A Send-Off Adventure

My little baby sister isn't so baby anymore.  In fact, she just left to study abroad in Northern Ireland.  Before she left, I took her out for a lovely, fancy Italian dinner.  We had four courses!  And I splurged and bought the absolute cheapest bottle of wine on the menu!

We talked about cats, and boys, and how much we were going to miss each other, and how we were getting a little tipsy on wine.

But what is adventurous about that?  I love pasta.  No one can question that.

The adventure came with the dessert course.  I decided to get a crème brûlée.  I'm not sure why they were serving a French dessert, but they were.

The last time I had crème brûlée, I was in college.  A somewhat pretentious campus photographer decided to brûlée up some dessert in our third floor dormitory kitchen.  Because what college kid doesn't have crème brûlée ramekins just lying around his dorm room?

Long story short: It sucked.  It tasted like a horrible caramel-coffee-fire-mess.

Somehow I decided to give it another try.  Maybe it was the wine.

I started eating it before I took the picture.  I blame the wine again.

Maybe it was because this one was made by professional cooks/chefs in a professional kitchen.  Maybe it was the lack of coffee in this recipe.  Maybe it was the wine.  No matter the reason, this crème brûlée was amazingly delicious.

I miss my sister, though.

Long Overdue (Just Like My Library Books)

Wow.  It's been quite a while.  In my defense, Joey and I did move this month.  And we're on a shoestring budget right now.  Whatever we make for dinner is pretty much the only option that night.  So I can't really afford to adventure.

Unless it's for free.  This is where political campaign fundraisers come in.

My father has long been a supporter of a local state politician.  He actually goes out and campaigns the old-fashioned, Chicago way: walking door to door and handing people political flyers.  I kid you not, he has almost been vehicularly manslaughtered by the footmen of the competition.  Chicago politics are intense.  When my sister and I were younger, we would get bundled up and go with him (Chicagoans spend about half the year bundled up).

This dedication has paid off in the form of free bowling and food once a year.  Other people pay upwards of $500 for this event.  Our invite always comes stamped "COMPLIMENTARY" right over all the three- and four-digit dinner options.

For years, I have avoided the salad at this event.  It's a pre-mixed Caesar salad.  I'm all for salad.  I think salad is wonderful...with the right dressing.  Caesar dressing is spicy!  There's way too much pepper in it!

But the meal was free.  And it might be my last adventure for at least a couple weeks.  So I grabbed a plate.

Exactly what it says on the tin: a plate full of salad.

And I started eating.  And it was spicy!  And I accidentally got a crouton, which Miriah was generous enough to eat for me.  Still, I adventured.  I have to take advantage of every adventurous opportunity that I can nowadays.

It was spicy.  But I ate it all anyway.  Just call me the Merriweather Lewis of political campaign fundraising dinners.

All of that salad was consumed by me!  I'm amazing!

I rewarded myself for having such an adventurous spirit with a hot dog.  Hot dogs are the best.

A Year of Adventures

One year ago, I decided to actively eat disgusting foods.  But I had (and still have) a very skewed view of what qualified as "disgusting."

My views were not affected by morals.  I do not categorically avoid foods because I am vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, fruitarian, or any other type of eater restricted by ethical or religious qualms about eating certain things.

(Uh oh, cue minor rant about privilege....) Yes, when possible, I try to get meat and produce from companies that I know treat their animals well or better yet from farmers' markets.  I prefer Heartland meat over anything I can get in Jewel.  But I can afford to prefer that.  Other people cannot afford to buy grass-fed beef over industrial beef.  I respect that and do not judge what people eat based on how it came to be on their plate.  I judge it based on if it's gross.  (End rant.  Thanks for sticking it out!)

But my views on what makes a food gross are also not tied up with cultural norms.  I understand why people eat grasshoppers, squid, livers, testicles, you name it.  While I would not seek out a testicle as part of my meal, I might feel differently if I hadn't grown up in a very specific part of the world.  I also find culturally "normal" foods for my region to be disgusting.  Pickles, for example.  In the Midwest especially, people eat pickles off of sticks like popsicles.  They are disgusting.

 

Pictured above: Nightmare fuel.  Photo from http://jschumacher.typepad.com/joe/

But a lot has changed in a year.  I have had many adventures, with varying degrees of success.  There are foods that were securely on my "Do Not Eat" list that are now very securely on my "Do Eat" list.  And I have come to terms with the fact that I may occasionally have to eat birds.

These are the foods that have made the jump to the other side:

• Bell peppers
• Beans
• Cooked tomatoes
• Cooked onions
• Squash
• Small amounts of pepper
• Larger amounts of mustard
• Ketchup
• Hollandaise sauce
• Worcestershire sauce

If I can make that much progress in my first year adventuring, imagine what I can accomplish in my second!

