top 10 tuesday: overcoming my food pickiness

I'm not very happy with this fact about myself, but I won't lie to you. I am a picky eater.  There are certain foods I've always hated, some I've found my stomach can't handle, and other foods that I've learned over time I just plain don't like.  I know many people "live to eat" but most days I just "eat to live."  I did hear once that your taste buds change every seven years, so I know that I need to be giving some second chances to my many much-hated foods. 

I have actually been conquering some of this, and I'm pretty proud of my progress.  Some of it was overcome just by trying new recipes, especially those submitted by family and friends for my bridal shower cookbook.  B challenged me to try all of the entree dishes submitted, so I also have him (who eats almost anything, usually with hot sauce on top) to thank for pushing me.  I will say, however, that even though I eat these things now, I don't necessarily LOVE them.  But most of them are nutritious, so they are now allowed to take up a worthy spot on my plate.


Here are my 10 Foods I Wouldn't Eat A Year Ago That I Now Eat:

10.  Peas.  I still can't eat them straight, but I can throw them into a casserole or alfredo pasta and I'm good to go.

9.  Pepperoni on pizza.  I still pick off some of it because I'm a margherita gal at heart, but it's not terrible!

8.  Bell peppers.  Something about the texture always got me with these before.  I've also loathed spicy foods in general, which these usually complement so I've had reason stay away.  But I do have a bell pepper plant growing on my patio this year, which should force me to figure out ways to use them.

7.  Stir Fry.  It's pretty obvious I've had a huge vegetable aversion for a while now, so this was a long time coming.  I have no idea what I ate all those other Lenten Fridays from years past, back when I only had myself to worry about (probably PB&J, knowing me).

6.  Tofu.  I think I have Lent to blame for this.  I was trying to find more vegetarian recipes, which led to trying tofu.  I didn't even know where it was in the grocery store.  The other times I've had tofu, it was just bland and nasty.  But if you do it up right, it's not too bad for a stir fry dish.  I'm also planning on making this dessert, which uses silken tofu.

5.  Zucchini.  My family didn't serve this to me growing up.  Mom grew yellow squash in the garden, so that's what made it on the table.  Hated the yellow stuff and still do.  But green squash?  Goes nice in my veggie lasagna.

4.  Salsa (sort of).  This is thanks to my Mexican Pasta Skillet, so I'll now use it in a recipe.  I still can't stand it as a condiment and eat my tortilla chips straight or dunked in cheese dip (only cheese, no extra heat).

Peaches and whipped cream have always been on my okay list.

3.  Chili.  Fact: I was dragged to a chili cook-off one night in college and didn't eat any of it.  My group put me in the pie-eating contest instead, at which I failed miserably but had fun doing.  This past year, I made my friend's chili recipe (complete with secret ingredient) from the bridal shower cookbook back during football season.  It tasted amazing, but it also had me running to the bathroom that first time (ugh).  I've made it a few times since, and it's still amazing.  Thankfully, my stomach has started to agree with my palate.

2.  Red Beans.  Obviously, an extension from the chili.  I did make a Mexican Lasagna that used black beans, but I hated it.  I'm sticking with red kidney beans for now and we'll see where it takes me.  I need to learn how to make killer red beans and rice before we leave the Gulf Coast.

1.  Bacon.  This is probably B's fault, but it also came out of my love of "Breakfast for Dinner."  My first foray into cooking bacon was pretty much a disaster.  But I've found that I like turkey bacon better than the pork crap (healthier, too).  This is my #1 because it's my favorite on the list!

There's still a much much longer list of foods I don't like and still won't eat, but at least I've started making a dent or two.

top ten tuesday: best things i've won by mostly luck

I've been a lucky girl.  I just won my second blog giveaway last week, thanks to Flip Flops and Combat Boots.  So I thought today I'd share some other cool stuff I've won in the past.

10. A jar of jelly beans.  This was the first thing I ever won, and I was probably 7 or 8 years old.  You had to guess how many jelly beans were in the jar, and my guess came closest (which is hilarious, because I've always been pretty terrible at estimating).  I actually hated jelly beans, so my family benefited.  But the jar was my favorite part (it had a hinged lid and a pretty neat closing mechanism).  We used it for many years until it finally broke when I was a teenager.

9.  Hair stuff for a baby girl.  This was the first thing I won from a blog (Confessions of a Sailor's Wife).  The hair stuff came from Keelan's Krafts, and I of course gave it all away.  I visited my friend and her newborn, and the hair bow instantly transformed her into a little girly girl.  Too cute.  I gave some of the stuff to my newborn niece too, but I haven't seen any pictures yet.

8.  Candles that smell like mulled cider.  Back when I did the Extreme Makeover build, the company that was providing the lighting for the house did a Facebook giveaway.  I ended up winning another "guess the number" type of game (more of a counting/detail-based though), but they wouldn't tell me what I won until I showed up at their business.  So I hiked it up to Shades of Light in Milton, praying it wasn't just gonna be a coupon since we rent and have no need for lighting fixtures.  But I was pleasantly surprised to receive two nice autumnal candles.  Their showroom was pretty cool, too.

