Why the long absence? you ask. Well, as honesty is the whole point of this blogging business, I'll tell you. I haven't written because I am facing some adversity within my diet. Christmas was extremely difficult for me and the only part of the diet that I didnt cheat on was the gluten free part. Then, after christmas, it was extremely hard to build up any kind of momentum. I finally did it though, and I'm back on track. So now lets talk about the cool, interesting new stuff involve in this damn endevor.
First, lets discuss freaky produce. I was going along, minding my own business, trying to find a jicama, (talk about freaky produce. Its like a combination between a potato and an apple...and your supposed to eat it. So weird), and I see this giant green thing. It was big and round and looked like a green orange except it was like the size of my toddlers head. Well, It was big and weird so I had to buy it. Its called a pummello, which to me sounds like some kind of candy, so I had pretty high hopes.
I lugged this monstrocity home from the grocery store and plopped it down on a plate. Not knowing what it was, I wasnt sure how to begin to dismantle it to ready it for consumption, so I turned to that great repository of human knowledge, wikipedia. I learned that a pummelo comes from south east asia and it known as the ancestor of grape fruit. It described the butchering method and tools so I set of to the kitchen for an experience.
Not being a fan of grape fruit, I first recruited several test subjects. These being my stepfather and my daughter. I used a large serrated knife to make the opening incision, but, being such a volumous fruit, my knife did not even reach the other side. It became necessary to upgrade to a pointy bread knife.
Pummelos are redder than grape fruit and have a much, much thicker rind. They are also only half as tart and like, twice as sweet. After my test subjects injested several pieces of the fruit it became clear that it couldn't be that bad, so I consented to taste it. And I immediately wondered why we decided to improve upon Pumellos by inventing grape fruit? If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Candy, it is not, but its pretty nice.
Let's talk about magic! I am not eating nightshade vegetables right now which means that when I make veggie lasagna, I have to do it without tomato sauce or peppers. This means that I cannot make lasagna. I did a little research, to see if the impossible could be done. As it turns out it can.
Ladies and gentlement, tonight, I used the combined powers of alchemy and root vegetables to make a tomato-free tomato sauce. And it was GOOD. I know! Impossible right? As it turns out, its all in the spice. I was able to make a delicious red sauce using only beets, carrots, an onion and the right spices. I could not believe it! Tomatoes are out, beets are in! Yum.
Beets are pretty weird. I had my reservations, I admit. Firstly, beets are a purple vegetable. I am here to announce that no self respecting vegetable is purple. Secondly, they are sweet and taste delicious just all by their selves. I actually ate quite a few before we got to the sauce stage. Fun fact about beets: They were once called "blood turnips". Which, I'm sorry, but lets examine the crazy appitizing appeal of that phrase.
My new goal is to find some of these:
They are the Tim Burton of beets and I want to use them in my next batch of sauce. I also have been watching food network and I've decided that I need to try a blood orange. Now I just gotta keep my eyes out for them!!!
On monday I am going to use my new sauce to create a veggie lasagna. I will post pictures of steps and the finished work. And then I will eat it.
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