Olives

If you've never tried real olives, you totally should. Over the weekend I tried a bunch of different kinds at the Whole Foods olive bar, and they were fantastic! I've always been a fan of plain old regular black canned olives. Like, incredibly so. But every time I've tried jarred green olives with pimento or greek olives in salad, I've been unimpressed. So I thought I just didn't like "real olives" and never bothered to try anything else.

But on Friday I did, and my olive world exploded! I asked the olive and cheese expert at Whole Foods to help me find a few REGULAR olives from their buffet of like 20 different varieties. I didn't want to try any crazy weird things. She directed me to several mild kinds which have changed my life. I was encouraged to sample by using tongs and a cup; I sampled the crap out of them. They tasted like your regular olive, only times that by a thousand.

The first thing I'm going to do with my new-found knowledge is add some sort of fancy olive mix to my usual cheese and crackers in December. (Oh my! It's December NOW :) Guess I get to go get some.) Every year I love to have all sorts of cheeses, assorted meats, and crackers for Christmas, and olives are TOTALLY joining the party.

To my knowledge, Harmon's and Smith's Marketplace also have olive bars. I smell a new habit forming.

Moral of the story. If you've never tried REAL olives, please do. Oh my gosh! I want some right now!