Jalapeños stuffed with goat cheese, topped with cheddar cheese, and chased down with Mothership Wit. It’s a mountain of spice and flavor and super easy to make.
First, buy the beer. It’s pretty damn delicious. I had never had it before, but it really reminded me of Chimay, which I also love. Belgian wheat beers are quite delicious and go well with a wide variety of food. The Mothership Wit definitely stood up to the strong flavors of the stuffed jalapeños.
Here’s a picture of Yumberry Grapefruit yogurt. Taken on my roof. I didn’t think the Yumberry looked good on its own. Well, to tell the truth, I didn’t think yumberries were an actual thing.
Or rather, I thought it was simply a marketing name for a blend of berries. Well, turns out it’s a marketing name for a type of fruit instead…. myrica rubra, to be exact.
One of the best Christmas gifts I’ve ever received was the cast iron skillet you see above. My sister got it for me along with a plethora of other kitchen gadgets. Now that I think of it, she also got me the collapsible salad spinner I mentioned in an earlier post as a Christmas gift.
But, I digress. Cast iron is awesome. It holds heat well, can be transferred from the stove to the oven, and is surprisingly versatile. I have done everything from searing steaks to baking bread in it.
However, it can be hard to clean, because you can’t really scour it without removing the seasoning. The seasoning is the layer of oil baked into the pores that makes the pan non-stick and prevents rust. However, it can be really hard not to want to scrub it, because little bits of food can really get stuck onto it, especially if you’re using it in the oven. In this case, it was from caramelizing the vegetables for pot roast.
Lentil soup is basically chili for brown people. Well, at least the way I had it growing up, it was. Every time, the recipe might be slightly different, depending on what vegetables were on hand or how spicy the cook wanted it. You can throw whatever you want into it. Also, it’s about as easy (if not easier) to make than chili. All it really takes is…
So, at about the 3 hour point of cooking this roast, I had given up on it. It didn’t feel right in the oven, it looked and seemed dry, and after a bit of Googling I discovered what I had done wrong (more on that later). I was a bit dejected. Even though the grand total of time and money spent on the meal was about $15 and 30 minutes prep, the smells of garlic, carrots, and potatoes braising in beef broth wafting through the house had set my expectations high. I began making the gravy with the idea that it would have to compensate for the lack of moisture in the meat. However, when I finally sliced and served it, I was pleased to report that I was completely off in my initial assessment. While I thought that the meal would be a C-, it turned out to be a B+ (and quite a delicious B+).
I’ll describe the problem more later, but suffice it to say that the quotations around the “pot” above are not only because I didn’t use a pot to cook it, but also because I missed out on some of the qualities of a pot (or better yet, a Dutch oven).
