I spent two hours sitting in a diner, reading two newspapers front to back yesterday.
I thought this would be relaxing. And it was, to some extent. I was able to read enough "good" news and enough "bad" news to see that it was all just news. I had stopped reading the news over the weekend, relaxed a little. Had a dinner party on Sunday night. Then I saw all the articles about Arizona.
What if that were my child caught in a rain of a madman's bullet?
I always think like that when I read the news. I put myself right in there. It can be very relaxing. Kind of. To me, it's also inspirational.
How many people are putting themselves in each others shoes out there?
It almost seems as if everyone is only apt to discuss solutions when there are problems. Then there are those who would live their lives the same throughout with an open and clear heart. Tragedy produces drama, and drama draws attention, and attention draws outlandish behaviors from people. It is indeed a vicious cycle, bent on recreating itself perpetually.
Getting back to the question-
What if it were my child?
In alot of ways, it was. I have begun to honestly see all beings in this light, in my heart. I wonder how I ever really lived with the absence of this true perspective.
We all share the danger. We are all in the line of fire as long as hatred is behind the trigger. When fear also enters, we must stand even firmer.
Love knows no greater beauty than when it stands in the face of the purest evil. When the two come into contact, we have the different elements of life, combining together.
When we learn how to take care of the hatred in this country, how to love it, talk with it, and recognize it within all of ourselves and lives, then it will cease to cause harm like this.
Until then, it remains the servant of something with less of a moral goal and more of a mortal one.
Greed. Every year it takes more lives.
When we care about ourselves, we care about each other. And when we care about each other, we care about ourselves. Take whatever standpoint you want politically, this is a fundamental truth of our existence.
And what I also began to see, while sitting there in the diner, eating a piece of baklava, was that people were beginning to say something very important.
We must be careful about what we say. We must realize that our words and actions have immeasurably infinite influence.
My son asked me a very huge question the other day.
"Daddy, does what we say echo out through the universe, can they hear us talk in space?"
I answered "Yes".
Perhaps we are getting somewhere, finally, I think. Look at these children, growing into this world, this climate, these problems.
And they are beautiful. And they carry hope and promise in each step.
My condolences to the parents, friends, family and sympathizers of all those who lost their lives and were traumatized by the horrible events which occurred over the past weekend.
I will care for you by living to my utmost potential, by continuing to grow.
Because I, and my family, have the privilege and blessing of living.
To a better day-
Love,
Tenzo
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Standing Up
Over the years, standing up for truth has gotten me in alot of interesting situations.
But I would'nt change anything about it. I have no regrets. Only a further desire to be part of something real and true.
Fundamentally, I believe that this is what has gone astray in our eating ethos. We have lost sight of the truth. This morning when I held my daughter in my arms, I was overcome with joy. I felt a huge amount of privilege to be her father. But when I looked deeper, I felt the same for myself. I was reminded that I was honored to be the steward of this body, soul, and mind, and what an amazing opportunity mortality really is.
So many things get unintentionally disregarded or lost in the inertia of modernization, its hard to keep track. I have been charged with reminding people of their culinary heritage, and that they are part of it's living legacy. This is my part, a job that I have been offered, and I have accepted. But cookbooks can be a time machine, a way to travel back. Lately I have been cooking out of a Fannie Farmer book, called "The Boston Cooking School Cookbook". It is dated 1941. In 1941, my Grandfather Edward was in boot camp, on his way to one of the largest wars the world theater has ever seen. Meanwhile, back in America, homemakers like my Grandmother Leda Belle were cooking for their children, waiting for their husbands to return. Both my Father and my Uncle were born while Edward wore a uniform and carried a gun through Europe, chasing one of the greatest evils the world has seen to date. Within these recipes, I can find her, over a stove, trying to cope with raising a family with practically nothing. This is reflected in the Fannie Farmer cookbook-getting a lot of results from very little ingredients.
Take for instance the ginger-snap recipe. I read it's yield-50-70 cookies-and was like, "There is no way that many cookies are coming out of that size batch". But I actually got more. My modern mind was thinking about a different cookie. We rolled the dough into logs about the width of a 50 cent piece, chilled and sliced them. This part was not in the recipe. I figured it out. Out of necessity.
