Broccoli

There are a number of things I am itching to write about when I get a little bit more time, the President's blueprint to improve education and revise NCLB, a sweet ride yesterday in the pouring cold rain, and the fact that I've accomplished the impossible and started a completely sustainable cold-fusion reaction in my attic.

But right now I am stuck on broccoli.

That's right.  Broccoli.

Last night, while enjoying a wonderful dinner, I scooped a random helping of broccoli out of the dish in which it was resting, then looked at my plate.  I noticed that there were very few of the florets that we normally think of when we think of broccoli, and a rather large number of stem pieces.  I had no idea that dinner would lead to this amazing discovery but it has.

Apparently all the pieces of stem that get lopped off the bottom of your broccoli when you buy it fresh in the store get chopped up and put into American's Choice broccoli.  In our very unscientific count, the pieces of stem outnumbered florets (think actual broccoli) by a ratio of 18:1.  This is pretty impressive, considering the picture on the front of the bag of frozen broccoli (which I searched for online but will now have to upload when I go home and can take a picture of it myself) represents an entirely different picture.

I just felt a little sad for the floret, all by itself amidst the crowd of stem pieces.  It must feel left out, like an outlier, like a loner searching for a little acceptance but unable to find it since it looks a little different and tastes a little different.  I wonder if it was tricked a little bit by the image on the front of the bag as well, depicting a mix consisting mainly of broccoli florets, it hopped in for the ride and only noticed as it was flash frozen that everywhere it looked it saw only stem.  STEMS AGGHHHHH!!!  and then it was frozen.

I will say that I happily ate my broccoli stems, and I don't even have very strong objections to them as vegetable matter.  I am under the impression that the florets have a few more vitamins and minerals in them, but I will happily eat the stems.  I just wish I had purchased a bag of stems and known what to get.  I fear I will go about my day slightly depressed now thinking of the lonely broccoli floret longing for a friend to die with as I dined.

edit:  if you'd like to know all the standards for quick frozen broccoli, peruse this document here.  Interesting stuff: