In Dreams.

Do you know what a Camelback is? It's a sort of cycling vest that holds 1.5 liters of water, and you wear it while hiking or cycling. Henry dislikes them for his little 500-mile cycling jaunts...they are understandably heavy. Camelbacks have a long straw that pipes around to the mouth.
I imagine filling one with a dry, fruity sauvignon blanc or a creamy chardonnay, then walking or gliding around an open-air concert somewhere just totally sipping down to my heart's content. Imagine yourself cruising around for example, at the Bridge School Benefit Concert at Shoreline, teehee. Could be worn under a shirt, no? Naturally, I'd have dedicated ones for either white or red wine. In dreams, I can drink all the richest, most titillating wines and gorgeous giggly champagnes, all day long from dawn to dusk, laughing and singing with friends. But only in dreams -- because the reality is, we just can't do that and be productive members of society. Man I hate that.

Perhaps my dreams are inspired by our Wine Train excursion coming up this Saturday...a gift from the wonderful people at work. I'll be a good girl. Honest.

And now for you, friends and loved ones, the recipe du jour which I, Pamela, have invented for your dining pleasure. This would pair well with Gewurtztraminer. If you don't like tofu as much as we do, substitute with diced chicken, but meat cubelets are just not as much fun as whisical tofu designs.

Lavendar Tofu and Mushrooms in Fig Sauce

1 pkg. extra firm tofu, sliced thin and cut into flat 1" designer shapes (parallelograms, flowers, stars, hearts or any other non-boring shape you fancy. Check your cookie cutter collection for something fun. Be artistic.)
3 C mushrooms, washed well and sliced thick, any variety
Half a stick of butter
2 C fresh, ripe figs, washed well then diced chunky
2 tbsp food-grade lavendar (available in Whole Foods' bulk section)
1-2 tsp. gray salt to taste
toast points
honey to drizzle
fresh ground pepper and fresh herb sprigs for garnish

Slice mushrooms and figs; set aside. Melt butter in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add mushshrooms & figs, and stir until butter is absorbed. Add dash of salt. Increase heat to high, flip in pan and sautee until soft, about 3 minutes. Gently add tofu shapes (or pre-cooked diced chicken) and flip in pan. If you're not a flipper, simply stir gently so as not to break tofus. You want the figs to get a little saucy. Add a few turns of fresh ground pepper, and heat through for another 3-4 minutes, then drizzle with 1 T olive oil. Flip, flop, jiggle, stir, reduce heat. Add lavendar buds and flip/stir another minute or so. You want the buds to soften just to the point of blooming a bit of fragrance, not to be cooked out. Remove from heat. Have your partner make some interesting toast points while you're doing the cooking. Plate the lavendar tofu aside toast points. Drizzle honey over both together in a big zig zag here there and everywhere, then give it a few more turns fresh ground pepper. Garnish with a couple of sprigs of fresh basil, rosemary, chives or parsley, and serve. Tres magique! For variety I think you could like, try adding a few chunks of pineapple during the sautee if you like a little tart, and maybe some hot chili sauce. I didn't have any tonight, but if I had they would have definitely been there.

Scary: It's Halloween week (again) at the office. Victoria and I decorated our corner up big time to keep in the spirit of things. I will be posting photos of the company party and the wine train soon so stay tuned. When my folks get back from their Mediterranean cruise, I'll have them email me some photos of that too. Love y'all. Life is good.

What A Weekend.

Today was a big day and so was yesterday. Saturday we went to the newly remodeled Stanford Theater for a double-heater: Singing In The Rain and Moon Over Miami. Totally fun. Today we made pancakes, then drove to San Ramon to pick up a wood-burning fireplace insert -- a really nice one. So generous of Henry, what a prince he was dealing with the whole craigslist transaction, finessing it from start to finish. The thing weights over two hundred pounds, but it intimidates Henry NOT. He cleaned out the fireplace at home to prepare, while I put in a few hours of overtime at the office Sunday evening (foolish girl!). Christopher had a brief and needed a hand so, I volunteered Friday to come in. Feels good to volunteer, but I missed Andy Rooney! Got home at last, around 9:30.

Oh, and don't try this at home: I'm puttering around the kitchen, putting things away, refilling and reorganizing the spice jars. I'd picked up a bag of crushed red chili pepper flakes at Ocean Supermarket early this morning and was in the process of transferring them from the plastic bag in to my fancy little shaker when my nose began to burn even though the flakes were more than arms-length away from my face. Then things REALLY started to burn! My heart was pounding and I was almost overcome by what must have been invisible chili powder microduct floating around in an invisible cloud above where I had just poured thousands of the evil little blazing bastards into the shaker. I love them in hot and sour soup, but I don't actually apply them to the interior of my nasal passages. That is an entirely difference experience altogether. The fine dust landed on my lips, clung to my eyelashes. Man oh man. Unintentional, stupidity-inspired, surprise self-inflicted pain is always a real crackup.

Feast Not.

