It's Coming Up, Like a flower!

An idea grows in Brooklyn.  An idea for a more amazing all bean burger.  This burger fail today sparked my creative thoughts when I had ran out of eggs for a proper binder and it fell apart.  This time I was doing a 1/2 meat - 1/2 bean burger but am always amazed at how much I love full black bean burgers.  Today, I tried Black Eyed Peas and because this one fell apart, the beans got super charred on the sides of the pan and took on such a wildly appealing texture and flavor.  As I went to clean up I found myself picking up these bits like chunks of food gold.  So tasty!  That reminded me how the butter reacts with beans and if you can get that just right char, the spices also bloom perfectly.  I love adding onions, carrots, herbs but the next step would be to find the exact type of bean that would serve best.  So far black beans but only because I've been so successful and rarely try others.  I imagine pinto beans would be a little too mash potato like unless I add in some crunch.  I'm thinking of instead of adding raw oatmeal, I could toast it first in spices and maybe that could add some more meaty feel.  Regardless, this was a good mental firestarter and reminder to get in that test kitchen to perfect the ultimate bean burger.  Stay tuned! 

On the Back of the Fish Truck That Loads, While My Conscience Explodes

Creating is a magical thing.  It's only when I'm producing that I feel truly alive and not concerned with self.  You'd think then that I'd be doing it all the time and I want to but it's not always available to tap.  Ideas are like little pregnancies and then births.  You nurture, incubate the idea in your head before it can come out in the world and be known.  There are long lulls at times when I fear it may never come again. Sometimes you have ugly kids so to speak, where something happens but it sure ain't charmed or special in any way.  Once in a while it's so seamless, effortless.  I've made real Hunter's Chicken before but this time I just sort of went in and made it without thought or planning.  I knew it would be so good over a Parmesan polenta rich with real chicken stock, a little Greek Yogurt for added creaminess.  And it was.

So a thought kept coming in my mind on this day.  Is creating the act of doing or is creation the formation of the idea in your head?  Some would say both right away.   You couldn't just physically do it if it didn't burst in your head with enough energy to feed all the stimuli it would need to make it real.   It has to run through the series of rational thinking.  Okay, it's an idea but is it a good one?  The mind takes it through the process, then the dry run of sorts, imagining in your head.  Could it work?  But what's cool is that we must have super computers for brains because it only takes a second for all of that to take place.  We must have ability to draw upon a ton of stored data relating to the subject at a moment's notice.

So creativity is a process that involves several levels?  Is it the end product?  I created this dish.

Where does the mental seed come from?  I know I always carry a hunger.  My theory is that you must carry an idea catcher of sorts, which is the desire to create. But you can't just wait.  You continue to think and listen and observe and then something comes along and fills the net.  I think the two must collide like two atoms to create an idea in the mind.  This big bang, is the idea springing into being as a thought.

Maybe then it's actually two separate things. One is the idea's creation and the other is to bring the idea to fruition, the act of creating.  Although you do create, the idea, it's just thought when it's still in your head, like a theory, a plan. .  Producing is creating.  I've had too much coffee.