Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

During a recent potluck/screening with friends, I was just informed of the origins of this word and event. The potlatch is a ceremony that has been practiced among Native people of the Pacific Northwest. Families would host guests in order to re-distribute and/or destroy wealth. Often, the host would give away his/her most cherished possessions, as would the guests. Sometimes the offerings would be burned and other times the offering would be accepted by guests. Potlatching was practiced more in the winter seasons because the warmer months were typically a better time for accruing wealth. Hierarchical relations within and between clans, villages, and nations, were observed and reinforced through the distribution or destruction of wealth and dance performances involved in a potlach. The purpose of a potlatch was not to get the most but to give the most resources.

I've a lways been a bit of a control freak and greatly feared the non-sensical food combinations that are the inevitable result of a potluck. The historical context of the potlatch, however, has given me a smiling perspective of this ritual and a gratitude for it's abiding existence - even if it means eating off of paper with plastic (YIKES!)

What I Believe

I believe there is no justice,
but that cottongrass and bunchberry
grow on the mountain.

I believe that a scorpion's sting
will kill a man,
but that his wife will remarry.

I believe that, the older we get,
the weaker the body,
but the stronger the soul.

I believe that if you roll over at night
in an empty bed,
the air consoles you.

I believe that no one is spared
the darkness,
and no one gets all of it.

I believe we all drown eventually
in a sea of our making,
but that the land belongs to someone else.

I believe in destiny.
And I believe in free will.

I believe that, when all
the clocks break,
time goes on without them.

And I believe that whatever
pulls us under,
will do so gently.

so as not to disturb anyone,
so as not to interfere
with what we believe in.

by Michael Blumenthal from Days We Would Rather Know

Amazing Balsamic Caesar Dressing (ABC Dressing)

Yields about 1/2 cup but can easily be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons good quality balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 anchovy fillets
1 minced garlic clove

DIRECTIONS:
Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the dressing has a homogeneous consistency. This dressing is very nice with chopped romaine and home-made croutons.

**Original and traditional balsamic vinegars are made from a reduction of cooked grape juice. They aren't vinegars in the usual sense, but they have been made in Modena and Reggio Emilia since the Middle Ages. Balsamic vinegar of Modena is actually an inexpensive modern imitation of the traditional product. We use this kind for salad dresings and, together with olive oil, to dip bread in.

*There are three types of Balsamic vinegar:

1. Authentic traditional artisan balsamic vinegar, also known as Balsamico Tradizionale

2. Commercial grade Balsamic vinegars which are mass-produced

3. Condimento grade products, which are usually a mix of the two above

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

If you are in the Southern California area and have NOT been to Lotusland... GO! I love being a tourist in my own city or state. I recently made reservations (yes, you absolutely need reservations) to visit this beautiful botanical garden in Montecito. The two hour walking tour was lovely. Not only did I learn about Ganna Walska - the eccentric woman who married six times and owned the property - but I also managed to learn some interesting facts about different plant species, the five elements of a Japanese garden, how to tell the difference between male and female flora... I thoroughly enjoyed and think that most anyone would be interested in the magic and many stories that lie within the walls of Lotusland. So take a camera and toy with a topiary, frolic with a Fishtail Palm (which, by the way, is a misnomer - they are actually Cycads), giggle at a bonzai Ginkgo Biloba (but beware of the female Ginkgo trees - they smell like BMs when they are producing fruit), prance amongst some Ponytail Palms (these guys are actually Agaves!) and enjoy the ostentation of imported tiles, reflection pools and paths paved with semi-precious stones.




Fishtail Palms





An impish statue in the theater garden
















Madame Walska's beautiful shells that
surround the pool in which she skinny dipped

Music

When I was a child
I once sat sobbing on the floor
Beside my mother's piano
As she played and sang
For there was in her singing
A shy yet solemn glory
My smallness could not hold

And when I was asked
Why I was crying
I had no words for it
I only shook my head
And went on crying

Why is it that music
At its most beautiful
Opens a wound in us
An ache a desolation
Deep as a homesickness
For some far-off
And half-forgotten country

I've never understood
Why this is so

Bur there's an ancient legend
From the other side of the world
That gives away the secret
Of this mysterious sorrow

For centuries on centuries
We have been wandering
But we were made for Paradise
As deer for the forest

And when music comes to us
With its heavenly beauty
It brings us desolation
For when we hear it
We half remember
That lost native country

We dimly remember the fields
Their fragrant windswept clover
The birdsongs in the orchards
The wild white violets in the moss
By the transparent streams

And shining at the heart of it
Is the longed-for beauty
Of the One who waits for us
Who will always wait for us
In those radiant meadows

Yet also came to live with us
And wanders where we wander.

by Anne Porter from Living Things: Collected Poems

Coriander Carrot Cake

Makes one 13 by 9-inch cake or 24 cupcakes

Cake
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons Chinese five spice powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 pound medium carrots (6 to 7 carrots), peeled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar packed
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil or canola oil

Frosting
2 vanilla beans
8 ounces cream cheese , softened but still cool
5 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, but still cool
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position if making a cake or to the two middle positions if baking cupcakes. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13 by 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray if making a cake; line bottom of pan with parchment and spray parchment. If making cupcakes, line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
2. Whisk together flour, coriander, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, Chinese five spice, salt, pepper, and cloves in large bowl; set aside.
3. In food processor fitted with large shredding disk, shred carrots (should yield about 3 cups); transfer carrots to bowl and set aside. Wipe out food processor workbowl and fit with metal blade. Process granulated and brown sugars and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With machine running, add oil through feed tube in steady stream. Process until mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds longer. Scrape mixture into medium bowl. Stir in carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Pour into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. If making cupcakes, fill each cup to about 3/4 full and bake for 32 to 36 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cool cake or cupcakes to room temperature in pan or pans on wire rack, about 2 hours for cake or 1 hour for cupcakes.
4. For the frosting: Halve and scrape seeds from 2 vanilla beans. When cake is cool, process cream cheese, butter, sour cream, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, and coriander in clean food processor workbowl until combined, about 5 seconds, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Add confectioners' sugar and process until smooth, about 10 seconds.
5.Run paring knife around edge of cake to loosen from pan. Invert cake onto wire rack, peel off parchment, then invert again onto serving platter. Using icing spatula, spread frosting evenly over surface of cake. Cut into squares and serve. For cupcakes, simply frost each cupcake. Leftovers may be covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

** Coriander is known as cilantro in the Americas. It is native to southwestern Asia and west to North Africa
*Coriander has been used to relieve anxiety and insomnia in Iranian folk medicine. Experiments in mice support its use for the preventions of anxiety. I’m just wondering how anxiety is measured in mice???? Coriander seeds are also used in traditional Indian medicine as a diuretic by boiling equal amounts of coriander seeds and cumin seeds, then cooling and consuming the resulting liquid. I’m sure you’re already running towards the kettle now in hopes of testing out the diuretic properties of coriander for yourself.

Recipe by Cristina Paul

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to love it more and more

- Jules Renard