Pure and simple foods

[snowangel]

Paul and Terry were off deer hunting this weekend (please hope for a deer tomorrow am!) and so Susan and Kat came to spend the night so Kate and Diana could keep each other company and Susan and I would have a chance to plan our Thanksgiving weekend getaway (and drink wine together). The conversation turned to pure and simple foods, as we toasted Acme bread, spread on the unsalted Hope butter and sprinkled sea salt over said.

We recalled many pure and simple foods.

That first tomato of the season, eaten right off the vine, juicy and a product of our labor. That juice feels so good running down your arm.

That first ear of corn. Sweet and succulent, adorned with butter and pepper, or perhaps not.

Bacon. Cooked crispy/squishy.

A really great raw carrot. At my house, dug from the garden, washed from the outside spigot.

The blueberries at our "secret" picking spot on a granite ridge in northern MN.

Vanilla ice cream.

Hard-cooked egg, halved, with salt and pepper.

Green beans, steamed, S & P.

Omelet with chives.

Haralson apples. Or, chestnut crabs.

Other than adornment with butter, salt and/or pepper, nothing else.

What are your favorites?

[fou de Bassan]

Pure and simple?

Laurie Colwin's Pickled cabbage

Roasted Sweet Potato with feta

Lemonade

[Gifted Gourmet]

Freshly blanched mange touts bright green and crisp.

First Vidalia onions so sweet and juicy.

Baby asparagus in early spring.

Plugra melting on a freshly cooked ear of new corn.

Egg yolks breaking, oozing lushly over crisply buttered toasted English muffin.

Juicy red plums full of warm sunkissed flavor.

Garlic butter just warmed and giving off its first delectable smells.

Juicy slabs of watermelon in the heat of the summer in Georgia.

These are a few of my favorite things ... raindrops on roses ... whiskers on kittens ... Thanks, snowangel, for the memories that only pure simplicity can confer ...

[snowangel]

Juicy slabs of watermelon in the heat of the summer in Georgia.

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Or, in Minnesota, seated on a lawn chair, in tank top and shorts, barefoot. Knees spread. Elbows on knees. That juicy slap of watermelon. Juice dripping down arms, onto legs. Kids of all ages racing around. Afterwards, a quick squirt with the hose to rid one on the sticky juice.

As we viewed the first of the fall/wintery northern lights tonight, the thought of juice -- be it from sweet corn or watermelon or a peach, running down one's arms or legs, is mighty appealing.

Ah, simple pleasures. Like that unique baby smell.

Edited November 8, 2004 by snowangel (log)

[purplewiz]

A properly ripe pear, eaten over the sink.

A good steak, grilled, salt and pepper only. That's all it needs.

One square of good dark chocolate, eaten a nibble at a time, melting unctuously in your mouth.

Marcia.

[tejon]

Crisp apples, full of tart juice.

Asparagus - best savored all on it's own, with just a little salt and butter.

Ripe blackberries, still warm from the vine, gobbled with abandon.

Freshly baked bread.

[lovebenton0]

That first cup of coffee in the morning. The aroma, the rich color, heat down my throat.

Yes, bread, smelling hot bread straight from the oven.

Then dipped in seasoned EVOO.

Or toasted with honey butter.

Greens dewy from the garden, munched while picking.

Our first sweet peaches, so full of juice you can't be neat.

Romaine hearts and chiffonade basil with EVOO and basalmic.

Crisp red grapes and Asian pears, bleu cheese.

Cantaloupe.

A bite of the sharpest cheddar, ever.

Hot apple cider swizzled a with a cinnamon stick.

[kellytree]

pasta con burro e parmigiano (aka mac and cheese italian syle!)

[Chufi]

aged gouda cheese on dark rye bread

a perfectly ripe avocado with salt and pepper and a drop of lemon juice

a soft boiled egg with a piece of buttered toast

raspberries, perfect beauty and perfect taste

sashimi

steaming hot oatmealporridge early in the morning on a cold winters day before I go to work on my bike. All the way to work the porridge feels like a nice little comforting furnace inside of me.

