For giggles

I like to play with the foil from candies that I eat. I have been making these little boxes out of hershey kisses for years, this isn't even one of my best ones, but this time, I gave it friends. A little package from the peanut butter cup foil, which I stuffed with the foil from my dark chocolate squares and wrapped with the kiss sash. Aint they pretty? I made a little fan from the peanut butter cup to adorn them, and featured them on some miniature display items. I love them :)

Breakfast

This morning, I remade something I combined on a fabulous whim, which was excellent. I periodically roast squashes, and the occasional root vegetable, to have in my fridge for a reliable, nutritious starch. This time around, I roasted a Japanese white yam, and a very pale acorn squash. The winning combination I came up with and enjoyed for breakfast this morning is chopped fresh chives, an old school favorite, with a tamarind chutney, an even older school favorite for fried and/or starchy entrees. On a whim, I added some tindora (Indian baby gourds, which I refer to as nutritionally perfect baby cucumbers, given my Middle Eastern predilection for the green fruit). Tindora are great because the contain much less cellulose, which is fiber, but how much fiber do you need when you are eating such nutrient dense foods as chives and salad? With out further ado, observe the masterpiece that was my breakfast:

Here is a close up of the tindora. Ain't she precious?

I balanced out the breakfast with doogh (pronounced like dog, with a long vowel, and a guttural hard gh, it is a Middle Eastern fermented yogurt drink, much more watery than kefir, and naturally carbonated). However, the doogh didnt go well with the acidity of the tamarind, and so I had my protein with a wince, and saved most of it for after the acid finish of the chutney. That being said, I can't begin to describe what a delicious combination this is. It reminds me of aloo papri, a famous Indian dish I used to get all the time, truly a masterpiece of Indian standards and flavors, which is chickpea fritters, smothered in a tamarind chutney. Mine is definitely healthier, and beyond yum. A symphony, I am happy to have reworked, quite accidentally, and am happy to pass along. Enjoy!

Michael Kerzner

This is untitled. It will always be a beautiful moment for me. A shoulder to lean on when the world is baring down on you. I wish I had a shoulder to lean on right about now. To lean, to cuddle, and to generally be with. I want nothing more.

For Two

I made these today on a whim with some less than yummy winter blueberries that I thought would taste a great deal better if they were cooked. So I pan steamed them in a pool of water, with 2 teaspoons of fresh grated ginger, and a tablespoon of honey. I covered it for the first few minutes so the blueberries would cook, then took the lid off for the liquid to reduce into a syrup. I laid them on a bed of mascarpone cheese, then put a generous dollop of mascarpone in the center, and put my second layer of fruit around the mound of mascarpone like a doughnut; diced apples and a little bit of dried, but still fiery, ginger in a tamarind sauce, with cinnamon. Then I put a very thin layer of mascarpone on the top. Can't wait to try them. Just wish I had someone to share the second one with. And the duo was picture 1,120 on my mom's iPhone, so hopefully we live that long together, eating my yummy, healthy food!

Why?

Today is Martin Luther King's birthday, and in honor of that fact, President Obama, or rather, the person who handles his twitter account, has asked the twitterers to express why they think community service is important. I think community service is an integral part of civic republicanism (in a nutshell, being a citizen of a democracy of elected officials), for a wide multitude of reasons, the most important being to engage in the world and make an impact instead of being part of the problem. This can be as simple as taking the lead in your own home to organize your household's recycling. But it can be as robust as contacting your local officials, and getting the ball rolling on more robust recycling practices if needed. Anyways, that is not what I want to write about here, today, as important as it is to inspire. I write today to ask Why? To shout to the heavens with a great wail as for all to hear the sound of pain that comes from deep down in my soul. Why, America? Why did you savagely murder your beautiful, peaceful, benevolent son? Not a fighter, but a true lover of mankind, and a dove who's outstretched hand was violently broken with the dark rage of white power. This was someone who spoke from deep within the American subconscious to cast out her demons with light and love, and he was silenced. Why? Why do some Americans fear change so extremely? Why is the messenger of that change demonized, when in fact, that is the very creature they wish to eradicate from the American matrix of identity? Now, I can't speak so much on the matter, because frankly, I am no MLK scholar. But I know that he was a peaceful loving man, a pillar of his community, a great source of light, and for all those reasons, I wonder why? With deep anguish, this question resonates in my mind.

Love, love, love......

.......this look on the freshly pixilated Anne Hathaway. The short hair is one thing, and definitely contributes to the look, but only in the sharpest ways, as to refine the bravado inherent in this wildly luscious ensemble. Masculine? Feminine? Fabulous.

Sweet and Sour Roasted Chicken

This past week I finally did what I had been planning to do for a very long while; make a chicken dish with some beautiful dried fruit I bought at an Arabic grocery in Brooklyn. I bought dried plums and cherries from Sahadi's , in Brooklyn Heights on Atlantic avenue. They specialize in dried fruits, as 1/3 rd of the store is devoted to dried fruits and nuts, and they do it very well. Anyways, I made a marinade for the chicken out of these dried fruits with a tomato paste (about 2 1/2 tablespoons) and garlic base (2 tablespoons of minced garlic), 1 teaspoon of turmeric, sour cherry syrup (which has sugar in it, about 2 tablespoons), 3 cinnamon sticks, and just shy of a tablespoon of tamarind paste (be careful using tamarind paste, it is very strong), an 1/3 cup of filtered water. I stewed the marinade for 40 minutes or so, just until one of the cinnamon sticks opened up and released its fragrance. Once it cooled, I smothered the chicken with it, filled the chicken's cavity with the three cinnamon sticks, some rough chopped onion, and some preserved lemon, and let it marinate for 36 hours (I would have made it after 24, but I was busy). right before cooking, I drizzled the whole chicken with olive oil to lock in moisture. Here is my finished product!

One caveat: I roasted this at 450 like all the internet recipes had instructed me to, but with all this fruit, I really should have done it at 350 like my mom does. It made no difference for the chicken, it was moist and amazing, but I lost some fruit which was burnt black, and it was really a shame because some of those cherries plumped up to almost their original size like a dried mushroom does when soaked. Filled with olive oil, and chicken jus, it was an exquisite delight.
I made myself a plate before work one day, to fill myself before my service at the restaurant. I made a little salad to go with it, of chives, thai basil, and some red kidney beans, dressed simply in salt, and the olive oil and chicken jus from the roast (I should have added just a touch of black pepper or sour cherry syrup to the salad for more flavor, but I just didn't. Lazy, blazy, crazy, before work, and just wanting to eat.) Notice, the conspicuous lack of carbs on the plate, with the exception of the small amount of beans. I did this precisely, and deliberately, to avoid food slumber before my evening service.

I loved it, but next time, I have to premarinade my chicken with salt and additional turmeric to prime the bird for the second layer of marinade. You live, you learn.