November 7, 2007
even the olives
It has taken me 41 years to decide that I love greek salad.
I am not a big cheese person. I am extremely wimpy when it comes to cheese to be exact. K., K. will go to the cheese shop and look the cheese shop guy right in the eye and say, "Give me your stinkiest cheese," without even flinching. And he will pay for that stinky cheese and bring that cheese home and stink up the cheese drawer (what do you keep in your little drawer? We keep cheese and bacon and lunchmeat and sauerkraut and pepperoni--I should call it Drawer o' Nitrates and be done with it.) and eat that cheese. Yep. He eats it. I KNOW!
Not me. Ask me what my favorite cheese it and I will say either Monterey Jack or Muenster and I will feel proud of myself for branching out and eating the weird cheese. Uh huh. So greek salad seemed scary all these years what with the feta cheese AND the Kalamata olives. I stayed far away. (My inability to eat cheese is one of the main reasons that I have not pushed to travel in Europe yet. Seriously.)
Then one day we were eating in a diner and my meal came with a greek salad on the side and I thought, oh what the heck, I'll just eat it. And I did. And I liked it. I thought all of those people who have been eating greek salad all of these years were actually on to something. And quietly my obsession with greek salad began.
Thus far my forties have been one long intense craving for foods I previously found detestable starting with pancakes (yep, used to hate em) and moving right along to greek salad (even the olives). The fact that this may be some sort of precursor to menopause has not escaped me. My mother hit it pretty early in her 40s and it wasn't pretty. We will be talking about The Change and how wonderful it is and how it will expand my horizons and make my life better, etc., etc. on another day. I even have a good article in a magazine from the 50s that I bought at the flea market on how to cope. But not today. Today: Greek salad. Another day: Hot flashes and periods with more blood than you have ever imagined.
I wonder what 42 will bring. I'm betting it won't be stinky cheese, but you never know.
Posted by grrlTravels at November 7, 2007 9:39 PMInteresting. Yes, just this spring or summer I asked you if you liked kalamata olives and feta and you told me no. So I couldn't give you one of my fave recipes. Now that you like them, I'll have to dig the recipe out for you.
Posted by: Shelba at November 7, 2007 10:55 PMAlas, kalamata olives just don't do it for me. Now feta...? I like feta. In all kinds of dishes. Which reminds me that the husband hasn't made his artichoke-hearts-chicken-feta-sun-dried-tomato casserole in an age. Yum.
As for hot flashes, I am right there witya.
Posted by: OmegaMom at November 8, 2007 12:29 AMGreek salad...yum. Being Greek I have loved it for a very very long time. I am happy that you finally saw the light. Feta cheese is your friend.
Posted by: Sparky at November 8, 2007 8:14 AMWe, too, have a drawer of nitrates! ;)
I like feta cheese, but I just don't like olives, so Greek salad just doesn't do it for me.
Posted by: Jess at November 8, 2007 8:41 AM