Looking Forward

Another Thanksgiving come and gone. Sorry there are no pictures of the PIES (I only got two made the night before) or the deep-fried turkey -- I guess I'm a bad blogger because when I'm in production mode, I don't think too much about blogging. Well, actually, I think about it but I dismiss it so I can keep my focus on what I'm doing. Suffice it to say that everything came out pretty well. There are still a few leftovers -- including pie! Yesterday we changed things up an had pizza. Not just any old pizza: homemade pizza!!! Yummo.

Now, it's time to focus on the next round of holidays. And, at the same time, it occurs to me that January is only a month away. Last year I went on a major tear in December to get read for 2009. I had my car detailed, house deep-cleaned, windows washed, etc. As I look around this year, there's not that much heavy-lifting to do in regards to my house. Now, I have the pleasure of thinking about things like "what do I want to learn next year? Where do I want to go?"

So, here's a draft list of the things I want to learn/explore in 2010:

1. Work diligently on my cookbook -- this will be slow going because I want it to be fun. If put myself on some kind of schedule or deadline, it will just be work. If I pick it up and put it down as it feels good, it will stay playful and fun.

2. Replace some of the junky food habits I have with some better ones such as swapping out chocolate for fresh dates (my five pound box of dates from The Date People came last week -- Yum!).

3. Be more creative with my farm share next year. For starters, I wished I had recorded what I got each week so that I could better plan next year. I remember the week I got about 8 cucumbers. It's good to be prepared for something like that.

4. Fall in love with my Green Star Juicer. I've had it for about two years now. These things are not cheap! It's supposed to be the best. I have to make time to get comfortable with it. My attempts thus far have been disappointing.

5. Cut back on accumulating cookbooks and dig into what I have.

6. Relax.

Before I go this morning, here's a question for you: Who inspires you?"

Sir Winston Churchill inspires me. Often this quote comes to my mind:

"Never give in -- never, never, never in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour & good sense. Never yield to force; Never yield to the apparently overwhelming insight of the enemy."

Pies R Us

Ready...set...go...first up Sour Cherry...next Pumpkin...and then onto the Coconut.

Can I get this all done tonight?

What's One Miracle You've Experienced?

I have to pick just one?

I'm going to cheat and pick two: (1) My Sour Cherry Pie recipe that I'm making this week; and (2) don't hate me for this one -- being a regular exerciser for over 7 years.

I was just thinking this morning at the gym that pretty soon it will be 8 years and that is getting close to a decade. Geez...you'd think I'd look like a supermodel or something -- uh, not even close. But, part of the miracle is that as an exerciser, I'm less critical of my body. I guess all the weight training and exercising has put me more in the mindset of being in partnership with my body rather than at odds.

The subset miracle about the exercising is that I found out this morning that my shoulders, which are usually the weakest area for a woman, are comparatively very strong (did the trainer use the word "abnormal"?). I guess it should not be a surprise because I love to train shoulders more than anything!!! I love the shoulder press best of all.

So, here I am with this body -- almost 47 now -- many imperfections going on, everyday is different between water weight, hormones, etc. and our culture tells me to look down on myself because I don't look like people on tv. I'm not saying I'm immune to falling prey to the allure of wanting to shop in the 5-7-9 shop. It does get to me sometimes. But, there are many moments like this morning when I'm so grateful that it brings tears to my eyes that I have a body that gets me around and works with me to do the things I have to do and want to do. There's no getting back the fleeting features of my body in my 20's. I rail against the idea that we spend so much of our lives now being middle-aged and then old and not having a beautiful, young body any longer, but that is really blowing against the wind.

Thank you, Body, for putting up with me. I haven't always been good to you, but everyday you try your best for me.

Karen Called, Said Your Turkey is Ready for Pick up

Tomorrow I pick up the fresh turkey for Thursday. Also, tomorrow, the fresh dates from the little farm in California are set to arrive. Yesterday we went to the grocery store to get various things still needed for the holiday. I dug out my bread machine tonight as there is a request for homemade raisin bread. And, I dug out my favorite cherry (as in "sour cherry") pie recipe. The wine is already selected. I checked the tablecloth, candlesticks, etc. Things are looking good for Thursday.

