New food.

I went out on a pretty big limb for this new food this month.

Well, ok, maybe not a big limb but I did try something I probably wouldn’t have ever tried if no one was making me try it. Which is what happened in this case. My friend has been asking me about Pho. She loves it. I’ve never had it. So she’s been trying to get me to go for a while. So finally we got our opportunity to go out for Pho.

For those of you that have never had Pho let me tell you about it. It’s a soup. A filling soup, but still it’s a soup. It’s broth, noodles, and meat. And then there’s things for you to add to your soup if you want (bean spouts, limes, some leaf of some sort – we never did figure out what that was, and there was one other thing on the plate I don’t remember). The basic concept is simple – broth + noodles then your choice of meat. I mean, they have standard soups like you’d order at most restaurants with different flavors and what not but it’s chicken, beef, or something nasty. I can’t remember what they called it but it’s like stomach or something. VOM. That should have been my first clue. Eating at a place that will put STOMACH in your soup should never happen.

So we order. I got what Heather got. Beef. Which is weird cause I don’t like beef, but she freaking LOVES this so I figured it had to be at least ok. And it wasn’t terrible. The flavor was off. And I couldn’t figure out what about it was making me dislike it. The broth and noodles were ok. The broth had that weird-ish flavor too, but it wasn’t a bad flavor it just wasn’t great. I added some lime to my soup. Basically figuring on the fact that if it’s on the table it is probably meant to go in the soup and would therefore enhance the flavor. No. It did not. I definitely tasted the lime in contrast to that other flavor I can’t describe. The lime just didn’t do what I was hoping it would. I didn’t add anything else because it wasn’t inedible so I didn’t want to just throw crap in the bowl and make it taste bad. I don’t think that I would get this particular soup again. I might try Pho again and go for the chicken soup next time, but I don’t think it’ll be one of my “go to” foods that’s for sure.

Try new things.

I will say, this month, I was impressed with myself for trying new things (#36).

I tried couscous. Which I heard I would NOT like at all because of the texture. So I was afraid before even giving it a shot because I am a total texture eater and if it feels funny I won't eat it even if I like the taste. Like hashbrowns. Love taste, hate texture, don't eat. So I feared that this side dish Steven had so lovingly prepared with his amazing dinner would go to waste because I would hate it and no one would eat the leftovers.

Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.

Yeah, I loved it. LOVED. The texture? Not weird. Well, not to me. The taste? Awesome. Totally going to be buying that to keep around in the house.


I also tried Pomegranate Soda. It was not so yum. I'd never had pomegranate before so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a little bitter. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. Probably not something I'll try again.

#36 - Try New Food. MORE food.

I’ve had a very adventurous palate this month. Along with the pineapple soda and strawberry rhubarb preserves I had earlier this month I’ve tried 3 new things. I went back to Wegmans for another kind of soda – this time mandarin. Not as good as the pineapple and I probably wouldn’t try that again. I was hoping for a sweeter orange soda and that’s about what I got, unfortunately it just wasn’t all that great. I was really disappointed by that because I really love orange soda so I was really banking on the fact that I would love this too. Wrong. Big fat wrong.






I also got to try Sake for the first time. It was not good. We went out to dinner to Benihanna and Steven got the Sake sampler. It came with 3 different types, I only tried one type because I decided that I do not like Sake when served by itself. At all. He asked if I wanted to try the other 2 but I passed. I did get a Sangria drink that had Sake in it and that was quite yummy. Moral? Sake alone = nasty, but combined with fruity stuff = delish!

Steven, on the other hand, enjoyed his Sake :)

I think by far the most adventurous thing I have tried this month was duck. That’s right, the animal that goes quack quack. I’ve never eaten it and never really intended to try it. I kind of got tricked. Well, ok I might have been slightly inebriated and just ate it when it was offered. My friend had ordered Chinese food late one night and it looked yummy. Almost before I knew what was happening I was shoveling a piece into my mouth. I suppose this 101 list has really helped me out because before I made a promise to myself to try new things I would have been like yeah no freaking way am I eating anything like that. But now, I just ate it. I think the alcohol helped, but either way I totally ate it no questions asked. It wasn’t terrible and I’d probably order it for myself. I’d like to try it cooked other ways because I know it would probably be better when cooked in some other fashion – although I don’t know what those other fashion’s are but I hear they are better than Chinese food.

