Monday, December 12, 2005

Finishing Up Before Getting Started

Sometimes you have to finish one project before you can get started on another. What a pain it can be! I still had a pile of fleece and four curtains to finish lining from my project weeks ago. I just never got around to the last four curtains. Now I needed some of the leftover fleece for a holiday project but I had to make sure I left enough for the curtains. There was no way around it, I had to at least cut the fleece and pin it to the curtains. Its all pinned but I still need to finish sewing 2 1/2 curtains. At least I know I have enough fleece left.

I ended up making peanut soup last night. I added black eyed peas and bulgur to it. The whole concoction ended up being more like a beans with a sauce than a soup. It was really good. Tasha chopped the veggies from the fridge to make vegetable soup. We didn't bother with the beets, turnips, carrots or celeriac since these all store well in the fridge. On the other hand, the bok choy, mystery greens, radishes and daikon radishes needed to be used. I tossed them into a pot with some onion and let it simmer for a while. We added a little tamari and then pureed the whole thing. We had a little last night, it wasn't bad but it needed some dressing up.

When in doubt about a meal, always serve a favorite food with it. We had homemade French fries with last nights meal, just in case!

On tonight's menu...something with kidney beans.

4 comments:

Harmonia said...

Thanks for the reminder...I was going to make veggie-chilli! :)

Ruthie said...

Katie,

How do you handle all those tastes? Greens and radishes, to me, are tolerable in small amounts but to combine them in a soup... I don't know how I could coax Russell into eating it!! :) Do you just serve this to your family (and yourself) and enjoy it, or did it all take a lot of getting used to? :) I'm not trying to sound rude, I'm just mind-boggled at how well you eat!! :)

Ruthie

Katie said...

Harmonia,

I made veggie chili too!

Ruthie,
I have to thank our CSA experience for the variety of tastes that my family is willing to sample. The first year we participated it was tenuous at times. Unfamiliar tastes and textures get to be a drag after a while.

Interestingly, the next season things were better accepted. You could argue that I was better at preparing them and you wouldn't be wrong but I think it was more than that. I think we were just more open to new things.

Don't get me wrong, there are some things that we just don't like, mustard greens with the intense peppery tang for example. Radishes, especially daikon radish are usually not big hits around here either. Again its that peppery quality that no one really cares for.

Jim was the one who noticed if you put the radishes into a soup, it mellows the flavor. Pureeing helps as well because then no one winds up with a chunk of anything unpleasant in their mouth.

As far as enjoying it or not. I really aim to make the food tasty and enjoyable. It doesn't always work out, but its good to have a goal. To make things more palatable I really do try to have a fun food like French fries or tortillas to have with the meal.

We're pretty open as a family about meals that stink versus meals that we enjoy. Everyone here knows that if its not enjoyed it probably won't show up on the menu again...at least not in its original form.

Ruthie said...

Thanks Katie, that was exactly the type of answer I wanted to hear. :)