Rice, savory and sweet

I grew up with white potatoes, not rice. It's taken many tries to appreciate this grain. Now my rice recipes are scattered, and I'm still not at ease enough to know which one I want. Often I settle for brown rice boiled in the bag. When I'm more energetic I cook the one I find first. So here they are, all in one place. (Yes, there's a dessert here too!)

Coconut Brown Rice

from Saveur

This is simple and delicious, especially with Indian or Thai dishes. To make it simpler, just use coconut milk for all or part of the liquid andcook brown or white rice the way it says on the box. Add a piece of peeled ginger if you have it.

1. Using the back of a large knife, pound the ginger until it becomes bruised and somewhat stringy and releases some of is juice. This will take a few good whacks.

1  1" piece peeled fresh ginger
1 cup brown jasmine rice
3⁄4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt
Cilantro sprigs for garnish

2. Rinse the rice in a strainer under cold running water for 30 seconds. Transfer the rice to a 1 1⁄2-quart saucepan and add the coconut milk, 3⁄4 cup cold water, and the salt.

3. Add the ginger to the pan and stir well to combine with the rice, making sure that the ginger is as fully submerged in the rice as possible. Place the pan over high heat and bring the liquid to a boil while stirring with a large spoon to prevent the rice at the bottom of the pan from scorching or burning. (Don't worry if the liquid thickens considerably as it comes to a boil; that's a result of the combining of the fats in the coconut milk with the starch in the rice.)

4. Allow the rice to boil for 15 seconds, while continuing to stir. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until the liquid is completely absorbed and rice is tender, about 45 minutes. Remove the pot from heat; allow the rice to continue to steam, covered, for 10 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork and garnish with sprigs of cilantro.

SERVES 2

Judy's Spanish Rice

Judy married Lou, from a Spanish family. I remember they had Christmas lights strung in the back yard for their wedding celebration. Eventually they divorced, but the recipe survived.

Sauté a couple of tablespoons olive oil and five cloves of garlic, chopped.

Toss in 1 green pepper and 1 red pepper, chopped. Cook a couple of minutes.

Add 1 pound shrimp or cut-up snapper or chicken and 1 1/2 C. rice.

Add about 3 cups water or water/white wine/chicken broth mixed, a pinch of crushed saffron, and salt to taste (I use 1 1/2 t.). Put the lid on and simmer about 15 minutes, until rice is cooked. Check to make sure the chicken is cooked through. It will be if your pieces are bite-sized.

This is so good.

Mamma Pappas' Rice Pudding (Rizogalo)

This is from the Columbus Dispatch recipe exchange from a long time ago.

1 quart milk

1/2 C. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 T cornstarch

1 egg yolk, beaten

1 T. butter

cinnamon

Cook rice in 1 C. boiling water 10 minutes or until water is absorbed. Add milk. Return to a boil, cooking gently over reduced heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add sugar and vanilla.

Dissolve cornstarch in 1 tsp. water (I use more). Add to rice mixture. Cook 10 minutes; remove from heat.

Add 1 C. of hot rice mixture to egg yolk & stir. Pour that back into the pan and stir it all. Add butter. Cook until mixture coats a wooden spoon. Sometimes I add finely grated lemon peel at this point. Before serving, sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bright Yellow Cashew Rice

*Not everyone loves turmeric

Sauté in butter 2 medium onions, chopped. Stir in 1 C. uncooked brown rice andfry a few more minutes. Sprinkle in 1 t. ground turmeric* and stir so it doesn't burn.

Add 2 C. water 7 and1 t. salt.

Bring slowly to a boil, then simmer about 35 minutes, or until rice is done.

Toss in 1/2 C. chopped cashews and 4 or 5 chopped scallions just before serving.

Garnish with orange slices.

