Simple Meal Pleasures

As we enjoyed our pancake breakfast this morning, I thought how nice it is to have simple meal pleasures at home that we have repeatedly, but still enjoy and look forward to. We have a few recurrent meals like this that we have almost weekly. They are part of the rhythm of our life.
These pancakes are made from Jiffy corn muffin mix. We serve them with NE/Canadian real maple syrup and usually a selection of preserves. This morning we had a confeturra di fichi that was a wonderful complement to the corn muffin and maple syrup tastes.

S_ide note to Alan Eden: As I took the photo my wife Jacqueline directed me: “At least put your knife and fork in the correct position!”_

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Couldn’t agree more about simple pleasure meals. Once a week, almost every week, we pan sear a couple of pork chops rubbed with mustard and tarragon, or mustard and curry, and serve with a salad and roasted vegetable. And every week I look forward to it.

we have some dishes in rotation and they are always welcome. What is better than a good roast chicken? also in the rotation- pan seared pork chops with spicy pickled peppers, grilled steak, a new addition is ground chicken thigh lettuce wraps.

Apparently I need to get my family into pork chops (or pork tenderloin, which I prefer)! Two of three have that as a go-to favorite, including my other love Suzanne!

Around here the simple pleasures are more tuned to the teenagers in the house - ground turkey for burritos, as we have ready access to delicious and ripe avocados here all year long. Another is breakfast - fried eggs and chicken apple sausage slices with GOOD orange juice - eggs have truffle zest on them and every time I have them I love them.

We were talking about this just last night! We can, and do, go out as often as we please, but have found lately that cooking together gives us a different and more satisfying kind of pleasure.

Friday nights have become pizza nights. We do them on a little pizza cooker we have. Does a pretty good job of crisping up a thin crust from TJs. Toppings really vary and sauce alternates between simple tomato and homemade pesto.

We also routinely do salmon on a George Forman type fish grill along with a fresh vegetable and some sort of starch.

I’ve really gotten into southern cooking lately as I grew up in KY and TN. I’m working on perfecting shrimp and grits. Almost there… And biscuits for breakfast! I’ve got those down!

Good OJ is so… well good. Quite expensive. Store by me has it fresh squeezed for $8 a half gallon… Worth it IMO.

George

Get yourself some great chops from properly raised and butchered pigs and you’ll never go back to tenderloin again. It’s the filet mignon of pork - no fat and no flavor, a medium for sauce at best. A good chop will have a beautiful fat cap, which caramelizes and becomes magically delicious. Pork also has a hhigh percentage of monounsaturated fat, so you’re getting some good fat variety in there.

We also roast at least one chicken most weeks, which needs no further explanation or advocacy.

We do a simple dinner at least once a month. 2-3 cheeses, salumi (2-3), olives, baguette, crackers. And wine. No cooking, and still very enjoyable in many ways.

We do this closer to once per week. One of my favorite ways to eat.

We haven’t eaten breakfast at home for years. This morning, Carrie made toast with Jiff Peanut Butter. I had forgotten how much I liked toast with peanut butter. Brought back memories of when I was a kid and the house peanut butter was Skippy and I would dunk it in my over easy egg’s yolk.

Roast Chicken; Check
Pork Chops in Canned mushroom sauce with Lea & Perrins & onions (long simmer to tenderize);Check
Caprese Sandwich with plenty of Balsamic Vinegar; Check
Peanut butter on toasted Onion Rye; Check