I Never Wanna Leave This World, Without Saying I Love You

Dry Rubbed Pan-Fried Pork Chops with sauteed cabbage 

Again, a very simple meal, low on carbs but high on flavor.  Sauteed cabbage with onions and garlic is much better than I ever expect and I have it all the time.  Dressed with Asian flavors or apple and carrots or like this time, simply with salt and pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar to finish.  Roasted, raw or sauteed, this over-looked but highly nutritious lady is a surprise giver.  And so far, still a very inexpensive bang for your buck.

I'm going out on a limb to say of all the boring, pale vegetables, I think I love cabbage the best.

Don't You Know That You Are a Shooting Star

Cabbage is like the shy singer that needs to be coerced to take the stage but that girl can sing, yes she can! Let cabbage play the starring role in this one pot meal, she is ready to headline.  Cabbage, spinach, red onion, ground turkey, tomatoes and chick peas stir fried with soy, garlic, pepper flakes, ginger, rice vinegar, sesame oil and a bit of Hoisin sauce went in to make this a great bowl of food.  Eat it on it's own for a low-carb meal or serve it over brown rice.  

This can be made in one wok or giant skillet and aside from chopping vegetables, you just throw it all in the pot on high heat and keep stirring until its perfect.  The cabbage stays crispy and the flavors explode with the acidity of the tomato and the Asian kick of the ginger and Hoisin.

I've always wondered about the middle of Prospect Park where there allegedly lived a waterfall and woodsy area.  Actually, I believed this to be a 70's gay hotspot but what was it now after they took down the ugly fencing?  Opened, apparently and available for all to admire.  It's big enough where you can get creeped out by going off path and we even found this spooky area where a group was burning candles in a circle and who knows what else.  It was desolate enough for one of those machete wielding crazies to be lurking, so that was enough adventure for me. 

This park isn't that wide, so it was such a treat to enter a section that was shaded and had a little river and off the beaten path enough to feel you really discovered something new.  

We Belong Here, the sign says, so at least someone has validated our choice.  Actually, it probably isn't meant for us, the actual citizens of the city, but instead some group that is feeling oppressed and is comforted by a neon sign atop the Barclays Center subway station.

I'm comforted by a tiny waterfall in the park 

Stay, Stay Away!

Cooking post-COVID requires more effort that doesn't seem to be in abundance right now.  I'm not taking it personally because the folks that i know that have fought the battle and returned are claiming the same.  One pot meals or this wok bowl are the doable kind.  Fresh tomatoes went in last with kale, Cannellini beans, cabbage and turkey kielbasa.  Just the clean flavors coming through. 

Retail is having a tough time too.  It's very changed, sad or scary depending on where you sit.  Brooklyn speaks its mind and due to limited resources I often feel I'm in an ungoverned town.  There are more confrontations that easily feel they could go dark quickly.  People are on edge, yet shopping? My coworkers yell at customers to put back on their mask or they'll call security regularly, loudly, angrily.  We're only letting in 25% of normal capacity but even that amount feels too much.  The bathroom sinks have caution tape to ensure 6 foot distance.  There are feet stenciled all over the floor to help.  Hand sanitizer is everywhere in bottles, and fixtures on the wall and giant stand alone units.  We're being fed for free and bottled water or canned drinks are limitless all day. That somehow instills the sense we're still in an emergency state, that things are not normal.   The store hours have changed and are now going to reduce down further.  A 3rd of the crew calls out on the regular, so no one does their own job, instead we're moved around like chess pieces and spread thin to barely get by each day.  Customers can't hear as well with these masks and now we're behind plexiglass, some wearing additional face shields over the masks.  Darting eyes are everywhere.  There is something so big in just that one detail.  Breathing into a mask for 8 hours, like a spaceman, hearing only your own breath, feeling so much more internal, using only your peepers to portray emotion.  You try not to touch or be touched and all of us have learned to do the step dance. Customers draw closer, we move back, careful not to get near another person as if we're all radioactive.  A very strange waltz.  And in my head I'm screaming 'stay away!'  

Kick Out the Jams Motherf*#&kers!

Cooking during this shelter in place order brings unique circumstances.  From when, where and how often you procur your food, to using it up, repurposing your leftovers and most of all wanting to eat your own cooking every day. Have you ever cleaned the kitchen so much in one day or cooked so much in your life?  Even if you're not broke or sick, we're all spending more time in that kitchen.  You want to use up all your fresh vegetables before they expire, especially since it takes more effort to get them now.   I wonder if there will be new, fun recipes created during this time.  This meal could qualify.  We bought a giant purple cabbage and even though I pickled it, featured it raw in a salad, sauteed it, roasted chunks of it, and now added it in my stir fry, I couldn't use it all. But I gave it my best effort.  A modern day stir fry of cauliflower rice, chicken chorizo, jalapeno, cabbage & cilantro.  Surprisingly satisfying, and colorful too!  Sometimes you have to break tradition in order to use up your goods.

Whole Lotta Love

Dementia has a lot of faces but one that I'm thinking of tonight is a sweet one. One night when I went to visit my mother at the rehabilitation hospital in Tucson on my visit, I was asking her if she had eaten anything that day. For some reason my mother would not eat there but she had a voracious appetite when she returned home. Anyway, she told me that her mother had given her lunch after school already and like many times a day, I went with her train of thought so as not to confuse her and it was also much more interesting. She went on to tell me of her mom making her pork tacos that day. She said it as if I was talking to my 8 year old little mom-child, with a slight accent and child's voice. The way she talked about her mom seemed so loving and thoughtful. The way you feel about your mother when you're that age and maybe come around to feel again if you're lucky. Her mother made her dresses and pants, everything she needed for school. She used fabric from anything she could find even potato sacks. I didn't know tons about my grandmother but to me she seemed like such a serious woman with a ton of worry and unhappiness. Her husband left her for a younger woman but it was never talked about. Its nice to think of her happy and making little clothes for my mother. And its always a wonderful thought to think of my little mom happy and going to school in new clothes with a nice sack lunch of tacos. I know she grew up in a suburb of Chicago during the depression. I'm sure it wasn't easy. It is easy to spot her in this school picture. She's the young one and her older sister is the taller one.


Tonight I thought about nice homemade tacos made with love and from good ingredients. I took the meat off of the baked chicken thighs and whipped up a little purple cabbage, green apple, red onion, jalapeno slaw to top them. I added green olives like I've had in some of the restaurants here on pork tacos and that really added a great little twist. Very good idea. Mission has a good yellow thin corn tortilla that heats up nicely right on the griddle without getting dry. No need to add oil.