RQ Cooks and comments about "man food"

So last night was Birthday, Battlestar and Dips and I made french onion dip from scratch. No soup packets!

French Onion Goat Cheese Dip

4 medium onions, diced
Olive Oil
1 log (11oz) of goat cheese
1 small container plain goat yogurt (6 oz)
Worcestershire sauce
1 cup strong beef broth (I used Better than Bullion No beef flavor. I used about a teaspoon and a half to one cup of water)
Salt & pepper

Cook onions in olive oil. Depending on how patient you are you can carmelize the onions, though the dip is fine if you just sweat them till they are translucent.

Add beef broth and Worcestershire sauce. Cook until the liquid is almost gone. Add yogurt and cheese and continue cooking over low heat to the cheese melts all the way. Add salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerated for at least one hour.

You will never want to eat onion dip made from dried soup again. It's that good.

I also made a gorgeous fruit salad with Raspberry mint dressing. We had raspberries, blackberries, mango, apples and oranges. To dress them I used the juice of 2 lemons, and equal amount of raspberry vinegar, a couple of teaspoons of honey and dried mint. It keeps the fruit from browning and adds a depth of flavor without being too sweet or thick.

We ( well Ruth mostly) also did a ton of fried stuff like fried pickles and zuccini and homemade potato and sweet potato chips. My left hand is now a mangled bloody mess because using the guard on the mandolin takes too much time. I sliced myself 3 separate times and bled all over, but it was worth it. Homemade chips are good and fried pickles are awesome!

Now about man food. I put out a tray of veggies to go with the dips (we also had Ruth's famous spinach tofu dip and some dill dip that I whipped up in about a minute). There were the normal things, carrots, celery, cukes, tomatoes and radishes. Towards the end of the night the radishes were the only left on the tray. I walked past and someone asked me if I ate radishes. I said I do, grabbed one and ate it. I was then told that radishes are man food cause only dudes eat them.

I love radishes. I also love steak and bacon and really good hamburgers. And I make some awesome slow cooked ribs. The Kid likes good greek yogurt with honey and just about any vegetable or fruit and bready things like muffins and toast. I am not a dude, yet I love and cook "man food". The Kid is not a girl, yet he loves and eats "girl food". How seriously fucked up is our society when food is gendered and the act of eating a radish calls someones gender identification into question?