Last Friday, I tried plain yoghurt. Don’t laugh, but I’ve never tried it before. I’d always assumed I wouldn’t like it, that it’d be too milky. But sweetened yoghurt gets tiresome and doesn’t taste natural, so I’d pretty much given up on liking yoghurt or making it a part of my diet (diet in the sense of food intake).
However, I’ve been reading this book for fun and inspiration – it’s been languishing on my bookshelf since the Bryant Park Book Fair last fall and I’d never cracked the spine. I’m enjoying the book immensely; not just the advice (which is basically my mother’s and my grandmother’s same set of principles) but also the recipes and the exhortions to try new things.
Guiliano goes on and on about the miraculous properties of yoghurt and how completely essential it is for a healthy balanced life so I decided to throw in the towel and try it. I bought Dannon All Natural even though she encourages making your own (okay, lady, you come over and make my yoghurt from scratch) and surprise! I liked it! I enjoyed it! It was smooth and easy for me to nibble at for twenty minutes while I started my morning’s work and before I knew it, I was licking the last of it off the spoon.
So I branched out a little bit and bought some Fage Total at my Greek market on Saturday, while I was doing a big weekend shop for dinner. I had it for breakfast on Sunday morning and, okay, my little tower of adventurous pride nearly fell down. I desperately want to like the famed delicious Greek stuff. But even in 2%, it was really – strong. And – … milky. So I had half of it, handing the rest over to Stuart and determined to try again later. And this morning, even though my yoghurt was Dannon again, I like to think of it as slow and steady progress.
And did I tell you about the leeks? No? I made my grandmother’s delicious vegetable soup on Saturday night, with pork chops and apple-celery sauce. Grandma was Belgian so the soup is typical European soup – vegetables cooked in water (I cook mine in chicken broth because I like the extra brothy taste) with herbs. But I decided to step it up a notch from onions and potatoes and carrots – so I added leeks. I’ve never had leek. And I loved it. It zinged the other veggies and played nicely with the dashes of thyme and bay leaves. It was pureed to perfection and the heartiest, loveliest, lightest soup I’ve ever made. I was in heaven. And there were leeks there!
And last night, at Stonehome Wine Bar, I even tried two new cheeses – Manchego and Robiola – and loved them both heartily (lord, Manchego with a quince preserve, is there anything better). This comes weeks after trying Midnight Moon (a goat, no less) at Barrie’s and adoring it with a fiery passion.
Between the leeks, the yoghurt, and last night’s cheese, if you’re counting, that’s three new adventures for this week. I’m keeping my eye open for what I should try next. Asparagus? Artichokes? Squash? Cabbage? What’s in season and delicious? You should know now that my ambitions are sky-high – by this time next year, I expect to have exactly one type of fish I really enjoy.
Wheeee!