"I dunno. Whenever I ask, what's for dinner, she always says, 'I don't know yet, but ya gotta start with onions.'"
A couple of years have passed since that carpool over-hear experience. That daughter just graduated from a 200 hour yoga and meditation teacher training event.
Tonight, in preparing a celebratory dinner, her quote of me came to mind. It's true, once the aroma of browning onions fills the kitchen, I think about what else we have on hand, then I begin to assemble ingredients - tempeh, beans, tortillas, eggs, greens, ground turkey or fish.
I think the tantalizing scents that rise from the old black cast-iron skillet tickle my gray matter and help me think about what to create.
Sometimes it's surprising. I was hungry a few nights ago and didn't want to wait the 45 minutes for Red Rice to cook, so I threw it raw into the Vita Mix to pulverize it to smaller kernels. It took only twelve minutes to cook once stirred into the sautéed onions, coconut oil, and broth I poured over to cover it. I threw in a couple hands full of raw spinach near the end of the cooking time and it turned out really tasty. Pretty too with the reddish rice laced with green leaves.
Organic riced Cauliflower with fresh grated ginger and turmeric has become a new staple. It comes up so colorfully yellow and aromatic with garlic and ginger that kind of caramelizes The little hand-held grater retains the ginger skin and the turmeric skin, so it's quick work to grate it in. No peeling required, by my fingers turn yellow! It's one of the dishes we had to celebrate Yoga Graduation.
Another favorite main dish is frittata, which always gets started with sautéing onion - either red or yellow. Then a hand full of greens - either fine threads of kale or quicker wilting spinach, then the beaten eggs mixed with salt, garlic powder, onion powder, grated nutmeg, a splash of vinegar, and mustard powder are poured over. Once the eggs begin to congeal, I heat the broiler and grate some Gruyere on top (or not) and pop the cast-iron pan under the heat coils until the frittata rises up and turns golden. Delish for dinner or Weekend Brunch!
About the only time I don't sautée onions is when baking banana bread. Maybe I'll have to try it! Or not...
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Bone and Smile...
Meera Ramamoorthy is one of my heroines.
In her thirties, Meera has accomplished incredible things in support of many children, all the while being chased, like Peter Pan by a his crocodile who swallowed a ticking clock. Meera's croc is a life-threatening disease with which she was diagnosed ten years ago during her second year of medical school. It keeps pursuing her. Yet, even when she cannot move, feed or dress herself, she is at her specially rigged computer churning out content for her newest book.
She solicits, edits and assembles camp stories from campers, counselors, and medical staff who contribute stories about their experiences at camps for medically fragile kids. Her latest tome arrived by mail Friday. My beloved husband "Pun 4 Phun" contributed six stories to the mix.
The latest edition, "This is Serious" is second in the series of "Stars In the Sky Bring the Summer Right Back to Me," and contains over 280 short stories with custom created black and white cartoon drawings illustrating each one. It came with a box of scented colored pencils. Interactive! We ordered twenty volumes. Proceeds go directly to the Serious Fun Network of camps. Meera threw in a hooded long-sleeve shirt showing the logo of fourteen year-round cost-free Hole-In-The-Wall-Gang camps started with Paul Newman's seed money. (Keep buying Newman's Dressing!) There are now more than thirty such camps worldwide where kids get to be kids instead of first being identified by their disease.
My desire is to have Meera, who is a medical doctor, and all medically challenged kids everywhere be completely healed. I'd like to see them boot their pursuing crocodiles in the teeth. Until that day, there's camp.
May Meera continue to triumph over adversity for a long time to come.
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