I can't say the Cowboy Salsa was a big hit because I brought it at about 5 pm when most of the people at the block party had already eaten. It took longer than I thought it would to dice up the peppers and cut the kernels off the corn cobs (I used already diced tomatoes and onions). And it also took some time to get the lime juice/salt dressing just right. I'm taking the leftovers to my daughter's house so I'll have a verdict after that.
I feel that I should try some sheet pan recipes because they are so popular right now. But the photos are very unappealing. Does anyone have feedback on sheet pan cooking?
People had already eaten by 5 p.m.? That's crazy. I mean, I know I'm weird the other way because I generally eat dinner around 9. But I would have thought 6 was the time normal people ate.
I keep putting off making my corn chowder because other things come up -- and frankly I'm getting lazier and lazier about cooking -- but I'm hoping to make it tonight. Luckily corn in MN is so good it stays delicious in the fridge for a while. I'm going to make it with bacon, even though yesterday I visited a sanctuary farm where they take in abused or neglected farm animals and help them live out their lives in comfortable friendly settings. The owner is vegan and the message is pretty vegan. I can totally understand the vegan position, think that people of the future may look back and see factory farming as our era's big hard-to-understand cruelty. But there I go compartmentalizing my own meat eating out of the equation. I went home and ate a hamburger for dinner.
I do try to get responsibly raised food when possible, though. The woman at the farm told me that "free range" eggs just mean the barn doors are kept open -- not necessarily that the chickens go outside and run around. And of course I did know that "cage free" just means chickens aren't kept in literal boxes, but may still be packed tightly into a barn. So that explains why "pasture-raised" eggs are more expensive than others. Eggs are cheap enough that I don't mind throwing in an extra couple of bucks, but it's too bad that eating responsibly raised animal products or organic produce is not available to poor people.
I make "sheet pan" dinners when I'm making food that you'd cook on a sheet pan. For example I get these really good frozen pre-breaded fish filets and might roast some broccolini to go with them. I've roasted a mixture of fall vegetables on sheet pans. But I've never made whole complex recipes on a sheet pan.