Deep in My Heart, is Texas

**warning, this is a long one**

Well, I don't think I've cried this much in years. I just got back from an extended weekend in San Antonio, TX. I left San Antonio back in 1997 and never looked back traveling to New Orleans, Montgomery, Detroit, Jersey City, NJ, Rancho Cucamonga, CA then finally to where I live right now ... Brooklyn, NY . I was fresh out of the Air Force and headed towards a dream. Before I left San Antonio those years ago, it gave me so much life experience to pave the way for my present and I'm pretty sure my future as well. I miss my city, the only city I lived in growing up for more than a year. I was actually able to complete all four years of high school there, a luxury as a military dependant. Here I am acting like a tourist on San Antonio's famous Riverwalk, something I never did when I lived there ...I tell you I cried most of the tour behind those shades, just thinking about the good ole days. We passed the Hooters I won a wing eating contest at back in '96 and as corny as it sounds, I cried as we floated by. I did my best to hide it and slipped myself a tissue from my bag. I acted like I had something in my eye lol. Even when I got off the highway downtown after arriving from the airport, I cried when I saw the new arena for the San Antonio Spurs. I pulled around the corner and saw the bar we used to have a pre-game drink at before the games and yup, I cried more there too. I mean just crying all around from me. I was a mess! I miss my city and as someone that grew up moving around almost every year, it was the first city I got to really know. The streets, the people, the eats, everything. I've never had the luxury of driving by the place I did so and so, or first saw such and such. You know? And that, if you have it, is a neat luxury. I'm not pouting though, there are so many things I gained from moving like crazy growing up and I feel with everything lined up, pros versus cons, I came out on top.

I don't know why I haven't gone back sooner and I think it's a weird Army brat thing, that maybe another Army brat could explain to me. So there I was this weekend, in the city I know and love, ready to work and then steal some time for a trip down memory lane. Well, I wouldn't call it work, it's actually fun! I'm a judge for Aetna's Healthy Food Fight which means a day full of eating tasty, healthy food! Look who showed up to say hi ...

Yup! That's NFNS contestant Dzintra and her daughter! They came all the way from Austin to say hi and spread some smiles. Dzintra is doing great and actually has a supper club (oh so chic!) in Austin called Plate by Dzintra. If you're in the area, you gotta check it out and tell her I said hi! What a nice family!

Wait, I'm a little backwards here, I'm so excited to tell you about the visit, I'm out of chronological order...

