Funky Friday: Explore to Inspire

Google tells me that Pacaya is the bloom of a palm plant, and is used as a vegetable in Guatemalan cuisine.  Salted Jellyfish is used in Asian dishes. Foods from places I have not been, foods I have not tried. In  the case of Pacaya a food I had never heard of. 

Driving home from an outing one day last week we visited a recently opened international supermarket that is a couple of miles down US-1 from home.  Neighbors had mentioned it during our last First Friday gathering.  One person had found it overwhelming and left in a bit of a panic. Another found it simply fascinating. We had a nice walk around, exploring aslies of the routine and unexpected.  We didn't buy anything, but I will probably go back for a selection of things that inspire me to explore new flavors and textures.  

Many years ago (I was still living in Lexington so it was before 2009) I read a book on artists and creativity. One of her recommendations was to stop in stores you have never been in before. Explore stores that are totally unrelated to anything you have ever done, or are related but are shops you have never entered.  The author urged her readers to do this at least once a week. It can be planned, it can be random, but allow yourself the time to explore the unfamiliar. She was right, I find inspiration in it. 

Exploring is like reading things you are unfamiliar with. Readers fall into habits, I have at times read everything an author has published, or everything I could find on an obscure topic like the concept of time, or being alone. Others read romance novels, or mysteries, or science fiction, and tend to stick to that genre. I am primarily a non-fiction reader. On the way home from Toronto I was delayed in the airport longer than expected, I went into the bookshop and bought a novel. Far from the non-fiction I most often read, it was a story, with a plot, and predictable characters, and a little bit of a mystery, and of course an everyone lives happily ever after ending. Will it turn me into a fiction reader, no, but it might inspire me to add more character into my writing, something that is probably missing, especially in my professional writing. 

Exploring this market will inspire my play time in the kitchen, maybe leading to some interesting Foodie Friday posts. 

Then where was the toothpaste with Herbs and Barks! 

Foodie this week? 

On Saturday I made an eye-round beef roast.  I slow cooked it in the oven, with chopped onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms, canned diced tomatoes and cheap red wine.  After dinner, I used an immersion blender to puree about half of the overcooked veggies into a pasta or pizza sauce.  Sweetie Bear commented that it looked like it would be a good base for a soup.  

On Sunday I made a beef vegetable soup. I saute a chopped onion and  several chopped mushrooms in olive oil. Added to that the remaining veggies from the roast, plus chopped carrots and green beans. I added a partially drained can of italian white beans, and the remains of a box of pasta rings. I topped this up with box beef stock, and let it simmer for 30-45 minutes. I then added the left over roast beef cut into about  1/2 inch cubes, let that just heat through and served (the beef was super tender and if I had added it earlier it would have disintegrated in the soup.)  It was hearty, and delicious and used goodness that might have otherwise been tossed out. Soups are simple and oh so good.

I made a simple loaf of bread to go along with it, homemade bread and soup will warm the coldest hearts. 

On social media, news feeds and YouTube there are reactions to using induction cooktops. We had one installed when we had the kitchen redone and I love it. If I had a gas cooktop I wouldn't make the switch unless I was really worried about indoor air-quality. Gas will work with non-magnetic cookware - I had to part with a few old favorites when we made the switch to induction.  Induction is far superior to any other electric cooktop. It heats faster  than resistance coil electric cooktops and stops hearing immediately when turned down or off. It is not as infinitely adjustable as gas, but pretty damned good. Here in a highrise building, gas is simply not an option. Induction is far superior to other electric cooktops. If you want to try one, the countertop units can be bought for about $100 (IKEA sells one for less than $100 USD.)