The Artichoke Fail (And Truly Great Pizza)

For Christmas, my boyfriend gave me a written note promising to take me to a local pizza place that he'd been to and really liked.   (He got me a couple other things as well...not just an IOU).  This past weekend, we finally had the chance to go.  I got my mouth all set for pizza, and we headed over there.  Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered that they had gone out of business! What a bummer! I hate when little local places can't make it.  :(  We were both really disappointed, but I think he was even more so.  He'd been so excited to take me.  After deciding that we still were in the mood for really good pizza, we headed over to one of our favorite pizza places.  Tony Sacco's is a chain, but they make some amazing pizza.  They use a big coal fired oven, and the crust is perfect.  We perused the menu for a bit, and then settled on the Marco Polo pizza. 

Let me tell you, I find going to new pizza places so much more exciting than I used to.  A couple years ago, it would not have mattered what the place was, I would have been ordering a cheese or pepperoni and cheese pizza.  There are so many more options open to me now! It's a good thing to because Mr. Boyfriend doesn't think a cheese or pepperoni and cheese pizza is worth much.  He needs more interesting toppings. The Marco Polo pizza held tomato sauce, chicken, artichoke, and sundried tomato.  I think I had artichoke once before on a pizza at Big Al's, but I couldn't really taste it.  It had been the most bland pizza I'd ever eaten.  I've had stuff made with sundried tomatos...flat breads and feta and stuff, but I'd not had them on pizza before.  This pizza was a whole new experience for me.  When it came out, I ate several bites of the pizza all together. (I've always been one to eat the toppings first, then the cheese, then the crust...I'm growing out of that on really good pizza, but I still do it at someplace like Domino's or Pizza Hut.) The crust, sauce, chicken, and sundried tomatoes were all amazing.  Honestly, I think Tony Sacco's is my favorite pizza place I've tried yet.  It was so delicious.  However, the more I ate it, the more the taste of the artichoke bothered me.  I picked a little off to try on it's own to make sure that's what it was, and yes...ick.  My boyfriend, who loves artichoke, said it had a funny taste to it, so I'm hoping that there is still hope for me to like artichoke someday.  Saturday was not the day though.  I ended up picking most of the artichoke off the pizza.  Thankfully, the pizza was delicious enough to make up for the icky artichoke.  We even ate the leftovers warmed up for dinner that night.

Veggies

I feel like I'm running out of vegetables to try.  I recently tried asparagus and found that it was delicious.  My grocery store does these dinner samples every afternoon.  They make up a full dinner and put out little plates for testing.  Then they give out a recipe card and have an area there where you can find all the things needed for the meal together.  One night they made some kind of chicken with asparagus.  I really liked it. 

I suppose I need to try brussel sprouts and radishes.  I'm not sure what else.  So far, I haven't tried a lot of vegetables that I've really hated.  In fact, I can't think of any off the top of my head (mushrooms don't count, do they?).  The more I eat vegetables, the more I find that I actually really like them.  They taste good, and they are good for me! What an excellent combo.  I'd like some suggestions for more unusual veggies that I should try.  If you have a favorite way to prepare them, then please share that as well!

Green Beans and Roast

Sometimes I forget that I'm not (or at least am trying not to be) a picky eater anymore.  It's hard to redefine yourself at 30! My picky eating as so much a part of who I was for so many years, it's hard to just let it go.  The other night my mom made a roast for dinner.  Growing up, my mom's roast was the only thing that I was ever forced to eat.  I have no idea why.  I never loved it, but I could get down a few ketchup covered bites...enough to keep my mom happy.  When she made it the other night, I automatically started coming up with my own dinner plans (she no longer makes me eat it...I mean, I am 30).  I made myself a delicious dinner with chicken covered in a pineapple salsa, really yummy green beans, and roasted potatoes.  It wasn't till much later in the evening that I realized that I'd eaten like a picky eater again.  Why didn't I just eat what my mom had made for dinner.  She so seldom actually cooks a meal (she and my dad are pretty content with sandwiches and simple things like that), and it's even more rare that I'm around when she does.  I should have at least tried some.  Who knows, maybe I'd really enjoy it now? 

My own dinner really was yummy though.  The green beans were especially good.  I used to hate green beans, and now I love them! Sometimes I wonder if I'd have been more likely to try vegetables if more of them had been presented to me fresh and in their natural color.  There is nothing appetizing to me (though I will eat them now) about that muted green bean from a can color.  A nice, fresh green bean looks so delicious.  It's bright and crisp and lovely.   I think my first experience with re-trying green beans was at PF Chang's last year.  I tested out their spicy green beans and LOVED them.  I've even tried to copy them at home a couple times.  SO good! After that, I started buying fresh green beans to cook with more often.  They are cheap and plentiful around here, so we eat them a lot.  One of my favorite ways, which I used the other night, is to saute some purple onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil, and throw in some green beans that have been boiled for about 5 minutes...add a little salt and pepper, and YUM! Try it sometime! My parents had some of the beans I'd made, and they both said they really liked them (though my mom ate around the onion. My pickyness was come by honestly). 

