Making up for lost time....

It's true what they say about your tastes changing as you get older—not just your preferences, but your actual sense of taste. I was a bit of a picky eater when I was a kid*, and even into my twenties I had a long list of fruits and veggies I didn't really care for. A few of those foods I now really enjoy, like spinach (raw), tomatoes, blueberries, honeydew melon, and onion (although I can't eat it raw). My biggest conversion, though, has been into an eater of strawberries.

When I was growing up, my folks kept a strawberry patch along with the huge garden on their property. There were many nights when we had strawberry shortcake for dinner: a tasty shortcake, warm from the oven, covered with crushed strawberries that had been lightly sweetened. I'd eat the shortcake happily, but avoided the strawberries, unless I could get some pulpless juice to put on one corner. I wasn't wild about the taste of strawberries, but I especially disliked the texture and would pick off any threads of berries that got caught on my shortcake.

Well, things are a bit different now. I learned to appreciate strawberries the way I learned to enjoy several other fruits: mixed in a fruit salad, or even dipped in chocolate. A few years ago we stayed at this wonderful B&B in Arizona and they served a delicious breakfast dish that was berries, yogurt, and granola. I liked it so much I started making it at home. I found other uses for strawberries, like making a tasty dessert with angel food cake, yogurt, whipped cream, and berries. When they got a little mushy, I'd freeze them and use them in smoothies. Take a can of fruit (peaches, pineapple, even pears), a big handful of frozen strawberries, and a little fruit juice, and you can blend up a tasty tasty extra big serving of fruit. (I'm not sure where rum falls on the food pyramid, but sometimes I add a little of that to the smoothie as well.)

So when my mom asked me to pick her strawberry patch while my folks were out of town, I said sure. Here's my share of today's haul, which I split with my cousin. I've got maybe 9 or 10 quarts of strawberries, and I'm going to have some with honeydew for my afternoon snack, berries and yogurt for breakfast, a few quarts to contribute to my TKD team ice cream social tomorrow, and some to freeze. In any case, I've still got quite a few more strawberries to eat to make up for the first 35 or so years of my life, when I didn't eat my share.

*My mom might take issue with the "a bit of" qualifier, but I was never as bad as some kids I've met who wouldn't eat macaroni and cheese because the pasta was the "wrong shape." I just knew what I didn't like, and that list included quite a few things.