aka: Head slap moments. 😉
I managed to have a couple of epiphanies during the last couple of weeks. I’m always sort of amused when I discover these moments. I guess I’m at that age where I don’t expect them to occur. Silly me.
One of the more surprising ones came about as I was clearing and inventorying my pantry. I came across a can of corn meal. Simple, right?
When I was growing up there were certain things we never ate at home. Dried beans and corn meal mush were absolute no-no’s. I’d had beans and ham for lunch at school – and loved it. We often had corn bread, too. But my mother never fixed a pot of beans or a pan of mush. Why? Because my dad, who was raised on a farm with a large family apparently ate far more of these items than he ever cared to and did not want them again. Ever.
I get it. I have a similar reaction to a certain vegetable recipe we had at home that I can still taste to this day – and I haven’t eaten it in over 40 years. I can categorically confirm it will NEVER be cooked in my home.
Anyway, back to the corn meal. I have been thinking about Polenta and how I am curious to give it a try.
In my ignorance, I had been thinking about the ways I might get a sample or prepare it. And then I found the corn meal in the pantry.
Corn meal. The key ingredient to Polenta.
Did I mention this was a “head slap” moment?
It wasn’t long before I was off to find a good, simple recipe to try it out…
The other thing that snuck up and surprised me was the realization that I already owned an array of tools and guides for a variety of cookery projects.
I love my bread machine and while I don’t use it often, it is a useful (to me) tool and resource. Ditto for the stand and hand mixers and my food processor. I no longer own a microwave. Shocking? Shouldn’t be. Why? Well, I have an extremely compact <cough> kitchen with little to no counter space for things I don’t use. I gave up the microwave when I moved because I discovered that the only things I used it for was to boil water or steam vegetables. Both things I could (and do) use my stove for.
Thanks to that amazing resource called the Internet, I no longer collect magazines or cookbooks willy nilly. I do, however, have some tried and true cookbooks that I’ve kept and refer to.
I just realized that I hadn’t referred to them in a very long time. So, after spending an afternoon browsing and marking things I wanted to try, I realized that I could dive in without spending a dime or need WiFi and a printer.
If this is an indication on how 2020 is going to unfold, it could be an interesting year. 🙂
