Wednesday, April 14, 2010

"The Ham Bone's Connected to the Soup Bone."

mmmmmmmm Ham! Good ol' salty ham. Sundays, holidays, any day! Paired with gooey scalloped potatoes and honey garlic baked carrots....oh my, I'm hungry! I asked myself how a meal could possibly get any better? I answer- Soup. That's how!

 If you think you don't like ham or you've had ham that is boring and too chewy you must try Guy's (as in Guy's Big Bite from the Food Network) ham recipe. Actually, it's his dad's recipe and while watching him create this mouth watering slab of meaty goodness during a Food Network Christmas special I could barely contain myself from running full force to the store for all the ingredients. By new years my patience had worn thin and I had a family gathering to test what turned out to be the best ham recipe of all time! Fruity, spicy, tender...the list goes on. Just try it for yourself. Try it this Sunday. Make it date. I promise it will be worth it.

That was a great day of birthday celebrations, wrapping up a fun holiday season. In our family we celebrate with food and lots of it! 6 hours in the kictchen and it was well worth it. We ripped that ham to shreads, we devoured a rocky road cheescake in record time and all that remained was a ham bone. One lone ham bone that had too much potential to go to waste. Wrapped tight and waiting pateiently in it's frozen abode I thought long and hard about how to proceed.

Pea Soup? Too predictable.
Navy Bean Stew? Too Charlie.
Garbage? Not a chance.

I got distracted from the bone. Life went on. Billy moved to town. Billy saw the bone. Billy inquired. Billy hates ham. Billy likes soup. Billy brought me fresh East Indian yellow curry from Toronto. Billy wanted to try lentils. Ian hates lentils. Ian likes ham...

CURRY LENTIL SOUP WITH HAM comes to life!!!

This is how the magic happens. I'm unexpectedly inspired. I'll lose sleep over a ham bone, but I'm also entertained, "The ham bone's connected to the soup bone. The soup bone's connected to the veggie bone." I live for this. I'm inspired and passionate and in the end it brings me together with the people I love and we all savor in the flavour of it all. They may not join in on the singing, but hey, I get down.

Lentils, curry and ham together make one unbelievably tasty soup. I created a soup masterpiece!!! (Yep, tooting my own horn keeps me returning to the kitchen!) Mild curry flavour, just enough veggies, firm lentils and smokey ham. All I can say is, mmmmmmmmm Ham!

If I could only be so passionate about the kitchen clean-up ;)

P.S. I'd like to thank Melanie for the Rocky Road Cheesecake. I could never compete with her recipe. Maybe she'll let me post it one day ;) Everyone should experience such decadence!

P.P.S. mmmmmmmmmmm Cheesecake!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Blogging = Chili (& lots of it!!!)

Like one of my favorite cook books, "Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats", the last 2 hours left me searching for "Blogging 365: Layout Template Colours".  Do Tash and Blogging mix? Is this a recipe for disaster? This experiment could end many different ways and oh man, am I ever interested to see the results. 

My first experience with Blogging (the initial layout of the Blog) has left me 3 pots deep in Chili! Should I be worried? How many months worth of beef stew will "linking" and "posting" leave me with?  

Chili is one of my many "comfort cooking" dishes. You may be asking what "comfort cooking" is? Well, it's basically cooking a dish that I can not mess up no matter how distracted I am, how frazzled my brain is or how lost in thought I may be. Alone in my kitchen (I'm always alone when comfort cooking) I make insanely large quantities of one particular dish. 

Depending on how long it takes to reverse my mood or come to a decision, I could end up with a packed tight freezer full of sauces, soups, stews and casseroles, plus  more than enough to feed the neighbors. To lessen the load in the past, I've eaten chili for lunch and dinner for 2 weeks straight. F.Y.I. I lost a few pounds on that diet. Who knew?!

Why do I comfort cook? To cope. Cope with what you might ask? Many things- frustration, aggravation, anger, annoyance, inadequacy, boredom, basically any feeling that isn't leaving me feeling so great. So I "comfort cook". (Which usually leads to comfort eating, but we'll touch upon that subject at a later date.) 

Good FOOD = Good MOOD

If you see me comfort cooking my advice to you is to back away! Slowing and silently retreat. Leave me to my thoughts and never, I repeat NEVER try to talk sense into me. I am probably in a mood that has left a particularly bad taste in my mouth and I am controlling my temper by achieving a particularly good taste in the kitchen. Hence the need for fool proof dishes...Hence the title- "Blogging = Chili (& lots of it!!!)"...There is a formula to my madness...


Difficulty Blogging = Comfort Cooking

Comfort Cooking = Comfort Eating

Comfort Eating = Thoughts of Dieting

Thoughts of Dieting = Comfort Cooking

It's a vicious cycle, I know, but now you see how food, primarily the cooking of food helps me keep my SANITY. Everyone gets fed, the fridge is stocked and my mood lightens. It's a win-win strategy. 

Until I step on the scale ;)


**note**
I will be posting "Tash's Fool Proof Chili" (and other comfort cooking recipes) soon enough. If you are a real chili lover there are a few cook books you may draw inspiration from and include interesting chili tid-bits like: