Thanksgiving foods

     First things first, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
     Everyone knows that a huge portion of Thanksgiving is about the food. Some people's portions and varieties of food vary, but, overall, they are generally the same: turkey/ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, cranberry sauce, and baby onions. People also tend to have salads, but that's a post in and of itself. Afterwards, people indulge in a large spectrum of desserts; From the favorites of pumpkin pie and apple pie to cheesecake to occasionally baklava.
     Of course, what would be a Thanksgiving without turkey or ham! The size and (of course) cook time varies with the size of the family. I heard a person on the radio saying that they purposely cooked an extra turkey because there wasn't going to be any leftovers; Who doesn't like the next day turkey sandwiches? I hear that a ham leaves a lot of leftovers. The thing about ham, oppose to turkey, is that with turkey you can just microwave the gravy, but ham generally has its own sauce (like asparagus) which is one more thing you have to make, also less people like ham than turkey. If you have a turkey, you need to make sure you put it in the refrigerator days in advance, so it has time to thaw.
     Some people stuff the turkey with stuffing while others just leave the stuffing on the side. There are several downsides with cooking the turkey with the stuffing in it; For starters, the turkey needs to cook at least an hour longer for a 20 lb turkey. This means that you have to start cooking earlier in the day. Also, the stuffing can get too moist. Obviously, these little things can be compensated for and make it even better for a skilled cook. Stuffing's can vary. There's a traditional stuffing with sausage and celery in it, but there's others like Lebanese stuffing which I'm not sure what's in it.
     Mashed potatoes is another favorite. They are prepared by adding milk and butter while mashing. Regardless of if you use regular gravy, or a different grave like with ham, mashed potatoes are better with something on them (oppose to high and dry). The variety of potatoes can vary the results of how the mashed potatoes come out. Personally, I prefer the Russet potatoes for my mashed potatoes, but Norland Red's are pretty good too. Some people are more concerned than others about how chunky the potatoes can come out.
     Sweat potatoes are separate from mashed potatoes. While mashed potatoes generally have gravy on them, sweat potatoes are prepared with brown sugar. I didn't always like sweat potatoes, but I guess all the years of Thanksgiving warmed me up to it. You may wonder why I had it on my table if I didn't like it, but that doesn't mean someone who came over didn't like it. I had been making it just for them.
     Something else prepared on Thanksgiving is acorn squash. Even with a really sharp knife, it can be hard to cut in half. The outer skin is really tough. After someone's managed to cut it in half, it's put in a toaster oven and cooked. Afterwards, the skin just falls off and the insides is placed in a bowl.
     Baby onions are one of my personal main meal favorite foods to have on Thanksgiving. The way they are prepared might be one of the things that contribute to their greatness and outstanding taste. They are generally the first thing gone at my house. For the sake of being etiquette, I make sure I cut them in half before eating them even though they are bit size and could easily fit in my mouth whole.
     An often over looked item on the table is the cranberry sauce. It can be whole berry or smooth sauce, but I prefer whole berry. After I discovered whole berry, I make sure that I put both types of cranberry on the table. If they don't both get eaten than that's just more leftovers for me.
     Now for the dessert. I love pumpkin pie, it is my favorite dessert. Specifically, I prefer it made than sat on the counter to age for at least 24-hours, or it won't taste the best (in my opinion). You can buy pumpkin pie filling at certain store which saves some of the time making it.
      Another favorite is apple pie. Apple pies can vary greatly depending on the recipe and whose making it. I have a friend who make a great apple pie with fresh apples. Unfortunately, most local apples are picked, so she has to get store bought apples for Thanksgiving. She still makes a good apple pie, but good ingredients like fresh apples can still improve the recipe.
     I hope you enjoyed that post. What are you favorite Thanksgiving foods?