Rocky Mountain Adventures, Pt. Two

My dislike of eating birds has been mentioned before.  While I have definitely made peace with the idea of eating winged animals, I would never choose chicken or turkey over pork or beef.  (I would include lamb in that list, but I'm too poor.)

My exceptionally low tolerance for spiciness has also been mentioned before.  I love salt, but most other spices are too much for me to handle.  I say progress has been made on this front.  Joey says I am a baby.

In Colorado, we took turns making massive dinners.  One of the last nights, Joey's lovely first cousin once removed (also known as his mom's cousin) made a chicken dinner.  With jalapeños.  Progress or no progress, I definitely do not eat jalapeños.

But I am adventurous now!

All those green flecks are potentially deadly.  Or they're bits of parsley.

So I cut off a piece of Joey's chicken of death.  And I tried it.  It definitely had a kick, but it actually wasn't too bad.  The little bits of jalapeños were easy to avoid.  I managed to get the gist of the spiciness without any of the real fire.

It would have been better with pork, though.

A Pre-Vacation Adventure

Few things are as American as baseball, apple pie, the Ferris Wheel, or barbecue.  So when Joey and I ate out before heading to the Rocky Mountains for more adventures, barbecue seemed a natural choice.  Except that barbecue is scary.

Barbecuing is not grilling.  These two cooking methods are very different.  You grill a hot dog or hamburger.  You don't barbecue them (adding sauce after cooking is not barbecuing).  Grilling is applying open flame to a meat to cook it.  Like pan cooking but without the pan.  Barbecuing is steeping meat in sauce and then applying the smoke of an open flame and some of the heat to cook it slowly for hours till it's so tender it practically falls off the bone.

I can hear your confused cries.  "But that sounds delicious!  Meat so tender it falls off the bone!  How can you possibly go wrong?"

I'll tell you.  It's the sauce.  The sauce is what makes barbecue so scary.  It's also what makes barbecue so popular.  There are so many different sauces.  America has practically a thousand different barbecue sauces.  Most of them involve scary spices such as pepper or mustard.

"But, Kayla," you say, "you have come so far!  Surely a little mustard or pepper doesn't scare you anymore!  This a meal where you don't even need teeth!"

You see this was not a meal I was eating in the comfort of my own home, where I could make another dinner if I didn't like this one.  This was not a meal that I assembled at a fraction of the cost of what I would pay in a restaurant.  I paid to take the L to this restaurant where I paid to eat food that someone else made and, if I didn't like it, I was just going to go home hungry.

Thank God I know I like cornbread and mac and cheese!

I ordered Carolina Pulled Pork.  Joey said I would probably like.  He's known me long enough that I trust his judgement.  Also, I really like pork.

I was nervous when it was brought out to us, and not only because I would be one of those people who takes a picture of their food in a restaurant.  I had gambled a lot of money on this plate.  I really hoped it would good.

It was better than good!  It was delicious!  Carolina Pulled Pork seems to use a lot of brown sugar, and that cuts the bite of any pepper or mustard.  It was super tender and delicious, and I was so glad I ordered it!

I think I can say with confidence that I enjoy Carolina barbecue.  Maybe Kansas City will be next....

Adventures in Etiquette

I work with two very lovely people.  We share an office and a love of eating.  Recently, one of my coworkers made pasta salad for our little office.  I was super excited because I love mozzarella cheese.  But I was also nervous because her pasta salad had olives and grape tomatoes as well.

Raw grape tomatoes.  I've come around to cooked tomatoes, but raw is an entirely different story.

So colorful!  But I only eat half of the foods pictured.

I figured I could get away with not eating the olives.  Olives are a controversial food.  It's pretty acceptable to dislike them.  However, most people like tomatoes.

So I ate maybe a third of the tomatoes.  And I hated them.  But the big old hunks of mozzarella made up for the grossness of the tomatoes.  And the fact that I even ate that many tomatoes is a testament to my need to be polite.  I didn't want my coworker to see me eating her pasta salad and think that I didn't like it.

I'll give raw tomatoes another chance sometime in the future.  I'll try them in a salad filled with other things.  Maybe I'll try them again this summer.

I think I'm going to need at least a year to work up to olives.

May Day Adventure

On May Day, Joey and I tried another recipe from his running cookbook.  This one was called Bean and Vegetable Chili.  It involved beef, beans, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, tomatoes, and spices.  The recipe also called for mushrooms, but I'm not adventurous enough to eat fungus.

