Low Carb Mexican Food

It seems like an alien concept to speak of Mexican food as low carb (and diabetic friendly), but a link to just such a concept popped up on my newsreader today.  About.com, which seems determined to cover the universe in their little multi-page articles concerning what and how, has several pages devoted to low carb Mexican food.  The discussion ranges from Mexican dishes that are already low carb, those than can be turned into low(er) carb, and how to survive eating out at a Mexican restaurant. 

Much of it we knew already (meat, dairy, eggs, some vegetables), but I was surprised to read a recipe for the already-low-carb chile relleno.  I had always avoided those batter dipped chiles, thinking that the batter was heavily starch.  That's what I get for assuming.  Chile relleno's "batter" is whipped egg whites. 

I've missed years' worth of what promises to be a tasty treat.  On my next visit to a Mexican restaurant, guess what I will be ordering?

New foods (so far)

Google has a new interface for Blogger, its blogging software.  Pretty much like going snow blind, if you ask me.   Oh, well.

I always think I'm going to try new foods, but end up with (mostly) the same old ones.  On Wednesday, I tried not one but two new things!

The Oneth.  I love roasting ears of corn.  It's so much fun to go to a fair or carnival and find the vendor who roasts the corn.  Butter, salt, cayenne with that roasted flavor is just so yummy.  A couple of grocery stores on this end of Houston have food trucks outside their entrances that specialize in roasted corn.  I finally took the time to stop by one to get a couple of ears.

Sadly, they were out of whole ears.  The only choice was roasted corn in a cup.  So I tried it, replying when asked, "Everything."  I was expecting salsa or cayenne or something spicy.  What I got was butter and mayonnaise (heavy on the mayo) with a little cayenne and some lime juice.  Although there was definitely a taste of roasted corn, the result was very like an overdressed salad--way too much mayo and butter to enjoy the corn.  After a few bites, it became too much, and I didn't finish the cup.

Since the cup cost a whopping $3, I have to say I was disappointed all around.  I do intend to try again (someday) to get one of those roasted ears, but will definitely balk when offered one in a cup.

The Twoth.  Leeks are not entirely a new item in my diet, but I can only recall purchasing them once before my last shopping trip to Kroger. They are about to become much more common.

I had been slicing the leeks and adding them to soups and stir-frys but, for the last one on the bundle, I decided to experiment with the leek as a standalone vegetable.  I had a little oil left from pan-frying some breaded chicken breasts, so I sliced the leek and tossed it in the pan along with the leftover bread crumbs. I seasoned with salt and garlic powder and deglazed the pan with some chicken stock.  After reducing the stock, I served the leeks with the pan-fried chicken and some mashed potatoes.

Definite yum.  Definite addition to the diet.

Christmas Toys (1)

I had a good Christmas this year--if raking in a lot of toys counts for making it a good one.  Now that I have a little time to look at all the goodies, I have to admit that Santa Claus (and My Prince) treated me very well.

Toy #1 is a Yoshi Knife (yes, as-seen-on-TV).  I actually picked it up myself (Santa Claus is not a terrific shopper, so I have to help him out).  I have wanted a ceramic knife for some time, but the prices I have seen have been more than I feel comfortable spending on a knife.  The TV ad for the Yoshi made me want this more affordable version.  When I saw it advertised at Big Lots, I stopped by on my round of errands to pick one up and saved it for my Christmas stocking.

I didn't have time to look at the thing until this past Friday when I opened the package and tried it out with Little Sister.  Opening the package was an ordeal.  The stiff plastic container is impossible to open without very sharp kitchen scissors.  The jagged edges that crop up during the opening process are alarmingly sharp and quite dangerous in themselves.  It was all I could do to get the package open.  Once I managed to pry the thing open enough to work out the knife, I had to tear the paper label to do so.  Not a happy experience.