Other Picky Eaters

I am discovering as I become less picky, that picky eaters make life really difficult! I mean, I always knew that I was making it hard on other people, but I guess I never realized just how hard.  I have some pretty picky friends who I occasionally cook for when we all get together.  Coming up with something that will make everyone happy is sometimes almost impossible!  It really is no wonder that the hostess for our weekly get togethers usually ends up making some kind of pasta dish.  Its simple and most people will eat it. (And seriously, hats off to her! She spends her time and money to feed us all nearly every week, and she does a good job of it!)

I'm making dinner tonight for these friends, and coming up with a dinner plan was pretty dang stressful! I still don't know if what I am making is something that people will eat.  I decided on a pulled jerk chicken with a side of sweet potato oven fries.  I'm thinking about adding a few regular potatoes...just in case.  I know bbq pulled meat is more traditional, but I'm not a fan of bbq sauce, and Jerk is one of my favorite flavor combos.  That sweet mixed with a little heat...yum!  I really hope people will enjoy it.  If it turns out well, maybe I'll post the recipe.  I'm nervous though.  I'm sure I'll like it, and I think my boyfriend will like it, but I'm not so sure about the rest of them.  I feel bad when I make something that people don't like.  I know what it is like to sit at a table and panic because the food is something you aren't used to, and you don't want to offend the cook.  Bleh...so many years of stressing people out because I was coming to dinner...I don't want to be like that anymore! I know I still am to an extent, but I'm determined to eventually become the kind of person who no one would label "a picky eater."


Edited to add:

YUCK! My jerk chicken was HORRIBLE.  Like, epic fail.  I guess I put in too much marinade and cooked the shredded chicken too long...or something.  It turned into something that resembled vomit.  The chicken disintegrated! It was so bad, we ended up ordering pizza.  How embarrassing! At least my dessert turned out good.  Most people seemed to really like it. I know I sure did.

Hibachi and Mushrooms and Flames, Oh My!

I believe I have mentioned before that I teach preschool. Let me begin this post with a funny preschool story. One year, I was teaching 2 year olds, and had a very verbose girl in my class. This girl had just turned two and spoke better than some adults I have known. However, she always called herself, "you." I suppose this makes sense as it was how others would have referred to her. One day this small person said to me (and remember, this was within only a couple months of her turning two) "Last night, you went to the Japanese restaurant, and they cooked a fire!"

Well,  Friday night I went to the Japanese restaurant, and they cooked a fire! My very good friend Keli told me a couple weeks ago that she was going to take me out to dinner for a late birthday celebration.  Originally, the plan was to go the Cheesecake Factory, but the Cheesecake Factory is about an hour away, and we were trying to come up with other ideas.  A few days before the intended dinner, Keli asked if I'd ever been to a Japanese Steakhouse.  I said that I had not, but that I was certainly up for trying one out! 


I believe the hibachi experience is pretty similar wherever you go, but it was all new to me.  Our meal started with clear soup and house salad with ginger dressing. 

I picked out the offending mushrooms, and tried the clear soup, but I wasn't thrilled with it.  It needed...something...anything.  I had several tastes of it because I know sometimes I need to get used to something, but it just wasn't doing anything for me.   The ginger dressing on the salad was yummy, but there was seriously WAY too much of it.  The lettuce was floating.  I'm the kind of girl who makes a huge salad and puts a tablespoon of dressing on the whole thing, so having a massive amount of dressing on a tiny salad was not appealing to me.  Still, it was tasty. 

As we moved on to the Hibachi portion of the experience, I was pretty excited.  I've been to a Mongolian Grill (Oh BD's, how I love thee), so I've seen some cool tricks, but this guy was pretty impressive.  I particularly enjoyed watching him bounce and crack the eggs over his metal spatula. 
The fried rice was yummy, but I wanted to taste everything together, so I didn't eat much before the other portions were on my plate. 

The flaming tower of onion rings was fun! Keli warned me it was coming so I'd be able to get a picture.  :)  The veggies were good, but I was a little troubled by the fact that there were mushrooms all mixed in.  As soon as they got on my plate I popped one mushroom in my mouth in an effort to be brave.  I chewed it up and swallowed it, but I came pretty close to gagging.  There is something I really don't like about the texture.  Maybe someday I'll get over that.  I'm sure I had some mixed in with my other veggies, but they didn't seem to bother me. 

