Weekend Update, May 26, 2013

“I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” 

Eleanor Roosevelt

And I think that Eleanor Roosevelt must have read some very unusual fairy tales. Because in the stories I remember, girls who suffer from an excess of curiosity are prone to experience

falls down dark holes

naps of unhealthy duration

and unpleasant guests.

But it's gonna take more than a few millenia of literary tradition to tame the curiosity out of this cat- and besides, the consequences of kitchen curiosity are usually benign- at best edible; at worst they still fall under the heading "interesting and useful to know". 

Unless there's blood of course.

 (no, I just said that to appear safety concious. Truth is, even kitchen investigations that draw blood are mostly interesting and instructive.)

This week, my kitchen curiosity was stirred up by a comment. Specifically, a comment on last week's post from a friend of such long standing, that when I met him I was naturally blonde:

 "I love Ranch Style brand black beans. They are the closest I can find to black beans made in Brazil. You probably know this, but there is a nutritional value loss in replacing quinoa with couscous since couscous is a form of wheat pasta and not a grain."

Joe, I was going to reply to your comment quickly and thusly:  1.Thanks and wow! I have never tried Ranch Style black beans, but you'd better be believin' that I will be soon!, and 2.Thanks, and you're right, subbing couscous for quinoa is a time-for-nutrition trade-off that it would've been good to mention.

Except then I wondered.

Exactly how much time? Exactly how much nutrition? 

Curiouser  and Curiouser....

So, I followed this quinoa cooking tutorial, using quinoa I'd bought for $4 a pound in the bulk section of my good ol' Kroger.

Rinsed.....

 See the foamy stuff? it's a bitter coating on the grain, the purpose of which may be to
keep quinoa crops from being devoured by birds. (How cool is that?!?)
  Boring but important: rinse off that coating

Then, per instructions, a 1:2 ratio of quinoa to liquid, cooked for 15 minutes. And I wound up with some VERY soggy quinoa. Really! I made a 3 cups quinoa to 6 cups liquid potful, and colandered off nearly two cups of liquid when it was done! So, not exactly light and fluffy quinoa, but still tasty.

So, about the same cooking time as non-instant rice or pasta, and a stronger nutritional punch than couscous. The link is a great side by side comparison- quinoa is better for you, but not by a whole lot, and couscous is faster. But not by a whole lot.

The real quinoa bonus, of course, is that it's fun to eat. It has this amazing history, and it's super versatile,and after it's cooked, it reminds me of frog eggs. No, really! Look:

to the left, a healthful grain. to the right, future tadpoles.
I think this cranks the quinoa fun quotient up several many notches.
I realize this may not be a normal reaction.

The quinoa-based salad that was the cause of this investigation was pretty nice- a good main dish salad for a warm evening. Nice is a little more than I can say for my stab at sweet and sour pork. My fault, not the recipe's.

I did that thing I hate.

That thing where a home cook will try an internet recipe, tinker with it like a mad scientist till it's own mother wouldn't recognize it, and then, with a condescending sniff, declare the recipe a disappointment.

I did that. (except the sniff.)

It started with the ketchup. I'd bought a brand new bottle of ketchup for this occasion; perhaps it made me a little overexcited. Instead of doing anything like measuring, I removed the lid and blobbed some ketchup in the pan. Too much. Oh well, let's just add a little more vinegar, a little more juice... no more pineapple juice? Orange juice will do. Wow. That's alot of liquid. Maybe some cornstarch... on and on until....

"Behold! Behold what I have forged with my own hands and the flesh
of  a swine!! I have wrought and give unto you sweet and sour......"

"eeeww.  nevermind. sorry.
 this doesn't taste very good.
Stupid recipe "

A more pleasant surprise? The sweet potatoes with black beans :

here they are, and don't let my lack of food styling superpowers dissuade you- I was skeptical -I  even had a back up plan which I did not use, because these flavors mesh brilliantly. 

A great new non-burrito way to use up leftover black beans. 

And since I plan on trying a can or two of Ranch Style black beans in the near future....

And since I'm thinking about the near future, I'll tell you how funny it is to me that for the past few days, I've been curious about curiosity. Einstein said that curiosity exists for reasons of its own. Which made me wonder, what reasons?
Maybe curiosity's most important reasons are themselves questions.
And I hope that this week, you open that expansive soul and that excellent mind to all of them.
I hope you give yourself permission to wonder "What if?"
What if you try that new thing, release that old pain, befriend those new people, pursue that old desire, learn that new way, revise that old opinion, open yourself to that new enthusiasm?
I know there may be deep rabbit holes, and terror as well as bliss may lie beyond the door labeled "what if?"
I hope you ask the question anyway.
After all, it may be that on the ninth attempt, curiosity actually did kill the cat,
but I'll bet not before that inquisitive cat learned exactly what it meant

 to feel like a lion.