Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The delicious unexplained

You know how there are certain things in life (specifically food life) that defy logic? Like hot dogs that taste one way at home and transcend into a culinary delight when eaten at a ballpark while watching a baseball game. Or how lemonade tastes better in the summer. Or how sun tea made in a jar beats brewing it any other way. Now, I know that there is probably a scientific explanation for all of these things if I really wanted to look into them. I don't. I want to wonder at the beauty of these experiences of the palate. The things I mentioned above are things that I learned long ago, truths that I have adopted that have stayed with me until adulthood. Tonight, much to my delight and utter amazement I found a new paradox. I made swedish meatballs. Now, in itself this is not illogical. It's meat, a gravy like sauce, and buttery noodles. Very normal, until . . . . Wait for it . . . you add grape jelly! I know that it is suppose to be red current jelly or lingonberry jelly but Winco didn't have those and Martha said it would be O.K. to substitute grape. I was sceptical at first that it was going to be a successful dish. I tasted the meatballs separately and the sauce separately. The noodles were nothing special either. Then, I dished it all up and put a beautiful, glittery, gelatenous blob of purple bliss on the side. I sat down, took the first bite of all the parts together and it transformed into something of brilliance in my mouth. I wish you all could have been there.
Now, Jarvis will be home from practice in a minute and I will heat up some meatballs for him. I doubt he will try the jelly and neither of my kids did either. So, since sharing my rapture with them would fall on deaf ears I decided to share it with my blogging family. Someone out there might have already had this experience of love at first bite and if you have then I want to hear about it! Those Swedes - first the delicious red fish and now the meatballs. I salute them!
P.S. if you haven't tried these meatballs and jelly and would like to, give me a call and I will have you over. We can enjoy them together!