...my foodie sister...the one who exposed me to stinky cheese and hoity-toity olives and lemon curd. We were roommates for a few years, we dreamed of an urban farm life together, and we bonded over family history research, but I still couldn't believe her that goat cheese and herbal teas were worth consuming.
I'm here to confess, "I've finally seen the light! I'm sorry I doubted your tastes for so long."
An excellent experience at a local foodie restaurant, Radio Maria, showed me that goat cheese could be vibrant and savory and non-goaty. It made me wonder where on earth the goat-y cheese I had tried earlier in life had came from. I swear, my first experience with goat cheese tasted like I was licking a goat. Can you see why I was repelled? But at Radio Maria, it was a dish very similar to this one that actually convinced me to buy goat cheese on my own and attempt it at home. RM serves it with a soft-fried egg on top. Oh. my. heavens. With our homegrown eggs and some super fresh Prairie Fruits chevre, it's my favorite...I'm off dairy while nursing James, but now I make an exception for small doses of goat cheese. Mmmmmm.
And then there's herbal tea: watery, yucky stuff that never tasted strong enough to drink. Grassy. Minty (mint flavors give me the impression of eating/drinking spit from someone who's just chewed mint gum. I don't know where that horrible idea came from, but it has stuck. I can't enjoy mint in most of its forms.) Ugh. Anyway, when my sister visited me even as recently as last December, she enjoyed her steaming hot cups of lemon ginger tea and I longed to love tea like that. Cocoa is not a choice for me while I'm nursing, so I have consumed oodles of super-sweet instant cider this winter. I've grown tired of it. It's SO sweet. The kids want it every time, too (expensive! too many sugary drinks for kids!). I wanted something warm and flavorful to savor that the kids wouldn't hound me about.
I decided to put myself through herbal tea boot camp. I drank 2-3 cups of herbal tea every day, delicious or not, for a week. By the end, I decided that I liked it kinda sweet (2 tsp of sugar per cup, compared to 4 tsp of sugar in the instant cider), but not sweet enough to appeal to the kids. I drank through the rest of Heidi's lemon ginger tea and flew through a box of Celestial Seasoning's Fruit Sampler. Now I've got Apple Cinnamon Spice and Raspberry Zinger on-hand. Yes, they're still fruity teas, which is kinda like riding with training wheels in the herbal tea world, but I'm making progress. I've been able to reduce my sugar preference to 1.5 teaspoons. Yes, still sweet, but I'm to the point where I actually enjoy it, look forward to it, and savor it.
Goat cheese and herbal teas...delicious! What's next, Heidi?
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I'm a huge fan of traditional medicinals. My favorites are throat coat, breathe easy, and mothers milk...and I drink them all the time...not just when I'm sick or nursing because they are delicious and no sugar is needed ;-)
ReplyDeleteTea with honey obviously is a bigger pain, but I cannot separate drinking herbal tea from putting honey in it. Once you enjoy the fruit flavors, try one of CS' spicier teas. :) Mark and I got excited about Bengal Spice this winter. It has cardamon, ginger, and cinnamon, so with a little milk, it's chai-like.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy goat cheese on occasion, but when I was pregnant I made some kind of beef rolled up with red peppers and goat cheese. Somehow the combo made the pregnant me really grossed out, so now even thinking about those flavors together makes me feel ill.
I've got some horse jerky you could try...
ReplyDelete(but don't. It's gross.)
ReplyDeleteJust read this and laughed! James has been talking about RM for months and needs to take me there, specifically for their goat cheese!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tea is CS Chamomile Honey with a little honey added!! I also like there Gingerbread in the winter.
How have you not taken me to this fantastic restaurant?! I guess we didn't want to bring all the kids... Maybe I need to come see you this summer and we can explore more foodie options.
ReplyDeleteNow that you have embraced the goat, we must explore the stinky cheese realm. What else? Let me ponder... I would love to guide you through the herbal tea world. Lemon ginger is my current favorite, but there are so many good ones. Oooh, maybe I could convert you to loose tea and get you a little tea pot and strainer and pretty cups. Such fun!
BTW, I don't like mint tea either. Unless it's mixed with licorice, which I know sounds weird but is really good. The problem with mint tea is that it's a one-note flavor. The licorice gives it this underlying depth that you don't really taste until the end, when it hits the back of your throat. Next time we go to France I'm stocking up. :)
ReplyDelete