SPIRITUAL CONTAMINATION

In this challenged world we all need to address civility.. be it environmental issues, personal relationships, or the messages and examples we set for others and our children. I recently was thinking about how easily things unravel if we are not mindful.Someone chided me recently for not taking a plastic bag from a store when the items I purchased could clearly be transported with out the bag. The response was "what was it with my green thing??? one bag was not going to make a difference..and yet if one person every hour of the day made the same decision all over the world ...can you imagine how many bags that would be??? and YES one bag does make a difference. so does one gesture of civility..one deep breath and a loving explanation or lesson taught.... lesson learned......

I was in a restaurant last night using the ladies room and someone kept jarring at the door and knocking.I kept saying "sotto voce" that the facility was occupied ..When I eventually opened the door ( mind you I am a person in the loo lines dream..rapid and no frills) there stood 2 girls (sisters?) 12 and maybe 17 years of age..they pushed past me w/o a polite acknowledgement and closed the door.. This kind of behavior is taught and not curbed..

but as I have always believed when a shadow is near a ray of light is not far behind..

Several minutes later the hostess sat a young mother with 2 little girls next to us..They were very hungry ,inquisitive about the menu and sat down ceremoniously. The mother asked them questions about what they would like to eat lacing the choices with an explanation of why their father was not joining them.It is Super Bowl weekend and Daddy is with his college friends..What is Superbowl?? who are you rooting for? what fun dialogue to be privy to..The mother explained when she was younger she didn't care for sports much... but that was because she didn't understand them.. her husband had introduced her to his love of sports.....when you love someone,sharing the things they like brings you closer together..She went on to explain when she was dating,,(and I dated a lot of men) she wanted to be with someone that would make a nice father.. ..when she met their father she knew instantly that he was the one.. he liked doing new things and was flexible..also it didn't hurt he was very cute and funny...chosing someone you can be friends with is very important... she continued.. gnawing on a Chinese spareib with gusto...

Over at the next table I couldn't help but feel warmed by this generosity..Given the array of media that gender bashes..divides and chides.. this woman's account to her young daughters (who were maybe 3 and 6).. was weaving a soft world of tolerance using the meal and the Super Bowl as her vehicle..How different the lesson would have been if she had chosen another familiar path of anger..diminishing their father for being with his friends ect..An emotional torch of security was being passed forward silently as they ate their meal..The 3 year old spent her meal time career gently slurping through a bowl of miso soup...lost in her own world of steamy bliss.....

I have to laugh because I know if my own daughter was with us ...she could have predicted my contact..As we left the restaurant I spoke to the mother and told her how refreshing it was to witness such a loving mother and made a joke about her daughter's love for Miso.......( its the earthy salt.. ohhhhhh yum)

It wouldn't be difficult to recreate the first scenario with HER girls outside the bathroom door.

So many of the ills in society are taught not instinctual..the excepti0n perhaps the survival of the fittest.... which is where civility enters....it is work to be tolerant...requiring patience and sifting..however what a beautiful starting point for many a change in the world..one gesture at a time..one less plastic bag..

The photos below are green points in my garden..Vervaine ( lemon verbena) is the herb... in the pot is a small chartreuse shrub.... I love planting items in pots of different heights to add volume to the garden..

SALSA OVEN CHICKEN

Purchase 6 chicken thighs and 8 legs

place these in a bowl and micro wave for 4 minutes

Mix up 4 cloves of crushed garlic, lemon juice, 1/4 cup of olive oil,, several pinches each of oregano,cumin,and rosemary..season with salt and pepper

add 2 cups of red salsa ....adjust heat with chili sauce

Pull the skin gently away from the thigh or leg and gently stuff the salsa mix between the meat and the skin (like a little pocket)

Place the stuffed pieces .. stuffed side up...in a shallow baking dish close together..drizzle with any remaining sauce.

Bake in a 450 degree oven and monitor the meat to make sure it does not burn..once one side is well crisped..turn each leg and thigh..and continue cooking.

Serve with rice and salad ...these are even better 2 days later...

BEFORE the storm

Porter and I visited New Orleans the spring before Katrina.. The scenery was verdant and the people were in full bloom. We met so many different characters once we decided to walk the city instead of rely on the public trolley car system which always had someone half-mast with a beer dribbling over ..We stayed in the garden district at an ancient B&B.. After the first night we slept there we asked to be moved to a different room as both of us had very vivid dreams about the same woman who had been mis-trialed and hung in the 1700's..The story retold to us by the owner..Once we moved into a converted sun porch that overlooked a small garden the dreams ceased..However the adventures multiplied..We visited museums,walked though crocodile

sunning spots,past the uneven architecture and economically challenged shanties..thru swamp areas, downtown New Orleans with its long term perfume of whiskey and vomit laced with its beauty and soulful music woven into the damp air.. We talked to shop owners learning stories about the Neville brothers , the movies that had been filmed there over the past 10 years after

the governor had made a tax deal with Hollywood..and ate fusion food which is still on my memory bank..Asians,Latins,Germans,French,Russians, had all made their mark and interpretations on the long term corner of Louisiana Cuisine producing amazing cross breeding of flavors and integration..My favorite site was a group of cranes nesting at the Museum on their own designated island..they collectively looked like snow.