Baked Chicken and Rice

from Cooking for Engineers

I discovered this in the cooking for the sick ministry at Good Shepherd. I made dinner for a family of four. The father was finishing up cancer treatment. I asked what was his favorite dish, and they said chicken and rice. My mom used to make a casserole with leftover chicken; hers had cream of chicken soup, and I think she used noodles instead of rice. You can add any vegetable; I like broccoli or spinach. (This might be how I discovered Cooking for Engineers. He has other great basic recipes, and I love his charts.) Here's the chart; the link explains it fully.

Oven Baked Chicken and Rice (serves 6)

Preheat oven to 375&176;F (190°C)
1 cup (195 g) rice	cook	cook	stir in	stir in	combine	place	sprinkle	bake 375°F (190°C) 1 hour
1 Tbs. (14 g) butter
1 medium onion	dice
1 clove garlic	mince
1 medium zucchini	cut
10-3/4 oz. (305 g) can cream of mushroom	whisk
2-1/2 cup (590 mL) water
4 lb. (1.8 kg) chicken parts
1 teaspoon (2.8 g) garlic powder

Weekend report and rice pudding

Written over the weekend:

Saturday:

Dear Friends,

Today was full of phone calls and grocery shopping and cooking. I’m tweaking the beef burgundy recipe. Friends (Mary Kaye, who I met in the art quilt group, and her husband Leigh) are coming to dinner, but first we’re seeing a movie at the Tower Theater — a Sacramento landmark.

Yesterday I looked Clark’s photo straight in the eye, which I haven’t done since he died. He looked back at me and smiled. I think he motivated me to do this dinner thing. We used to have friends to dinner often. I even tried on a dress! (Not that I’ll be wearing it.)

I hope you are also having fun.

Oh, and I left Zing by himself for 5 minutes, with just one tiny bark. 

Love,

k

Sunday:

Dear Friends,

Today was busy, in a relaxed way. Zing was at Grateful Dog while I went with friends to a movie (The Red Turtle — animation with absolutely no words, just music and nature sounds. Different for these days that are so full of words.) and then we talked, had dinner and talked more. I “improved” the Beef Bourguignon with less wine, a different brand of bacon, and shredding the beef at the end. But the star was rice pudding perfect comfort food. The whole thing was delightful. As Mary Kaye said, it’s kind of rejuvenating to make new friends at this stage of life.

Just now as Zing and I walked, we turned the corner at 7th and N and heard a crash directly behind us. I turned and saw a red car swirling in the intersection. Then it stopped and a man got out yelling and waving his arms. A man got out of the other car. I think one of them ran the red light. No one seemed hurt. The police arrived almost immediately. 

And the streets were empty. Just those two cars.

Love!

k

Rice pudding

from the Columbus Dispatch ages ago

(from Louis Pappas' Famous Greek Recipes)

1/2 C. uncooked rice

1 quart milk 

1/2 C. sugar**

1 tsp. vanilla

1 T. cornstarch

1 egg yolk, beaten

1 T. butter

grated rind of one lemon (This is my addition -- not in the original recipe -- and you could also add

orange rind.)

cinnamon

Cook rice in 1 C. boiling water 10 minutes or until water is absorbed. (Don't cook too fast, as I did recently. Then the rice grains are a little too hard all the way through.) Add milk.* Return to boil, cooking gently over reduced heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add sugar** and vanilla and lemon rind. Dissolve cornstarch in 1 tsp. (or more, if needed) water and add to rice mixture. Cook 10 minutes, stirring often; remove from heat. 

Add 1 C. of hot rice mixture to egg yolk, then return to pan. Add butter (I skipped the butter.)  Cook, stirring often, until mixture coats a wooden spoon. Pour into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and cool. Then refrigerate. Before serving, sprinkle with cinnamon.

* I was short 1/2 cup of milk, so I added 1/4 C. heavy cream and 1/4 C. water. I think this made it extra creamy this time.

