Thing things

Good day is good.

March 23, 2013 by Edlyn

Today I am grateful. I don’t think I’m doing anything special here. I write for the same reason a lot of people do — to feel some sort of human connection. The months since I’ve moved here have been mixed. I’ve felt a lot of loneliness (I still do) and the overwhelming joy as well. Last week when a neighbour came over, I never thought I’d be as surprised as I was. This was the first time since I came here that anybody has ever knocked on our door just to see how I was doing. Well, second time. The first time, Lisa just wanted to drive me home so she could see where I lived.

The people here are extremely kind. In India, we’re used to people who don’t smile in family photos or interact without a please and thank you. Here you hold doors, thank bus drivers, inquire about a cashier’s day and try not to be a general ass about everything. Park within the lines and the world loves you, cut someone off and you have no values. Doesn’t matter if you were in a hurry to volunteer in a homeless shelter, your turn signal wasn’t on. I’m made to understand that kindness goes a long way, which is precisely why I tore up a sticky note I saw on a freshly-cemented landing at the entrance to our building yesterday. “Instead of fixing the cracks, fix the damn hole”. I’d write, “thank you” but what do I know.

This is confusing.

Why can I manage to have a conversation with people I’ve never met in my life and still not feel that sense of community I feel at home? I lived away from family for 6 years (I think) but even then I felt cared about…by my roommates, by A Myra who let me stay in her house, by our neighbours who’d fill our water because we were too lazy to wake up at 6am and by the parents of all my friends. Homes were always open, as were hearts. People would say “come over” and you wouldn’t think anything strange of it.

This is in no way a geographic EQ comparison. I’m in transition so of course things stick out more for me than they would for a person who calls a place in America home. I could be speaking too soon and in a few months, I will wonder what I was even talking about. This is a new place. A place I am more than willing to give a chance. A place where it rarely snows (and definitely not in March) but a place where it still does. Nothing is set in stone. I still have dreams that Goa is just a button push away, but who doesn’t?

It’s within these (sort of) inner trials that we find how blessed we really are. And here lies the source of my gratitude. This writing space. The place where I feel so generous because all I really want to do is make someone’s day. To know that I have one person nod their head in agreement is enough. I appreciate your kindness despite us not knowing each other by face and more so if we do.

Everybody right from my lovely mother, who shares my writing with people I know wouldn’t approve of me saying “shit”, to people I know just because I found you (or you found me) on the internet — THANK YOUUUUUU!!! It requires emphasis because you went out of your way to be amazing and I love you for that.

If you’re reading this, say hi or tell me something really arbitrary about yourself. If you see any typos, tell me that too. 🙂

Almond butter + Made with love and a food processor.

March 21, 2013 by Edlyn

Remember here where I said I was driving myself crazy that I hadn’t take pictures of almonds. This post is the reason why. I’m over it.

All you need to make almond butter is almonds and a food processor. That’s it. Nothing was every this simple. Unless you choose to use a grinding stone. In that case you need almonds, upper arm strength and a grinding stone. Even then it’s no big deal.

I feel silly listing the ingredients (because there’s only one!), so I’m breaking off from my usual style (show off) and going nuts. When I made this for the first time, it took the food processor 15 minutes to reach almond butter status. The second time it took 5 minutes. I’m assuming this was either due to the quantity I used, or that I stopped the food processor to do the amateur cook version of “are we there yet?”. However long it takes, you’ll eventually get there.

Roughly chop the almonds and throw them into the food processor. I did not use raw almonds because as I just found out, they’re not really raw. Apparently they’re only ever raw 1% of the time. Be a champ and use natural almonds.

Set it to low and let the almonds be ground. You’ll notice that part of the almond meal gets stuck to the sides of the container, like a well. Whenever this happened, I would stop the motor and scrape whatever was sticking to the sides and started it back up. Eventually, the almonds start releasing their oils and form into ball. At this point, it becomes impossible to work the food processor without thinking it’s going to explode. Hence, your almond butter is done.