Why do I have to work? Why can't I just stay home and play in my kitchen? Why, why, why??? If I could, I'm sure I would pierce a few more things and let my hair go really wild...

I have made a decision and it's a timely one: I think Thanksgiving is the best holiday of all! It doesn't showcase my favorite foods (I'd give Easter the edge there because of the ham, potato salad, and of course, the chocolate), but it's a holiday that everyone can appreciate. Case in point, I went to get my nails done tonight and the nail tech was asking me a lot of questions about what am I cooking, who is coming, etc. and she's only been in this country for about a year and a half -- raised on the other side of the world, speaking a different language up until the last 18 months, completely different culture and yes, she is into Thanksgiving. She's got her meal planned and is good to go. I don't think this would be the case with any of the other holidays commonly celebrated here.

One thing I will be rolling out on Thursday is my pickled eggplant. It's been curing for two months in an antique crock that I have just for this purpose. The eggplant were first salted for a day, then soaked in vinegar for a day, then seasoned with chopped garlic, oregano, hot pepper and black pepper and covered in olive oil. It's a very old-fashioned process, but it's relatively easy. And, I have a fan base for this stuff. I packed up a box and sent it off to some friends last week so it's in time for the holiday.

Stay tuned for a report later this week -- did I mention the turkey is going to be deep-fried?

Cookbook Junkie on the Loose

In terms of how many cookbooks I have and in life in general, when is enough enough???

Just last week, I was reading a post from a favorite blog and the author mentioned a couple of cookbooks that were FAVORITES. Since I respect this author, I had to go check the books out and then, fell right into the rabbit hole and before I knew it, the books were on their way.

I have a lot of cookbooks already (right now somewhere around the 900 range) and often think, what more is there to know? When is enough, enough?

So, the books came and what I think of as "the lovely thing" happened. To my delight, one of them turned out to be a book that quickly recognized that I "needed". Yes, it has something to say to me that I hadn't heard before or maybe just wasn't paying attention. That book is "The Zuni Cafe Cookbook"(you can order it from Amazon here).

I had a chance this morning to peruse the recipes (a perfect thing to do at 6:00
AM on Sunday morning when you can't fall back asleep, by the way). The very first thing I want to make is a nice light soup of Asparagus & Rice with Pancetta and Black Pepper. It's sounds better for the springtime so perhaps first will be the fabulous roast chicken recipe with a bread salad. There's a lot of information on salting meat prior to cooking which has promise.

Meanwhile, in real life, I've been tackling the mountain of produce that had accumulated after Thursday's last farm share pickup. There were three bags of stuff to contend with along with what was already piling up. Three...heads...of...cabbage...it's sort of like, "lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" In any event, all the greens were sauteed with garlic and hot pepper in olive oil, the broccoflower and cauliflower were steamed, and the field greens lightly dressed for starters. Necessity being the mother of invention, I moved into the mode of dealing with a number of little winter squashes that ganged up on me. The tiny butternut squashes were roasted in the crockpot and then the flesh was scooped out for soup. There wasn't enough so I added in the remains of a roasted acorn squash from last week and then, the topper, I pulled out of the freezer a large roasted yam that I'd cooked the month before which I felt didn't have the proper flavor for pie but could be a player in the soup. At the same time, I was experimenting with Pennsey's vegetable soup base for the broth and when it was all still lacking in flavor, a large glug of sherry went into the mix. On the side, I sauteed some apple slices in butter till they were brown and soft and the finished soup was presented topped with the apple slices and a splash of minced parsely.

The little waxy potatoes were roasted with some small purple potatoes and onions in olive oil yesterday and went nicely with a pork tenderloin and another experiment, Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage with Cranberries. Such was dinner last night that ended with a simple pumpkin spice cake.

Sorry there are no pictures, but I was cooking for production and not so much for pleasure. Perhaps I will get a picture of the kale chips that I'm dehydrating right now in my fancy new commerical dehydrator (a most excellent early Xmas present from my SO).

