March = Mocha Madness!

This month’s food was “Bad Bad (Leroy) Brown!!"

You may be confused by this intro. “Wasn’t March supposed to be ‘Magenta’?” Well – yes. Originally, this month was supposed to be a vibrant display of all pink foods. But in researching this fun food color, I got my heart set on an exotic beauty - a tropic delicacy called dragonfruit. 

© Ian Maguire UF/IFAS/TREC

http://trec.ifas.ufl.edu/tfphotos/012304.htm

I searched countless stores this month in hopes of finding this elusive delight. Knowing it's popularity across Eastern Asia, I even stopped at three markets in Chicago's Chinatown. No dragonfruits were available. Such a disappointment. But when I set my sights on something, there's no looking back! I will not give up hope! Sometime this year, I will find and try this intriguing fruit. 

In the meantime, I decided to swap my "Magenta - March" and "Mocha - May" themes. So March ended up being focused on a variety of rich, brown foods. 

Here’s what the meal involved:

Cocktails: Choice between a variety of Nick's home brews or a homemade root beer! The picture highlight's one of Nick's more recent beers - a dopplebock. 

  
Bread: Spent grain bread using the leftovers from Nick's latest brew batch!

Appetizer: Wild rice pilaf with wilted spinach. Note - I made this more in the style of a rice stuffing by removing the currants and adding bacon, celery, and crisp apples. 

Entrée: French style pot roast with homemade wheat noodles.

Dessert: Triple chocolate mousse cake.

After Dinner Drinks: Nutty irishman (Toasting  KU's Men's Basketball team!! While we may not have won the nationals, we had a great showing across the season! Rock Chalk! Go Jayhawks!)

So, while I switched from Magenta to Mocha a bit last minute, I can honestly say that Bad Bad Brown turned out So So Good!

Before closing  - let me share one of my all time favorite poems. It's an appropriately themed composition by my high-school friend, Jennifer Bulmash.

brown

when you are a kindergartenbaby,

happy-eyed and

your marker-free fingers are still smelling of dish soap and

there are bubbles in the in-betweens of your hands

from being washed and

they ask

what is your favorite color?

you do not take lightly such a question. 

you ponder over your crayons

like you are picking the color your skin will be

from this moment on.  and when you emerge with

purple [like cake icing and sweet] they smile at your choice but

ask why not blue or green or brown? and

it takes some thought to decide why

blue or

green are

not your favorites but you can

answer right away about brown, because

no one picks brown. it does not

fly or twist or grow or sing

but

there are days, like these,

when I think –

if I had

kindergarten to do all over again, I would

stop when I reached brown,

amidst the greenandblueandpurple, and

I would secretly smile.  I think I would know about the way

brown eyes are different from brown crayons, and

such dizzying brown eyes [like yours]

make a girl feel

the need for reevaluation of

her favorite color.  because

oh,

how brown

            is,

                        allofasudden, ly

                                    breathtaking.

Next month is going to be a challenge! My "Ash" or "Grey" meal!! Stay tuned for something....interesting :)