Here is a photo step-by-step of how the almonds ultimately get cool for school.

Your turn.

(You can use this recipe for almond butter in this, this, and of course, this)

Can’t live without snack bars Thursday

March 21, 2013 by Edlyn

I might be exaggerating a little when I say I can’t live without a snack bar. I can definitely live without them. Now more so than ever since going to a grocery shop requires every drop of determination I store in my quads to take a bus there. If you must know, a more accurate representation of what I can’t live without is quick to-go healthy snack things that I can just stuff in my bag for my bus rides. As if to say I’ll get stuck in traffic and might have to start chewing my shoe. I’m kooky but I’d never do that. What do shoes taste like anyway? Assuming you have a distant uncle who makes edible wearable shoes…you know, the usual.

For a person who takes her snacking so seriously, you’ll always find seeds and dried fruit in the house. Like a squirrel. My friend Claire (who quotes lines from my blog and makes me feel shy) would joke everyday about me eating bird seed when we worked together at the world’s best newspaper. It was the best, right Claire? I feel like she can hear me.

Last last week when we (not Claire and I {I wish}, rather Awesomeshoes and I) went for a hike on the island, I knew we had to have snacks. Even if we didn’t walk 5 hours and instead chose to vegetate in our stretchy pants, I’d still know we had to have snacks. I’m very intuitive that way. The old me would go to Trader Joe’s and pick a selection of granola bars and fruit-roll ups but the new me wanted to be more efficient. In the spirit of making the best of what we already have, I did exactly that.

I found this great guide to making protein/energy bars on this blog and I thought how lucky I was because I knew what all of those ingredients were. Admit it, sometimes you look at a plain and simple recipe and it’s plain and simply WTF. This wasn’t like that at all. Great!

The day before the hike, I put all these ingredients together and thought I’d leave out the flour because the other ingredients seemed sticky enough to bind everything together. They weren’t. No big deal except I had to fill crumbly crumbs into a Ziploc bag and those make for slightly difficult “on the move” snacking. On that day however, I felt blessed to be alive with my favourite person. As long as I had my water bottle, we’d be okay.

The next week, I tired it again and down below lies a successful second attempt and a new “Can’t live without…” recipe. Except I can live without them.

Black bean snack bars

As I (think I) mentioned, I did a lot of what this recipe entailed from a scratch. Here’s a little prior guidance if you choose to do the same. I soaked 3/4 cup of black beans overnight and then cooked them in plain water until they were soft. This generally takes 30-40 minutes. You can use a pressure cooker but since I don’t own one like a bad Indian, I just boiled them. Once cooked, drain them and leave aside. I also made the almond butter for which I’ll share the recipe in a separate post tomorrow. Can you wait that long? Okay fine, I’ll just do it today.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup cooked black beans
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup dates, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1 tsp juice of a blood orange (optional)
Sprinkle of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
Chocolate chips, raisins (to stir in at the end)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, which is 2085 degrees F for my oven. It’s still broken, thanks for asking.

In a food processor, pulse together the beans, almond butter, agave nectar, chopped dates, vanilla extract, blood orange juice, cinnamon and salt until combined into a paste. To this, add the buckwheat flour and process a little at a time until it’s all mixed well. Pour this out into a big bowl and mix in the rolled oats with your hands. You can also do this in the food processor but if you do, pulse it only until it mixes together. You don’t want the oats to get too crumbly and dry out the mix. Add the chocolate chips and raisins at the end and mix them manually. ROAR like a lion/ess.

Grease a deep baking pan and then spread and flatten the mixture into it. You want the the snack bars to be at least an inch thick.

Bake for 15-17 minutes on the middle rack. Let it cool before dividing it into individual bars. I always have the hardest time with the whole “letting it cool” part.

The heart wants what it wants.

Bunny in a hat

March 18, 2013 by Edlyn

0%.

