Good afternoon, and Happy 2012!
I was going to start a brand new blog with a brand new name. (One can’t use tabula rasa twice, because that kind of defeats the purpose of a tabula rasa.) I was going to name it something new and spiffy…like Critical Mass, or My Two Cents…but, alas, both these snappy names were taken. Not surprised. So I’m reusing a name I thought of last spring, in my last attempt at a brand new blog. “Good food is good” is a phrase my husband says when he’s eating something delicious. Perhaps a backlash against semi-pretentious wordy-words that describe a food’s presentation or it’s complexity, or some such. We’ll be keeping it real this year, my friends!
So, my goal for this blog: to spill out my thoughts, straight from my head, on any variety of topics, not necessarily food. Meals I make (may they be more plentiful than in years past), restaurants where we eat, movies I see, books I read, runs I run, etc. etc. My other goal is to not limit the scope based on silly rules I make up.
Today’s first topic will be to review my New Year’s meal, complete with Southern lucky food. Pork ribs, which were broiled and are now slow cooking and smelling yummy, garlicky spinach, because that’s the only way I can stand the texture, white rice, black-eyed peas with bacon, wheat rolls, and perhaps this red wine sitting on my table. We’ve also got strawberry mochi and mango mochi, and vanilla bean ice cream.
I did start tracking my food on Weight Watchers again this morning, and the points today will be high. But I have a week to cut back and exercise, so enjoy myself today, I will! Especially since I will have created this with my own hands, with the sweat of my own brow! (Ok, the sweating from the brow was minimal, unless you are talking about my run this morning, where it was maximized…)
That wasn’t the best lead in to food review, was it?
See you again this evening, for pictures and the results!
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Time lapse to 6pm:
Dinner is complete, and , well, I can’t say it was a success. But here’s a picture!
The rib pictured here is yummy and delicious, but several of the others can best be described using the words “to a crisp.” The spinach was garlicky, but also quite salty. We attacked it with lemon, and they were edible. I dunno…I just can never get excited about spinach. It could be the best in the world and I’d have issues. The black-eyed peas were good…but then anything with bacon would be. Rice was, of course, good, but I’ve got lots of practice with the rice cooker by now. Dinner rolls were just heated in the oven.
So, back to what we learned today about ribs. The recipe called for 5-6hours on high in the crockpot. I did 5 hours on high, but forgot to adjust for the fact that I’d bought 1 pound less than called for. The sauce for the ribs had good flavor, so no problem there. The ribs were simultaneously burned and tender, if you can imagine. I’d do this again, but big adjustments on the cooking time. And also momentary checks, just to make sure.
For now, live, learn, and let go! I am stuffed, and I ate all my lucky foods. Bring it, 2012!
