Making sorbet probably doesn’t seem like it’s very people-esque, but it is a whole lot easier than ice cream, and it doesn’t have all that heart-clogging cream. Plus it’s just more refreshing. For this week’s Whip It Up(!), I tried a couple of things, but my variation of this sorbet from Bon Appetit’s July 2008 issue (”Plum Sorbet with Black-Current Liqueur, p. 56) was the bangin’-est. Plus, I think I might stick with desserts, seeing as how they are, in fact, my steez.

I don’t typically read Bon Appetit, I gues because it’s part of the hated Gourmet family (my biases are wildly without reason sometimes), but someone gave me this issue, and PLUM SORBET caught my eye. Plums are my absolute favorite fruit, and I wish I could eat them with everything.

So then I changed the fruit. Well, the recipe said you could substitue pluots (or plumcots, if you’re nasty). What the f is a pluot? It’s a plum/apricot hybrid, and I had happened across it last week at the ol’ local grocer, so I figured I’d try something new and go for it. The result is SO EFFING GOOD. Like SO GOOD. And SO WORTH IT. It makes me THINK IN ALL CAPS. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, borrow one, and get to work.

Pluot Sorbet
(reproduced and adapted from Bon Appetit!, July 2008)

• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. water
• 1.5 lbs pluots (or, yawn, plums), halved and pitted
• 0.25 c. creme de cassis (this is a black-currant liqueur that you can get at any liquor store and is useful in all sorts of stuff, so is handy to have around. The upside of putting liqueur in sorbet or ice cream is that it makes its shelf life longer, since homemade sorbet/ice cream tends to freeze into a block of inedible ice after a few days. Alcohol, as you know, resists freezing. But it’s certainly “optional,” although you should probably replace it with some sort of juice.

1. (Can be done ahead of time) Stir sugar and one cup of water in small saucepan over medium heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Boil until syrup is reduced to a generous 1 cup, about 6 minutes. You have now made simple syrup! Then stick it into the freezer asap so that it can chill as much as possible. It should be COLD before you use it again.

2. Puree pluots in a food processor until smooth. Push mixture through a mesh strainer set over a large bowl, extracting as much pulp as possible. Discard solids left in the strainer.

3. Stir cold simple syrup and creme de cassis into the pluot puree.

4. Freeze according to the ice cream maker’s instructions (usually just turning on the ice cream maker, pouring in the stuff, then going about your business for like 35 minutes). The sorbet will be very soft. Resist the temptation to try it now, and transfer it to a freezer-safe container with a cover and let it freeze for a few hours. Honestly, overnight is better, but I cant blame you if you want to try it before then.

WIU DATA:

*Every time I go into a liquor store for something like this, I feel like I have to announce loudly at the register that it’s for a BAKING project. “I DONT JUST DRINK AMARETTO AT HOME HA! HA! HA!” is usually what I end up saying, and it is so forced and so awkward, especially when they card me for it and I inevitably drop my wallet.

I have a fatigue, an extreme tiredness: I cannot seem to call forth, from the deep well of my soul, the desire to painstakingly craft a weekly menu. Typically, I do these things on Saturday and then head to the store — along with the rest of Richmond (Carytown Kroger for life!) — on Sunday evening. Recently, on Saturdays I find myself either sleeping or drinking beer and then sleeping. I wake up on Sunday and imagine my surprise when nary a menu exists!

This is not good! Especially when your pregnant wife is happily eating tater tots every time you turn your back.

You can usually tell the level of my menuetic apathy by the level of side dish complexity.

Side Dish Complexity vs. Apathy*

Luckily, I save all my menus from previous weeks. This makes the process of culling recipes from your mind so much simpler in that you don’t; you cull them from a bunch of text files saved on your computer. This hardly leads to a week full of extravagantly new tastes and sensations, but it gets the job done with minimal work. And while your pregnant wife might yammer on about chicken making her want to barf you can rest assured that your foetus is getting the protein it needs to grow a toe or something.

