Back in the kitchen again; things are well with my soul. There are no pressing questions that need attending, no decisions that need making. I answer only to the boil, simmer, crackle, melt. From where I prepare vegetables I can see children with kazoos across the yard and I can hear the new neighbors moving furniture upstairs. I wiggle my toes on the linoleum and I can feel a few breadcrumbs leftover from before Christmas. It’s good to be here, good to be home.
January has lived up to it’s reputation. Turbulence. Upheaval. Shifting. Stirring. The boozy eve of the new year has long since passed, but it wasn’t until today that it felt like the glass ball actually stopped dropping. I fell in love (or lust?) with a new city on the first, my intuition took a sabbatical around the third and by the thirteenth (until, well, yesterday) I was scrambling on the floor searching for my good sense. New places, new faces, and new ideas shook me in ways that were at once thrilling and dislocating. A strong under-toe of emotion leeched at my ankles. Panic set in. Suddenly I found myself clinging to things in the temporal world to validate and repair the disequilibrium I felt at my center.
Who are you? What will you do? And, where are you going?
I held on. I pushed away from the ledge. I wrote. I forgot. I remembered. On the plane home I let it rush in. We (humans) can be so hard ourselves when we get off track. We fight those ugly parts of our being so fervently without stopping to look at the mess and think about it before cleaning it up. I’m generally in the “one foot in front of the other” camp of life wisdom, but sometimes it’s okay not to move at all. Just sit. Kneel. Stand in the kitchen with breadcrumbs on the floor. Just be there. Just swim in it for a little. See what comes up.
It may take a day, three, or a whole lunar cycle. It settles. I promise.
Sweet Potato, Curry, and Quinoa (in a bowl)
Serves 2-4 (we’re hungry folk)
- 1 cup fair trade quinoa
- 4 medium sweet potatoes
- 1 large red onion
- 1/4 cup ghee (clarified butter)
- large handful of spinach
- 1 cup vegetable or chicken broth
- 1/4 cup currants
- 1 clove garlic
- fresh ginger
- 1/4 cup curry powder of choice
- 1 tsp sea salt
Scrub potatoes. With skins on, cut into 1″ cubes and lay out on a baking sheet. Toss with a bit of oil and salt. Bake at 475′ for 20 minutes. Combine two cups of water to one cup of quinoa (remember to rinse first!) in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Cook for 12-15 minutes until water is fully absorbed. Remove from heat.
Roughly chop red onion and saute in a large saucepan with the ghee until softened. Add minced garlic and grated ginger to the onions and saute for a bit longer, adding stock if it seems to stick to the pan. Remove from heat. Add sweet potatoes when they are just beginning to brown and crisp on the edges. Add a cup of stock and the curry powder, stirring to coat. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes, adding stock, a bit of ghee, and some salt to develop flavor. Add some well chopped spinach and toss to barely wilt.
Serve over a bed of quinoa with a sprinkling (or more) of currants.
Another full weekend has come and passed. I attended my first Padres game with the most beautiful kids from the IRC’s First Things First program and watched anxiously (and amusingly) at how cotton candy, ice cream, peanuts, and soda take charge in a tiny 40 pound body. But it was their first time experiencing the Padres too, any professional US sporting event for that matter, so it wasn’t really the time for a nutrition lesson. I think (well, I hope) that little binges like those for excited attendees across the stadium are rendered harmless by the joy, laughter, and companionship of those that joined them. Padres won handily, and I think I’m finally starting to enjoy the sport and the pursuit of the season. I’m a homegrown NBA fan (thanks, dad), but I think my previous conceptions of the in-athleticism of MLB are being softened by Shaun’s love of the Rockies and my desire to root for something again. Plus, as frivolous as the stadiums and the jerseys and the salaries of the players are, the games spread good ‘ju-ju’ which always gets a thumbs up in my book.
I’ve been seeing so many Strawberry Shortcake recipes floating across the food-blog world, and I thought I’d throw something a little different into the ring. Strawberries are still a’flowin in SD, so I thought I’d get creative with a crumble and hope for the best. I must say, I was a little apprehensive if this concoction would be as nutritious and sweet as I imagined, but the smell of maple and oats crystallizing in the oven abated those doubts. The amount of sweet potato I used was not measured, so use your best judgment based on the notes I jotted while in the baking process.
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