That’s how much attention I’ve been giving to my drawing lately. My whole life revolves around taking buses and getting to places, which leaves me little time to sit down and make a complete drawing. You’ll be happy to learn that yesterday was different. I happened to flip back some pages I use to scribble on and I found this really cute doodle I made. I don’t know what I was thinking when I drew it but I high-five’d myself and felt really cool. It was just a simple bunny in a hat but that’s all it took to feed my brain some smart food.

I drew a lot of bunnies in magician hats and I can’t wait to do some more. I love new series of things…they get me excited for no reason. If you have a bunny in a hat idea, pass it on. I’d love to see where it goes in my head. Of course I’ll give you credit. I’m nice, remember?

On a completely typical “Cat + You” side of things, this is how I look when I’m grocery shopping alone. I’m never this way when I shop with my married person but that’s only because he’s a lot crazier about these sugary things than I am. Me, I try to be the voice of reason.

ICE-CREAM. Sigh. I’m starting to think it’s not worth being an adult about these things.

Today, my blog friend who was first Gayle’s friend in Goa because they both worked at the same cafe where they made amazing cupcakes and things, let me know that she received a drawing I mailed her a couple of weeks ago. YAY. That sentence was too long. Take your time with it.

I think it was in January that I wrote a blog post where I asked my then imaginary readers if they wanted a postcard drawing or letter from me. If you weren’t reading then, you must know that I love sending mail and I take it a little too seriously. This girl was the only one hungry and excited about it and 2 months later, I finally sent her a drawing that came to me out of nowhere. All I know of her is from reading her blog. I took a wild guess that she’d like the haathi (elephant) and cake. Whoaaaaa what a smart one I am.

She hasn’t told me I missed the mark yet so I think I did okay.

If you want to feed my letter-writing insanity, email me your address to edlyngd@gmail.com. I promise I won’t send you any cable bills.

Now do the bunny hop.

Can’t live without paneer Thursday

March 14, 2013 by Edlyn

There were always these mini wars at home any time my father made palak paneer. No daggers were drawn and unkind words never uttered. This was a silent war. A war where you ensured you were the first person to serve yourself food so you could quietly spoon the most skewed palak paneer ratio into your plate. Nobody noticed this masti was going on until all the paneer was gone and my father decided to be vocal about it.

I think it was Gayle.

Paneer is one of the biggest reasons why I’ve become such a spinach fiend. It’s not the other way around. I just realised how true this is after I typed it. Unlike other Indian households that know the exact doodhwala (dairy, but literally translated to milkman) that makes the softest, pillow-like paneer or provides the milk that can aid you in the process, my family rarely did any of this. Paneer was a once in a while, Sunday sort of thing and that made it even more tantalising. Every time it was stir-fried or dropped in a pot of pureed spinach, Gayle was always the first in line stealing all the paneer.

She’ll say no but don’t believe her.

Which brings me to my new kitchen. There’s an “Indian store” some kilometers away that sells paneer like any good Latin-American run Indian store should. If ever I sum up the courage to walk there, I never forget the cottage cheese. I’m a good Indian girl that way.

Last week I wanted to be the best Indian alive. I wanted to make my own paneer, which if any seasoned Indian cook reads, they’re probably going to laugh in my face. I knew when I saw a bottle of milk from the local dairy, all swirling with the fattiest of fat milk I’ve seen in the West, I had to have it. HAD TO. If you’re ever thinking of attempting this recipe, buying the best milk is a good place to start. It’s so simple, and with a little patience, you can be like your friend’s mother who takes restaurant-like orders for food every morning and when you come home after FROLICKING in the 1000 degree Agra summer there’s a freakin mango milkshake and 10 course meal with paneer you press with your index finger because it’s clearly sent from heaven.

If you have no intention of attempting this recipe, that’s okay too. Just leave a comment in the end that says: “You’re the best Indian alive.” “You’re” meaning me.

