Ok…it’s January…and already halfway in. It was the best Christmas Break EVER!
Paul and Emily have come and gone…along with Hayley (Em’s dorm roommate) and Anna (Paul’s girlfriend) and in between we squeezed in oral surgery for Pauli (wisdom teeth are now history) and lots of late nights filled with love and laughter.
I promised a blog yesterday to my facebook friends and then panicked with what the heck am I gonna write about.
I don’t want to write another Hexie blog…at least not right away. I have updated the website with new workshops for the year…but don’t want this to become a “commercial blog”.
And then while chopping veggies for the stew I was putting together I was gifted with the perfect “Mickey Blog” material. Let’s back up a bit.
Something dramatic happened to me during surgery…something was most definitely slipped into my IV because…and now brace yourself….I have been cooking up at storm since two weeks after. And by cooking I do not mean popping a Lean Cuisine into the microwave and hitting go. I am real honest-to-goodness-I-now-have-recipe-files-on-my-hard-drive type cooking. At first Paul thought it was residual from the pain meds. But six weeks in I am still captivated with turning raw food into something edible.
So back to the veggies. Our local Mom & Pop grocer puts together veggie packs for making soups/stews and these are wonderful for our now household of just two. Afterall we do not need but 2-3 stalks of celery, and just one big carrot vs. a bag, etc. And yes these are veggies that need to be used pretty darn quick and the mix is always what is available so it’s a bit of a surprise as to what veggies may be lurking under the cilantro and parsley. Pretty much it is root veggies…but you never know.
In yesterday’s pack was a strange veggie I have never seen before. And since Paul was napping I decided to leave it to the side and not use it in the “Great Stew Experiment”. Of course the longer I chopped and diced and it just sat there…well my mind began to wander and I dashed downstairs for a few key pins….and viola! He is now smiling back at me.
Except I still do not know what exactly he is…..does anyone?
p.s. The stew turned out great…I have yet to poison Paul.
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9 comments:
Oh my, I hope they never put the cooking med in my IV bag. I don't like doing what I have to do anyway! :) Enjoy your new fun and glad you are feeling better!
Here in New Orleans, we call them "mirlitons". Some places call them "coyote pears".
You can use them like you would eggplant...they taste similar. We use them a lot in seafood recipes.
mickey it is nicknamed an alligator pear in louisiana...i cannot remember the right name..maybe mirlathon,? spelling, emeril uses them a lot in his cooking...
Bwahahahahaha! Love your new kitchen mascot and I have no idea what it is!
I have no idea either, but he certainly looks cute! He could probably do well in a ratatoullie (sp)!
That's a nice service that your grocer provides. Your are too funny! Like how you dressed the unknown. I don't have a clue on what it is. I'm not a very good chef.
Congrats on catching the cooking bug! The veggie you have is a prize in New Orleans cusine... A Mirliton,aka Chayote squash. They are often stuffed. Here is a link to a recipe that sounds good:
http://www.mirlitons.org/recipes-mirliton-pie.html
I think we call them choko in Australia, maybe cause we nearly do choke when eating them. I use them for chutney.
I will be glad when all of January is past. The weather is so COLD and getting inspired to blog is eluding me. I'd love to catch that cooking bug.. Enjoy your kitchen!!
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