What's for Dinner?

by Stephanie Black

Since I blogged about exercise last week, it seems fitting that I blog about food this week, especially after Rob opened the topic by mentioning bacon grease. You should all give up bacon! And donuts! And French fries! And cream cheese! Put that cookie down! Shape up!

Wow, that was a lot of hypocrisy for one day.

Mmm, donuts. We have this great donut shop nearby. Little-known fact: if you walk to a donut shop instead of driving, you are legally allowed to categorize donuts as health food.

Okay, I really do think healthful food is a good thing, at least for other people, and I have tried to eat less lately, so if anyone would like to pat me on the back, that would be awesome. But don’t pat too hard, because I haven’t done that well, and besides, you might knock me over, because my core muscle strength and balance aren’t yet what they ought to be. But give me time.

Next on the list of tasty topics: barbecue pulled pork. I finally had a lightbulb moment regarding pork after I made some pork carnitas that my family loved, wherein I used a good, fatty cut of meat. I realized if I was making shredded pork, I needed to stop using that lean pork loin that looks so nice in the package at the store, and instead go for something streaked with fat, like a pork shoulder. Oh, baby. I cooked the pork for a few hours in a pan I am extremely fond of—do you ever have fond feelings for certain cookware or dishes? Anyway, it’s enamel-covered cast iron in a lovely blue, and I have warm, furry feelings towards it. And the pork was extremely tasty.

I’m a decent cook, though it’s not something I view as recreation. My husband, who is a bread baker, doesn’t mind making something that takes hours (ask him about the ward Christmas party last year—he spent the entire day baking two kinds of bread for the dinner. I would have gone to Costco). To me, cooking is a household task, like vacuuming. I don’t dislike it; it’s just something that needs to be done. Or it’s a means to an end, as in, man, don’t blueberry scones sound good right now? I think I’ll bake some. I love it when a simple, quick recipe is also delicious, like tortellini-basil soup (chicken broth, cheese-filled tortellini, chopped tomatoes, cannellini beans, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, sprinkle some parmesan cheese and pepper on the top and you’re done). I do like trying new recipes—my first attempt at pad Thai was the pits since we made a last-ditch effort to substitute tamarind soup mix for the tamarind paste. Warning: do not try this substitution at home. You need tamarind paste. When I tried it again with the right stuff, it was very tasty, and my five-year-old devoured it. Of course, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the rest of that jar of tamarind paste in my fridge. Maybe it could hang out with the capers.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to plan out weekly dinner menus, so I would know what we were eating that week and could shop accordingly, instead of saying “What’s for dinner?” at 4:30 in the afternoon and having to run to the store multiple times each week. I’d like to say I’ve done really well on planning my meals. I’d also like to say that I’ve done really well on cleaning my carpets, but neither would be true. I’m still hit and miss on the dinner planning—sometimes I have a list of meals; often I don’t. But it all works.

My daughter is heading back to college next week, and she put together a binder of recipes for use at school. I’m glad she can cook—she makes excellent hot and sour soup, for one thing. I need to pester my next oldest daughter, who is a senior in high school, to make sure she has basic cooking skills before she leaves. I want all my kids to have basic cooking skills. If they leave home without knowing how to make cream cheese chocolate chip cookies, they’re just asking for trouble in life.

So what kind of cook are you? Do you love it? Hate it? Love trying new recipes? Prefer the tried-and-true classics? All of the above.

Oddly enough, I’m hungry. Time for lunch!