FOODIE NIRVANA

Had another fabulous experience at Onion Creek Kitchens this weekend -- Sibby Barret's cooking school, weekend getaway, and dining experience extraordinaire. We've attended a couple of classes where we did exotic or ethnic foods, and one where we had to improvise a meal based on whatever we could forage from local growers and producers. This one, with an All-American theme, was chosen simply because it sounded yummy - a meal I might very well wish to repeat for, say, our Fourth of July dinner. Our menu included Kentucky Bourbon Lemonade, Oven Roasted Baby Back Ribs, Caramelized Onion-Bacon Potato Salad, two kinds of deviled eggs (one of which I managed to screw up - badly!), Root Beer Baked Beans, and Fried Peach Pies with Vanilla Bean Cinnamon Ice Cream. Mmm, mmm, mmm, tasty! Here's a tip for you: rolled out jumbo biscuits from a can make a darned fine fried pie. Who'd a thunk?

After dinner we all got to stroll over for a sneak preview of Sibby's new, improved, super-sized commercial kitchen, which is under construction now. Should be finished by late October, and it's gonna be some kind of wonderful. I know a lot of people who are very talented and creative. I know several individuals who are shrewd business people. But Sibby? Sibby is that true rarity who, unless there's a genius business partner behind the scenes that I'm unaware of, seems to be a perfect blend of both. She started with a tiny baking business being run from her home, built it into a thriving storefront business - one of the premier specialty cake purveyors in Dallas - which is still going strong after 25 years. In fact, it's doing so well that she was able to loosen the reins enough to move to the Hill Country, where she started another small business from her home. One that is also on it's way to premier status, thanks to her magic touch. Kudos to you Sibby. You're one in a million!