Small Plate #5
Still facing down my freezer (though stocks are diminishing!), I unearthed some forgotten hot dog buns. As I'm also shopping less frequently these days, I was deliberate in avoiding the store, and as a result I made a hot dog bun Sloppy Joe with my usual TVP-based Sloppy Joe filling. For sides, I had a pickle and coleslaw (you saw the coleslaw yesterday, too).
This was remarkably good! Hot dog buns and hamburger buns are essentially the same thing in a different shape, and Sloppy Joe filling can take any shape you want. I always make them knife-and-fork sandwiches anyway, so I didn't have to worry about making a mess picking this up, because I didn't pick it up.
The sides were perfect here, too! I am seriously in love with Dolly Parton's coleslaw recipe (veganized, of course, but that's easy with some vegan mayo).
I sometimes wonder whether I'm less interesting these days as I'm putting myself through a kind of periodic series of episodes of Chopped, but at least I'm having fun with my food!
... realistically, I find "how to combine things" and "how to use up a whole cabbage" and "this side dish goes with this diverse range of meals" more interesting than "here is another totally different recipe with tons of ingredients that you are unlikely to ever make." So there is that. If there is a recipe that hits one of the "wow" buttons, sure, it is good to read about new recipes that did an unusually good job of, for lack of a better metaphor, maximizing the cost/effort/result equation, and it's interesting to read about flavor combinations that work surprisingly well.
ReplyDeleteBut for the most part, Twists On Things That You Already Have The Stuff For, or Things That Go Together [korean food and Dolly Parton's coleslaw?!!!], or It's Okay To Eat Tasty Things That Are Beige, or The Budget Is Not Infinite But This Is Good Food, or Here Is A Comfort Food You Might Like, or You Might Have This In Your Cupboard/Freezer And Here's Another Way To Use It... I enjoy and appreciate this stuff more than the trying-to-make-enough-new-recipes-to-fill-out-a-cookbook-every-two-years food blogs with a deluge of recipes.
Thanks for your detailed comment! I do think coleslaw in general goes remarkably well with Asian food; I'd also note that Sloppy Joe filling also goes very well with Asian foods, i.e., with rice and stir fries and such.
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