Eater’s Digest

This week, I asked Ben to pick something from our favorite cookbook, Hope’s Table, by Hope Helmuth. The food isn’t fussy or hard, just simple and delicious. We have made tons of recipes from this cookbook, and Ben took his job earnestly. After carefully thumbing through the pages, he showed me the picture of pork tacos. In my head, I said, “Pork again?” Aloud, I started reading him the recipe. When I got to the pineapple salsa, Ben said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I made a mistake.” Back to the drawing board. I remembered that our friend Diane, to whom we had recommended the cookbook, had made the pork chops with mustard sauce to great acclaim. If the speech bubble above Ben’s head was, “Pork again?” he didn’t let it show. Simply stating the word “sauce” soothes the savage cooking beast.

Ben agreed to Japanese sweet potatoes with miso scallion butter and grudgingly said that roasted broccoli would be alright. When I say roasted, I mean charred.

When he started clamoring for an appetizer, I threw him a metaphorical bone and said we could make another Hope recipe that she calls stuffed peppers. We all know what stuffed peppers are, and these are not those. These are quartered fresh green bell peppers (or as old-timers in Williamsport would say, mangoes) spread with a mixture of shreddar (shredded cheddar cheese), mayonnaise, and crushed saltine crackers (plus a little bit of vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper). Absolutely delicious. Ben’s aunt Mary first made these for us and we love them. Ben called them peppertizers. Spot on.

Peppertizers.

Ben isn’t much of a spud scrubber. He prefers the sprayer to man-to-yam combat.

We were supposed to use thin-cut chops, and by comparison, ours are morbidly obese, but the beauty of Hope’s recipes is that if you know the basics of cooking, you’ll be fine. These were rubbed with brown sugar, salt, and pepper before being cooked in butter. The brown sugar cooked with the butter making almost a caramel. After the meat came out, the sauce was finished by adding Dijon mustard, garlic, cream, white wine, and lemon juice to the caramel mixture in the pan. Delicious!

Ben has a number of food-related terms that he has condensed. To save you some time, here is the Eater’s Digest list:

Shreddar – shredded cheddar cheese

Seizure Salad – Caesar salad

Peppertizer – an appetizer made with peppers (duh)

Harsh-mellow – the most oxymoronic element of a s’more

Chocolate Squirrel – vanilla ice cream swirled with what you hope is chocolate

Whup Cream/Wiff Cream – whipped cream

Sweet and Chili – sweet chili sauce

Chicken Tinkers* – chicken tenders/fingers

Recipeep – recipe

*If one explores early etymology of Benglish, the term “Chicken Arms” is often used.

I’m sure I am forgetting many items that should make the “Eater’s Digest” list. Honestly, I can barely keep up with Ben! If you remember any of his gems, please share. We’re always up for a quick trip down memory lane!