2002 / april / 28
inspiration and cooking
Back after a long break, and not just to writing here - I've been on hiatus from life,
with only a few exceptions. Much to mull over and reaching inside for my inspiration.
Which was missing for a long, long time. And things started rolling this week with
a photo assignment that was very challenging,, bits of poetry whirring up while
coding... the desire coming up to start a new band, to sing with ! An idea
I've buried for years. My own music. I've put it under wraps for a long time.
But that's all future plans. The real test is what I am doing with it in the here
and now. I signed up to actively become involved in the local Amnesty charter,
having been just a donating member for years. From a sense of civic duty, duty in
the positive meaning of the word.
And giving wee dinner party yesterday - the first time in ages that I did that.
Spent an afternoon shopping and preparing, and everything was pretty much ready when
the guests came. Last time I cooked like this, I welcomed my friends in only to rush
back to the kitchen again, hand them glasses of wine and tell them to hang in there
for a while until I was finished. I wasn't too bad at cooking, but I never got the
timing right. Not yesterday!
The doorbell went when the pastry had some 20 minutes to go in the oven, and
everything else was standing by on the gas, sauteed and all, ready to finish with
a last burst of various ways of heating.
Oh, and it was actually all really good. A mushroom/almond pate in pastry,
with steamed courgette and another green whose english name I can't be
bothered to look up now, lightly stirfried polenta cubes with parsley,
and salad with a honey-tamari dressing that worked really well, offset
byb red onion rings sliced less than a millimeter thick.
And vanilla icecream with a dark, dark, dark, hot chocolate sauce - bitter,
strong, with my secret extra ingredient - deceivingly simple, but hard to
get right (note to self: look for a pan that I can actually do au-bain-Marie
with...).
God, I really enjoyed doing that. I wasn't able to do that last year,
being in unknown kitchens all the time. 't Was good. 't Was inspiration coming
at me from a different angle. Yeah, using big words here, on the verge of spoiling
the experience for what it is, but damnit it is a good sign and I feel really
good now. And that's not just a gratiutous (sp?) feeling, since I am now looking
at a *huge* washing up in the kitchen... *)
*) and I hate doing the dishes!
