com and Rural King at http://www.ruralking.com/

Younger Daughter and I recently were browsing through an antiques mall in Florence, Alabama, when she called me over to where she was standing. “Isn’t this your story?” she asked, pointing to a framed story from the local newspaper — the TimesDaily — about pins that was next to a display of wonderful vintage pins. And YD was right — there was my byline from my former days as a staff writer for the TimesDaily life section, before I retired almost two years ago to become a financially challenged but incredibly happy columnist and freelance writer. I have to say that it was sort of a strange feeling to see such care taken with a story I didn’t even remember doing — one of several hundred, probably, I don’t remember doing throughout the 10 years I worked in the TimesDaily newsroom. Yet there was my story, years later still stuck in black and white (well, sort of faded beige) and still influencing folks to think about buying a vintage pin because “brooches update fall wardrobes.” I have to admit it was a strange sensation to see this — a kind of out-of-body, did-I-really-write-that experience. Sort of makes you think. Sort of makes you hope you did a good job. Sort of makes you wonder how many other things you wrote are floating around influencing people to do things. Sort of makes you promise yourself to Write Only Good Things From Now On … beginning, maybe … tomorrow.

Happy 75th birthday to my mom, Susan Wood, of Manchester, Tennessee, today! She is practically the most awesome person I know, and my goal is to grow up to be just like her. And since she hates having her picture taken, I’ve done the next best thing and put pictures here of just one of her claims to fame: her antique shop, Ponderosa Tree Farm Antiques. She is known far and wide as an antiques and auction expert and she’s gathered some of the results of her sharp eyes and buying skills here in her antiques shop. She also has three booths at an antiques mall, but my favorite is her shop. I love wandering through and discovering new finds she’s rescued from folks who don’t appreciate the value of a vintage flour-sack apron or a chunky retro beaded bracelet. She’s got dishes, books, kitchen ware, dolls, toys, clothes, linens and almost any other thing you might want to collect. And, listen, she does all this herself — and with help from my dad. She loads and totes and prices and organizes and cleans and presses – it’s exhausting just to think about, but she loves it. I cannot keep up with her. In fact, I can’t keep up with either of my parents — they pretty much put me to shame. Read more in my weekly newspaper column, http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091030/ARTICLES/910305000, and have a happy birthday, Mom! Love you!!!

You have to look carefully, but when you do, you’ll see that this tree on U.S. Hwy. 72 west, just west of Cherokee, Alabama, is full of shoes. It’s been this way for at least a couple years, and nobody is sure how it got started — or why. Or at least, nobody’s telling. You’re just driving along and then you look up and there are dozens of pairs of shoes nestled in and dangling from this tree. It’s a true mystery. I drive past it at least twice a week and I’ve never seen anybody adding their contributions — yet the Shoe Tree grows and thrives. Some say the Shoe Tree has its origins in the infamous wave of Shoes Thrown Over the Power Line in downtown Florence, Alabama, several years ago. This was a power line across from a local coffee house that was a hangout for the youngsters (actually, the sidewalk in front of the coffee house was the preferred spot) and every once in a while the within-tossing-distance power line would sprout a decoration of tied pairs of shoes. Did those Shoe Throwers grow up and now commute on U.S. 72 every day? My investigative-reporting skills have failed to find the answers. But that’s OK — I’ve got my eye on a pair of black stiletto pumps if I can just figure out how to get to the top branch.