25 Things…

Posted by Stephanie Meyer on Feb 12, 2009 at 3:47pm

OK, if you’re on Facebook (FB), you know all about the 25 Random Things About Me lists that everyone is circulating. If you’re not on FB, it’s basically a semi-viral exercise where people write 25 things about themselves and send it around to their friends, encouraging them to do the same. There are those turning their noses up at it, but I think it’s the most fabulous thing. I’m learning oh-so-interesting (scandalous, woo hoo!) things about my friends, family, and high school classmates, and have had many much-needed laughs over the last couple of weeks. (I also realized I had precious few unknown things about myself to include in my list. Ahem.)

Many people include favorite foods and drinks in the list, not surprising. One friend included a recipe for her beloved Bloody Mary’s: “Absolut Peppar, Zing Zang mix, a little pickle juice, and a big old pickle make the perfect bloody!”

Which inspired me to milk the concept to death and devise a 25 Foodie Things About Me list, yeah! So here it is.

1. I enjoy eating meat, and cook it for my family, but I could just as easily be a vegetarian.  As an adult (see #4), I’m all about the veggies.

2. I used to crave cake batter when I was a kid.

3. Even though I’m annoyingly strict about eating healthy, whole foods (sorry fam, you’ll thank me someday), I still love Pringles, which are in reality a non-food item.

4. I hated – and I mean HATED – cheese, eggs, cream sauces, steak, baked potatoes, and all vegetables until I was at least 12 years old. (No surprise here, I love them all now.)

5. The first recipe I ever wrote (age 8) was for a chocolate marshmallow cake. I never made it.

6. Speaking of cake…there’s a theme emerging here…it is my favorite dessert.

7. I despise cilantro – it tastes like rotting flesh to me. Bummer.

8. I learned how to cook – and entertain – from my mom, stepmom, and Grandma Meyer.  As a child I would only comfortably eat food that they cooked.

9. My stepmom let me do pretty much whatever I wanted in her kitchen and that was such a gift.

10. When I was 12 years old I once ate 20 pancakes, with butter and syrup, for breakfast (4-inch growth spurt followed shortly thereafter).

11. I took an aptitude test in 8th grade that revealed I should be…a chef. I was embarrassed and only told Stephanie Sanford about it.

12. In that vein, I tried to pretend like I didn’t already know how to fry eggs, bake cookies, and easily make everything we learned in junior high home ec class. Thinking back on it, I’m not sure why, other than for some reason it was embarrassing to know how to cook?

13. My sister Stacey has eaten a lot of my bad experimental food – toast spread with tomato paste and baked (6th grade), chocolate cupcakes I forgot to put eggs in (7th grade), hamburger I-don’t-know (hamburger browned with cream of mushroom soup stirred in, over Minute Rice, egads, sorry man). Luckily I get to make her better food these days.

14. I went on a one-day high school health kick and decided I needed to stop eating McDonald’s for lunch every day (ya think?) and made myself a salad. I didn’t eat the salad but instead stashed it in Stephanie Sanford’s car’s glove compartment, ate McDonald’s for lunch, and didn’t find the salad until the end of the school year, thank goodness in a very airtight container that went straight into the garbage…gross.

15. The only thing I love more than making dinner is having someone else make dinner for me.

16. I once baked a birthday cake for a boyfriend who after he ate a slice, threw it up.

17. I made John beet soup when we were first dating and when he told me he didn’t like beets and wasn’t going to eat the soup, I told him he was rude for not eating something I had prepared for him. You decide who was right. (Hint: the cook)

18. I love, love, love it when I get my kids to try – and like – new things.

19. I credit Bon Appetit magazine and The Silver Palate cookbook (mid-’90s, young wifehood) for molding the way I entertain.

20. I pretty much hated Thanksgiving dinner until I went away to college and was stuck with disgusting, revolting dorm food – that first Thanksgiving home was one of the most memorably fabulous meals of my life. Thank you Mom. That experience changed my life.

21. When I first met John’s parents and bro, I couldn’t believe how awesome it was that they would eat pretty much anything. With gusto. Still rocks.

22. Stu the Wine Genius has completely changed the way I think about wine.

23. Even though I’m long past high school and college, I still LOVE a cold beer. LOVE.  Especially in the company of friends from high school and college. Ahhh…

24. The first thing I do when John and I check into a hotel (vaca!) is raid the mini-bar for a beer and Pringles. (See #3.)

25. I know that I’m the luckiest person in the whole entire world that I get to cook food, take pictures of it, write about it, and eat it.

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Older Comments

  1. By abigailo on February 14, 2009 at 7:42AM

    great variation!
    i can't believe anyone cannot LOVE cilantro - my favorite smell ever!

  2. By metalmommy on February 13, 2009 at 6:24AM

    Steph, I LOVE this!!! I've actually heard (maybe even from you?!) that liking Cilantro or not is actually a physical trait...kind of like being able to taste (or not) those acid-looking pieces of paper we got in science class in high school. Go Pringles! I love them too. I try not to buy them because I want to eat the entire can. Then again, I admit as much as I love healthy food, I do love a lot of processed stuff as well! eek. (bring on the Cheetos.)