One Ingredient

I've added more blogs to the thing on the right there... I've been meaning to do that, to update it, for a long time now... and it was just spurred by Dee's new URL... ...which I've been meaning to do too for a long time - I mean really, there has to be a better address for this blog than what it currently is Come On! - but I've been too chicken to change it up for fear of losing any regular readers... I know there are some of you out there... but I can't really tell because the stalking feature doesn't really do that - ALSO because you're not commenting... ... so the bulk of the encouragement I'm able to glean for writing at all comes from...

• Friends telling me to blog more,
• Friends telling me that their mom really liked my last post,
• Pastor Herm telling me, without fail, that he enjoys my writing whenever he sees me
• ...and a comment... which is response... which means Hooray!
• Also, the stalk feature, but that's just numbers and Haha! people googled the lyrics to Total Eclipse of the Heart and found my blog! Ha! Also, a quick shout-out to my Canadian readers. Whooohooo! AND, on a few different occasions, people have googled 'jessica beimers' and have found my blog... ... which weirds me out. Mrs. Beimers, is that you? I don't think I've actually said Jessica Beimers in this blog until now...
  

WHAT was I going to say...?

Oh that's right. From watching Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain do what I wouldn't mind doing for post-Dordt days... sip wine and slowly enjoy tapas with some eloquent, learned chefs and talk about food... here... I asked my family tonight to pick one essential ingredient to use in every meal for the rest of their lives. NOT, mind you, one food item to eat alone for the rest of your life, but one ingredient to use - one that you cannot go without.

Mom: Rice. (I do not doubt that she would eat rice with every meal, if she had the chance, so this doesn't surprise me.)
Dad: Cow. (Clever man...)
Jinny: Rice cake (She's a high school girl, leave her alone.)
Paul: "Ikura... or... wait, is cow one ingredient? Then I choose blue whale." (I thought, for sure, that he would choose sea urchin.)
Me: Eggs.
David: "I'm with you. Eggs. Wait. Dad said cow? I say pig!"

Eggs are comforting, familiar yet versatile and either 1) allows dishes to exist - for body, flavor or as a binding agent or 2) elevates well-thought out dishes to ass kickin' dishes JUST by adding a poached/fried egg on top. Resourceful roommate extraordinaire Matty K manages to supply the apt. with farm fresh eggs from the lovely Wesselius family farm just outside of town. The eggs are delivered to our door every week it seems (it is less?). The last dish with egg that I had was a hummus sandwich, on toasted bread, with spring greens (from HyVee), balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing and a lightly fried egg. I freaked out.

(I almost, almost said green onion because there is probably nothing more visually, and often sensually, perfect to use as a garnish on a lovely dish than chopped scallions. SO simple! But I refrained because sometimes it doesn't work - that bright onion flavor, even IF the color is damn near flawless - and when it doesn't work, dear reader, it really doesn't work. I'm telling you that it often does, and I'm not going to abandon the green onion anytime soon and it really brightens up a sauce too, but it shouldn't go on everything and the things it shouldn't go on, it REALLY shouldn't go on. Eggs too, but not to the same all-caps severity.)

Someone my brother was hanging out with when I asked him said salt. Completely true, and smart, given that anything she eats for the rest of her life can be... basically anything. Salt brings out the flavor of all that it is added to. In countless ways, salt actually makes food edible. So... another clever answer, and maybe a geeky one, but kind of boring too.

Paul Hanaoka said... either garlic (which I got excited for) or olive oil (WHICH I briefly considered using too).

What about you? Ground beef!? Greek seasoning!? Organic mango sorbet!? Heirloom tomatoes!?