The Person Behind The Plate #6

My sister sent me a book last week called The Introvert Advantage. I am most definitely an introvert and reading this has been pretty enlightening. I often wonder about bloggers and whether this is a social outlet for them in lieu of actually going out and meeting with people face to face.


I also think the irony of me eating alone while reading this book is pretty funny.

Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert? Does blogging provide a social outlet for you?

The Person Behind the Plate #5

I think that I am an adventurous eater and I have tried a lot of things that people give me funny looks about like beef cheeks and tripe. I tend to like pretty much all foods but I do have a few things that I just cannot stand.

1. Cilantro - this stuff is just nasty. It tastes like dish soap to me. I have read articles about how some people can taste the soap and to other people it is delicious. I had never had the stuff until I moved to AZ and found it was in a lot of the Mexican dishes. I hated it from the first time I tried it. I can tolerate a minimal amount in chimichurri or salsa, but that is it.

2. Bananas - this one is odd, I don't mind banana flavor, I just can't peel and eat a banana. Even the smell of a fresh peeled banana kind of makes me gag.

3. Black licorice - this is just a horrible flavor to me. I think its the medicinal aspect of it or perhaps an acquired taste.

And now that you know all about the things I don't like, I leave you with a photo of one of my favorite foods in the whole world...


CHEESE!

Do you have a food or foods you really dislike?

The Person Behind The Plate #4

While I wish I could say I sit at home all day reading and cooking, I do have a job that I have been at for almost 13 years. I work in tech but I actually went to school for English education. My first loves were reading and writing. I still love reading and do it pretty continuously but don't write a lot outside of this blog. This past week I read Under the Dome by Stephen King and if you have not read it I highly recommend it.

Here is a look at my 'to read' shelf (well, one of them) in my closet. I have taken out several of those books since the picture was taken.



I haven't made the jump to e-books yet, but I am sure I inevitably will have to.

What is the best book you have read lately?

The Person Behind The Plate #3

One of the main reasons I started this blog is because I love to cook and Tom is definitely not into food. When I first met him he lived off of chips, subs, nachos and pizza. There might have been a hamburger thrown in every once in a while with lots of fries. He was basically eating the dream diet of most 12 year old boys.

According to his Mom he has been picky forever. Everyone loves the story that even before he could talk he could tell the difference between orange juice brands and would fling his sippy cup down if it was not Donald Duck OJ.


I imagine the caption of this picture as, "What do you mean you don't like chicken?!" That would be Tom surrounded by family members at the dinner table.

Fast forward 35 years...


Yep, still does NOT like chicken. I figured that it was breaded and deep fried, who doesn't love that?! Him.

Over the last 13 years I have been slowly getting this food hater to at least try some new things, and the blog is here to share all of the wonderful things that he still isn't ready to try.

The Person Behind the Plate # 2

I suppose I will start at the beginning and tell you about where I come from, and why I am interested in food and cooking. I grew up in Western PA in a pretty rural area. My Mom passed away when I was pretty young so I was raised by my Dad, Grandmas, and some Aunts helped out as well. Nobody in my family was all that adventurous with food. I ate a lot of meat and potatoes, casseroles, spaghetti and regional food like Pierogies and Kielbasa. My Dad rarely cooked for us, he would make only a few things like steak, ribs and chili. He was definitely the person that got me into food, though. He was always eating 'weird' things like herring and crabs. He was so excited when we finally got some bigger grocery stores that could order him seafood. I can still picture him sitting at our kitchen counter with a half dozen crabs in front of him spread out on newspaper. I never was brave enough to try them but I recognized how happy this food made him. At about that time I started watching Yan Can Cook and the Frugal Gourmet on TV and really wanted to start cooking. I then went to college and was living in dorms and eating dining hall food with no access to a kitchen. Finally after I moved to Arizona I got cable, and I got the Food Network. I was hooked, and that is when I really got a passion for food, ingredients, cooking and eating.

My Dad passed away many years ago, and as much as I have learned and branched out since I was a kid, my last meal would definitely be his oven baked BBQ ribs.



Finally here is a photo of me with my older brother and sister, I am the one in the middle looking totally thrilled. I can only imagine someone tried to slip some cilantro in my milk and that face is the result.

I hope you all have a great week!

The Person Behind the Plate #1

As I was contemplating what I wanted to do for my next themed posts, I realized I needed to think about what it is that keeps me reading other people's blogs. Clearly, I love getting great recipe ideas, looking at gorgeous food photos, and sharing my thoughts in the comments. But the blogs that I really love to read are the ones where you feel like you know the person who is writing the posts. I realized I don't even think my first name is on my blog anywhere, so hello, my name is Rhonda.

When I started this blog a lot of my followers knew me through my other blogs but now I have a lot of new readers who may not really know anything about me except that I love chicken thighs and my husband is afraid of most food. So I thought I would start a series where I actually share a bit about me, my family, and my life here in Arizona.

I hope you like this series and I look forward to sharing lots more food as well. To start, here I am with Tom doing one of our favorite things, watching baseball.