I Do Give A Fig

Did you ever have crackers with feta and fig jam spread on top at a party? Well, get real because it's fig season. Plus, chard is infinitely tastier and healthier than a measly cracker.


Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs of red Swiss chard, stems trimmed
2 Tbsp butter
4 chopped shallots
6 large, black mission figs, cut in half
scant 1/2 cup of high quality feta cheese
fine, well-aged balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp kosher salt

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Chop the Swiss chard stems into 1" - 2" pieces. Place chard, shallots, and butter in a large pan over moderately low heat. Sautee until shallots are translucent and chard softens - about 6 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, chop the chard leaves and place all the figs, cut side up on a foil lined baking sheet. Place a piece of crumbled feta on each of the fig halves. Roast the figs in the oven for about 9 minutes, until the feta begins to brown ever so slightly at the edges. Take the figs out of the oven and drizzle a drop of balsamic on each fig.
3. While the figs roast, place the chard leaves in the pan with the stems, shallots, and butter. Add the salt and cover the chard with another pan. Let cook, stirring occasionally until all the leaves wilt - about 9 minutes.
4. Spoon the chard and all of the juices onto a platter and carefully place the roasted figs on top of the bed of greens.

***Although I love this dish warm, the chard is lovely when served at room temperature. The figs will still taste nice, but look far better straight out of the oven. Extras are great spread on a grilled panino.

Recipe constructed by Cristina Paul

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

Reasons Everyone Misses L.A.

1. Rastafarian midget sightings are a healthful symptom of the location.
2. The Grand Spa's oil massage and body scrub on 6th and Virgil - it's the best of Korean Spa treatments and open 24 hours. So many bushes and nowhere to hide!
3. The Hollywood Bowl summer concert series - music to fall in love with and by - even if you're living in penury. N.B. When leaving, there is usually an older black gentleman outside of the Bowl with a ragged hand puppet and a soulful voice that will stick with you like a bad meal. I am not quite sure what his act is all about, but it's memorable - poor ventriloquism? transparent gospel puppetry? Check it out.
4. Farmer's markets everywhere, the unparalleled produce, the people who frequent the markets, and sell at them - especially a salt and peppered younger fellow who works the greens stand on Saturdays in Santa Monica. He also makes an occasional cameo at the Tuesday Culver City farmer's market.
5. Santa Monica Yoga - neither pretension nor yoga mat are required.
6. Seeing no contradiction in consuming vast quantities of probiotics while enjoying sunsets made more beautiful by my personal contribution to local smog.
7. The palm trees.

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

by Mary Oliver, from The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays

Chipotle is Mint For Me

INGREDIENTS:
1 (15 ounce) can of black beans, mostly drained
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, packed
1/3 roasted and salted pistachios
1/2 - 1 whole chipotle pepper from a can of peppers in adobo sauce (the amount depends on your capsaicin tolerance)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place all ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth. Add extra salt or chipotle if desired. Serve alone or garnish with caramelized shallots, avocado, or queso fresco. This is a divine dip for flatbreads, crackers, chips,or veggies. Plus, it's a great accompaniment for poultry and beef dishes. I'm thinking this could make a cameo in a taco or spread on a new-fangled cross between a sope and a pizza.

recipe by Cristina Paul

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

During a recent visit to my local post office, I saw the line and assumed they were giving away free Priuses. Nope, just a whole lotta people sendin' a whole lotta stuff. So, sans book or phone, but with plenty of imagination, I decided to list the top ten things to pass the time in line:
1. Kegel exercises (sorry boys, this one's more for those of the XX persuasion).
2. Count the number of freckles on your neighbors face - WITHOUT getting caught.
3. Think of a compliment to give to somebody in line or the person who helps you - my person had awesome turquoise jewelery.
4. Imagine the secret contents of each box and package of every person in line. Then imagine what each of them thinks you're smuggling or toting. There was a man with a magnificent peroxided mullet at the front of the line. He was sportin' some seriously obsolete sneakers and a Hawaiian shirt. I imagined he was pulling some kind of Adam Sandler trick like in Punch Drunk Love involving lots of nerdy math, coupon clipping, and the will to go far (like 26 miles to Catalina Island) all on someone else's dollar.
5. Imagine what you would trade at Burning Man if you were radically self-reliant rather than a khaki-wearing, regular-flosser who compulsively moisturizes and always remembers to take vitamins.
6. Give yourself a simple hand reflexology massage.
7. Think of what you will wear for the entire week.
8. Plan the menu for your next dinner party; you should also think of a good excuse for the dinner party, for example, the upcoming meteor shower on August 12. OR you could contemplate the concept for and recipient of your next CD Mix - thinking of a good title is often the best place to start.
9. Resolve on one thing to spend big on. Now, resolve to forgo something wasteful - like a take-out menu (you can always check one out online), wooden chopsticks (you'd be surprised how many precious trees are cut down, instead bring your own or don't frequent a place that uses the cheap stuff), you get the picture...
10. Write a tender love note (something you feel, but could never say) on the floor, with your feet, to someone you admire. Hey, it's a good ankle strengthener and people will think you are crazy - which means they may want out of the line and - voilá - it's your turn!

After Ash

I never told you about the things I threw away
after
or the space you take up in my empty apartment
I think on it
skip stones on it
lose sleep not holding you
I trace around moments that made me forget
you write about times you remember
I speak of documents, (laundry,) the passing of clouds, mail, and stuff of strangers
lists that leak
conversation that leaches
my heart has tried on many languages in hopes of reaching you

by Cristina Paul

Cinful Yet Delicate Paillards

Paillards (pie-yards)

*easier to eat than to say
*easier to cook than to find a word with which it rhymes (but I guess that's not saying much)

prepare this meal for 2

INGREDIENTS FOR SAUCE:
1/4 cup orange juice
1 generous Tablespoon honey
1 (3 inch) cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes
1 Tablespoon butter

INGREDIENTS FOR PAILLARDS:
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded to 1/4 inch thickness
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
chopped mint for garnish

DIRECTIONS:
1. Simmer all sauce ingredients except for butter in a 1 quart saucepan, uncovered for about 2 minutes. Set aside while cooking the chicken breasts.
2. Cook cumin, paprika, and pepper in oil in a small skillet over low moderately low heat. Stir occasionally for 2 minutes and the spices should become aromatic. Transfer to a small bowl and leave any remaining oil in the skillet - do not clean!.
3. Brush spiced oil onto the paillards and sprinkle each side with salt. Arrange the paillards in the skillet and pour remaining oil into the skillet.
4. Grill the paillards over moderately low heat for about 7 minutes then turn over and cook until juices run clear - about 6 more minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and tent with foil while finishing the sauce.
5. Pour the sauce through a fine sieve into the skillet and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add butter and swirl the skillet until the butter melts into the sauce. Season the sauce with extra salt or pepper if desired. Pour the sauce over the paillards, sprinkle with mint, and consume with gustatory glory.

*Although the origin of paillards is unknown, they are generally thinly-sliced or pounded, quick-cooking cuts of beef or chicken. Paillards are nice for the summer because their cook-time is quick which means less heat in the kitchen and more time to soak up some vitamin D from my favorite star - the Sun. Because paillards have got a lot of surface area they appear to be larger than they actually are which means you can keep your girly or burly figure and still be satisfied.
**This chicken would be lovely with couscous (also a quickie)

cooked by Cristina