quickly.

oh MAN!
i worked late yesterday.
i didn't really wanna,
but i realllllly hate watching those movie checks bounce out of the studio,
clean-skinned, full-pocketed, and with hard feelings.
i had to cancel a tattoo midday day, due to time constraints,
which is just about one of the worst ways to disappoint a client,
as they are usually IN the building when that happens.
yuck.
so,
when two MORE folks had been waiting a little longer than usual,
and it was already closing time,
i helped out, and took 'em in.
yeah, neighbors, i did it.
i felt like i should try to foster a few good feelings after my fail earlier.
that put me home an hour later than the latest i'd have like to be
in the sweaty swelter of the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress,
with harvest, maple, ampy-d, and crabtree.
the whole gang was waiting,
and i walked in through thunderstorms,
and brought that lightning-striking natural winning streak with me.
duders,
two seconds through the door,
and i had onions chopped cauliflower cut up,
and roughly-hewn garlic cloves in a skillet, browning themselves in oil.
yuuuup.
there's no time for wasting up here.
the family togetherness had been on pause for long enough,
and all the dinnerly goodness was overdue.
-
i was all like: 'how about india-ish?';
and they all like: 'yeah. okay. whatever. i guess'.
and that was all the encouragement i needed.
which is really just not hearing a definitive 'NO'.
i wanted something lightly spicy, and fully satisfying,
and they weren't doing sh!t about it,
so i ,made what i felt like making, and it worked out for all of us.
check the not-quite-chana-jalfrezi-type teleport:

oh my goodness!
the photo didn't make it to instagram.
womp womp.
it was too late in the evening,
and the light was too sh!tty to capture a picture of any substance.
not with that much beige in one place.
dang.
the taste tho?
expert!
that bread!!!!
i made it on the spot, because everything else was done,
and i needed a little somethin'-somethin' exxtra.
you know how it goes.
also,
more specifically,
it went a little somethin' like this:
-
1 T sour cream,
a scant half cup of warm water,
fresh ground black pepper, a cup of all purpose flour,
and sprouted whole wheat, for thickening and dusting and de-sticking,
2 T sossamon sesame seeds,
with baking kapowder and soda in teaspoons apiece.
-
in a HOT skillet with melted earth balance?
oooooh.
it's makeshift na-na-naaaaaaan bread, kids.
and it was delicious.
as for the rest of it?
brown rice did what it does.
it was parboiled, and i blasted it up extra-fast.
time was of the essence,
and there's no way i was missing out on a key component of curry.
that happened,
and while the gobi was getting a good char on the edges,
i had tiny cubes of tofu dry frying,
to which i added chopped onion, chick peas,
slippery discs of summer squash and zucchini,
and let that all get sauteed in garlic and oil-
then,
it was time for seitan broth, spiced up with smoked paprika, coriander,
cumin, turmeric, ginger, GPOP, black pepper, and ground mustard!!
guys,
it smelled incredible, and tasted just like it smelled!!
i fired in some red grape tomatoes at the end,
because i prefer a lot of color on my plate.
that's a thing.
in like, half an hour. i activated a whole mess of flavor.
not because i am any sort of savant,
but because i know about food, and my mission is to expose this family
to as much of the best big action that active participation,
a vast library of motivated memory,
fighting spirit,
and dedicated inventive attention can create.
also,
i had another burner on the stove, so i used it to sear up the last of the asparagus,
with garlic, and those sossamon jauns.
dudes,
it's been decreed, all sesame seeds are now sossamons.
sorry, but rules is rules.
we dominated this meal.
seriously.
savage shark gluttony rules the day,
and we were forcing fistfuls of bread and rice and beige bits straight into our stomachs.
MORE is better,
and too much is the right amount.
we all got stuffed, we all left happy,
and the night unfolded with continued togetherness,
until i collapsed in bed like a withered and weary old man.
damn.
full days, full schedules, full belly, full heart.
it's ALL really happening,
and i wouldn't want anything less;
never quiet, never soft.....