An Honest Meal

(sort of)

Except for the fact that right after taking this photo I heaped on about a cup of Parmesan cheese. A little dusting is so much more photogenic though, don't you agree? I can say about my sauteed squash from the garden that there is nothing on this burning planet that could have improved it even a smidgen, it was that good. The pasta has a walnut sauce on it. One of my favorite recipes from my Debra Madison book "Vegetarian Recipes For Everyone".

Fresh garden squash is so sweet and nutty and just begs to be browned slightly and not cooked to mush, and not burdened with too many fancy flavorings. I used some dried thyme (from the garden), a very small amount of dried marjoram, salt, pepper, two cloves of pressed garlic, and a few tablespoons of olive oil. This is my first squash harvest of the year. Thank god squash is known to be prolific, and may mine be so!

The wine is a Ravenswood Zinfandel from 2005. That's right, you didn't hear wrong. I said WINE not beer. (see picture above for semi-reliable proof.) I like this wine quite a lot.

After waking up with the first-ever-in-my-life migraine headache...oh yeah, you can tell the difference!!...I got exactly nothing done for half the day. A lot of feeling fragile and sweating in this heat. It's not actually all that hot compared to how hot it is elsewhere. I think it was only in the low nineties or upper eighties. But it felt like 150 degrees.

I worked out at the gym. I then made many more jars of jam and a few jars of sauce. I really wish I hadn't bothered with a second batch of the jam because I had a lot less berries left than I thought for sauce. I can always get more, of course.

I am listening to opera. Highlights from Mozart's magic flute. I put it on when I started making dinner because for once there was no one here but me. I love to play opera while I cook. It makes me feel that all is right in the world. It creates a center from which I can keep steady. It lets loose a giddy magic that makes even the most mundane activities seem like a classy event. Not that I think cooking is mundane, but somehow I believe I can make anything when listening to this music. If I just reach inward enough for a moment the skills will come to me. The flavors will do as I bid and blossom in the pan.

I am never fat when I hear this. I am never mean, nor vapid, nor crazy either. I am equalized.

The spell breaks when anyone enters my space. I can only access this magic when I'm alone and not needed by anyone. I am definitely never sweating like a hog standing before the butcher's knife* when I hear these funny, pretty, and note-scaling rich arias.

It's time to go water some valuables in the yard and cool off from all this steamy kitchen work. I have laundry to do too. But I don't want to.

I just want to sit here and day dream the night away. Not drinking beer. Because no one ever says "Hey, check out the wine gut on that bovine lady!" Wine is good. Wine has even been made by the illustrious pious Jesus. Jesus apparently never made any beer. Which just goes to show what he knows, eh? (Before you get your own pious undies in a bunch, go to your room and count to ten, if I'm still here when you get back go ahead and tell me all about Jesus. Then if when you're done, and I'm still here (which I very much doubt I will be), we can knock back a drink of your choice. See? Even if it's some vile Tang. We can totally work this out, it's what Jesus would have wanted.)

Sid and Dennis: my thoughts were with you while making and eating this dinner. I miss you so very much and I wish I had been serving you this meal! Lots of love to you and the kid. If I could I would be heading down to your house right now for some wine/beer and good conversation...and reassurance that you are still there and not vanished into the Bermuda triangle!!



*Blatant self serving lie to make myself feel less like a sweating hog. Oh so pretty.