Four Foods on Friday is getting a little crazy this week. It’s all about weird ways we eat normal foods.

1. What’s the oddest thing you’ve ever made with bread?

A brown sugar sandwich. White bread, butter, and brown sugar. A friend in college was addicted to them. I think it’s a southern thing.

2. What’s the oddest thing you’ve ever done with mac and cheese or pasta?

I mix stuff in with my pasta all the time. Tuna, peas, broccoli, artichokes, cheese. I’ve also made pasta in the oven, microwave, and crock pot.

3. Is there a food you eat other then it is intended?

I would say ketchup on eggs, but not as many people are grossed out by that anymore. I dip shrimp in Ranch dressing instead of cocktail sauce.

4. What’s the weirdest food you’ve ever seen?

Fresh conch in the Bahamas. The fisherman pulled it right out of the ocean, dug it out of its shell, and chopped it up and ate it. If I were to go back, I’d definitely try it.

Much to my husband’s dismay, I love fruits and veggies. He swears he’s some sort of super-taster and that all fruits and veggies are bitter, but I just think he has an adverse reaction to anything that is good for him.

Obviously, he wouldn’t enjoy this week’s Four Foods on Friday, because he’s crazy anti-veggie man.

1. Fruits and veggies. Do you prefer them peeled or not?

I used to be a strictly peeled fruits and veggies kind of person, and I do occasionally enjoy taking the skin off my apples, but I have learned to love crispy roasted potato skins and peach fuzz.

2. What’s your favorite fresh fruit or vegetable smell?

I don’t think fresh veggies smell all that great, but I’ll take a wiff of a fresh cut watermelon or pear any day.

3. What’s the worst food smell you’ve ever smelled?

When I lived in Indianapolis, I worked in the same building as Oceanaire, and one summer their grease trap backed up and I was never able to eat there again. They had terrific food, but after smelling what the remains of fried fish smell like, I couldn’t stomach it.

4. Share the recipe for the dish that you love to smell cooking in your oven.

Sugar cookies! I made several batches a few years ago, and the house smelled fabulous for days. I’ll have to remember that smell, because sugar cookies are too much damn trouble to make and that fresh baked smell will not be coming from my house again!

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

NOTE: The cookies taste way better when you let the dough chill overnight, and taste even better when you take the time to roll the dough out and cut it into stars and snowflakes. Seriously. It does!

Tie on your apron, because it’s time for Four Foods on Friday, and this edition is quite chefy!

1. Name one cookbook, cooking website or food blog that you frequently use.

I wouldn’t say I use Smitten Kitchen often, but I refer to it. The recipes usually too involved for my liking, but I enjoy the layout and photography.

2. Do you watch any cooking shows on tv? Which ones?

Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, Good Eats, Paul’s Home Cooking, Semi-Homemade, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Unwrapped.

3. Are you in a cooking rut? Name a food or dish that you’d like to find a recipe for.

I’d love some recipes to get Mike to eat more fish and seafood! My goal was to replace two meals a week with fish, but I can’t find anything that he’ll actually eat.

4. Share a recipe created by somebody else that you haven’t tried but would like to.

One of the many recipes the Chef I work with developed that has gotten rave reviews.

Peppermint Pesto Chicken Kabobs

Kabobs

• 6 wooden skewers
• 3 pounds chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Pesto

• 1 cup basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
• 2 small roasted garlic cloves
• 1/3 cup light olive oil
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Preheat oven to 375. Coat pan with non-stick spray. Skewer chicken and place in pan. Brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 20 minutes, turning halfway.

Prepare ice water in medium bowl. Boil three cups water in saucepan. Place basil leaves in boiling water for 10 seconds, remove, and place in ice water for 5 seconds. Remove from ice water and squeeze out excess water. Place basil in food processor with remaining ingredients and process until well blended.

Serve skewers with pesto on the side.

Our local newspaper has a heavily debated article on the use of clotheslines to save money, which spurred a debate on whether clotheslines are unsightly in neighborhoods and against covenants, which brought to mind how much I hate the smell of laundry dried on a clothesline.

While some people find that the scent takes them back to their childhood and think it smells like sunshine and the great outdoors, I think it smells like dirt and grime and clothes are stiff and scratchy after being in the sun all day.

Furthermore, the article went on to say that using a clothesline year-round saves only $100 in gas. I will gladly pay $100 for soft and snuggly clothes that smell like Bounty.

As always, I’m trying to get my weight under control. I’ve started running on an elliptical (I’m up to 2.5 miles per run!), making better choices at the grocery, and am going to start reading Skinny Bitch.

Sometimes all the positive life improvements need a little extra kick and Generic Acomplia can do just that. Acomplia is a popular weight loss medicine made from Rimonabant, which blocks receptors in the brain from craving food. In addition to being a weight loss aid, Generica Acomplia has been proven to reduce nicotine cravings and help smokers kick the habit!

Like most effective medications, a prescription is needed for Generic Acomplia and a physician should be contacted before starting any medication or exercise routine, and it is well worth it to lose weight and stop smoking.