Why Does It Have To Be This Way?

Please excuse any typos, my spell check is non-existent.

I've quickly settled into my little town North of KC. I'm learning the streets and I swear I could drive on auto-pilot to Culver's for a scoop of frozen custard. TOMORROW IS RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE FLAVOR OF THE DAY CUSTARD!!! You know I'm going. I've been looking forward to it for a week. By the way, you may find it surprising that I have NEVER had their butter burger. I think the bun is slathered with butter and browned. It just seems wrong. I mean, to call out butter in the very name of a hamburger. Do you get cheese or not? Do the two dairy items duke it out for attention?

Speaking of fatty foods, I went on a walk tonight. I joined a young intern visiting my office location for 3 months and she is from Germany. I am always interested in food. It's never far from my mind. So one of the questions I asked her is if there are any foods she misses that she hasn't been able to find over here. She told me how most of the food here has been so high in fat and sugar that she has had stomach issues adjusting to the food. She went out to dinner and ordered a salad, and that caused problems. I totally believe that. Why do all the fresh yummy veges have to be ruined by all the high fat toppings?!? Well, maybe it's a cover up for the winter tomatoes in some parts of the country.... That's my current theory.

I will never understand why it's so bloody difficult to find a good salad that wasn't created in my own kitchen. I will miss Spicy Pickle in Reno/Sparks for that very reason. They have the best, freshest salads. I know some of you would never order tuna salad out. Hey, I will never order it from Subway either. BUT, the Spicy Pickle had the BEST spicy pickle tuna salad. It was zesty with tons of flavor, and the big scoop of tuna salad was served on a bed of romaine lettuce with acceptable tomatoes, awesome kalamata olives, and a lemon vinaigrette dressing that is making my mouth water right now thinking of it. Anyway, why aren't there more decent, low fat, healthy salads out there?

I have to admit the lettuce I have experienced while dinng out recently makes me want to STOP eating lettuce. There have been at least two places, I won't name where, that I received DIRTY lettuce. Lemme tell you. I get out my microscopic vision before consuming lettuce while dining out. That MAY not be a speck of pepper, it could be one of those little lettuce bugs. Or that brown spot may actually be -gasp- DIRT! WHY oh WHY is it so stinking hard to WASH that lettuce off???

I guarantee, any lettuce I serve in my house has been visually inspected and interrogated by hand by yours truly. All for worry-free, guilt-free consumption.