We have had a particularly delicious week as far as our dinners go! Between the porkchop recipe for Sunday Dinner and a navy bean and bacon chowder this evening, we've been on a roll as we try some new recipes for our "wheelhouse" - basically our term for our collection of recipes that have been successful and can continue in our dinner rotation.
Along the way, we've had just a few revelations:
1. Sage is wonderful. We have used sage in just a few recipes, and this weekend we needed to add it to a cornbread that we were using as the stuffing for the porkchops Sunday Dinner recipe. We made the cornbread late at night after dinner with my cousins, and we were both exhausted, but we couldn't help but marvel, even in the late hour, about the amazing smell as the bread cooked in the oven. It was the sage! It was a smell that seemed so familiar to me, but I just couldn't place it. We went to bed that evening with the aroma of the cornbread throughout the apartment. It was awesome!
2. A turnip, when cooked for an extended time in a soup recipe, tastes almost exactly like a soft, cooked potato. The chowder for today's dinner called for a chopped turnip (found at our local cooperative), and I'll admit, I was a bit hesitant about using it - particularly about its texture and taste in the chowder. However, after a bowl of chowder tonight, I can safely say that it tastes just like a cooked chopped potato would in a soup recipe. Seriously, if I wanted to make this recipe again and didn't want to go to the co-op for a turnip, I would use a chopped baking potato. It was really neat to use a vegetable I have never encountered before, and even more neat that it was a successful addition to our dinner!
3. Turkey bacon, lower in fat and calories than pork bacon, will (hopefully) be a welcome addition to our kitchen for future meals. I am really trying to adhere to eating well with the hope that I can consistently maintain a healthy weight. It isn't a stretch to say that we've both put on a little bit of weight in these eighteen months of marriage! I saw turkey bacon for sale at the store today and gave it a shot in the soup tonight - and really liked it. B is definitely going to be a hard sell - I am sure he was slightly aghast tonight when I told him that there was turkey bacon in the chowder instead of pork. When I asked if he liked the turkey bacon, he said, "Well, I don't want to say that I like it!" I took that to mean that he feels he will have betrayed his longtime favorite, bacon of the pork variety, if he admits to liking the turkey bacon. I am hoping he'll learn to love it - we still have about ten slices to use, I only needed six for the soup!
To think that I didn't know how to cook more than pasta, Tuna Helper, and Macaroni and Cheese when we were married eighteen months ago. My, how times have changed!
a presto.
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