Out of necessity we feed ourselves. Next comes our families. It is the highest form of dishonor to impede or take advantage of people's necessities. Unfortunately, this is where the highest margins exist within the commercial world of supply and demand.
We have a choice to honor the privilege we have been given in feeding ourselves and our families by seeking out the best foods for them. The best foods should not be more expensive, or difficult to get. Food, in and of itself, should not be a commodity. Its a necessity. Like air, or water. We all have a common vestige in the fall of food to what it has become.
The time to replace food to it's proper home has come. Let us not allow commercialism to dictate it's path. We alone each have the power to make food beautiful again. The power of our dollar is more than attaining goods and services. Its a choice, its a vote, and a representation of our efforts and time.
Find a farm, Find it now. Call the farm. Talk to the farmer. Get involved. Give them your money. Learn how to make this whole food that they offer an ally in your home. Feel the satisfaction that comes from honoring the fruits of someone's labor with the fruits of your own.
My intention is to become more of a resource for those who seek to learn the old ways, the correct ways of keeping a household and one's self healthy and whole, with hardly as much dollar as one is spending now. The excess percentage that is applied to prepared and processed food due to this lack of know how on the part of the American consumer is appalling. It is also killing our people. Slowly. They are working too hard just to be able to afford food that makes them unhealthy, developing illnesses that require further unnecessary expenditure towards remedy.
What remedy? For what illness? The atrocious nature of this deceit defiles us. But we can each find a part to play in the remediation of this grand illusion. It's not about activism, or stopping any giant capitalistic monster. Its about realizing one thing.
That the power of world change lay in the heart of the individual.
Cheers.
Love,
Tenzo
But I would'nt change anything about it. I have no regrets. Only a further desire to be part of something real and true.
Fundamentally, I believe that this is what has gone astray in our eating ethos. We have lost sight of the truth. This morning when I held my daughter in my arms, I was overcome with joy. I felt a huge amount of privilege to be her father. But when I looked deeper, I felt the same for myself. I was reminded that I was honored to be the steward of this body, soul, and mind, and what an amazing opportunity mortality really is.
So many things get unintentionally disregarded or lost in the inertia of modernization, its hard to keep track. I have been charged with reminding people of their culinary heritage, and that they are part of it's living legacy. This is my part, a job that I have been offered, and I have accepted. But cookbooks can be a time machine, a way to travel back. Lately I have been cooking out of a Fannie Farmer book, called "The Boston Cooking School Cookbook". It is dated 1941. In 1941, my Grandfather Edward was in boot camp, on his way to one of the largest wars the world theater has ever seen. Meanwhile, back in America, homemakers like my Grandmother Leda Belle were cooking for their children, waiting for their husbands to return. Both my Father and my Uncle were born while Edward wore a uniform and carried a gun through Europe, chasing one of the greatest evils the world has seen to date. Within these recipes, I can find her, over a stove, trying to cope with raising a family with practically nothing. This is reflected in the Fannie Farmer cookbook-getting a lot of results from very little ingredients.
Take for instance the ginger-snap recipe. I read it's yield-50-70 cookies-and was like, "There is no way that many cookies are coming out of that size batch". But I actually got more. My modern mind was thinking about a different cookie. We rolled the dough into logs about the width of a 50 cent piece, chilled and sliced them. This part was not in the recipe. I figured it out. Out of necessity.
Out of necessity we feed ourselves. Next comes our families. It is the highest form of dishonor to impede or take advantage of people's necessities. Unfortunately, this is where the highest margins exist within the commercial world of supply and demand.
We have a choice to honor the privilege we have been given in feeding ourselves and our families by seeking out the best foods for them. The best foods should not be more expensive, or difficult to get. Food, in and of itself, should not be a commodity. Its a necessity. Like air, or water. We all have a common vestige in the fall of food to what it has become.
The time to replace food to it's proper home has come. Let us not allow commercialism to dictate it's path. We alone each have the power to make food beautiful again. The power of our dollar is more than attaining goods and services. Its a choice, its a vote, and a representation of our efforts and time.
Find a farm, Find it now. Call the farm. Talk to the farmer. Get involved. Give them your money. Learn how to make this whole food that they offer an ally in your home. Feel the satisfaction that comes from honoring the fruits of someone's labor with the fruits of your own.