As I sit here this morning, in the next couple of days, life will change. I am picking up the fresh turkey tomorrow or Tuesday and my first batch of fresh dates from The Date People is set to arrive on Tuesday. And, somewhere in the mix, I suspect my mini-donut pan will arrive (talk about an impulse buy).

Philosophically this week, I've been thinking a lot about kindness and what it means to be kind. For starters, I have to be kind to myself. I thought about that a lot this morning before I started writing this post. I thought about being kind to my body by not treating it like a trash can that should just accept whatever garbage I feel like throwing into it. Now that I'm not in my 20's or 30's, I find that my body is more like a fussy machine that requires careful maintenance like a high end automobile.

Now, all this food writing has made my stomach growl. After all that, I think I will go make a protein shake.

Thanksgiving Calisthenics

OK, time to get warmed up and ready for the giving of thanks!

Today's pre-Thanksgiving exercise is "Who could you thank that perhaps you haven't before?" (stolen from Cafe Gratitude).

My answer: I have thanked this person before, but not in a long time, so the thank you is long overdue. It is my friend, Mary Ann. She is always in my corner and has gone above and beyond for me more times than I can count or maybe even care to admit. There is nothing that I cannot tell her and I'd trust her with anything.

I am so grateful to have her in my life AND she has had an enormous influence on me in the kitchen. In fact, when she taught cooking, I apprenticed with her which was fun, tiring and always resulted in me deep-frying little pieces of things like fried bananas.

Now, a confession: it took a long time for me to see the importance of gratitude. It is not something that came naturally to me. Maybe that's typical when you are younger anyway -- you tend to take things for granted. At times in my life when I have struggled, sometimes I would get the advice to "count your blessings" but I still didn't understand what that did for you. Then, a few years ago, I happened to be at a seminar and a speaker that I had never heard of before revealed the secret about gratitude: when you are focusing on gratitude, you are in the present moment and when you are in the present moment and the point of power is always in the present moment. So, there you go.

Now, who could you thank that perhaps you haven't before?

Shopping for a Thanksgiving Turkey

We are deep-frying a turkey this year. This will be a new experience for me and I'm looking forward to it. I should also add that the whole Thanksgiving event is very special this year because I will be with my SO and his son and daughter for the first time.

Of course, I want to add some little special touches to the day and when I got an email from my CSA, One Straw Farm, informing the members of the opportunity for a fresh, hormone and antibiotic free grass fed turkey, I jumped at the chance. So, instead of going to the supermarket and buying a commercially grown and processed bird, I called the farm to discuss my turkey.

I ended up having an interesting and rather lengthy conversation with Karen Albright of Albright Farms and 30 minutes later, I put down the deposit over the phone and finalized my turkey commitment.

Karen impressed me in her description of the commitment she and her husband have regarding every aspect of the animal's life. At some point in the conversation she said that they do everything the hard way -- the hard way being the best way for the animal and the consumer. It may not make them rich, but they are operating with the highest integrity.

The turkey will cost me more. It's almost three times the price of what I could pay at the supermarket. But, Thanksgiving is special and what Albright Farms is doing is special. In keeping with the spirit of this blog, by going this route, I'm demonstrating my appreciation for my circumstances and for what the Albrights are doing at the same time.

Why "The Broken Dishes"?

Legend has it that the great zen monk (Achaan Chan) would hold up a tea cup and say, "To me this cup is already broken" as a reflection upon impermanence. The implication is that we are to learn how to embrace and accept that things will be broken or lost, so that we can appreciate the preciousness of what comes to us and goes from us. We'd know that whatever comes to us is always a precious and temporary gift.

It seems to me, then, the next step is to cherish our precious and temporary gifts whether they are people, places or things. Here is where the point of view of this blog begins about my own culinary passion. I seek out and treasure things done with integrity and respect whether it be for how food stuffs are produced, exploring new or old ways of doing things, or paying homage to others with a similar point of view. These, then, are my "broken dishes".