7.  Movies and CD's.  I can't always remember where I got things, but I do own certain movies that I have absolutely certainty I would never buy.  One was Crash, I remember that.  The others, hmm . . . I'd have to look through everything.  And I might have given some away.  My most recent win was the Family Movie Night package (contains 3 movies), which is what I won from Flip Flops and Combat Boots.

6.  Money on scratch-off lottery tickets.  My family likes to give these to each other on holidays and birthdays.  I won $7 or so from my birthday ones last year, and at Christmas I won $13.  My family doesn't mind buying the tickets, because the Georgia Lottery paid my entire tuition all four years of college.  As long as they don't spend more than $20,000 or so, we've already come out ahead.  (My dad won $500 on a scratch-off once, by the way.)

5. Something at a bridal show I wasn't present for and will never know.  I'm sure it was fantastic, and my mother can take all the blame.  Basically, she went to a bridal show in GA (where my wedding was happening because it's my home) with one of her friends and friend's daughter, also getting married.  She put my name and non-spam email address down for just about everything (argh, I'm still on some of those darn lists!).  She and her crew left before the big drawings at the end.  I had gone to one of these in VA and there were some big-time prizes at the end--trips, nights in hotels, hundred-dollar gift baskets, etc.--but you had to be present with ID to claim them.  Well, apparently a gal I went to high school with was also there.  She Facebooked me the following day, asking what I won because she'd heard my name called.  All that said, Mom should've just put her own name (and my spam email address) down and stayed until the end.  Oh well.

4.  One hour in a limo.  This I did win from a bridal show, but not the fancy one.  The limo company was in Virginia, so obviously that wasn't going to help our wedding.  I decided to use it anyway, since neither B or I had ever been in a limo before.  We used it for B's birthday, and we just told the driver to take us around Norfolk for an hour.  It was kind of odd, to tell the truth.  We had the driver drop us off in front of an ice cream place in Ghent.  Neither of us wanted ice cream though, so we just walked back to B's apartment.  That was probably our last limo ride ever, and we're quite okay with that.

3.  A bottle of Curve perfume.  This one has a story too, and probably involved the least amount of luck and the most amount of skill.  Back when the Oxygen network first aired, I was in high school.  They had some afternoon variety-ish show that had a gameshow segment, and you could play along in their chatroom online.  The questions were darn easy for anyone who had ever paid attention in school, so of course my 4.0 GPA and I won.  You could only win once a month or so.  I won at least three times, and I remember getting the Curve perfume for winning.  I had actually never owned or even worn perfume before this.  I still have it (10 years later!), and it's still my favorite.

2.  $100 off of one month's rent.  The apartment complex that my roommate and I lived at in Virginia Beach (before I was married, obviously) would occasionally do some contests.  They did one around Christmas that both of us entered.  I believe roomie won a giftcard to Wal-Mart, and I won the $100 off January rent.  I split it with her, of course.  The complex B and I live in now does occasional giveaways, so hopefully we'll win the Valentine's Dinner I put us in for!

1.  11th-row tickets to see Michael Bublé in concert.  Yes, I already had tickets to the Norfolk show and had to drive to Richmond for this, but it was so worth it!  This remains one of the best concerts I've attended (read my review if you haven't).  Thank you, Nordstrom for $400 worth of tickets.

Have you had any lucky wins?

top 10 highlights of 2010

We didn't end up doing the cards with a top 10 list, but I decided to make one anyway.  Since we spent more than 6 months apart this year, I have a few extra highlights of mine that I had to leave off to balance it out and make it an "us" list.

1. Celebrating our first anniversary in October
2. B returning from the deployment in August 
3. Cat being Matron of Honor in her sister's wedding in June
4. Exploring Pensacola and trying new classes at the gym together
5. Thanksgiving trip to Georgia
6. B leaving the submarine and starting his new job in Pensacola
7. Cat and B reuniting in Scotland in May, halfway through the deployment
8. B having the chance to explore Spain, Norway, and Portugal during his deployment
9. Cat's volunteer work at Norfolk Botanical Garden
10. Cat donating her hair for the third time

Here's the card we chose.  Happy Holidays!

top 10: peach state celebs

Time for another Top 10 Tuesday!  Feel free to join in the fun and link up by clicking this button right here.

Today's list is celebrating my home state of Georgia.  I present with you my Top 10 Fave Celebs from Georgia!  (The "Still Currently Alive" edition)

10.  The B-52s - from Athens (the BEST college town in the world)  I LOVE their quirky music and fun dance-able songs.  And the hair, gotta love the hair.
9.  Julia Roberts - from Smyrna (suburb NW of Atlanta).  How can you not love the original Pretty Woman?
8. OutKast - based in East Point (south Atlanta).  Six Grammy Awards and the reason I sing about being "so Fresh and so clean" when I get out of the shower
7.  Jeff Foxworthy - from Hapeville (Atlanta's southside, near East Point), and attended Georgia Tech.  I grew up on "You might be a redneck" jokes.  I don't think I am one though.
6.  Alton Brown - current Marietta (another ATL suburb!) resident and holds a degree in Drama from UGA.  I love his "Good Eats" show; it takes quite the talent to make the science of eating entertaining!

