No. 5, from Geoffrey.  Great idea for a basic vegetable soup, including making the stock.  I love this idea.  Been a while since I've done it, but I look forward to doing it again!

Gee, I'd just go for a simple vegetable soup. First I'd make a soup stock. Brad, that's easy. Get good tasting water, some salt, pepper, your favorite herbs (you can use some of mine) plenty of veggies you like but not tubers, chop 'em up, boil 'em down for around 4 or 5 hours in a 5 qt pot or so, occasionally adding water to keep it from going dry. Then let it get to about half height or a little more. Filter it through a colander or cheese cloth an squeeze out some more juice. That's your stock. (If you want sweet, put in a beet or two also but carrots, onions and garlic add sweetness).

Adding any veggies to it, including potatoes, in part or whole, for the soup, with about equal parts water, cooking it day of for an hour or two and you should have a nice vegetable soup. Add noodles if you want 10 or so minutes before it's done. 

Your stock can be kept in the freezer in gallon bags and you can take it out one at a time to have stock for many months to make soup.

Of course, I do this with chicken but you'd not want to do that.

No, I don't.  :-)

And No. 4, from Rob.  If I were invited to eat with any two people, my choices would be with Rob and Gina.  Not only for the friendship and quality of conversation, but they are incredible cooks!

Masala Dal

Cuisine: Indian
Serves: 4 people

Recipe Ingredients

1 1/2 cups	355ml	Yellow split peas
1/3 teaspoon	1.7ml	Turmeric
2 teaspoons	10ml	Salt
1/2 cup	118ml	Ghee
1 tablespoon	15ml	Cumin seeds
1 1/2 cups	93g / 3.3oz	Finely chopped onions
1/4 teaspoon	1.3ml	Red pepper
2 tablespoons	30ml	Chopped coriander leaves

Recipe Instructions

Wash peas well. Place in a bowl, cover with hot water and let sit for an hour. Drain. Place in a large pot, add 4 1/2 cups water and throw in the turmeric. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium low, partially cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove from heat, beat with a wire whisk until the mixture is finely pureed. Stir in salt and set aside. When ready to serve, simmer puree over low heat until piping hot. Heat ghee in a skillet over medium high heat. When very hot, add cumin seeds and fry for 10 seconds. Lower heat, add onions and fry for 20 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Stir in red pepper and immediately pour in to the puree. Garnish with coriander. Serve with a potato dish, rice and bread.

Another one from Gina. Wow.  I'm going to be eating really great!  Number 3.

Here is another all time favorite. 
Indian Black-Eyed Peas Stew: 

1/2 pound black-eyed peas -- soaked overnight
4 cups water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon cardamom seeds (taken out of the pods as)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
1 medium to large onion chopped
4 cloves garlic -- finely chopped
1 14oz can of diced tomatoes (don't drain!)
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice. Bottled is fine

Drain the soaking water. Bring the beans and 4 cups fresh water to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes or until the beans are tender. 
Meanwhile, put the oil in a frying-pan and set over medium-high heat. 
When hot, put in the cardamom seeds and cinnamon. Let sizzle for5 -6
seconds. Add the onions and garlic and stir and fry until the onion
pieces turn brown at the edges. 

Now add the tomatoes, ground coriander, cumin, turmeric and cayenne 
to the frying pan. Stir and cook for a minute. Cover, turn heat to low 
and let this mixture cook for 5 minutes. 

Add the contents of the frying pan to the beans and water mixture. Add 
the salt and black pepper. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Simmer, 
uncovered, on medium-low heat until the beans are cooked just right. 
Stir occasionally. Add more water if needed. Add the lemon juice a 
little before it's done. Serve with bread to soak up the juice.

11/20/2013

Another one of the 10.  From my friend Gina, care of Madhur Jaffrey.  I know it'll be one of the 10 because everything she (Gina) does is first rate.

