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Well this weekend was exciting!!  Three new food experiences!!  One obvious hit, one definite miss and one that was fun but not likely to be frequently repeated.

Shall we start with the obvious hit?  Fried snickers bars!!!  Why have I not tried this before?  Well, partially because I am not a huge fan of Snickers bars and partially because I enjoy not having off the chart cholesterol.  But my husband really wanted to try it, so I figured my arteries could take one for the team.

So good!!!  As you can tell by the fact that it was mostly gone before I remembered to take a picture of it.  First impression was that it tasted like roasted marshmallows.  Which then mixed with the delicious milk chocolate taste.  However, there were nuts in it.  I hate nuts mixed into foods.  It is just too jarring of a texture shift for me.  Like having little pieces of gravel in your food.  However, I think I could overlook that in order to eat more delicious fried Snickers.  So, again, a hit.  Likely not unexpected.  It isn't like it is hard to get people to enjoy fried candy.

Onto the miss of the day!

Barbequed oysters.  Due to conflicting schedules, I lucked out by not having to go to the oyster feed a few weekends ago.  Oysters freak me out.  But I knew I had to try them.  I mean...that is kinda the point of this thing, right?  I dodged the bullet earlier, but here they were again.  I couldn't put it off anymore.  I was scared, but also hopeful.  I have been pleasantly surprised before!  Maybe this would be another time!  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of looking too closely at it before I ate it.  Have you ever looked closely at an oyster?  They have these weird, spongy, foldy gill looking things on them.....Not the most appetizing thing in the world to look at.  So....I ate it.  And immediately wanted to spit it out or throw up.  Ugh.  The texture was horrible.  But I hung in there.  Mostly because I was standing right in front of the people who had made them and I thought it would be pretty rude to spit it out and then throw up all over their table....But it was a close call. 

Once the initial urge to puke passed and I had gotten over the texture, I got to experience more of the flavor.  That was....not pleasant.  It had a really muddy flavor.  Not delicious.  It reminded me of mushrooms which are one of my least favorite foods.  I have no idea if it was at all similar to what mushrooms actually taste like, but it tasted like what I imagine mushrooms tasting like.  They had cooked them in some sort of liquid.  I don't know what but it looked like butter was involved in a big way.  They then put a slice of cheese on it and melted it over the oysters.  I don't know what kind of cheese.  It was white.  I can't be anymore specific about either of those two aspects, largely because they had little to no effect on the flavor of the oysters.  They tasted gross and I don't care what you put on them. Unless it managed to completely obscure the flavor and texture of the oysters, it won't make a difference.

So let's move on to the main event!!!

Crawfish!!  Because we were at the Annual Crawfish Festival!!!  For $10 we got a pound of crawfish and a boiled potato and corn.  In case you were wondering, this:

is what a pound of crawfish looks like.  As a quick side note, the corn was really good!  Sweet and spicy!  I have no idea how they cooked it, but two thumbs up!  That potato just confused me.  I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it so.....we just ignored it.

Here is how to eat crawfish.  First, appreciate the creepiness of the crawdad!

Look at their creepy, beady eyes and their long, twitchy whiskers.  These are some seriously freaky little creatures.  Next step?

Play around with them for awhile!  Part of the fun of them is that they still kind of look alive, so by all means, play with them like they are puppets!  Make them dance!  Make them fight each other!  Make them steal your husband's beer!  It is all part of the inherent crawdad experience.

Then there is the actual eating.  This involves ripping their tails off and then squeezing the meat out of their tails!  And yes, it is just as fun and messy as it sounds.  Like lobsters, the inside of the crawdad is filled with icky, gooey yellowy substance. 

After caving to peer pressure, my husband sucked it out of the inside of the crawdad's head.  He described it as "Not bad for gooey crawdad stuff."  I thought about trying it until he also stated that it tasted "kinda fishy".  He may have been lying because he was concerned by the fact that I already almost threw up once today and that I may not be able to hold it back a second time.  Either way, I decided I had been adventurous enough for one day and settled for playing with more crawdads before devouring their tails.  They were good!  They were kind of like a blend between crab and shrimp.  Definitely seafood-y but not over the top!  I liked it but again, I don't see myself becoming a frequent crawdad consumer.

