Produce WINS!

Let me just throw something out there: I love meat. Meat, meat, meat, meat, MEAT! Seriously, nothing quite hits the spot like a juicy t-bone grilled with garlic and drizzled with delicious thyme oil. OH man. The only problem with meat is, no matter how much you love it, no matter how much time you put into your relationship with it, it just won't love you back. It's just not so good for you.

In 7th grade, I attempted vegetarianism. I was going strong for two weeks, loving my soy chicken nuggets, my red beans and brown rice, and totally digging the salads...until my parents wanted steak for dinner. If you've ever seen Finding Nemo (and let's face it, who hasn't?) just picture me as the shark when Dory gets a bloody nose. All I could think about was that tender, grilled-to-perfection steak sitting so deliciously on a plate less than a foot away. To put it delicately, my new vegetarian lifestyle was over.

Anyway. Living in America, where beef is practically the national food, I find myself frequently falling into a "meat rut". When I think about what to make for dinner, it's always, "Okay. We had steak on Sunday, salmon on Monday, and chicken on Tuesday. We could have pork tonight. Or we could have fish again, but maybe that's too soon." Why does it rarely cross my mind to go all veggie? I'm proud to say, last night I broke the cycle.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, my roommates and I are rolling in produce. It's everywhere. We have so much fruit and veggies in our fridge that we decided to skip grocery shopping this week (which means we saved $40! YAY!). That also means that our fridge is now meatless, as I used the pork roast I had on Monday. So I put all of my brain power into coming up with this:

Let me introduce you to vegetable curry (which isn't technically a curry, seeing as there was no curry to be found in my apartment). Tender butternut squash, carrots, and a small bit of red chile (my roommates aren't so big on spicy food. Which saddens me greatly, but we won't go into that), simmered in unfiltered apple juice, and seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, salt, pepper, and deliciously sweet notes of vanilla. We put it over brown rice and had salad on the side... TO DIE FOR!

I have never had a vegetable be so delicious. I mean, I love veggies with all of my heart and jump at the chance to eat them grilled, steamed, broiled, raw, you name it. But this was unlike anything I had ever had before. I almost want to be a vegetarian again....almost.

It's not a hobby...it's more like an obsession

Probably the first thing people learn about me is that I love to cook. I take pride in that fact and I take immense pride in the food I make. I put all of my heart and soul into the food I prepare. When it turns out to be less than I imagined, I usually have a small temper tantrum and whatever I made ends up in the trash. I once threw away a 3 layer chocolate cake that I spent 4 hours making because the icing didn't set up on the cake the way I wanted it to. The cake tasted perfectly wonderful and anyone would have been glad to have it, but I couldn't give anything away that I considered less than amazing. Conversely, when something I've schemed up and executed turns out exactly as I planned, or sometimes better, the joy I feel is utterly inexplicable. I imagine it's akin to the feeling a parent gets when their child does something praiseworthy -- they just want to tell the world. And that is how I feel right now.

And so, I present my piece de resistance: Roasted pork loin crusted with spices, accented with a blackberry and rosemary reduction, supported by a mound of luciously creamy mashed red potatoes, and a green salad.

As my down the hall neighbor said, "Man, if I could eat with my eyes, I'd already be full." And that, I thought/replied, "Just wait until you taste it."

An apple a day....

I think concerning food, fall is one of my favorite seasons. The apples are ripe and practically raining out of the sky and all of the winter squash is finally ready for harvesting. It's chilly enough to break out the soup pot. Fall food is hearty and refreshing, the apples crisp, the squash sweet and tender, and all of the root vegetables crunchy and satisfying.

I'm thinking of all of this now because about 2 weeks ago, my friend Steven brought me a box of apples from his trees in Magna. I was terribly excited and promptly made a delicious apple cranberry crisp. Fast forward to now. Not only did Steven bring me another bag of apples, but we still had some left over! And to top that off, my roommates and I snagged the two extra bags of apples from our trip to Range Creek Canyon with the UVU Honors Program this weekend. We're drowning in a sea of apples! So today I made a pie with apples and deliciously sweet and tart pomegranate arils, apple turnovers, and homemade applesauce (no sugar added! Just apple puree, water, and cinnamon and allspice! Healthy AND delicious!).

And that's just the beginning of the fall deliciousness that has decided to grace my apartment.

My roommates grandparents have given us lovely acorn squashes, beets, and kohlrabi. My mother sent me back up here to school with a giant spaghetti squash and some delicious tomatoes.....basically we're produce millionaires. So thank you fall for providing us with this glorious bounty of healthful, wholesome and tasty food!!