Just made this.  I used frozen spinach, two 12 oz bags, so it is wonderfully spinach-y. I used coconut oil for the saute. When sauteing the onion and garlic, I put in a whole jalapeno, chopped.  Glad I did--this is wonderfully hot.  I know Gina really likes the taste of jalapeno, and so do I.  Then I put in some frozen carrots before the last simmer, as much for color as anything.  but they also have a really nice sweetness. Yep, this one is in the rotation.

I served it over basmati, first time I've had basmati in a while.  Forgot just how special it is!

This is an old tried and true I make all the time. I just use a package of frozen spinach. I bet it's really good with fresh turnip greens or maybe even mustard greens. 

Lentils with Spinach:
1-1/4 pounds fresh or frozen leaf spinach 
1 medium-sized onion, peeled 
5 T. vegetable oil 
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced 
1 cup dried lentils, picked over, washed, and drained 
1-1/2 to 1-3/4 t. salt 
1 t. ground cumin seeds 
1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper 
Separate the fresh spinach leaves and wash well. Do not discard the pinkish roots. Wash them as well. (They will taste very good when cooked.) Bunch up a few leaves at a time and cut them crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips. Cut each root into 2 to 3 pieces. If using frozen spinach, cook according to directions, drain and chop coarsely. 

Cut the onion in half lengthwise, and then cut the halves into fine half rings. 

Heat the oil in a heavy, wide, casserole-type pot over a medium flame. When hot, put in the onion and garlic. Stir and sauté for 2 minutes. Now put in the lentils and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat and simmer about 25 minutes or until lentils are just tender. Add the spinach leaves and roots, salt, and cumin. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer another 10 to 15 minutes or until spinach is tender and well-mixed into the lentils. Stir gently a few times during this period. Put in the black pepper and mix again. This dish may easily be made ahead of time and reheated.
From World of the East Vegetarian Cooking" by Madhur Jaffrey

11/20/2013

So haven't posted in a while.  Thnking about food and health, and the relationship, as is common here.  Today I made a wonderful Indian rajma, or kidney bean stew.  Basically, I put a sliced jalapeno whole in the cooking water after soaking a cup of kidney beans overnight.  Then I cooked them until they were nice and still a bit al dente.  I sauteed some onion and garlic with cumin (whihc can take the immediate heat of sauteing in a way that other spices can't), then poured in the beans with their thickened liquid. I don't measure, but maybe a tbs of cumin.  (Not rounded though.)  Then added turmeric, coriander (tsp), cardamom (half tsp), cinnamon (quarter to half tsp), and a couple of tbs tomato paste.  Then just let that simmer for an hour, on very low heat, covered.  Oh, I added another jalapeno in with the sauteing onions and garlic.)  Twoard the end I added some frozen peas and carrots, for looks as much as anything.  I would have added a handful of chopped cilantro, but didn't have any.

Served over rice with turmeric and cayenne.  Heaven, right here in my house.

I want to put together 10 basic recipes for the coming winter that are vegan and healthy.  Just rotate them and that will be pretty much all I eat.

Thanks to the Hare Krishnas in Tallahassee, who many years ago taught me to use these spices well enough that I don't have to measure them.  They make it a lot easier to be vegan (which, by the way, I'm not, yet).

One recipe I have for my 10 is a basic Thai curry, using one of those cans of curry paste and coconut milk, with some (vegetarian) fish sauce.  I use the really good Twin Oaks tofu, which is to the stuff you get in supermarket what a free range chicken is to the ones from Tyson.  Try it if you can find it.  I saute that with sweet potato cubes, carrots, regular potatoes, and then add green beans.  This is pretty excellent. Cilantro at the end.

I don't do hummus regularly now, adn might have lost my skills, but my hummus used to be famous.  I will bake fresh bread through the winter, so one dish is just hummus on fresh bread.  I usually eat the whole loaf (not at one time!) with butter, but that's not vegan. Need to get some of the Earth Balance stuff.  Or jsut use olive oil with some balsamic and herbs.

