From the Archives: Mitsitam Feast

I was curious what I had posted exactly two years ago, and was thrilled to discover that I had recorded a culinary adventure I would otherwise have forgotten. Here it is, to relive and be re-inspired:

Peanut Soup

Wild Rice Salad

The peanut soup was close to ideal, but I had to go check on a child at one point and so didn't cook the base long enough.  In the end, it was hard to blend, though I'm pretty sure the nuts were supposed to be "tender" at that point.  But it tasted nice, had a good rich zest to it to start the meal. 

The wild rice salad was the least appealing-looking (mostly due to the fact that I had a starchy rice blend to use up rather than 100% wild rice), but S. and I actually thought it tasted the best out of the meal.  Refreshing and filling, good textural contrasts.  

Pork Pibil Tacos

When I was putting together the meat and ingredients to cook, the smell was so heavenly that I just couldn't wait for the tacos.  Though, it had a slightly bitter taste to it after cooking, I think from one of the oranges; and I was trying to use up some pork tenderloin but really, that's not the meat it called for.  It needed something cheaper, that could cook a long time and collagen-ize and be very tender.




I went with it anyway, but it does make me wonder how incredibly good it would be if it were done right.  I couldn't complain about the simple, fresh guacamole, though -- in fact, I could rave.  Put it all together, and everyone had seconds.

There was a cranberry crumble for dessert, which was way too sweet and not crumble-y at all, and it didn't help that a certain assistant misread the amount of maple syrup to put in the cornmeal topping and doubled it.  We're going to save it for a breakfast later and bake a fresh batch of cornbread to pour it over like syrup.  I think that will actually work very well, and am looking forward to it.