Food Is the Tenuous Thread Here

A random collection of thoughts that are only connected via my stomach:

What is it about frozen vegetables that are so appealing to children? Cubby and Charlie ate about a cup of frozen peas this afternoon while I was making dinner. Frozen green beans are also a favorite. I remember loving frozen corn when I was a kid, and I know one family with small children who eat enough frozen vegetables that they just call it "frozen salad," so I know it's not just my kids.

Whatever. Works for me: non-messy, healthy, and keeps 'em quiet for five minutes. Who could ask for anything more.

I made up a meatloaf recipe a little while ago in an attempt to palatably use the breakfast sausage we got with our pig, which was way, WAY over-salted. It was too salty to eat on its own. I mixed it with some ground beef and onions, plus rice and eggs to stick it all together, topped it with apple chutney and ta da! Sausage loaf. Sounds gross, but isn't. In fact, it was good enough that I made it again tonight, except this time I topped it with some of the leftover cranberry sauce from Sunday's dinner. Once again, sounds gross, but isn't.

Since I already had the sausage loaf in the oven and I hate to use the oven for a single thing, I also decided to make this recipe for roasted rhubarb and strawberries. We have two big bags of rhubarb chunks the MiL froze last spring, and here we are staring down another rhubarb season with way too much rhubarb still in the freezer.

I don't know what kind of fruit the people that developed that recipe were using--to say nothing of the many commenters who raved about it--but half a cup of sweetener for five cups of rhubarb and strawberries, plus vinegar? Ain't no way that's edible. I added more sugar as it was cooking, then dumped on another tablespoon or so right on top of each serving as I was dishing it out. It was good, as any combination of rhubarb and strawberries can be, but only with enough sugar. In fact, it would have been better with vanilla ice cream, instead of the plain cream we had, because it could have used even more sugar than I put on it.

And, uh, I think that's it. What'd you have for dinner tonight*, duckies?

* No, really--I want to know. You know how you sometimes see snide remarks about people who post Instagram photos or tweets about their meals and people are all, "Who CARES what you're eating?" I do. I am a food voyeur and I love to see what other people eat. This might mean I'm weird. I'm okay with that.