Early Risers

There is a world awake
And a world at rest - before me is one and behind me the  rest
Respectively

Its not for scorn but may once have been
Nor is it in fear, however clear its head rear
I profess though, I'm still unclear.


I question wisdom and those said wise
resting early and early to rise
for I am a fool and live in such time

But the world exposed I know eventually
will compose

The Things to discover beneath morning's cover

Anyhow, a food filled weekend of mixed flavors and occasional bad taste (par for the course, however many there are); mouth filled with laughter; lingering memories on long ago...

A weekend to cook and think. Here, some of the better thoughts:

Soba Noodles, tossed with Greens

 Warmed with Stir fried Tofu and Shrimp.

 Dressed with :Lime Juice, Fish sauce, Scallions slivered and cilantro chopped. Sesame oil - hot - and the  occasional beet sliced slim.

Umami, named thus

Warm and Savory Soba Salad

Bread, not such success, but all is not just and war and love. Foods' fight with this heart rages on and my love persists. The next loaf will be high-risen

Maybe my mind and heart one week closer to a better world - more light.

Holding it Down

Careful not to let the layers slip.
Fried egg, I command thee to be:
Delicious and perched upon Veggie Patty.
Slid between Muffins: More from Thomas
Sweet with banana, mustard with cranberry.

I can be red-meat-free and have my egg too! I dare you, deny it, and miss out on a simply perfect thing.

Some days - a today like a yesterday - I just want to eat well without planning, preparing, much cleaning, or really caring.
A veggie burger, it fills that need but not a simple one, plain, or catchup-and-mustard slain.
Onions? No, try seared scallions cooked in, browned slow.

It's odd, really, a cloudy day really can be made better by a sunny yolk, simple flavors, and dinner taken slow.

The Sunny Side of Veggie-Burger

Sliced Raddish and Scallions, sauteed with EVOO. Amy's Veggie pattie, seared warm and crisp.
An English Muffin Toasted, spread with moutard - sweet.
Egg spread sunny-side among veggies bright.

Layered
Muffin
Patty
Egg
Mustard
Oh, muffin top, right... So hard to eat, the yolk escaping. Knife and fork, light sweet pea slaw soaked yellow.

Do enjoy. Brunch Burgers aren't just for the Angus patty anymore.

Difficulties of Simplicity

Why is simple so severe in a world which spins and spins
I feel some days like a bearing, without a wheel
Watching the spin and senseless to its force
centripetal.

It's been a week without remorse, unrelenting and retreating too slowly for my taste. Instead of something simple, eating is for me a serious task.
To have something comforting but not plain, that may seem daunting. Truly, however, such a dinner can be so easily found in a refrigerator well fed by farm share freshness. I've truly become fond of sauteed greens and eggs, perched atop hearty bread and recently I've begun to rediscover English Muffins as well. Weekend goal: Bake my own. In the time until: Thomas' Banana Bread edition.
You read that right - Banana, Eggs, Greens... So Right!

Simple supper - 6/26

Sweet onions, some garlic, grainy mustard - sweat down. Added: Kohlrabi, Swiss Chard, Slivered Beets (don't crowd!) Fried Eggs set atop, toasted muffin beside. Dining Al Fresco...

I promise (to me) I will thrive (waiting to see).

Quick-made dinner tonght...

Simple greens to sautee.

Chicken Sausage, Homemade bread, runny eggs oozing into a single common thread.
Fresh, farm-local, braised with wine; made wonderful.

Oh these the simple things, they make life's woes and weary days all the more savory...

Radish greens, green peas, sliced turnips, Italian sausage and tomatoes please! Sauteed with garlic, its scrapes, pepper flakes, and a dash of bottled white grapes. Cooking it soft, sopped up with bread, topped with runny eggs; those buttery yolks...

The wonders of summer; things fresh and leftover...

Making Strides

Striding across this earth; flowers or foils in our steps. We strive to leave things better than found, finding faces strange and familiar, fearful and friendly.
It's my own face I wish to find. Food, strangely, is the thing I fight to find that reflection.

