MK's Food Ramblings

Day 16: A favorite food

I have been procrastinating on this entry. Favorite food??? I realize that the point of the exercise is creativity and there really is no right or wrong way to answer the challenge but favorite food? Can there be an interesting favorite food blog post? OK yes there can be -- just not written by me.

I even discussed this with Chad ahead of time which I haven't done with any other challenge posts (I let him be as surprised as you!) because I was annoyed. Food is very situational and to pick one of my favorites seems kind of boring and impossible. Whether picking a very specific item Sizzle Pi T-Rex pizza or deciding between Mexican and Indian - my tastes change based on the day and the moment.

I looked at Chad and scrunched my face and used a weird voice and said "one of my favorite foods is buttercream icing and vanilla cake. Now let the oooing and ahhing over the interesting blog post begin." I sensed he was not amused and I said "I can't think of a funny post related to a favorite food." He said it didn't have to be funny. I said but it should be interesting.

He suggested trying nostalgia. OK...memories of food...hhhmmm...Peach Nehi comes to mind. Loved Peach Nehi. Makes me think of summers with my aunt in Claremore, OK. My mom made whole wheat pizza most every Friday growing up -- I liked that. My mom also made fried spaghetti that was definitely a favorite.

But my childhood is tainted by the heath food kick my mom went on when I was little. I do not remember when it actually started or when it stopped but it feels like my whole childhood was about no sugar, no salt, no white flour, and did I say no sugar??? We ate NutriGrain cereal for breakfast i.e. bran flakes, had GNC peanut butter on whole wheat bread for lunch, carob covered bananas for snack, and salad with radishes for dinner. If you don't know what GNC peanut butter is let me enlighten you. It is smashed peanuts and that is about it. When you open the container there is about an inch of oil at the top and you have to stir it before you use it. And you don't know what carob is? Fake chocolate. Fake not sweet chocolate. Gross fake not sweet chocolate.

Our Christmas stockings had oranges and apples. Every kid's Christmas dream.

When I would stay the night with my friend Kat, I would use any excuse to eat cereal there -- she had ALL the good ones - Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, Cookie Crisp. Even more pathetic, I would give my little brother money and he would go to the store near our house and buy sugar cereals. We would hide it under my bed so my mom wouldn't find it.

I remember only two trips to McDonalds from my childhood - once in the summer before first grade for my party and once in 5th grade for a field trip. However, eating out was very important to my dad. He felt it forced Jamey and me to learn how to behave in public. We went to nicer places like this restaurant called Plums down the road or another restaurant on a hill - I thought it was called Shadow Mountain but I think that is actually a rehab facility -- where I have a vivid memory of Jamey just tilting his head back and going to sleep - mouth open and all. I dreaded these nights. They took forever and the adults never talked to the kids. I would get so excited when the coffee arrived because I knew it meant dinner was almost over and we could go home.

My mom also packed green bell peppers in my lunch. Come on Mom! What on earth were you thinking??? They made my locker stink so badly every day and they were warm and wilty by lunch time -- do you really think I ate them?? You would have thought I would have learned to pull them out before school and throw them away instead I just moved all my other stuff in to another locker and kept my lunch in the original.

When I was on my own after college, I actually started buying jars of creamy peanut butter and having a REAL PB&J as often as possible. Not because I was poor but because Jif creamy peanut butter tasted like heaven. One of my roommates was put off by my peanut butter habit but she drank pickle juice with salt so I feel like there was no room for judging.

I am not a big seafood gal either. What sealed the deal is when we were in Italy the summer of 2004 we stopped in the Cinque Terre area and had dinner in a beautiful Italian coast town. Being on the coast, the dishes were all seafood. I must also mention I was about 8 weeks pregnant and nauseous hit randomly but hard. So we order our meals and they waiter sets them in front of us -- Chad's fish and my prawns were not just whole but had the eyeballs and antenna still attached. Oh my gosh I am gagging just writing about this. UGH UGH UGH -- Chad is lucky I did not vomit on his shoes. I just haven't been able to really do seafood since. I also don't eat Subway -- not because of fish but because of the same trip and morning sickness -- ick!

It seems I have turned this into Day 16: MK's Least Favorite Food. Let me see if I can salvage this post. Other than seafood, there isn't a particular type of food I stay away from other than maybe exotic -- I haven't eaten bugs or brains or cow's liver and have no need to. I craved cookies and cream shakes when pregnant with Zachary and store bought in the gallon jug chocolate milk with Rylee. Still can do the shakes but I don't care for chocolate milk. OK OK OK -- trying to stay with the positive:

I could go with the cheesy answer - one of my favorite foods is anything I eat with my family or anything Chad cooks but that really isn't the mood I am in tonight.

Let's try this - I love food and despite my long list of dislikes, I really am flexible. I have a humongous sweet tooth and love breakfast for dinner. Spinach dip and chips and queso are my favorite snacks. I love food from the east coast (talking to you Espinozas) everything bagel w/ egg and cheese, taylor ham, jersey subs, Texas wieners, Sizzle Pi, and disco fries. But can you beat TexMex?? That is a tough call. Tell you what, the next time you want to grab dinner together, I would love to go but you have to pick the place.