#36 - Try new food

So far this month I have tried 2 new things. Well, ok one was 1/2 new but I'll get to that.

First, I was wandering around Wegmans looking for this wasabi sauce we like and was having a hard time finding it. While in the International aisle I stumbled upon soda with interesting flavors. Being adventurous I decided I'd be trying one. I went with pineapple soda. I figured I like pineapple and I like soda so what's the harm. Plus it was like 69 cents or something retarded cheap so I figured worst case I'd be out less than a dollar. It was not a waste of money at all because it was so yummy! Not too sweet, which I was kind of afraid of, and no hint of being bitter either. Next time I'm at Wegmans for lunch I'll be stopping by getting another one...and possibly some other flavor...



On to the second thing. My Father-in-Law brings home some interesting food sometimes and a couple of the new foods I've tried for this list (and in life in general) have been because of him. This was no different. He came home from the store with some strawberry-rhubarb preserves. Interesting right? I LOVE strawberry preserves/jelly/jam/etc but I had never had rhubarb anything so I figured I'd give it a go. Mostly it just tasted like strawberry but a little sweeter which I suppose makes sense because my father-in-law did say that rhubarb tastes like sweet celery. I might actually have to try rhubarb one day...

#36 – Try new foods

I am seriously proud of myself for all the food I am trying thanks to this list. I would have not tried half the stuff that I have over this (almost) year if it weren’t for this list. Because, let’s face it, I am not brave when it comes to food (heck my food can’t even touch!) so trying new stuff is a big step in the world of food for me.

This month was apparently all about trying new foods. I had empanadas and apple butter while we were in Lancaster. Empanadas in Lancaster, PA…Amish country…that’s right. We went to this huge awesome flea market and there was a cart selling food – we were starving (why we don’t know the place we had been before was giving out free samples of stuff and Steve and I ran around and ate everything we could plus lunch and a snack). So we got beef and cheese empanadas from a cart and they were freaking awesome. I had apple butter (which Steve say’s I’ve had before but I do not think so which is why it appears on this blog) at Plain and Fancy – a family style restaurant (talk about another food experience that freaked me the hell out). It was awesome. Seriously I have been missing out my whole life. Not that my parents eat it so I really have only been missing out for as long as I’ve been able to buy things for myself. I even bought some to bring home.

The pumpkin butter is kind of a funny story – well, I think so anyway. On Thanksgiving my mom asked me if I wanted some apple butter with dinner and of course I did. She pulled some out of the cupboard and I was super stoked. I ate it with dinner and thought it tasted different, but they’re all homemade so I chalked it up to a different recipe. I even checked out the ingredients and noticed that it had pumpkins in it but didn’t really pay much attention to the fact that nowhere on the ingredients did it say apple anything. After dinner when I was clearing the table I actually looked at the label and lo and behold it was pumpkin butter. Which, by the way, is equally as awesome as apple.

I also branched out and ate cranberry sauce (at both my parents and Steve’s parents – turns out I like whole cranberry sauce better not for anything more than it has whole cranberries in it). And also I ate sweet potatoes. I always take from this dish, but ONLY the marshmallows and I am very careful to seriously only get the marshmallows and none of the sweet potatoes. This year, I was brave and plopped a spoonful on my plate and um yeah I have been missing out forever. I even ate a 2^nd helping at Steve’s parent’s house for dinner that night!

mmm....food!

I love food. Love, love, love it.

But, I am an extremely picky eater. I generally do not try new things. Even if I think they might taste ok I would rather be safe than sorry that I put some nasty food in my mouth!

With this list I am trying really hard to try new things - from food to experiences. And I am finding out that I do like different things. (go figure!)

#36 - Try new food once a month

In September I experienced a new vegetable - Kole Robe. I would say it has a similar taste to cauliflower. It was really good. I was a little weary because I had never even heard of it, but with my list in mind I went ahead and tried it. It is apparently hard to find around here, which is awfully sad since it is so good.