My intention is to become more of a resource for those who seek to learn the old ways, the correct ways of keeping a household and one's self healthy and whole, with hardly as much dollar as one is spending now. The excess percentage that is applied to prepared and processed food due to this lack of know how on the part of the American consumer is appalling. It is also killing our people. Slowly. They are working too hard just to be able to afford food that makes them unhealthy, developing illnesses that require further unnecessary expenditure towards remedy.
What remedy? For what illness? The atrocious nature of this deceit defiles us. But we can each find a part to play in the remediation of this grand illusion. It's not about activism, or stopping any giant capitalistic monster. Its about realizing one thing.
That the power of world change lay in the heart of the individual.
Cheers.
Love,
Tenzo
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
A bowl of snow
I am hunger this morning
Yet, nothing I can consume will put aside this pang
Truth it says, feed me truth. Save your other nutrients for now.
Find me truth, it says.
So I poured myself a bowl
of freshly fallen snow
And ate until my soul
was full
Yet, nothing I can consume will put aside this pang
Truth it says, feed me truth. Save your other nutrients for now.
Find me truth, it says.
So I poured myself a bowl
of freshly fallen snow
And ate until my soul
was full
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Tommorow's foccacia
This is my foccacia recipe that I have been using for years. It has never failed me. Lately in my house we have been baking foccacia at night for dinner and snacking all throughout the next day. By mid-afternoon, I am pitching another batch of dough.
It is a great vehicle for any sort of toppings. Here are some of my favorite:
black olive, dill, goat cheese
asiago cheese, sundried tomato paste, pesto
roasted red grapes, rosemary, pecorino romano
You see that the possiblities are endless. But the recipe is like a familiar old song. It always makes me happy. And it feeds me...
2 1/2 cups of tepid (hot, but not too hot to touch) water
2 packets (2 T appx) instant yeast
Put yeast in water. Toss a pinch of sugar in the mix, after the yeast has been well incorperated. Lets it know you care, and kick starts the whole rising show.
Seperately, combine the following dry ingredients in a seperate bowl:
5 1/2 cups King arthur AP flour
1 T Kosher Salt
1 T Corse ground sea salt
2 T Medium ground fresh black pepper
Also, in a small stove pot, simmer these three things together;
1 cup Olive oil
2 T Rosemary
1 clove Whole crushed garlic
After it cools down to room temperature, add half of it to your yeast starter. It's nice to have a bunch of herb oil around. It's convienient at this point in the bread making process. But, sometimes, I want to push along the rise a bit so I like using the warm oil. Its nice for the bread. Save the garlic clove. It makes a nice garnish for later when you serve the bread.
Then, incorperate the yeast starter into the dry ingredients in thirds, incorperating
fully each time. Throw some flour onto a table, and turn out your somewhat sticky, but together and substantial ball of dough. Add enough flour just to make it feasible to work, adding a little as you go until you reach a nice point. Work it around, kneading, punching, rolling, and folding for about 10 min. At that point, you will want to form the dough into a ball, pinching the bottom of it closed with the palms up and hands brought together underneath, and scoop it up and into a well oiled bowl. You can use the reserved herb oil for this task. After the transfer, coat the top of the bread with a nice amount of oil. This is great for everything, the rise, your crust, everything. Foccacia is ALL about the oil. This is comfort food, but the olive oil is great for you. Its a great way to jazz up meals around the house, and since it's flatbread, it satisfies with texture, so we don't eat as much as we would other loaves. It's like the croustini with rouille in the bouillabaise. it's a vehicle, not a meal. Although, this is the secret power of foccacia as well, it can be a meal. It can make a sandwich a statement as well.
Cover your rising bread with a towel and let it come up for about 45 min. At that point, you can punch it down and transfer onto a well oiled small baking sheet with a rim, about 20 x 16. You can use a cookie sheet, whatever. It's a versitile dough.
Spread the bread out with your fingers spread out and somewhat stiff like you were stomping chords on a grand piano, pushing down into the dough and spreading it outward in the same motion. Brush some fresh oil on the top again, and let it come up again about 45 min. Pre-heat your oven to 450. Bake off your loaf with whatever toppings you'd like. It helps to lightly toss your vegetables or whatever with olive oil, so they'll brown nicely. a spritzer is cool for this.