Tired and satisfied, I fear all there is today to share is a bit of recipe goodness. A good meal shared with friends to be further spread and grow into something greater. Perhaps it can be bettered or simply shared, around a table with friends akin. I guess it all comes to where we choose to rest our feet.

Summer solstice, you arbitrary date, I will dine al fresco upon my own timing and savor the waning light of warm summer night. And on the menu? Kale Salad, Grilled Pizzettes, Grilled chicken thighs and vegetables - skewered - and sweet roast peaches
Sweetness is something all afford...

Kale Salad

• 2 cups Kale, de-veined and massaged soft
• 1/2 pound snap peas, juliened thin
• a handful tomatoes - cherries - halved

 

• Tossed with minty vinaigrette... A mix of Fresh mint, Honey, Lime juice, and spices; Salt, pepper, mustard seed, and really whatever you like to taste.

Served cold for four, but make extra - you'll want more.

A Little Bavarian Summer

I loved Germany upon my visit there two years ago. Skeptical: forever. Seeing: believing. I tasted a culture and saw its proprietors for what they were - different - not wrong.

Beautiful days dotted by rain drops
Sunshine seeking soils sewn green and grand
Sweet and staffed, a Bavarian people
Fed well, rightly so, by river-fed ranges
Pastures and mountain snows
Sunsets crawling across from high to low
Breakfast to dinner; falling snow.

Some days live in memory and others in infamy alone. With a summer sun, hot and slow, among the first truly  summer days passed...
I think back to simplicity but today without the noodles of seeming eternity I ate, unfailingly, while there.

To the sounds of American Bluegrass I improvise: Bavarian bratwurst, pretzels, speatzel, and cabbage...
Try Chicken Sausage, grilled vegetables, Sourdough, and me.

To cap off a day kept free, Eat simply, read a book, and try to breathe...
So I remind myself, and frequently.

Beet it...On the lamb...

Some delicious Candycane Beets and the week began with a new barbecue grill. On that subject, might I say that Chicken thighs are a beautifully under appreciated cut. You want an inexpensive, moist, dark/light, breast-bone cut or do you even want bones? No bones about it, simple things are sweetly life's pleasures.
Perhaps chicken thighs and colorful beets aren't the way to life's finer moments but their sensations power to draw gatherings are.
This week, finally past and given way to a brighter looking present, was a test. No, I can't keep cool in the kitchen, but it reminded me too of my goal to one day be in a place and state to do just that.

Food, friends, fears, and photography: a true schmorgesborg of days
So to soak in life lost, loves lingering, I look ahead and steal peeks
Prodding steaming parcels of feeling, slightly salty and just enough spice
Flaky made pastry, flour in folds
Once hot and ready but cooled to touch
Determined to again be crispy, crunchy
Yes, I'll be there for lunch!

Ah, the power of a roller coaster ride, maybe what I need to return to speed is a little adrenaline and a spot of good Jam. Ah, the healing power of simple fruit spreads... Something sweet on the crumbs of Banana-Fig bread?













The Secret is in the cornmeal...

A food festival to make the rainy days passed more like those of long summer stays...

Yes, I should note that my local Taste of Amherst food festival is a true treat? Read about it here! I can't recommend the trip out for it enough!

Bakus African Jollof rice and Chicken!

Maybe something from Antonio's Pizza like fresh strawberries, Feta (not together); sound better?

Well I'd urge you try both: money was my only limiting factor in choosing between Blue Fish Cakes and sliders around lobster or Yak dumplings and Ice cream: Bart's Bananas Foster.

So Beat it last week and may the next be sweeter. Like Candycanes can; all I want is some Christmas this July.

