The First Meal!

The first meal was actually prepared on Monday, October 12, 2009. The menu included Breaded Pork Chops (p. 222), Mashed Potatoes (p. 359), and Buttered Broccoli. The Pork Chops were flavorful, moist, and smelled wonderful cooking. The cooking adventure of the evening was the potatoes.

Yes, I've made Mashed Potatoes many times. This time though, in keeping with the spirit of the project, I decided to follow the instructions given in BCC. In the past I've always peeled the potatoes and cut them in chunks, covered them with water, and put them on to boil. However, BCC instructions are to wash the potatoes, cut away any visible bad spots and leave them whole or cut into large pieces. I decided to leave them whole. BCC instructions also say to "heat 1 inch of salted water (1/2 teaspoon salt to 1 cup water) to boiling. Add potatoes. Cover and heat to boiling; reduce heat. Boil until tender, whole 30 to 35 minutes . . . " I must confess that 1 inch of water to boil 4 or 5 large potatoes worried me, it just didn't sound right. So, I brought about 8 cups of salted water to a boil and then added the potatoes. The 30 to 35 minutes cooking time didn't worry me (pork chops had to bake for 30 minutes). At the end of 30 minutes the pork chops were perfect, but the potatoes weren't. Some of them were softening, but a couple of them were still very raw in the middle. So, I used my cooking spoon and cut them into pieces. This did the trick within 5 minutes or less the potatoes were done and ready to mash. In the end they turned out great! The 30 to 35 minute cooking time might work with smaller potatoes, but from now on I will cut my potatoes into pieces.

There is no recipe for Buttered Broccoli in BCC. I cheated on this one. We had a bag of the frozen broccoli that can be steamed in its bag in the microwave. I used this and then added some butter.

Overall this first meal was a huge success! All of us agreed that we enjoyed the meal.