** I usually taste it and add a little more sugar at the end. 

Red beans & rice -- then strawberry tart

Strawberry tart cooling

The red beans and rice we had last night for Mardi Gras were delicious -- but dessert makes a prettier picture. A long time ago I wrote "Good" in the cookbook margin above the red beans recipe. That's an  understatement. You can find it on page 3 of The New Orleans Cookbook, which you can buy today in paperback. Here's my version. I used frozen chopped peppers and onions (thawed, with the excess water squeezed out of them), and left out the pickled pork/bacon that's in the original recipe,  which would only make it better.

Red beans and rice

Soak a package of red beans overnight. Drain and rinse them and put in a big pot. Add:
1 large ham bone (Honey Baked sells ham bones. I bought ours at Connie's Hams.)
2 C. chopped onions
1/2 C. thinly sliced green onions
1/2 C. chopped green pepper
1 1/3 T. minced garlic
2 T. chopped fresh parsley
1 lb. baked ham cut in one-inch cubes (You can buy cubes in the grocery.)
1 T. salt
1/2 t. pepper
a shake of cayenne (to taste -- I added this at the very end)
2 crushed bay leaves
1/2 t. dried thyme
a squirt of basil from a tube

Add cold water just to cover. You can leave a bit of the bone above the water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until beans are very tender. Stir well every half hour and add a little more water if it's getting too thick. Don't let the bottom burn. I had the lid on at first, then took it off to cook it down. When it's done, take out the ham bone and beat the beans a little with the immersion blender (This is what I do -- the original recipe keeps all beans whole). Serve it over rice. I used brown rice, the boil-in-the-bag kind. The original recipe calls for white rice. This is a great soup too, without rice.

For dessert I made strawberry tart, using my raspberry tart recipe and a pie crust I'd had in the freezer from Thanksgiving. To save time I just tossed the berries willy-nilly, rather than arranging them. It took about 30 minutes to bake it so the center was not runny.

Judy's Spanish rice

I only had red peppers, so this photo is brilliantly monochromatic.
See the saffron in the little mortar: I pounded it with 1 tsp. salt and then added a little white wine to intensify  flavor.
Tonight I'm using 13 ounces of grouper and shrimp, combined, and 1 cup rice and 2 cups liquid.

Judy's Spanish Rice

Dear Mary,
Here's the rice recipe we were talking about last week. I updated it slightly since I first blogged about it.

(Our cousin Judy married Lou, who was Spanish. She got this recipe from his family. It is a quick paella.) This is the way Judy told it to me -- with a few digressions:

1. Sauté five  (yes!) cloves of garlic, chopped, in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. When it's light brown, toss in 1 green pepper and 1 red pepper, chopped. Salt lightly. Cook a couple of minutes. The peppers will soften during the rest of the cooking. (I prefer the flavor of 2 red peppers.)
2. Add 1 pound shrimp or cut-up snapper or uncooked chicken and 1 1/2 C. rice. Stir so that everything is covered with garlic oil. 
3. Add about 3 cups water or water/white wine/chicken broth mixed, a pinch of crushed saffron, prepared as indicated under the photo, and salt to taste. (I use 1 1/2 t. for three cups liquid, and wine:broth about 1:4. ) If you want it to be soupy, use more liquid. Put the lid on and simmer about 15 minutes, until rice is cooked. Check to make sure the chicken is cooked through. It will be if your pieces are bite-sized. 
4. I recently read that you should let rice sit with the lid on for 10-15 minutes after it is cooked ... gets fully fluffed that way, or something ... 

This is so good. And I lucked into a delicious accompaniment: Cook and drain some frozen or fresh spinach. (In the refrigerator I had some leftover chopped spinach already cooked.) Lightly brown one clove garlic in a little butter, add the spinach and cook over medium heat just so it warms.  Stir in a little heavy cream and fresh-grated Parmesan. 

Rice grows here too

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Today was warm and gorgeous, drawing people to sidewalk restaurants and coffee shops all over midtown. I couldn’t resist, so Zing and I went out too, but we drove to a place that was sure to be quiet. I’ve been meaning to check out the West Sacramento rice docks, and I figured no one would be there on the weekend. Not long ago I took a wrong turn and saw them — big white silo-things that said RICE. But I had to watch the road and was driving too fast to appreciate them. A lot of rice is grown around Sacramento. The fine print on my Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice  says it comes from the Sacramento Valley.

