Concerted Cooking

By Colleen Walsh Fong

I saw a great bluegrass concert last night. And it got me thinking about food. 

To the suspicious minded: No! It wasn’t because of the grassy odors permeating the venue. It was because the front man and leader in all of the music was a bass player. He was upbeat, enthusiastic, and fast! The music flowed from one piece to another ala the Grateful Dead.

And that’s what made me think about food. Or food ensembles to be exact. Let me back up and explain.

Are you busy? I am. But we still need to eat.

Cooking good food to eat well can take time if you do it all on your own. Making tasty, healthy, budget friendly, and quick food can be really easy, though, if you let me do most of the work for you.

Food is the music of my life and making good food easy is my passion. By grouping recipes into unique ensembles, I help busy cooks save time and money.

Each ensemble has a baseline recipe which serves as the thread that holds the grouping together. From the baseline come several food “melodies” in duets (2 recipes,) trios (3 recipes,) quartets (4 recipes,) and even some quintets (5 recipes.) That’s what made me think of food last night.

In popular music a single chord progression can be tweaked to result in several very different melodies. Did you know that “Brown Eyed Girl”, “Twist and Shout”, “La Bamba”, and “Wild Thing” all share the same chord progression?

Let’s put that concept to work with food! Don’t just make a pork roast! Go from Pork Roast to Pork and Artichoke Stew. (Duet.)

Or Moist and Juicy Salmon Filet to Fish Tacos, and Chunky Salmon Salad. (Trio)

Or Red Bell Pepper Sauce to Spaghetti and Meatballs, Chicken Cacciatore, Pecan Chicken Rolls, and Parmesan Sausage Fusilli. (Quartet.)

You get the idea. No matter how big or how small the ensemble is, the recipes in it work together to make your life easier.

The various recipes in the duets, trios, quartets, etc. taste quite different even though they share the same baseline recipe. This makes it easy for you to create lots of healthy, tasty dishes. Put them together anyway you like, and add a few solos to your repertoire, too!

See lots of beautiful pictures of these dishes in my original post. 

I’m adding new ensembles here all the time so you can consistently learn new “tunes.” And you can get them for a song. They’re priced according to size, between 39-99¢. Our customers tell us they’ll have you singing our praises! Check them out and see what everyone is saying.