I feel fortunate we were able to see New Orleans like this : in its glory.. Like Haiti it will have a layer of its devastation for a long time..Wealth measured in the depth of its culture..That collapsed delta was the feeding mouth for 110's years of commerce and pockets lined by others toil..Toil and soil and now silt.

Hot pimento bar olives:

this recipe I talked off of a friendly bartender in the French Quarter..

they are fun to play with both in drinks and cuisine

Empty and rinse 2 jars of pimento olives...place in a large bowl..cover with Tabasco sauce or any type of red hot sauce of your liking...recant into jars and refrigerate..These are fun in Martinis, salads... in sandwiches...chopped into Spaghetti Arribata...sliced over grilled halibut, chicken...mixed into scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese....you'll know what to do....................Get on that van and Gogh...........keep scrolling down.....so green

IMPORTS AND IMPRINTS

The plates here are plates I watched being thrown outside of Guadalajara Mexico some 35 years ago..I had exchanged my apartment in Silverlake (LA) for an artist's studio for a month in the summer.The family that made these plates were my favorite ....they had a sense of harmony and purpose...I purchased 6.. only one has broken over the years and they keep finding a new place to hang where ever we live.When I look at them I can still smell the dirt streets and the heat rising like a soft cloud, the smell of chicken fat heavy in the

air surrounded by all the noise and daily activity of life back then..Now the same spot has been transformed into a golfer's paradise and riddled with condominiums for visiting Gringos..A pink paradise..for me these plates remind me of the smell of wet clay,my hands taking command and the shape taking form as I pump a rusty pottery wheel.. They hang to remind me of a part of myself that sleeps but lingers forever.

The chest in the second photo is from Brazil..Someone has carefully painted chickens all over it..The paintings are wonderful, primitive but modern. This armoire reigns over our kitchen : our own chicken coop per say..It will travel forward with us when we move from here.

We are in the process of downsizing our lives since our children have moved to California. It is a gesture of embracing age and change which has so many layers I often feel as if I have cataracts over my visceral vision.. Change is constant ..change is inevitable...I know once I am installed in my new life I will embrace it but standing on the other side of the river,,I am trying to refresh my breast stroke..It all went too quickly..I am awaiting a new face of family.

Our daughter is part of the RAW movement and has taught us many nutritional facts and helped me to redesign how I prepare meals and eat..2 years ago we visited verdant Costa Rica with its overlay of McDonalds and development imprints..we found a beautiful home off

VRBO.com which was situated high in the hills overlooking the jungle floor and the ocean..The toucans would come out in the early evening ..mate..make noise..Occasionally we were lucky enough to have a wave of Mariposa butterflies fly by our shower window..It was magical..

Fresh fruit and vegetables were readily available by car on the open road..Our main food prep was either fresh juices or salsas eaten with fish or poultry or eggs..(Coffee was not scarce)

I don't think I have ever chopped more fruit in my life..

COSTA RICA SALSA

chop 1/2 pineapple into small di

chop 2 cups of watermelon into small pieces

chop 1/2 onion into small di

chop 1 cucumber peeled and seeded into cubes

Add the juice of 3 limes

salt

add green chili sauce to taste

add red chili sauce to taste

add 1 teaspoon of chili flakes

add 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro

Allow this to become itself for several hours covered in the fridge..

grab a tortilla....slice some grilled chicken..slice an avocado... blue blue flying by

Snow Flowers cacti ...

SNOW.....FLOWERS...CACTI...WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW

GATEWAYS TO UNDERSTANDING

WHEN the Christos decided to install THE GATES after the 911 tragedy I went to go walk thru them on 3 different days: one day it was snowing lightly, another day the sun was out all day and the third day it was cold and the light quite compromised..Each event (and I lightly call it that because they all were), was life changing.

The color of Tibetan orange they chose was the visual thread..The gates could be seen from a great distance .Their silent companionship worked like a flood of emotions..the most potent being a sense of repair..Children and adults alike seemed to abandon their inhibitions and find a common link in the stroll or in some cases wildfire romp..thru the crushing leaves and the blaze of the never ending flame..

I ran into Anne Bancroft the second time I went just a week before she left us..I was always so grateful for this meeting as I had always admired her.. She was also a customer of my clothing line..She had been the vessel for so many wonderful women in her lifetime and her humor was impeccable.

