Sunday, August 29, 2010

Tastebuds Conquered

When I was younger, I used to be the world's pickiest eater. Not only were there a ton of things I hated, but among those things were the typical things that even a picky child loves—pizza, cookies, brownies, etc. It didn't help that the two things I absolutely could not stand, no matter what—onions and tomatoes—were my mom's two favorite foods and included in dinner every single night. Needless to say I got very good at picking around even the smallest pieces of grody things in any meal. I had tried several times to start accepting more tastes, but to no avail. One thing I was open to, however, is trying new things. I would eat just about anything at least once, and love to try crazy things: emu, bison, chicken heart, quail eggs, octopus, eel, sea urchin reproductive organs, a live roly-poly, you name it.

But in the last few years, I've been becoming more and more infatuated with cooking, and have started to dream of attending cooking school and becoming a chef. Now as a chef, I decided, I probably should be willing to eat just about anything, or at least your run-of-the-mill onions and tomatoes. So I got right to work on learning to love (or at least stand) things that I had previously hated. My brother taught me to adore raw fish and rare meat by taking me out to a nice restaurant only if I would try it. The nice people at Benihana taught me to like shrimp, I mean how can you not like something when those amazingly talented chefs are throwing it into your open mouth? I began to like onions when my roommate, just days after we met, made me dinner and I just couldn't be rude and pick them out. I started eating olives because I was too lazy to say anything more detailed than "everything but tomatoes" when ordering at Subway.

Still those evasive tomatoes just could never become the slightest bit less repulsive to me. I figure it's because my mom always grew tomatoes in her garden, which means before I ever encountered a tomato, I encountered a tomato plant. And with tomato plants come tomato worms. Big, juicy, green caterpillars that smell exactly like tomatoes taste. Anytime I ate a tomato, this lovely creature would pop up in my subconscious and I just couldn't eat it. That is until today. I've been working up to this for months, years even, slowly learning to eat tomato sauce and increasingly larger chunks or slices, disguised in the middle of a delicious salad or In-N-Out burger. But today I finally did it. I ate a whole grape tomato and not only did I not hate it, I actually loved it! Boo-yah tastebuds, who's laughing now?

Friday, August 27, 2010

Things I Like to Take Pictures of ~ Leaves

I adore plants. I find them fascinating and stunning. Of course I love flowers as much as the next person, but there is so much beauty in the rest of the plant that often goes unnoticed. That's why I love taking pictures of leaves!













Thursday, August 26, 2010

Mixbook

After my trip to Zion's Camp, I put the pictures together to make a book for my grandparents. Zion's Camp is a beautiful place where I have so many memories. Sadly, my grandparents are going to have to leave it in a couple of months, after about 30 years of being the caretakers of this small piece of heaven on earth. I made this book so that they can bring Zion's Camp with them wherever they go and always remember it's beauty.

My New Room

I'm so excited to have a new room and a new place to start working on my hobbies. My source of inspiration for most of them in the next little while will be my lovely room, which my wonderful sister was kind enough to paint for me last week while I was away.




Didn't it turn out magnificently? She used my favorite colors—pink and orange–plus a little green to match the kiddos' room across the hall. She even hung up some of my pictures, I just love it!

In my new room I'll be able to practice refurbishing, interior design, sewing, cleaning, organizing, quilting (you may notice that the colors also match my quilt, which I have not worked on since you last saw it, I need to get to work!). I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I'm back!

Back to blogging. Back to a routine. Back to sanity. Back to reality. Back to hobbies. Back to kiddos. Back to RENO!!

Today my big sis picked up me and the last of my stuff and I'm now officially living in Reno. I am so excited to be her nanny/housekeeper/chef/anything-and-everything-she-needs. It's a perfect situation all around—I get to play house, which I love, and she gets to focus on studying like crazy to get a Master's in math (I know, genius, right?). Starting today I'll have plenty of things to do and to post about, so get ready, here I come!