I've never had eggplant.  Just not a food we really have in the house.  I had no idea what it would taste like.  I figured that since it was a chili, it would have a sort of mushy, stewed-veggie sort of texture.

Pre-mushy veggies.  Eggplant doesn't look too offensive.

I couldn't finish my chili, but it wasn't because of the eggplant.  I was right about the texture.  If eggplant has a taste, I couldn't pick it out in the chili.  I couldn't taste the zucchini or the carrots very much either.  I'll have to try eggplant again.  Maybe I'll try that Eggplant Parmesan I hear people talking about.

Post-mushy chili.  Beans, beef, veggies, and deadly spices.

I couldn't finish my chili because it was too spicy.  But I managed to eat about three fourths of my bowl before the cumin won!  That's progress!

A Bean of a Different Color

April has proved to be a busy month.  About a week ago, I had an adventure that I haven't had time to write about until now.  Hopefully, my next adventure will make it on-line in a more timely fashion.

Joey's running cookbook has a recipe for Stir-Fry.  We were going to follow it pretty exactly, but then we got a little lazy.  So we basically made this Stir-Fry recipe from one of my Betty Crocker mini-cookbooks.  We've made this meal dozens of times because it's easy and delicious.

This time there was one major difference.  We were using the ingredients from the Runner's World Cookbook recipe.  And one of those ingredients was green beans.

Green beans are gross because they are like peas (gross) but with an even grosser pod.  If I'm not going to eat peas, I'm certainly not going to eat green beans.  At least I wouldn't eat them before I started adventuring.

The worst type of bean in the world!

I still don't like green beans.  I will not eat them by themselves.  They taste like pure vitamins, and that's gross.  But I can eat them in other things, I think.  For example, my mom makes delicious Chicken Pot Pie.  Sometimes it has green beans in it.  Maybe now I won't pick them out.

Lima Beans on the other hand....

Adventures in Dixie (Part Two)

Thursday, we went out for Indian food.  Yup, Indian food.  Talk about trial by fire, huh?  My only consolation was that it was a buffet, so I could pick and choose exactly what I wanted (or felt I could handle).

Joey's dad is a spicy food junkie.  It can never be too hot.  He loves Indian food.  The restaurant Joey's parents were taking us to (Bombay Palace) is one of their favorites.

And Joey's parents knew I was trying to adventure.  They also knew that I love naan.  And there was the sense of safety that only a buffet can provide.  So Indian didn't seem like a bad idea.

Since it was a buffet, I got a bunch of different things.  Some were awesome, some were fine, some were unbearably spicy.

Plate #1: (Starting at the bottom and moving clock-wise) White Rice, Egg Rice, Cabbage, Saag Spinach, Mutter Paneer.  To the side, in bowls, are Yogurt and Kheer.

White Rice is White Rice.  No judgement needed to be passed.

The Egg Rice had not only egg but also tomato and onion in it.  But I ate it anyway!  Major grown-up points awarded!

The Cabbage was pretty innocuous, and I already like Cabbage.  It tasted mildly vinegary.  Very yummy.

Ah, the Saag Spinach.  Much spicier than I thought it would be.  I had to mix it with a lot of rice to eat it.  Even after diluting it, I left more than half of it on my plate.  But two out of three ain't bad, am I right?

I thought the Mutter Paneer would be the spiciest, but it was much milder than the Saag Spinach.  Still not a huge fan of peas, but I ate most of the sauce mixed with the Egg Rice.

Off to the side, I had dishes of yogurt (to put out any fires) and something called Kheer.  Easily the best thing offered at the buffet.  I loved it.  It was like almond milk rice pudding with hints of cardamom and sugar.

Then I went back for Round Two.

Plate #2: More Egg Rice and a small helping of Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken Tikka Masala.  Doesn't that sound terrifying? Well, it actually wasn't.  Aside from the fact that I'm still not a fan of chicken, the sauce was mild enough that I could eat it.  And it was creamy enough that I didn't taste much tomato.

All in all, highly successful outing.  I'm almost ready to head up to Devon and test my new-found ability to consume Indian food!

Almost.

(One more adventure in Dixie!  Check back tomorrow!)

Adventures in Dixie (Part One)

Joey and I went down to Nashville to visit his family last week.  His family has always been very kind and welcoming to me, especially in regards to my strange (or childish) eating habits.  His father does most of the cooking and always asks if I am willing to eat a certain meal.

But now they know that I'm trying to eat different foods.  So when we pulled in Wednesday night, Joey's dad said, "Do you like Barbecue Pork, Kayla?"

"Uh...," was my eloquent response.

"I'm going to make macaroni and cheese, too."