Finally, the best part:

Gloating over the carnage and destruction that you left behind....and...a random boiled potato.  I love food that you finish eating and you can look at the aftermath and feel a sense of accomplishment.  Maybe that is why I make such a mess in the kitchen when I cook....I just enjoy the visual confirmation of my efforts....

Anyway, it was a blast!  I really had fun sitting in the sun, drinking cheap beer in a plastic cup, listening to a local classic rock cover band, laughing with great company, and tearing my way through a pound of crawdads.  More than the chance to expand my palette, I really appreciate the fact that I got to enjoy that moment.  And without having undertaken this challenge, I might have let that opportunity pass by.  Again, it is the unintended side effects that have continually surprised me and give me a reason to keep on!

Stir it up!

Today I went through a familiar routine.  My husband called while I was at work to ask what I wanted for dinner.  I said I had no idea and he should just pick something. So I came home to chicken breasts marinating in teriyaki sauce and stared at it for awhile and then thought, "Okay......now what?"  Normally, this would lead to me being momentarily paralyzed with indecision and general anxiety and then would send me on a frantic search for any recipe that involved teriyaki marinated chicken breasts.  Today was different though!  I scanned through the contents of our fridge in my head and then thought, Stir Fry!!!

In general, I am not a stir fry maker.  I don't know why.  I think I have made stir fry one time in the last 10 years.  But I knew I had the stuff to make it and I had confidence that I could figure it out as I went.  So I chopped up the chicken and tossed it in the wok with some canola oil.  I also chopped up some purple cabbage, green onions, leeks, asparagus, garlic and ginger.  I put some homemade chicken stock in a pot to make rice with.  When the chicken was done, I took it out and put a few chicken stock ice cubes and some teriyaki sauce in the wok and tossed in the veggies.  When everything was done, I threw it in a bowl and had a delicious dinner.  The chicken broth gave the rice a really nice flavor!!  It is my new favorite way to cook rice!

 

It looked amazing too!  Now I know why stir fry has been touted as a delicious, quick weeknight dinner.  Honestly, I kinda thought that was a load of crap.  That it was just one of those things people said but didn't really mean.  I was wrong! It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I try to gracefully admit it.  It helps to admit it on a full stomach though!

A moment of reflection and gratitude

I have to keep catching myself when I say I "hate" certain foods.  Especially because, most of the time, I have never eaten them.  I had biscuits and gravy for the first time this week.  I had salsa verde for the first time.  I think I am going to try oysters for the first time this weekend (There is a local oyster feed happening!!)  It is getting easier each time, but I still am working on overcoming my initial negative reaction to most foods.  It is a strange shift to make from viewing everything negatively and with suspicion to viewing things with hope and optimism.  And I think it helps with my work too. 

So many of the kids I work with approach life with such a closed off, impoverished view of the world.  Understanding that viewpoint intellectually is easy enough, but when you work day in and day out around that sort of consistently negative and depressive viewpoint, it can be draining and it can be such a challenge to keep up that sense of empathy.  So it helps to be currently working on changing my own corner of pessimism and negativity.  I have been able to share some of that with the kids.  Some of them are really enjoying it.  I usually eat the school lunches too so they are helping me pick out things that I wouldn't usually try.  They are giving recommendations and talking about it with me and sharing what they enjoy or dislike about certain foods.  It has been really fun!  And it helps give that opening to encourage them to look at areas where they have closed themselves off to possibilities and to give them extra incentive to give things a shot when they would normally just walk away.  And it has made it easier for me to work on my food stuff when I work in an environment that is so steeped in encouraging new behaviors and branching out and trying new things. 

I love that I work in a place with that sort of attitude.  When we don't know something, we go look it up and learn about it.  When we are unsure of something, we try it out and see what happens.  We encourage curiosity and creativity in our kids and that in turn helps foster that in our own lives.  Also, we are all hyper-competitive so when encouragement fails, turning it into a competition can work wonders!! There are so many things about my job that make me feel incredibly lucky.  Discovering this aspect has added one more.

Frog Legs!!

