Placating with Plating: Pork, Rice, Squash

You eat with your eyes first. But adult eyes and child eyes often see things a little differently. Who cares? Does it really make that much difference if the priority is an appealing balance of colors or enough "white space" on the plate or just making sure the food is not touching more than necessary?

Tonight's dinner: Jasmine rice with peas/carrots, free-range pork chops and a medley of roasted yellow squash, pattypan squash, garlic chunks and kohlrabi. A little freshly-baked wheat bread rounds out the meal. For some reason, many children, including mine, seem to prefer their food as segregated as possible. Should we call it "deconstructed" instead? It's not terribly hard to manage generally, so I try to honor that preference without being ruled by it, as evidenced by my rather brazen addition of peas/carrots to the rice.

The biggest differences between kid/adult plates are onions and veggie portioning. I topped my rice with sauteed onions and orange-pineapple jus from the pork pan. The kids got one piece each of yellow squash, pattypan squash and kohlrabi, while my plate is piled high with all those plus some garlic chunks. The bright green, orange and yellow of the veggies are offset brilliantly by the white rice and white plates, so this was a colorful and appealing early summer meal.

Not counting the bread, this could easily be a 40-minute dinner. The bread baking takes about an hour (counting time necessary to preheat the oven), so technically it's an hour prep. Swapping fresh bread for heat-and-serve rolls or skipping bread altogether makes pork chops one of my favorite "go to" meals after a hectic day on the go. I'll include a rundown after the break.

Dinner doesn't need to be fancy. Heck, it doesn't even need to be homemade. Really, it doesn't even have to be dinner -- it could be breakfast. It just needs to be time together to share and nourish body and soul.

For the record, the children ate rice, peas, carrots, bread/butter and pork. It was not surprising that they didn't touch the squash, but they did ask what each one was called and (amazingly) no one disparaged this vegetable that still holds a strong "yuck factor" for them both.

This Tennessee gal loves her Volunteers (plants that is...)

Go Big Orange! Scarlet Nantes - beautiful and delicious

Lettuces: Bunte Forellenschluss (my favorite), Winter Density and Grandpa Admire's.

I love peas in the pod.

Sunflower and the bean stalk, inspired by The Three Sisters.
Now how will I ever pick the beans?

Again, I have squash in the flowerbeds. (Did you know that was my inaugural post on this blog?) All of these are volunteer though; they just came up on their own. Beautiful, isn't it? That large broccoli plant is gone now, replaced with marigolds, moss roses and sweet alyssum (also volunteer). I'm amazed at what comes back each year and also at how perfectly one crop fades into the next. As the squashes sputter out in a few months, the moss roses and alyssum will explode into mounds of color that last into fall. I can pick up other flowers here and there on sale to fill in any bare spots. 

I say these are "squash," because that's what I planted in that area last year, but this one is looking much more melon-like to me. With volunteers, you are thankful for whatever you get because it's more than you expected. Not unlike my alma mater's football team, now that I think of it....

Inside My Fridge - June 5, 2011

In my fridge this week, we are in CSA heaven already. We only got one head of kohlrabi, not enough to try this kohlrabi puree, so that will have to keep. We have sugar-cured sliced ham, napa cabbage, bok choy, a massive head of broccoli, some gorgeous purple onions and assorted salad greens. I finally have beets enough (lower shelf in the middle) to make these Beet Chocolate Cupcakes, so that will definitely happen this week!

Also bottom-right I have some jasmine rice with peas and carrots (right next to the highly-recommended Summer Shandy). My time-saving tip of the week is to cook twice as much rice or pasta as you need and store the rest for quick sides or to make up easy vegetarian meals. The peas are homegrown! Next batch will have our own peas and carrots, if those ever last long enough to make it inside.

I have gone a bit crazy with cold summer beverages. You can see some homemade lemonade (in the Mason jar), so easy with citrus simple syrup, but there is also some green tea and cold-brewed coffee. Yes, that's right, I found a way to make a superb iced coffee -- no heat required because it is getting HOT here in the mid-south.  I will share details in a future post!

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Bag o' Bacon

Frozen bacon roll, ready for easy dicing.

A little bacon goes a long way. One piece, diced up and sautéed with garlic and onion adds a smoky saltiness to your tomato soup. With garlic, ginger and a bit of soy, it makes bok choy fabulous. Key here being "one piece." Bacon is best in moderation and it's certainly not sold that way.

My sister-in-law mentioned freezing bacon and I thought it was a great idea. I pictured myself freezing already-cooked slices, ready for crumbling into a salad or adding to pizza, pasta, greens, etc. If you're going to fry bacon, you might as well do it all at once, right? Besides, I do save bacon grease in a jar to make cornbread or to add to oil on the rare occasions I fry something.

The problem with frying a whole pound of bacon in our house is that it never makes it to the freezer. Inevitably pieces get snagged right away by the whole family; part goes to the the dinner; the remaining amount is usually deemed "too small to freeze" and used for breakfast burritos and BLTs the next day. This rather defeats the moderation theme, doesn't it?

After bringing up this dilemma with my sister-in-law, she recommended freezing it raw. Yes, it does seem like this would have occurred to me on my own, but it did not. I just rolled each piece like you see above and put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer overnight. The next day, the already-frozen rolls went into a plastic bag to be used 1-2 at a time. 

Unexpected bonus? it is really easy to dice or chop the frozen roll. This also means less hands-on time overall and, most importantly, makes it easy to only take out a single piece instead of trying futilely to resist the savory delight of hot, crispy bacon.