I got in two days before work on Sunday to have a mini-reunion with friends from James Madison High School's class of '93. Have you ever caught the Cooking for Real episode I call Deep in the Hearth of Texas? Well, one of my best friends from high school joins me on that show and we made sure to carve out some time Friday night for laughs and margarita's!Her Lone Star Cheesecake recipe is all the rage, check it out! Our other girl, Adriana decided to show up fashionably late, so we caught her up on the drinks and took this pic on the way out ...I gotta tell you, nothing has changed and quite like the noise we used to make in the cafeteria at lunch, we turned the prim and proper setting of Las Canarias into a loud girls night out. Good thing most of the customers were outside on the Riverwalk patio while we dined inside. The staff was so nice and I must say the drinks, the food, the girls ... it was a great night. Then the next night, Christina took to facebook and rounded up some people for a mini reunion at La Hacienda. Here we all are ...It was so overwhelming to see everyone and hear all the stories. Seeing my next door neighbor Jon was a surprise. I used to look over the fence at all the fun they were having with many of the kids from school and couldn't go hang out because my parents could see that it looked like "too much" fun lol. I remember wishing he lived a few streets down instead of right next door so my parents wouldn't know just how much fun was goin' on. Instead, my mom made me get an internship at KSAT-12, writing copy for the news and editing video, funny how life works out. He's doing great and everyone had such cool stories of what's happened in the last 17 years. Then another big surprise I can't even begin to explain, my long lost hangin' partner, TJ ...Man, I can't even tell you how much he, I and our other best friend Craig, hung out in high school. I mean, quality time. Day in and day out and even on the weekends. Why we haven't kept in touch, I have no idea. Crazy. After what I call my girlie first year of trying to fit into high school in a new city, I gave up cheering on the pep squad and decided to just be myself ... a total tom-boy. I mean, I was the president of the German club and a member of the yearbook staff before it was all over, but the heart of me was hanging with the guys that worked on cars. I had a '68 VW Bug that was rare because it was a standard/automatic with no clutch and a stick shift, yes ... very rare. I even worked on the engine and gave it a fresh paint job with one of my first Sonic paychecks. I just felt so special to be taken in by the guys back then. TJ and Craig shared my love of cars and engines and all things "arrrrgh" (think Tim Allen). They treated me like one of the boys and it really shaped many of my future friendships. We left high school and did our best to keep in touch, but now the only thing missing is Craig. Craig, if you ever come across this, we miss you, ask about you often and hope one day you can come back into the fold. We miss you and love you no matter what. It's the reason I still have your mom's # on speed dial. [ Sorry, about the personal biz over here guys, but the internet is crazy and I have to give it a try. You never know :-) ]. Ok, so we all traded stories that night and somewhere in there I got a delivery of one of San Antonio's biggest claims to fame, next to the Riverwalk and the Alamo ...The PUFFY TACO!!!! WOOOOHOOOOO! La Hacienda did it major justice! I'm going to have to share my recipe for puffy tacos soon on Cooking for Real. They've had a visit by Bobby Flay for Throwdown! and even Emeril Lagasse wrote the foreword for their restuarant's cookbook. Thanks for the copy and the hospitality guys! Ok, so then we went to a club called Rumi, had some drinks and called it a night. I knew I had to put in a full day of eating and judging food on Sunday. The event was at the Grand Hyatt and just as I was settling into my seat as one of the judges, I turned around and saw something very familiar! Turns out a local radio station was setting up to broadcast live from our party on the patio ...Good thing I had my shades on because the tears flowed again, KONO happened to be my second job in radio back in 1995. Just about 14 years ago I worked there part-time and spent many weekends broadcasting live from events just like the one I was judging this weekend. Back then it was called KONO-Good Time Oldies and I played music from Buddy Holly and Elvis. Now it plays different music, but some of the staff I worked with in San Antonio at another radio station worked there now, so it was a fun reunion.

The Aetna Healthy Food Fight competition was great in San Antonio, I was looking forward to tasing food made by my hometown residents and was totally in love with this presentation ...Can't see it? Blame my phone, it didn't want to use the flash and I didn't have time to change it to "always on", it was presentation time!

--WAIT!! Air Force photographer Lance Cheung read my blog and noticed this picture above needed help and he uploaded it, fixed it and sent it to me as a surprise! Thanks Lance! So now, what my cell phone couldn't do --Pretty cool, huh?! Now you can see the definition on the dish and the dish maker! Thanks Lance!

It's a chicken salad in a wheat bread cone. She put the bread on a waffle iron with a spritz of oil, then while it was warm she molded it into a cone so it would hold when it cooled. It was clever and cute! I sometimes do french toast that way, kinda the best of both worlds. Can't wait to see who wins this leg of the trip! Congrats to all the contestants! It sounds cliche, but they already won by being chosen from all the entries as nutritional enough to make the cut. It means they've begun to find ways to eat a bit healthier. Now, we just have to see what tastes and looks best! Good luck!