* it took me about four times as long to make the chart as to write this entry.

This is really going to be useful to Richmonders only (and Richmonders who shop at Kroger Carytown) (and Richmonders who read this) (meaning Ross), but since I look at the Kroger weekly ad every Sunday morning and pick out things that are on sale that look like they could play a part in my upcoming week of health-conscious meals, I thought maybe The People might be interested in knowing about it.

A tip before you go - I’ve noticed that a lot of sale prices that say in the ad that they’ll expire in a week actually last an extra week at least.

The People’s Sale Items for 4/13/08-4/19/08

This week is a light week for Kroger shopping - lots of produce, very little meat. This works out for me, in a coincidental way that you don’t care about, because I happen to be both in possession of a freezer full of leftover chicken, steak, and turkey burgers and also, I am broke.

But enough about me.

Check out:
Mushrooms (packs of whole or sliced for $2)
English cucumbers ($1 each) - I made Cucumber-Radish Slaw recently, and I recommend it. Easy, healthyish side.
Strawberries (both regular and organic are on sale, $3.33/pack and $2.50/pack, respectively
Avocadoes ($1 each) - I’ve been thinking EVERY SINGLE DAY about these Beef Tacos with Radish and Avocado Salsa that I made last week. Also a good way to use up extra steak and those radishes I made you buy for the slaw
Tomatoes ($2/lb)
Bartlett pears ($1/lb) - I plan to make Pear with Honey and Pecans, even though what I really want to make is Custard Pie
Texas sweet onions (69c each)
Cantaloupe ($1.50 each)
Tyson 100% all natural giant whole chicken (49c/lb) - I don’t know what to do with this except feed eight people, and since I only am responsible for feeding two people, I’m going to pass, but you might be interested…IN INVITING ME OVER.

Nothing else is good enough for you. Defrost some meat and get cooking.

Get that slaw into you!

(Also for those unable to give up the habit, Diet Coke is on sale for $3.33 a 12 pack.)

I can’t, like, plan a delicious meal with ten sides and dessert for every night of the week, even though I love to cook.

Here are my reasons:

1. Money, of course
2. Time
3. Spontaneity. I like order a lot, but I want to be able to be like “I have had a super bad day, let’s go out and get something to eat somewhere and treat ourselves” every once in awhile. Most of all, I want Cam to be able to say “You have had a super bad day, let me take you out to eat at your favorite place and also give you thirty gifts,” without me having to say, “That all sounds great, but I have GOT to make chicken breasts again, otherwise my whole plan will be thrown off and I will die.”

My strategy at the moment is (though subject to change) to sit down at some point, usually on the weekend, with the current issues of the several cooking periodicals I get and try to find some healthy recipes that meet the following objectives:

1. Use staples I have in the house, reducing grocery bills.
2. Use some of the same ingredients (like cilantro - who ever uses a giant bunch of cilantro for one meal?) (Chicken broth, parsley, bacon, chives, green onions, basil…all of these are good examples).
3. Use some of the specialty-type things I bought while splurging on something else, so that I can feel like my splurge isn’t really a splurge. I get tons of satisfaction from finishing off bottles of things - especially from my vast spice, oil, and vinegar collection.
4. Heat up well so that one of these meals can last for two days. This way I can just plan two or three meals a week.

This is working pretty well. By using my periodicals, the cookbooks I have that are organized by season, and the knowledge I have accrued from reading books like How to Pick a Peach, I try to get as much seasonal stuff as possible. I try really hard to get good ingredients that are environmentally responsible and local (if possible), but sometimes the People can’t afford these, so I feel like I’m always making judgment calls.

Anyway, it’s stressful. I’m trying to incorporate grocery circulars into this routine, but it is so much work. I have a job and tons of DVDs that need watching. Sometimes I get discouraged, and it all seems like too much. I feel like I’m always feeling guilty about either spending money or getting processed stuff because it’s cheaper or easier. THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY, right? I’m going to find it. Or you are going to tell it to me.