Introduction to Brody's Good Restaurants

     At an earlier post, I mentioned a new blog I may start. Well, here it is Brody's Good Restaurants . There is only so many foods that can be mentioned, so while I'm finishing up posting about individual foods and dishes that I've eaten and had at my house, I'm also going to be posting on my new blog. My new blog will be about restaurants I visit. It will post as often as I go out to eat. I'm currently in the middle of a semester, so my eating out time will be limited. However, sense the semester is just starting I have had time to go to a restaurant (Applebee's) and will have that post for that. I hope you enjoy reading my new blog.

Christmas Eve

     Tomorrow is Christmas Day or December 25, a week before 2015. Tomorrow I get to indulge in some Christmas food, like fruit cake. I'm sure I'll have some posts on each of the different foods that I'm going to eat or try, that I haven't already posted about.
     Besides posting more on this blog, I'm considering starting a blog where I talk about restaurant that I visit and what I liked and disliked about them. I hate giving bad reviews, but I would rather give restaurant advice to people, so they can try and avoid bad restaurant. However, I'm sure it won't come to bad reviews and, even if it did, people could have a different opinion.
     If I do start a blog, it probably won't be until next year. If and when I do start a restaurant blog then I would link it to this blog for my viewers to find easily.

Good old Peanut Butter & Jelly

     One of the simplest sandwiches, Peanut Butter & Jelly can be great for a quick snack (as long as you have all the ingredients). All you need is peanut butter, jelly and bread. Believe me when I say, sometimes you can be surprised when you go to make one and find all the ingredients used or just as surprised when you end up having more than one.
     The first ingredient in the name is peanut butter. Peanut butter can be crunchy or smooth. There are actually several varieties of peanut butter. Personally, I prefer the original peanut butter, but I don't overly care if it is crunchy or smooth, crunchy is just harder to spread around. I think smooth is more economical, though, because the crunch stacks high and results in using more so it doesn't last as long. At least peanut butter is fairly neat.
     The second half of the name is jelly. There are several different kinds of jelly and I've made a few of them. I've made blackberry jelly, I just need to make sure that I leave enough blackberries to make the jelly. After you boil down the blackberries there is a lot less of it, so you need a lot to start with. Making jelly is a fairly simple operation. You know what they say, 'The toast always lands jelly side down.' Jelly can get rather messy.
     I would recommend using the cheapest bread you can because between the peanut butter and jelly, it is hard to taste the bread. In this instance, I tend to use white bread or Italian bread.

Fellow bloggers

     I know it's been a while sense my last post. I have been belly deep in homework, but I've been drafting a few post topics, so when Christmas break come I'll have lots have posts to fill in and won't have to think up more foods to talk about. If I'm lucky, I might get one other post out before December, but I make no guarantees. After December starts, forget it, it'll be crunch time for finals and I definitely won't have time to post. I decided that I didn't like the amount of space that my previous font provided between words, so my new font is Arial.
     I was talking with my friends that also blog earlier about each of our blogs and I thought that it would be nice to mention each other's blogs on our own. So I planned out a how and a when and now here are their blogs!

• Chloe Armstrong (the-dancing-queen.blogspot.com)
• Dale Volker (volkersmovies.blogspot.com)
• Lisa Park (lisa-talks-about-anything.blogspot.com)
• Amanda Perry (amandas-dream-blog.blogspot.com)

    Make sure that you go and check out their blogs!

Tuna Melt

     I only just found out about tuna melts rather recently. I was over at a friends house and someone their was making a tuna melt for lunch. I had eaten a tuna sandwich before, but not like that. I was curious, so I asked him about it.
                                                             

     A tuna melt is like a grilled cheese, except for the fact that it has tuna on it. However, it varies by bread, cheese and how long you grill it, just like it would for a grilled cheese.
     The main thing to look for in tuna is the type of tuna and what it's in. That will influence the flavor the most in a tuna melt.

Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato (BLT)

     My favorite sandwich is Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato or (BLT); it has been for a while. It wasn't always, but when you try a lot of things your tastes and favorites tend to change. My favorite version of this particular sandwich has: red tomato and lettuce. Also, slightly crispy bacon that's not flimsy or burnt. Bacon that's firm, but not over done. Those three ingredients between rye bread with mayonnaise spread on it.
      First off, obviously the bacon can be cooked to different degrees. I'm pretty sure that bacon is already cooked when it's packaged, don't hold me to it though. Therefore, I suppose you could eat uncooked bacon from the package and put it on a BLT, but I would never. I doubt it tastes good, but I prefer a bit of crunch to my bacon, so I would never eat it uncooked anyway. At any rate, you can put slightly cooked, half done or burnt bacon on your BLT. The burnt will have the strongest taste and will therefore have the greatest impact on the overall taste of the sandwich you put it on, in this case the BLT. I like mine cooked to a medium amount of done.
     Moving on to the next ingredient, lettuce. Believe it or not, lettuce can have a bit of an impact on sandwiches. The first thing worth noting is that you should thoroughly rinse you lettuce. Whether it came from a place that uses pesticides, or just plain has dirt on it, it is good to rinse lettuce thoroughly. I'm sure that you would hate to taste dirt or be poisoned. Aside from that, lettuce can be bland which is why in a salad it is usually accompanied by a dressing. Sense lettuce doesn't have the most flavor ever, I put one slice of it, roughly bread size, on the BLT. If I put too much on it gets everywhere.
     Also, the tomato can have a variety of flavors (or it can be just plain bland) depending on the kind of tomato plant. Tomatoes come in more then one color and each color varies in taste. It's kind of hard to put cherry tomatoes on a BLT, though I suppose you could. Honestly, I've never tried it before; you'd have to slice them and then lay them flat on the sandwich. However, cherry tomatoes is more of a salad conversation. Personally, I just buy the cheapest tomatoes because, in my BLT, I look more for the taste of the bacon.
     And lettuce not forget the bread on either side! Like a said in my Grilled Cheese post, I hadn't always considered other bread besides white bread. Now that I've tried many different kinds of breads on a BLT, I would have to say that rye bread is my favorite bread to use for it. If you mayonnaise the bread to much, the first taste that it is going to cover up is the taste of the bread.
     BLT, being my favorite sandwich, made me consider whether or not I really wanted to experiment with its formula. After all, it was already good, why risk it? I'll tell you why, it could've gotten better, and it did. I changed the bread from white to rye. If I had decided that I didn't like a specific kind of bread I would have just used it for something else anyways, so no waste there.

Grilled Cheese

     I like many varieties of sandwiches. Many of which I will explore over the next few posts, or more. Each kind of sandwich has its own qualities. (And even the simplest sandwiches can go wrong, but this isn't the most disastrous sandwiches in America or anything, so I won't really go into that.) I shall start off by talking Grilled Cheese.
     What could be more delicious than a slab of cheese between buttered bread grilled to perfection? Well, a BLT (bacon lettuce and tomato) because it's my favorite sandwich, but that's beside the point. Talking about grilled cheese seemed the right sandwich to start with, though.
     At first I always made my grilled cheese with white bread and hadn't thought of trying it with any other bread for some reason. But later I decided to try with some other kinds and they came out half decent, though the white bread will always be my favorite bread for grilled cheese.
     Buttering bread before putting it on the grill helps the crisping process. I've never used anything, but real butter for the buttering process; however, fake butter obviously isn't made the same way as real butter is, so it probably wouldn't come up with the same result in the grilled cheese.
     What's the biggest factor in making grilled cheese? You guessed it! The cheese itself. From American to Swiss to provolone, each cheese brings quite the difference of flavor to the table.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I will just leave you with this beautiful picture of grilled cheese.

