Food Habits

The other day I bought a cantaloupe from a produce stand down the road. It was so juicy and sweet--one of the best I've ever had. Ian, typically my more adventurous eater, loved it. Merry Grace took a lick and that was it for her, while Elise gamely took a bite, then put the rest on MG's plate. =) I was relating this story to Cory when he got home and in summation said, "Elise is kind of a picky eater, but I used to be, too, when I was little, and I've turned out okay." We had sort of a laugh over that, because while I'm not exactly a picky eater, you might call me a food snob of sorts. I like my food how I like it. =)

I was thinking about this again this morning while I fixed pancakes. As a child, my dad would always eat his pancakes with butter and sugar sprinkled on top. Of course, being the picky eater that I was, thought this was strange and disgusting. (Just keep in mind we are talking about straight sugar. Hard to believe it could have been that bad, isn't it?) So fast forward to my life as an adult. Guess what--I prefer my pancakes with butter and sprinkled with white sugar. Who would've thought? I love the crunch of the sugar and the taste of the butter (slightly salty) and the sweet sugar is so good.

But it just reminded me how funny our food habits are. I think about the many things I hated as a kid--green beans (I thought they were so horrible I had to smother them in ketchup to choke them down), italian salad dressing, squash, cantaloupe, hot dogs (couldn't bear them, and on the rare occasions when I would roast one over the fire and attempt it, I could never eat the last bite. The "end" was so gross to me. =)....and the list goes on. Most of those things and many others are things I love now and eat frequently. Thank goodness our palates develop and change and we grow up and realize those horrible things our parents made us eat, really aren't so horrible after all.