Jun 18, 2010 21:26
As I get older and cook more and more, I keep realizing that "traditional dish" means "we threw the things we had the most of and/or the only things we had at the end of the season/famine/war in a dish and baked/boiled it until they were edible." So really I'm just harking back to the days of yore when I practice my second most common form of cooking. It starts with the realization that I'm hungry and the acknowledgment that I want more than just a sammich. Then I inventory what we have in the cabinets and fridge, throw all the expired stuff away (I'm 0 for 3 for remembering to use the extra fifth of a wedge of cheese I always have left over after making black bean and salsa quiche,) pick a base item to use to make something, and then throw stuff in it until deliciousness occurs. Tonight's catalyst was a can of low sodium tomato soup. If you cook it like a white sauce with lots of milk and half and half, melt in a good amount of Swiss, American, parmesan, and Romano cheeses, season with garlic and paprika (you'll note that pretty much everything I make involves at least two out of the three when it comes to garlic, paprika, and dill,) and then dump in a cup each of rice (math fail yesterday led to an extra quart of cooked basmati rice laying around) and salsa, you end up with a delicious soup of the Mexican tortilla soup variety. Except we didn't have any chips on hand and I didn't feel like frying an actual tortilla so I garnished it with a grilled cheese sammich.
Even when I set out to avoid it, I still end up with a sammich. I may just have to embrace my sammich-osity.