I’m taking advantage of the 7 hour drive back from a getaway to Virginia by taking the time to write a quick post.   I took the last week off from blogging to enjoy the holiday weekend and travel with family.   We took a short drive up to Roanoke, Virginia to visit my sister in law and to bring her daughter back to spend time with her grandmother.   It was also a milestone for my 7 month old; this would be his first vacation and road trip.   As you can imagine, I was quite nervous about traveling for so long with a young, curious and wiggly baby.   But to my surprise he was an absolute peach; most of his time was divided between sleeping, gazing out the window and playing with his toys, he seemed quite content.

 

As for the adults on the trip, we ate to keep ourselves entertained.   Just 40 minutes into our road trip and we had already had granola, pumpkin bread, cheese sandwiches, plantain chips and mentos and drank sprite and ginger beer soda.   And when we were tired of that, we stopped for chicken.    Yes, we packed a large amount of food and yes we had intended on eating it all.    Needless to say the remainder of our trip was no different.    When we weren’t eating, we took the time to visit Smith Mountain National Park and spent the day amongst nature.   The drive up was gorgeous as the roads literally wrapped around the mountains and meandered through the countryside, passing sprawling farms and quaint homes.    The ride was as scary as it was beautiful.   We made it safely to the park and spend the next few hours relaxing lakeside.  We took a few hundred pictures thanks to the rapid fire of my Dslr and a trigger happy husband.   It will be quite a task going through it all.

As I’ve mentioned before we had cheese sandwiches on our trip.  It was made with my version of a Guyanese cheese spread also known as cheese paste.  This spread is typically made with sharp cheddar cheese and butter or margarine and sometimes colored red and green, then made into tiny tea sandwiches.   I used cheddar, butter, added pepper and fresh garlic for an extra zing.   I skipped the food coloring and made sandwiches with good, crusty slices of homemade plait bread.  These were great for the trip and were a hit!    Too bad we don’t have any for the ride back.    Family and good food always leads to a good time and this past week had been all of the above.   Until next time!

Get the Recipe Cheese Spread

Ingredients
 

  • 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese
  • 3 oz room temperature butter
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp mustard
  • splash pepper sauce

Instructions
 

  • Finely shred cheese in the food processor or by hand using a grated.
  • Add all other ingredients and mix to form a paste.
  • Serve with bread!
Author: Jehan Powell