I read the directions before trying the knife.  Cleaning is simple.  Use, however, comes with a lot of caveats that I had not expected, e.g., use the knife only for slicing, not for chopping.  Most of the "rules" make sense, e.g., ceramics can be incredibly strong (and, we are hoping in this case, sharp), but they can be shattered with improper use.  After all, even diamonds are "cut" to shape.  Storage may be simple enough, but I am still nervous when re-sheathing the blade.  Using only wooden or plastic cutting boards is fine by me. 

The knife's first test was on an onion.  It was not quite like slicing butter,  but it was certainly easier than any previous onion-cutting experience I have had.  I could also get better control over the thickness of slices, making some of them quite thin.  (I need better control over my wrists before I get all of them to be that thin.)  I was pleased.

When LS came over, I showed her the knife and let her play with it a bit.  She was even better at making thin slices and reminded me of the tomato demonstration in the commercial.  I didn't get to that test until last night, when I actually needed to slice some tomatoes.  Sure enough, the Yoshi knife did a good job on them and let me get some nicely thin slices.  I was surprised, however, that even this sharp blade was not so razor sharp as to get through the skin without some extra pressure.  (Tomatoes are tough these days.)

Despite being less than overwhelmed by the knife, I am pleased enough to think I will continue to use it with some frequency.  I also will think about getting some other knife styles with ceramic blades. 

Last night I used the knife to make a side dish to go with turkey patties.  I sliced one onion, two tomatoes, and some roasted red peppers (from a jar).  These were sauteed in the pan used to cook the turkey, picking up flavors and the dab of oil left over from cooking the turkey.  I added a little salt while I was sweating the onions and then a little garlic/herb seasoning mix while the vegetables were cooking down.  I served the resulting vegetable mixture over the turkey patty for a delicious dinner.  Sadly, I am not enough of a cook to know what others would call what I made.  Happily, the Yoshi Blade worked a treat to make preparation easy and quick.  Even better, I have another low carb dish to avert a food coma.

Got the food blahs

Sometimes food just doesn't interest me.  Eating it, that is.  Or cooking it.  Or storing it.  Or buying it.  As a topic, it never fails.  I haven't found anything interesting enough to blog about in my morning readings, but I certainly found some interesting things to read about.  Like asparagus.  I started with an article about some food movies, watched a 6 minute documentary on asparagus, wandered over to Wikipedia to read more about asparagus, and gave some thought about how to work 12 stalks of asparagus a day into My Prince's diet. (Hint:  not gonna happen.)

*In a salute to George Orwell, I see that Huffington Post has simply disappeared someone's list of favorite food films, so I can't provide link. Who knew that it would all vanish while I was still thinking about the topic?*  *hmph*

Still, today is just one of those days.  I'm not hungry so there is no drive to cook or eat.  Even if I were hungry, I don't think I'd be much interested in cooking.  There is just no inspiration today.  I need to go to the warehouse store, since we are running out of some essentials that are better purchased in bulk and at discount.  I can also get some nuts for snacking there, which is usually my "reward" for going.  Not even that can pull me out of my doldrums.

What does this mean?  Company is coming tonight, and I don't know what to cook.  It must be time for Mystery Casserole!

Next Food Network Star

I follow several reality shows now that I have such easy access to cable television for the time being.  One of theshows is "The Next Food Network Star."  Sunday night's episode was interesting, with the main challenge being to create a savory dish inspired by carnival sweets and junk food.  There were the obvious "lollipop" (salmon roulade with creamy cheese to help make the spiral effect) rolled up on a stick or the "candy apple" meatball on a skewer with a sticky chili sauce coating the outside.  There were also the less obvious "banana split" (three meatballs with sauces with crouton "bananas") and "funnel cake" (some sort of fritter with tandoori chicken on top).  There were also some real failures, some of which were exacerbated by complete obliviousness to the flaws in one's cooking, some of which were just general cluelessness.

Aside from the competitive aspects of the show, the creativity of the challenges and the contestants' responses are what interest me most.  I can't imagine responding to these challenges so creatively, certainly not with the time constraints and pressure that they are facing.  And yet they often come up with utterly fascinating dishes which are well worth revisiting--at least for inspiration if not actual replication.  I'm really thinking about that lollipop as something My Prince will like.  Indeed, I think we he would like all of the dishes that I mentioned here.  (Of course, he would.  They're all meat dishes.  And that makes me wonder how to redo these as vegetable dishes.)

