26 6 / 2011
I spent more time than usual deciding what to cook today. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and lazy Sunday afternoons are ripe for bright ideas in the kitchen. But, somehow I didn’t have any. I reviewed my ingredients several times:
Bison. Okra. Garden materials (various). Onions. Garlic
And some apples and blackberries going bad in the near future that I knew I needed to make into a dessert somehow.
So, I spent some time exploring the idea of using mint with bison in a greek style dish, but we didn’t have yogurt. I spent some time reviewing gumbo and stew recipes but Alan wasn’t enthused… So I KISS’ed and admitted some version of culinary defeat. :)
The obvious choice: play with some garden herbs (a little bit of fresh chocolate mint and oregano) and make some meatballs. Saute the meatballs w/ garlic and onion and cover until lightly browned throughout. Throw them in some marinara sauce along with some sauteed Okra (sauteed with (light) cayenne pepper), throw in a little red pepper for an ever so slight kick. Let it all simmer so the flavors fuse. And put it over whole wheat noodles.
As a side note, the addition of the sauteed Okra made it feel special, and appropriate for this time of year in the South. (Okra is incredibly plentiful here, easy to grow, and really inexpensive at the local grocery.)
Then, after contemplating for about an hour about what pie crust I wanted to do, I decided 4 hours of refrigeration wasn’t on the radar. I skipped out on making an apple-blackberry pie in favor for apple blackberry crisp. Tossed the peeled/cored apples along with the blackberries in light brown sugar and a little flour. In another bowl created the crisp using brown sugar, oatmeal, flour, and small chunks of cold butter. Poured the fruit into a mini casserole dish and topped liberally with the crisp material and baked in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes.
I’m not going to lie. I’m really glad I kept it simple, stupid. :)
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