April & May 2016 Bucket List: I Ate a Bug, On Purpose! (And More!)

Let's start with April... which was the first full month I worked at my first full-time job. I'm still not used to being away from home so much. That being said I crossed "Job I Love" off of my bucket list in April. I went back and forth on this a bit because that's a hard thing to really set quantifiers on. At the heart of it, I do love my job. I am working somewhere that I am able to help others. I have formed friendships with coworkers. I may not like every aspect of the job, but I do love the job itself.

Also in April I squeezed in one more French meal from the 44 French Meals list. I had some lamb left, so I used it to make Navarin D'Agneau, which is essentially a lamb stew or ragu. I unfortunately did not get an awesome photo of this meal, because I was too sick to eat any of it, but I did get one photo of it in the pot.
Photo by Poison Megz

May was another long month, but I got some interesting items checked off of the ol' bucket list. First up, I wrote a children's book. It's not illustrated yet as that job is going to my brother and we have not had a chance to get together yet, but I completed the text! It's about my son's quirky little habits and hopefully I will be able to get it published once I have illustrations. This is one that was very important to me because I wanted to write something my son could enjoy versus my more adult oriented book and the YA book that is currently in progress.
Next up... I ate a bug! On Purpose! My co-worker and I took a group of our clients to Spring Mill for Civil War Days. This is a state park with a pioneer village. It was an awesome trip and they had 3 gift shops there. At the third, my co-worker and I both spotted edible bugs.  There were two types, larva and crickets, in several flavors. My co-worker bought several varieties, I just bought the spicy worms. Now, I do not have a photo of me eating the worm either time, but I do have a photo of the box after giving them to the teenager aka my step-son to try (he ate every last one of them by the way.) They weren't bad honestly, tasted a bit like popcorn. I'm curious to try things made with bugs on a higher culinary level now. Definitely not a curiosity I ever thought I would develop!
Photo by The Teenager

I'm going to be perfectly honest, I sort of shudder looking at the photo even though I very willingly ate several bugs. I always said the bug barrier was one I would not cross in food. In a "weird food" extravaganza my pal Eric and I had a couple years back he had actually purchased some bugs to snack on as well as scorpion vodka. I flat out refused to try either, I just could not do it. So what got me to do it this time? My clients. They were trying them, so how could I back down?

Last, but certainly not least for May, I learned how to fish. Now, I had gone fishing as a small child with both my Grandpa and my Papa. However I'm pretty sure it was mostly them fishing and me just holding a pole. I also have a faint memory of using American cheese as bait. Is that a thing? Because I'm pretty sure it was a thing that we did. 

Chris, my partner, is very aware of my bucket list because almost every month I go of talking about how I'm not going to get anything checked off and what can I squeeze in blah blah blah. For Mother's Day he told me he got me something and I would never be able to guess what it was. I took this as a personal challenge and enlisted the help of my bestie Ree and my co-worker. The only clues we had were that:
               A) It was not something I would think Chris would ever get me for Mother's Day, or ever at                     all.
               B) It was not a typical Mother's Day/female gift.
               C) The Toddler and The Teenager helped picked the colour, and it was not hot pink.
               D) It was not a robe.
               E) It was purchased at Walmart.
Not a lot to go on. There were many guesses,  but just the fact that I was guessing them ruled them out almost immediately.  I was basically just frustrated guessing for an extended period of time. The night before Mother's Day, lying in bed I had a genius thought about what it may be and told Ree that it had to either be a gun or fishing pole because why would Chris ever get me either of those as a gift plus they both apply to my bucket list, and that guns are expensive so probably a fishing pole. And it was! A pink fishing pole, but NOT hot pink, just normal pink. So, it was planned that on Memorial Day we would go fishing and I would learn how to actually fish, with bait and not American cheese (really people, I swear this was a thing...). Chris taught me to cast in the backyard first so I would be prepared for the actual fishing excursion. Apparently I was a natural. AND I didn't hook him or The Toddler in my attempts, so bonus for my clumsiness taking some time off! Anyhow, the day to fish comes around, I'm sick and cranky because I'm tired and even with thick coats of bug spray I am a buffet for mosquitoes, but, I caught a fish! Just one! 
Photo by Suicidal

Chris tells me that this is a small mouth bass. Also, I am not a huge fan of this photo, the outdoors do not agree with me, but I'm sharing it anyhow because I actually caught a fish which I am pretty sure means that I successfully learned how to fish.

And now to set forth on crossing stuff off for June! 

Until next time...

xoxo
Poison Megz

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