Yes, a challenge to myself.  I can't begin to think of how I might respond to the challenge of using all four of these carnival inspirations in a savory dish, but I will try to meet the challenge for one of them.  Which one, I can't say.  I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Eat your veggies!

Getting my family to eat vegetables is a challenge.  They all seem to have an aversion to anything green.  White is okay, but all other colors vary in their acceptance. 

My mother is famous for her frequent comment:  "I love vegetables!"  The fame comes from the fact that the comment is so ironic.  Take her to the local Cracker Barrel, and she will, yes, order the vegetable plate.  Her choices?  Corn, dumplings, steak fries, and fried apples.

*sigh*

Maria Rodale (Huffington Post) presents "10 Ways To Get Your Kid to Eat More Vegetables."  Here are the suggestions:

1. Serve them [the vegetables] raw
2. Let them [the kids] have dip
3. Plant a garden
4. Just add butter
5. Add them [the vegetables] to soup
6. Make a chopped vegetable salad
7. Roast them [the vegetables] till they are crispy and golden
8. Get them [the kids] to help you prepare them [the vegetables]
9. Covered in cheese
10. Eat them [the vegetables] yourself!

Interestingly enough (to me), I have tried most of these strategies on the adults in my family.  I haven't really tried Numbers 3 and 7, but they are actively on my list.  Number 8 is not viable right now, but I am mentally filing that one away for future reference.

Of all of the suggestions, Number 6 is my favorite, and the family is starting to love it, too.  We are having fewer lettuce-based salads and more concoctions of fresh vegetables with vinaigrette and assorted flourishes of nuts, dried fruit, or cheese.

Spinach Hodgepodge Follow-up

LOL!  I was curious to see how my "hodgepodge" recipe stood up against others and did a Google search on the ingredients:  spinach "yellow squash" tomato.  Here are the results.  They seem to cluster in the realms of curry (serve with rice) and pasta sauce (serve with pasta) and involve lots of seasoning and/or cream.  Since most of my seasoning came from the pre-seasoned canned tomatoes, perhaps I should try some unseasoned ones and then have some fun with my spice rack.  Unfortunately, I'm out of both spinach and yellow squash, so I'll just have to throw something else together to keep playing with my food.

As for my original "recipe," I'm happy to report that it's even better as a leftover.

Just throwing things together

I cook some pretty tasty food most of the time, but I don't consider myself a chef of any caliber.  I don't particularly like following recipes (although I enjoy reading them for inspiration).  I've had no training to speak of, unless you count watching my late father cook when I was a child.

What I do love is just throwing things together to see what happens.  That's undisciplined, I know, but it makes both cooking and dining an adventure when I'm in the kitchen.  Adventure = fun, so, of course, I love it.

Last night necessity directed my cooking.  Little Sister had brought us some fresh spinach that was not so fresh.  She had bought herself too much and needed to offload some before it passed its expiration date, which was imminent.  I actually didn't get around to the spinach until a day or two after that date, so it was getting rather urgent to do something with it.  Rather than make a salad, I decided to cook it.

First, I chopped some fresh garlic and threw that in the bottom of a casserole dish.  I washed and tore the spinach (picking out a couple of limp leaves) and tossed that into the dish.  I chopped up some green onions and . . . tossed 'em into the dish.  I opened a can of slices tomatoes (Italian seasoning) and poured that in, liquid and all.  Finally, I sliced some yellow summer squash and placed that on top of what was in the casserole dish.  A little salt, a little pepper, a quick toss, and it all went into the oven along with a roast.

I kept an eye on the spinach, pulling it out when the squash was looking soft.  How long that took, I couldn't say (more indiscipline with the clock), but I could guess at 30 minutes.  The idea was to cook the spinach and onions without turning the squash to mush.  I was close enough, I think.