Where It All begins

Summer has to start somewhere and it may be, per technicality, that it is still 11 days coming (12 from the inception of this, the season of summer I speak of myself). Anyhow, I can begin my summer whenever I like can't I? Schools out: that's when I used to begin my summer to the cliched song. In five years: Summer, what summer? I don't have long to exercise the freedom to start summer as I see fit, so I'd better get to it and set this life per my own terms.
Summer time, and living - ain't it easy? Not so, dear Sublime, not always so in this northern land of rainy, sunny, uncertainty, and snow. Don't I wish that things could be forever simple and filled with days of long slanting rays like the hours of a hot day. Such is not the case for we working stiffs, though.
But hark, d'ost I hear the song of a sweetly blaring weekend edition from my radio? I do, indeed I do. This is a summer weekend and its the day to lust after, if ever there was one.
This weekend, a rainy-sunny-windy one of life between places, a sort of settling. Settling into new places and falling upon the old comforts to ease their shock factor - however wonderful that feel of jolting might feel.

The sizzle of a hot grill, all orange and real.
Cooking like a king with flavors fit thereto
Friends around - old and at once anew.
These the summer nights, so much easier in this time of year
Even if not unknown in times and place hitherto...

Grilled Chicken thighs, with a simple marinated
Roasted vegetables so simple
Sweet roots roasted and remade
Barbecue: I love you, old friend true.

 Basic marinated by way of Chicken Thing:
Mustard, Spicy and Whole Grain; honey to sweeten the deal; Cumin and Pepper spice things; Cider Vinegar for feel...

 Simply roasted Carrots, Kohlrabi: Pepper and salt, oil, and love.

Sweet Potatoes to tie the flavors: Japanese, Purple, and White.

Good nights under bright lights and setting sunlight.
Alright...

Gifts... Gifts? Gifts!

Simple Gifts that is... Yes a wonderful farm so near to my apartment I can taste it - tasted it in my latest quick bread and recent dinners.

I know it's always what they say: the simple things in life matter most. Picking fruit in a field, the song of rustling leaves, and stains from fresh ruby colored strawberries all over your hands. Perhaps it's a sign that life is simpler than even the simple one I've so long led. Wake, Eat, Run, Sleep. Better perhaps is to Wake, Eat, Live, Sleep. yes, with summer I have no more time than I did during the hectic semester months but so do I hope to appreciate the time more. Wishful thinking? i prefer mind over matter - over manner really.
I would be running, yes, were it not for these wobbly knees and cold rainy breeze pervading New England this week but I can't complain, really.
For once I think I've enjoyed a day just for me, not in spite of the way I've come to be.

Baking, Cooking, Picking, and Exploring my locale: life as it should be. Here are a few tidbits to chew on for now and the next thoughts, between.

Strawberry Quick Bread, Cinnamon and Crunchy:

Corn meal, Whole Wheat, Apple Sauce, Berries
Oats and Lime, Brown Sugar
Baked up fine













And it won't last long..

Supper Saute and...

Seasond simply by garlic, fresh herbs, some pepper
Eggs atop
Garlicky Greens
and Signature Sourdough toast

Simple summer suppers:
Fresh and sweet, not oil-laden-sickly-setting.

So, is it Here?

Summer - could it really be? Even if only in feeling, does this smell in the air like that of a tropical milieu exotic to fall-through-spring New England. It's soil and it's sweet; humid and hankering for long days to come.
So I rise to work, working so hard to do so. I garden and greet the bites of mosquitoes and fruits of my fights with a particularly leggy vine. Bike to the farm to share in its farm shares.

Food tasting good, simple with salt and pepper...

Cook, clean, and feed this insatiable hunger for fresh and green.
Oh, early summer in the valley and things are good - life is free - no, never easy, that just isn't the life for me.

Anyhow, where was I? Yes, the food - always the food. Well, despite a finicky knee and less running than I feel fitting, I must profess summer does make me savor for simmering sauces and deep iced teas. Spicy cravings? Well for that, I'm again experimenting with Kimchi. Lunch after work? Oatmeal and eggs are cheap and easy on the wallet and pallet. Stirfry and rice, steamed and sweet.

Done twice? Add more eggs and a splash of kale...

I refuse to let this season slip through my hands...

Kimchi Redux

• One head of Bok Choi, 2 or 3 spicy Raddish, Scallions diced finely, and a carrot: well one for the jar and one me.
• Fish sauce splashed sparingly, Thai Chili paste: a quarter cup to three. Salt and pepper, Garlic dicedand Ginger sliced.
• All things considered, sliced small and the same; mixed and let to sit.
  