I think I’ve earned it.

Ingredients

1 litre of whole aka fatty fat milk (4 cups)
1- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

You will also need

Cheesecloth

Pour the milk into the pot and keep it on medium heat. You will now be waiting for it to come to a slow/gentle boil. As it sits there, keep stirring from time to time with a spoon.

Keep a watchful eye on the pot. It should take about 30 minutes to reach a gentle boil. If you’ve ever seen milk reach its boiling point, it doesn’t just do the sissy bubbling that water does. It will rise right out of the pot and on to the burners. Total anarchy will ensue. When all you were hoping for was a cup of tea, you will have a stove that doesn’t light and a whole mess to clean. If you’re going for gentle boil, you do not want this.

While the milk is going along, keep the cheesecloth ready. It should be big enough to bundle and hang. Place the cheesecloth in a strainer or colander.

As soon as you see tiny bubbles come up to the surface of the milk, add the lemon juice a little bit at a time (a teaspoon would be a good start). You’ll start to see slight curdling of the milk. While doing this, keep stirring slowly. You want the milk to separate. Once it does this, it changes colour. I want to call this change a greenish colour but you might have a different opinion. That’s the milk turning into curd and whey. I have a picture to show you what you’re looking for.

You might require more or less lemon juice than stated in the ingredients as every lemon has a different acid content.

Once it completely separates, stir for 15 seconds more and then strain the curd-whey through the cheesecloth. Rinse the curd under cold water to remove any lemon taste and also to cool it so you can squeeze out the whey before you hang the cheesecloth.

You can add some dried herbs like thyme or oregano before you tie and hang the curd if you want to flavour it. I didn’t do that this time but I will try it the next time.

Tie the cheesecloth (with the curd inside) tight with baker’s twine or some other string and let it hang out for 30 minutes. I tied it from the handle to our microwave. Weirdo. Thirty minutes later, put some weight on the cheesecloth bundle to get rid of any extra whey that’s still in the curds. You don’t want too much weight or your paneer will become too dry. Leave it under the weight for 2 hours.

Untie it and voila, guess what we’ve just created? Perfect palak paneer material, that’s what.

Apart from the spinach, of course.

Salmon cakes with jalapeno aioli + Forget to remember

March 13, 2013 by Edlyn

Like a round of shots. But without the hangover. Unless you have fish hangovers, which if you do, I envy your life.

Never mind.

Last week I said I’d share two salmon recipes from a book and I never did that. I shared one and then left you wondering if I’m worth the time. If I’m ever going to be that one honest person in your life that tells you the truth when you ask where babies come from. Except I’d adult it up.

I AM worth your time. We were born from rash decisions and the idea that babies happen to everybody else. Storks bring them.

I chalk this all up to being a newbie and losing my marbles from time to time. Have you seen them by the way? My marbles, of course.

This week, I’m a whole new person. I’m not going to forget what I tell you as soon as my dog stops panting in my face (I CAN SMELL YOUR TULIP-SCENTED BREATH CHEVY BOY). He needs to go for a walk but I made a commitment right now so you and me, we’re doing this thing.

The thing where I demonstrate my ace fish cake skills…

right…

….NOW.

Ingredients

For the salmon mix (should make 4 round cakes)

1 1/2 cups fresh salmon, skinned, poached in water and flaked (you can also skin it after poaching, if that’s how you roll)
2 tbsp finely diced red/purple whatever you call it onion
1/2 cup grated pepper Jack cheese
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp minced jalapeno1 tbsp washed and chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp minced red pepper
1 egg white, beaten lightly
2 tbsp panko

For breading the salmon cakes with panko

Peanut or any vegetable oil
1 cup panko
1 cup cornmeal
4 egg whites, beaten lightly

Jalapeno aioli

Mix together all of the ingredients listed below and refrigerate the outcome.

