Meals to Die by, no. 15
July 27th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
We will take a turn, today, and eat a food that saved two lives. But, overall, is better known for shortening them.
Four minutes into My Cousin Vinny and executions are already being mentioned. This is initially why I thought of this movie for the series. Excitedly I set the movie to play and found out that despite the multiple deaths and the threat of two more, it doesn’t fit.
Then, Texas entered its third worst drought. The ground…plants…people are being slowly cooked. As NPR so cheerily informs me every morning this is bad. Very bad. For this year and next. For corn prices. For beef prices. The stable dry heat makes things even worse…because it’s stable. It’s bad because not only Texas is hurting.
Then the other day there was a promise of rain. There was, for a few lucky individuals, some rain. Not enough to discover if our cars had positraction or experience flooding – the much more likely problem in Austin, but refreshing drops of water all the same.
As a reward to the sky and perhaps offering further inspiration I’d like to encourage things to grow and live for a bit.
Sure, the testimony of four individuals saved Bill Gambini and Stan Rothenstein. But, the grits were first. That was what dulled the electric chair glow just a bit, restoring power to the defense.
Described as a vehicle for delivering cheese or butter grits are not known as health food. Here’s something surprising though, grits are polenta. Polenta is grits. Mostly the same food, but with reputations differing as if they were tomatoes and pork. This confused me greatly. I was afraid mine were sticking out like a sore thumb. Eventually a grits fan explained that yes – grits are really just corn meal and the dish can be made with either white or yellow corn meal.
Are you sure?
I’m positive. As defined in Authoritative Grits. Grits must originate from corn. The texture and variety of corn is acceptable and varies by geographic region.
Even with this overwhelming evidence these are not the grits shown in My Cousin Vinny. Those are made from hominy — which is still corn. Perhaps a self-respecting southerner wouldn’t even recognize these. Oh, well. That’ll be a meal for the future.
Fans of Meals to Die by (every time I chuckle writing that knowing that I am the only one loving something so brightly macabre) have probably been saddened by the lack of posts this summer. It all went awry in May due to repeated counting mistakes. No fear. I’ve been practicing (1, 2, 5, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9) and aim to post one wonderfully light-hearted grim post the last week of each month.
Grits with Smoked Gouda
3 ½ cups water (or vegetable broth or water plus one vegetable bouillon cube)
½ white wine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small shallot, minced
1 cup grits (corn meal, hominy)
3 handfuls shredded smoked gouda
5 normal size spoonfuls sour cream
salt and pepper
In a good-sized pot bring the water (or broth) to a boil. Add in the wine and the garlic and shallots. Slowly stir in the grits. Reduce heat to low and cook until tender, stirring frequently. Takes about 20 minutes (unless the laws of physics really don’t exist in your kitchen).
Stir in the cheese and then the sour cream. Season with salt and pepper.
Second-Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey Quesadillas
March 22nd, 2011 § 4 Comments
This time of year is so lovely. Everyone is chipper, the weather is pleasant, we all look forward to seeing family at Second-Thanksgiving.
What’s Second-Thanksgiving? Doesn’t everyone have Second-Thanksgiving? This isn’t a known tradition? You poor, poor people. You have been missing out on so much. Let me quickly fill you in. Here let’s go back in time a few weeks to a phone conversation I had with my mom on a Friday evening after work.
“Are you still up for a turkey dinner tomorrow?”
I stopped in my pickle and cheese snacking (aka dinner — yeah, that’s right) to answer, “Yeah, should I bring anything?” Wine, please say wine.
“No,” Score! “but you can come over early and help me cook.”
What? “What? How much are you cooking…Mom are you making Thanksgiving?”
“It’s not Thanskgiving. It’s just some sauteed green beans, creamy mashed potatoes, of course the turkey with cornbread stuffing and gravy. Then I’m working on a pumpkin bread pudding for dessert.”
“Mom, that’s Thanksgiving.”
And it was. There was even cranberry sauce.
Even though this is a family tradition, I am usually surprised by it. Really, it’s that time of year already? Somehow the pattern that starts every November doesn’t register in my mind. Perhaps it’s the fact that Second-Thanksgiving can be held at anytime outside of November or December and sometimes it’s a little less Thanksgiving like.
Just not this year. I had a long weekend. I used my Santa Claus mug the following day. My family participated in the traditional moving of the turkey and which plates should we use discussions. Even the weather was the same. The day started with short sleeves and ended wrapped in blankets.
And I was sent home with turkey leftovers. Even my cat, Myrah, fell into a turkey coma.
Turkey Quesadillas with Pineapple Salsa
tortillas
leftover Second-Thanksgiving Turkey
shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
cilantro
half a pineapple, chopped small
half a red onion, diced
large handful dried cherries
juice of 1 lime
1 chili in adobo sauce, chopped
For quesadillas: Sprinkle turkey, cheese and cilantro in between two tortillas. Cook in a skillet until brown on both sides and cheese is melted.
For salsa: Combine remaining ingredients.
I know you’re wondering why I didn’t use dried cranberries since it is traditionally Thanksgiving. It just didn’t sound right. Since it’s second-Thanksgiving I felt I had the right to choose a different round, red dried fruit.
Thanks to my Mom for being a good cook and letting me lovingly make fun of you to all the world…well, to the minuscule portion of the world that reads this, but with the possibility of all the world.
