Food & Thoughts

  Oh my God, soooo good! The recipe header reads: Calling all olive heads... Well, you had me at hello! Exactly the right amount of brine-y - salty - spicy - hot one could wish for, with the ricotta salata giving a little respite from the heat. I guess it really depends on your chili paste what heat you get - and of course also on your heat preference - but I might dial the amount back to half a tablespoon, because if I am not to adapt to my liking, why take notes at all?  Used self imported Rancho Gordo Ayocote Blanco Beans , which were outstanding. The poached egg on top made it a full meal. Definitely a do-again. 

  Every once in a while, my dad-in-law stumbles upon an offer of red meat he cannot resist. That sometimes result in a somewhat spontaneous (as in: planned within a week or so) dinner - they bring the meat, we provide the BBQ and some sides. Couldn't let the opportunity of trying yet another one of Justines recipes pass me by. I leafed through the book, suddenly realizing that the majority of her salad recipes are made of cooked or baked vegetables, and somehow hit my autumn/winter spot, more than the summer equivalent. I am definitely on team 'cooked salads' AND team 'a salad can be a meal' - but a lot of the recipes suddenly seemed well - wintry. Which might not be entirely fair, because there are Tempura-fried Asparagus with Buttermilk Dressing, A Garden Salad to Make You Love Garden Salads and Basil Cucumbers with Slightly Sweet Peanuts also available - but on certain days, I have to take the people I feed into account as well, and I wasn't sure any of those...

Back in 2013, I started a post with the above title. I also wrote the next four paragraphs: 'You know what I miss? I miss this place. I miss writing. I miss cooking. I miss pouring over cookbooks, having them lying next to my bed when I fall asleep at night. I don't know why I stopped. Wait, maybe that's not the whole truth. There are just so many reasons I did stop - child, school, home life, oh, and a brand new interest in knitting - that coming back became hard. And also, food blogging became a chore, not what it started out being: an adventure, a sharing of dreams and posibilities and ideas. It became a popularity contest. I don't know if it still is, because frankly, I don't read food blogs very much these days. But that's probably good, for me, if I want to bring it back to basics. Writing about food, about what I do in the kitchen, and about what happens in my life, and how what happens in the kitchen reflects that. I miss being happy in the kitchen...

It's not a complicated thing: basically olive oil, hot, fennel seeds and chili flakes until fragrant, sage leaves fried until crispy, add eggs, douse in the oil. It's just good. Flavours BIG and BOLD. I enjoyed it.