I know, it's been over a month since I've posted.  Somehow the world kept turning, but I shall post again now.  I have something to say.  I wrote this story, or memoir, whatever.  I want to post it here.  Tell me what you think.

Nancy Nett

I was around 27, a graduate student in philosophy at Ohio State.  It was fall, and I think I already had my Masters degree.  I was hanging around, teaching classes, taking some classes, trying to decide what I wanted to do next.  Professor McDonald had left OSU, a bad situation, and I really had planned to do my dissertation with him.  Jaakko Hintikka, the famous Finnish philosopher, was there and I considered working with him, but that’s a long story that is not the one I want to tell now.  I want to write about Nancy Nett.  I’ll get to how she came into my life, and what she meant to it, and how she left it, after setting the stage.

 

It was a lovely fall in Columbus, and the philosophy department had a philosophy of mind conference, and lots of great people were there.  Bill Lycan was at OSU, one of the greats in philosophy of mind, and the conference included Jerry Fodor and Paul Churchland.  I think John Searle was there, too.  Big conference.  There was an opening paper on Friday night, followed by a little wine and cheese reception in the department afterwards. Then papers starting at 8 or so the next morning, and running all day.  Can’t remember the first paper, because at the wine and cheese reception, I looked across the room to see the most stunning woman I had ever seen.  She looked interesting, and she was standing there, with a date-like guy, holding a cheese plate and a glass of wine, laughing.  I can still remember her moving her hand to the side of her mouth as she laughed, just like you’ve seen in the movies a hundred times.  I walked over and joined the conversation.  I have no idea who else was involved, or who this guy was, or even what he was to her. I didn’t care.  This person, Nancy Nett, I came to discover was her name, was fascinating.  Exhilarating.  I saw or heard nothing else the rest of the evening, just her.  Eventually this guy, an engineer or lawyer or something, one of the most boring of that sort of person, wanted to leave. Nancy, it turns out, was an undergraduate in philosophy.  I did ask before they left, Oh, so are you two coming tomorrow?  Of course he wasn’t and let that be known.  And, of course, she was.  Oh good, I said, maybe I’ll see you there.  Maybe I’ll spend every minute looking for you there was more like it.  I could not wait until the next day. 

Forgot to say, I was a few years into a relationship with Diane. But that day, before I had left her place to go to the conference, we had had a major argument.  Things had been bad for a while, and while I know no one actually said, “we’re broken up,” given what had been said, I thought it was a reasonable inference.  And it couldn’t have come at a better time, it turned out. 

Saturday morning, I was up early, off to the conference.  I remember coffee and pastries before the show at about 8, and standing around, no Nancy Nett.  I remember seeing Paul Churchland in the audience, and Fodor had arrived. The first paper got under way.  I sat in a conspicuous place, by myself, seats available on both sides.  No Nancy Nett.  The first paper ended, there were some questions, and then, as the second paper was about to begin, she slipped in, from the back, and sat down beside me.  “What have I missed?”  “Oh, just me not being able to breathe until you got here,” I would have said if I could have been completely truthful.  “Nothing much.  First paper wasn’t too good,” I said, but I had no idea what the paper had been like.  The guy could have solved the Problem of Other Minds for all I knew. 

“I overslept, and missed the first paper. Sorry.  I was dying to get here,” she said.  Wow. I know what she meant.  I was sitting there, for the next couple of papers until the break, in silence with her for the most part, but it was like I somehow knew we were on the same wavelength.  I’d like to think I held her hand, but I know I couldn’t have done that.  We had to talk.  Break came, more coffee.  We stood alone together, just looking at each other, in the same kind of wonder, about what was going to happen.  I have no idea if there were others around us, or if there was a building around us, or if we had been transplanted to the moon.  I was fixated on her, and she on me.  “So, was that your…, “ I said, not even having to finish.  “No, no, I just asked him if he wanted to come, not wanting to come to this alone.  I wish I wouldn’t have now, I would have liked to stay.”  Yeh. Me, too.

