Gone To The Beach: 02.13.2020

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Cooky Sheet Meals

Hi! This is last Monday's post, but it got sidelined by expected and unexpected guests and the intense house cleaning prep needed before their visits.

It's time for a cooking post! Today's topic, one pan roasted meals. Now I think this idea had been around for quite awhile but it only recently captured my interest when British lifestyle blogger Gillian on Tales from a Happy [beautiful, perfect] Home reviewed a cookbook that is focused on the idea:
cooked avocados? huh.

I also had read an amusing to me internet article on "Hacks [don't you just loathe the catchphrase hacks?] You Never Thought Of---How to Keep Your House Warm in the Winter." So funny, all these things I'm sure we learned as children, like seal drafts, turn the heat off when no one is home, etc---and one of my faves, Use Your Oven as Often as Possible. Now my mom swore a well designed, well-vented oven would not emit heat or aromas, but I admit mine does both and I have always made use of that to keep this drafty little house warm. Roasts, stews, bread, and crumbles, all are planned for chilly days. So the idea of a big pan of nice veggies and meat was suddenly appealing.

I made the same recipe as Gillian reviewed on her blog: winter veggies with pork. I had to order Chinese "Five Spice" seasoning from Amazon.

She mentioned the chops were very dry so I tried pork tenderloin, always economical and tasty. But yes, dry too, and unlike roasting the meat separately, with the veggies in the pan there was no way to deglaze the caramelized bits for a sauce to reduce the dry aspect. I ended up heating some jarred beef broth to spoon over the meat. Notice she also made only two chops for a family of four?

Here is my version.

Oddly I liked the meal a lot, but found the idea of reheating the leftovers unappealing, not sure why.

The cookbook is beautifully if somewhat sparingly photographed. I especially liked the two page spreads showing the foods both cooked and uncooked.

It also has interesting charts,

The recipes are just suggestions--hate yams? use squash instead. There are salads and desserts as well as main courses. And I think easily made vegetarian changes, though I didn't look closely yet.

Drawbacks:
This sounds silly or small minded but all the instructions of this admittedly British book are in Celsius temps and pound/ gram/ kilo amounts. Apparently in England one cooks with a scale not a measuring cup, how annoying. Sure I can note the American info but I've never encountered this before and do not enjoy the extra steps of converting everything. [So I just guesstimated amounts, though I did look up the temp.]

And then there is the Pan.The author says any pan will do. Fine. But one still ends up with a very big messy pan to scrub. Parchment doesn't work, the oil and juices run through; aluminum foil may work but seems wasteful as does using disposable pans. Keep in mind that my dishwasher broke three years ago and remains non-functioning. Maybe a good DW on Pans cycle would help with that issue.
I plan to try other recipes, will keep you posted. I am especially attracted to the various veggie combos and spices. I think they'll be delicious tossed with my quinoa recipe from friend Bonnie.

next?

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My first Paperwhite bloomed Monday, Feb 10. Fast! I could smell its odd but pleasing scent that morning.

Mo supervising, on right

And if you look behind the daffs, you can see I have gotten the main central portion of Blue Baskets together. Many many thanks to Penny for her early help providing an Electric Quilt schematic.