weekend update 15, 2013

"There are only a few notes. Just variations on a theme.”

 John Lennon

In some parallel universe, there are unlimited funds available to the curious and curiouser who long to traipse around the world gathering useless bits of learning. (That parallel universe is so idyllically perfect that we wandering knowledge junkies find ourselves magically able to spell words like 'parallel', 'knowledge', and 'idyllically' without any spellcheck help at all)  

"Which arcane knowledge quest shall we tilt at first, Sancho Dogza?
We may be stuck here till we decide."

  In that gluten is good for you universe, a big fat scholarship check arrives in my suburban mailbox on a Tuesday, and on Wednesday I begin a global journey of discovery. Starting with beignets in New Orleans and moving onto sopapillas in Cabo San Lucas, I'll be tasting every sweetened fried bread the world has to offer. 
I'll be gone a  long time; there doesn't seem to be a culture in the world that hasn't bubbled up it's own version of fried dough dipped in sugar.  Check out this list of  doughy treats,  or this one!  In fact, as soon as my imminent arrival here in Denver was a certainty, my favorite diminutive dynamic duo asked if maybe, just maybe, we could make doughnuts- and when the teeny beloveds ask for fun with food, fun with food is what happens. Fried sweet bread is  a simple theme with a thousand variations, and though my fingers twitch and my taste buds tingle at the idea of trying Italian bombolini or Polish Paczki, we gave first play to this all-American Krispy Kreme copycat recipe- 

 Sugar coated fun with rainbow happiness sprinkles on top.
Delicious beyond description, and legal in most states.

 A few days later, in a well-meaning but naive attempt to mix the idea of 'nutrition' with the concept of 'doughnut', we tried these baked sneaky chef doughnuts . We used spinach and blueberry baby food instead of the purple puree in the recipe and topped them with a dollop of vanilla pudding and sprinkles:

If you call them snack cakes, they're....okay.
Just don't call them doughnuts. Unless in your parallel universe
doughnuts are not-too-bad-for-you lumpy things.

Twice this week, in between doughnut tries, we paid a visit to that quintessential Denver neighborhood market, Pete's Fruit and Vegetables.

That's me in the background, choosing dinner protein
while the littlies enjoy a gelato.
What a happy world it would be if every neighborhood had a Pete's.

 At Pete's, Steve the butcher not only found and cut for us an eye of round for Thursday's roast, but sold us a few fantastically imaginative spins on sausage: 

there's Steve, curator of this meat-is-art gallery.
We went home with Lamb and Feta, Pork with Hatch Chili
and Chicken and Basil sausages.
(Sigh. Sometimes I fear I love sausage only because I'm too lazy to chew solid meat.)

The prize for most successful variation of the week? This wonderful crock-pot pulled pork. My friend Alison suggested trying this version after last week's pulled pork attempt ended not quite satisfactorily (it was pretty much boiled pork), and she was so right! Alison, a bajillion thanks- this is my go-to pulled pork recipe from now on. We tried it with boneless pork ribs, buns made from no knead bread and a salad:

Zero leftovers. Zero.

The fettuccine with Alfredo sauce received enthusiastic praise from those gathered round the table, though I think the America's test kitchen version is a little better. A combination of the two- the fresh basil of the Kevin Warren recipe, and the simplicity and creaminess of the test kitchen method might come close to Alfredo perfection.

Green beans being a little elusive this week, we substituted one of my favorite salad discoveries of last year: salad greens topped with cucumber, mango, avocado, goat cheese and a poppy seed dressing. This salad gets so much play in our Texas kitchen that I assumed everyone I knew had tried it. Not so. It was a pretty big deal.

Which was great.

Because as you know, I love it when someone, or something, helps me appreciate a new version of the familiar.

And this week

I hope you know that what you bring to the table

is a version of life that your world needs to see.
Even if it's not the definitive version.
I hope you know that your story 
deserves to be told
and the stories of those around you
deserve to be heard.
Even (maybe especially) if they may not always be

the most interesting stories in the world.

  

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