Yesterday I tried a new recipe that I had never heard of, Spoon Bread from the South on page 198.
One of my favorite things in doing the Martha Project is trying out recipes like this. Because it’s always good to broaden your horizen and embark on the adventure of making interesting new recipes. I also like the way Martha’s American Food takes dishes that have been lost to the past in a sea of haute cuisine and encourages us to bring these forgotten treasures back to our dining rooms.
Spoon bread is very interesting. It has a light and airy texture that tasted like a hybrid of quiche and cornbread. Since I didn’t have any chorizo, I used the left over kielbasa from the night before. I think chorizo would have been better, its sharp spiciness would have been a nice contrast to the mild taste of the spoon bread.
I’d like to try this one again not just because I want to use the suggested chorizo, but because it was hard for me to truly enjoy eating last night. I didn’t write about my Martha adventures last night because I had just recieved very sad news about my elderly cat, Trixie. She’s been with me my entire adult life and while I’m grateful for our 20 years together, I’m also shaken by her illness. Yesterday, I was devasted by her cancer diagnosis, and that made it hard to taste food in the way it’s meant to be tasted. My experience was somewhat clinical; giving thought to how the food tasted and the contrasting flavors and textures. Eating should be something we experience emotionally — I want to feel the sensation of eating a delicious meal with my heart, not think about it with my brain.
I know if Trixie could talk she’d probably say “Snap out of it and keep blogging!” because that’s the kind of cat she is — strong and tough! And this spoon bread is a truly unique recipe, so I intend to not only make it again, but also blog about it again as well, so that I can truly do justice to this old fashioned treasure.