Corn of the cob

     A seasonal favorite of mine is corn of the cob. You certainly can't get it in the winter and not in the spring either. It's a summer food. Well, you probably can get in during the winter, but it wouldn't be from around here. Unlike steak, you can't really change the recipe for it. However, you can add certain after effects.
      Of course, corn can't grow in the mountains, and Colorado is famous for its mountain's (the rocky mountains). However, they do grow corn in Colorado, just not in the mountains. If the corn isn't grown in your area then it's probably not fresh. Obviously, the farther away the corn is coming from the longer it takes to get to its destination and the less fresh it'll be. I'm leaving the starting farm and the corn's final destination not specified because it would be different for each individual. Thankfully, unlike, for example canned peaches, you can see the product. Or get a general picture anyway. With canned peaches, if they used bad peaches (for whatever reason), then you don't have any idea what your product looks like, or the size of it, until you open up the can and hope for the best. Corn on the cob is only in its natural container; its husk. You can generally get a picture of what the size of the corn is by the size of the husk or gentle feeling the place of the cob in the husk. Also, by the health status of the husk, you can try and judge the quality of the corn itself. If you buy local corn on the cob then you probably don't need to check it, though that could change depending on how many people are buying it and how much has been sitting around. However, whether it is necessary to check the corn or not, it is still good practice. Also, you never know when something could come up. Overall, I think I have had pretty good luck with picking out corn.
     All foods can be compared to each other in some way or another. When cooking steak, it has been noted that you can season it with a whole arsenal of spices and herbs. Also, it can be cooked to several different variations of how done it is. Lastly, several different steak sauces can be added when consumed or left with out any. (Last night, my steak was juicy enough without any sauce added). With corn on the cob, the choices are rather limited. There are always ways to vary how to bring food to the table, but some food can be changed less than others. With corn on the cob I boil a pot of water and drop the dehusked corns in. Later, I take them out and pile them on a plate. When I'm ready for my next corn on the cob, I remove it from the other plate and place it on my plate where I proceed to put the corn on the cob holders on either side of my corn on the cob.

A picture of corn on the cob holders.

After I have adjusted my corn on the cob holders so that they won't fall off as soon as I pick them up I pick up my corn on the cob. You would have pretaken out a stick of butter and placed it in a special container before the start of the meal.

Here you can see what my stick of butter holder looks like.

I twirl my corn on the cob over the stick of butter, so that it just barely scrapes the utmost top layer of butter off and onto my corn. I continue the process until each kernel of corn has butter on it. Or rather, almost all. There is generally a stubborn corn that I can't get to, but amongst the rest of the butter it isn't noticeable.
 I salt my corn next, but you don't have to. Some people like their food saltier than other people.
     Enjoy you corn on the cob and the summer!

Steak

     Last night I had steak for supper. Steak can be defined very easily through a few words: price, quantity,  and quality.
     One of the foods that can get the most expensive is steak. However, when the price increases, generally, the quality does too. If you want to be good at picking out steaks than you have to learn to ignore the price because if you are someone who has a tight budget or are very careful with how you spend your money than buying good steak isn't for you. Of course, if you ignore your budget too often and continuously buy steak then you will end up going through your money very fast, if you're buying good steak. Who wants that much steak anyway? I only eat steak on an occasion because there are so many other foods to try or retry, why stay on the same food over and over each night? I would think it would get boring.
     You may think that the words quantity and steak don't generally go together. On the contrary, quantity is just how much of something there is, no matter how much or how little. In a store, you can buy as much steak as you want, your budget will allow, how much you can carry or how much is in stock. Then when you get home, you can cook as much or as little of it as you want. I generally cook my steak the size of a hockey puck. Maybe I could eat more, but there is always a side or two with it that I have to add so that it isn't just steak. Also, I could end up eating someone else's leftover and I have to have room for that. However, in a restaurant you are limited to the sizes on the menus, though the chefs probably have more experience with cooking and preparing the steak then you do.
     The most important aspect of a steak is its quality, Personally, the steak I had last night was a very good juicy steak that was cooked well. If you are going to be picking out steak, or any other meat, you should know what the fat of that type of meat looks like; that way you can try and choose a package, in this case steak, that has the least amount of fat in it. However, just because fat isn't the best thing to be eating (health and texture wise) doesn't mean having a bit of it on your steak is the end of the world. You can cut the fat off before or after cooking the steak, but if you cut it off before you cook the steak then you could use it later.
     Steak is definitely on the to-try list, just not on the OK-to-indulge-in list. Steak doesn't cost as much if you only buy it once or kill the quality, but I like the quality. I have steak once or twice a month and it doesn't drain my budget, but I guess it varies from budget to budget.

