Adventuresome Food

Our family loves food. All kinds of food: Mexican and Italian are two favorites; French food is always delicious, n'est pas? And we've recently discovered how much we like Japanese food.

We do more than just eat food, we experiment with it. My Mom calls her kitchen her laboratory, and she is always reminding me that cooking is science and chemistry you can eat. For Lent she's decided to give up cooking with white sugar, so lately we've all been eager guinea pigs to her experiments in making deserts without any white sugar, using coconut crystals instead. She's even making her own chocolate with those coconut crystals instead of sugar, and a darker chocolate I have never tasted! It could scare the milk out of milk chocolate! We all like dark chocolate much better than milk (plus dark is healthier), but my Dad and I share a slight allergy to dark chocolate too. It makes us sneeze! It's become a family joke that we can always tell when chocolate is really good and dark by how hard Dad and I sneeze! However it does not stop either of us from eating whatever chocolatey delicacy comes out of "The Dark Forest," as my Mom calls her kitchen now.   

But Mom's not the only one adventuresome with food. When Elizabeth first tasted sushi she fell in love with it, and one of her New Year's resolutions was to learn to make this fresh, exotic food. It turned out to be surprisingly easy, and though what she makes is humbler in flavors than what we get at the local Japanese restaurant it is simply delicious. Plus we eat it in the comfortable environment of our own dining room and can come to a sushi dinner in pajamas if we want to.

Yesterday we celebrated Mardi Gras with good Southern cooking: dirty rice, steamed vegetables, and the sweetest of oven fried sweet potatoes. The South sure knows how to celebrate Fat Tuesday!

For desert Elizabeth did another culinary experiment: Princess Tiana's famous, "man catchin'" beignets. Dusted with powdered sugar they were the bees knees. (Where did that silly term originate?) Beignets are described as being like donuts but I actually thought they tasted more like pancakes than donuts. They're not very sweet, rather bread-like.

 

 I love good food but I'm actually not much of a cook. Hence I'm very grateful to be in a family with others who take more pleasure than I in the science and art of cooking. 

For dinner tonight, Mom's three-cheese lasagne. (Want to know the secret ingredient? Homemade goat cheese from local, raw goat's milk. Yes, my Mom even makes her own cheese!)