Sequestration Meal #187

 

The phrase "as different as night and day" means more to me now than ever with me trying to take photos after the sun goes down--I'm really frustrated by how much harder it is to get a good shot. But you didn't come here to read my complaints about the sun going down at 3:30PM.

This is a mix of leftovers and things freshly cooked, as has seemingly become my pattern. I had rice pilaf with Gardein fishless filets and homemade tartar sauce, sesame butter brussels sprouts, and orange glazed carrots. The rice and carrots were leftovers.

The rice pilaf and brussels sprouts are both my veganized versions of the original recipes in Barbara Swain's Cookery for 1 or 2 (1978). The book is old and the photos in it are terrible and some of the ideas in it seem weird, but usually I've enjoyed the recipes when I have tried them. At first I thought sesame seeds on brussels sprouts sounded extremely strange, but I'm glad I decided to refrain from judgment until I'd eaten one.

I know the whole world has decided to roast brussels sprouts, but I have always liked them the way you're apparently not supposed to like them (boiled and covered in sauce). I had no issues with mine being bitter. I think maybe people are getting brussels sprouts that are too old (giant brussels sprouts don't taste as good) or they aren't boiling them long enough (they're too hardy to just lightly cook; you need to boil them until they are actually soft, which takes 20-25 minutes). I don't know. I also like soft veggies and a lot of people don't, but I'm from a different part of the country where vegetables tend to be cooked a lot differently than in the northeast. In any case, this was a really good way to eat them--I made an easy sauce of lemon juice, butter, salt, pepper, and sesame seeds to toss the cooked sprouts in, and the flavors and textures all went together perfectly.

Though this is not one of my better photographs, this was one of my better meals.