i’m the exact opposite, sort of.
don’t like them raw, cooked, only in sausage, peppers, and onions.
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We eat very little beef. I’d eat it more often but my wife doesn’t want to eat it these days.
I did get her to eat a steak for our New Years meal but we are back on the pescatarian diet. I don’t mined it as we live on the beach now and have a fantastic fish market that processes the fish for a large seafood restaurant chain
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Almond anything. Until about five years ago, total hard pass. Now I like it a lot.
Interesting switch. Any particular incident or food that turned you on to them?
My “bestie” is like you- cooked, not raw. Do you like it on pizza? They’re usually somewhere between fresh and cooked when it comes out of the oven. I don’t like them on pizza, it’s all I can taste. And I really, really like pizza otherwise.
nope! only with sausages and onions — memories of childhood:)
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Unless you’re a label reader, Splenda can be a sneaky bastard.
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I see Squirt occasionally in stores here.
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Foods I’ve done 180 on. I think I contributed to this already with my (very very) late introduction to salads into my diet around age 22.
But I think a big one is that I almost NEVER buy cookies, cakes, etc. anymore since I learned to make my own. I have exceptions, naturally. Girl Scout Cookies, of course. And some cookies that I cannot reliably make a version of. (I occasionally really want Oreos. You CAN make them at home, but filling sandwich cookies is NOT a task I’m willing to undertake)
But I have my choc. chip game dialed in enough that I can make big ol’ gooey Levain style, Tate’s thin-n-crispy, or a nice, middle of the road version that is light years better than Chips Ahoy. Shortbread is easy (though mine will never be as neat as commercial versions). I have an almond cookie that’s the partner’s favorite, and I’m still working out the kinks for my “Chinese restaurant almond cookie”. If I want cake, I’ll make one. Or at worst, get a box mix.
I still buy bread, but I probably make around 1/3 of what we eat. Way cheaper.
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If you would ever like a pen-pal-taster, I’m happy to cover shipping 
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I just bought a sourdough starter from a local lady. Im currently reacquainting myself with leavened bread as its been a hot minute! Focaccia (yeast) yesterday and the requisite soda bread today.
Growing up, the Red Delicious was my go to apple variety. Now, I can’t stand them.
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I didn’t like my Levain Cookie. Dec 2006. LOL. 5.9/10.
Not my ideal Chocolate Chip cookie.
IMO they don’t make Red Delicious apples like they used to. Yellows, either for that matter. My parents used to buy us a box of each from the Chelan County growers’ cooperative every fall on our return from deer hunting. They were both fabulous varieties–in the 1960s. Now they’re prone to be mealy and weak-flavored.
For red table apples in 2025, I’ve had good satisfaction with the Cosmic Crisp. You might like them.
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They bred the flavor out of Red Delicious apples to get the shape, uniformity, bright red color (instead of some with slightly yellowish stripes) and thicker skin (for shipping and shelf life) that consumers expected. The genes that created the flavor compounds were combined with the same genes that had the yellow stripes, so when the stripes were bred out to produce bright red apples, so was the flavor.
Now most are mealy and flavorless.
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Thanks for the explanation. The Cosmic Crisps that I’ve been buying have some yellow splotches.
Given what little I know of orchard operation, I’m somewhat surprised anyone is still planting these dumbed-down RD trees.
Somewhere, long ago, I learned that apple trees in the wild develop a very high degree of variability, such that, if you look closely enough, no two trees bear the same fruit. Do you know if this is true?
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Yup - MUCH more acceptable today than it was in back in the 1960s/1970s when everything had to look the same.
Agreed - and sounds like apple farmers are pulling them out when they want to grow something else. Seems like an easy decision to me if they’re not good tasting apples! Although I still see people going to local orchards and saying “Oh, I’m getting Red Delicious apples!” Lord help me - there are Cortlands, Fujis, Galas, Macouns, Mutsu, Honeycrisp, Paula Reds, Northern Spys, and EVEN Granny Smiths that have SO much more flavor and deliciousness!
I don’t know - but I would think that their pollination and germination would be dependent on local bees for pollination from other apple trees (I don’t believe apple trees self-pollinate), and birds and animals eating the fruit and spreading the seeds elsewhere.
I’m fairly certain that virtually 100% of commercial apples are produced through grafting. Planting a seed from a red delicious apple will NOT necessarily get you a tree that produces red delicious apples.
Most apples from seed (Johnny Appleseed style) will be very small, quite hard, and sour, and we’re primarily used to make alcoholic cider and/or applejack.
Same here, whereas my hardcore sis was into Granny Smiths — way too tart for me as a kid.
I rarely eat apples, but when I do, it’s Cosmic Crisp, Crispin or Fuji.
I went to a talk on this (and other stuff) a few years ago, and learned that grafting is the only way to guarantee that the apple will be the same cultivar as its “parent.”
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