Subway sandwich picnic on Easter afternoon hike

Barton and Maggie like to help make sammiches too.

That’s right, CRAWDADS!! PLURAL!!! I am in Cincinnati with my mom and dad at Elli and Michael’s for my neice to be’s shower.  Today is Elli’s birthday so we went to Pappadeaux for dinner. It is a “seafood kitchen.” My mom got crawdads and a salad for dinner. Elli asked if there was anything on the table that could pass as my new food for the week. I tried to pawn off the Sam Adams White Ale, but no one accepted that as an answer. Crawdads were the only option.

My first reaction–hellzzzz no!! [[Paul tried to trick me into eating them after the MB marathon, but I turned my head quickly to see those beady eyes (the crawdad's, not Paul's) staring at me and I knew it was something NASTY not the Alaskan King Crab meat I thought it would be. My general culinary motto is that I do not eat anything with eyes still intact.]] But then, I do hear, once the baby of the family, always the baby of the family. That proved to be the case b/c my mom said she would pull the meat out of the carcass of the bug eyed creature. It did NOT taste like chicken. The spices burned the taste buds off my tongue–good thing b/c I had to eat THREE PIECES in order to get a clear picture.

Sauerkraut. Pickled cabbage. No matter what word you choose, language you use, or how many times you say it, it translates the same–GROSS!!!! I am writing this on April 27 and it is still in the fridge and Paul says it is still good. Ironically, I also found out today Olestra, the super food substitute from the mid-1990′s that caused anal leakage, is back on the market. This time as an industrial lubricant. Charming. Almost as charming as the picture of me trying sauerkraut. Notice the look on the kids’ faces.

Not a crowd favorite

I thought I got off easy when Paul and I went to Food Lion Wednesday night and he got Cheese Waffies (Googols–its like the southern version of cheesy poofs, but in a bag). I tried one and did not really care for it. Then, came yesterday–the day before Easter.

I ate rabbit. I originally thought it was THE rabbit, the Easter one. It must have been Roger Rabbit instead because the kids had their baskets full of candy and toys this morning. Back to the rabbit though. It seriously did taste like chicken. Like a chicken thigh. I am partial to white meat though so the thigh is edible (especially when I am setting an example for the kids!), but much more than that. Then I started thinking about the rabbit-ness of it. My belly had been rolling most of the day as it was, but the rabbit really put me over the edge. I actually ended up leaving the table. But not before Tyler said thoughtfully as he gnawed on the rabbit leg, “Whoa! I can taste the rabbit poop!”

Happy Easter!

DISCLAIMER: if I post something that you know I have tried, sorry. It is not intentional, but you know my memory is as limited as my food choices.

Week of March 29th: Baked Lays Sour Cream and Cheddar Chips. We were rushing last night to get to Anna’s game. We had a hill repeat run workout last night and you know we are slow so we ran outta time and hit Subway for dinner where I picked up this most delicious treat! I highly recommend them! Sour cream and cheddar–how can you go wrong?

Week of March 22th: chocolate covered raisins. One of my co-workers had them and offered me one. They were ok. I think the kind of chocolate they are covered w would probably make a difference. Later that week someone else had some in a meeting so I tried that brand. These were much bigger. They tasted ok, couldn’t really taste the chocolate so much. And I cannot imagine raisins occur that big in nature.

Our first night in San Antonio we ate at Casa Rio. While Susan was in one of her sessions that day I had gone for a walk and I heard that this restaurant was on it’s 4th generation of owners so we figured they must be doing something right and decided to give it a try. We had guacamole for a appetizer then I had the Casa Rio Deluxe Dinner (Cheese Enchilada, Tamale, Crispy Beef Taco, Chili Con Carne, Guacamole Salad,  Chili Con Queso, Mexican Rice, and Refried Beans) and Susan had the taco plate. For dessert Susan wanted to try flan because she had never had it before. It is unusual for her to want to try something new but I love flan so I went with. She wanted to share one since she wasn’t sure if she would like it or not so it turned out good for me that she liked it but it wasn’t her favorite (that meant I got more of it ). It turned out that we made a good choice to eat here because the food and service was great. This ended up being Susan’s favorite place we ate (it was a close second for me). The enchiladas were the best I have ever had and the tacos, with home made taco shells, were excellent also.

The second night we ate at two restaurants. We started at the Cafe Ole’. We weren’t planning on eating dinner here but they had a appetizer special of chili con queso, Texas style nachos, quesadillas and guacamole for happy hour so we decided to give it a try. After the appetizers we were glad we weren’t eating dinner there. The food wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t the best either. After Cafe Ole’ we moved on to Rita’s on the River. Here we had guacamole for a appetizer, yes we had another appetizer, then I had fajitas for dinner and Susan had tortilla soup. The food here was pretty good but not our favorite place. The fajita meat was marinated very well and had a good flavor, the home made tortillas where also very good but the rest was just OK.

