My NonDairy Dating Life~ Blue Bell Creamery

<The names have been changed...>

Socal, came to visit me and I decided to take him on a Tour de Tejas.  It was his first visit to the Lone Star State so I tried to give him a good taste of Texas food and culture.  One of our stops included the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, Texas. 

We took the tour around the factory, and it made me think of Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory.  I was expecting oompa loompas to be there making ice cream.  Our tour guide stopped and asked if anyone knew the Blue Bell slogan...no one responded, so I raised my hand and said, "we eat all we can, and sell the rest."  Yes, the one person in the whole factory who was allergic to dairy answered the question, little strange right?  LOL:)  I was quite proud of myself. 

The Blue Bell workers were quite friendly.  The tour includes a serving of ice cream at the conclusion.  I asked the workers if they had any nondairy alternatives and they gave me a Rainbow Freeze, which was quite tasty!  Socal tried the Triple Chocolate and a new flavor that will be released soon called Dessert Trio, everyone was raving about how good the brownies tasted in it.  We ended up sitting in a room with some workers visiting from Atlanta and they were sampling it.  They offered Socal a taste.  :)

The creamery uses milk from approximately 50,000 cows each day.  Not of much value to a person with a dairy allergy.  My favorite form of beef is Prime Rib...how many ounces of prime rib would come from 50,000 cows?  Anyone have a good guess?

My NonDairy Dating Life: Red Flags!

Beef, it's whats for dinner!

<Disclaimer: The names have been changed to protect the guilty.>

Once upon a time, in a chapter that has since been concluded, a young man named Jork was trying to impress me by inviting me over for Sunday dinner at his place.  When he invited me over, I asked if the meal had any dairy in it at all, and he replied that it did not.  A few other people came over as well to have dinner at his place that afternoon.  We all sat around the table and began to serve ourselves.  Dinner consisted of roast with carrots & potatoes, gravy, and salad (w pears, craisins and poppy seed dressing-yum).  Quite a good meal in my opinion. 

Well, I was one of the first to start eating, but as Guy was putting roast on his plate, he asked Jork, "exactly what is in the roast?"  Jork started listing off the ingredients, and once I heard "cream of chicken soup," I dropped my fork!  It was too late, I had already taken at least 5-6 bites of the beef. 

I began to drink a lot of water, and asked for some benadryl.  He did not have any, and the stash in my purse had expired.  So, I took an instant melt seasonal allergy medicine that he had, and my stomach medicine (for nausea).  I sat and drank some more water, trying not to panic.  I do become quite worried, because my throat/tongue have been known to swell in the past:(  A hurricane began to swirl in my stomach, and I decided that before I got sick, I should leave.  He walked me out to the parking lot and apologized repeatedly.  It was a nice excuse to get a few good hugs from someone who things were still 'new' with.  He walked me to my car with his hand on my back, which was quite nice.  He apologized a few more times after opening my car door for me, and then came the best part...he offered to take me to my favorite restaurant of all time, The Taste of Texas (steakhouse).  Of course, I smiled and accepted the invitation.  This sort of made up for the idiot mistake of not realizing that CREAM of chicken soup had CREAM in it.  Another word for CREAM could be MILK FYI! The Taste of Texas Medium Prime Rib, salad bar, and amazing bread with raspberry jam kind of made up for it;)

Back to my rant about the cream soup...WHO puts cream of CHICKEN soup in BEEF roast anyway?!?!?!  NEVER thought to ask that question before!  That's totally weird and disgusting in my opinion!  These are Jork's words, NOT mine, so I am not agreeing, only stating a direct quote: He called it a "white trash roast recipe."  lol!  No further comments. 

I headed to the nearest resting place, which happened to be my parents house and took some pepto & benadryl and then laid down.  I only got sick twice, and then passed out from all the medicine I had taken.  Of course, mother knows best and told me never to go out with that boy again.  But did I listen? No! :) The moral of the story is, if the person who is 'interested' in you poisons you, it is a Red Flag, RUN! In conclusion, I do appreciate the experience as it taught me a few things.


UPDATE:
~Summer 2011~
So, recently I went on a few dates with a guy from Sandy, UT.  I told him about this story.  He also did NOT know that CREAM of chicken soup had cows milk in it!  He said he had heard of the 'white trash' receipe and thought that EVERYONE put cream of CHICKEN soup in BEEF roast.  I paid attention to this red flag!  Bye bye bug boy!  Go me! I'm learning;)