That day, we spent together. The next day, together.  Mostly at her place, trying to make sure we avoided Diane who might show up at mine.  I told her about Diane, that it was over.  It seemed over.  I eventually had the conversation with Diane, yep, it’s over.  Nancy and I spent days together, just leaving her apartment, and bed, to get food, and to go to class. We talked about philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, psychology, history, science, Freud, Skinner.  She was a junior, maybe, a couple of years younger than me, but older than 21, the age most juniors would be. Somehow, I forget the story now, she had taken some time off.

I might know why. Nancy, my beautiful, brilliant Nancy Nett, had some neurological issue.  I forget the details.  She had had surgery, and they had removed a chunk from the back of her head, not quite golf ball sized, kind of where that bone sticks out on each side of your skull, in back, an inch or so from your ear.  I remember her taking her hand and putting my hand there. I could have squeezed her and held her seemingly forever.  It made her even more loveable, if that were possible. 

Days were glorious, nights even better.  Nancy Nett’s life was filled with art, music, philosophy, books, literature, poetry. As was mine.  Now we had them together.  I have forgotten some details.  This was over 25 years ago.  I remember her parents coming into town, from Centerville, Ohio, near Dayton. She introduced me, and they were lovely people. They took us out to dinner, I can’t remember where now, but I could draw the room.  Open brick walls. Plants.  We ordered several bottles of wine, and I think Nancy and I took some home for later.  I remember feeling really comfortable with her parents. 

A week or so went by. Maybe two, maybe more. I remember running into Diane one day on campus. I could point out the place we passed each other. We talked.  She asked if I wanted to get back together, and I said okay.  If you want to pinpoint the biggest mistake in all my life, this was it. In this story. Here.  Yes.  I said yes.  We got together that night, I have no idea the details, but I remember, and I think I’m right about this, Diane laying it on thick, being very romantic. I remember her saying, it’s ok, whatever you did when we were broken up.  That was a couple of days into it, being back with Diane.  I went to Nancy Nett and broke the news. She wasn’t mad. She was crushed.  It was awful.  She could have just blown up at me, yelled and screamed, made it easier.  But this she didn’t, couldn’t do.  It wasn’t in Nancy Nett. 

I remember a few days later, Diane saying, come on, you can tell me, you can. Did you see anyone else?  I know this now, and I can advise anyone. When a woman, hell,not just a woman, men do this, too, anyone, when ANYONE asks you to tell them what you did when you were broken up, you can tell me anything, etc., DO NOT TELL. IT is not true.  They might think it is, but it is not.  I did.  We had a big fight.  Stiil, I stuck it out.  Had to make this work.

Diane and I lasted another 8 years or so.Twelve total.  I sometimes jokingly say we had two good years and ten bad ones, but the joke is that there weren’t two good ones.  Why I stayed, why I said yes that day, and a million more times, I’ll never know.  Part of writing this, part of coming to grips with it, at 55, is to evaluate who I am now, why I wouldn’t do that now.  Yeh, I was majorly messed up in my 20s.  Years of therapy have helped.

 

Nancy Nett got married some time after that and moved away. To some guy who was in psychology, in Psi Chi, the honor society for psychology.  Diane was in it, and knew him. Gladly let me know Nancy Nett had gotten married.  I went on, with Diane, without Nancy Nett, for eight more grueling years. 

Finally, Diane and I broke up, this time for good. I was in Blacksburg, Virginia, where we had moved for her job.  It was ugly, messy, and I have no good memories of Diane.  Twelve fucking years and all the good times we had mean a drop in the ocean compared to what two weeks with Nancy Nett meant in my life. Sad?  Fucking hell yeh, it’s sad. 

I tried to find Nancy Nett when we broke up.  Maybe she was divorced. There might have been some recurrence of the neurological condition, it wasn’t out of the question she had told me, and so maybe she was…is…dead.  I looked up Nett in Centerville, to find her parents, and nothing.  I called the department secretary in philosophy, who had known Nancy Nett some, but she couldn’t find her.  I didn’t try too much harder.  I’m no good at finding people. The internet didn’t even exist then.

