One would think that a cookbook with the reputation of Taste at Home would be safe. Safe from weirdo recipes that perhaps 3 people in the country would actually make. And in fact, I'm sure I could have been quite happy with most of the choices for this week's Dinner & A Movie. Granted, Brax's choice of Kohlrabi & Carrot Bake was a little suspect, but who couldn't go for "Tangy Breaded Pork Chops" (Marjorie's choice), Fried Eggs (Emily), Roasted Vegetable Turkey Pinwheels (Kristi), or Brad's choice of Pineapple Lemon Slush with Rum (Pastor Brad, you can just feel free to come on over any time).
I could have worked with any of those, as well as Nathan's Spinach Pastrami Wraps (ok, barely), Karen's Never Fail Pie Crust, and Mel's All Day Beans & Rice. Any of those, I repeat, ANY of those would have been better than the one we ended up with (ok, perhaps with the exception of the Kohlrabi & Carrot Bake). Comment #5 (Amy), was the winner this week.
Can I just mention that if you had asked me earlier this morning if I prefer Hachiya or Fuyu, I would have looked at you like you lost your ever-loving mind. Because that was before I was educated on the differences between Hachiya and Fuyu. Now I am so much more gourmet and chef-like. And speaking of gourmet, I sometimes think the term gourmet should be equated to that tried and true kids story, "The Emperor Has No Clothes."
I remember one company Christmas dinner when the owner, to mightily impress us, took us to a fancy-pants (read: insanely expensive) restaurant, with a gourmet (there's that word again) chef. For approximately $200/plate, we were served minuscule and insignificant morsels of food, delicately arranged on our platters, with a drizzling of an unpronounceable sauce. For real. A 9-month old child would have still been hungry. And as I clearly recall, as soon as we could escape, the bunch of us (minus the out-to-impress-us-with-his-good-taste(?)-and-lots-of-money boss, piled into a couple of cars and headed to McDonald's, slightly put out that we had to pay for food on a night we were being taken out for a "lovely" Christmas (ok, the boss was Jewish) holiday meal.
Ok, back to our dinner. The one I have to make. The one RW has to eat. Did you know that the Hachiya is heart-shaped and deep orange, and the Fuyu is pale orange and looks somewhat like a squashed tomato? Does that not worry you at all? It worries me.
Sunday evening's dinner will be a Persimmon Nut Roll. I don't like nut rolls. Never have. They fall under the category of questionable holiday food. It is in the same class as fruit cake. Add to that a fruit I've barely heard of and never consumed, well, it will be a fascinating experiment of food science.
I'll be reporting on Monday, and meanwhile I will be driving all over town, looking for persimmons. Call me nutty.
