comfort food and smoked paprika.

The weather has turned cold and wet, and we are wondering what happened to the summer, even though now that Sukkot is over, we are praying for rain!



I have been craving popcorn with Earth balance, garlic, nutritional yeast and smoked paprika. My husband makes popcorn every day-almost, but he is a purist; he wants only butter and salt. When we got married, he lived on popcorn, and he popped it himself in a designated sauce pan. I was not to use it for anything but popcorn! He popped it in a cheap margarine and then melted more margarine for topping and salt. His popcorn was wonderful, but so high in saturated fats. After we were married he gradually shifted to popping in oil, then going to a non hydrogenated margarine, and now he pops his popcorn in an air popper, and puts Earth balance and salt on it.



I miss the full fat popcorn sometimes, so I have been looking for some way to bring more flavor. I discovered that nutritional yeast sprinkled on anything gives it a cheesy flavor, but for me, the popcorn still needed something more. I added a sprinkle of garlic powder, and that helped but was not enough. I started looking through the spice drawer and came upon the smoked paprika. I had bought it for a great recipe from fatfreevegan.com, and had forgotten about it. It was perfect. The kids said it was the best popcorn. I agreed. Now when I make popcorn, I always add those seasonings.



Now it is cold, and I was trying to think of something warm and comforting and healthy for lunch. I cut up some potatoes and sweet potatoes and boiled them. My mother used to make steamed butter and parsley potatoes when I was a kid and as an adult I discovered colcannon. I decided to mix the two recipes and see what happened. I replaced the ham with the smoked paprika and used choped spinach instead of parsley. After the potatoes were done, I added olive oil and EB, shredded cabbage and my popcorn seasonings. Wow! Not only did it hit the spot for me, my children ate it and asked for seconds . . . and thirds. JB remarked as he licked the last bit out of his bowl with a blissful look on his face, "Potatoes make me happy."



Smoked parika is now my favorite seasoning. I wonder what else would taste good with that smoky sweet spice? More experimenting is required, I think. :)