Holiday-ish ideas

Conversations about food and life.

This is cubed pork chops, floured and sauteed, my basic food prep. So it's not really suitable for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but the other two items on the plate, fresh,hot cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes and turnips definitely are just right for the holidays.

Fresh hot cranberry sauce, so easy, so nouveau, and possibly impressive



1. Half a cup of fresh raw cranberries per person, more or less
2. One tablespoon of real maple syrup per serving of cranberries.



The smaller berries in my creation cooked more and tasted better, so I recommend cutting the cranberries in half. Put the berries into a hot, slightly oiled non stick pan. Swirl them around as they sizzle and get hot. Add the tablespoon of maple syrup for each 1/2 cup of berries, stir steadily until its hot, soft and the maple syrup and juice is making a thickened sauce. Serve. It is pretty, sour and sweet, and as tasty as any cranberry sauce I've ever eaten except it's better because you just made it. It was great with the pork chop cubes.



Mashed potatoes and Turnips
I don't think I care for turnips. But peeled and cubed and boiled and mashed with margarine and potatoes and salt, they are quite good. Very holiday feeling.



1. Wash and peel any bad spots on one potato per person. Chop or slice it into pieces
2. Wash and peel one large turnip for each two people. Chop or slice it into pieces
3. Put the pieces into a pot, cover with good water.
4. Boil it on a simmer for a while - twenty to thirty minutes. Don't let the water boil away so the food burns, as I almost always do.
5. Mash it all together, assuming the water's gone. (If there's still water, pour it into a glass in hopes someone will drink all the wonderful vitamins and it won't go to waste.) I advise not to puree it in a blender or processor. The minor lumps are good. So mash it together with a potato masher, add salt and margarine (or butter if you use it. It's better than margarine for you but I'm allergic to dairy.) The color is a little more beige than we are used to for mashed potatoes, or that could be the carmelization in mine because - I burned it a little. Very tasty.



The small picture is pears and spinach. Wow, new and worth trying.
I got a bag of small pears at Trader Joes for two something the bag. Small, juicy, sweet, delectable. I also bought already washed spinach leaves so this is easy peasy.

1. Wash the pears, one per person, peel the bad spots
2. Don't wash the spinach if it says "already washed." I believe them, don't you?
3. Slice the pears away from the core and cube them into 1/2 inch pieces.
4. Heat a little margarine or butter in a non stick pan, saute the pear cubes. Add salt.
5. Add the spinach leaves, a good size heap for each person. It will cook away to almost nothing.
6. Stir until the spinach is limp and dark and well mixed with the pear pieces. Serve. Hmmm. Just wait.

Yes, I'm into fruit. I'm trying to be healthy, or healthier. I wanted to tell you that I cut out rice, most potatoes, deserts, sugar and I'm steadily losing weight. I wish it were true. But it simply doesn't seem to be. I'm pretty careful. In the last month, I ran amok only once when I ate a pint of chocolate soy sorbet. And some gluten free potato chips. On the same day. But otherwise I've eaten two sensible meals a day and not much else.

So while I was really hoping that sauteeing everything I eat and eating meat almost every day would not be a problem if I did well in some other areas, I was wrong. I hoped to lose ten or fifteen pounds, but not this way, ladies and gentlemen. I haven't gained, and I am much healthier. Out 'a bed at 7:30 a.m., and more or less productive most of the day, every day. This is a change for the better. But I'm not getting any thinner. Oh, well. Can't have everything.

Sorry I've been gone a month. Life, you know, presses in. Take care, eat well, trust God. Love, Barb