In October I actually have tried two new foods. First, fried oreos. Oh yeah, you read that right. Fried oreos. They were fucking amazing. Oreos dipped in funnel cake batter, fried, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. AMAZING. I wish I had some right now as I type this. We went to the Ashburn Villagefest (a local fair put on in our community) and they had them. I've heard of them and have been kind of weary, because I wasn't sure what they really were. When I hear fried I think fried foods. I never expected fried, in this context, to mean funnel cake batter. I don't know who came up with this idea but I'm pretty sure they're a genius.

The second thing I tried this month is Laddu (or Laddoo). This is an Indian sweet that is often prepared on festivals or household events (ie weddings) or given as prasad at Hindu Temples. It is made out of flour and a variety of other ingredients and formed into balls (thank you Wikipedia). A lady I work with is married to an Indian man and she brought these in one day. I was expecting an actual sweet because when you say something like "this is an Indian sweet" and use the word sweet to define the object you think it will be sweet. It was kind of sweet, but it is by no means an American sweet. It wasn't terrible, but like I said it wasn't sweet and since that is what I was expecting I was slightly disapointed. I'm not sure how to describe it because I don't think I've had anything like it before. Its one of those things you're going to have to try for yourself. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy these things again, but if they were given to me I'd eat them again.

#39 - Go Wine Tasting

So recently I have discovered that I actually enjoy the taste of wine. Not all wine, I do not like red wine, but white wine is pretty yummy. One of the things I had hoped to accomplish with this list is to go to a wine tasting. And I have successfully accomplished that.

Our friends band was having a show at Tarara Winery in August, which sadly was their last show, but I did get to experience a wine tasting. And boy was it good. We tasted a couple wines, and I'm not going to lie the last 2 were pretty damn hard to get through. I really enjoyed the first wine, which ended up being the wine we drank all night. I can't quite remember how many bottles we went through, but there were 4 or 5 of us sharing a bottle so we basically got a glass out of each bottle that was bought.

I really hope to go to more wine tastings, but now that its getting colder I doubt that will be happening. Perhaps next summer we'll make an attempt to hit up some wine tastings.

I intend to add pictures to this post, but for some reason the photos and the blog are not getting along so those will have to come later...

My poor, neglected blog

This summer has been VERY busy to say the least. I was just looking at the calendar and realized that there has not been ONE weekend since the middle of May that we haven't had something to do. Geez.

Not only has my blog been very neglected, but so had my 101 list. Its a shame. I haven't made a meal in like 2 months (ok, 3 if you count July because I do not see it happening). No letters to my brother (lots of calls though!), no dates...the list goes on that's for sure. I'm trying to make a decent effort to accomplish things, but the time is just not there.

Here are some recent ccomplishments that don't really need their own posts (these are for June and July).

#36 - Try a new food once a month
In June, I tried 2 new (kinds of) food. Vietnamese food and Indian food. The Vietnamese food was super yummy. I had a chicken and noodle dish of which the name escapes me, but it was amazing. Its definitely going to be something I get more of.

I also got to try Indian food. At a buffet. Now, me and buffets we're BFFs. Except when it comes to Indian. I do NOT like Indian food AT ALL. I was very disapointed to be at a buffet actually come out hungry.

In July, I tried some Chicken Laab. And it was awesome. When we order Thai food at work I pretty much stick with my Drunken Noodles or Pad Thai. Both very yummy. This girl at work ordered Chicken Laab the last time we got Thai and very graciously let me try hers. It was awesome. I'm now going to struggle with my orders when we get Thai food. But that's ok, because I'm expanding my tastebuds :)

In the way of Credit Cards for #53 we are doing awesome.

In June we paid of Best Buy and in July we paid off Macys! Both were huge reliefs. I mean, they really all are, but now we're down to 3. THREE. We only have to pay off THREE more cards. Its freaking awesome. I can't believe that in January we had 11 to pay off and we've already paid off 8. That's right folks, we've paid off EIGHT cards. I can not wait to have them all gone. I never thought we'd make this kind of progress but we are really kicking some credit card ass.

I think that's it for this post. I've got a few more to get to tonight. Happy reading :)