Do I miss her? I don’t know.  I never really spent lots of time with her.  I never really knew what it would be like, to have Nancy Nett as my partner. I fucked up.  I live. I haven’t thought about her for a long time, but tonight, for some reason, I did.  I told a friend a bit of the story. I became wistful.  Ok, I do miss Nancy Nett.  I don’ t have a Nancy Nett in my life. Is it impossible?  To find someone near my age who is interested in philosophy, art, music, conversation, romance, history, science, Freud, Skinner, reading, literature, poetry, all of the above, lather rinse and repeat?  Is it possible to find someone as graceful, and charming, and funny, and brilliant at 55?  I don’t want a 20 something.  I want a woman my age who is still alive, like Nancy Nett was, and, if she’s alive, IS.  IS.

I was an insecure jerk then.  Maybe it’s best. Maybe I would have fucked it up royally.  Maybe she would hate me.  Maybe we would have remained friends all these years, even after the breakup.  Either would suck.  Now, I have this beautiful story in my head, this unfulfilled dream.  Nancy Nett will always be young and beautiful in that story, in that dream. 

I loved Nancy Nett. I love Nancy Nett to this day, I guess.  I know, how can you use that big powerful word for someone you slept with for two weeks 25 years ago?  I know.  I know.  I love our time together, and I love how she treated me, and I love the story and image.  I don’t know.  I don’t even know in looking back on anyone I dated, even for years, was it really love?  Love with a capital L?  Some, like a four year relationship in high school and college, just seem too far away.  Was that love, back then? I have no way of assessing it, in any case.  Diane, twelve years?  I doubt it.  A more recent two year relationship, that was fabulous for a year and then started falling apart in the second?  Was that love?  Real love? Mad love, shadow love, random love and abandoned love?  (Thanks, Warren.)  All I know, if any of ‘em were, Nancy Nett was, too.  And if I could have that conversation with anyone, now, today, about love and its meaning and import, it’s veridicality and nuances, it would be with Nancy.  Nett. 

All the names have been changed here, except for the philosophers of note.  And Nancy Nett’s.  I leave it in.  As is. I don’t know if I want to find her.  I could look on FB, but I won’t. I know now.  I won’t.  I don’t want to know now if she’s dead, or if she’s still married.  If she’s happy, I would love that, but I don’t want to know it.  If it’s true, it doesn’t matter if I know it.  If there’s a slight chance she’s alive, and single, or in a bad marriage, I’d be there in a minute.  I’m still crazy, I damn well have plenty of proof of that now!

No, I don’t want to know.  I don’t know where to put this story.  I’ll put in on my website, and tell my friends to read it.  I might try to get it published, but where?  Somewhere obscure, sure. Somewhere where there’s a snowball’s chance in Hell anyone would read it and know Nancy Nett.  I’d do that.  If I could publish it in something everyone read, would I?  I don’t think so.  I don’t want to know.  I don’t.  I don’t think.  If it was in something obscure, and someone knew and wrote me, well, that’s be freakish and ok. Somehow.  But I don’t want to try.  Much. 

Finally, I think I may introduce the idea that maybe not all of this is true.  Some of it is. Maybe I embellished to make it a better story.  No, it’s true. Ha ha. Even introducing the idea that it might be false and saying no, it’s true, introduces the notion it might be false.  The idea that this is all creative, just fiction, what a nice possibility!  (There is one glaring error of fact in this story as written, and it is readily checkable and would lead someone to say, hey, that’s not true.  I know, now, that it isn’t true.  It was simply misremembered as I wrote it.  At least one friend who will read this and who was there will catch it immediately.  I leave it in, because…maybe veracity isn’t all it is cracked up to be.)

Thank you, Nancy Nett.  For those two glorious weeks.  Wherever you are.