I've rediscovered St. James Infirmary and was playing it this morning when Henry approached clutching something in his hand, saying, "We will be eating high on the hog now!"
Inside? Three French Breakfast radishes he grew from seed. I wish I could tell you they were delicious, but he ate them all. I didn't stand a chance. He found another for me, though. Spicy and terrific.

Blender Tales.

I've recently become reacquainted with my blender. Not my food processor - my blender. Nothing fancy, this one's a 6-speed, 12-dollar, Wal-Mart special that has not been used in quite some time. In fact, it's not that great, but the blades are very sharp and the motor is very fast, so it is all I really need. (And I saved about ninety bucks not falling for that ridiculous, overpriced, over-infomercialized, 200-piece blender product known as the Magic Bullet.) Tonight I whipped up a rich, creamy, nutty-yummy veggie pesto sauce that is perfectly seasoned and loaded with flavor. My own recipe once again, inspired by both Jacques Pepin and Martin Yan. My journal is becoming my cook book, and my gift to you.

A couple of tips. I like using gray salt. It just tastes better, you use less and besides, it looks really cool in the Alton Brown salt cellar. Anyway, it's delicious, chunky and gray and comes in tins, or a plastic 1-lb. bag. Get it at NapaStyle.com, Draeger's or Andronico's.

Red Pepper Pesto and Mushroom Sauce
(Meatless and dairy-free...so it must be... ~~vegan???~:~)

1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped into large chunks
1-2 cloves garlic, chunked
3 small-to-medium tomatoes, seeded and chunked
2/3 cup olive oil
1 dozen fresh basil leaves, torn into smaller pieces, stems removed
1-1/2 cups sliced shitake or any other favorite mushrooms
1 cup pine nuts
Gray salt (if you have it) and pepper to taste. (We define "to taste" as slightly generous, but not too generous. You know...there, but not there.)
Okay, on with the show.

Put water on to boil your favorite pasta. Place chunked red pepper, garlic, and tomato into blender, mix for 1 minute or so. Add olive oil, pepper and salt (about 1 tsp each). Mix at low speed 1 minute. Increase speed and blend until pureed very smooth, about 2-3 minutes--using a spatula to push down anything not blended well enough back in--until silky smooth. Add basil and pine nuts, and puree again until smooth as possible. Set aside. Add your favorite pasta to boiling water. Top off with a splash of olive oil, reduce heat to medium, cover slightly and set timer for nine minutes. Sautee mushrooms in 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp olive oil until slightly soft. Add pesto and stir over medium-low heat until just heated through. Don't cook the sauce, just get it up to a few big bubbles, then remove from heat and stir through and through until bubbling stops. Add small splash of white wine if that kind of flavoring is desired, but it is good with or without, either way. When pasta is ready, put pasta into bowls and generously spoon sauce over. Served with a saucer of olive oil and baquette for dipping here there and everywhere, this dreamy sauce is so delicious, I just had to share it. Fabulous with a crisp, dry white wine, such as Obester 2002 White Riesling. Serves two. Enjoy.
Pam

Hello Again.

Hi. Back to my old self again. Now, where was I? Oh yeah. It's election time again in California. And you know what that means. Advertisement overkill. Time to go on a media fast again. I read the voter handbook that came in the mail, will make informed decisions, avoid television and radio altogether for the next three weeks, then I'll go vote. I really and truly despise all those doggone ads. Seriously. I'm calling DirecTV today and going on a 3-week vacation hold until after November 8. Henry ought to enjoy that. He hates television altogether entirely.

DVD Recommendation of the Week:

"Schultze Gets The Blues." The byline on the cover reads, "It's Never Too Late to Retune Your Soul."

We recommend Schultze for its loving portrait of a newly-retired mineworker who falls in love with a new kind of accordion music, zydeco. Deciding that life as a retiree was all too unappealing, Schultze throws caution to the wind as he travels to America to hear for himself the sights and sounds of the bayou of Louisiana. We loved how the actors portrayed a small band of friends who live a quiet, quirky life in a small town in Germany, and how the local accordion music club holds a special contest to see who will win a trip to their sister city, New Braunfels, Texas.

Anyone who enjoys cinematic fare that's off the beaten path will happily follow a zydeco-loving salt miner on a rejuvenating musical odyssey from Germany to Louisiana. Horst Krause stars as the taciturn, barrel-shaped Shultze, who is settling uneasily into retirement. He spends his days polishing his garden gnomes, drinking with friends, visiting his mother in a nursing home and playing traditional polkas on his accordion. At the 30-minute mark, Shultze, and the film, come to life when he hears zydeco on the radio and becomes enthralled in the music and the culture, going so far as to introduce his friends to such delicacies as jambalaya...." --Donald Liebenson, Amazon.com Reviews

I really identified with Shultze in this film.