The resulting dish ("Spinach Hodgepodge"???) was quite tasty.  I did add a little salt at the table (I almost always do anyway, since I undersalt most of my dishes when cooking), but otherwise the dish needed nothing.  The squash had just enough crunch, the tomatoes added a touch of acid, and the whole combination complemented the roast beef nicely.

This time I got pretty lucky and "just throwing things together" worked out well.  The low carb count was an added bonus.

Oh, mandoline!

I have a new toy! A mandoline. It slices. It juliennes. It doesn't do much else, but what is does is lovely. I have been playing with it endlessly and am constantly pleased with both form and function.

I bought it a couple of months ago at Walmart for $15 or $20. House brand. Pretty basic. The nicest feature is the rubber coating on the base. The base itself is wavy, so that it fits nicely over the edges of several different sizes of bowls. The rubber coating makes it more stable when slicing.

Watching (too much) Food Network taught me about the risks of losing knuckles and other precious hand parts, so I have been extra careful. Still, I've had nicks. Have to be more careful when picking the thing up (looking where my hand is going is a good trick). Must try to avoid talking to others when using the mandoline (or allowing them to talk to me). MUST use the safety guard on everything.

Otherwise, it's a honey. I find myself putting extra onions in dishes just because it's so nice to slice.

My newest recipe, using the mandoline:

• 1 or 2 onions
• olive oil
  
• 1 can chicken stock
• 1/2 cup (or more) dried mushrooms
• mess of fresh or frozen whole green beans

Slice onions with mandoline. (I use the thinnest setting.) Saute onion with dash of olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. (I cook them until they are translucent.) Pour chicken stock, mushrooms, and onions in saucepan and simmer until onions are desired consistency. (A little al dente is good.) Cook green beans until hot but still al dente. Serve with sauce on the side or on the top.

This is my new substitute for green bean casserole. It's quite tasty. You can add garlic powder if you want to jazz it up a bit, but it's quite nice with just salt and pepper.

Hail, Kale!

Mama likes to go out driving around a lot. She rides, I drive, and she looks at the clouds and whatever scenery the Gulf Coast plains can provide between strip malls and multi-level highway interchanges. A few days ago we took a ride out to Webster to enjoy the clouds and oleanders. We were also (of course) looking for some place to eat that might appeal to her appetite (chicken fingers). We settled on an Olive Garden. I was looking forward to the "never-ending" soup and salad.

We scoped out the menu, seeing all sorts of appetizing dishes. Mama would have enjoyed many of them, especially those with cream sauces, but "pasta" is one of those words she's lost. Now the dishes would all be "new" to her, and "new" can be scary. So I ordered from the appetizers for her: fried chicken fingers and zucchini with ranch dipping sauce. "Zucchini" is another lost word, but "green squash" and the promise that I put it in salads at home seemed an adequate explanation to allow her to give it a try.

For myself, I started with the salad and proceeded to the Tuscan soup. Delish! The soup, however, had an odd green leaf about half-submerged in the broth. It was crisp and bulky enough to need some chewing but quite tasty. I asked the waiter what it was. "Kale," he said.

Kale is so not an East Texas vegetable. At least it never showed up on any family tables where I ever dined. (Mama was unfamiliar with it, too, but that's another issue.) Not that I'd never heard of it. I was just never sure, unless I looked it up, whether kale was a leaf or a root or something else. Eventually I did see it in grocery stores, but I was never adventurous enough to pick some up to try at home.

Now, of course, I intend to do just that. As it turns out, kale is considered one of the "world's healthiest foods" and plays well with others foods in a number of recipes. I fully intend to try this recipe (or something like it) for curried lentils (with kale).

The best ever

Trying to find something that suits Mama's taste buds can be a challenge. Her dining experience has been fairly limited in the past few years. Like most of us, she tends to find a "favorite" menu item at a restaurant and order that every or nearly every time she goes to that restaurant. Because of her handicap, her choice of restaurants has been limited by how well the owners understand the Americans with Disabilities Act and provide facilities that support her presence. (The exception is Landry's in Kemah, a dangerous place for someone with a handicap--hey, Landry's, I have pictures!--which Mama dares to enter because of the view and a sad hope that she will be safe.)

