Appetizing Muse

There are several "small" issues both good and bad that I have with particular foods, and these are some of them:

• I don't like black coffee. If I can't drink it with lots of creamer (preferably Coffee Mate), I won't drink it at all. I also never add sugar. Same with hot tea.

• I dislike the "dregs" in a bag of potato chips. I prefer whole, fresh chips.

• I don't typically like sliced tomato on sandwiches, with the exception of bacon-lettuce-tomato. Even then, the tomato has to be so thinly sliced one can see through it, and I love lots of lettuce, black pepper and a glass of milk with a BLT.

• I like slightly undercooked pasta, usually with a dab of butter and salt.

• I used to add salt on pizza because I love the taste, but I'm trying to reign in my sodium intake these days.

• I don't like the "soup" liquid that is generated from cooking Ramen noodles and the accompanying season packets. I just like the noodles and the seasoning, and dump the water.

• I used to avoid spaghetti and meatballs. My ex-husband's mother made the dish for almost every family sitting, and her sauce was God-awful terrible. It took me a long time to get rid of the unpleasant memories, but now I eat spaghetti on a regular basis again.

• In my younger days, I liked rare-cooked meat. However, in the last ten years or so I have come to dislike any sign of blood in meat and prefer well-done portions.

• I never eat liver, veal or leg of lamb, although I do like small lamb chops.

• I love most vegetables except for cooked spinach, or canned varieties of peas and asparagus. I do like steamed peas and asparagus.

• I'm not much of a fruit-eater, although I do like apples with cheddar cheese, tart green apples with salt, kiwi, pomegranates and fresh blackberries.

• My favorite snack food remains nuts – all varieties. I especially like baked pine nuts, fresh hazelnuts, macadamias, slivered almonds and cashews.

• I don't eat "runny" or "dippy" eggs, but once in awhile I'll consume hard-cooked, scrambled or a well-cooked omelet. I especially like the Denver Omelet.

• Given my druthers, I could live on fish, chicken, and salads, with a Mexican, Japanese or Irish meal thrown in now and then for good measure.

• If I was a drinker, I think I could exist on Ryan's Irish Cream.

Not too fussy, am I?