Appearance Matters

[poliphilo]

I cooked pork chops, mushrooms, applesauce , mashed potato.  Ailz thought it was nice, so it wasn't entirely a mistake, but it looked quite awful- like an undifferentiated greyish gloop,  like porridge.  I ate it (I'm almost religious these days about not wasting food) but I didn't enjoy eating it- even though it tasted fine.  I don't normally think about the way food looks, but obviously I should.  A small pile of bright green peas would have made all the difference.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

One of the things we used to do when we ran the youth hostel and had to cater for lots of people was to invent monochrome menus. (Having a similar texture gained extra points.)

I must hasten to say that we never actually cooked any of them, but we amused each other by suggesting meals like: chicken soup for starter with white bread then steamed cod with white sauce, cauliflower and mashed potatoes followed by rice pudding.

It seems like you inadvertently produced one of our flights of fancy. :)

[serennos.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could have burnt the pork for a little variety? ::grin::

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Studies have been done about how attractive food actually makes a meal more enjoyable. Even though yours tasted fine, your sight was telling you something wasn't right about it. That's where being blind might come in handy.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

You didn't chop it all up and mix it together did you? *hee*
Perhaps a bright garnish might have helped...

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I, too, use the "bright green peas" trick a lot -- also the "wilted green spinach" trick, sometimes, as in pasta dishes. At any rate the combination sounds delicious and I intend to try it with a nice pork chop that was in my freezer, but is now thawing for tonight's supper.
Also, I have been known to mash applesauce in with the potatoes - it gives them added "zing".

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

well, porkchops and applesauce taste FABULOUS cooked together. Maybe even the mushrooms and potato as well. But yeah, you're right. I'd probably not think so much of the 'grey glop', either.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

So *that's* why parsley is sprinkled all over the food sometimes!

At our house, we call this a beige dinner.

[oakmouse]

Put peas with the mushrooms, and Bob's your uncle. *g*

120 years ago, would-be graduates of Fanny Farmer's Boston Coooking School had to prepare an entirely white meal for their final exam. Chicken or fish, white starches, white sauces, any vegetables had to be completely bathed in white sauce (the usual choice was apparently either mashed parsnip or boiled-to-death cabbage or creamed onions), the dessert had to be white. When I read about that in a history of cooking, I thought, "Who would want to eat an all-white meal?!?!" It was, would you believe it, supposed to be elegant and upper-class (n a school that catered to working class girls).

:-p

[(Anonymous)]

Yesterday, 9/25, I made this food for self and a friend. However, I did not mix it all together. I let the chops make their own gravy and poured the gravy over the potatoes. Made the applesauce from apples and cinnamon and a little water, microwaved for three minutes. Added mushrooms to the chops for the last few minutes, just long enough to cook them. Yep, I also had green peas on the plates. Both of us enjoyed it immensely.
It is a great combination! Keep them coming, please?