Hey Girl! I Want You to Know

Ode to a Chef

Lettuce Cheesy Smashburgers and Baked Garlicky Fries

Baked Garlicky Fries 

Shaheen Peerbhai is the Purple Foodie, the creator of the baked garlicky fries recipe.  Years ago I was hoping to find a recipe that worked to lend crispy baked French Fries and found her site.  I've been making them for years and sometimes get them just right. I never bothered to look into who she was or what she did.  I assumed she was just another one of these faceless, helpful but underwhelming cooks who write these template blogs that all look the same, with the same generic stories. One's that I refer to constantly by the way, but often just for a grab and go.  Well, turns out she's a retired blogger now and the founder of Miel Bakery in London, a mother and author.  She has workshops and bakes things like Blood Nectarine and Elderflower Tarts.  So yes, very impressive. I can tell by watching her, she is great at what she does. Miles beyond my best abilities. Shaheen, wherever you are, please know that you've made a difference in the life of this reader and these fries are a regular part of any burger-frie combination in this household forever.  So, thank you! 

Feeling inspired this lead me to bake these cayenne, cinnamon and cocoa powder infused Double Chocolate Brownies, which were Excellent! Thank you universe!  I even shared them with coworkers. 

Breakfast Scramble

Shout It, Shout it Out Loud

Boxed Baby Spinach salad with Boiled Egg

A simple hard boiled egg was the missing link in my lunch salad conundrum.  At work, I need to eat lighter, not get weighed down with carbs.  But a simple salad often left me hangry in a few hours.  I added corn, beans, and cheese which really helps but it wasn't until I added a boiled egg, that I felt the meal was complete.  I'll sometimes add crackers or weaken to the vending machine bag-o-chips but generally, this is enough to satiate and satisfy.   A lunch to be grateful for.

The daily practice of gratitude is an amazing anti-depressant.  I was talking with my coworker about new AA programs in Williamsburg, that lack a higher power angle.   I thought that was interesting and had recently wondered when liberals would take God out of the popular 12-step program as well.  Actually, in AA they've always clarified you don't have to believe in God, just a power higher than yourself.  Basically, it's a tool used to render yourself defenseless against this force that you can't beat alone.  The humbling effect this has, is it's greatest force.

I think it's a mistake to change that and I worry it's another way the millennials will use the affliction to victimize themselves.  To me, the same logic in AA could be used to help with depression.  It's something to battle by changing your thoughts about thought.  Living in and practicing gratitude can squash much of the bleakness that comes over us like a cloudy day.  Considering for a moment how much better off you are right now then, say, a woman in the Ukraine.  Counting the things you have, the luxuries of your daily life.  A hot shower, enough food, time to reflect, friends, family, working legs, arms and lungs.  There are SO many reasons to be grateful.  In fact depression itself, is in a way a luxury that many don't have right now.  Spending any time on what you don't have or what others are not doing or doing wrong, is a complete waste of time, unless you are taking immediate steps to change it.  The most freeing 'free' tool we have at the ready at any time is our ability to stop and realize these are all just thoughts, passing through.  They say that talking about your spirituality is a sure sign you aren't getting it, so at the risk of going backward, I want to share one small trick.  So, you're feeling crappy, bad thoughts have infiltrated your being, maybe your body as well.  Instead of resisting them, take a moment to observe them, hear them out, accept them.  Notice, realize, that those thoughts, that bad juju is not you.  You are the perfect energy noticing this gloom, but you are NOT the gloom.  The funk is something passing through, trying to make you believe that it's what you are, and by acknowledging it's presence, by not resisting, you miraculously dissolve it.  You are left, as the observer.  This has been a lifesaver for me and I want to tell the world.  Of course for a more well thought out instruction and explanation, you could look to many spiritual masters.  To keep the atheist theme though, here  and here is one of my favorites neuroscientists with his take. 

My feelings on this can best be expressed in the lyrics from KISS's Shout it Out Loud from the Destroyer album:

Well, the night's begun and you want some fun
Do you think you're gonna find it (think you're gonna find it)?
You got to treat yourself like number one
Do you need to be reminded (need to be reminded)?

It doesn't matter what you do or say
Just forget the things that you've been told
We can't do it any other way
Everybody's got to rock and roll, whoo, oh, oh

Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud
Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud

If you don't feel good, there's a way you could
Don't sit there broken-hearted (sit there broken-hearted)
Call all your friends in the neighborhood
And get the party started (get the party started)

No Time to Wallow in the Mire

Hope's fire 

My pal called me last night at 5:30am in what sounded like a very crowded, noise stricken, city street.  We were in a big storm so the wind and rains must have made her trials compounded.  I could barely make out her words but understood enough to know she was in a dire emergency.  Buildings were on fire and she apparently had to evacuate.  It wasn't clear if it was her building. I could only make out that she was on the corner waiting to understand the extent.  Later she was down the street at a shelter on Avenue B.  The fire department must have moved the evacuees to dry ground.  I understood later why she chose not to come straight to my apartment, as I suggested.  She needed to understand if her building was safe and if she would be allowed to reenter.  Can you imagine it?  The beautiful church just two or three doors down entirely went up in flames as did the corner building, where it most likely started.  What a harrowing experience.  I could only imagine the shock of firemen pounding on her door, waking in such a brutal way, seconds to gather your essentials meaning phone, wallet and shoes.  As it is, getting a phone call in the middle of the night is never easy and within seconds, your mind goes to the worst scenarios.  Not to mention a sleepy mind is so slow in comprehending anything.  Within seconds we were both standing in the living room, P in my ear saying who is it, what's the matter, what's going on and I was only able to spit out short spurts, It's Hope. There's a fire. She's on the street.  I heard him say, tell her to come here, before muttering, What time is it? and drifting off. 

The phone laying near my ear gave updates periodically and finally at around 9am she was able to reenter her building, deemed unharmed.   I drifted in and out of sleep in between texts and wrestled with thoughts of guilt and gratitude that I was safe in my warm bed when my bud was out there in the middle of the night not knowing if she would lose all her possessions, during a major fire, in a Pandemic, in a Nor'Easter, in this travesty we call 2020.  What a prophetic sounding ordeal.  It could have changed her entire life. But in the end, thank God, she was spared and this morning all I can feel is deep gratitude and joy that she wasn't hurt and didn't suffer loss.  A light breakfast of a half of a half of a pizza slice and one highly seasoned poached egg on top served as a celebrational course.