Cooking And Eating....“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es”

  one last 'production' before kitch en clean up time.....iron skillet chicken cooked in walnut oil with scallions, ginger, tomatillo paste, garlic, orange bell and habanero peppers, corn chile, blackberries, red jalapenos, garlic and sourwood honey with a matching mound of nutty brown rice with cilantro, lemon juice, paprika and powdered chipotle.... .......the taste pinnacle of this week's 'kitchen stadium' experimentation.....to balance hot, sweet, sour, bitter, nutty, fruity and meaty......the scale's 'needle' is exactly on Zero....This little piggy had chicken thighs.....then, already home, had a big mess to clean up!

I am so adverse to the mass usage of 'disposable' plasticware, that...for years....I carried my own personal silver, in a fitted leather box.........I recently gave this set to a good friend, who had been enamored for decades with it......Now, he is the one that gets teased by his friends for this 'seeming' affectation......which is really not only practical and aesthetic, but enables the partial avoidance of disposable plastics........For a while, Trader Joe's gave a 'discount' to those who brought their own grocery bags......but due to their clients' expressing disapproval......has become like other 'grocers'.......encouraging the wasting of paper products.......the 'tipping point' for this practice of wasting paper and plastic was reached some time ago....and this ecologically unsound practice has become a part of our, and much of the rest of the 'civilized' world's Cultural Mindset........I am currently making every effort...

...a concoction of pan-roasted potatoes, corn, red peppers, speckled butterbeans, fava beans, asparagus, broccolini, mushrooms, and yellow tomatoes...with a 'harissa' of red peppers, ancho chili, jalapeno peppers, tumeric, ground scallions, and garlic.......Spicy enough to wake the dead...which is me...at mid-afternoon.......and a 'palate-cooler' of black cherry jello with bananas, walnuts, ginger, Galliano and Absinthe.......

during this morning's delving into forgottenness, a clear memory, stored in a little memory module.....just a few chemical strands of 'memory' were enough........of being kidnapped, at 5, and taken to the Greyhound Bus Station, where I was fed spicy yellow cornbread with beans, in their pot liquor....and a shake or two of tabasco sauce.......So....I made some spicy buttermilk cornbread with jalapeno peppers....topped with some really hot, spicy peach and peppers salsa, over vegan re-fried pinto beans.....more to my current tastes.......I'm certain that today's concoction is far tastier than the navy beans and cornbread at the bus station.......There was no 'weirdness' or 'perversion'...no 'child-molestation'....just a 'free lunch'....then a ride to my Grandparent's house, where my Grandmother had made some 'candy' bacon for her grandchildren.......which, as a calorie-burning 5 year-old....was just in time to satisfy my gru...

  After watching a 'Flatbread' challenge on The Great British Baking Show......I awakened and made this delicious b'fast of sliced, rare roast beef, mixed leaf salad greens, crushed tomatoes, Frisco sauce (mayonnaise, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and ground pepper), smashed roquefort crumbles......with a touch of 'dragon' sauce to earn the plate it was devoured from......rolled up in garlic naan, pan caramelized in walnut oil, for more 'nuttiness'. then heated in an iron skillet....followed by Matcha aisu kurīmu, a creamy green tea-flavored iced cream and a cup of expresso made from the remaining 'civet' coffee beans that had fallen behind the Barista machine......

 

I seldom 'dine out' ....especially on Atlanta's 'crowded everyplace' weekends.......nevertheless, I relented and accompanied a far more 'social' friend to a packed Thai restaurant for some delicious food and potent mixed drinks.........other than having to wipe all that fancy salt from the rim of a couple of potent margaritas, [which I estimated...had 4,500 milligrams of sodium and lots of nasty sugar syrup].....that I drank anyway, because I was being "treated to drinks", I was in the 3rd tier of Food Purgatory.......but 'salt licks' and 'simple sugar syrup' are for cows and hyper-active pre-diabetic teenagers with high blood pressure.......

MY 'TAKE' ON "BREAKFAST PIZZA"   ....  5-CHEESES......ATOP A SOURDOUGH PIZZA CRUST......WITH  SPINACH AND RED BELL PEPPERS..........