5.  Ty Pennington - from Marietta.  Hottest carpenter on television, hands down . . . and I may get the chance to meet him in a few weeks as I will be volunteering on the build for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition when it comes to Pensacola!
4. Herschel Walker - from Wrightsville (somewhere kinda in the middle?).  Heisman Trophy winner who helped my beloved Georgia Bulldogs win a national championship (over B's Notre Dame) in 1980, then went on to a pretty decent pro career.
3.  Ryan Seacrest - from Dunwoody (used to be part of Atlanta, became its own city in 2008), attended the same UGA Journalism School that I did (but he left before the degree to make it big).  Say what you want about his hair or sexuality, but this guy is one of the hardest-working in Hollywood.
2. Teresa Edwards - from Cairo (in the SW corner of the state, and locals pronounce it KAY-roh).  One of the best female basketball players of all time; she attended my beloved UGA (where her #5 is now retired) and played in FIVE Olympics!
1.  S. Truett Cathy - from Eatonton (sorta between Atlanta and Augusta).  Founder of Chick-Fil-A, my first job and still one of my favorite places to eat!  And I actually LOVE that they're closed on Sundays; it takes quite a bit of character to stick to your Christian values like that while simultaneously embracing the capitalistic "American Dream."

Some Honorable mentions:  Butch Walker, Trisha Yearwood, and Paula Deen

Who's your favorite Georgia celeb?

top 10 tuesday: guilty tv pleasures

We're back (for good this time) in Pensacola, and luckily had no major travel issues this time around. Already loving our stay at Navy Gateway Inn better than our 2-week stint at the Navy Lodge here, even if we don't have the stovetop or a "breakfast-to-go" bag every morning.  Now I need to figure out what to do with my time while B works.  Maybe I'll even make my momma (and my alma mater) proud and look for one of them job-things.

But in the meantime, here are my Top 10 of My Guilty Pleasures on Television:

10. Say Yes to the Dress.  I used to watch this to justify how much dough we spent on my wedding dress (drop in the bucket next to these girls), but now I like to watch it for the family dynamics and the fashion.  And now there's an Atlanta version with prissy southern gals that reminds me of college.

9. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with Meredith Vieira. Love me some quiz shows, especially while working out.

8. Sid the Science Kid. I don't have kids, and I didn't discover this show with the help of a child. I needed some background noise, didn't have cable, and this comes on PBS. And I totally learned who Ignaz Semmelweis was thanks to Sid and his grandma!

7.  19 Kids and Counting.  They may have taken things a bit to the extreme, but you have to respect a gigantic family with no debt at all and well-adjusted kids.  Plus, I love Johannah.

6.  WordGirl.  This is one of those kids' shows that adults can watch and pick up on jokes that kids don't get.  Fun for the whole family, and your kid will have the best vocab on the block after watching.

5. Ace of Cakes. I hate the taste of fondant, but I love seeing what you can do with it.

4. What Not to Wear. 10 years ago, I would've been a good candidate for this one. I especially like when the nominee is a dude.

3.  Cats 101.  I love cats, and unfortunately, my husband is allergic.  But I can live vicariously through this show on Animal Planet which showcases different breeds.  

2.  Man vs. Food.  It's a game, it's grub.  So that's two of my favorite activities, and a dude who can actually win most of the time.  I can't even win the Saltine Challenge (6 Saltines in 1 minute, no water), but it sure is fun to try!

1.  Wipeout.  It's the same spills over and over again, yet I just can't get enough.  And the more I watch it, the more I want to be a contestant on it!

top 10: why i'm a horrible excuse for a southern belle

I had already planned on writing a Top 10 list for today's post, and come to find out, there's a blog-hop for that. Perfect!

So I spent the first 22 years of my life living in Georgia, then I spent my AmeriCorps year in Jacksonville, FL, now I'm 90 minutes away from the capital of the Confederacy, and soon to be in a part of Florida that, for all intents and purposes, should probably be considered part of Alabama.

But after all of those 26 years spent living beneath the Mason-Dixon Line, here are the Top 10 Reasons I Fail as a True Southerner:

10.  I hate sweet tea.  Actually, I loathe any type of tea.  Also, a true Southerner (with a capital S) wouldn't acknowlege that any other types of tea exist.
9.  My hair is not nearly big enough.
8.  I have never said, "Bless ya heart, sugah".  EVER.
7.  I don't own a cast-iron skillet, and I often cook with margarine (the horror!)
6.  I'm not sure I'd even recognize a magnolia tree, so you probably won't see me settin' under one waiting on my gentleman caller.
5.  I don't 'glisten,' I really do sweat.
4. My accent sucks.  It changes often, usually to the last one I heard.  Perhaps I'll get some southern twang back in Pensacola?
3.  No me gusta grits.
2.  I always forget to address people with "Sir" and "Ma'am"

And the #1 reason I fail as a true Southerner . . .
1.  My parents aren't actually Southerners.  Mom is from central Florida, and Dad is from upstate New York.  As they say, "If the cat had kittens in the oven, ya wouldn't call 'em biscuits."