I was dragging into this 1980's decade. None of the recipes were that inspiring to me and maybe it was a carry over of my extreme dislike of the 80's. I don't like the fashion, the movies, the music...not much about the 80's I'm into at all. Maybe I'm bitter because my hair was nowhere near the type of hair I needed for the big 80's hair look. Or maybe because my legs were so skinny that leg warmers just bunched at my ankles and made my legs look even skinnier. Maybe it is rooted in the time I showed up to school with my navy blue knit sweater with white hearts across the chest and was mortified to find a boy in my class wearing the EXACT same sweater. I'm not sure I ever wore that sweater again. In retrospect, he may have been more mortified than me....a GIRL dressed like him. Unless he was into dressing that way. He was probably still mortified to be wearing the exact same sweater as the least fashionable girl in the school though.
So there were two directions I wanted to go with the meals. One method said "Have a fire extinguisher handy" and the other said "I always set the fire alarm off when I make this". (See 1960s). California cuisine was in and that included roasted red peppers. Cajun food was also huge and I really wanted to go this direction, but I could see all sorts of disaster coming. So I went the American Southwest route...
The recipe for Blue Corn Pancakes called for (amazingly enough) blue cornmeal. I did not think this would be such a big deal to find. After all, we are now living in a culturally diverse city with all sorts of specialty stores available.
Boy was I wrong.
After checking out seven different stores and having no luck I did have a brilliant idea that maybe I could buy blue corn chips and grind them to a pulp and use that. (Thank you Chopped for helping me think outside the box). A quick message to Hannah and she confirmed that it would work. Soooo...off to get some very easy to find blue corn tortilla chips.
The beans started out as dried and I cooked those all day with spices and onion, garlic and jalapeno. Half the beans were pulled out and mashed to death and then added back to the whole beans. Then I added in chopped bell peppers, tomato, onion, more jalapeno and lime juice.
The Blue Corn Pancakes were as they sound. Made with buttermilk and fried like a pancake. The Cilantro Cream was made from cilantro pureed and added to sour cream.
To serve you assemble pancake, beans and cream.
Oh. My. Word.
See, in a normal world, I don't pick out beans to eat on a regular basis. I hardly ever use peppers (digestive issues with them) and so by and large none of this would have been my first choice and I was kind of going in with a defeatist attitude to begin with.
Boy was I wrong.
I don't know if it was the fact that I went into this expecting a big fat fail, that anything edible would have been amazing or what exactly...but this. was. amazing. I would go have a plateful right now, but I ate all the leftovers the next day. 😔
I will not go into great detail about how the kids liked it, because mostly..for them...the dinner involved a lot of gagging and involuntary shuddering. From all of them. Safe to say none of my kids like beans and peppers together. At all.
Jeremy, on the other had, (who happened to be at home for dinner that night) ate as much as I did and declared it to be quite tasty. I was quite happy the children weren't into it...more for me.
Pecan Pie was good as always. I did not snap a picture of it on a plate because our condo is about 80 degrees consistently (combo being on the second floor, trying to conserve energy and this blasted Florida heat!!!) which makes it quite difficult for anything to solidify at room temp. Fantastic if you forgot to soften that butter earlier in the day. Five minutes flat you have softened anything you might need softened. But this is what the Pecan Pie looked like before I cut it and served it soft serve style...
This is pretty much exactly the type of dessert Jeremy's mom always has for us (one of like a million) when we come to visit. So it felt very homey and comforting to us.
So I was thinking about "Fad Food" when I was scrubbing the toilet and I realized that just because it was a "fad" doesn't mean everyone ate it. Not everyone wore blue eye shadow in the 80's or leg warmers or massive hair. It was just a fad. So I got to be thinking about what I ate growing up in the 80's. I'll tell you what I ate...whatever was growing in the back yard. We had a MASSIVE garden growing up and we ate out of the garden all summer, canned in the fall and ate out of the pantry all winter. We had chickens for eggs and chickens for meat (massive chicken butchering parties...I really don't understand why those chicken feet earrings ever took off) and even had rabbits for a while. Turns out none of us could really handle rabbit meat that well. We would occasionally buy a side of cow from a friend. Almost all our food was fresh and made from scratch. I think that's why I grew up liking veggies so much. Anything straight from the garden is so much better tasting. And that, kids, is what is was like for me growing up in the 80's.
