5 Revelations Made on My G&G Maiden Voyage

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

A little backstory: I’m a food snob by trade. I consider fan-girling of local restaurants and frequenting of said establishments to be part of my job description. And over the course of four years in this “industry” and to the detriment of my wallet and waistline, it’s also something become a formidable pastime. YET, as much as I respect food and champion the people who make it their passion, I am a pretty reluctant cook myself. I’d like to say it’s because I’m super busy. But, of course, aren’t we all? And it really doesn’t help that, in the last four years of building Scoutmob, much of my time was spent in other people’s kitchens. My dinner routine consisted of sitting at a bar sampling whatever they fed me. My fridge was filled with to-go boxes instead of produce. And fending for myself during late nights on my laptop usually meant hitting up speed dial on the fastest delivery joint.

 Basically, when it came to food, I’d gotten really (like, extremely) good at eating… and missing the whole meaningful connection to the things I put in my body. Something that comes hand-in-hand (hand-in-mouth?) with cooking. I wanted some way to change that.

Fast-forward to 2014: I spend less time in and out of the restaurants we’d worked with to this point, and I’d also recently bought my first house. It seems like the perfect time to make good on a resolution I’ve had for a while—the resolution of upping my kitchen game. Of matching my kitchen skills with my levels of food snobbery. And I’m happy to report, thanks to my new-found love affair with Garnish & Gather, this endeavor is proving to be not only successful and “up to par” on taste levels while also still supporting the local food scene, but also… pretty dang convenient too. Win-win-win… and here’s some proof of that:

5 Revelations Made on My G&G Maiden Voyage:

“Jacked Up Pork Chop with Fingerling Sweet Potatoes and Winter Green Salad”

#1 Watermelon Radishes, where have you been all my life?: I never knew winter veggies could be so… lovely. Little edible pieces of art. If I could have a new favorite veggie based on looks alone, this would be it. (Be right back… I’m Instagramming my salad bowl.)

#2 Who knew I could cook a mean piece of pork? The thought of cooking chops has always intimidated me—I just assumed they would always end up tough and dry if I tried my hands at it… so I would stick to fish or chicken or something I understood. But this recipe made for a really moist, really flavorful (and surprisingly easy!) entrée. It went off without a hitch and really did wonders for my pork-cooking ego.

#3 Oh, hello new substitute for French fries: That slick little baggy of “Sweet Potato Starter” (kindly broken down for us amateurs as ½ Tbsp paprika and ½ Tbsp. of garlic powder) will be an easy solution to incorporate into a regular cooking repertoire… and an excellent, flavorful substitute for that fat pad of butter that usually goes on my potatoes. Next time, I’ll try cutting them long ways. Because, healthy fries?! Yeah… that’s what we call a Game Changer.

#4 Jelly steals the show. If there’s one thing that got the dinner table talking as much as those gorgeous slices of radish, it was the excellent flavor that the “Jacked Up” jelly brought to the whole dish. Sweet peaches and pecans with Jack Daniels whiskey (hence the “Jacked Up” part) glazed over the pork and mixing a bit with the potatoes. I’m afraid to say, even though I’ve known about the local jellies of One Screw Loose, I’ve never actually tasted them. So I’m happy to report my first encounter was in my own kitchen and was whipped into a piece de résistance with only the help of some fresh thyme and lemon. It made the whole meal feel inspired. And I love that G&G carries One Screw Loose Jams in their Local Provisions Shop so I can get it delivered with my meals!

#5 Hop City with the assist! One of my favorite parts of my first G&G experience (besides, you know, the whole eating part of things) was picking up my kit from Hop City, just a skip and jump from my office. The owner, Kraig, came excitedly to suggest pairings for my chosen meal, expertly chosen by their in-house sommelier—something you are definitely not getting as you go to your average grocery store. I went with her suggested pairing of a bright, crisp white—the reasonably-priced Berroia—but there were also red wine or beer pairings depending on preference. It didn’t take much twisting of the arm for this to become a complete (and completely special) meal… just like that.