Thursday, March 8, 2012

Cranberries: Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't I?

My husband is a good sport. I have seen him sing part of "Suspicious Minds" with an Elvis impersonator at my mother's birthday party. I have seen Richard Simmons kiss him, dozens upon dozens of times, because he is willing to come to Slimmons with me. And tonight, I have seen him eat sweet potatoes.

In the spirit of solidarity, Hubby has decided to try and conquer a few of his Hated Foods. He doesn't feel the need to embrace things like grapefruit, radicchio and tonic water, but he wants to try and get used to more common things, such as beer, mustard, avocados, cucumbers and sweet potatoes. Those last 3 could safely be considered as 3 of my favorite foods, so I admit, it would be handy to have a husband who could appreciate them. How many sweet potato or avocado recipes have I ignored over the past 9 years, because I didn't want to make something that excluded my man?

Since he decided to be on board for this experiment (and you should have seen him eating mustard on his vegan sausage the other night!), I took advantage of this time to make a recipe that sounded great to me, but that I would have normally disqualified: Sweet Potato Chili Mac. It was DELICIOUS! Hubby managed to eat a large portion as well! Granted, it wasn't his favorite thing in the world, but he did it.... although he did have to add a lot of extra salt, to get rid of the sweet potato sweetness, which he finds to be disconcerting.

I knew I would be a fan of that main course, as well as the side dish, which was Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Raisins. But it wouldn't be fair to make him suffer alone, while I relished a delicious feast.... so I poured myself a nice, big glass of cranberry juice. 100% cranberry juice. None of that Cranapple bullshit. And that stuff is ass awful! I drank most of it, each sip inspiring me to make a grimace that befitted a gargoyle, until I cried mercy. This was definitely the worst thing I have tried since starting this experiment. Honestly, I would rather have beer.... and that is saying A LOT coming from me!!!

The cranberry juice left me feeling a bit ill, so I took an hour or so to rest from the turmoil of drinking it undiluted. I figured that maybe I could face it in a cocktail? I did some research, and discovered, not surprisingly, that most cranberry cocktails are vodka based. Vodka is not something I prefer to drink. And no, I'm not going to sit here and force myself to like it because, as a mature woman of class and impeccable taste, I am ok with being a snob who believes that vodka is stupid. But I digress. Since a vodka and cranberry cocktail was not about to happen (I am one of only a handful of women in my age group who has never had a Cosmo), I finally found a couple of concoctions that contained a respectable kind of alcohol: bourbon. I made myself something that was described as a kind of Cranberry Old Fashioned. Basically, a combo of bourbon, triple sec and cranberry juice. And yes, the nasty cranberry juice was better when it had some delicious bourbon in it to tone down its badness. This wasn't a great drink, and tasted much more like a Whiskey Sour than an Old Fashioned, but whatever. At least it helped me drink an extra ounce of the stuff! Only about 3 more cups to go until I have consumed the whole bottle! :-/

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