too hot!

temperatures this summer haven't really reached infernal levels,
at least,
not for any dog day durations,
as the bright lights of the season slowly wane away to deepening shadows,
and the nights inevitably get longer and longer.
so,
that's a thing.
the coldest and lengthiest winter segued into a short, not-that-sweet summer,
with very little spring, and a whole lot of autumn masquerading around the mountains
as the vacationy paradisical high spots, on the map, on the mercury, and of the trips.
yikes.
we know better, don't we?
i  should think so.
hard styles and hard times and hardcase hard hearts and heads are what we do best.
that means that we're callused, calloused, and never very callow,
in that we don't alow for the naivete of optimism to intrude on our outlooks.
whoah.
that's no joke.
therefore,
we only really succeed by boosting our barbarian natures,
and developing heightened immunity to low points, low pressure, low temperatures.
we raise our tolerances and lower our expectations.
...except when it comes to food.
food is where we go for broke, and break ourselves on the knife and fork
fiendishness of shark-gluttony.
seriously.
last night,
i brought all the heat that's been missing from this whole year to one specific dish.
and it was expert.
neighbors,
check the fuego-ferocioso-type teleport:

kaBOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
exxxtra-firm tofu, semi-drained, and then baked for a brief bit,
so that every cube is extra-exxxtra firm,
marinated in some manly brown sweet-and sour jauns,
with ground mustard, ground ginger, cayenne, sriracha,
rice wine vinegar, black pepper, liquid amino tamari drizz,
brown sugar, and three or four cloves of crushed garlic.
i divided the sauce in three parts-
one for marinating,
one for blasting the veggies into orbit,
and one for finishing it off with that rich wet hottness we all love.
duders.
the heat in this would've been pretty serious with just the sauce,
but,
too much is the right amount,
so i also added in some sliced red chili, green chili, and jalapenos.
hot hot hot.
plus,
once the tofu was sufficiently caramelized,
i hucked in some kung pao cubism-
red bell pepper, celery, scallions, and roasted peanuts (with that sauce).
that's how you doo-doo that freaky sh!t, kids.
and when that's had a chance to get activated after a few minutes,
i fired in the cilantro, and the last of the marinade, and turned off the heat.
how was it?
ummm,
it went to eleven on every level.
i mean, c'mon.
obviously, it had the big-time turbo-boosting burly battle ready flavor in effect.
hmm?
oh, that?
that's garlic basil fried rice.
with red & green lentils;
red, white, and black, short, medium, and long grains of ricey nicey niceness.
there's like, five cloves of sliced garlic,
and there're two more crushed in with the rice as it steamed.
fresh basil, red onion, celery, mung beans, scallions,
and lots of oil and shoyu kept it all pretty flippin' elite.
i'll tell you what-
it wasn't the brownest fried rice in the world,
but it was some of the most delicious.
that's real talk for your face.
...
what about the salad?
what about the salad?
oh.
about the salad-
that was there so i wouldn't burn my face right off on flaming peppers,
with intermittent dousing doses of coolwater relief,
so i could continue consuming the blazing spice at a pretty alarming.pace.
quartered cucumber slices,
slivered cucumber,
pea tendrils,
cilantro and scallions,
tossed with black pepper and rice vinegar,
with a dash or two of toasted sesame oil,
and sesame seed sprankles for proper presentation.
i'm sayin'-
a lot of people like food.
but not many of them perv out on the overindulgence of excellence
on every level of the thing.
we do what we do around here.
namely,
i mean, i make a lot of moves in my kitchen,
and i keep it pretty hot, even when the whole year
is damned determined to extinguish my inner fires.
i kickstarted them with all that chili flame, though,
and now i'm back at it.
food is what i love,
and it's what i make when i should be making art.
literally, everything i create these days turns to sh!t.
no need to digest that statement.
it's all really happening,
that's all there ever can be;
never quiet, never soft.....