(That is pretty much what I talked about during dinner, so you really got a peek into our dinner conversation) At the end of the meal Ryan said "Well, I think it was interesting how you used to live without electronics".
That was his take away.
Anyway, after dinner Jeremy and the kids sat down to watch HIS favorite movie when he was a kid in the 80's "The NeverEnding Story" I read in the other room. I really don't like the 80's.
So there were two directions I wanted to go with the meals. One method said "Have a fire extinguisher handy" and the other said "I always set the fire alarm off when I make this". (See 1960s). California cuisine was in and that included roasted red peppers. Cajun food was also huge and I really wanted to go this direction, but I could see all sorts of disaster coming. So I went the American Southwest route...
The Menu
Blue Corn Pancakes with Cilantro Cream and Black Bean Caviar
Pecan Pie with Chocolate Chips
The recipe for Blue Corn Pancakes called for (amazingly enough) blue cornmeal. I did not think this would be such a big deal to find. After all, we are now living in a culturally diverse city with all sorts of specialty stores available.
Boy was I wrong.
After checking out seven different stores and having no luck I did have a brilliant idea that maybe I could buy blue corn chips and grind them to a pulp and use that. (Thank you Chopped for helping me think outside the box). A quick message to Hannah and she confirmed that it would work. Soooo...off to get some very easy to find blue corn tortilla chips.
The beans started out as dried and I cooked those all day with spices and onion, garlic and jalapeno. Half the beans were pulled out and mashed to death and then added back to the whole beans. Then I added in chopped bell peppers, tomato, onion, more jalapeno and lime juice.
The Blue Corn Pancakes were as they sound. Made with buttermilk and fried like a pancake. The Cilantro Cream was made from cilantro pureed and added to sour cream.
To serve you assemble pancake, beans and cream.
See, in a normal world, I don't pick out beans to eat on a regular basis. I hardly ever use peppers (digestive issues with them) and so by and large none of this would have been my first choice and I was kind of going in with a defeatist attitude to begin with.
Boy was I wrong.
I don't know if it was the fact that I went into this expecting a big fat fail, that anything edible would have been amazing or what exactly...but this. was. amazing. I would go have a plateful right now, but I ate all the leftovers the next day. 😔
I will not go into great detail about how the kids liked it, because mostly..for them...the dinner involved a lot of gagging and involuntary shuddering. From all of them. Safe to say none of my kids like beans and peppers together. At all.
Jeremy, on the other had, (who happened to be at home for dinner that night) ate as much as I did and declared it to be quite tasty. I was quite happy the children weren't into it...more for me.
Pecan Pie was good as always. I did not snap a picture of it on a plate because our condo is about 80 degrees consistently (combo being on the second floor, trying to conserve energy and this blasted Florida heat!!!) which makes it quite difficult for anything to solidify at room temp. Fantastic if you forgot to soften that butter earlier in the day. Five minutes flat you have softened anything you might need softened. But this is what the Pecan Pie looked like before I cut it and served it soft serve style...
So I was thinking about "Fad Food" when I was scrubbing the toilet and I realized that just because it was a "fad" doesn't mean everyone ate it. Not everyone wore blue eye shadow in the 80's or leg warmers or massive hair. It was just a fad. So I got to be thinking about what I ate growing up in the 80's. I'll tell you what I ate...whatever was growing in the back yard. We had a MASSIVE garden growing up and we ate out of the garden all summer, canned in the fall and ate out of the pantry all winter. We had chickens for eggs and chickens for meat (massive chicken butchering parties...I really don't understand why those chicken feet earrings ever took off) and even had rabbits for a while. Turns out none of us could really handle rabbit meat that well. We would occasionally buy a side of cow from a friend. Almost all our food was fresh and made from scratch. I think that's why I grew up liking veggies so much. Anything straight from the garden is so much better tasting. And that, kids, is what is was like for me growing up in the 80's.
(That is pretty much what I talked about during dinner, so you really got a peek into our dinner conversation) At the end of the meal Ryan said "Well, I think it was interesting how you used to live without electronics".
That was his take away.
Anyway, after dinner Jeremy and the kids sat down to watch HIS favorite movie when he was a kid in the 80's "The NeverEnding Story" I read in the other room. I really don't like the 80's.
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