Recently I’ve been on a bit of a fruit jag. I was visiting my mother’s a few weeks ago and my little brother, age 14, was heading out to the grocery store, so I asked him to pick me up some pears and a cantaloupe. As he’s both a lifelong city-dweller and a very picky eater – plain pizza, mac & cheese, Stouffer’s microwavable chicken parm, and skirt steaks make up probably 80% of his diet – he has no idea what a cantaloupe looks like. I showed him a picture on the computer and sent him off, but of course he’s too proud to ask for help identifying fruit, so the thing he brought back to was what what turned out to be an Asian pear; it looks like an apple that’s brown and 50% larger, so he wasn’t even close. I mocked him (gently), tucked the pear away somewhere, and promptly forgot about it.
Then, a few days later, I stumbled across it while tidying up the kitchen and figured it shouldn’t go to waste … Wow! I like these things a hell of a lot more than cantaloupes! They’re rather less sweet than “regular” pears, and they’re *extremely crisp and juicy, with an amazing, grainy texture. They’re large, which is great if you’re like me in that one apple isn’t quite enough but two is too many. When you get down around the core, it get’s very tart in a small area, which compliments the main part of the fruit wonderfully – I could go on and on. Asian pears are great: try them.
2) Several years ago I called up the local deli for a delivery and included in my order what was then my regular sandwich: (cold) roast beef with mayo and swiss cheese, on a roll. Somehow, the deli screwed up my order in the strangest way: I got a hot grilled chicken sandwich, with the mayo and (melted) swiss cheese, on a toasted bagel. It’s a combination that never would have occurred to me, but it’s positively scrumptious.
How about you?
=> When choosing a type of bread for your sandwich, I heartily recommend the choice of a toasted bagel if your sandwich is … well, just about anything.
Gruyere cheese, melted on anything. Discovered when a fried ordered a dish of Halibut that was covered with melted gruyere and a sprinkling of sharp cheddar. A little research determined that gruyere can be a useful cooking cheese because it’s smooth and creamy when melted… The rest is history.
The first thing that comes to mind is macaroni and cheese–without the sauce base. Just melted shredded cheddar on noodles. It’s chewy.
The next thing is mircrowaved-fried tortillas (spray with butter spray on both sides and heat for a minute until crispy), followed by microwaved hamburgers. They may shrink, but the lack of caramelization really works better with a ton of fixings, unlike other burgers which I have to go sparingly with to keep the flavor. The Mallard reaction is enough.
I mix a bit of butter into the hot pasta in the pot and (this is more work, but it’s how I roll, yo) dump about a third in the serving dish, sprinkle with a third of the cheese, and toss with two forks. Repeat two more times, mixing each layer on top of the other. This distributes the cheese so it doesn’t melt and clump up into a glob in the middle of a bowl of pasta. I like this mac & cheese best of any recipe .
I have 2 sandwiches I like that I discovered by accident. I know they sound pretty mundane, but I’ve never been very creative regarding lunches.
Mr. Ipsum’s office had an afternoon party where lots of food was served. He knew he wasn’t going to be hungry for dinner, but since he knew I’d still want dinner, he grabbed me a sandwich from the party and brought it home. It was turkey with a slice of yellow cheese (probably American or a mild cheddar) with honey mustard. I’d never had honey mustard before, and thought the sandwich was excellent. I’ve made it for myself (and him) several times since.
For a family get-together, my sister made this dip: 404 . I couldn’t stop eating it, and figured that if these ingredients made a good dip, they’d make a good sandwich too. So now I sometimes make sandwiches with ham, swiss, mayonnaise, and Dijon mustard. Yum!
Poached eggs. I had my first ever poached egg in a restaurant dish last year. Since then I have made a bunch of different dishes that are served with a poached egg on top. One in particular that my gf loved was reheated/leftover Okra Creole that was insanely spicy, served with a poached egg on top. ETA : for breakfast.
My Asian pear story: One day my Boss received a fruit basket that included one of them. She told me to pick one piece of fruit, and I took it cause I love them. She had never had one and insisted on taking it back and trying it.
The next day, she brought in six for me and six for herself.
I never tried Suddenly Salad, as I hate cold pasta. One day it was on sale, so I bought one, took it home, cooked the pasta and drained them, and added some butter and the spices to the hot pasta. It was so damn good I now have it regularly.
Ranch dressing in my soft taco, along with hot sauce, salsa etc.
Ice cream on hot waffle; you have to eat fast.
Melt swiss cheese on a slice of pan fried tofu (real soft Japanese kind fried lightly like how you’d fry an egg). Sprinkle little sea salt and Herbes de Provence or dried herb mix of your choice.
That Asian pear sounds like Korean pear.
For years, I avoided the stuff because when I first tried it, in the 70s and 80s, it quite literally made me gag.
About 2 months back, I bought a bunch of breakfast food for a Girl Scout trip, and wound up with leftovers of Yoplait original, that came home with me.
Another KD mac & cheese discovery here. Once I started cooking it but realized I was out of milk, I used what I had instead and that was tomato juice. It’s good. Sometimes I prefer it this way.
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce. My mom sent my dad to the store with a bunch of coupons, one of which was apparently double sided. Dad wasn’t sure which side Mom wanted to use, so he got both items. One of them was the BBQ sauce. Mom was confused as to why he bought it, but once we tried it we were glad he did!
Mango. I’ve always known I don’t like papaya and mango because they taste, well…rotten, to me. But I suspect I’ve never had fresh mango, 'cause a girl at work had one and was sharing, so I took a slice…I realized what it was RIGHT before I bit down, and omg…it was delicious! None of the spoiled rotten flavor I’d come to associate with it. Mango FLAVORED things still taste bad to me, but I will no longer avoid fresh mango.
Blood oranges. They look terrible but, they are orangier than regular oranges. Fantastic.
Mustard. Hated it as a child but love it now. Especially dill mustard.
Sauerkraut. My mother always served it cooked with pork so it was mushy and, umm, ooky. Then I discovered how good the real stuff (no vinigar) is chilled. Crunchy and delicious.