Friday we met and had lunch at Rio Rio Cantina. Here we had guacamole for a appetizer (again ), then I had pollo en mole and Susan had 2 cheese enchiladas and a taco. This turned out to be my favorite restaurant of the week. The mole here was one of the best that I have ever had. Susan said it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t her favorite. They made things here a little different than she is use to which is probably why I liked it so much and it wasn’t her favorite. Friday night we were so stuffed from all the eating that we ended up eating ice cream at Häagen-Dazs and pretzels at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels for dinner.

For lunch on Saturday before we left we broke from the Tex-Mex trend and ate at Schilo’s Delicatessen (a German deli). Susan read about this place before we went and saw they had home made root beer so we planned on going to try it before we left. I hadn’t had any soft drink since I was 16 but I love root beer (especially home made root beer) so I decided to give it a try. It was really good and I am glad I had it but I’m not going to go back to drinking soft drinks, they are way too sweet. For food I almost got the cow tongue but I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat for a while if I didn’t like it since we were going to the airport after we left so I went with a Ruben sandwich instead. If I can find it again I would still like to try cow tongue sometime! Susan had the creamy chicken soup and a piece of cheese cake. The food here was good and worth the evil stares we got when we wanted to order lunch at 10:58. Lunch started at 11 so apparently 2 minutes is a long time in Texas.

For the sake of not making us sound any more like pigs, since we ate the whole time,  I left out our breakfeasts, airport meals and a couple others. We had a good time on the trip but ate WAY too much. This was Susan’s first time speaking at a national conference so she was a little nervous. She ended up with a full room for her talk and things went very well so I was happy for her.

You can see some pictures from the trip here.

Star Fruit

First up was the star fruit. I have had star fruit before and it isn’t my favorite so I wasn’t to hopeful that they would like this. Because of the shape everyone was excited to try it, however we didn’t have much success after the first few bites. Susan said it tastes like a unripe apple which I think is a pretty good description.

Kiwi Fruit

Next up was the kiwi. Everyone got to pet the kiwi before I cut it which the kids thought was great, but it had Susan second guessing her willingness to try it. I love kiwi fruit but I wasn’t sure how Susan would like it because of the texture. She ate part of hers around the edges but she wouldn’t eat the part with the seeds or the middle so I think I was right about the texture for her. Anna wasn’t a fan of the kiwi either, but Tyler loved it. He was upset that there wasn’t any more left and wanted me to go by the store to get some more.

So we had two new fruits with Susan and Anna liking neither, and Tyler liking the kiwi. At least now Susan and Anna can say they don’t like star fruit or kiwi and know they are telling the truth. Although I think if Susan could get over the texture of the kiwi she would like it.

SO! We will vote on the last side dish for Thanksgiving instead. That way you can also leave a comment about what YOU are doing, too! You know, make it interactive and all. Paul and I will be hibernating on Thanksgiving after we run our 5K that morning (www.greensborogobbler.com). We have not stayed home by ourselves in MONTHS! Here is our menu so far:

• turkey breast
• garlic mashed potatoes
• homemade bread (Paul insisted! I did not force this one)
• collard greens
• pumpkin crisp
• Cliff Bar Cabernet (from the makers on Cliff Bars, like nutrition bars)

Here is the poll question: Should we have homemade mac and cheese too?

Since then she has (reluctantly) tried all kinds of new things. She has tried everything from pana cotta to Foie Gras Mousseline. She even regularly eats (and likes) spinach. There have been all kinds of new things that she has tried and loved, which is good because it helps me convince her to try more things. We still have our set backs, like when I wanted to make the pasta fagioli recipe that Lauren sent us this week to try (she was not happy so I haven’t made it…yet), or when she found out that McDonald’s doesn’t have honey for her chicken nuggets any more (this was a major dilemma for her). Overall though, she has been really good about trying new things.

Still I was shocked when she sent me a message this morning asking if we could have cedar plank grilled salmon tacos for dinner. I love trying new foods so I was excited to hear this!

Well…I’m off now to make some fish tacos.

The Blues

My mom was looking at our pictures from our honeymoon, and I got a email from her asking “what was that on your plate?”. This was our dessert for dinner at the Glitretind Restaurant in Deer Valley UT our last night of our honeymoon. It was called “The Blues” and was a blueberry dessert. Susan’s favorite part was the “blueberry paper” (it’s the purple square in the picture). She loved the way that it melted in her mouth as soon as it hit your tongue. My favorite (which the name is escaping both of us right now) had almost a jam like consistency but with a more dessert-like flavor. Mixing it with the caramel ice cream was great.

The most impressive part of the dinner was that Susan tried my Foie Gras Mousseline and loved it. She even ate more after I told her that it was goose liver. For those of you that know Susan you know that is a HUGE deal because she never tries anything new and would never admitting to liking something like that.