Play with Your Food

You know, I play with my food and I always have.  There's never been anything quite as fun as something you can eat with your hands, like a sandwich or pizza -- unless it's something you have to build yourself before you eat it with your hands -- like a taco!

Sometimes I play with recipes.  Like my pumpkin swirl cheesecake.  I was sitting around just before Thanksgiving, knowing that my family wanted pumpkin pie with their dinner.  But I'm not 100% keen on pumpkin pie.  I mean, it's OK but I like a good apple crisp or pecan pie better.  And then there is cheesecake.  Mmmmm, now that would be yummy.  

Then it hit me, that if you had cream cheese on pumpkin bread, it would be just lovely.  So, why not make a cheesecake that had a nice swirl of pumpkin-pie-like batter running through it?

I quickly went online, looking for recipes.  I have a favorite cheesecake recipe already, so I was looking for a pumpkin swirl recipe that was close to this treasured classic.  And I couldn't find what I was looking for.

So I made my own.  I combined my favorite cheesecake recipe, scaled down a little with the best pumpkin pie recipe I could find, also scaled down a little…  And voila!

And I was making cream of tomato soup, or tomato bisque, being a huge fan of the type served at La Madeleine…  Only with a twist that I thought any good bisque should include some cooking sherry.  And then this lemon on my counter-top called out to me, saying it sure would be nice to have a bit of lemon zest in that bisque.  

And the lemon was right, it was not only different and delicious, but it helped somehow to keep the bisque from separating.

Or the other night, when I had cooked some home-made egg rolls, and wondered what to do with the remaining wrappers.  I fell asleep thinking of this and of Middle Eastern food, and woke up with an idea for a dessert egg roll that would include some goat cheese, walnuts and dates.

Sometimes you stumble upon a combination of foods or spices that just seems to work well, even though it's not at all traditional.  And when you do, you should run with it!  You might be coming up with the next new thing.  Or it could be a complete disaster.  

Lately, I've been wondering if it would be possible to marinate some beef using coffee…  Hmm, that one might be a complete disaster.  But you KNOW I'm going to have to try!

Go ahead and take the risks.  Just make sure you have a back-up plan in case you wind up on the disaster side of the equation.  I do that too.  Only we hide the evidence!