Getting her to eat my cooking has been an adventure, but she seems to have weathered it fairly well this year. I am told that she even brags on my cooking to others now. Wow!

Still, I'm never certain what will please her when I enter the kitchen and start throwing things together. Saturday night it was chopped cabbage, sliced onion (halves), and shredded carrots stir-fried in a tad too much canola oil. I tossed in dried chives, dried celery flakes, and dried parsley. Once the vegetables were somewhat tender, I added some Sesame Ginger marinade that I had bought at Kroger along with some leftover steamed veggies (baby carrots, yellow squash, calabacita) and some browned ground beef. I served her a tiny bowl (she really won't eat much), and she allowed that it was "the best ever." I offered a second bowl, and she ate all of that too. I think it was the marinade that gave it some extra flavor, but I now know that the taste appeals.

The marinade didn't add a lot of carbs, maybe 20 to the whole dish, which easily had 4 servings. I will look for other things that might add a different taste to these same old veggies, cuz they will surely show up on the menu again. In one variation or another.

Where da brown rice?

My Prince and I just returned from a trip to our warehouse store. Buying bulk can really save us money--as long as we can use up what we buy and don't end up throwing some of it out because it has spoiled before we can consume it. We tend not to buy as much of the fresh items there but focus on multi-packs of favorite canned goods and big bales of necessary paper products for that very reason.

Today I was on the lookout for brown rice. We've eaten a lot of it this past week, so I need to rebuild my stock. I've noticed before that there were several varieties of white rice available, but never any brown rice.

Today I put the absence of brown rice together with my understanding that one of the "missions" of this warehouse store is to support small business by making the tools and supplies needed for small restaurants and convenience stores available in comparatively small (although humongous for a small family) quantities at discount prices. That "mission" paired with the absence of brown rice means that a healthy food choice will not be easily/cheaply available at the establishments run by their clients. This forces the small businesses and institutions that use the warehouse store as their supplier to offer a less healthy food choice to their customers, saving everyone a few pennies in the process but adding yet one more challenge to the health of everyone but those at the top of the chain.

Now, I know that I am making a judgment about the shaping of "food policy" by a corporation, and I have to acknowledge that brown rice is actually deemed inferior in most of the culture groups that use rice as a staple. Still it's sad to see 20- and 50-lb sacks of white and jasmine and basmati rice stacked on a good part of a very large aisle and not a single bag of brown. There is, however, instant and parboiled white rice in large containers to make even the cooking of white rice go faster. Brown rice is harder to cook and might not be the choice of other customers, perhaps making it uneconomical for the warehouse store to stock.

If I want to replenish my supply, I will have to do that at Fiesta, where I can get a 4-lb bag of brown rice. That's the biggest I've ever been able to find.

If I want to change our food culture, I have a much bigger chore, and I'm not entirely disposed to think that (a) I know enough to argue what changes we should be making or (b) I have the will to want to get involved in such a battle. If I did, one place to start would simply be a customer comment at the warehouse store, asking them to stock brown rice and telling them why. It worked for almonds! ;)

Eating seasonally

The cheapest fruits and vegetables are said to be those that are currently in season. I'm a city girl. What do I know about growing seasons?

This handy site fills the gap: Fruits and Veggies More Matters. Here's what's in season for the winter months (December, January, February):

• Apples
• Belgian Endive
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cherimoya
• Chestnuts
• Dates
• Grapefruit
• Kale
• Kiwifruit
• Leeks
• Mushrooms
• Oranges
• Parsnips
• Pear
• Persimmons
• Pummelo
• Radicchio
• Red Currents
• Rutabagas
• Sweet Potatoes
• Tangerines
• Turnips
• Winter Squash

Once again, I have some issues. The dates would probably put me in a sugar coma. The grapefruit will counter half of the medications that I take with a similar result (coma). I have no clue what Pummelo is, but I have at least heard of Radicchio.

Nonetheless, I will start looking up the unknowns and give the knowns another look. Eating seasonally is cheaper--and better for the environment--so I need to try to do my part.