Grilled eel guts in cod sperm; sliced roasted cumin-powdered bull's penis; pickled  de-toothed monk fish jaws;  fish eyes in blood aspic and spicy souse on sourdough toast, grilled in beef bone marrow......with a cocktail of cobra's blood & vodka, with a side of  crisped roasted tree maggots in a sauce of pig's brains, sauteed in bacon grease, then  garnished with ground, dessicated roasted army ants........

Cooking tomatoes releases the antioxidant lycopene, which is linked to a lower risk of cancer and heart attacks; cooked mushrooms, unlike 'raw' mushrooms, has been shown to support immune response; and beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin in spinach is more absorbable, when cooked......So, I should be super-healthy, since my favorite omelet consists of these, along with red bell peppers, scallions and chopped herbs.......all of which boost the Immune System's response to toxins, bacteria and viruses.......Now, to make some chocolate disks.....as reward for having eaten a half pound of grilled Brussel sprouts last night......(admittedly, with lots of asiago cheese and pepper)......Now, for some inspiration from the 1974 cookbook, Les Dîners de Gala......

  Manicotti-filled dessert pasta with mini-grapes in a sauce of pureed hot/sweet figs, tomatillo and jalapeno pulp and sourwood honey........both sweet and blazin'......

  afternoon luncheon.....a few Indian concoctions: spicy leek soup, dark orange yams with coconut/walnut/nutmeg/brown sugar and prunes, grilled flatbread, orzo with goat cheese, and hot and sour pickled mushroom caps.....

Sweet/Hot Chili-Braised Bok Choy with an 'armful' of toasted sunflower seeds, grated garlic, red peppers and plum sauce...........

To 'punish myself for dietary hypocrisy'.....I just had some lemon/coconut cake, saturated with lemon and orange liquors...topped with a toasted coconut macaroon........those wicked M&M's made me do it...I swear!  

After red-lining on the HealthOmeter scales, yesterday evening..........   I switched from eating so much glutens to red quinoa & basmati rice, cooked in chicken bouillon, with Scotch bonnet peppers, bay leaves, ground orange peppercorns, marjoram, basil, garlic, parsley and a twist of fresh lemon slice......

 

We were 'served' baked mackerel in the high school cafeteria.....I'd eat it, but with little relish....like just about any/everything then......Then, off to University.....and the daily presentation of either  broiled, baked or fried mackerel......the 'smell' was always off-putting........Later, I had mackerel, dipped in egg yolk, herbs and smoked paprika, garlic and pepper, then coated with Japanese panko crumbs and fried......which was far more tolerable........Just now, I 'fried up' some mackerel and served it with a super spicy cabbage and carrot cole slaw........much better!     .....BUT STILL.....that lingering, fishy aftertaste!......I'd rather have tilapia....eat it and forget it!   Where did I put that big bottle of peppermint-flavored mouthwash!

no thank you....I can make a better lunch, without leaving home, driving in traffic, waiting in line at that trendy 'brunch' place......before my friends were served, I cranked out some white cornmeal and yellow grits-covered spicy chicken tenderloins with a 'snaking' of green curry sauce, French-herbed fingerling potatoes with fresh rosemary and cabbage/carrot coleslaw, quick-marinated in rice vinegar, some corn relish that I made a few days ago and a glass of spicy chai tea........and, no cacophony, no steel eating tools, no morning elevator pop muzak or ubiquitous 'live trio', playing 80's greatest hits........and no 'getting dressed'! My absence gives everyone 'someone to talk about' over coffee and biegnets.....

mushroom?    TO EAT?.....OR NOT TO EAT?   

Thinking, through some 'taste overload' about Limits.....This morning, preparing some spicy chili, with ground turkey, 3 types of onion, chili powder, spicy chopped tomatos and white northern beans, I decided to 'empty' a half-full bottle of Scotch-Bonnet pepper sauce and the last of the Harissa powder, some pestle-ground cumin seeds, the last of a bottle of 'jerk' sauce, a half cup of dried coriander, a few grinds of black, yellow and red peppers and some ground pink sea salt......I 'knew' what was coming! Just getting close enough to stir all this 'HEAT' in the iron skillet, my eyes flooded with tears; and, a half spoonful of this Cajun/Indonesian concoction gave my nostrils a 'FIRE ALERT!' signal, with my sinuses flooding mucus to quench the pain.......I'm having a tiny souffle bowl of this fire-breathing dragon's exhalation....nose running, lips pulsing and tongue...begging for a soothing spoonful of vanilla iced cream....H...

