22 Years of Boycott...

...has come to an end.
Why?
Because I ate black eyed peas last night.

This might not sound like a feat to you, but it was quite a feat for me.
Why?
I'm gonna tell ya.
I was home-schooled when I was in grade school. So, the school hours were always a little different than usual. Alot of times my mom, brother and I were out running errands when my dad got home from work. And, if he got home before us, you could always guarantee that there would be a piping hot pot of black eyed peas and rice on the stove. It was bland and disgusting. And that was dinner. He was "helping" my mom by cooking dinner. But I remember this to have happened about 3 times a week for some time. Just the thought of that gives me the gag reflux.
Anyway, this time also coincided with my parent's Shaklee (Vitamins and health products) business and in that we learned how to consume handfuls of vitamins in one swallow.
Well, in my disdane for those nasty little black eyed peas, I figured if I could swallow vitamins, I could swallow those gross little morsels as well. I did this for some time, and my family was none the wiser. It was a coping mechanism :)
So, one night I got really sick. This was during flu season and the advice nurse said that I probably had a bad case of the flu. My mom said she watched my face turn green and that was the last straw. I was whisked off to the emergency room where they discovered a burst appendix. Hence, emergency surgery. So, afterwards the surgeon came out to talk to my parents and he said that he found a bean like thing lodged in my appendix.
To this day, I remind my brother that I "took one for the team" because we were never forced to consume that nasty meal ever again.

So, this brings me to last night. Last night, we had dinner at our pastor's house. He served us a down home southern meal with catfish (delicious), cornbread, and (yep you guessed it) black eyed peas and rice.
I took a very small helping of the beans and rice, looked at Ryan knowingly and dove in. It had flavor. Astounding. I went back for seconds. So, while I will probably never eat a pot of my dad's black eyed peas and rice ever again, I've officially (on a case by case basis) ended my 22 year boycott of the consumption of black eyed peas.

Yay, now I can try the Pioneer Woman's "Make Your Own Luck: Black Eyed Pea Salsa"