When Oz was a little boy, he wanted each item on his plate to be discrete. Often, when I was serving his plate, he would admonish me, "Don't let the green beans touch the mashed potatoes!"
I understood his preference, although, when I was a child, I often mixed mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, and meat into a disgusting mess in the middle of my plate. Oz was advanced for his age. I was food-taste retarded.
As a bride, I owned a little casserole cookbook and often made a concoction of hot dogs and potatoes with a Campbell's soup binder. In retrospective, it was truly awful, but the best I could do.
Over the many years of my life, I've gradually grown to appreciate simplicity in food. -- good, fresh ingredients, discrete and beautiful on the plate. Now, Dennis often says, "I love our simple meals." These consist of three or four simply-prepared dishes, arranged separately on the plate, to be mixed or not as the diner wishes.
Dennis, who sometimes eats in elegant restaurants, complains about what he calls "the pile-up." That is the current fashion among chefs to prepare items separately, but pile them in layers on the plate with a little exotic garnish. When served such a meal, Dennis' first task is to deconstruct the chef's creation, separating the mashed potatoes and other items into discrete units.
Recently, having harvested beautiful savoy cabbages from our garden, I decided to make cabbage rolls. I had read about them in cookbooks, but never eaten or even seen them. The cabbage rolls were delicious, but took two-and-a-half hours to prepare. Dennis pronounced them tasty, but added, "Why not just make a meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and sauteed cabbage?" I couldn't have agreed more.
Thanks, Ozzie Bean, for showing me the way.
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