And I'm off...

Most of you know that after several months of planning and plotting, I am going on my trip to Georgia, Armenia and the UK!

I don't really know what lies in store for me.  I don't speak Georgian, Russian or Armenian but that's OK!  It's not the first time I have traveled to a country not knowing the language.  And many people have done it/do it all the time.

I do know that it will be amazing.  Every time you struggle, you learn something.  Sometimes what you learn is just, I don't ever want to struggle that way again. Other times it's, I sure do appreciate _______ (fill in the blank).  

So I'm leaving drippy, grey Monterey en route to....I don't even know!  This is rather exhilarating 

Follow me, if you wish, I promise to post photos and write about my adventures, pending internet connections.  

Midnight heartburn

Sometimes I like sleepless nights.  I toss and I turn, unwilling to succumb to the insomnia until finally I relent.  It’s usually a result of some bad culinary decision I made in the evening.  This time it was popcorn, beer, chocolate cake frosting and 2 bites of extremely spicy Szechuan food. 

I got up, had a glass of water, responded to some pending e-mails, checked facebook, wrote in my journal, read an old journal, text messaged some friends.  I really hope I didn’t wake them; it was 2:50 am after all. 

I heard a tap-tap on my bedroom door.  I knew this would happen.  I had woken up my light-sleeper, super sensitive roommate, AKA, my dad.  “What’s wrong?  Are you ok?  Why aren’t you sleeping?  Aren’t you tired?  How long have you been up?  What did you eat last night?”  I answered his questions, reassuringly.  He followed me to the kitchen as we chatted politics.  Appropriate 3 am conversation.  He went back to bed and I stayed on the computer, chatting with friends in different time zones. 

I contemplated making lifestyle changes; I do enjoy sleeping the whole night through and not having heartburn.  But if I did that, when would I write?  What would be my inspiration for these quirky blog posts?  Then I laughed to myself, if something is going to happen, it’s going to happen.  If you want something bad enough, you will make it work.  I am inspired by all sorts of things, late night heartburn and sleepless nights are fine and dandy but I could use some healthier inspiration.  

A Lemon

A beautiful poem I came across today, I hope you enjoy it.  

A Lemon

By Pablo Neruda

Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love's
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree's yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree's planetarium

Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it-
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.
We open
the halves
of a miracle,
and a clotting of acids
brims
into the starry
divisions:
creation's
original juices,
irreducible, changeless,
alive:
so the freshness lives on
in a lemon,
in the sweet-smelling house of the rind,
the proportions, arcane and acerb.

Cutting the lemon
the knife
leaves a little cathedral:
alcoves unguessed by the eye
that open acidulous glass
to the light; topazes
riding the droplets,
altars,
aromatic facades.

So, while the hand
holds the cut of the lemon,
half a world
on a trencher,
the gold of the universe
wells
to your touch:
a cup yellow
with miracles,
a breast and a nipple
perfuming the earth;
a flashing made fruitage,
the diminutive fire of a planet.

Cacti, cookies, coast and condors

I went down the coast again with the ladies, this time it was with my mom and the aunties.  Yesterday was one of my aunties' birthday and so naturally we needed to celebrate.  The plan was to drive down the coast in the morning, to Big Sur, have a treat from the Big Sur Bakery, go for a hike and then have lunch at Nepenthe.

Well, we got a later start that expected - which is to be expected.  On the drive down, we stopped at Save-Mart, one auntie had forgotten her sunglasses and as she says "fashion first."  She ran in and bought cheap-o sunglasses as my mom, other auntie and I plotted how we would liberate the tri-tip being BBQed on a grill outside the store, unattended.  Seriously?

We parked at Nepenthe, we were going to eat there after all.  But first we had to stop at the Phoenix Shop.  It's a shop below the restaurant that sells great books, stationary, jewelry, clothing, cosmetics and all sorts of home accessories.  Sampling hand cream, leafing through books and perusing the clothes sale rack really works up an appetite so up the stairs we hiked to eat lunch.  So much for hiking...

