I Like Peas

 

Tonight I had a potpie for dinner. Breaking open the top crust, like a po’ mans Shepherd pie, there is all these veggie things floating around in a warm sauce. There is this mystery meat flavored like chicken but tasting like a chewy tofu. Then there are these little circular orange things that I guess are suppose to be carrots but with the same texture as the mystery meat. Then there are these green peas.

Peas were never my go-to vegetable growing up because they were so hard to eat. If you could combine them with mashed potatoes, they would just roll around on a plate. They were too small to stab with a fork and certainly couldn’t get a row on a knife blade, though we tried. Even using a spoon there was always one or two who would roll onto the table. Picking them up with your fingers was gauche and flicking them like a booger across the table will only find the bodice of the woman talking about her daughter’s new son-in-law perspective. Yet these little green peas are fun to smash and mix well with almost anything and can be slurped if no one is paying attention.

Peas were on of the side dishes at most functions but were rarely eaten (for the before mentioned reasons). Somewhere along the way I started to like them again, probably with Fish & Chips. It was an English thing.

I found these big green peas, not the little lime green ones. They were easier to eat and didn’t take so many spoonfuls to get you full. I can’t find them anymore so they must have been atomically engineered peas or they are called something fancy and are in the import aisle.

As far as vegetables go, I was never kind to them until recently. Beans were snaps and as long as matched with new potatoes, I could tolerate them. French cut green beans always looked elegant covered in sliced almonds. They became a staple for my Sunday meal where I would cook and eat a meal not out of a can. Later I enjoyed the big meaty butter beans and now prefer the dark red kidney beans. Navy and pinto beans never did it for me, and black-eyed peas were good for New Years (but they are peas).

Greens were always, always picked at and never eaten. I found that putting vinegar and mustard on them made them yummy. Brussels sprouts I never heard about until a few years ago. I think it was in a Chinese steamer and thought I like them, they don’t like me. Cauliflower and Broccoli were the same way. A bland stubby flower-looking thing that wasn’t even green. Then someone invented cheese on top and yummy. Tomatoes were made to go in salads and not steamed. I also found the reward of cooking veggies on the grill because everything taste better from the grill.

Potatoes were the main starch. I could eat potatoes and bread and then be too full for the vegetables. Baked potatoes dripping in butter and covered with parsley was my preferred choice. The texture of the potato was good but what I really liked was the burnt skin. Then some fast food place invented French fries and ruined the potato.

Going down the canned vegetable aisle there is several items I’ve never tried and some that are hard to find. Okra is one. As icky as asparagus, I avoided at all cost. Then I went to New Orleans and had some gumbo and Ohhhhhh weee! Also discovered hot sauce.

Growing up most food was fried. Hush puppies, chicken, pork chops, bacon and onions were all cooked in the old iron black skillet with grease flying everywhere. My parents had tasted the fine dining and appreciated things like raw oysters and beef bullion but the boys stuck to the meat and potato diet as you can tell from our pictures.

Luckily I had a wife who loved to experiment and presented meals that were far from the imagined. I did not always like them but I tasted and enjoyed the adventure.

Cheese and tomatoes baked on a slab of dough introduced me by high school mates at a Fan restaurant that I’d never attend because it was across the railroad tracks. Used to pick up the Sunday newspaper there on snow days but never ventured inside until I tasted a double cheese pizza. Cheese was (is) not my favorite taste, even in Welsh rarebit, but I’ll partake in small doses.

My gathering of substance for consumption has shortened to mostly green, and yes, peas are on that list. Peas are fun to eat and I guess you could string them like popcorn on the Christmas tree. Some say I should grow a garden? I have the space and have before but I don’t want to get busted for growing okra.

Next: Beating The Meat