Baby Back Ribs

      Hello all. I know it has been a bit, but it wouldn't be college if I didn't study once in a while. Today's post is about a popular food called Baby Back Ribs.

Some of my supper.

Generally, I have baked brown beans with my baby back ribs and a canned fruit. Tonight the canned fruit I'm going to have with it peaches. Ribs can go from here to there. Some are juice, some are dry, some have a lot of barbecue sauce and some have hardly any (though you can always add your own).
     Personally, I have my own arsenal of barbecue sauces. Below is a picture of one of my favorites.

 

I like Richard's barbecue sauce; I got it from Vermont. Actually I ordered online and they shipped a box of them to me.

I'm all for trying new barbecue sauces, but if I were you I wouldn't order a whole box just to try it. You might not like it! You probably have to buy in bulk. However, I'm sure that any grocery store has several barbecue sauces to choose from.
     Because I like barbecue sauce on my ribs it can get quite messy. My friend Chloe claims that she can eat ribs with lots of barbecue sauce on them and eat them neat. (I haven't seen this). Today I ate supper with my friend Eli who made a bit of a mess; though not as much as me... I got some sauce on my shirt. (I'm sure that stain comes out.)
     I hear that brown beans are best when not just reheated from the can. However, all though I can cook somewhat, I have yet to try and cook brown beans from scratch.
     The peaches are my short term dessert. Later I had a rice crispy square for a better dessert, but peaches are fine for eating just after supper. The unfortunate thing about rice crispy squares is that they are messy. If I am not careful than I could get it all over my coach. Or I could just eat over my coffee table...
     And that sums up my Baby Back Ribs dinner plus dessert.

Movies and food

     I love watching movies, watching TV shows, trying new foods and eating in general. Many times when what I'm watching (whether movie or series) has food it makes me want to try it, if I haven't tried it before. This can be especially true if I'm watching something like 'Chopped' or 'Iron Chef'. I'll give some examples.
     1. Jammy Dodgers. I watched a passing episode of TV show called 'Doctor Who'. In this episode (who knows what the name of it was), the main character was eating a Jammy Dodgers, after threatening something to blow them up if they didn't cooperate. At first I didn't know what he was hold, but he mentioned the name later. (And he wanted tea with it.)

     2. Mango. A fruit that I didn't know existed. They had to use one on 'Chopped'. Chopped is a cooking show that involves 4 chefs cooking with at least four ingredients given to them. The worst chef loses each round. (there's 3 round; Appetizer, entree and dessert.) Surprisingly mangoes were easy to find.

 
     3.Chocolate Covered Pickles. Saw these at a fair. I didn't need to find it because I decided I wanted to try it when it was right in front of me. They were pretty good. I won't recommend eating them if you are a die hard chocolate lover because than you'll say there's too little chocolate on it and miss the whole point.

 4. Anchovies. I don't remember how I got associated with this fish. It's rather salty. Just like any other food, it's a matter of opinion on if it's any good or not. Personally, I think they're too salty, but if you like seafood it's worth a try; or if you like salty foods, like potato chips; or if you like both.

There is plenty other scenarios, but I hope you get the picture; try new foods that you haven't tried before. Though there's certainly no problem with having your own limits, just don't make them so you don't try anything new.

New things

     No one needs to talk me into trying new things. I'm all for that; you won't know unless you try it, right? In fact, I've tried several things that other people wouldn't try. (Though there is that line. I hear there is a such thing as chocolate covered ant and that's were I draw the line at trying new food.)
     Aside from that, I've tried things like eating pickled eggs, chocolate covered bacon, bacon milkshake, chocolate covered pickles and anchovies. (I'm not saying there isn't people who would eat them without a second thought; I'm just saying that I took the time to try what I wouldn't normally eat.)

