You ate WHAT with that?

When I was in elementary school, we went through a phase where we'd put together two foods that didn't normally go together and eat them. It was the great lunchtime competition - who could create the best (and wackiest) mixture. I know we had a name for it, but can't for the life of me remember what it was, more than 20 years later (though I did just email a bunch of my old classmates to ask...go Facebook!).

One of my favorites (though not terribly wacky) was apple slices and brownies together. Maybe I should take that inspiration and make some brownies with apple slices in it (or maybe someone's already tried it, if so, give a shout out).

This evolved into playing spoons, where at sleepover parties, we'd raid the fridge and squirt a random array of various stuff from the fridge onto a spoon and then make someone eat it. And since honor was involved, we almost always did eat it. I don't remember exactly what went into it, since it was a rather random, grab-the-bottles-and-squirt kind of thing. But, for example, it might be a mixture of jam, capers, oil, tabasco, and mustard. One time we even subjected a friend's father to this, and put toothpaste as one of the ingredients in his spoon. He was a good sport and played along, with a minimum of face-pulling at what had to have been a disgusting flavor, though he wasn't happy when he found out there was toothepaste in it.

I also recall a birthday party of mine where the main order of business once the parents went to sleep was the playing of spoons. And come morning, there was stuff spilled all over the bottom of the closet and the sink was entirely clogged. I have no idea what caused all the mess, but let me tell you, my parents were not happy with that one!

Back to the not-quite-so-gross-but-still-strange combo foods. When I was little (I'm talking 4 years old) I used to love mayonnaise and mustard sandwiches. Just bread, mayo and mustard. I then grew out of that and didn't eat mustard for another 20 years, and am still very picky about it (dijon only). Mayo I will only eat as an ingredient (like in deviled eggs) but will never spread it on sandwiches. I guess I used up my mayo and mustard quotient when I was 4.

I was a very picky eater, especially as a teen. I could have listed on my fingers what veggies I would eat (salad veggies, but not the funky ones, just lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and then peas and corn and green beans. I'm not kidding, that's it). But one of the quirks I had was that when we had mashed potatoes and peas with dinner, I'd make a volcano shape with the potatoes, put all the peas in, and then mix it evenly together. I never ate them separately.

Even now, I'm all about the mixing of foods. When I have a protein, a carb, and a veggie on my plate, I'll take small bites of each in my mouth at the same time, to get a full complex spectrum of dinner, rather than just eating one regular-sized bite of each. The food seems more interesting that way.

What kinds of foods have you mixed in strange and different ways? Did you even play spoons?