[FL Heat]

Fresh pico de gallo-- tomatoes, cilantro, onion, jalapeno

Corn tortilla, rubbed with a lime wedge, sprinkled with salt

Tangerine off the neighbor's tree, warm from the sun, juice going everywhere

Fresh mangoes

As already noted--fresh tomatoes, still warm, eaten like an apple

What a fantastic way to start my day, thinking about those kinds of foods!

Diana

[hillvalley]

The first juicy peach of the summer

Melted brie on a baguette

Chicken broth with noodles

Spaghetti with olive oil and parmesean

[jsolomon]

Broiled asparagus (fresh from my parents' patch) with EVOO and lemon juice

Pasta with EVOO, red pepper, S&P, and parsley

Ditto on corn and tomatoes

Broiled green beans with EVOO and lemon juice

Fresh roasted beets with walnuts and bleu cheese

Fresh coffee from yesterday's roasting, black, hot, unsweetened

Strawberries from my parents' patch completely, absolutely unadorned...

[NulloModo]

A handful of macadamia nuts, salty, crunchy, and just a bit oily.

A not too thick slice of parmesan cheese broiled just long enough to become a crunchy crisp.

Bacon, cooked only till done and still soft and chewy, with loads of black pepper on top.

[Boris_A]

Eating with a teaspoon a matured "Vacherin Mont d'Or" where a cup of chasselas white wine was poured over some days ago.

[Carrot Top]

Eating with a teaspoon a matured "Vacherin Mont d'Or" where a cup of chasselas white wine was poured over some days ago.

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I am sure that is closer to Glory than to Simplicity.

( )

[howard88]

Farm fresh butter smeared on top of a piece of freshly baked artisinal bread.

[Bond Girl]

simple pasta with heirloom tomatoes and basil,

summer strawberries tossed with a bit if sugar

baby carrots cooked with fresh butter and a sprinkle of herbs.

fresh scallops with a squirt of lemon or lime juice and some sea salt.

Pear poached with some star anise and vanilla ice cream

[jgarner53]

Perfectly ripe apricots

Melting butter on warm homemade bread (Acme will do in a pinch)

Gorgeous strawberries at their peak

Peaches whose juice runs down your arm as you eat

The first bite of Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing)

[ghostrider]

A steamed lobster & a cup of drawn butter.

An August ear of corn, with a lump of butter melting over it.

A "Jersey fresh" peach.

Local strawberries.

[snowangel]

Farm fresh butter smeared on top of a piece of freshly baked artisinal bread.

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In my case, it's Hope Butter on Acme double Levain.

So many of the above mentioned foods seem so springy/summery and so distant...

[Randi]

A steamed lobster & a cup of drawn butter.

An August ear of corn, with a lump of butter melting over it.

A "Jersey fresh" peach. 

Local strawberries.

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YES! YES! YES! YES!

(I'll have what he's having!)

[Smithy]

A truly ripe navel orange, fresh off the tree. Peel it and watch the oils from the rind spurt mini-rainbows in the morning light. Glory in the sunlight just peeking into the valleys of the Sierra Nevada, off in the distance. Be thankful that there's no fog, so you can see those mountains, and no need for fog that morning because the night was warm. Take a section and savor it: juicy, tart, sweet, full. Who needs candy? Weep that this flavor can't reach the grocery stores, so more people might know how an orange is supposed to taste.

Or maybe, just maybe, it's the sharper tarter sweetness of a satsuma mandarin, much shorter period of ripeness on the tree. Which do I prefer? I've never known.

Or maybe the first walnuts and pecans of the season.

Avocado, hashed and mashed, with lemon and Spike. (I know, it's a seasoned salt. Tough.)

Fresh baked bread, sliced, oozing with butter.

Barbecued steak, medium rare, smoky from the grill, marbled with smoky fat. Melts in your mouth.

Homemade peach ice cream. Or plum ice cream. Or nectarine ice cream.

Freshly made lemonade.

[Smithy]

A steamed lobster & a cup of drawn butter.

An August ear of corn, with a lump of butter melting over it.

A "Jersey fresh" peach.  

Local strawberries.

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YES! YES! YES! YES!

(I'll have what he's having!)

←

[Jensen]

Freshly sliced cucumber. No adornment needed.