Today the industrial area along the Sacramento River was indeed quiet -- big rigs parked along the road, gates to warehouses locked up, no traffic, silence everywhere. We couldn’t get past the gate to the rice docks, but we did see the white silos and the river beyond. In a strange way it was fun.

Then we drove up and down a few streets, stopping at a dead end where a few cars were parked by the fence; there was a grassy strip and then a short, steep hill. You could only see the sky over it. It was a levee. Zing and I went up, and, yes, it was a canal where people sat fishing in small groups or alone, and farther on a placid green and blue marsh.

Love, 

k

Baked Onions & Rice

In the hot, slow weeks I've been changing, just like that Beautyberry bush I see. It's added purple clusters -- I've changed the way we eat. More fruits & vegetables. Clark hasn't complained. In fact, he's pulled in his belt a couple of notches. Here's a delicious combo we had the other night: Baked Onions & Rice, served with lentils cooked with that (expensive, delicious) Sukhi's spice packet. Easy. But the oven did heat up the kitchen. I should have made cookies too, but is that a vegetable?

Baked Onions & Rice

1 1/2 lb. onions, sliced 1/4 inch thick

1 1/2 C. chicken stock, heated

3/4 C. long-grain rice

3 T. butter (optional)

1 tsp. salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 375°.

Place sliced onions in a saucepan & cover with stock. Simmer, covered, 7 minutes. Add the rice. Pour into a casserole with lid. Bake, covered, until rice is soft, 25-35 minutes. Add salt & butter, if desired.

*I think I cut this from one of Lee Bailey's beautiful big cookbooks -- City Food, I think. It has some pages torn out.

Mortar and pestle

This is my birthday present to myself: a hulking mortar and pestle. I'm not sure why, but I need it. I love fresh-ground spices, and my little white china set seems puny. I don't like the clinking sound it makes. Yesterday I cooked Thai chicken and yellow rice, planning to use this for the coriander seed and cumin, but discovered it takes time to get it ready. You have to season it by scrubbing with wet white rice, grinding the rice to a pulp and then rinsing it away many times until the rice water finally runs clean. The inside of the mortar isn't dirty, exactly, just dusty. After the rice step is over, you do the same thing with salt. This could take a long time, so I decided to scrub it one step each day. It's worth the trouble.

 Here's lots more information on this primitive kitchen tool.

Diana Kennedy, in her book Mexican Regional Cooking, says, "No self-respecting cook in this hemisphere should be without this classic piece of kitchen equipment."(p. 254). I agree.

Lentils

Lentils are essential ... basic, beautiful & flexible. I lose my recipes, can't remember which one is where. So here are five lentil dishes where I can find them. (Be sure to sort your lentils. I have found tiny stones.)

We had this last night:

Lentils with smoked paprika

Heat 1 T. extra-virgin olive oil in a skillet.

Add:

1 onion, chopped fine

1 medium carrot, chopped fine

2 crushed garlic cloves

Cook until tender, 5-8 minutes. Stir to keep from burning.

Add:

1 C lentils

2 t. smoked paprika

Salt & pepper to taste (I use a little less than a teaspoon of salt.)

Mix, then add:

2 1/2 C. water

Boil, then cover & simmer until tender, about 25 minutes. Don't cook too long or the lentils lose shape.

That's it. Serve with chopped chives. I sautéed two sliced Italian sausages & mixed that in at the last minute. We had sherry vinegar, olive oil & goat cheese on the table too.

Curried lentil soup

Fry in olive oil until soft:

4 to 6 onions, chopped

2 to 4 green peppers, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

Add:

1 t. turmeric

1 t. cumin

1 t. coriander

1 t. chili powder

1/4 t. cloves

1 t. fresh ginger, grated, or 1/2 t. dry ginger

1 t. salt, or to taste

Cook, stirring, for a minute or two.