We waited to be seated, admiring flowers and making quite the scene.  The weather was gorgeous and it was nice to see so many people out enjoying the sun and the scenery.

We were seated on the back patio, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  The view was breathtaking.  I have a picture below but it doesn't even begin to do justice to the beauty that we had the pleasure of admiring.  We had a slow meal sharing each plate, family style.  A woman walked by with a baby on her hip, wearing just a onesie and had a fountain of hair coming out of the top of her head.  I stopped my story mid-sentence and began my well-versed baby flirtation.  Within minutes the baby was on my lap and she had all my attention, I was in heaven.

After our 3-hour meal, we decided we were tired and we should probably head to the bakery for birthday goodies before going back home.  The Big Sur Bakery is nestled in The Big Sur Spirit Garden. How beautiful!  We walked through the cacti and sweet peas, among other flora.  There was a man watering the garden and the smell of wet plants on a hot day is unmistakable - it gets etched in your scent memory pretty vividly.  It reminded me of watering plants in the summer with my uncle on his land, north of Damascus.  He taught me how to syphon water out of the well despite being on an uneven surface.  What nostalgia!  For a moment your psyche transports you to that time and place.  You are who you were when you were there.  The smell is the same in these two place, where you are in actuality and the place in which you have olfactory memories.  I guess your soul, if you believe in souls, is the same, but your body has changed; what we remember in our mind fails to point out the differences, the pain, whatever.  You are simply existing in two places at once - in your memory and in the present.  It's truly phenomenal.

We were disappointed, as the bakery was in transition from lunch to dinner and there were no pastries left, it was 3:00 in the afternoon, after all.  As we piled back in the car, my aunt pulled out a little bag of coconut, apricot cookies and a bar of dark chocolate.  She is always prepared...take note.

While attempting to nap in the backseat on the drive home, I was startled by our abruptly pulling off onto the shoulder.  I naturally jumped out of the car as my aunties did - they were armed with a camera and binoculars.  After a great deal of binocular focusing and oohing and aahing we decided that we were in the presence of 2 California Condors and 2 vultures.  Cool!  We took turns passing around the binoculars.  One auntie is a naturally trained biologist.  And I mean naturally in the literal sense of the word, like in nature.  She explained the difference between a condor and a vulture and as she did, a third condor flew in and joined the other birds in circling their dinner - and putting a show on for us.  She explained that condors have up to a 9 foot wingspan and that they have white on top of their wings and below, whereas vultures are smaller and don't have the white on top of the wings.  We marveled at their magnificence in the mid-afternoon sun until they were through and flew off.  It was really the perfect ending to our day.

cool picture from the deck of Nepenthe as we waited to be seated, not too patiently

view from our table...oak tree + Pacific Ocean + fog

deck at Nepenthe, sweet checkerboard that these kids were playing some form of hopscotch on :)

Grapes!

Cacti

Wasabi Pea Soup

This cold is stubborn. I took the day off of work on account of my cold but then spent the day running errands. It wasn't exactly what I had had in mind but it was nice to break the routine, so to speak.

In the evening time, I decided to make some soup. I had recently bought wasabi powder from an Asian market and decided to test it out in a soup, spicy soups are always great for colds (recall, Carrot Ginger soup?). I did a little search on the internet and a lot of improvisation...

Wasabi Pea Soup

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 an onion
• 1 cup of peas, fresh or frozen
• 1 cup of chicken or vegetable broth (or just water!)
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 tsp. wasabi paste
• spicy mustard to taste
• wasabi peas for garnish, optional

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onions and sauté until they are a little wilted. Add peas and sauté for a few more minutes.  Add broth or water and raise the heat until the liquid comes to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 7 minutes, just long enough for the peas to cook all the way through.  Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes before transferring to a blender or food processor to blend.  (Be careful not to put hot liquid in an airtight container as the vapor pressure will cause it to explode, leave an opening for vapor to escape or periodically open the lid)

Pulse several times in the blender and add wasabi and buttermilk, blending thoroughly.  If you find that the soup is not spicy enough, feel free to add hot mustard like Colman's.