My cousins also came by to visit during the event, and I didn't even get a picture, but it was so neat seeing them! Pretty cool. After the event, I started to walk home -- Wait, wanna hear something funny? Totally behind the scenes stuff. I stayed at the Westin, just 4 short blocks from the Hyatt where the event was and do you know they actually sent a car for me to get to the event? lol I promptly cancelled it and walked. Very funny to me. Who needs a car for literally a 5 minute walk? I say I needed that walk, especially with all the eating I was about to do! -- Ok, back to the thought, on the way home is when I took that tour of the Riverwalk (first photo on this post), I saw people loading up and decided why not be a tourist in a city I lived in so long? I met some really nice people on the boat and they were food people! I didn't know it until the boat ride was over and they stopped me as I was walking back to my hotel to say hi. Thanks so much for watching the show guys!!! Hope they didn't think I was crazy for crying as we passed Hooters on the Riverwalk lol.

Okay, then yesterday I stuck around for an extra day so I could make the rounds and visit some more people and places I missed. First stop, my old office at AFNEWS. This is were I formed pretty much all of my broadcasting and work environment experience that would thrust me into the civilian world of radio and television. I still call my bosses a few times a year just to check in and say hi, but haven't been back since I was honorably discharged on June 22, 1997. Here are the 3 men that put up with my youthful rebellion and often spirited debates about the editorial direction of my news stories from 1993-1997 ...

(U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

From the left that's Mr. Starr (Ret. Army Colonel), Mr. Gilliam and my immediate supervisor, Gerry Proctor. It is no understatement to say these men took great care of me and guided me as if I was part of their family. We really were a family, I guess. It was really emotional for me to see Gerry Proctor, he knew I was coming but to everyone else it was a surprise. I started crying when I saw him first and it seems like I only took breaks from crying to snap photos. Mr. Starr was actually my commander in Korea, my first stop in the Air Force, so working for him again at AFNEWS was a treat. Larry Gilliam played referee plenty when I got passionate about stories, I'm a passionate person, not afraid to state my case and opinion, surprised? :-) Then Gerry, as my immediate supervisor gave me so much I can't even begin to thank him. I learned about forming radio news stories, writing them, producing them, conducting quality interviews, editing stories and how to drink black coffee :-).

You know how you do things as a child and then as an adult you fess up? Well, when I was in the Air Force I didn't want to get promoted to the next rank because I wanted to stay in the field reporting, not at the desk which was reserved for the next rank, I also knew I was getting out of the military, but didn't want to tell everyone. Well, I purposely failed my promotion exam, twice. I got in so much trouble and even had to go to the "shirts' " office. (A "shirt" is the equivalent of HR with power in the civilian world. I was in trouble!). So anyway, Gerry defended me to no end and always had my back. I finally fessed up Monday that I was failing on purpose back then and he replied "I know". LOL, the things we think we are sneaking by people. He also helped me with the paperwork to exit a month early so I could begin the next semester at Loyola - New Orleans. Great man, even better boss. Just in case you wonder what AFNEWS is, it stood for Air Force News Agency. It is now called something different, but they still do the same thing. They basically do all of the news around the world for the Air Force. From Airman Magazine, to radio and television. I was in the radio department of a section there called Hometown News. My job was to travel the country and tell the story of the military member, then send that news story to the hometown of each military member for local press. I covered inaugurations, training camps, and events that had anything to do with the Air Force or had Air Force involvement. I'd show up at a military base and interview an entire squadron of members, then head home to AFNEWS to edit each story individually, then mail them out to each individual service member's local radio stations for broadcast. Yes, I mailed them! I mean from concept, to writing, to editing, producing, packaging, marketing to the local stations and mailing the tapes, one person did it all. These days they simply MP3 the files, but it is still a one person gig. Pretty cool, but plenty of work.