So Sunday, the husband and I went to Safeway to do some quick grocery shopping.  While standing at the butcher counter, waiting while my ribeyes were being wrapped, my eyes slid down the display case and landed on.....

Frog legs!!!  How cool is that?!?!  So of course I insisted that we get one to try out.  They were still partially frozen when we got them, so I had to wait until today to cook them.  Which gave me the day to search and find this recipe.  I only had one set of frog legs and not a pound so I had to kind of guess at the measurements.  I added the seasonings and let the frog legs sit for about 20 minutes.

Then I dredged them in cornstarch and dropped them in 350 degree oil for about 5 minutes!  In the meantime, I made up the dipping sauce (substituting honey for most of the white sugar and red pepper flakes for the chili sauce) and heated the butter and garlic.  When it was all thrown together it looked like this:

Vaguely intimidating but also familiar in that it reminded me of fried chicken.  I was a little nervous to try it out, but it ended up being good!  The strongest flavors were the soy sauce and the garlic.  The frog legs themselves were almost a challenge to taste.  And as cliche as it sounds....they tasted like chicken.  They didn't really.  They were chewier and had a definite gamey flavor, but if I had to pick something that they were similar too, I would pick chicken.  And gator, but I don't know how well that reference point would go over in the general public.

Because I had been nervous about the frog legs, I made an actual dinner of pure, never miss comfort food!  Steak and potatoes!  Red rose potatoes tossed with salt, oil and smashed garlic.

Roasted in a few stages (covered with foil, uncovered and then flipped) they came up delicious, and crusty golden brown.

While that was happening, the steak was being cooked in a cast iron skillet.  First over high for a few minutes per side, then a few more minutes per side on medium.  It was amazing!

Just to clarify, it is sitting on a salad plate.  I mean, it is a really big steak, but it isn't dinner plate sized.  It was a hint too salty.  I just switched from regular salt to kosher salt and I am still working on estimating amounts correctly.  But the crust in the outside was perfect and it was just the right done-ness (medium rare).  All together it was a great dinner and an interesting food experience.  I don't know that I liked the frog legs enough to pay $9 a pound for them!  But, should I ever have the chance to go frog gigging, I will know what to do with the catch!!!

A Food Experience

So we went home this weekend for a visit.  Beyond it being awesomely fun to get to see family and friends, we had some amazing food!!!  SO good!!!

We went to the mother-in-law's house to visit and while we were there I made a chicken for dinner.  It was delicious!  It was the best I have done so far.  I am definitely getting the hang of it.  And I love how easy it is!  It is definitely my new go-to dish to make for people!

That night, we went out to dinner at Elements, a local tapas restaurant.  It is one of my favorite restaurants.  It is amazing.  About every other week or so, I have dreams about eating there.  And they did not disappoint!!  We started with our favorite, their house dates:

Dates, stuffed with chorizo and wrapped in bacon.  It is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten.  My biggest complaint?  The amount the give.  It never splits evenly and I have totally gotten in fights over who gets the last date.  Eventually it was ended amicably by us getting a second order thus saving my marriage and several friendships....But even so...it would have been worth it.  These are amazing.

I wanted to try something different too, so I ordered the ceviche:

It was bay scallops and yellow tail with scallions.  It was really good!!  I was surprised.  As I have mentioned, I am not a huge fish person.  However, I have wanted to try ceviche for a long time and I totally trust the chef at Elements so I was willing to go for it.  There was a hint of something gritty in it which was off putting.  Any grittiness in a seafood dish automatically makes me feel like there is sand in my food.  But I liked it!  The ceviche style made it an easier texture for me to handle. Also, because it was chopped into small pieces, everything blended well and there wasn't an overpowering fishiness to it.

Next came the Jamon Iberico:

36 month aged acorn fed black-hoofed spanish ham.  It was fantastic!  It has a wonderful creaminess to it.  And you could taste the acorn.  There was a really great nuttiness.  And oddly, there was a hint of chocolate to it.  I've never understood what people meant when they would describe things as having "undertones of chocolate". I never got that and it always sounded a bit pretentious, but this totally had a chocolate taste to it!  It was so good.....

