31 Days: Day 5

Get foodie with it

The colors and aromas of ethnic cuisines from around the world can open us up to all kinds of adventure.

For today's adventure, try a new food.

Maybe it's one you've never heard of. (Quinoa? Kim chi? Let's give it a go!) Or how about a food or spice you're used to avoiding. Hot salsa? Chili paste? Wasabi? Or you can simply order a different item from your favorite restaurant instead of the regular.

Now is the time to give your palate a little extra adventure. You never know what you might fall in love with.

Feeling extra adventurous? Invite a friend to cook something new for you and taste it without knowing what it is.

I would have loved to be extra adventurous with this today, but it was another day I simply didn't leave my house. But I still managed to fit this one in.

Being from Washington, I am well acquainted with different types of apples. It has been disappointing to find fewer varieties here in Texas. While I can still get the honeycrisp apple, probably the best apple out there, there are others I can't get. One of my favorites is the gravenstein apple. It's the apple I made my applesauce from most years. I love the flavor of it. It's one of my very favorite apples. Last month I found a single bottle of apple juice made from gravenstein apples in rather a random place. It was the only one on the shelf. I picked it up and hid it away. I decided today would be the perfect day to open the bottle and see just how good it was. I was not disappointed. In fact, I was quite pleasantly surprised! It tastes just like my applesauce did, but in juice form! It was a great reminder of a wonderful apple that I love. I don't often drink juice, and when I do I drink very little. I drank almost the entire 32 oz. bottle.

For good measure, I also threw in a new chocolate I've never tried before; Vosges Black Pearl Bar. Dark chocolate with ginger, wasabi, and black sesame seeds. It was remarkably delicious.