So about the vegetarian thing: it’s not been a complete crash and burn, since most of our meals are still meat-free, but a full-blown transition to the ethical and environmental high ground hasn’t happened. Color me not surprised!
With that out of the way, let’s talk about meat – or, more specifically, what goes on it. If my free trial of SPSS hadn’t run out a year ago, I’d include a neat scatter plot to show, in no uncertain terms, that my family prefers their meat dishes to have a sauce. It took me eight years to wrap my head around this striking and entirely obvious correlation. Why try to make something that people like when I could just as easily make something they don’t?
Well, because I like sauces, too. I use the term loosely, since I’ll count anything that’s damp and kind of pourable. Over here we run the gamut from mango salsa (popular with some) to gravy and pan sauce (popular with all). Last week I bought some pork tenderloin, seared it in a skillet, poured in a mixture of Dijon mustard, white wine, and something else (chicken broth?), and stuck it in the oven. It was all I could do not to make it again the next day.
…Instead, I used a “simmer sauce” from Trader Joe’s. It was even easier! It looked a little gelatinous after bubbling away with the chicken in the oven (this was not the Trader Joe’s-sanctioned method of preparation), but a good whisking fixed that. We ate it with crusty bread, not the recommended pasta, which meant one fewer pot to clean and, consequently, a happy cook.
Too cute for sauce!
The Halloween potluck at my office is tomorrow. We’ve been encouraged to “dress up and make the day a little more fun.” Last year I went as a cowgirl – with boots, hat, the whole deal. Who even knew that Brooks & Dunn had a women’s Western wear line? My sister is braving the mean streets of Chicago in the awesome boots, however (and she should send me a picture to post), so I came up with a new costume idea: Laura Petrie! Capris, pearls, flipped hair, false lashes…I think it sounds totally cute, except I could never pull that all together at 6:00am on a Friday. If I could, it might weaken my justification for looking so sloppy every other day.
Ooh, those bunnies need to be squeezed. I’m all about sauce. I usually scrape it off the meat and eat it with rice.
Good luck with false eyelashes at 6 am.
Why is there not a picture of the author as Laura Petrie?