Next, Asparagus Romesco!!

Grilled asparagus with romesco sauce and a balsalmic reduction.  I usually don't much enjoy tomato based sauces but this was fantastic.  Of course I already love grilled asparagus so that was the easy part!  The sauce was great though.  It had really great flavors and spices and had a nice creaminess and sweetness to it.  Again, I freaking love Elements and I can't wait until our next chance to eat there.

The next day I got to eat at my favorite place!!! My mom's!!  We had Easter brunch with my parents.  My mom made a really delicious maple-y, nutty coffee cake, strawberries, roasted asparagus and lamb shanks.  The lamb shanks were fall-off-the-bone tender.  The juice was amazing when drizzled over the asparagus. The strawberries were just on the un-ripe side (the way I love them!!!) but they still had a really good flavor to them.  And I have had the coffee cake before, but I have always been so caught up in the mindset that I don't like coffee cake and I don't like nuts and I don't like the textures and blah blah blah that I never actually tasted it.  It is really good!!  I can't believe I have eaten something so many times and never actually managed to taste it before!  Once again, it just makes me so happy I took this step because I have been missing out on so much.

Finally, we had lunch before taking off back out of town.  We decided to go to Taqueria El Gallo, a tiny mexican place sandwiched between a Minute Market and a Laundromat.  When my husband and I first got together we lived in a tiny studio apartment about a block and a half from the restaurant.  I went through a phase where I ate their tacos twice a day, every day for a couple of weeks.  And it is understandable!  Look at them!!

So good.  Squeeze some limes on there, drizzle them with sour cream and lay one of the spicy carrots on top.  Good lord that is delicious food!  The husband got his usual vegetarian quesadilla.

Creamy, melt-y, salty, onion-y deliciousness all piled onto one paper plate  Such a perfect way to end our visit home.  Satisfied and happy, but already looking forward to the next time.

Gaining Confidence through Leftovers

So one thing I have struggled with in cooking is improvising.  Thus, the OCD cooking.  I just haven't built up enough knowledge and confidence to be able to branch out on my own.  But I am starting to take baby steps!

I made some tomato soup for dinner last night.  I have never actually had tomato soup until last night.  I liked it!  It was spicy and delicious.(You can find the recipe here)  And fun to make!  And I got to feel super DIY special because I made it from scratch and used chicken stock that I also made from scratch!  (It calls for vegetable stock, but I didn't have any low sodium vegetable stock, so I went with the homemade chicken stock).  And then, while I was eating it, it reminded me that I recently made some homemade Italian Sausage using this recipe here.  So for lunch today, I cooked up some of the homemade Italian Sausage to crumble into my homemade Tomato Soup made with my homemade Chicken Stock.  Can you tell I am feeling pretty darn proud of myself right now??  I added some shavings of Parmesan cheese and now I have a delicious lunch!!  And it was an idea I thought of all by myself!!!  YAY!!!!

I have discovered that, as a side effect of pushing the boundaries of my palette, I am also experiencing a reduction in portion sizes.  It wasn't something that I had thought about before, but it makes sense.  Now that I am eating new things, eating is no longer a mindless activity.  I am eating slower and really tasting things.  Also, there is more pleasure gained from new tastes and sensations than there is from simply being full.  So I no longer feel like I need to eat a lot of something, I just need to eat something that makes me pause and take my time and truly notice my meal.  An unexpected but very welcome side effect!!

Now, off to the hardware store to get some things to help organize my kitchen!

Kitchen Inspirations

This is my new kitchen inspiration.  Everything in it is so organized!!!  I thought I had a tiny kitchen.  I don't. I have a very poorly designed kitchen!  So our project for this weekend is to make a wall mounted spice rack, to free up a drawer and to use an otherwise useless space of wall.

The next project will be to figure out how to hang things from the ceiling.  Because we seriously lack counter space and storage space, but the kitchen has very high ceilings!  So there is a lot of unused vertical space.  Now we just have to figure out how to make use of that.

Then we need to clear out the bedroom we are using as "storage" so that I can turn it into my new pantry space!!  Oh kitchen, I have such amazing plans for you.....