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tbsp minced jalapeno
1/4 cup minced red/purple onion
1 tsp lime zest
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 lime, juiced
Pinch of black pepper

Please don’t be intimidated by all the ingredients. You’ll see what a breeze it actually is once you do the mise en place. That’s what it’s called, right? If anything, my use of French should intimidate you.

Boil some water in a pot and drop the salmon into it. Gently. Be cool. Let it cook for 5 minutes after which you take it out of the pot WITH YOU BARE HANDS. Do not do that, please. Oh my gosh, what am I even on.

Flake the salmon.

Mix the salmon with the onion, cheese, mayonnaise, jalapeno, salt and red pepper. To this, ~~ass~~ add the egg white and (2tbsp) panko crumbs and combine. Too many “ands” spoil the soup. Sort of unavoidable but I’ll spare you the English lesson.

I’d eat it this way if nobody was looking and if I lived on the edge.

Once it’s all mixed well, shape it into 4 patties and refrigerate for an hour so it sets well.

Pick a pan that’s deep enough and using your super powers of guestimation (a word I swore I’d never use) pour enough oil that would cover half of the salmon cake on the base.

Heat the oil to a good medium-high temperature. The original recipe says 350 degrees F but I don’t own a thermometer so I flex my arms and go with the flow. Whatever works.

Then I proceed to play with my food. Aren’t you so glad you found me?

To bread the salmon cakes, mix the cup of panko and cormeal together. Dip the cakes into the egg whites and then coat it with the dry cormeal-panko mixture. Fry the salmon until they turn a nice crispy golden brown on both sides.

Drain on paper towels. This step always makes me feel like I’m doing my body a huge service.

Serve warm with the jalapeno aioli. And garnish with all of nature’s bounty. I use cilantro sprigs, matchstick carrots and lemon juice.

If it’s too pretty to eat, give me a call. I’m sure I can talk you into buying me a plane ticket, without being Miss Crazy Stalker.

I do it for the fans.

When it doubt.

March 12, 2013 by Edlyn

What if the answer to cure all of our problems is to amplify the problem 20 thousand times until it reaches its threshold and explodes with no sign that it ever existed in the first place?

That was a real question.

What do you do when your brain feels like mush? When you can’t sit still but you can’t go anywhere either. When the last thing you want to do is put stuff “in its rightful place” but you’d rather not because you just don’t want to be grown up about the whole thing. You write about it, right? So maybe people will relate and cross their fingers for you. I’m fine. REALLY.

A few minutes ago I was wondering what I would eat if I went completely vegetarian. Dal. Lots and lots of dal. With rice. Oh, in this country they call it lentils. But it’s dal. Short and sweet. da–hl: Derived from the words da and yum. In my mind, meat is disgusting. Until I see it on a plate and then yeah, what the heck was I worried about? But really, I need to grow up and realise that I sort of need to tone it down, which does not imply that I pick meat over veggies. Au contraire. I never eat meat without greens. Not because it makes me feel validated. Au contraire. Deja vu. I do it because my chi needs balancing…whatever that means.

I have a lot of thoughts right now and in order for me not to chop off the tips of my hair and Awesomeshirts old t-shirts, I thought I’d just bother you with them.

True story. I even braided the ends.

The other white t-shirt is in the washing machine. It was covered with…my hair. I hear that’s what hair does when you cut it.

If you let me explain, I will. I’m having a special Edlyn day. It really is the best kind of day where I reclaim my youth and jam to a Gorillaz album I reviewed wayyy back when I felt like I was an expert. I also moonlighted as a fashion expert. This is the first time I’m saying this publicly and being proud of it. I was good but also very ashamed that I wasn’t writing about wars and such. That was never going to be a career but if you ever consider it, know that it’s so easy to bullshit your way through it all. If you can air kiss, you might even get a raise. I was out of there very soon.

I know I do not have any problems. Not compared to people who have actual problems. The last thing they want to do is amplify these things. So that makes my very first assumption stupid, in short.

