Small Victories

Successes, even little ones, make me feel like I am going to eventually kick the picky chick in me to the curb. Saturday was my nieces' joint birthday party. My brother in law spent all afternoon smoking ribs and sausages for dinner. We also had burgers, hot dogs, and enough side dishes to feed an army.

Mid afternoon he pulled a few sausages out and cut them up for people to snack on. I am not entirely certain what kind of sausages these were, but I think they were similar to a brat. I have tried a brat once before. They have been one of those things that have always looked totally gross to me. The inside is so...pieced together and chunky looking. Scary stuff! Still I had sucked it up and tried a bite once already, and I hadn't hated it. It was time to try again. I only ate one little bite this time, but once again, I found it to be much better than I was expecting. I am counting calories, and knew that I needed to save up for dinner, so I didn't have more, but it is something I will keep trying until I can actually find it tasty instead of just OK.

At dinner, I decided on a burger. This may seem a safe choice for most people, but you should know that I have only been eating burgers for about 2 years. As a kid, I would pretty much only eat McDonald's burgers, and that was it. Now I love them. I love them piled with bacon, cheeses, peppers, pineapple, tomatoes, onions, etc. Steak 'n Shake has this chipotle burger...holy cow (pun intended)...sooooo good! Anyway, I fixed my burger, and got all my sides, and was all set to pretend the ribs did not exist. My bf and brother-in-law apparently had other ideas. I needed to try those ribs. I have this thing about bone-in meat. It grosses me out. The thought of picking around bones and other inedible body parts to get to my food is utterly disgusting to me. Also, I am not a fan of smoky BBQ sauces. My brother-in-law assured me though that his ribs would not taste too much like BBQ sauce, and my bf agreed to pull off a choice piece of meat for me. So, hesitantly, I gave it a try. Folks, I have to admit, I kind of liked it! Had I not been so full already, I might have had my bf pull off some more pieces for me.

This was not my first ribs experience, I must admit. Last summer a friend made some for my bf's son's birthday party. I tried a few bites of those as well, and I hadn't hated them either, but it takes me some time to work up to actually liking certain foods. Maybe someday I will be able to eat a rib without someone else pulling the meat off for me, but right now that is hard to imagine. Baby steps, friends. Baby steps.