Infinite Food Choices

I can't seem to ever write a short blog post, but I'm going to try, because I just don't have much time these days.....

I food shop less than ever, and I haven't been to the farmers market in weeks, if not a couple of months because I have an infinite number of food choices at any given time with few fresh ingredients and few pantry items....I can't seem to eat everything I have. I realize that I don't have a family to cook for, but when I cook, I cook "family size", that's why my freezer is always packed with food at the ready.....I still have fresh summer tomato soup and zucchini soup made with corn stock.....good Lord, even a Cherimoya from my trip to Santa Barbara last May!

I rarely, if ever, use recipes, because I think the best foods are the simplest of foods and if I read a recipe with more than 4-6 ingredients I pass on it. For instance, I'm going to be making a large pork roast this afternoon, and I come across many recipes (I still like reading them, lol) for all kinds of marinades, rubs, brines, blah, blah, blah, and although most of that stuff is super tasty, and fun to try, by reading the ingredients I already know what it's going to taste like, do I really need to take the extra time to measure out marinade ingredients, or shop for special fresh herbs I don't already have in my fridge, when I always have salt and pepper....you don't need anything else for a good peice of meat, after salt and pepper anything is a bonus! And if I have other stuff, I'll use it, but I don't have the time or energy most times for an extra effort that won't make my food taste "better", just different.

Ok, I will be roasting pork this afternoon with simple salt and pepper, I could rub it down with some olive oil and garlic too, and I might, because I always have those ingredients too, but I started to think of what else I could serve with it. What's the simplest? Mashed potatoes are easy (again, if you want to make them fancy, add garlic cloves in the water along with the potatoes for garlic mashed, or toss some parmesean, and/or fresh herbs at the end, OR add carrots for carrot, potaoto mash, OR turnips, rutabaga, parsnip......good Lord who needs a freakin' recipe, LOL!), but roasted veggies with, again, oil, salt and pepper, will be my choice, because the oven is already going to be on, and who wants to dirty an extra pot?

I want to write more about the infinite food choices we have, but I've got to get to my 7:15am yoga class, so more to come.....maybe I can write more when my roast is in the oven, lol!

PS ingredients like.......olive oil, garlic, onion, carrot, celery, stock / broth, cream, butter, lemon / vinegars, don't count in my 4-6 ingredients "rule" as these things are always on hand, and should be a "given" as the start and end to 99% of all recipes.