• Sterile jars, filled but not packed, room temperature until spur to taste, then chilled to keep for months, days - hours most likely.

And the Beat Goes On

Wow, I surprise myself. 3 posts already and I'm enthusiastically foreseeing a long life to this blog.
As life begins again: this first day of work, a return to the search for secondary positions, and cooking for the first time in weeks I feel good. An odd concept, no?
I have little more to say than the words these images speak as I am too tired to speak for them. A good tired?
Certainly.

and on the menu...

June 3rd, 2013

A luncheon with oats and eggs, Beet Greens and sweet salsa...

Supper, umami-salty of Chicken, white wine, Radish, and Greens tossed among tiny pinwheels...

Got' some schmutz on there...

What to do, what to say, what to think? Hello world, it feels good to be back! I would like to introduce myself as a normal person living in an abnormal reality - I think that best describes any one person these days if I might say so. I am a student of Biochemistry, for better or for worse, studying to one day make the world a better and less abstract place; lofty goals? Yes, but what career aspirations aren't? I previously wrote a blog on food and cooking - the Pescetarian Times - and it was a good venture into the world of food photography without the aid of Instagram as well as of writing, reading, and what else but cooking and eating. My life has changed since I set down the keyboard on that site and I think the place to pick up the crumbs, as it were, is with a more diverse site.
Here and out the corners of my mouth I will wipe up the uncertainties of my own thoughts, organize them into some pseudo-coherent mixture, and maybe discover what makes the world tick. More likely I expect to simply express myself and the many tastes I have - maybe discover something new and passionate to pursue.
I'll cook, bake, write, and quake in my boots. Photograph the world and its warblers, waters, windy days, and waking hours. Along the way I might just eat a few morsels and wipe up the bit of schmutz left at the corners of my mouth
Take what you may from life and each day.
As little or as much as you like, if you stay.
I know I will find something new and hope you might too
But if not, at least I might know whatever it is I've got
To grow into.

Long Weekends Back from Paradise

What is it about family vacations which simply spells uncertainty? I hesitate to say disaster for a time spent apart from the stresses and surroundings of home sweet home is seldom all-bad. Visiting a world exotic, lush, and green is a breath of fresh air in an era where the gray of the mediocre walls we build is more familiar than the excitement of  living. Nonetheless, I could use a few days to myself; an ardent advocate of solitary time and proud introvert, I cherish my time alone. In the Pacific with family and returning to another set of familial lives has taken a toll on my psyche but not without refreshing my heart and direction.

Enough about me, though. What I wanted to share was a dining experience I cherished in Great Barrington Massachusetts. Craving Mexican I found a solution per the recommendations of new neighbors at the Xicohtencatl Mexican Restaurant on Rt. 7. I sought Greek, considered soy, and landed upon a bounty of fresh Guacamole, rich seafood soup, savory Chicken mole, and a bounty of sweet mango juices, flambe, and traditional cake - Tres leche.

 Could there be anything better than a heaping Molcajete of Avocado, diced tomato, cilantro, and onion? That squeeze of Lime perhaps?

Certainly not this bowl of spicy-rich seafood stew with Mussels, Scallops, King Crab, Shrimp, and Octopus all adorned with more of the green fruit. Well, equal?

I do wish I had recorded the feat which was a simple but elegant plate of Pollo con Mole and spanish rice as it was deep, dark, and just spiced enough. Tender, if not slightly dry, the mole more than made up for any perceivable imperfections in that dish.

More impressive yet and thus most disheartening was the lengthy and inspired desert menu. Mangos flambeed in Tequile, Tres Leches Cake were devoured before the snap of a shutter and flan, cake, custards, and icy treats stand to be tested.

Xicohtencatl Mexican

50 Stockbridge Rd Great Barrington, Ma

I fear a long summer without the niceties of haute cuisine. Perhaps instead I should be savoring a time in which to experience the fruits of experimentation. No matter the case, it's good to be home and good to again be reviewing fine food and life's other fares.
What will become of me?
Not stewing about it...
But maybe something that ages well
A fine Kimchi?