In the early 70's I walked The FENCES in California.. google ..CHRISTO and JEANNE-CLAUDE.. wonderful visuals.

DILL SAUCE :

This dill sauce is the base for several dishes I make in the summer but I keep it around all the time as it makes a delicious

sandwich spread ..It also transcends frozen peas , makes a dip for vegetables and a side sauce for seafood..

Mix 1 small 8oz jar of high end mayonaise

6-8 Tablespoons of Yellow mustard (French's or the like) you want a tumeric undernote

1 cup of chopped fresh dill .. I often use ALOT more

1/4 white onion chopped very fine

1/4 t. tabasco sauce

2T fresh lemon juice.. add more if you like a higher acid flavor

Blend all of this together and recant into jars

Keep refrigerated ....will last for weeks

Try dipping asparagus into this............. mmmmmmm.

Table Tableau

Setting the table..Table landscaping..Homeplates

I read an article the other day on the differences between different cultures around the world: diet and exercise versus customs.. The US as a whole eats too many meals on the go.When we first moved back here form France it surprised us how quickly the kids that visited wolfed down their meal.One evening Hart suggested to his friend

"hey man you have to slow down when you eat" his friend answered "why?" Hart quipped "so you have an idea of what you just ate"..more importantly slowing down opens up the conversation..the dinner table should be the replacement for the tribal bonfire.When we sit down and share a meal with others or even between 2.....a certain intimacy is invited in. ( If you are by yourself, light a candle ,put on your favorite music,..give yourself a beautiful view...review your day and plan your next.). Turn off the TV..have your meal in small courses..discuss the day..When we first moved to France in the 90's it was such a huge adjustment..The kids would go off to school (the battlefield) and we were left gravitating daily life and business long distance..We used to think we were either inspired or the most ridiculous people on the planet. One day we invented a conversation game.. Minor Mistakes/Major Accomplishments . At the dinner table we would all report our day..laughing at our follies and putting perspective on the journey we were taking..eventually there was not as much to report as we acclimated to our new zone..so another game slipped in..stories of invention..

The Photo here is a montage of 2 placemats..When the children were quite small I had them start setting the table ..We have rarely ever returned the plates and silver to the cupboards but rather reset the tables right from the dishwasher..It struck me one day what a waste of energy that was and it also created a "last minute chore" just before dinner when everyone was spent...This way with a pre-set table everyone just sat down to that meal's tableau...an inventive maybe whimsical confection from a group effort..Sometimes the tables are theme oriented..I am currently working on the Valentine's Day table..sometimes they have been just rudimentary..but sitting down to a well set table..taking our time and reviewing our day has become part of how we eat..Nourishment from all aspects..

Something to check out...when Porter was attending Brown ..she introduced me to a City Event caalled WaterFire....,google it... see if you can attend one..its free.. its an outdoor tribal picnic..SO FUN

MICRO WAVE JAM

Cut up your desired fruits..apples,pineapple,melons.oranges,apricots,peaches..ect...add I/2 the quantity of sugar..For example if you have 4 cups of fruit add 2 cups of sugar...Microwave this for 4 minutes...Allow to cool a bit and taste if it needs more sugar... add to taste..

At this point I start adding either almond oil, vanilla ,rose water, orange water, cardamon, cinnamon...so many flavors to add become an early morning alchemist....

jasmine..what ever flavor you want the confection to take on...Microwave the mix again for 4 more minutes..if it is not set..the consistency should be a little runny...microwave again for 2 minutes..While the mixture is still very bot...pour into pre-sterilized jars and cap tightly...

This is so easy and delicious..Sometimes I add rum,cognac or nuts..just play around..

One spoon,one fork,one knife and a well set table.......

Vikings and Legends

This is my Viking Stove I inherited from the previous owners. She had a small catering business and did not go to the school of

"Ratatouille"clean as you work..The real estate agent suggested we give it away ...WHAT????????? I spent a good 2 weeks taking the thing apart and cleaning it on the back lawn piece by piece..it was disgusting but worth the effort because it has been a work horse for 9 years extra now .I have had the thermostat replaced and some simple wiring updated..It looks like an overcrowded snack stand..I have everything within an octopus reach..my own cooking callipoe...Where the grill is supposed to be I put down 2 large tiles which works for me..The 4 burners are enough too..In Los Angeles I inherited a vintage OKeefe and Merritt from the previous owner Grace Wertzel..I don't think she ever used the thing..I know I made up for that over the years we lived there..Christmas,Easter,Thanksgiving,Valentine,Birthday dinners oozed out of that kitchen. A pageantry of celebration and nibbling,kids running through the halls and bottles of wine being drained over animated conversation.

I love the way I can remember events and people by the food we shared together... music is food for the heart and... food is music for the palate.....