I got my bacon milkshake at Denny's along with a few other bacon related products they were selling.

     Despite what people say, I did in fact try swimming before I decided I didn't like it. Not being able to swim may have something to do with it, but I won't even put my feet in the water or as my friends always hear me say 'my big toe'. My big toe always feels like it's going to freeze off. You could almost say I'm paranoid of large bodies of water. Though when I'm not standing in the water or with my big toe in the water, I'm generally one of the warmest people around. Swimming or standing in a lake, ocean or pond just isn't for me.
     Let's see, what else have I tried? I'm not a big roller coaster guy. I've gone on a few, but they just weren't what I thought they'd be. I don't get nauseous easily, but roller coaster do make me feel a little queasy.
     Oh, I'm always watching a new movie. Me and best friend Dale are always going to the movies together. So if you count that as trying something new than I do that quite often. I have a larger view point of good movies than Dale, though not by much. TV shows is something else I watch several of. However I haven't been able to watch as much TV or go to as many movies sense I started going to college. Not that there is always good movies coming out.
     I'm not sure if trying a new class counts or not. Sure it's something new, but if you want to get that degree than you don't have much choice. Though you did choose to go to college and try a whole new experience, so that must count for something....
     Moving on, I've tried many friendships and they have all worked out. I'm now good friends with Dale and Eli. Also, I'm friends with Ginn and Chloe. Furthermore, I've had the pleasure of becoming acquaintance with Lisa, Amanda, Tamara, David, Ronald, Nicholas, Everett, Varro, Matthew, Barnes, Kiva, Camille, Hunter, Ellie and James. I have no girlfriend as of now, but I have no problem trying that if it were to come my way. (A girl who is a great cook would be nice.)
     So, you shouldn't be afraid to try new things when they come your way. I know I'm not. This should mean a lot coming from a guy who tries a lot of new things.

[All pictures that I post on my blog are from the web. I have no camera of my own and, when I borrowed a friends camera, my pictures were really blurry.]

Cookies or donuts?

  Personally, I like cookies better than donuts. Donuts are messy and can be dry, depending on how they're made or how long they've been out. But don't take my word for it! Donuts are cheep. Just go down to your local Dunkin Donuts (or whatever donut shop you have in your area.) and buy a cheep donut and make the

decision for yourself.

  Now cookies on the other hand, I love cookies. Especially, soft chocolate chip cookies. You don't want to have to bite hard to get a bite of a cookie.

Also, Santa was right about one thing, cookies (especially chocolate chip cookies.)  go very well with a glass of milk.

Now there seems too be more flavors of donuts than cookies. Why is that? Maybe it's because donuts seem to be named after quite a few thing in compared to cookies which are just named after their flavor.

Get out there and get tasting!

Seafood

    Their are many different kinds of seafood. Good examples are fish, shrimp, lobster/crab and clams/oysters. There are most certainly more types than that but that sums up a good chunk. (Fish taking up the largest to be broken down later. It is not uncommon for seafood to taste salty because it is found in salt water; however, the salt is generally, removed from around the food before being served. There are many types and varieties of seafood.
    First subject and most easiest to explain, fish. Also, fish has the most variety out of all the other sea foods. The most popular fish are: salmon, haddock, tuna, and anchovy. (I probably didn't mention all popular fish, but this is a basis.) First fish I'll discuss is the salmon. It's picture is posted below.

It's very good tasting and goes well with many sides. I'm having it for supper tonight. Next fish to talk about is Haddock. Below is a picture of a sliced and diced haddock.

This is the fish I have most often. My favorite side with this is taters tots. Next picture is of tuna.

Than anchovies.

You probably haven't seen ether of these because they are generally canned not cooked like this.
   Next is shrimp which, by the way, is my favorite seafood. People generally dip it in cocktail sauce, but I'm not a big fan of that stuff and, as a result, prefer my shrimp just plain shrimp without sauce or help. They taste great on their own. Here's a picture of shrimp.

