Happy Thanksgiving!
We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with our usual big family dinner yesterday- although our number was reduced by two around the table because of something special that happened last week… my auntie had twins! Girls (Taylor and Alexa) and so so cute. So my uncle and aunt were unable to attend but we sent over a Thanksgiving dinner plate for them to have a delicious meal at the hospital. I am incredibly excited to have two little cousins to play with:)
We had a nice big feast: turkey, stuffing, sweet and sour meatballs, brussel sprouts, glazed carrots, homemade buns, and mashed potatoes (a fantastic recipe from Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Cookbook), followed by my mum’s heavenly apple pie and pumpkin pie. Very tasty.
As we all dug into the apple pie, the conversation turned to the question of if we had any cheddar cheese to eat with the pie. Apparently my grandpa used to always eat a slice of cheddar cheese with his apple pie. The idea of this never occurred to me before, although Macs and Spartan apples taste delicious with a slice of cheddar cheese, so it would make sense that it would go well with apple pie, too. There was also the mention of how people generally eat whipped cream with pumpkin pie, but ice cream with apple pie (I prefer mine bare- pie tastes so good, why would you want to mask the flavours with all those toppings?!).
This conversation reminded me of how strange it was when my family and I first moved to the Netherlands and saw all the Dutch eating their french fries with mayo. It seemed such a strange idea! Similarly, the British kids that I went to school with there all liked to eat potato chips alongside their hot dog in the bun- such an oddity to my mind.
When you’ve been eating the same food combinations for much of your life, it’s difficult to even recognize them as being unusual. I don’t think that many of my food pairings these days are so very unusual, but when I was little I used to love eating buttered bread with peanut butter smeared over it (sometimes I think that my family is convinced that my passion for health is a sham. After all, how can a kid possibly grow up insisting on white bread, buttery popcorn, lots of chocolate, slurpees, and croissants in excess, and suddenly switch over to the other side? Must be some kind of compensation going on there:)). Do you have any peculiar food pairings? Heard of any strange ones? Got an idea for something you think would be interesting but have yet to give a try?
Yesterday was also the day that I was supposed to do as many crunches in a minute as I could manage, to see how much I’ve progressed so far with the challenge. I gave it my all and managed to complete 64 crunches in 60 seconds– surpassed the challenge goal! Two challenges down, one more to go (so far).
people in australia don’t mix PB and chocolate. Can you even imagine???
hmmm…I had a friend years ago who would put french dressing on his pizza. Claimed it was a southern thing – anyone else heard of this?
but…but..PB and chocolate BELONG TOGETHER!!!
Britain is the home of weird food combos! They have this thing in the North East called a “London pizza” which is a pizza with chips (fries) on. And a crisp (potato chip) sandwich is a delicacy in my house! My ex and I spent an entire day creating different combinations of sauces and crisps to go in our sandwich (eg. “El Mexicano” which was mini cheddars, sour cream and guacamole) and then the other one had to guess what was in it. My current boyfriend eats prawn cocktail flavoured crisp sandwiches all the time.
I think it’s a northern thing!
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving – how exciting about the twins!
TA x
I knew someone who put mayo on pizza, which is even grosser than french dressing, in my mind.
Plus, what a waste of fat calories that could be put to much better use!
My dad would salt his watermelon, something he also claimed was a southern thing.
WoW! Great job with the crunches!
Leslie- no PB and chocolate?! Madness!
Missicat- now that is very strange. I just can’t see those two combining nicely at all…
TA- that’s some creative sandwich ideas you had! And would be a fun game to play.
Crabby- yeah, I can think of much better things I’d rather eat:) And then there’s the sour cream on the BP perogie pizza… now I’m curious about the watermelon; I’m convinced that it is only good as a sweet taste but I am definitely going to try salting it- that just seems too unusual to pass up:)
Mark- thanks! And they were done with using proper form, too. I was pleased:)
i LOVE cheddar cheese on apple pie.
i usually eat cheddar cheese with a really sour green apple. SO GOOD.
