Geoff loves to cook, and he has a specific repertoire of things he can do very well from memory. Chicken parm, cheesesteak, a few other things. He's been doing well with grilling, and not burning the hell out of things.
He likes to sit and read cookbooks, study them, and try out new recipes. Sometimes they're not perfect. He studies the recipe and spends days on it, and then he goes shopping for the ingredients.
We run through what we have in house and what he needs to pick up. Oregano? Yes, we are growing our own oregano so you can pull some branches off of that and pull the leaves off. Dill? oh yes. Cilantro? No. We are not growing cilantro, we have parsley which isn't what the recipe is calling for. And it isn't a tasty substitute unless you have a friend who hates cilantro and thinks it tastes like soap. Buy some cilantro. Dry stuff like cumin and bay leaf? Yes. We have two containers of both. Yes please do not buy more.
For the meat. Three kinds! Country style pork ribs. Recipe calls for boneless. Can he buy bone in and cut around the bone? It's much cheaper that way. Yes buy bone in vs. boneless.
After he found this recipe I noticed it was a stew. Stew. When it is 90 degrees out. I mentioned "ya know, this is the kind of thing you make in the fall or winter. Not ... in the summer."
"I wanted to try this, I've had my eye on it, and heart set on it for a long time, but with me going back to school next week, I really wanted to give it a go."
Damn. Ah Yes. School. It occurs to me I may need to leave the house and go shopping? What is that, shopping? I have no idea. How do I drive? Where is the store? Ugh. Luckily he is home Tuesdays and Thursdays so. I won't lose him for good. Shopping-wise. But Doug or I will probably have to cook more. Joy. Fun. Yay.
I do not take Geoff for granted.
So for the stew, that he wanted to make. We went through more ingredients on the list. He needed two pounds of black beans. So he bought two cans of black beans (I didn't check his grocery procurement when he got back) and I noticed he had a bowl set aside with the black beans in them, soaking in water.
Oh. Oh honey. No. That's not what you do with canned beans. So I explained to him that 2 pounds of dried beans he'd be soaking in water overnight. And the two pounds of dried beans would probably expand amazingly. Two 15 ounce cans of black beans weren't going to be the same thing. But. It's close. He learned a lesson about beans. I told him in the future, soaking beans is indeed a pain in the ass, so buying canned beans is fine, but I would have bought 3 to get the yield the recipe is going for.
The recipe called for ham hocks and collard greens. I told him if he didn't see ham hocks in the pork section to go ask the butcher. They will have them at the market for sure. He found those no problem.
Collard Greens. He couldn't find them in the produce section, so he used the internet to pick an alternative. Kale. No problem. Got a bag of that.
Ham steak. No problem.
Chorizo sausage. The recipe called for sausage links and didn't say whether or not to chop them up. So he didn't. Upon completion of the recipe I told him he should have chopped this up because it's a stew, and using a spoon to lift up a humongous sausage link is no fun. He made note of that, and pulled them all out of the stew to cut them into smaller pieces and then cut the smaller pieces in half. Super nice and small.
He did buy the bone in country style pork ribs as we discussed and they were much less expensive per pound. He grilled the sausage and pork ribs to just under done since they were going in a stew so that was acceptable. He cut the meat off the bone, and had everything set and ready to put in the stew!
I had a meeting from 4-5 and came out to find him waiting.
"What are you waiting for?" I asked him.
"The recipe says to simmer the liquids and beans for two hours, then add the greens, simmer another half hour, and then add the meat in and simmer that for two hours."
"Okay, so why didn't you start this recipe at 1pm? We won't be eating until 8pm at this point."
He pondered.
I noted the he should always check the prep and cook times for things, to time things to be ready for people to eat at a normal time.
He said it called for three cups of the greens, I told him to take three handfuls of kale, and throw them in. Don't measure this with a cup, just go for it.
We stirred it all in and added the meat, and I looked at the stew and felt it could actually use more kale. There was not enough green in there with the red from the tomato base and the meat. I said that canned beans are awesome, but next time, use 3. And use one can of three different kinds. Kidney, Pinto, and Black. It'll just be prettier.
It was delicious. It reminded me of a recipe my uncle Kenny used to make for us, in the heat of the summertime, with kale and linguica. I enjoyed it greatly.
Excellent work Geoff. Excellent work.
Exercise:
Blood Glucose:
9am: 154
6pm:148
10pm: 154
Food:
Coffee
Water
iced coffee
small plate of pepperoni slices & 3 baby bell cheeses
2 bowls of stew
wine with dinner (2 glasses)
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