I ordered chicken with my meal, and that was really good.  I especially liked it all mixed together with some of the ginger sauce they gave us drizzled on top.  The whole experience was really enjoyable.  The food was good, and the flames and tricks were fun to watch.  I would say though, that if given the choice, I'd choose BD's Mongolian grill over a Japanese Steakhouse everytime.  There are just so many more choice and you don't have to try to pick around the things you aren't crazy about.  Still, I'm really glad we did this.  It pushed me a little more out of my food comfort zone, and turned out to be really good!

Toes in the Water and Crab in my Belly

Do you love this picture of my oh so attractive foot? It's nice, huh?  My boyfriend found out he was going to get to have his boys for part of Saturday on his "off weekend."  His ex-wife had to work, so we got to play! :)  We hadn't been to the beach in a long time, and the weather was nice, so we packed up and headed out for some fun in the sun and sand.

After a full morning at the beach, I was craving either seafood or Mexican food (something about the beach always makes me want one of those two things).  We decided to have lunch at Pincher's Crab Shack.  I ordered blackened grouper tacos, and the boyfriend ordered crab.  Fish tacos used to sound like the most disgusting thing in the world to me, but now I think they might be one of my absolute favorite dishes.  The ones I ordered came out looking perfect.  They had a nice mango salsa on the side, and everything about them looked amazing.  Unfortunately, looks were deceiving.  The blackening seasoning they used was waaaaaaay too salty.  I was very disappointed.  However, I did manage to be brave enough to try some of my boyfriend's crab! I made him pull it out for me (there was no way I was going to be picking through crab parts for the meat), but I ate it.  I actually kind of liked it.  I can't imagine that I'd ever want to order it for myself and do all the breaking and picking, but I wouldn't mind having some crab meat in something sometime.  His boy's feelings on the matter of picking out the meat were very different than mine.  They had a great time cracking crab legs open and pulling out what they wanted to eat.  They kept begging for more.  In some ways, they are far more adventures eaters than I am!

An Airport, A Burrito, and the Beginning of an Obsession

Here we are. Aren't we fabulous? ;)

In November of 2010 I flew out to Washington (the state) for a visit with one of my bestest friends. While in an airport in some state (Texas maybe?) on a layover, I walked into a little Mexican Grill (I believe it was Qdoba).  I had started trying more things at this point, but I was still heavily altering my food at most restaurants (hold the tomatoes, no onions, etc.)  I decided I would try a burrito, but I planned to ask for it without several things.  I stood there for a few moments, and looked at the menu.  Finally, I told myself, "Just get it as listed!" So I did.  I walked up to the counter and ordered the most loaded up burrito on the menu.  That thing had sour cream, guacamole, salsa, beans, and all sorts of things I normally wouldn't go near.  I watched nervously as the guy wrapped it up for me.  Could I really eat this? It had tomatoes in it.  I had only just started occasionally trying to eat tomatoes, and I still wasn't crazy about them. (Once upon a time I wouldn't even eat something that had come in contact with a raw tomato.) I liked baked beans and chili beans, but would black and pinto beans be scary and gross? Would guacamole be disgusting?  However, I was determined.  I was alone (which is sometimes the best way for me to try something...I don't have to worry about other people's reactions to my reaction) and I was hungry and I was really trying to make a better effort to broaden my eating horizons. 

I took the burrito and headed to the waiting area at my gate.  As I took my first bite I realized something amazing; this thing I was eating was incredible! I didn't just like it, I loved it.  I was a little troubled by the fact that all the cold ingredients were at one end of the burrito and all the hot ones at the other, but I chalked that up to an incompetent burrito wrapper (is there an official name for that position).  It was still delicious.  I think I called my mom after I finished it.  I needed to tell someone about my brave new journey into Mexican (or at least Americanized Mexican) food.  I'm pretty sure I also texted my boyfriend to tell him about it as well.  I was so excited.  So many new foods all wrapped up in one deliciously wonderful meal.

While visiting with my friend that week, I got to experience another burrito at Taco del Mar, and I'm pretty sure I got another one in the airport on the way home.  I was hooked.  I couldn't wait to go home and start eating more than just chicken and cheese quesadillas at Moe's and Bajio's.  I couldn't get enough! At home, I started making myself big taco salads filled with anything I could think of.   Eventually, I started eating the burritos "naked" to save some calories, but my love affair with them has still not died down.  I've even branched out to more authentic Mexican food though I think I will always prefer the Americanized versions (only because it always seems to be loaded with more yummy stuff).


On Wednesday nights, I usually get together with some friends to play games or watch movies or just hang out.  Last night we had a taco night.  Our hosts provided the shells, beef, chicken, salsa, chips, and sour cream.  The rest of us brought other stuff to go on the tacos.  As I piled my taco with my homemade guacamole, beef, veggies, and cheese, I looked over and saw my friend's taco made of only cheese and chicken.  Man, it took my back to my not so distant past.  There was a time when that would have absolutely been me.  I don't miss those days!