Poll: Are there foods that intimidate you?

1. Sea food  (other than shrimp and tuna from a packet I don't eat it.)
2. TVP 

quinoa and chia seeds...both have me stumped...i have both, tried to use the quinoa once, but did not like it..i have bulk so i think it needs to be rinsed...so once rinsed, how long will it last in fridge..once cooked, now long will it last in fridge?? or you just cook it when you want it?
thanks
debby

Lotus root....I see it fresh, frozen and canned in the stores here and I have no idea what it's for!  This reminds me, I have some Asian Ingredients cookbooks tucked away....I will check them when I get home!  It looks beautiful on the packaging...but I'm not at all sure it would tickle my tastebuds in a good way.

I'm lucky, pineapple cutting was a part of my youth...even 40 years ago in southwestern Connecticut we would occasionally get pineapple in the stores.  Pineapples are still grown here on Maui, so I can always find fresh at the stores, avocado grows easily here....there are trees everywhere.  Mangoes too, although I am not as skilled at mango cutting and the skins make me itch (sumack family).

I have learned that a sense of adventure and a sharp knife can get me into just about anything....

Sara in Maui

 Mango cutting is fun.  Halve, score, flip inside out. Presto. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvLdPjpELyU 

Have yall not discovered the marvelous pineapple corer/peeler??? 

My Publix sells the fresh pineapples already cut and peeled....and no extra charge.  But I do like to tear into one myself every now and then!!

Rhubarb--I remember my Aunt making rhubarb pies.  I don't have a clue what you do with it or what you can do with it.

 I bought that for myself for Christmas at Williams and Sonoma. It works like a dream. Perfectly cored pineapple!

I spent a summer in Maine when I was in college.  The lady I lived with had rhubarb growing in her yard and showed me how to cook with it.  It isn't exactly healthy. I would clean it and cut it in cubes.  then I would boil it in a pot with a about 1/3 cup  water, a little lemon juice and add lots of sugar.  Otherwise it is very bitter.  It taste really good with strawberries and poured over ice cream like a syrup.  I suppose you could cook it with splenda and pour it over yogurt.  I may play with some this weekend.  If I do I'll let you know how it turns out.

Kale!  I keep hearing what a superfood it is.  Kale chips, sauteed kale...  I look at it in the market, and it scares me to death.  The only green leafy thing I know how to deal with is spinach.

Oh I'm intimately familiar with kale (and collard greens. In the African-American community if one of the two isn't present it isn't an official "soul food" dinner) but the way our folks cook it is NOT healthy! I have yet to attempt a healthy preparation of kale. It almost feels like blasphemy. Perhaps that will be one I take on from the perspective not of teaching but of learning alongside my readers!

I will say for my part I have an unnatural fear of beets. I know they can be good. But my memory of them is always of those unnaturally colored canned things.