Confessions of a neophyte foodie

I post regularly on a message board which has a resident chef. (Hard to believe isn't it, but check it out!) Recently I asked for some ideas on what to make for dinner. Here is what I did:

He suggested I peel the asparagus stalks before cooking. I'm not sure if I was supposed to leave the peels attached. Well, they tasted good.

I definitely wasn't supposed to leave the peels attached to the orange. I have a whole bag of them on hand and was running out of ideas. The recipe he gave me was for glazed pork chops and involved about a tablespoon of orange juice. So the rest of the orange was supposed to become garnish. I changed my mind halfway through cooking and instead I added some pineapple chunks and banana and bluberries. (the bananas and blueberries were leftover from banana-blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Double yumm!) It felt so elegant. Any time I use blueberries and don't cook them I feel avant garde. The juice from the pineapple chunks was added to chicken broth for steaming the asparagus. I find steaming my vegetables over broth makes them taste a lot better. After I was done with the asparagus, it seemed a shame to waste the broth. So I added a few mushrooms and a little onion and made a sauce.

Instead of mashed potatoes, I mashed sweet potatoes with yams.

Since I was going to such trouble over dinner (I cook over a woodstove. That means I really do slave in a hot kitchen!) I decided I would really go all out. I got out the fine china - okay, I don't own any fine china, instead I got out the champagne glasses and the bottle of sparkling pear juice. I actually set the table. In fact, I moved the dining room table back into the dining room (it's been used as a bedside table a while now).

And below you see the results:

Bon appetit!