Recipes4Survival,

I pan seared lightly dusted silken tofu slices with unbleached flour & Salt of D Earth in a saute pan w/olive oil tamari sauce. I made some sushi rice and topped this with fresh scallions and gomasio. Gomasio is a Japanese condiment of sesame seeds, seaweed & sea salt. OH, The four brown blobs between the tofu slices is Hoisin sauce – YYUUMM.

I also made Bunashimeji – commonly known as Beech Mushrooms. They are just adorable.  Brown topped white stemmed mushrooms. I cut the bunch in half, put them on a sheet of aluminim foild, threw in about a half dozen garlic cloves, tamari, a small pad of butter, & a good splash of Old Grouse! I balled the foil up and put it under the broiler for about 15-20 minutes.  I served these on top of the sushi rice, again with the scallions and gamasio.

roasted Japanese mushrooms

I know the title of this entry sounds sO boring but I must admit, I’m happily full and each dish was really flavorful.  I must also add, all ingredients are organic and I doubt I spent $4 to feed myself – two dishes.

CHA!

It’s Friday. I’m hOMe from yoga. My mind is clear and reaDy to tackle the list of e-mails to follow up on as long as my arm but of course I was starving.

I could have opted for pouring some organic tOMato soup into a pot from out of a cardboard box but something inside said, NO, make yourself a soup. I’ve got a half a head of organic cauliflower, 4 or 5 heads of garlic, 2 small yukon gold potatoes and vegetable broth left over from the tOMato soup I made for Alex last week.

Healing ingredients

I’ll also highlight the healing aspects of the ingredients in this velvety cauliflower & garlic soup.

So there you have the ingredients, now here’s what I did.

First I cut the cauliflower into chunks that look like individual…flowerettes, keeping some of the stem. Put these into a steamer basket in a heavy bottomed pot with water that comes to just below the bottom of the steamer basket.  I also threw the 2 small yukon gold potatoes into the steamer.  This steamed for a good 20 minutes, then I turned the heat off and let it continue to cook another 10 minutes or so.

While the cauliflower & potatoes were steaming I went at cleaning up and preparing the garlic for roasting in a small sauce pot with oil.

inner green stem removal

If you’re new to cooking and not so comfortable with a knife, leaving the inner green ’stem’ in a garlic dent if FINE.  Many cooks don’t remove it. Those that do remove the green ’stem’ say it can heighten a bitter taste in what you’re cooking.

To roast the garlic use the whole cloves that are slightly cracked from the initial smash to get the skin off added to about a 1/2 C of organic, cold pressed olive oil. Cook over a medium heat. You want to see little bubbles. Don’t let the oil get to hot. A gentle simmer is great.

Roasted garlic & infused, seasoned oil

While the garlic was roasting I pureed the steamed cauliflower & potatoes in my ordinary blender, no fancy Cuisinart.  I sliced the potatoes into 1/4″ discs when I added them to the blender.  I blended the veggies in two batches adding about a cup of vegetable broth. This would become the base of the soup along with the organic vegetable broth I’d add to the roasted garlic roux.

With the garlic roasted and garlic infused seasoned oil and the cauliflower & potato puree, I began to make the roux.  This is simply done by mashing the roasted garlic cloves, adding the garlic infused seasone and a small hand-full of unbleached flour.

Garlic roux

I added about a 1/2 C of the vegetable broth to the roux to create the creamy stock for the soup, then I began to add the cauliflower & potato puree, alternating between adding stock & puree.  Stirring all the while.

MMgOOd and you’ll feel great too and boy oh boy did I have a LOT from just a half a head of cauliflower.

Once I was in the street, this vision flew away.  The street was entirely shuttered up . It was whipping freezing cold so a real scout about was not what this Dparture was about.  A place to read my book and maybe grab a bite would do – rather than standing in a cold lobby without a chair or bench in it.

The immediate choices were a Dunkin Donuts /Baskin Robbins or an iHOP, caddy corner to each other. I was shown to a nice clean table at the iHOP.  The coffee was good and the Swiss crepes were the cheapest thing on the menu. Their caloric measure is higher than I would have liked, but I order them.   They were so rich I packed up half of what I had been served and was still the first in line to register.

It was 11:15A when I was leaving.  At the elevator was a woman and her young son. Both were heavily bundled against the elements. I heard her say how frustrated she was. I mentioned what happened to me earlier this morning. This was nothing compared to what she was about to tell me. She was there to file her taxes on line with software provided there, for free. She had all her paperwork together but they wouldn’t let her in because she was with her little boy, a 4 yr. old.  She was given a piece of paper where she may be able to go – with her child.  It was way futher out in Brooklyn. She was saying that she would have to wait for a bus and she was with her son.  I looked right at her and told her, “Go right back up there. You do exactly what you inteded to do and are prepared to do.  I’ll look after your son.”

1st snap

I said I would hang out with him at the pancake house on the corner. Of course she was hesitant.  Her cell phone wasn’t working properly.  I cave her my DVine card, this made her think for a minute.  Leaving the premises with her son was not the right thing to do. I said I could be of help to her now. There was no reason for her to turn away from this favor, so we all went back up in the elevator  and I hung out with her son, Izaiah, in the hall outside the WORKFORCE ONE facility. It took all of an hour for Stacy to file her taxes.

Rahhh!

Izaiah catching a paper airplane

Izaiah noticed my tea cup charm on my phone and loved it. I put one on the zipper of one his sweat shirts but it was bothering him and it’s the phone he really wanted. Stacy came out at this point. She was happy to put the tea cup charm right onto her phone.  I could tell, she felt lucky and empowered.

As we were bundling up to go outside Izaiah mentioned that he was hungry and wanted pancakes.  Stacy said she made him pancakes earlier that morning with sausages.  I immediately handed her my left over ‘pancakes’ without much of an explanation. She told me that she’s a school crossing guard and during her off time she works on the computers here refining her skills and searching for a better job.  She had tickets for Sesame St. at Madison Sq. Garden so she was taking the A train into Manhattan. We got on the train together.  She and Izaiah ate the Swiss crepes on the train. Of course we told Izaiah they were pancakes.

I don’t know, I’d call this a recipe for survival; open eyes, open heart, no judgement and sharing what you can.