Lincoln's birthday

His 200th to be exact. It's coming up this year on February 12. To mark it, President-elect Obama will be treated to an inaugural luncheon that salutes President Lincoln's tastes and experiences. Here's the menu. Here are the recipes for the foods to be served.

Looks pretty tasty but not really to my taste. I could see trying out the Winter Vegetables recipe, tho. It's simple enough and has some new combinations (to me) that might be interesting. I assume, despite the lack of directions, that all of these vegetables, while cooked separately, are tossed together for serving. Or not?

Oh, yeah. That's a replica of the Lincoln china. The luncheon will be served on it.

Potato starch

Duh!

I'm just figuring out that what I'm reading is telling me that bigger and older (in potatoes) means more starch. New and small means less (but not "no starch"). I must learn more.

In the meantime, I got to see an episode of (something) with Jacques Pepin. Actually I saw several episodes of several somethings with Jacques Pepin, since it was Jacques Day on that station. In this particular episode, he kissed a fish, demonstrated how to debone a cooked trout, and took some starch out of a potato.

Chef Pepin (who can make even a potato sound romantic) grated some medium white potatoes. He said that some of the starch could be removed simply by washing off the resulting pile of grated potato, but it was faster to just wring it out. And he did just that: took a pile of grated potato in two hands and squeezed it out over a bowl. I was shocked by the amount of liquid (all cloudy and starchy) that he got out of those potatoes.

I'm not looking forward to grating potatoes like that, but when My Prince will just about die if I don't let him have some real potato, I think that that will be the way to get some of the starch out of it. I'm not putting fish eggs on it, though.

Pumpkin fail 2

Bad idea. Bad, bad, bad idea.

Well, it might have been a good idea when I first had it, but all the traveling and time away from home, meant that my pumpkin might have been past its prime. Or that my initial enthusiasm for all things pumpkin might have waned. Or that I just never really felt like I had a good idea about how pumpkin can be used for a side dish rather than a dessert.

Nonetheless, I did try. Once I got the thing opened and more or less prepared for cooking, I tried a couple of things.

• Boiled some pumpkin meat with Splenda and water. Added cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, butter. Light mash. I didn't care for the taste. It was a bit earthy for me. My Prince had three helpings.
• Baked shards of pumpkin (peel on) at 375 degrees for an hour, wrapped in foil, dotted with butter. The buttered bits tasted better than the unbuttered bits. I ended up cutting off the peeling (which had finally softened enough to actually be a peeling), chopped the meat, and tossed it into a Mystery Stir Fry. Hidden among the other ingredients, the taste was fine. Tasted alone, still earthy.
• I saved the seeds. They've been spread out and drying for a couple of days, but I still don't know how to get all the strings off. Maybe they will just fall off when I try to roast the seeds.
  

The other half of the pumpkin went in the trash. I hate to waste food like that, but I really didn't like it. And it was hard to handle. I might try pumpkin soup with canned pumpkin, but I do believe that that is the last (more or less) fresh pumpkin that I will try.

Pumpkin Fail 1

Now I know why my parents never let me have a pumpkin to carve at Halloween. It always seemed like a wasteful thing to do anyway, but still a lot of people seem to have fun with it. Who knew those suckers were so tough?

First, there's the shell. It's not a rind or skin. It's a shell. A hard one. It took all of my strength to cut through the outer covering with a chef knife. I went straight in and then tried to cut around the middle. I had to saw with the knife and finally just gave the whole pumpkin a strong tap on the counter. Part of it was nicely cut, and part of one half was pretty ragged, but I got the thing opened.

Then, there's the innards. All the recipes say "clean out the seeds and strings." How hard could that be? I reached right in and started pulling. Yuck! The strings are tough, impossible to break, hard to cut. And everything is slippery.

Finally, there's that instruction: "remove the skin." Huh! I tried a potato peeler, as instructed, and darned near ruined it before I quit. I then tried a knife, finally hitting upon the idea of cutting each section in smaller pieces and then paring the skin off. At the same time, I more or less peeled out the remains of the strings from the inner surface.