Honestly, I have no idea how to be a big girl. I pout. A lot. And then I feel like my husband married a teenager. I try not to ruin Christmas for him. If you’re like me right now, raise your hand and wave. I’m waving back. I know the way most of us feel is not exclusive. That means I know we don’t own it. It exists withing our heads but if you walk down the road, you’ll find at least 2 other people who agree there needs to be more pedestrian crossings, less cars and at least more cake shops with emergency lines. Just in case.

Today I asked the maintenance man what time he started work. “Nine,” is all he said. Tomorrow I’m going to ask him where he’s from because I see him every day in the golf cart thing and I wonder. Not to be creepy but I do want to know. I’m sure if I found ONE other person who loves potatoes, that would be a good Wednesday morning conversation.

I should go now. But before I do, if you know any way I could dye my braided T-shirt green with vegetables, let me know.

Let you mind scatter. It always brings wonderfullness back.

Wonderfullness, it’s what the world needs.

Dirty dishes can wait.

March 11, 2013 by Edlyn

These past three days were filled with time I just didn’t want to waste. After pleading for more Indian-friendly weather, the sun came out just in time for Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Well..not so much on Sunday but I’m never greedy about these things.

It’s funny because my mother keeps telling me how horrible the weather is in Goa. They had a pool day on Goan Sunday, which is American Saturday night, which is very far from pool day weather, which is fine because I can pretend when I’m eating fish and chips.

Which is what I did.

So I gladly forgot to bring to you my breakfast picture from Sunday, though I must add I was THIS close to making something out of boiled eggs. THIS close (can you see my thumb and index finger? Thought so).

Let me break it down for you because you know I do such a great job of it.

Friday: I ate too much.

Saturday: It started out with fog but the day just got so nice by the time it hit noon. We went for a nice long walk on an island. It was a ferry ride away and I want to live on Whidbey Island. No big deal. Can I borrow some money?

Sunday: Spent the afternoon discovering Chinatown, Seattle Underground and talking about something that depresses me as much as it is a cause for my elation — food. It’s about time we have some consensus on the fact that premium needs to become normal again and food needs to spoil faster, without genetically-modifying it please. I can’t imagine spending extra for a CSA basket just because it’s better for me. What about the people that don’t have that “luxury”? It’s not fair. Stories like this are reassuring. But Whole Foods isn’t mainstream enough. In my opinion, they’ve just found a great way to market the most obviously good-for-you products better and hence, mark up the prices for them. If they can wage a battle against Pepsico and Coca Cola and YIKES Monsanto – some of the giants that spend millions to hide the truth from us and buy “organic” titles – all power to them.

America, you need to learn. Because the big guys here become the big guys in other countries too and that’s not the direction the world needs to move in. Not with our food.

As for pictures, I have some but not of the digital variety.

I promise you more shenanigans soon. Eat well and live well. The world needs your spark.

Can’t live without butter, garlic, rum Thursday

March 7, 2013 by Edlyn

No, no, no. I checked with myself before I typed that title and I say I’m not going overboard. There is nothing grand about that title. I’m diving right into life with this one. It’s about time I did too. I owe it to my friend.

Rudra (whom I wrote about waaaaay back in the far reaches of last month) and I had another one of our meetings in Bangalore in 2011. A big part of me wishes it was in 2012 so I didn’t have to feel it was so long ago. I loved that trip. I was there for a concert and for the rest of the days, I planted my muddy feet at his and his friends’ flat in New-Thippasandra. As the perfect friend, he took me to all the best places to eat in Bangalore, me sitting at the back of his bike. By best, I don’t mean fancy and by that I mean the food was extra loved.

The one fancy restaurant we went to, we waited forever for our food. It was a few hours before I had to catch my plane back. To say I was cutting it close would be an understatement if you knew how far the airport was. At the restaurant, they had a basket of bread and some fancy butters on the side. One of them was the garlic butter and we both liked that the most. Me being the sometimes show off that I am told him how easy it would be to make. I had never even tried it before but he held me to it. After all the food he led me to in Bangalore, I had to.

