Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Food Focused

I find myself caught up in a bit of a cooking whirlwind this week, a sort of end of the holidays wrap up.

The Southern tradition of New Year's Day dinner of ham, greens, black eyed peas and cornbread is alive and well in my husband's family. Which means come January 2, I've got (another) ham bone, poking at my good sense to not let go to waste. Too many years watching cooking channels, too many cooking reality shows, too many cookbooks, or maybe just my ever increasing age not wanting to let an opportunity go by to do something with leftover bits I would have once happily chucked.

In my youth my dad would take the ham bone and make ham & beans. I think it might have been soup. It might have just been a bunch of cooked down beans and chopped up ham bits. I really couldn't tell you. Not a big ham person, especially back then. And legumes have always been on my no-fly list. It's the texture.


But I'm older now and aside from my own personal distaste for wasting food (my grandma would be so proud) I have a house full of older folk who circle me like vultures on roadkill wanting to know what my plans are for the leftovers. For a few years I've tried to make ham & beans, using the dried beans that come with seasoning packets from the grocery store. My older folks ate it, but I still wasn't touching it.



This year, I opted for soup with the slightest addition of one kind of bean: the benign cannellini bean. Ham soup? Still not my thing. But it was a gateway drug into a week of various soups and recipes all chopped and simmered from scratch. I guess the first question should be, can I cook? Is part of my distaste of certain mainstream food a lifetime of burnt cereal, raw toast and microwave-roasted chicken? (That last one, while not something I have ever made, IS something someone made me. More than once. Dis-gust-ing doesn't cover it. Also, I knew someone who burned a pan boiling water. And don't get me started on ketchup spaghetti.)



Yeah, I can cook. I can really bake, but I can hold my own cooking. Not, like, against a seasoned professional chef. Let's not get crazy.

So yesterday I made chicken noodle soup, from raw chicken to warm, comforting goodness. Bonus points because I remembered to write down the changes I made to the original recipe that made it turn out so good. Today I made pasta e fagioli (fah-zool - because pronunciation matters here), a hearty pasta and bean soup perfect for a chilly day. And if my husband is willing to A. eat it at dinner and B. take the leftovers for lunch the next day, it was yummy. Bonus points again because I wrote down my changes again. My father-in-law said I was spoiling them. Compliments are rare from my older folks, so I'll take it.

Tomorrow there is a battle of wills going on: 2 different cabbage-based soups. Hold on to your pedal pushers, kids. We get Kuh-razee around here.

I've made a lot of different recipes. I enjoy (mostly) cooking. I like to try new things. But I'm really surprised that I've mostly steered away from making soups. I can make pecan pie or a loaf of bread with my eyes closed. Lip-smackin' homemade chicken wings, ribs or chili. Cookies for days. But soups have always intimidated me. So it is with a little bit of pride that I'm relieved this soup business has turned out so far so good. Also, I realized today that I'm getting a callus on my index finger from chopping so many vegetables lately. So many vegetables.

As for how I'm doing on my New Year's progress:

Jan 3: 839 words
Jan 4: 0
Jan 5: 953 words

Naps taken: regrettably, 0

Reading: 2 out of 3 days & added a 7-day limited library book

Language goal: slacking here - have not visited new French pastry shop, have not loaded my language podcasts, have not sat at my computer long enough to start lessons.

Coffee consumed: averaging about a cup a day, going into espresso withdrawals

Positivity: on the heels of tonight's soup triumph & watching one of the best Sherlock episodes, thumbs up

No comments:

Post a Comment

To the End

When I began this blog 5 years ago, it ended up being a catch-all for whatever slogged through my brain, mostly writing and the difficu...