Let's Dish!
Thursday, March 15, 2007 Personal growth... food growth, that is.

So I'm a food coward, right.

What I mean is, if something sounds unusual, I tend to stay away from it. If it has things in it that I've never tried, I tend to stay away from it. If it has things in it that I even remotely think that I may not like, such as curry, for example, I stay far, far away from it. However, I have determined to change that. I decided some months ago that I would be more experimental in my food choices. However, saying it and doing it are two different things.

Anyway, trying new things. I actually did that the other day. I went out to lunch a couple of days ago and we ended up at Applebee's, which I have a "meh" relationship with and can generally take or leave. But that's beside the point.

I perused the menu and realized that I could actually go for a burger, which I usually do not have when I eat out. There were two new burgers on the menu that actually sounded interesting, and as I sat there debating which one to order, I decided to go for the "riskier" one since it sounded more interesting. It had pesto on it, which I've never had, so that pretty much sealed the deal since I was trying to be more experimental. I'd always wanted to try pesto anyway, so why not now, right? However, being quite inexperienced with pesto, I was slightly hesitant when I placed my order. But again, I'm knocking down "food fear" walls, right? So I went for it.

The burger I ordered is the Bruschetta Burger. It's a Tyler Florence recipe. Now, I have made some Tyler recipes in the past and some were good and some were not so good, so I had a tad bit of concern, wondering if this was going to be one of the bad ones. Well, there was no need to worry. The burger was soooo good. I was actually quite surprised. Here's what it is:

Bruschetta Burger

"This 100% Angus burger is juicy, robust - and like no other. It's crowned with a zesty pesto sauce and fresh bruschetta mix and set on thick wedges of mozzarella. I serve it all between grilled focaccia bread for a delicious crunch. My crispy garlic fries sprinkled with shaved Parmesan complete this new classic."

So anyway, this burger was really, really good and I'm glad I gave it a try. I loved the pesto. It was really garlicky and the flavors melded well. And now having had a very positive first experience with pesto, I'm now trying to think of excuses to make my own. I need to figure out what one does with pesto. And I shall. Also, the garlic fries were great too. I'd never had garlic fries before, which was also a motivation for ordering this burger, so that was a new experience as well. So yay for me for trying new food combinations!

Step one in my attempt to be more adventurous in my food choices was a success. Yes, it was a small baby step, but a good one, I would say.

Anyway, I'm hoping to bake tomorrow if I don't get trapped into cleaning. I've got this urge to make cinnamon rolls for some reason. Goodness knows they're not terribly interesting, and I don't even love them, but for some reason, some odd, odd reason, I feel the need to make them. I think it's because I saw a recipe a few months back that interested me. I think that recipe has finally started to gnaw at my brain. The thing is, I don't feel like kneading dough, so that may keep me from doing it. The truth of the matter is, I am terrible at kneading dough. For some reason, I can't do it. I don't know why. I've tried and tried and tried. I've read pictorial instructions that show how to do it. I've watched videos that show how to do it. And still I fail at this most simple, and yet necessary part of bread baking.

So something has to happen here. I have to get this down. If I do make the rolls tomorrow, perhaps tomorrow will be the day when I actually learn to knead dough correctly. I mean, stranger things have happened, right?

Wish me luck!

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