    Crab is my second favorite seafood and, when I can, I generally buy the crab legs. Here's a picture.

    Finally, I get to clams though I'm not a big fan of them. The insides look like pasta. Next picture is of clams.

You have to boil them to get them out of their shell.
    I hope you enjoyed my review of seafood!

Smoothies

    Smoothies are delectable treats that are fairly easy to make if you own a blender. Blenders, thankfully, aren't the most expensive appliance in the world. For a banana smoothy, all you have to do to make it, is grind up bananas in your blender until liquid enough to drink. Simple as that, as long as you know how to work a blender or read a manual. More complex smoothies are just more ingredients added. If a smoothies doesn't come out smooth enough you could add a liquid like orange juice to make it smoother. Banana smoothies go well with orange juice. 
    Milkshakes can also be made in a blender, though that's make with milk and ice cream. 
    Banana is a flavor the I find generally doesn't need any help to be great tasting. 
    A lot of things taste better when they are homemade or homegrown appose to store bought. Maybe because it's because it's fresher or because it has no additives or preservatives. Or maybe it's just the fact that you are the one that is going to be eating it so you are careful about how you make it. I'm not saying that you don't care about you make it if you in specific is selling it or sharing it, but stores don't generally have that concern. A lot of stores only care about receiving the most money. Now I know working is about making money, but employees, workers and employers could care more about their customers.
    Anyhow, there are plenty of drinks to make without having to drink the same thing day in and day out; whether it's a smoothy, milkshake or some other combined drink. There's lots to eat, drink and consume; broaden your horizon.

The Sundae and banana split.

    If you like ice cream, it is kind of hard to go wrong with an ice cream sundae or banana split. (The two are a somewhat interchangeable. A banana split generally has more flavors of ice cream and, of course, has bananas.) There are many components to a true ice cream sundae called an ice cream sundae with the works. An ice cream sundae with the works consists of ice cream, pineapple, chocolate syrup, whip topping, strawberry sauce, nuts and [of course (if it's a banana split)] bananas. Ice cream desserts can be very filling if they are loaded, if not ice cream just slides right down.
    An ice cream sundae and banana split isn't a split/sundae without the ice cream. The world is full of flavors of ice cream and plenty more that have yet to be invented. I generally have vanilla, chocolate and strawberry when I have a banana split. Though you have to dig through all the toppings to get to the ice cream. Ice cream is the major part of any ice cream related dessert.
    Another part of a banana split is the pineapple. It's pineapple in chunks in a pineapple sauce. Though it helps if you like pineapple. It's a solid, but not hard to chew and slides down almost as easily as ice cream. Pineapple is another important part of a banana split.
    Also, you tend to have chocolate syrup on it, though I suppose some people would view this as too much chocolate if they already have chocolate ice cream. Chocolate syrup takes up less room than ice cream or pineapples because it's pure sauce. You should consider putting it on your sundae if you're to full to eat much after your meal, but want good flavor. Chocolate syrup is another important ingredient to the sundae.
    Whip topping also goes on a good sundae. And do you know what? It takes up less room than chocolate syrup! It's hard to have too much whip topping. Compared to other ingredients, in which it doesn't matter what order you put them on (with the exception of ice cream which goes on the bottom.), whip topping goes on top. Whip topping is a must.
    Strawberries in its own sauce is yet another delectable topping. It is one of the toppings that cost the most room in your stomach. Personally, strawberries is one of my favorite toppings (and one of my favorite ice cream.) Strawberries and its flavor is great.
    Nuts is probably the least used topping because certain people are allergic to nuts. Personally, I like how it gives the sundae its crunch. Thankfully, unlike other desserts, if you don't like nuts or are allergic you can just not put them on. It's as easy as that. If you like nuts and crunch, you just have to have nuts on your sundae.
    Most importantly, you can't have a banana split without the banana! Most filling of all the ingredient, banana is also one of the ingredient it is hard to go wrong with. (Next post is about banana smoothies.) Not much is left to say except that it is great frozen. Bananas are great!
    Sundaes and banana split have a lot in common. They can be big, small and/or taste. Personally, I always have all the toppings I can on my sundaes and banana splits. Ice cream is one of my favorite desserts.

