Commercial tomatoes taste metallic to me, it's not pleasant.

However, my palate is suspect, because I will happily eat condensed split pea soup out of the can.

Some people can get weird when I say I don't like tomatoes (or coffee) they try to convert me. "You've just never had one fresh off the vine!" Except my DAd grew tomatoes for most of the time I was growing up and I had them fresh off the vine (and when I was really little my parents ate a lot of green tomatoes because I'd "help" and pick the wrong ones.)

With coffee people try to find something coffee flavored I'd like tiramsu! Ice Cream! coffee milk shake drink that Starbucks sells. Nope. I don't like them because they taste like coffee. Although I do like the smell of brewing coffee. Except in Starbucks, I've only been in Starbucks a few times and smelled bad every time.

I love the smell of coffee. Of course, I also love coffee. And tomatoes. Although I think I'm mostly past the stage of insisting that other people should like the things I like.

However even the smell of coffee is not enough to cover the smell of skunk spray that apparently happened under the building over the weekend while I was gone for a family wedding.

And every unit in the building smells like skunk spray all through apartment. It's giving me a massive headache.

Man it's a struggle. We have an endocrinologist appointment and I hope he will give her HGT hormone shots.

kat, my nephew is getting HG hormone injections. He's also on something that is supposed to stimulate his appetite but my sister says it's not really working. He has a calorie additive in his fancy schmancy formula (which he can drink, but mostly gets through the g-tube). Oh, so frustrating. But apparently, part of the Russell Silvers Syndrome package.

He loves the taste of food but even the stuff he likes, he'll only eat a bite or two of. He just isn't hungry.

I didn't learn to like tomatoes until I was an adult. Now I can eat them like apples.

I am also learning to appreciate REALLY good coffee and grind my own from our local roaster and it is spoiling me for even mediocre coffee.

askye, I recall taking Owen into a Starbucks when he was four and having him yell really loudly, "MOM, THIS SMELLS BAD!!!"

It smells like burned coffee!!

I had one job where, as the office admin, I was told it was my responsiblity to make the coffee. I explained I'd never made coffee before so if he showed me I thought I could figure it out. I made it...badly. I never had to make the coffee again.

Another job we had the War of the Coffee Strength. The office bought coffee through a coffee service and the grounds came in pouches. TWO people liked their coffee half strength and they'd make it that way. And then the next person who liked regular coffee would pour a mug. Take a sip. Spit it out, pour out the coffee pot and start over.

Sometimes the coffee would get re made over and over.

I like tiramisu, but I can barely taste the coffee flavor in it. When I get actual coffee, it's always a latte, because I can only stand the taste if it's got a ton of milk to cover it up.

You don't like chicken livers? We are so not the same! My flabber is ghasted.

Ha! Actually I meant beef liver (because that's "liver" in my head) but that's clearly not what I wrote. Chicken liver on the other hand, much depends on the preparation. Like sauteed in butter is a bit too forward to me, but I love pate and love it in pasta sauces.

Okay, what's braunschweiger made of? Must be liver too, right? Okay, so I clearly am not as anti-liver as I said. It just needs a lot of pork fat, garlic, and salt to balance it out.

I had fish and chips with mushy peas tonight at dinner.

It may contain beets. I have no idea what to do with beets. Or if I like them.

I am available for beet consultation! Roasted, definitely. I like them by themselves with olive oil, salt & pepper, and goat cheese. Also good on salad, best with more peppery, flavorful greens to contrast the sweetness of the beet. (Roasted beets + arugula + goat cheese + pistachios = yum.) Beets are also good on flatbread. Goes with bacon and prosciutto.

My fave salad is steak with radishes and beets and butter lettuce. Mmmm.

And somehow I knew shrift was the girl to talk to about beets. Sometimes I think I know too much about you people. Then I see quotes that I have totally forgotten, and figure no, I just remember weird shit.

Roasted beets, yay! ALthough I am informed that beets can be a problem for people with IBS, because there's something in them that isn't handled well by some folks' systems. I have a friend who loves them and can't eat them at all anymore.