My Ever Changing Taste Buds

I am not a picky person by any means. Put it in front of me and I will eat it. Of course there are exceptions to this, things that I just CAN NOT tolerate eating, like organs or tea.

I have noticed that my taste buds are always changing though. I often crave food items that I do not like, take a few bites and then say to myself "UCKKKKK never again!" Sometimes on rare occasions I take a few bites and think to myself "ZOMG! why didn't I like this before?!" but this is very rare lol. In the past this has happened with peanut butter and chocolate both of which I used to dislike. Recently I started liking cheesecake as well! This is a big one because I used to HATE cheesecake and now I love it. My taste buds just decided one day that cheesecake is the best thing ever! I do not know if the fact that I'm pregnant has anything to do with it but I suppose it is possible. Anthony says its because I'm pregnant and Bear likes cheesecake :]

Now you may be wondering, what inspired me to write this blog post. I will admit this is a pretty random topic to post about. The reasoning behind this post: TURKEY!

Thanksgiving just past and lots of turkey was eaten by lots of people, myself included. I had turkey from two different houses, made by two different people, of two different cultures. The first was a Puerto Rican and the second was a Moroccan. Both turkeys were good and I ate my whole portion, they were both prepared the traditional way. A few days later however, I came to realize that turkey... is bland. It seems like a sad excuse for its much more tasty cousin the chicken. Or in case of turkey bacon, the pig. I have always liked turkey, but I have never preferred turkey. I don't think there was ever a time that I said to myself "Hey, I want to cook some turkey!" It just seems like it is generally bland and flavorless and gets dried out really easily. People really only cook turkey around the holidays as well, I wonder why... maybe because turkey just isn't that tasty. Or maybe because it takes like 9 hours.... lol. Never the less, I have had some very good turkey sandwiches and some killer roasted turkey, but like most foods I think that was just a situation where it was cooked and put together really well.

Now, I have added turkey to my list of things I would rather not eat. I do not despise it however, so if someone puts it in front of me, you bet I will still eat it. But I will not probably not be buying any turkey or cooking any for that matter either, other than the occasional turkey sandwich.

I wonder if my taste buds will change again by next Thanksgiving... HMMM :o

Muffin Tin Monday: Thanksgiving Leftovers

Ok, so I will admit, the only thing that was actually from Thanksgiving in the MTM was the turkey. I actually made the mashed potatoes and green beens when I made the muffin tin meal. :]

In this muffin tin meal: chopped turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and vanilla yogurt with sprinkles

I finally got my camera up and running! I was being lazy when taking the picture though because I didn't want the food to get cold ;p I think it is still better than my cell pics though.

P.S. These stars do not hold much, that's why there are so many. This was not that much food at all (for an adult) if would probably be a lot for a child though.

Click here for more information on MTM and Muffin Tin Meals.

"The Best Lemon Bars" Recipe

Happy Thanksgiving! I figured that Anthony and I would be super busy today and I would not get the time to write a post for today, so this is a post I actually wrote last week. And since it's Thursday, I decided to do a recipe with a mini review.

About a month ago my sister and I went to the flea market to pick up some green tomatoes to make fried green tomatoes (Those were FANTASTIC  one day I will post that recipe as well). While at the flea market, we had lots of fun, we even ate a huge smoked turkey leg, and it was absolutely beautiful outside. When were in the produce section buying the tomatoes I found a great deal for lemons and limes, and I have been wanting to make some lemon bars for a while, so I bought a few and headed home to look for a recipe.

I found one on allrecipes.com that looked pretty good and decided to give it a try and I am SO glad I did because these were the BEST lemon bars I have ever had! And I made them too, so it was a win win.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 lemons, squeezed (I doubled this amount when I made my bars)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, blend together softened butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and golden. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice. Pour over the baked crust.
4. Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven. The bars will firm up as they cool. For a festive tray, make another pan using limes instead of lemons and adding a drop of green food coloring to give a very pale green. After both pans have cooled, cut into uniform 2 inch squares and arrange in a checker board fashion.

My lemon and lime bars.

When I made my bars, I cut this whole recipe in half, and made one half with lemons and one half with limes. I also added a few drops of yellow food coloring to the lemon bars and a few drops of green to the lime ones. I added a finishing touch of powdered sugar on top as well.

These turned out SUPER yummy. The lemon bars were very good they had perfect amount of tartness but were still sweet at the same time. The crust was a perfect consistency as well, good and buttery. 

The lime bars were yummy as well, but I think that the lime bars needed more lime, I doubled the amount of lime juice in mine, so I used two limes squeezed for just half the above recipe, I think because limes are smaller than lemons, this may be why more would be needed to create a bar that is as flavorful as the lemon. If I were to do it again, I would put three limes, squeezed in. When eating the lime bars alone they are great, but when eating them with the lemon bars, I could tell how much more flavor the lemon had.

I cant wait to make these again!