The Opinionated Foodie: The Love (or Not) of Food and Everything That Goes with It

It was a hit and miss weekend. 

First was a hit that was almost a miss but that depends on who you ask-cookies.  It all started with the announcement that we would be having houseguests over the weekend.  They called Thursday to let us know they were coming on Friday.  Yikes.  

I decided to make cookies even though our houseguests don’t eat sweets or anything fun.   They only drink water and eat no red meat, fried foods, pasta, sugar, or bread.  They will eat salads and plain grilled or baked chicken breasts.  Like I said, they don’t eat anything fun. 

I prepared a batch of chocolate chip for Mr. Picky who loves, loves, loves chocolate chip cookies.  While the cookies were in the oven, I took the remaining chocolate chip batter and kicked it up by adding toasted walnuts, peanut butter, and extra chocolate chips.  The dinger on the oven dinged, but the chocolate chip cookies came out looking sad, flat, and too wet in the middle.  What to do?

Improvise.

I mashed up the flat cookies and stirred them back into the cookie with walnut/peanut butter/chocolate chip batter.  I reshaped them and baked them again. 

Wal-lah! Mr. Picky wouldn’t eat them, and neither would the no-fun houseguests, but everyone else liked them. 

Hit/Miss #2 was breakfast on Saturday.  I made breakfast burritos for the houseguests and the regular folks too. I browned a pound of sausage with an onion.  Then, I microwaved two potatoes for seven minutes.   I let them cool, cut them up, tossed them with flour and salt, and deep fried them until they were crispy.  I then wisked five eggs with milk, pepper, and salt and added that to the sausage and onion mixture.  I cooked that until the eggs were done.  In six warm flour tortillas, I layered the potatoes, Cheddar cheese, and the egg/sausage/onions.  I folded the tortillas and wrapped the burritos in aluminum foil.  

It was supposed to be an informal breakfast-grab a burrito, a cup of coffee, and find a place to relax and enjoy.  Awkwardly, no one understood how to do that, so we sat at the table.

Mr. Houseguest, who does not get to eat whatever he wants, loved them!  He could not say enough about the crunchy potatoes, the warm cheese, or the meaty sausage.   “Boy, this is really good!” he said over and over as he devoured his burrito and drank his coffee.

Mrs. Houseguest was not amused.  She barely managed to choke down any of hers but did drink a full glass of tap water. 

Saturday night, while the houseguests visited with the kids, I put together a squash casserole for Sunday lunch.  The squash came from some plants that my momma grew in her flower bed, for some reason.  My sister’s mother-in-law makes the best ever squash casserole, and I thought I had a copy.  However, I couldn’t find it, so I made do with another recipe.  I boiled the squash, and then combined it with an onion, can of mushroom soup, cheese, butter, and panko bread crumbs on the top. After church on Sunday, I baked it for thirty minutes at 350.

It was gross.  The onions did not cook well, and the breadcrumbs were soggy.  Bleh. It was a miss. 

Finally, on the hit and miss weekend, I made a pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin pie is one of my husband’s favorites, and they just set out the special seasonal cooking section at the grocery store featuring pumpkin in a can.  It’s the most wonderful time of the year.  

If you tried to describe my pumpkin pie in one word, it would be plain.  We like it as plain as possible.  The plainer the pumpkin pie, the better we always say.  I combined ¾ of a cup of sugar with a dash of salt and a teaspoon of cinnamon, and that’s it for seasonings.  No nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves, pie spice, tobasco-nothing.  I only use salt, sugar, and cinnamon.    

To that, I added the can of pumpkin, two eggs, and a can of evaporated milk.  I poured it to the very top of a regular pie shell.  Deep dish would have been better because I had some left over, but it still worked.  I put the unbaked pie on a cookie sheet and then poured water around the pie plate to create a water bath.

I don’t know why, but I bake everything these days in a water bath.  I think things just turn out better and more custardy.  I like it. 

Anyway, I oh so carefully slid it into the oven.  I remembered to shut the door, but I forgot to set the timer.  After goofing off online and watching part of an episode of Victorious, I walked into the kitchen and remembered.  Luckily, the pie wasn’t in too bad of a shape.  Luckily.

It turned out okay.  A hit!

After a weekend like this, I think it is definitely time for me to go back to work on Monday morning.  I need the rest.