Mix in 2 to 3 cups cooked lentils and a quart of canned tomatoes. Cook at least a half-hour, until the flavors blend the way you like it.

Serve with lemon juice and chopped cilantro. (Clark loathes cilantro, so we serve it way to the side.)

Megadarra

I got this from p. 275 of A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden. Mine is deliciously tattered.

Cook lentils until tender.

Fry finely chopped onions in oil until soft & golden.

Add to lentils & season with salt & pepper.

Add 1 C. rice & 2 C. water (or less if there is lentil liquid.) Season again and simmer about 20 minutes, until rice is soft. Fry more onions -- sliced into half moons this time -- until they are dark brown, almost caramelized. Serve the rice and lentils on a large shallow dish, garnished with fried onions. Serve hot or cold, with yogurt.

Goat Cheese & Lentil Salad (from The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook)

2 C. French lentils (Clark & I went to France, where we bought the tiny green ones in LePuy, the mountain town famous for lentils -- and I don't see much difference, if any. I use plain brown lentils. 

1 t. salt

10-12 sprigs Italian parsley

6 to 8 cloves garlic

12 to 15 sprigs basil

1 carrot

1 red onion

1 celery rib

1 to 1 1/2 C. virgin olive oil

8 ounces goat cheese

1/2 C. snipped chives

1/3 to 1/2 C. strong red wine vinegar

ground black pepper

salt

Pick over lentils, rinse, and barely cover with water in a saucepan. Add 1 t. salt. Make bouquet garni by ting 6 to 8 sprgs parsley, some of the basil, & 3 or 4 cloves of unpeeled garlic, slightly crushed, in cheesecloth. Add to lentils and bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Simmer 10 minutes.

Dice the carrot, celery, and onion. Add to lentils. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes, until lentils are barely done. If necessary add hot water, 1/4 C. at a time, to keep lentils from sticking.

Discard bouquet garni. Toss lentils with 1/3 C. olive oil.

Crumble cheese into a bowl & add the remaining parsley, minced, & garlic cloves, peeled. Add lentils. Add 1/2 C. olive oil, 1/3 C. vinegar, & pepper. Toss & add salt to taste. Refrigerate at least two hours (I often don't). Just before serving add more vinegar, oil, salt, &/or pepper, if you like. Serve with tomatoes & garnish with basil. (I usually stir in lots of toasted walnut halves.)

Lentil soup with or without ham

Pick over  1 bag lentils (about 3 cups) and rinse. Put them in a big pot with a good ham bone and one large onion, studded with six whole cloves. Chop another onion and sauté it with a couple cloves of garlic. Add to lentils. Add a large can chicken broth, and about 4 cups of water, 2 carrots and whatever else seems right -- celery, peeled & chopped potatoes, bay leaf. Bring to boil, then simmer. Taste. Salt if necessary. Cook on the back burner until you like it, between a half-hour and four hours. At the end you can add chorizo and/or greens, like chard, escarole, or spinach. You can also purée some of it (I love my immersion blender for this). It is also fine without the ham bone.

Delicious days: week 2

Delicious and simple

Saturday

Chicken

I've made this before and should make it often. It's easy, delicious.

Buy chicken breasts with bread crumbs and Parmesan already on them. Brown in olive oil. Pour some good Italian sauce from the store over them. Cook over low-medium heat until the pink center is gone. 10-15 minutes. Serve with noodles and spinach sauteéd with garlic and olive oil.

Sunday

I forget!

Monday

Salmon

I made salmon from week #1. It's great -- want to be able to make it by heart. It's fine. I had it with stir-fried rice: olive oil, one red pepper (from Costco today), two green onions, chopped. First sauté pepper until soft. Then add green onions. Then rice and a cube of NYTimes special green sauce. My favorite stir-fry so far. Could eat it once a week.

