This weekend seemed full of passion, marches, emotion, conflict, alternative facts, and storms. To take a break from all that, this post is about food – in particular turnips, spinach, and turkey (the avian kind, not the political kind).
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If you ever want a year-round spot of peace and respite, plant a garden. Once you get experienced enough, you should be able to pick fresh vegetables well into wintry January if not beyond.
Last weekend, my friend from across the river offered me some turnips that he had just picked. Beautiful!
And as a bonus his partner had just cooked up some lentil and pumpkin seed soup. She is a vegetarian and clearly cooks with passion. It was delicious and fulfilling.
I felt inspired so went to my garden and discovered some spinach ready to pick.
For Sunday dinner I roasted a hen with turnips and potatoes, and served it with lightly steamed spinach. I cut the turnips and put a little olive oil, salt, rosemary, and honey on them. Delicious meal. Turnip and hen works well!
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Monday I had to fly to Dallas. In another bizarre (and arguably anti-customer) move, American Airlines no longer has its economy “For Purchase” menu online. WTF (that stands for: “Really?”). Its not like the economy for purchase food is some magical secret of amazing surprises. Or is it?
We were delayed and I was hungry. I have learned that there is very little worth buying in PHL airport outside of the very-far-away terminal F. So on-board I pulled the top secret “marketplace menu” from the seat pocket and settled on this (apologies for photo quality):
And here was the surprise – unlike the picture which shows lunch meat turkey (deli meat, cold cut, whatever you want to call it), we got this:
I put one apple slice on top of the turkey but there were plenty underneath. Happy surprise from American Airlines! Flavorful and moist. Like my mother had packed it before the flight.
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Perhaps a light post today, but maybe it took your mind off other more serious things for a few minutes today. And notice the Hand Sanitizer in the upper right of the last picture. I would NEVER fly without it.
Paul Sees the World 