Friday Five: Homage to the Top Chef!

Today's Friday Five (on Thursday night) is brought to us by RevHRod at You Don't Have to Listen, I Just Like to Talk.

This Fall my family has been energetically watching Top Chef on the Bravo channel. My teenage daughter watches with the dream of some day being a chef. My husband watches because he loves reality shows and I mean, really loves them. Plus the whole competition thing really works for him. Me, I love cooking and good food. Every so often I get an idea from this group of talented young chefs who are competing for big money and honors galore.

The winner for this season was Hung. Not the fan favorite, but he won fair and square. In his bio, he says if he were a food "I would be spicy chili - it takes a while to get used to, but once you eat it you always come back for more!" With that in mind, here is this week’s Friday Five.

1. If you were a food, what would you be? Ice Cream - but a kind that would be the real honest to goodness ice cream, but miraculously fat and sugar free. I like to make people happy and that seems to me to be the best way!
   


2. What is one of the most memorable meals you ever had? And where? Many come to mind for various reasons, ranging from the fabulous to the ridiculous, but the first one I thought of was a meal Jack and I had on our honeymoon. We went to Disneyworld cause we're silly like that. They have this incredible restaurant in the Safari resort. The cuisine was not really "African" per se; it would be rather difficult to encompass an entire continent and countless different languages and groups of people in one menu. But, the food was quite incredible. I can't even remember what it was we ate, I just know it was incredible. What I do remember was the wine. We had a bottle of Culrathian (I think that's the name) Serah. Wow! What a wine. It's a South African wine and we can't find it anywhere. The other thing that made that meal fabulous was the fact that it was with my husband. There's nothing quite so wonderful as a meal with my sweetheart. :) (you can stop gagging now.)
   


3. What is your favorite comfort food from childhood? My grandmother's fried okra. I was THE. PICKIEST. EATER. EVER! as a kid. I wouldn't eat anything for fear I would choke and die. But, I would eat okra. Yeah, I know, I'm a freak. I still don't like milk on my cereal and am still a little afraid that anything from the sea might choke me.
   


4. When going to a church potluck, what one recipe from your kitchen is sure to be a hit? I don't cook. there's nothing I could possibly bring that would be a hit. Now, my dear sweet husband, on the other hand could make any number of things and they would be a hit. My favorite is his baked chicken that we brines overnight, then stuffs with garlic cloves and other fun stuff. Then, he sets it directly on one rack in the oven and puts a cookie sheet underneath filled with cubes of potatoes (sweet and regular), onions and more garlic cloves. YUMMY!
   


5. What’s the strangest thing you ever willingly ate? Seriously? Not a thing! Nope, things that I have not tried before have the potential to choke me. This stems (I believe) from when I was an infant and everything I would eat other than breast milk would make me swell up. My poor mom had to breast feed me till I was well past 2 until I outgrew the allergies. I'm sure that's where this irrational fear of food comes from. I'm 34 now, I'm afraid it's not really going away too soon.
   

Bonus question: What’s your favorite drink to order when looking forward to a great meal? when I'm really thirsty and hungry - Dr. Pepper. But, for a great meal, like with courses and yummy steak and dessert and a high bill at the end... A glass of really good red wine - not too dry, but not sweet, with a hint of pepper.