Orion of Bluster
Mar. 2nd, 2023 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoOne perfect moment this morning, when Symphony Hall from Sirius XM was playing "Fantasia on a Theme from Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and a ray of sunlight came through the eastern windows.
Then it clouded over again, and the rest of this will probably be all about food, because it is the easiest thing to talk about. We're expecting another snowstorm tomorrow, so it was good that I had time to do some grocery shopping today. I schlepped it all home and put everything away and had a bite of lunch (put previously disassembled chicken bits, green beans, and lettuce on a plate, add some vinaigrette, wolf it). Then I thought I might as well get dinner in the oven while I was thinking of it. I had planned something else, but when I got into the store, I found a package of two lovely thick pork chops marked down to $1.29. Pork chops for 65 cents each? Can't beat that. I had half a head of cabbage in the refrigerator, so I chopped that up with an onion, sauteed it in olive oil in the cast iron dutch oven briefly, dumped it in a bowl to wait, then sauteed some potatoes and three apples that were hanging around needing to be used. Put them in the bowl also. Then I browned the pork chops on both sides, with paprika and chipotle powder. I put some Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce on them, and then layered the other stuff back in, sprinkling it along the way with paprika, chipotle, and barbecue sauce. I put the top on and cooked it in the oven for about an hour. At that point, it was done, but not really finished. It lacked character. I cooked it for another half hour or 45 minutes and then turned off the oven and let it sit until we were ready to eat it. By then, all the flavors had miraculously blended, and everything was tender, aromatic, and imbued with flavor. I had been afraid I might have overdone it with the chipotle. It was pretty spicy, but not unpleasantly so. In fact it was delicious. Impromptu pork chops for the win.
Later on, we were watching Stanley Tucci's culinary tour of Italy. Tonight he was doing Sicily. My favorite part was where some shepherds cooked him a dish made of sheep's blood thickened with flatbread crumbs, flavored with wild mint and grated pecorino, cooked in a sheep's stomach and eaten on more bits of flatbread. And then they sang him a song which I swear had some throat singing as a drone part. That'll be the day--when I can cook a dish and then do a little throat singing about it as an encore.
Then it clouded over again, and the rest of this will probably be all about food, because it is the easiest thing to talk about. We're expecting another snowstorm tomorrow, so it was good that I had time to do some grocery shopping today. I schlepped it all home and put everything away and had a bite of lunch (put previously disassembled chicken bits, green beans, and lettuce on a plate, add some vinaigrette, wolf it). Then I thought I might as well get dinner in the oven while I was thinking of it. I had planned something else, but when I got into the store, I found a package of two lovely thick pork chops marked down to $1.29. Pork chops for 65 cents each? Can't beat that. I had half a head of cabbage in the refrigerator, so I chopped that up with an onion, sauteed it in olive oil in the cast iron dutch oven briefly, dumped it in a bowl to wait, then sauteed some potatoes and three apples that were hanging around needing to be used. Put them in the bowl also. Then I browned the pork chops on both sides, with paprika and chipotle powder. I put some Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce on them, and then layered the other stuff back in, sprinkling it along the way with paprika, chipotle, and barbecue sauce. I put the top on and cooked it in the oven for about an hour. At that point, it was done, but not really finished. It lacked character. I cooked it for another half hour or 45 minutes and then turned off the oven and let it sit until we were ready to eat it. By then, all the flavors had miraculously blended, and everything was tender, aromatic, and imbued with flavor. I had been afraid I might have overdone it with the chipotle. It was pretty spicy, but not unpleasantly so. In fact it was delicious. Impromptu pork chops for the win.
Later on, we were watching Stanley Tucci's culinary tour of Italy. Tonight he was doing Sicily. My favorite part was where some shepherds cooked him a dish made of sheep's blood thickened with flatbread crumbs, flavored with wild mint and grated pecorino, cooked in a sheep's stomach and eaten on more bits of flatbread. And then they sang him a song which I swear had some throat singing as a drone part. That'll be the day--when I can cook a dish and then do a little throat singing about it as an encore.
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Date: 2023-03-03 01:21 pm (UTC)The chili I made Tuesday is tasty but not as spicy as I wanted, possibly because I added squash at the last minute. I sprinkled some Cajun seasoning on top for today's lunch.