I usually end up baking mine for about 15 minutes. But you'll find out, bread is done when it's done. Your oven is special.
Just like you.
Serve your foccacia with some oil in a bowl, and fresh salt and pepper. A little aged balsamico never hurt anyone either.
And welcome to my house. As they say, you know how we do.
And know, you know how to do it. Fresh bread is that easy.
If someone needs, I have a great recipe for gluten free foccacia. Just get in touch and I would be happy to share my secrets with you!
Love,
Tenzo
It is a great vehicle for any sort of toppings. Here are some of my favorite:
black olive, dill, goat cheese
asiago cheese, sundried tomato paste, pesto
roasted red grapes, rosemary, pecorino romano
You see that the possiblities are endless. But the recipe is like a familiar old song. It always makes me happy. And it feeds me...
2 1/2 cups of tepid (hot, but not too hot to touch) water
2 packets (2 T appx) instant yeast
Put yeast in water. Toss a pinch of sugar in the mix, after the yeast has been well incorperated. Lets it know you care, and kick starts the whole rising show.
Seperately, combine the following dry ingredients in a seperate bowl:
5 1/2 cups King arthur AP flour
1 T Kosher Salt
1 T Corse ground sea salt
2 T Medium ground fresh black pepper
Also, in a small stove pot, simmer these three things together;
1 cup Olive oil
2 T Rosemary
1 clove Whole crushed garlic
After it cools down to room temperature, add half of it to your yeast starter. It's nice to have a bunch of herb oil around. It's convienient at this point in the bread making process. But, sometimes, I want to push along the rise a bit so I like using the warm oil. Its nice for the bread. Save the garlic clove. It makes a nice garnish for later when you serve the bread.
Then, incorperate the yeast starter into the dry ingredients in thirds, incorperating
fully each time. Throw some flour onto a table, and turn out your somewhat sticky, but together and substantial ball of dough. Add enough flour just to make it feasible to work, adding a little as you go until you reach a nice point. Work it around, kneading, punching, rolling, and folding for about 10 min. At that point, you will want to form the dough into a ball, pinching the bottom of it closed with the palms up and hands brought together underneath, and scoop it up and into a well oiled bowl. You can use the reserved herb oil for this task. After the transfer, coat the top of the bread with a nice amount of oil. This is great for everything, the rise, your crust, everything. Foccacia is ALL about the oil. This is comfort food, but the olive oil is great for you. Its a great way to jazz up meals around the house, and since it's flatbread, it satisfies with texture, so we don't eat as much as we would other loaves. It's like the croustini with rouille in the bouillabaise. it's a vehicle, not a meal. Although, this is the secret power of foccacia as well, it can be a meal. It can make a sandwich a statement as well.
Cover your rising bread with a towel and let it come up for about 45 min. At that point, you can punch it down and transfer onto a well oiled small baking sheet with a rim, about 20 x 16. You can use a cookie sheet, whatever. It's a versitile dough.
Spread the bread out with your fingers spread out and somewhat stiff like you were stomping chords on a grand piano, pushing down into the dough and spreading it outward in the same motion. Brush some fresh oil on the top again, and let it come up again about 45 min. Pre-heat your oven to 450. Bake off your loaf with whatever toppings you'd like. It helps to lightly toss your vegetables or whatever with olive oil, so they'll brown nicely. a spritzer is cool for this.
I usually end up baking mine for about 15 minutes. But you'll find out, bread is done when it's done. Your oven is special.
Just like you.
Serve your foccacia with some oil in a bowl, and fresh salt and pepper. A little aged balsamico never hurt anyone either.
And welcome to my house. As they say, you know how we do.
And know, you know how to do it. Fresh bread is that easy.
If someone needs, I have a great recipe for gluten free foccacia. Just get in touch and I would be happy to share my secrets with you!
Love,
Tenzo
Monday, December 27, 2010
Snow Vitality
When ever anyone speaks of being "snowed in", I am immedietly driven to
recalling that a large reason for the popularity of residence in these mountains known as the Kaatskills was the purity of the air, and it's proported healing propoerties as well. Dozens of people lined open air porches at night to conversate, take tea, and imbibe the air and it's promise of renewed vitality.