    O.K., Alton Brown......I'll try it.......   a highly-seasoned hamburger  patty (garlic, pepper, seasoned salt, dried coriander and onion, toasted paprika and misc. dried herbs),  rolled 'thin' between sheets of waxed paper, then deep-fried in hot oil....outside is crunchy....inside is medium rare.......drowned in some  Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce then served with a creamy cole slaw.......works for me!  Hold the bun !

  Watching Bobby Flay's "in the mood for a French Countryside-style brunch picnic", I was motivated, not having eaten in 17 hours, to recreate his delicious "fast and easy food" picnic items...... First up a bottle of Premiere Cru, a Tomato Tart drizzled with fresh herbaceous oil, Home Fries cooked in duck fat (Sarladaise Home Fries), Hard Boiled Eggs With Olive Tapenade and Orange French Yogurt Cake With a Marmalade Glaze, And to cleanse the palate, a pitcher of homemade Citronnade a la Menthe, a light mint lemonade. My motives, as usual, were more complex than just either being hungry or being hungry for some Provence Fare.........Doing an accounting of time and materials cost, I went to Whole Foods, gathered up the ingredients and returned to my kitchen.......3 hours later, a replication of Bobby's super high calorie mini-feast was on the table......My kitchen is a mess.....another hour of cleaning up.......and my wallet is out 100 bucks.....The Ugly...

  a luncheon treat, today.......Endometrial Omelet.....many ingredients, including yam gnocchi Moroccan style and sweet yellow corn and pimento chutney, dissicated spicy okra and Bhindi masala and 5 varieties of Asian peas, beans in green curry sauce, and peppers, upon a Malabari Paratha, enveloped by a translucent Vietnamese rice flour spring roll skin......

After years of cooking in antique cast iron, I hauled out the old Professional Series steel-clad copper frypan with the most beautiful and comfortable handle......I'd forgotten what a beautiful 'kitchen tool' it is!   

I 'hit the kitchen' and prepared some flavorful  "Mongolian" Beef for today's lunch....and wondered "What the Mongols would have dined on at that time?"......likely, cheese curd and sour yoghurt with hard, dried cheese.....and, probably not.... beef tenderloin with vidalia onions, garlic  and red bell peppers, in hoisin sauce, over basmati rice... 

  preparing some spicy 'dragon' treats.....small "less is more" portions of complex flavors, served in archaic carved stone containers.......This 'morsel' consists of a small parallelogram of yellow potato, with herbs; organic, free-range chicken with a dozen spices/herbs, cooked in walnut oil; carrot with honey, basil, 6 varieties of ground 'bell' peppers as well as grated hot Scotch bonnet peppers; and a blazing hot corn chutney with red pepper slivers and micro-diced, raw shiitake mushrooms......the 'extended' version will float on a round lake of Thai green curry sauce with crushed capers........

I n Dona Flore Mode both yesterday and this morning.......tongue and palate ready for some taste sensations.......This flour burrito, filled with 4 varieties of wild mushrooms and a dozen flavorfully hot, spicy and sweet condiments, spinach, cilantro and dandelion leaves, then 'topped' with yellow tomatoes and herbs, left my mouth 'watering' with excitement.....foreseeing a day of culinary experimentation......a moist, liquor soaked prune cake appeared in my last dream...that I can remember....last night.....vanishing, upon my awakening to Merlin, achest, staring me into servitude at his 'feeding station' on the plastic lobster mat......

After yesterday's Memorial Day of Feasting......although I had but one hefty meal, laden with delicious fat and caloric excess......I awakened.......with 'Food On My Mind'.....my stomach, growling for another load of a four cheese omelet, cooked in butter.....although my optimistic  'Plan' was to fast today, having celery sticks and lemon tea.........