Always on my Mind

It has been a while since I've talked about food on my blog, but it is always on my mind. Every day, you have to eat, so it is hard to NOT think about food. I have a confession. I HATE PLANNING MEALS. Each meal seems to be a creative battle. I try to ensure that each meal has a balance of protein, vegetable, and starch and is nutritious and delicious. Sometimes nutrition goes out the window for flavour and fat. I know flavour doesn't always come from fat, but there are days when you just want chicken wings and potato wedges.

I've challenged myself to try a few different kinds of food. I find it easier to be adventurous in the produce section. There are some scary looking things at the grocery store. I've found lemon grass, celery root, jicama, shitake mushrooms, sugar snap peas, and parsnips. Have you seen what celery root looks like? Talk about unappealing! Let's break that list down.

Lemon grass! Tried my hand at cooking some thai food. Thai coconut mushroom soup was a very cool adventure. I love coconut and I love mushrooms. Still haven't tweaked it to my liking, but getting there. Going to have to visit Chinatown before trying that again.

Celery root! Wow! Not the easiest vegetable to work with since you have to peel it with a knife. After chopping off the gnarly root end, it stops running around. I tried it in stew (more on stew to come), but it didn't float my boat. Then my brain started inserting it into other things I cook. Wait a second! Celery root is a root vegetable! I make a root vegetable "medley"! So in the pot it went with sweet potato, white/yellow potato, garlic, parsnip, and white turnip. Gives a nice celery flavour. Mash them up with a little butter, and what a side dish!

Jicama! Haven't figured out how I like to use it yet. The first time I bought it, I tried to make a jicama and apple salad. That didn't work so well, especially when I sliced my thumb on the mandolin. I'll have to revisit this intriguing vegetable.

Shitake mushrooms! I found this dried. Since I absolutely LOVE mushroom soup, I thought this was a natural move for me. The smell of these things leaves something to be desired. I couldn't bring myself to use the "broth" after soaking them. Hard to taste them when mixed with a ton of other mushrooms, but the chewy texture was neat.

Sugar snap peas! I discovered that these are great in pad thai. I tried eating them raw, but I didn't like them that much. I might try them as a side dish steamed with some kind of flavour boost.

Parsnips! These are becoming a regular ingredient in our week-to-week meals. These white carrot-like things are incredible! I'm trying them roasted tonight! They give a neat peppery taste that is unlike any other vegetable I've tried.

Speaking of stew... I had never made stew before. I'm starting to really get the hang of it. I tried it in the slow cooker, but it didn't really like how it turned out. I used what I learned from that to improve my stove-top stew. I browned the beef then added beef stock, bay leaves and marjoram and let that simmer for an hour or more. Oh my! The beef was so tender, just like when in the crock pot. I love stew now!

I'll try my best to be more diligent with my posts about food. I love reading about food about as much as I like talking about it.

Try something new!

Lisa