Tuesday

Chicken and polenta

Leftovers 

I cut the leftover chicken breast from Saturday into bite-sized pieces and mixed this with leftover polenta. Topped it with Parmesan and, since I had some cream in the refrigerator, poured some cream over. Cover with foil and warm in 350 oven.  With frozen spinach.

Hawai'ian Quilts

Best part of my Hawai'ian quilt pilgrimage was the surprise of talking to people who share my passion. It zapped right through formalities. There were two small quilt shops, one in Volcano, HI, and the other in Waimea, where I saw a few fine Hawai'ian quilts. The upper photo shows one. I know! it's blurry. One woman said she can't get her teenage daughter interested, because quilting is so painstaking & kids want immediacy. Another told me that grandmas today are out working or watching the grandkids while their moms & dads work; they don't have time to quilt. So, she said, families are keeping the old quilts for themselves as they become rare. You can still get cruder versions in the open-air tourist markets, & these are on the beds of many guest houses. Here's the site that led me to Big Island quilt shops.

My favorite was Dragon Mama in Hilo, HI. Japanese fabric (costly). Rice paper screens and rice pillows made to order. I bought kimono scraps of indigo-dyed cotton and brilliant rayons/ silks, which you can see in the bottom photo.

Delicious days: week 1

Delicious and simple

Sunday

Pasta

Quick polenta. Don't forget salt. Stir in smoked mozzarella at the end.
Roasted tomatoes -- little red tomatoes and chopped garlic, olive oil, salt. 425° until crinkled. Add chopped fresh basil.

Also made pesto. Chopped basil leaves tiny. Chopped garlic cloves. Mixed together with olive oil and salt. Next time might try mortar and pestle... 

I froze this in ice cube tray.

Monday

Chicken

chicken curry 

I planned to marinate chicken in tandoori spices, but decided to go with the simpler chicken curry recipe from NYTimes cooking app. I used a bit more curry powder than called for, also didn’t use tomatoes but added frozen chopped spinach instead. It’s good and worth jazzing up a bit, but next time I’ll: 

*marinate the chicken pieces in tandoori spices mixed with a cup of yogurt

*Sauté some garlic with the onions. 

* cook the chicken BEFORE adding  coconut milk

*add some other vegetables

*top with herbs, as suggested. 

Good with brown rice 

Tuesday 

kale

Surprise! this was delicious. But I like kale. I almost thought it would be my entire dinner, but then I fried a little sliced chicken sausage and leftover polenta in my iron skillet. That was enough.

Kale
Heat up 1/4 C. olive oil in hot skillet. Add 3 cloves garlic. Cook one minute or until light brown. Add kale, ribs removed and coarsely chopped, and chicken broth. Cook. Stir in red wine vinegar. Salt to taste. Cook a little more, until not crisp.

Wednesday

Sopa de calabaza*

The hard part is peeling a pumpkin. But it's worth the trouble.  Soup alone wasn't quite enough, so I finished with chocolate and roasted almonds. I mean I ate them later, but writing this now makes me think almonds might be good with the soup. Chocolate too!

Place in soup pot:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds pie pumpkin, peeled and chopped
chopped up celery, carrot, and onion( I use the kind you buy pre-chopped at Trader Joe's)
A box or can of chopped tomatoes, either large or small -- depends on how tomato-y you want the soup
garlic, parsley, bay leaf,
chicken broth and water,  to make 5 cups
3 ounces white wine
1 T. honey
1 T. cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste

Cook until pumpkin is soft.
Mash or blend with immersion blender.
Add 1 cup heavy cream.

*based on a recipe from Goya products

Thursday

Eat out

Friday

Eat out

Saturday

Salmon

Thaw frozen salmon. (I used Sockeye.)
Rub with olive oil, seasoned salt, and pepper if you want. Put on parchment paper. Bake at 450° about 12 minutes per inch of thickness,
Recipe says make a sauce: Mix 3 T. olive oil with herbs to equal 1 T., and 1 T. lemon juice and some lemon zest. pour sauce n top of fish and tent it with foil and let it rest 5 minutes.
Also made brown rice (Trader Joe's frozen)
and salad of mixed greens with olive oil, vinegar and mustard.

