roundhouse roundtrip.

awwwww,
man.
my kids have left the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress.
and that's kind of a bummer.
i mean,
there's still quite a bit of summer ahead of us,
and they've got their own things going on south of the woodsly goodness.
so,
harvest and maple are back in their original element,
and to cope with their absence, i got back into my element as well.
yup.
the test kitchen yielded an awesomely tasty plate last night,
as i poured my awareness of absence into a skillet-based summoning
of very very fullness.
the missing pieces, and the missing teenagers,
are evidenced by the glaring silence,
and my eerily clean house.
it's cool, though,
i'll just fill in the blanks with food, duders.
we had good visit,
and as usual, it was far too short, and it went by waaaay too fast,
but,
i'm always appreciative of their presence,
(and of their fathers' day presents).
ha.
anyway,
i spent most of the day in the car,
which was no fun at all,
and after the halfway-mark payoff/dropoff/sendoff,
i still had the same distance to return,
only, somehow, in the opposite direction, there was a billion times more traffic.
yuck.
i guess that's why i felt like i HAD to get a little expert all up in the kitchen
as soon as i got home.
first i divided and fed the sourdough starter that travis brought me from nicaragua.
that bubbly, boozy, voracious little active culture has got to eat,
and the bulk ferment of a big batch of flour
for a big loaf of sexy bread isn't going to measure and add itself.
word.
...and then,
ampy d asked for a simple and easy salad,
but,
instead of taking it easy,
i did that thing i always do, and turned it up a little.....
check the teleport:

ooooooooofAH!!!
the salad sort of spread out and took on a life of it's own.
broccoli sprouts are spicy,
and they took the baby lettuce, baby tomatoes, and baby cucumbers in
a zinging zizzly-zazzled direction i like.
avocado on top made it smooth, and creamy, as if i'd dressed it up,
when really i'd just put it down!
(when i say 'put it down', i'm referring to the urban definition, not an insult)
that was pretty simple as far as salads go,
but then i took some vegetable broth, and boiled a batch of farro up.
that sh!t is awesome.
and it's even MORE so when grilled asparagus and broccolini florets get
tossed in with a little olive oil.
mmmmm.
it's teeming vitamins and sh!t i'm sure.
it's definitely overflowing with flavor and texture,
and i was scoopling seconds down before i'd finished all my firstsies...
hmmm?
what's that, now, neighbors?
you want to know what's that beige slab of sexxxiness?
oh-
that's a fried-up ground-up toasted sesame seed-crusted sliced seitan steak.
...and it is expert!!
it's on a salad, too.
watercress, radicchio, red cabbage, parsley, cilantro, pea shoots,
sweet peppers, and scallions!
so crawnchy, so fresh, so clean,
and just the taste that seitan needed to nestle into,
before those caramelized onions activated the hottness in our mouths.
actually,
that garlic scape and basil pesto, with almonds, nootch, GPOP, salt, pepper,
and a ton of olive oil made all this hottness even hotter,
and all the good things tie in together in scandalous orgy of excellence.
.......we ate it all up.
*
i know,
the kids missed out.
i waited until they were gone,
and turned up the volume on dinner all over again.
but,
i'm not some chumpy lump,
who left them to a bowl of cereal as our last meal together for a minute.
no way.
i mean,
what do you think i am?
some kind of an A*-hole?
c'mon.
we tuned-up some very coconutty panniecakes, man.
teleport:

open note to breakfast champions-
full-fat coconut milk sucks balls in pancakes.
they were well-cooked,
but just a bit gummy for all the blarpity thickness of the liquid.
i did it to myself, and i certainly still ate it anyway.
i guess we left on a bittersweet batch.
the real maple syrup and chocolate chips did help a little.
-
i miss those two children like crazy.
the hardest part about our togetherness is the lack of it afterwards.
hermity hard-style rural Folk Life livin' wasn't an easy choice back in the day,
and although i've gotten a it better at it every day since,
it's never just all-the-way-easy.
i'm just so glad they get to see a drastically different kind of approach
to life, love, work, and play, here, in these mountains,
where we do everything a little harder,
and with more intention and attention,
intuition and intensity,
than those places and spaces they more frequently occupy.
it's all still really happening,
it just feels so much nicer when they're here to be a part of it;
never quiet, never soft.....