"Sounds good!"

So Joey and I took off our shoes and settled into the couch.  I had just lost my sense of smell to allergies, but Joey told me dinner smelled great.  When his mom got home from work, we were all ready to sit down and eat.

You will notice the generous portion of macaroni and cheese.  That's just how I roll.

Despite my not-very-supportive olfactory senses, I think I can safely say that I liked the Pork.  It was less Barbecue and more Teriyaki, which definitely worked in its favor.  I actually wish there had been more sauce!

And I managed to limit myself to three helpings of mac and cheese.  It was a successful start to the trip.

If You Eat Enough Fruit, Can You Make Spring Happen?

In case you have been hibernating, I want to make sure that you know what this winter has been like.  It's been cold.  Like stay-inside-if-you-want-to-live cold.  Chicago has gone through multiple polar vortexes.  Snow sat on our lawns and piled up in our alleys for months.  Even the schools were closed for a few days!  That last one is definitely more impressive the more familiar you are with the Chicago Public Schools.

But finally, the snow is starting to melt.  Emphasis on starting.  We still have insane amounts of snow piled up in our alley.  So does this mean it's finally spring?

Probably not.  This is Chicago, and it is March.  I'd be foolish to be so hopeful.  But even though it's currently 27 degrees outside, I can eat hopefully.  And adventurously.

I recently bought my runner boyfriend The Runner's World Cookbook.  So last night he decided to make a runner-minded burger.  (Check out his blog for the results!)  I opted for the Almond Butter and Pear Sandwich.  Because I want it to be spring already, gosh darn it!

The ingredient list looked super tasty: almond butter, cinnamon, honey, vanilla, pear.  Even goat cheese is pretty tasty.  But there it was.  The lone gross factor.  Chopped dried apricots.

Look at them.  Pretending to be candy.  Pretending to be a tasty fruit.

Apricots are gross.  They're not quite oranges, not quite nectarines, not quite something I want to eat.  But I'm an adult.  An adult who is trying really hard to eat foods she wouldn't normally eat.  There had to be a reason dried apricots were included in this otherwise tasty sandwich.  So I put them in my sandwich.

The finished product minus the second slice of bread.  Look at all those little bits of gross.

How did those little bits of gross taste?  Pretty inoffensive.  The other ingredients were more pronounced than the apricots.  They provided a chewy texture, which I liked combined with the smooth texture of the almond butter and goat cheese.  I really liked this sandwich, apricots and all.  I'm glad I made the choice to include them.

It was too many dried apricots, though.  I'll cut the amount in half next time.  And I'm still not going to eat them on their own.  I'll stick with pretty much any other fruit.  I just don't see why you would choose an apricot over another type of fruit.

Also, I don't know why I didn't just spread the goat cheese on the other slice of bread.  That would have saved me a lot of trouble trying to make everything evenly spread.

Hopefully my willing consumption of apricots will prove that we are more than ready for spring.  Hey, tomorrow it's supposed to be 35!

Lycopene for the Lycanthropically-Challenged

I don't like tomatoes.  They are super gross.  One of my earliest memories involves tomato sauce fighting its way up from my stomach.  I lost the battle, and tomato anything and I have been mortal enemies ever since.

Tomatoes are also very healthy, digestive pyrotechnic episode aside.  They are filled with lycopene.  Lycopene, sadly, has little to do Remus Lupin other than Remus Lupin had a prostate.  I have already cited my lack of prostate as a very good reason for me to never consume tomatoes.

But what if Remus Lupin came to my house for dinner?  As a lycanthrope with a prostate, I would want to make sure I was looking out for his future with his child.  This is, after all, my hypothetical situation.  Remus is suddenly starting to focus on his health because life isn't just about marauding anymore.  It's about his family!

"There comes a time in every man's life, Harry, when he has to start thinking about prostate health," Remus Lupin never said.

So I would make him what I ate last night: Fresh Tomato and Garlic Penne.  This recipe calls for one pound of tomato.  That's a lot of lycopene.  So guess who's never getting prostate cancer?  Did you guess Remus Lupin and me?  Because that's the right answer!  Also, incidentally, canon.

Luckily this recipe involves two things I love.  Garlic is in the title.  And cheese is to be assumed.  Can my love of cheese and garlic outweigh my hatred of tomatoes?

There's almost more cheese than pasta....

Yes and no.  I cleaned my plate.  This is more tomato than I've eaten in the previous 25 years of my life combined.  In one sitting.  But tomatoes are still not something I'm going to seek out.  I'm definitely not eating them like apples any time soon.  And I'll still be ordering my pasta with just cheese.  Mostly because cheese is the best.