Weekend magic

Written last night:
Even when a person (me) does not have a M-F work-week anymore, Saturday can be delightfully off-track: Zing and I cherish the illusion that we have the streets mostly to ourselves then, along with a few others without schedules. Instead of hustling office-workers, we greet sunrise-loving joggers and bike-riders, dogs and their dog-walkers. This morning, though, was different: we ran into lots of workers — heads-down,  intent on beating schedules: Before 8 a.m. men in orange vests were running (literally) around the new Arena, which has a grand opening Oct. 1, and nearby on Capitol Mall scores of young people hustled to set up booths before the Farm to Fork festival opened later today. Zing and I swooped past this frenzy and headed to the Capitol, with its wide green park. There we edged past kids and parents and pets and people in scary-crazy costumes, all waiting for the start of a parade. I saw posters about infertility and hope, promoting infertility as a legitimate disease with possibilities for a cure that included acupuncture. More toward afternoon, walking home after a brunch with Patrick and Steph, I came upon the start of another parade. “What do we want?” the leader shouted to her straggling stalwarts.  “Justice for elephants!” they shouted back, and began to march.  

That brunch at the Porch (I had a shrimp po-boy and coffee in a big white cup) was golden. Clark, thank you! for leaving me with such treasures! P & S were going to the hills right after we ate, and I find myself even now reaching out to re-live this morning. Not to be dramatic — it’s just that death makes everyday moments like this matter. 

When I heard of the "Farm to Fork" festival to be held today around the corner from where I live, I couldn’t wait. Yesterday I scoped the blocks where it was being set up and took a photo of a lone old truck signifying the history of farming in this area. But when I finally strolled over this afternoon -- maybe I was tired out — I was disappointed. I guess I expected a giant farmers market and what I found was mostly promotional booths for everything from honey to rice to goat meat. I saw a monk in yellow robes and people with rainbow hair and many families with babies and dogs loving the food truck fare. Nothing tempted me, so I went home and made a grilled cheese sandwich with a slice of farmers market tomato. 

There’s more — the tedious stuff even invades the weekend — collecting papers for auto registration and reassuring myself that yes, maybe I will be able to pass the driving test, that I should just study the online materials and take the leap. "Bound to fail” is hardly the attitude I’d recommend to anyone else, but it’s hard to chase that irrational fear from my own heart. 

A lovely talk with Susan interjected my afternoon, and evening closed discussing free-motion quilting on the phone with Janis, just as if we were face to face with a piece of art between us. That’s weekend magic.
Love,
k

Above and below,
preparing for Farm to Fork

Farm to Fork display

Before the Infertility March for Hope
Capitol Park

Justice for Elephants and Rhinos march

Promoting honey,
Farm to Fork Festival

Black Beans and Flan

Retrieving what I loved but abandoned: Poetry for its own sake. Ballet. Luckily, there's a beginners' class nearby, with Juliana -- such an ennobling teacher. (I wanted to take ballet when I was 10, but my parents said they couldn't afford lessons for all 5 of us, so none could have them. Made sense then.) I also loved to read, & loved color. And meditating -- call it resting!! I've been sitting peacefully for 10-20 minutes a day in the New Year. Oddly, it makes me more jumpy than before. I'm guessing it's a phase.

Also: casual hospitality. Last night, with 4 friends. They brought salad & fruit. Clark smoked meat & I made black beans. Here's the recipe, but first you must promise to sort the beans. I love the sound of them plinking into a white plate, then sliding into a pot to be rinsed. Yesterday I caught two bean-sized stones.

Black Beans

2 C. dry black beans

2 tsp. salt

olive oil

4 medium onions, finely chopped (or 2 bags of frozen, chopped onions.)