I got one-fourth of the pumpkin cut into three large sections for baking (skin on). The next fourth was cut into smaller sections and then cleaned up for boiling (skin off). The next two-fourths are still laying on the kitchen counter. I think that half of the pumpkin will go in the trash unless I grow a new wrist. My wrists went numb while I was carving, and they still ache with remembered pain. I have my doubts about cooking this monster.

Fennel ideas

I'm still working out how to work with fennel. In the course of my reading, I ran across this list of serving ideas from the World's Healthiest Foods site:

• Healthy sautéed fennel and onions make a wonderful side dish.
• Combine sliced fennel with avocados, and oranges for a delightful salad.
• Braised fennel is a wonderful complement to scallops.
• Next time you are looking for a new way to adorn your sandwiches, consider adding sliced fennel in addition to the traditional toppings of lettuce and tomato.
• Top thinly sliced fennel with plain yogurt and mint leaves.
• Fennel is a match made in Heaven when served with salmon.

I have everything on hand except the plain yogurt and fresh mint. I have to break down and try something, don't I?

New year, new food

We have been venturing out of the traditional foodways of my family for a while now. Once upon a time, this was just an attempt to discover new tastes and sample the delights of the world. Some of those dishes and foods were adopted as things we wanted to continue eating, so My Prince and I already dine on a diet of foods that would be alien to most of my family.

Lately I've been actively seeking healthier foods to add better nutrition to our diet. I've particularly been looking for lower carbohydrate foods that are higher in fiber. Over the past year, three new foods have made an impression: quinoa (see "Return to Central Market"), edamame (see both posts on edamame here), and jicama (see my jicama posts here). Only the latter two have really stuck in our diet. Quinoa is harder to find here in Austin and impossible in our regular shopping haunts in Houston. (Yes, I could drive 20 miles out of the way to get it, but I tend not to do that for anything except raspberry tea.) Edemame and jicama, however, are on our plates at least once a week, sometimes more.

I have three more new foods ready for review right now. One is really an herb: rosemary. I know I've tasted rosemary before, but I have never cooked with it. Now I have the promised rosemary bush and am making my first efforts to incorporate it into my cooking. Fennel can be used as both a vegetable and an herb. Haven't tried it yet, but look forward to trying. Pumpkin is not exactly new. I've had pumpkin pie all my life. I've even made a couple. I've never tried fresh pumpkin, though. I'm going to try my hands at cooking the seeds and making a couple of dishes from the fresh pumpkin that have nothing to do with pies.

Black-eyed peas

It's a southern tradition to eat black-eyed peas and cornbread on New Year's Day. The store sales flyers are full of ads for fresh (shelled), frozen, and canned black-eyed peas. We eat them rather frequently, so I have a fully black-eyed-pea-stocked pantry already.

The thing is, I don't really just love black eyed peas. I like 'em well enough, and I do eat 'em when they are served. I even serve 'em from time to time, especially when I have some with jalapenos.

What I really, really like is purple hull peas. These delicate little peas are small and green when fresh, turn a pale taupe color when cooked, and taste delicious with very little seasoning. Their shells are just what the name says: purple (and green).

Wasn't I just totally surprised when My Prince's Stepmother (AKA #2MIL) informed me that these were really young black-eyed peas? That would be why they are smaller than a regular black-eyed pea and why they have that tiny little eye. The purple and green hull is an immature stage of growth. #2MIL knew this, of course, because her #2Son is a truck farmer in New Mexico and raises, among other fine things, black-eyed peas. She brought me a nice bag full of purple hull peas a couple of seasons ago, and I sat on the couch in the den and shelled them all in one go. They made a perfect "mess o' peas" for dinner that night.

While we don't have any fresh purple hull peas at this time of the year, we sure do have some cans of Allen brand purple hull peas hauled in from Houston. I'm thinking that that will be close enough for the old tradition, and that's what I'll be serving on New Year's Day. With cornbread, ham, fresh tomatoes, and iced tea. Mmmm.