Seconds

Recently I'd written about my hesitance to post about certain meals in some misguided attempt to protect you from food that is/was not something-enough to blog about. Then I proposed that cooking things so I could blog about them rather than blogging about what I was cooking anyway, was the reverse of what I am interested in doing.

In that spirit I will admit to you a very typical yo-yo week around here dinner wise.

One night we had Niman Ranch pork chops, grilled, with sautéed apples, asparagus and beer muffins.For St. Patrick's Day, (warm temperatures be damned!) we had Irish Stew and Soda Bread. I posted separately about the bread, so here is a peek at the stew.I have a soft spot for stew.

My own mother had, as a result of a surgery meant to correct a progressive hearing loss decades earlier, a nearly complete inability to taste salt. That meant unless she was very careful, we all ended up with some pretty salty tasting meals. This iffyness put her off cooking somewhat, but she would reliably prepare beef stew for us about once a week the entire time I was growing up, and of all the things she cooked for us, I think her stew had to be a favorite.

Stew was one of the first meals I attempted on my own as a very young hostess, and I still feel most domesticated in certain ways when I have a pot of stew bubbling away, or safely tucked into the refrigerator, serving as potential for a nearly instant delicious meal whenever I need one.

As to the soda bread, in Ireland it is reportedly baked with great frequency as it does not keep particularly well. The third day after I'd baked it we still had a quarter loaf left so I decided to test out the premise that it makes great toast. Great toast it made, indeed. It takes a bit more time to get a nice browning going on with the slices, but the toast tastes very much like a hot biscuit. Any way you like your biscuits, you will probably enjoy soda bread toast. For us that morning, that meant butter and homemade loquat jam from the bounty of last Spring's harvest.One final note (I always have trouble finishing phone conversations and posts either one). We have loads more loquats out ripening even as you read this.I am excited at the prospects of jamming it up again in a few weeks when the fruit is ready. Jam! Yay!

Here's your question to mull over and prompt sharing in the comments section for today. If you could never eat your Mom's home cooking again, what would you miss most? For me it is my Mom's Beef Stew. What is your favorite dish that Mom makes?