1 green pepper, chopped (or 1 bag of frozen, chopped green pepper. You can also mix red & green pepper.)

3 cloves garlic, mashed

1 tsp. cumin seed, crushed (Ground cumin, is OK, but for sharper flavor grind whole seeds with mortar & pestle. Last night I used ground.)

1 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

juice of 1/2 lemon

Pick over, rinse, soak & cook the black beans in water with 2 tsp. salt.

Sauté the onion & pepper in olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic & cook a minute more. Add cumin, oregano, & mustard, & cook another minute or 2, stirring so the spices don't burn. Salt it a little. Add the tomatoes & simmer for a while, stirring occasionally & adding water if it's getting dry. Yesterday I cooked it about an hour, but you can cook it much less. Just simmer until you like it or until the time runs out. Then add the stewed black beans with a little of their cooking liquid & salt. If you add more liquid you have black bean soup. Cook until you like the way it tastes -- sometimes just 5 minutes; yesterday was about an hour. You can go slow or fast. After you add the beans, mash some of them so you have a thick soup. You can use a potato masher, but I recommend an immersion blender. Before serving, add lemon juice to taste. Serve with rice & chopped onions. Some people also like sour cream &/or chopped cilantro.

I was going to make a chocolate dessert, but something stopped me. Made flan instead. This recipe is from Margarita Zayas, who was our neighbor in Miami.

Margarita's Flan

Make a caramel by melting 1/2 C. sugar with 2 1/2 T. water in a small pan over medium heat. Be patient! Wait until it's brown, but not burnt. Pour that into a bread pan,* tilting it to cover the entire bottom. Then mix 1 can evaporated milk, 3 C. whole milk, 3/4 C. sugar, dash salt, 4 beaten eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour that over the carmel. Put the pan into a larger pan with water in it that goes halfway up the bread pan. Bake at 350° an hour or more, until the custard is set. Chill thoroughly, then turn the pan upside down on a platter so the custard is surrounded by carmel.

*I used glass custard cups instead, & did not turn them upside down for serving. It's comforting to have your own cup of custard, I think.

Little gestures and a big celebration

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Such an encouraging day! I connected with family and friends from here — and also there — helping,  laughing, nudging me on … Thank you! Your “little" gestures keep me going and make me want to pass them on.  

The day ended with dinner celebrating my friend Mary Kaye’s birthday at Mulvaney’s restaurant on 19th Street. We five had a private room, which generally means a nondescript spot on the edge of the fun. At Mulvaney's it was more of an adventure. We were led through the dining room, to a place where they were maybe slicing meat or some other food prep chore, then around a corner to a cozy room with golden light, walled with wine bottles floor to ceiling. Little candles flickered on the shelves. The special, intimate space encouraged conversation, and we covered everything from water protection to wind-up clocks and rattlesnakes. Dinner was charcuterie, cheeses from near the coast, salmon, cod, rice, and the best green salad I’ve tasted, with leaves so dangly and bitter. Napa wines. Green tea cheesecake. Chocolate whisky cake. Panna cotta. What a lovely celebration. 

Love,
k

Not too boring after all

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Two things happened today.

1. The HOA meeting. Booooooring, right? But tonight I decided to ask questions about the boring stuff, and other people spoke their minds too, and it was about as fun as a meeting can get. Then: 

2. Two friends who live here, came for dinner after the meeting. (Don’t tell them, but it was leftover chili from Saturday.) We rehashed the meeting over the chili, topped with avocado, onions (soak chopped onions for an hour in ice water to reduce their odor), grated cheese, and chopped cilantro. Rice pudding with cinnamon and lemon zest for dessert.

Then Zing and I went for a walk and on the sidewalk we met someone from the building and again we rehashed the meeting. It reminds me of city politics, but extremely local. I had fun.

Here’s the dinner table after my friends left. Pellegrino water, wine, white napkins, and Zing!

Love,

k