GeoffreyLevens wrote:To be fair to Mom, all the bitter greens used to make me physically gag unless I hid them under thick cheese sauce. Never ate them. When I started eating this way I discovered that I could hide them under mashed baked sweet potato so started doing that from time to time. Took quite a number of months but actually started to enjoy them, and then gradually, with less and less of the sweet potato. Now I love them plain, even raw, in salad, whatever. Tasted do change but I guess you have to be willing.
My tastes have certainly broadened over the years. While I no longer turn up my nose if someone offers me beets or brussle sprouts, it wasn't until my early twenties that I discovered green salads were actually palatable if smothered with creamy dressing. I wonder though, if I could now eat the same canned shredded spinach that actually made me gag as a child. The frequent traumatic dinner table anguish between my parents and I is still fresh in my mind (must have been the 'Popeye' influence for their generation that made them push it so emphatically). If they had held a gun to my head, I still couldn't have choked it down!
I eventually learned to love the sautéd/creamed spinach side dish typically served only in gourmet restaurants, but those days are over now.