Then once a year, I headed out on "Holiday Greetings". These are the video greetings shot overseas that you see military members sending around the holidays on local and national television shows. Those are the pride and joy of that department and every time I see them around the holidays, I ... ahem, well you guessed it, I cry. Those were long TDY's or business trips that took 40+ days on the road and I always got picked for the Pacific-rim leg of the trip, so Japan, Hawaii, Guam, Honduras, Korea and many places in between. We'd show up to a base that knew we were on the way and I'm talking ALLLLL of the base it seemed would wait in line the entire day just to tape their greetings. We'd film before sun up and end after sun down. A three person team - camera, lighting/sound and me, the tape logger. Plenty of work. Back then, I was low ranking so my job was to log all the tapes by zip code as well as help with the set up and break down every day. Can you imagine how many zip codes are in the USA?!?!? I'd have nightmares of zip codes and floating states lol. Talk about grunt-work! These days, it's not as tough because they use discs instead of tapes, but it's still a pretty tough gig ...

(U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

Boy those discs would've made it so much easier back then! I was amazed by how much has changed, but also shocked by some of the things that haven't. They still log them by zip code and the work usually goes to one person. Here's the young airman that now holds my old position ...

(U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

That's Airman 1st Class Alina Richard getting me mic'd up for a quick follow up interview to the one I did just a month ago on my studio set in Chelsea Market. This is her first assignment and she also handles the television news, plenty on her lap and she is handling the pressure with a big smile. What a flashback!

After the quick interview I took a tour of the building and visited with some familiar faces. This is Mr. Whitted ...

(U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

We weren't in the same department back then, but the whole building was such a family and we all often enjoyed holiday parties and extended lunch breaks together as a group. A few minutes into catching up, he did something that made me cry like a baby ... he "coined" me!

(U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

I can't explain getting "coined" succinctly enough to do it justice, but suffice it to say it's an honor and a tradition going back to some say the Egyptian times, others say the first World War. A quick google search gives many pages to learn about the tradition of being coined. In all my time in the Air Force, I was only coined three times and never had an AFNEWS coin. Look at my my lonely three ...

I got the one on top from my time in Korea, the blue one from William J. Perry when he was the Secretary of Defense and the one on the right by General Ronald H. Griffith when I did a story at The Pentagon on military members working there. They presented them to thank me for all the work I was doing to tell the story of the Airman there, I was honored then and now years later, I felt just as honored to get coined after my military service ...

Then, on the way out as I was saying my goodbyes I was coined again by the commander!

That one in the right is heavy! By this time I was all cried out, but let me tell you it was a huge honor that makes me cry now even as I type it. I'm such an emotional mess, please don't judge me. :-). Here I am in the commander's office at his desk trying to look like I'm in charge ...

(U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

As the head of Defense Media Activity-San Antonio (formerly AFNEWS), Col. Clifton Douglas has plenty to oversee, so it was very nice of him to make time and allow me to interrupt the work day all over the building. Glad I met him because it turns out his grandma makes Hallie's Apple Butter and I walked away with a jar!

(U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

I love a food gift! He gave it to me and said "you're from the South, so you should know what to do with this!" and I promptly replied "SPREAD IT!" before he even got the words completely out of his mouth and he completed the thought with "on Biscuits!". That's right!!! I can't wait to try it! I sat and signed some notes of thanks to his grandma in advance of tasting her goods ...

(U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

Look at that back drop! How can you not look important sitting at that desk, eh? Then we took a quick pic before I headed out to the next stop ...

(U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)

That's Chief Robert Jackson on my left - a big Food Network fan :-) and my new best friend due to the apple butter exchange, Col. Clifton Douglas, Commander.