I love the way Rudra loves Bangalore; mostly from behind the camera. He’s a quiet person..I am too. We don’t talk TALK much but when we do, I sense his joy living the city as much as his pain looking at the monstrous change it’s going through. He never brags about his work but I love every single picture he makes. He’s one of those people that will stick a camera right at you and you wouldn’t even notice he’s there. He’s at home one day, Bangladesh the next and who knows where else. My cat Bidli got to travel and give me 2 small heart attacks because of him. I still like you Rudra Rakshit Sharan.

I like you so much that I sat and wrote down a garlic butter recipe for you. And because I made you wait so long, I threw in a rum butter recipe too.

Garlic butter + Rum butter

I’ll start with the Garlic butter because it’s been 2 years and I could live without the guilt that we’re going to have another one of these chats.

Ingredients

1 head of garlic
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened (If I break it down, that makes 7 tbsp for the garlic butter and 1 tbsp for roasting the garlic)
Sea salt to taste

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut off the top of the head of garlic. I was confused about which side was the “top” so I went with cutting the pointy side (the side opposite the “brown cap”). It was easier to cut and also easy to let the garlic “sit” in the oven without toppling over. I can’t believe I had that question in my mind to begin with. My brain sometimes…geez.

Now when you cut it, you’ll notice that not all the garlic cloves on the side will have their tops exposed. You’ll need to individually cut these off so the butter seeps through. Don’t hesitate to peel off some of the flaky skin if it obstructs the cutting process. Just make sure you don’t completely peel them so the butter doesn’t just slide off. You want the garlic to roast with the butter.

Once this is done, line a ramekin or a baking dish of your choice with foil and place the garlic head within. Take a tbsp of butter and place it on the head of the garlic. Break it up a bit so it gets to all the cloves. Cover them up with the foil and roast for 45 minutes to an hour.

The garlic should look like this.

Let it cool for a bit and then pick out the mushy garlic from its skin with a fork or fine knife. Place it in a bowl and mash it into a paste.

In another bowl, whip the butter with a spoon until it’s smooth. Add the roast garlic paste to the butter and mix well. So fragrant. Can’t handle it.

Don’t forget to add the salt for taste. Put the butter in some parchment paper, fold and store in the fridge. You can spread it on bread or even use it to roast veggies or meats as you prefer.

Rum butter

Ingredients

4 tbsp dark rum (I used Captain Morgan Spiced Rum but I wish I could’ve used Old Monk. Indians please represent.)
1 stick of softened unsalted butter
6 tbsp brown sugar (I used sugar in the raw because I wanted crunch in my butter. But if you want smoother butter, use muscovado or brown sugar)

Pour the rum into the butter and mix well.

Add the sugar to the mixture and mix it with a hand blender for about 5 minutes. It breaks down the sugar slightly and make the butter easier to spread.

Place the butter in parchment paper and refrigerate until you’re ready to party with pastry in the AM.

Or not.

I’ll go now.

Before Rudra pretends he doesn’t know me.

Cat + You + Tree

March 4, 2013 by Edlyn

I think I should get more points for being one of those writers’ that spends a lot of time day dreaming about the world outside. Except that means I won’t get to be a writer. That’s okay though. Many times I can’t put my thoughts into words. It’s those times that I’m glad I have some other forms of creativity to flow with.

Yes, we can all feel the seasons turn. The trees can a lot more. I always wonder how they must feel to just stand there, day in and day out, feeling the true meaning of every gust of wind and each freshly frozen drop of sky. They know the good part is coming.

My inner battles with this changing global climate begin and end with these trees. There’s no better measure of the truth. No better life form that will tell us where it begins and ends.

And there’s no better place than in the shade of a tree.

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