9/3  Tuesday.  Worked from home, went to put checks in bank.  Got stuff at Lowe's for filling pots,a nd explored getting mailbox put up.  Think I know how to do it.  Came home and worked outside in yard. Called Roanoke County, who will come Thursday to pick up old fridge that was just sitting out there.  And piled up brush for them, and cleaned out the area in front of the house.  Can be a nice garden I think.

9/2 Monday, Labor Day.  Called PF to see if they open. They were so I went and had a great workout, chest and shoulders, arms and abs.  Perfect.  Later went to Maureen's for a trial run of our new Brooklyn Grill business.  She had some folks over for sausages and onions, and I took Lulabelle and my guitar, Marty (since it's a Martin).  Played a while.  I guy named Eric, a neighbor of Mo's who is Vanessa's cousin, and his two sons came over.  Nice boys.  Eric just really liked hearing me play.  And Timmy, going into the 5th grade, was fascinated.  I let him play it, showed him a chord, and he loved it. Later he told us he was selling his Xbox and buying a mandolin.  I told him I'd help him find a good one.  He was smitten with it.  Nice to have some musical influence.  Mo says he plays his Xbox all the time, so to want to give it up, well, I think we have a new musician in this world.

9/1 Sunday.  Got up and went to Mo's for breakfast, french toast, berries, very good.  Then went running on the greenway near her house in Salem.  Ran about 4 miles, though it's not very well marked as to distance.  That's what it said on the map on the greenway.  Coming back, near the end, a woman passed me, about my age I suppose but in very good shape.  We talked a minute while running.  When she was quite a ways ahead, I decided to catch her.  I had to run not only her speed, which was fast for me, but faster to catch up.  It was hard but I did it, then ran with her for a while, but couldn't keep that up.  I sprinted the last few hundred yards at the end.

Don't think I worked out.  Came home.  Can't remember much.  Must have been nice. Played the mandolin, named it "Lulabelle." It's a blues mandolin, mainly, and there's a great blues song, Lulabelle's Here.  So, when I arrive, Lulabelle is here!"  Practiced the blues a lot.

8/31

Saturday.  Got up and met Maureen at the Salem Farmer's Market to go to yard sales.  Got some tomatoes, etc. at the market.  Did great at yard sales. Maureen is great at finding things.  Got a big supply of creatine, unopened, for $10, and then a great chair for the back porch, and a couple of little metal tables for it, at an estate sale. Frankie loves the chair--will post a pic soon.  Now my back porch is perfect, with an air mattress I bought at a yard sale the previous week.  I got some little decorative pots at the estate sale, and on Tuesday got some soil and put three plants in them.  One basil plant--we'll see how it does.  One aloe vera plant, and one pot with little flowers. Don't ask me what kind.  Pretty ones.

Found a great little consignment shop Mo knows about. Got a great pair of shorts--size 36 and they fit!  And a shirt.  Then at a sale at the Roanoke Academy of Gymnastics, I got a bunch of great shirts and a pair of brown shoes.

After that, I went to pick up my new mandolin downtown.  I gotta say, I'm in love!  I can't put it down.  Played all evening, but was very tired from the day.

8/30

Did in fact workout at Planet Fitness.  First, got to Betsy's and ran from her house to Wasena Park.  Had driven it to determine the distance, which was about 1.5 miles there and back.  So I ran there and then extended it a bit by running the loop over the bridge and around at Wasena Park.  That was several tenths of a mile, and then ran back. The hill after leaving Wasena Park is killer, very steep and not short.  Did that, then it leveled off. To extend the run some more, I ran up the hill by the steps I typically run beside Betsy's. That hill is much shorter, but even steeper.  Deadly.  Then ran down the next street and circled back to Betsy's. I'm thinking it was about 2 miles total, but lots of hills.

Walked to PF and worked out.  Did good upper body workout, except for chest and shoulders. Heavy arms, lats, back, and abs.  Perfect, just what I needed.  Came back home later and played guitar for a while.