Up next, many times here and on Cooking for Real I mention a place that changed my life ... the taco joint just outside of the base. I think I may have had about a jillion tacos from there over the 3 years I worked at AFNEWS, I'm talkin' breakfast, lunch and sometimes one for the road as I headed home from work!! What changed my life was the addition to my diet of beans and chorizo ... combined. Not side-by-side or mashed together in a tortilla, but mixed together while cooked. Lemme tell ya, those two, chorizo and beans combined, are like "wonder twins activate!" on my palate! It is one of my all-time favorite combinations. Like Mac and Cheese, Meatloaf and Mash, Red and Velvet. :-) Anyway, before this place, I just didn't know what a good taco was. Here it is, just across the street from my old office. You can jussssst see my old building on the far left of the picture...Here's a better view of the taco joint from another angle ...
Nothing big or fancy, that's where the good stuff usually is! It used to be called something different and it has a new owner now, but that didn't matter to me. I knew from asking the team when they visited my set from San Antonio a month ago that nothing internally had changed. They also informed me of the newest award my favorite taco place received ...Wooohoooooooooo!!!!! La Laguna!! (sorry, no website) I knew years ago the tacos there were award winning! To keep it nostalgic, I ordered my usual ... 2 bean and chorizo tacos ...Now let me confess, I'm a tortilla-phile, I can totally tell a fresh tortilla by just looking at a picture, so I hope you share my same love and can enjoy the simple pleasure of gazing at two tender, freshly made flour tortillas wrapped around chorizo and beans, not pasty or greasy, just good and creamy with the perfect amount of seasoning. It was warm and chewy and had a slight dusting of flour still on it from being made fresh. The texture was crazy. Wow, oh wow, oh wow. It was piping hot and took me right back to escaping from work for a minute to get a quick bite that would turn into an experience. A co-worker and I would drive the short distance in my truck with George Michael's "Fast Love(rmx)" blaring in my speakers and then pull back into the parking lot at work and eat the tacos in the car before we got out. I mean we did this ritual more times than I can even count and I'm talking the same song, same order of tacos, eating them in the car ... all of that. Those were the days!

Next was a trip to my alma mater, James Madison High School ...

It may be a bit hard to see, but boy has it changed since 1993. The part that was the school for our class is now swallowed by more buildings surrounding it. I went in and chatted with my former English teacher, Ms. Valentine and my guidance counselor Ms. Gish. Next thing you know plenty of teachers and staff members I knew popped in to say hi. Then, guess what happened?? I got coined again!!They weren't doing this when I lived there, but San Antonio is such a military town, it only makes sense that a military tradition would spill into the local community. Thanks to Chris Thompson, he was a social studies teacher when I attended from 1989-1993 and now he's the school principal. It was a neat visit and I went by when school was just letting out so, we had plenty of time to visit. To my surprise, they have a culinary course of classes now with a chef as the teacher. How neat. Madison was an enviable school then and it still is now. I didn't take any pictures because I just talked the whole time! Totally didn't think about it until I was pulling away, so I snapped the picture above from the street.

I was probably so absent minded because I knew where I was headed ...SONIC!
This is the first place I worked other than volunteering or interning and I often tell the story about wanting to work in the kitchen and they would never let me because they wanted me to be a car hop. I would beg and beg because it seemed like only the male employees were allowed to work the line and finally my manager let me in the kitchen - to prep onion rings. That was good enough for me! I loved the work and more importantly, loved the product!!! That made it real easy!

I thought maybe I'd stop by and see if I could take a picture of me finally inside the kitchen there and the manager said I couldn't for legal reasons lol. I guess I will never get in a Sonic kitchen, eh? Teeheehee, as long as they keep crankin' out the onion rings it's fine by me! I still have the picture my dad took of me as I headed off to my first day of work there. That was a fun job. After that, I drove to my old neighborhood and did a bit more crying when I saw our old house. I gotta tell you this was the first time I've seen any childhood anything from growing up other than my grandparent's place because we visited them almost every summer between moves. Now that I've done it, I'm going to make a plan to revisit all the places I lived while growing up as an Army brat. There are many places and it may take some time, but the feeling was so rewarding, I feel it's a must now.

Ok, well that's it for one of the longest blogs I've posted. Sorry it was so long, but hopefully it helped you waste some time while at work. :-). Stick around ... the NYC Wine & Food Festival kicks off tomorrow and I'll share some stuff as I get it!

P.S. I'm headed to Miami for a March of Dimes event and to get out the word, I did an interview that is posting in parts, want more inside stuff? Check out The Miami New Times blog for the first part ...