Something to ponder

[pecunium]

I like to cook.

Really... it soothes me, which is part of why I went home to prepare stuff for breakfast, the morning the foal was born.

Today, while I was scrubbing the floor Michael (Sola's boyfriend) surfaced, and asked if he could cook an omelette, since I might be feeling proprietary over the stove.

I do, but not enough to put off the floor, or make him wait. I'd have to say what he made was more a scramble than an omelette (they were made with basil, baby bok choy, and yellow bell pepper).

So I told him to go to town... and he could do anything he wanted with what was there, because everyone else who wanted one had had one, he could even fill the pepper with egg-foam and bake it, for all I cared.

Since I happen to dislike bell peppers (pretty plants, pretty fruits, nasty flavor) I don't cook them for myself. I can ignore anchovies on a pizza, but bell peppers... feh. I'll eat around them (it isn't like cooked spinach, which makes me retch, but I really don't care for them. Sadly a number of the veggies I don't care for, are very popular).

But I was thinking about cooking. I cook with them for other people. There are any number of things I don't care for, which I manage to turn out a fair rendition of.

And I realised I could make a splendid presentation piece out of stuffed peppers... if what I stuffed them with was a savory souffle. Only problem is, happily for me, Maia doesn't care for bell peppers either, so I need some willing victims.

Sigh...

Comments

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

I don't love bell peppers, either, although t the not green ones are much better. But I'm making a mental note of your dislikes, in the event that you ever come for dinner.

[airneail.livejournal.com]

I love stuffed peppers. :) *count me in*

[ketzl.livejournal.com]

I really love the ripe red bell peppers, they're sweet and crunchy. Best coming from the garden of course... Sadly my peppers haven't set fruit yet. I oughta get a t-shirt saying 'willing victim'.

[ex-soothemys349.livejournal.com]

I love bell peppers! Willing victim here.

[lipstcknbullets.livejournal.com]

MM< I love bell peppers, but too much is a bad thing!

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I understand bell peppers (as an ingredient) but like them not.

So... I guess I need to figure out how to get all these bell pepper loving types to my table. Next year, I suppose, when I have bell peppers in the ground, and riots of color.

As for why the non-green ones are better, the difference between a green bell, and a red/purple/yellow/ivory/etc., is about two weeks. All they are is immature, so the sugars in the fruit are absent.

For an amusing side note... birds can't taste the heat in peppers. It's a defense against mammalian digestion (which kills the seeds). A bird can eat all the hanbeneros it wants... good for the bird, good for the plant, since the speed, and acidity, of a bird's gut means the seed is still viable when it comes out the other end, some distance from the parent plant.

I need to plant paprikas, to go with the other driable peppers, then I can really cook hungarian foods. The sweet paprika is so mellow one can use it in deserts, for a nutty, earthy, smoky undertone.

TK

Willing victim in Texas

[ad-kay.livejournal.com]

I would be such a willing victim. I will happily demolish any bell pepper as long as it's not green. I had no idea that birds couldn't detect capsaicin, although I knew they eat peppers and disperse the seeds.

BTW, haven't forgotten about your leaving a comment in my LJ last week--I've been practicing CAT (computer avoidance techniques) for the past few days, but I will have a few things to say after I meet my exquisitely boring deadline.

Re: Willing victim in Texas

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

You want me to go to Texas, to cook bell-peppers.... Sheesh.

:)

One of the more amusing moments in a visit by one of Maia's classes (on feeds) to a birdstore, which also had a mill, and so make their own feed mixes, as well as having raw ingredients for dedicated owners to mix, or order, their own, was the owner explaining they gave peppers to the parrots because they liked a bit of spice.

I didn't laugh. But all those Anahiems, and Poblanos were wasted, in terms of spice, on the parrots. But they do have vitamin C, which parrots probably don't need (most animals make their own). And hey, what does it hurt? Makes the owner feel he's doing a mitzvah.

Given that most parrot-family birds in captivity (esp. the more inexpensive) live a foreshortened life because of dietary inadequacy (not enough variety) and it seems a fine thing.

But still done for the wrong reasons.

TK