Vegetables

Many people eat carrots, broccoli, green beans, peas or corn as their vegetables. However, people should realize that their are other vegetables out there, whether it's because you (or your child) doesn't like any of the list above or if you're just plain tired of eating the same vegetables day after day. Consider discovering new vegetables and trying them. You may be surprised. Some vegetables that generally go unnoticed are asparagus (which I believe tastes like corn on the cob.), eggplant (which is good in pasta) and water chestnuts. Asparagus is generally a side while eggplant can be ether a side or main meal. You could just try googling vegetables and try all of them listed. That would broaden you horizon. Another strategy with vegetables is, if it is just the fact that the person consuming it doesn't like the flavor, try putting it in a soup or dumpling. You won't even taste it. Carrots, peas and corn would be great ingredients for a soup. Just because vegetables are in the food pyramid and are healthy, doesn't mean it has to be annoying and painful to eat it.

Buffets - The ups and downs

    In my experience, there are many good and bad things about buffets. I would know, I go to many of them. Buffets can be filling, have staffing differences, have a difference in prices and difference in quality, all of which I'll discuss. You should understand buffets before going to one. (Though you generally gain experience just by going to them which would be easier.)
    Least importantly, buffets have plenty enough food to fill you. (Why is that least important you might ask? Because it being filling doesn't help if it is wicked expensive and the food has horrible quality.) All buffets have several tables to choose from and some have an ice cream machine. Thankfully, if you feel like eating a lot the staff automatically refill any containers that become empty. I can understand if you want to try all the foods, but have to come back another day because you're full. Buffets can be very filling.
    Another thing to consider is the staff. You may need less staff at a buffet appose to a formal restaurant, but horrible mannered staff is still enough to cause problems and turn people away. For example, a waiter/waitress may give you the bill than continue to pester you about paying it for the purpose of getting you to leave, so new customers can replace you or so you eat less food if you're a really hungry person. Also, a good staff accepts complaints given by customers and work to improve whatever is the problem. Staff is something to consider when choosing a good restaurant. 
    Also, buffets (like many other things) can vary vastly in price. The key is to find a buffet that is fairly cheap without sacrificing the food's quality. Although, there was this one time that I was at a buffet and I got a free lunch or dinner at the buffet. You see they were setting up a party there and I was in the way, so they paid me to move. I got lucky. It was a pretty good restaurant, but even if I didn't think so I still would have returned because you can't beat free. Anyway,  you should try going to their website and finding their prices, than go to other nearby buffets and try and find the best price for the best quality. People's opinion on prices can vary. For example, I'm not the poorest person in town, so I can afford some very good buffets. Always keep close attention to the prices, especially if you're on a budget.
     Most importantly, consider the quality of the food you are paying for. All foods can come in a huge spectrum of quality. Steak, being one of the more taster foods, has one of the larger spectrums. Fries have a very small spectrum because it isn't generally very tasty. Both steak and fries you wouldn't see at all buffets, but they're good examples of spectrum sizes. Ham can also have a large variety of tastes and is one of the top foods to inspect when deciding if the quality of the food is good or not. Certain hams are bland and are obviously not good food when identified. On the other hand, hams can be quite flavorsome. When you're trying to identify the quality of the buffet and its food, inspecting and tasting ham is a good place to start. Quality and price must not be examined separately or you may lose the overall truth about the buffet.
    So I'll review the points to note about a buffet. What to remember is: buffets can be very filling, staff can be really helpful or really rotten, food can not be worth the money you paid for it or it can be a great deal, and quality can't always be seen, it must be tasted, and is the most important detail. Buffets must be fully investigated before full diving in.