Kelly Turner
http://www.groundedfitness.com
I love fries with mayo!! And I used to put potato chips on my sloppy joes… I also eat mustard on my mac & cheese sometimes (my bff from high school puts ketchup on hers)… then in high school my friends and I started putting ranch on everything – pizza, spaghetti, goulash – it gave school lunch more flavor. LOL
I dunno, so much of my food is considered “weird.” My fave combo is wasabe and sushi (mmm!) Although I’ve never been able to understand the french fries in the frosty people, i do love dipping pretzels in ice cream which probably isn’t very different at all, lol!
I really want to try the abs challenge – your recent posts have inspired me 🙂
Hope you had a great thanksgiving – I saw that same mashed potato recipe and wanted to try it!
I know about the food pairings. I’m a fan of salsa and celery, and I know it’s weird.
Congrats on the challenge.
That seems like kind of a weird challenge… “as many crunches as you can manage in one minute”. Because they’re supposed to be taken slowly to have any effect, otherwise you’re straining your neck and shoulders unnecessarily and not getting what the workout’s meant for…
Cheddar cheese with apple pie — always!! Yum.
Bananas mashed on hot buttered toast.
My dad used to put salt on apples.
Sounds like your Thanksgiving dinner was delicious!!
Kelly- cheese is so yummy. Wine and cheese party?
Chandra- that’s funny about the ranch! I’ve heard of people putting ketchup on their mac and cheese but never mustard.
Charlotte- sushi is AMAZING. Pretzels dipped in chocolate or yogurt are both good so it makes sense that they’d go well with ice cream, too. Although I wouldn’t much want fries in a frosty!!
Loveofoats- the mashed potatoes are seriously fantastic. Try them! And you should definitely do the abs challenge:) It takes no time at all out of your day and its so cool to see your abs get all strong.
Tricia- That could be really good. I like PB on celery (and just about everything else, I guess…:)).
Anonymous- that’s why you have to be really careful to use good form, but that’s a good point to make. I’m always making sure I exercise correctly- the last thing I’d want is an injury!
Bag Lady- today I tried some yogurt cheese spread on apples with some cinnamon sprinkled on top. It was pretty good! I love bananas on a piece of toast that’s slathered with PB but never thought to try it on buttered toast… that sounds SO good.
Mmm Crisp (Potato Chip) Sandwiches. Thats a favourite of mine too.
I also like pancakes with gravy on, which Dr D thinks is weird, but then he insists on brown sauce with his chips.
I also like gravy on lasagne, again Dr D thinks this is weird.
I once went to a fish and chip shop in Scotland and they were serving deep fried pizza. Needless to say I didn’t try that one!
What I want to know is, did you do the crunches before or after T. G. dinner??
Great job, either way!
On to abs of steel.
Have you ever tried Tofurkey? My daughter loves it. (It’s an acquired taste)
Even though I am mostly vegan, I don’t do the Tofurkey thing! No disrespect intended, but just take a sharp knife and cut a few slices off an old tire. Didn’t use enough gravy to help me acquire the taste, I guess 🙂
I’m trying to think of odd pairings… i like french fries with tartar sauce and tabasco. And I used to dip my fries in my milkshake. Heh heh.
Congrats on the new addition to the family!
Wow, cheddar cheese on apple pie. That’s something I would never think about. Then again, my sister used to eat a ketchup and potato chip (plain kind) sandwich so we all sure have different tastes, don’t we.
Sounds like you had a really great time.
Catspuke- they serve everything deep fried these days! Never thought of pancakes with gravy…
Dr. J- ha! No way I could do those crunches after that feast:) I always do challenges first thing in the morning though.
James- abs of steel is the goal:) I’ve never tried tofurkey, but I AM rather curious about it. Will have to search for some!
Dee- tartar sauce and tabasco, I’d say that’s pretty unusual. They’re yummy with honey dill sauce.
Crystal- that’s a strange one! Such a lot of textures and tastes mingled together…