Some foods naturally go together. Peanut butter and jelly. Dried beans and cornbread. Bacon and eggs. Hamburgers and French fries. Red beans and rice. And one of my favorite combos is baked beans and cole slaw.
But there are some food combinations that create flavors and appearances that aren’t to my liking. Recently, I was served salty, savory sweet potato fries with a white dipping sauce. Assuming it was ranch dressing, I dipped a fry into the sauce. The flavor wasn’t what I had excepted. A second bite confirmed that the sauce tasted like marshmallows. To be sure my taste buds weren’t tricking me, I asked the waiter, and he said, “We just discovered warm marshmallow cream is the perfect dipping sauce for savory sweet potatoes. Isn’t it great!” I tell my Grands that they should try a food they don’t like at least ten times, so maybe after nine more times I’ll agree with the waiter.
Following a recipe for a simple warm fruit casserole, I dumped several cans of drained fruits into a dish, added a dash of cinnamon and thought it would be a delicious side dish for baked ham at a big family meal. If I’d closed my eyes while eating, the fruit might have tasted good, but the cherries colored the sauce and pears pink. The peaches and apricots took on a color that would be beautiful in a sunset, but wasn’t appealing on a plate.
Food shouldn’t be pink, except for strawberry fluff, a combination of strawberry gelatin and Cool Whip, and strawberry ice cream and yogurt. Ketchup belongs on French fries – not stirred into mashed potatoes or scrambled eggs. Even green eggs as in Dr. Seuss’s book, Green Eggs and Ham, are more appealing than pink eggs.
Everyone ate unusual food combinations as a child. My children dipped chips and French fries in orange ketchup, aka French dressing. A friend said that she and her mother ate a special salad they made by layering lettuce, chopped dill pickles, sliced hot dogs, a serving of cottage cheese and then topped it with Catalina dressing. I’ve never seen that on a menu. How about hot dog slices in potato soup? Reddish-pink blobs in white soup doesn’t fire up my appetite.
Do you remember the first time you were offered pineapple and ham pizza? I thought, ‘That’s just not right.’ After watching Daughter eat it several times, I tried it and agree it’s good, but I prefer veggies and Canadian ham pizza.
What’s better than popcorn with melted butter? Some have tried to convince me to season popcorn with soy sauce or hot pepper sauce or chili sauce, and I expect to hear about mustard or ketchup drizzled on popcorn.
Husband and I both like a good peanut butter sandwich. He makes his with sweet pickles, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a generous slathering of Miracle Whip. Like I said, some foods naturally go together and topping the list is peanut butter and jelly. Make my grape jelly.
Susan Writes 
Leave a Reply