Meals -on my Mind

I know I mentioned before that as a general rule, I tend to do most of the cooking here for the family. Sometimes, I try to set things up and kind of force Mandy into venturing forth into that vast area known as the kitchen and to get her to try to fix balanced meals every now and again. I do this because I think she needs to do a bit more of this. Learn more about cooking and really get her feet wet.

I keep telling her she needs to do this more often simply because Mom is not always going to be around to cook full meals for her and the family.

She knows this. I really know this too. But it's a long, sometimes arduous project I keep working on to try to impress her that it's not the best idea to exist on pizza, cheese steaks, tacos or french toast and scrambled eggs. Granted, I enjoy those food items too from time to time - especially the french toast, scrambled eggs and a good bit of bacon with that as well - but so far, she hasn't had a light-bulb moment when she's discovered a larger liking for playing in the kitchen.

Now, this week there's yet another holiday and one that possibly will mean more than just us here for dinner too. That may be just my son but one never knows -the older daughter, her fiance and my grandson could possibly show up. It could happen.

Fortunately, on one hand, cooking for New Year's Day here is generally fairly simple as we follow the tradition of this region and it's pretty much mandatory that we have pork and sauerkraut with mashed potatoes. I'll toss in a package of hot dogs too mainly for the two little one's benefit because they won't even think of touching the pork and sauerkraut. That is pretty much guaranteed. Most likely I'll have to fix a package of macaroni and cheese too -just for them -so they have something besides a hot dog for dinner.

One thing I like to have as a side dish though with pork and kraut is a nice big dish of applesauce too. Just sets my meal off in my opinion there.

So what's my issue with this? It all sounds pretty clear-cut doesn't it?

Well, for openers, Mandy and I have a running argument about how to cook the sauerkraut and meat. She prefers just putting the two items together in either an oven dish or crockpot and let 'er rip. I like to add brown sugar to my sauerkraut and the meat. To me, that gives the kraut an even better flavor.

But this year, the thing I'd really like to serve is something that someone from our church brought to a St. Lucia dinner about two years ago and that was applesauce with pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top of it!

Part of me hesitates to try and serve this as it would be a totally new thing for everyone here. But then, considering I can't seem to locate any pomegranates ANYWHERE -in any of the grocery stores in this area, I don't think I'll need to worry about pulling a surprise food item on the family to welcome the New Year.

Now, if I thought Pomegranate trees would be able to survive in this climate, I would really give some very serious consideration to purchasing and planting a tree so I wouldn't have to worry about whether the stores here carry this item or not in the future then. Heck, if they could withstand the cold temps of Central Pennsylvania, I might even consider planting a couple of 'em -just in case, cause you might remember gardening -of any type -isn't necessarily my strong point either. But it's a thought I am seriously entertaining for sometime in the future. Maybe?

But for now, guess I'll have to deal with plain applesauce and a little shaker of cinnamon, won't I?