The Mellow Continues And A Gastronomy Update

I have written numerous times this year about the state of 'mellow' that appears to be the latest phase of transition. I wrote about it just 12 days ago. But evidently given my age addled memory, I thought it was a totally new revelation yesterday. I presume in one's late 70's that a Brahma Day which is quite long (A Day of Brahma: One "day" (Kalpa) equals 1,000 cycles of the four yugas. This amounts to 4.32 billion human years. Brahma's "night" lasts for the exact same duration.) gets reduced to about 12 human days. 

Anyway, I was internally remarking at how I am just going with the flow these day. Things certainly happen. I had a client who I thought we were totally good with, go sideways all of a sudden. And yet, I seem to be happy and content despite it. 

I know I wrote during my times in El Campello how much I enjoyed everything going slower. Well that state seems to have now come back to the homeland. Someone who I hadn't seen in quite a while asked me what I was doing. I told him pretty much what I've always done, just not as much of it and not with the intensity of energy as before. 

I do admit that there is the voice that keeps harping that I SHOULD be worried about things. That I SHOULD be more anxious about them. But for the most part I just let that voice rant and am happy in my doing things slowly and intentionally (like even doing dishes).  

A brief comment on cooking. With Wife seriously trying to lose weight, and the limitations of the gout diet, and not having the energy to cook any social type gathering, cooking has been a lot more about how do I take various things I've learned or hear about in the present and integrate them into my daily cooking. It's about all kinds of little tweaks and additions to see how the daily meal can evolve. Here are a couple of examples. 

#1 told me about a popcorn technique where you use a mortar and pestle to pulverize salt while cooking it. I wondered what would happen if I did the same technique with salt and rosemary leaves. It came out nice. Then I tried that same combination of flavors and technique making some pork chops. Result - a substantial increase in the herb flavor in the meat. Now I'm lookiing for other herb/spice combinations to use with this technique. 

I've used a recipe for cooking carrots I got from some source where you put butter, a small amount of sugar, salt and pepper and a small amount of water and then  braise the carrots. Always turns out good. I said to myself, "what if I change the sweetener and use honey? And what if I added a bit of heat for a sweet hot effect?" So I put in some NM Red Chile Powder.  Came out really nice. 

So these are the kinds of things I do on a daily basis. Just taking various things I've learned over time or are introduced to and putting them into my daily routine. 

Bon appétit.