My Very Own Recipe of the Week:

Stir-Fry with Spicy Raspberry Ginger Pomegranate Sauce

Ingredients:

Your Favorite Fresh Veggies, Cut to Stir-Fry

We used:
2 cups Celery,
1 Red Bell Pepper
3 cups Swiss Chard
1 cup sweet onion
1/2 cup fresh ginger - peeled, sliced thin and julienned into very thin, fine strips
Sauce:
Raspberry jam or Kozlowski's Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
soy sauce
cornstarch
pomegranate juice
Sriacha red chili sauce or any hot-spicy sauce
1 cup pomegranate seeds

Sauce:

Mix in a big mug 1/3 cup raspberry jam or raspberry chipotle sauce, 1/3 cup soy sauce, 3 tbsp cornstarch, and 1/3 cup pomegranate juice. Stir to a smooth texture, adding water a little at a time if needed to form a light, smooth liquid. Add a few dashes of your favorite spicy sauce and stir again. Set aside.

Stir fry veggies and ginger in 2 tbsp canola oil at med-high heat until warm and wilted yet still crisp. Reduce heat to medium. Stir and add sauce; reduce to low heat and stir until thickened. Serve sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.

This is an original recipe of mine. You really should try it. Pomegranates are a wonderful winter fruit, as are persimmons, and they add a tartness to these fired-up veggies. I'll try to post a good persimmon recipe next week for you. I'm imagining a spicy jalapeno-mango-persimmon -red onion salsa over lime juice-marinated chicken breast, or maybe salmon. I have never taken a cooking class in my life, but I do watch many cooking shows. Charlie Trotter, Jacques Pepin, and Joanne Weir and the Iron Chefs are my favorites.

I will miss them all during my impending television fast. NPR is the standard substitution.
Peace and Love to All,
Pam

Bug du Jour.

Had to cancel my gig, been feeling under the weather last few days. Hugely bummed because:
A. Been practicing for months.
B. Learned some great old and new material.
C. Had new CD in hand.
When your head is spinning, it's hard to count and sing and be present. Furthermore, I didn't want to share the bug with friends. Stay tuned for reschedule info - George is in vacation (nice of Cathy to call and let me know) until next week, so he will call when he returns.
Love to all.
Pam.

iBelieve.

I think I will start a movement, called iBelieve. iBelieve that Jesus is coming and/or that I'll be going to him, whichever comes first, and that pretty soon would be a good doggone time. Not too soon, though. iBelievers know what they know and believe what they believe and we are all okay with that.

All these disasters are very troubling. The war is very troubling. I am floating in and among other people's troubles, for the moment, and that in and of itself is troubling. How, why, am I so fortunate to have survived thus far unscathed? The good news is that They are catching the bad guys. Bad Guys in other governments, and the Bad Guys in our own. Power to the investigators and auditors and cops for catching all these really bad guys around the world. Power to the peacekeepers, the defenders. We are all brothers and sisters and I'm walking around peaceful streets lined with beds of flowers because of them and because of God's love for me. I'm sleeping at night, warm and dry. Lucky am I. I am conflicted because I believe that warmongering is wrong, but defending our land is right. This land is your land, this land is my land.

We drove over the hill last Friday to see Joan Baez at the Rio in Santa Cruz. Her graceful beauty charmed the audience as she sang to each of us with her clear, dreamy voice. Henry drifted off during a lullaby. I did not blame him, nor awaken him, it was so angelic. She sang a song written by Steve Earl, called "Come Back Woodie Guthrie." She was great. How I love and admire her. She waved to her mother. I met them both in San Gregorio last time I played. I was singing along and someone approached after a song and said, "Joan Baez is in the house." I quasi-panicked. I've met some very interesting individuals there. I'm playing there again this Sunday, October 15, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is always fun for me and I like it. I love the people. I love to sing. It's a kick. I have some new songs this time around. Come on out.

Camping at Del Valle.

We took the dog camping at Del Valle.
We walked down to the shoreline.
We set up our new tent.
Up walked a tarantula.
We had a nice campfire.
We counted bird species: angry woodpeckers and the thieving magpies who annoy them; an elegant great blue heron, gracefully easing its wings up and down as it soared; foraging scrub jays; a harem of wild turkeys, six hens and one proud tom; the ubiquitous crows; a flock of redwing blackbirds scratching out a throaty cacophony; four quail who wandered so close to us that we could see their little head-bobbles bobbling; and at night we heard the startling screech owls, the same variety that live and circle our back yard every night just screeching to their hearts delight; and great horned owls, hoot-hoot-hooting in the moonlit trees. We walked the dry riverbed, drank rosebud tea at night, spicy Lebanese coffee in the morning (strong Turkish coffee with ground cardamom added), and talked about life. On the way home we had an expected passenger: a yellow jacket, that stung me in the arm. It was, overall, a most lovely outing. TJ sure liked it.

Pride.

I'm proud of my potted plants.

Can I Ever Go Back Now?

After hearing about today's bombings in Jimburan and Kuta, the very places I visited and vacationed with my friend Matt and his family in May 2001, I'm afraid I may never be able to return to the beautiful island of Bali. What terrible news.