Garnish with wasabi peas.  Soup can be served hot or cold.  This recipe serves 2 as an appetizer soup.

Fresh made wasabi paste (well as fresh as powder + water can be)

Voilá!

Perception

“And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.” - Friedrich Nietzsche 


It's really amazing how you perceive other people.  I get this a lot and it annoys me.  Whether it be because one is young, female, male, athletic, loud, quiet, wears high heels, laughs a lot, the list is endless.  You see someone and you subconsciously, or not so subconsciously (which is worse) make an assumption.  You are young so you have no life experience.  You wear high heels therefore you have no brain.  Old people don't know how to have fun.  Etc. Etc.  


I'm sure you've heard it, to assume is to make an ASS out of U and ME (spells ASSUME).  So don't make assumptions.  Well, that's easy to say.  Try not to make assumptions?  Or if you make an assumption, try not to act or open your mouth about it?  Be aware that your assumptions could hurt somebody else?  I end these phrases with question marks because I'm developing this as I write.  I am also thinking to myself, do I need to work on this?  I'm sure I do.  We're human, ergo imperfect.  I guess it's just being aware of it.  Being aware that a snide comment may hurt somebody else.  


It's also knowledge and experience.  I'm sure you have met a person who appeared to be one thing and then you got to talking to them and discovered that they actually were not anything like what you thought about them.  Let me give an example.  A person with big glasses is assumed to be intelligent or to work with computers.  Wait, that actually happened today, I was appalled.  I went to the post office and the person at the front of the line was wearing wide rimmed glasses and he wasn't aware that one of the tellers was available, he probably didn't hear him call "next, please."  So a woman further back in the line yells "Hey, computer boy!"  The guy with the glasses looked at her embarrassed, I don't know this for a fact but maybe he doesn't work with computers?  Everybody was a bit dumbfounded and nobody knew what to do, especially the poor guy with the glasses!   Maybe it's not a good example, but I like it as a story.  


Anyways, all I'm saying is people are way more awesome than we give them credit for if we just go around judging and mis-perceiving people.  You're missing out on a whole lot of cool people if you rule them out for their appearance or age or color or the list goes on and on...


Enjoy life, you know?

Carrot Ginger Soup

It's August 1st and I've come down with a cold. 

On my drive home - in between sneezes and sniffles, I decided I wanted a really spicy soup to clear up my cold.  What better than my favorite, carrot-ginger?

(It's been a while since my last recipe post and so if this is not your thing, simply ignore the post, for the rest of you cooks and food admirers, feel free to enjoy the post or make the soup at home for yourself!)

Carrot Ginger Soup

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 white onion, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic, diced
• a 2-3 inch long piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped 
• 1 lb. carrots, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped 
• 3-4 cups of water or vegetable broth
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. green or red chili powder or red chili flakes, optional
• salt and pepper to taste 

In a medium size saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat.  Add the onion, garlic and ginger and sauté for about a minute or 2.  Add the carrots, bell pepper, cinnamon and chili powder allowing the vegetables to wilt for about 5 minutes.  Raise heat to high, add water or broth and bring to a boil, once the liquid has boiled, reduce heat to low and simmer for 25-30 minutes. 

Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes before transferring to a blender or food processor.  BE VERY CAREFUL TO NOT CLOSE THE BLENDER ALL THE WAY AS THE VAPOR PRESSURE WILL CAUSE THE CONTAINER TO EXPLODE AND HOT SOUP WILL FLY EVERYWHERE AND SCALD YOU.  I speak from experience, painful but fun memories...

Blend the soup until all of the carrot, ginger, onion, etc. chunks are smooth and return to the sauce pan and reheat, reboil if you wish.

Soup can be served with a dash of cream on top, some chives, cinnamon, etc.  Delicious on a cold winter's night or if you've got a cold, like I do today. 

carrots from the Farmer's Market, ginger and my well-worn cutting board :)

Carrot-ginger soup, a dash of cream and cinnamon on top - great for a common cold!