Good Smells

So, there's an old joke about onions and it goes something like this:

A young woman has just gotten married, and wants to make a chocolate cake for the couple's first dinner. So, she calls up her mother and says, "Ma, can I have the recipe?" 

"Sure, bubbie," her Yiddishe Mama says. "The first thing you do is put some shmaltz in a pan, or oil if that's what you got, chop up an onion, put it in and fry it."

"Ma," says the young bride, "onion for a chocolate cake?

"What?" says her mother. "You want the house should smell good?"

Speaking of good smells, the word on the street is that all the Schenectady County Price Choppers will be roasting Fresh Chestnuts on site this holiday season. I am such a sucker for those things. I'm neutral about the "decorative chestnut roasters in the shape of giant locomotives," but I doubt my 4 year old will be. Now, the conversations about "Why don't we have Santa in our house?" will morph into "Why don't we have a huge locomotive in our house that smells DELICIOUS?!?" 

Anyway. In the meantime, I shall reiterate my previous position of "Long Live the Super Market Wars." And I shall enjoy the smell of my house filling up with fried onion, happily anticipating the smell of latkes gearing up to start in a few weeks. 

For the record, I sauteed my diced onion in oil on medium heat until golden, added the garlic until softened, added a can of rinsed black eyed peas, and then dusted them with chili powder and Chinese Five Spice. We were out of cumin and coriander, but it turned out to be a very, very happy experiment. Vegetarian bean tacos for the grown ups, nicely compact mini bean burritos for the munchkins. Yummy, delicious, budget friendly, straight out of the pantry and healthy as all get out good eats. 

Share and enjoy.