culinary arts

I'm not an instinctive cook... meaning that I lack the natural sense of what foods and flavors go well together. I love cookbooks that give you a list of suggested side dishes or wine to serve with the meal. I can cook basic wholesome meals that involve little more than boiling water. Maybe stirfry. But if left to my own creative juices I usually end up with something along the lines of this:

Does everyone know what movie this is? Here is a hint:

I've even caught myself once saying the exact words "But it's got raisins in it... You like raisins" and I immediately took mercy on the punks and let them eat cold cereal.

Well, today I got creative. I wanted to make bean soup for lunch. To start I needed to brown an onion and a carrot in some olive oil. My carrots felt like they were made from rubber, so I went to see what else I had add to the pot besides an onion (this is where I usually run into trouble). Beets. Hey! That's a root (are you following the logic here?). Beets are good (in salad). I bet that would work.

And you know what? IT DID! The soup tastes AMAZING! Wait, let me see if the punks are eating it (I've been known to like some odd tasting stuff)... yep... they're eating it too!

Two thumbs up for beet the bean soup!