Quote of the Week – 10/28/09
Overheard on “Today Show” this morning: “Beer is food.” by Meredith Viera, confirmed by Joe Bastianich.
An encouraging thought for all those fraternities around the country.
When Surprises Are Bad
An unwelcome surprise for my husband.
Last night I prepared an unusual recipe for quesadillas to accompany the pork loin we were having for dinner. I found this recipe in the October issue of Bon Appetit magazine and it looked both tasty, and like a great way to use up some of the late squash I picked up at the farm. The recipe was called Sugar Pumpkin, Feta, and Cilantro Quesadillas. Essentially the recipe calls for cooking the pumpkin, mashing it, mixing in minced jalapeno, loading it into tortillas, and topping with feta and cilantro. I thought it was a great mix of savory flavors – a very pleasant surprise for a quesadilla.
Too bad my family didn’t agree. Both girls left some of their portions and Joe ate his without comment. Hmm, a clear sign that I was the only one loving it. When I questioned him today on why he clearly disliked them, I received an unexpected response. Apparently he initially expected a traditional quesadilla with melty cheddar cheese. His eyes took in the orange from the pumpkin, and registered an expectation. When he didn’t get his expected, gooey cheese, it was a bad surprise. The feta cheese just wasn’t a good substitute. Plus, the pumpkin filling gave the wrong, messy texture when he took a big bite. Texture is apparently a huge factor in my house – Joe doesn’t like squishy sandwiches, Annie doesn’t like tomatoes, Louisa dislikes squash. I guess there’s no pleasing some families. But, you know what? As long as I’m cooking the food – I get to make the tastes and textures I like, and I liked those quesadillas.
Still Waiting for the Broccoli
I'm not holding my breath waiting for broccoli from the CSA.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that there would be one more bonus vegetable pick-up, on top of my 16 week subscription from the CSA. The farmer shared this news with us the last day that I made an official pick-up at the farm. He said that because the weather has been so cold and rainy, the broccoli and cauliflower weren’t ready yet. We were told to keep checking their website to learn when the vegetables would be ready for harvesting.
Unfortunately for Farmer Bob, the broccoli is still not ready for pick-up. Frankly, I don’t really care because I’m not sure whether I’ll drive the hour roundtrip just to get one or two vegetables. I’m not really sure if the gas is worth the produce. But poor Farmer Bob is still waiting for the season to end. It just shows you how unscientific the life of farming really is. You can think that everything is under control, even with an organic farm like this one, but they’re still dependent on the whims of nature. In this case, there may be (or not) a few disgruntled shareholders. But the farmer can’t do all of his after season clean-up until those fields are cleared. And farmers that don’t have CSA members can’t cash in on their crops when bills need to be paid. I’m glad that I’m not a farmer.