The Days are Just Packed

Well.  It has been a while...  What the heck has happened to the first half of August, you may ask, what the heck?
The first week on the month was spent at the  Dharma Center, cooking for around twenty meditators, who, considering they were mostly doing a lot of sitting (plus very slow walking and some standing) were remarkably hungry. I tenderly referred to them as my hungry ghosts and my little flock of locusts, as there never seemed to be any leftovers!  As is often the case at the DC, everyone but me and the teachers were in silence, so I got some lovely quiet time to reconnect with my spirit and the deeper reasons I love to cook. It really makes a difference in supporting people, and I do think that we are so frequently disconnected from our food that we are disconnected from our bodies.  This idea needs a whole post to explore, and I will do that soon...
  It was a joy to use a lot of the produce from the land to feed the people meditating on the land. There really can't be anything bad in that...  I made three of these Swiss Chard Tarts, based loosely on a Canadian Living Recipe.  

I also got to work with a whole lot of green beans, and came up with this blanched green bean, tomato and almond salad in a straightforward lemon honey mustard vinagrette.  It looked as though someone had licked the bowl at the end of the service.  Everything that had just come out of the garden was devoured. 

When I've been asked about how the cooking went, though, I generally refer to these little pillows of joy... One of my greatest cooking joys is always to make something I've never even imagined making before, and I made 48 of these babies- 24 spelt and 24 whole wheat, based on this recipe and the extensive comments.  They were gorgeous.  I was proud.   

They really had pockets.  The next time I go, one of the young woman who goes there regularly is going to volunteer with me in the kitchen to learn how to cook- this makes me very happy, as I so love to teach and I feel like I will be spreading a bit of my knowledge.  

Home last week, and the work on the truck began.  Suffice it to say, I will never, ever eat at a chip truck again without a quick walkabout and a very thorough peer through the window and an inquiry about lard.  It was pretty gross.  Thanks be that my little bro was there with me, cleaning and removing stuff, opening doors and scraping grease, or I would have been a mess of tears and degreaser.   We think it can work, but it is going to be tight, I tells ya... The truck goes.  It doesn't stop, but it goes.  


Here are actual pics of the truck.  The real truck.  It's still near Cornwall.  It still needs a ton of work.  But it's coming closer to being here.  They're from the still-rocking-my-world iPhone. 

 Another little catering gig on Friday, and then a party this weekend and my birthday (which was absolutely lovely- thank you Denise, Dave, Maggie, Mom, Wes and everyone who helped me celebrate).  I am weeks behind in returning social phone calls, and have to finish getting the website up today, but am feeling really positive after a two days without actual working.  The work begins again this week, with getting the truck here and really working to find a spot and getting it set up so I can get permits and get cooking... Going to try to network my way to a spot, and I just know it will work out. Well.  I just desperately hope it will work out.  And work on it.  Off to finish the website!