Now, when it snows, and that same healing wind blows, people become disgruntled. They begin to feel detained, restricted, somewhat "snowed in". I propose that it is quite the opposite that is true. These people are snowed in by their adherence to a set of beliefs about reality that stop them from seeing the truth that is all around them.
That snow brings health. Even when it is not there. But boy, is there a whole lot now.
When winter approaches, I feel a new growth resurge inside of me. I am preparing for many months of burning heat inside against the impending promise of chill, elements, and exposure. All of these paying the cost for my participation in the healing properties of mountain air.
Well worth it, I believe. Fetching wood, carrying water, getting more copy paper, it's all good for you. It makes it even more healthy if you have to get warm on top of it. This is the secret vitality of the mountains. That your body has to work a little harder, breathe a little deeper, colder air from time to time. This keeps us fresh, even in the face of daunting weather and chill.
As Robert Frost said, wood warms us two times. Once when we cut it, another when we burn it. The thought of facing winter makes mw warm inside. I want to survive, and smile within it's chill. It's that chance to bring that desire alongside a Catskill wind that keeps me here. Year after year...
recalling that a large reason for the popularity of residence in these mountains known as the Kaatskills was the purity of the air, and it's proported healing propoerties as well. Dozens of people lined open air porches at night to conversate, take tea, and imbibe the air and it's promise of renewed vitality.
Now, when it snows, and that same healing wind blows, people become disgruntled. They begin to feel detained, restricted, somewhat "snowed in". I propose that it is quite the opposite that is true. These people are snowed in by their adherence to a set of beliefs about reality that stop them from seeing the truth that is all around them.
That snow brings health. Even when it is not there. But boy, is there a whole lot now.
When winter approaches, I feel a new growth resurge inside of me. I am preparing for many months of burning heat inside against the impending promise of chill, elements, and exposure. All of these paying the cost for my participation in the healing properties of mountain air.
Well worth it, I believe. Fetching wood, carrying water, getting more copy paper, it's all good for you. It makes it even more healthy if you have to get warm on top of it. This is the secret vitality of the mountains. That your body has to work a little harder, breathe a little deeper, colder air from time to time. This keeps us fresh, even in the face of daunting weather and chill.
As Robert Frost said, wood warms us two times. Once when we cut it, another when we burn it. The thought of facing winter makes mw warm inside. I want to survive, and smile within it's chill. It's that chance to bring that desire alongside a Catskill wind that keeps me here. Year after year...
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Climbing the mountaine
People are in trouble. The way we eat needs remediation. I love all of this.
Like the tragedies in life, all illness is the window towards the world of healing that lay outside our perception that the window should be used only to view and judge others who are out on the lawn, so to speak, freely expressing themselves...
Making everything around me that isn't cooking the same as cooking is easy. It lay simply in seeing no difference. If all life is simply a space of time between doing the things that you love and other things that you simply tolerate or cope with, than you are only living half of your life. A chef is never out of the kitchen, they are simply away from the stove. It is important to see your whole life as a big meal. Keep the big meal cooking, keep the balanced flavors flowing, keep your senses and spirit open to what the food is saying to you. Translate this message into healing in your life and others. Make healthy food a condiment to the big meal of your life. See that without a spirit that is full, food carries with it the job of filling both the body and soul. Keep your spirit full with a bright sunny heart, and food can feed both, or whichever that you would care to direct that nutrition to in the moment of consumption. Make the food yours by loving it, and it will love you, in whatever regard you require. Food loves to serve, so by serving it with love, it will serve us immeasurably.
Make the meal with a bright, sunny heart. Give the food with respect for it's own solidarity and power, and with no attributes other than your love added to it. And if someone is to take their meal from you with less that open hands or heart, the only thing to do is to open both of your own even more. Love knows no limits, which is why food will always be beautiful, even when it is eaten simply raw. And for me, as I grow as a cook in this world, that is more and more becoming my perspective as I have come to understand it. Leave food alone, except to translate it's message of love, and adorn it with our own. That, my friends, is a recipe for wellbeing. For all of us...
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