Weekend Update March 18, 2013

A good head and a good heart

 are always a formidable combination.

Nelson Mandela

Quick! You're stranded in a kitchen on a deserted island. Or, maybe you're stranded at a deserted kitchen island. Wait, no. you're stranded on an island with dessert. 

Oh, whatever- which tools do you absolutely have to have?

wonder woman's magic lasso, that harnesses the
power of Aphrodite and forces all whom it binds into
 instant obedience? Yeah. That might be useful.

Your levitating chair? Also a good choice.

bonus points for remembering sunscreen

And me? Well, assuming that I get to keep the tools I have attached at the ends of my arms....

No, thank you. I only need two.
Five would be, er, hard to handle.
and a little creepy.

Assuming I have those most versatile tools, my hands, I choose these:

one or two good knives.
And my cast iron skillet.

Except they so reliably become unreliable, don't they? Tools, like heads and hearts, are dulled by the daily grind, one little microlayer at a time. Whatever shall we do? Well, you could take them to a knife sharpener, you could watch a video and learn how to sharpen your own knives, or you be the lucky sort of person who knows people with mad knife sharpeney skillz.

LOOK!!!! I'm just that lucky!!!!!

Nana, meet Cody.
I think he may be a little smitten with
your granddaughter.
He's a very smart guy. 

and look at the glass-smooth
surface left after that sharp knife
halved a potato!!!

That potato, about 3 others like it, and yesterday's Ale braised Corned Beef were sliced and diced with my beautifully sharp knife into this morning's corned beef hash and it was fine. But it wasn't the biggest food discovery of the week.

The most exciting discovery of the week is the amazing (and I mean eat it with a spoon instead of waiting to use it as a sauce it's so good)  sauce from Splendid Table's Rodrigo style fish. Recipes disappear from this site all the time and go back to the cookbooks that they came from, so scribble this one down while you can.

Honestly, if you have a good pesto recipe, and the fantastic Francis Lam's Ginger Scallion sauce for all your Asian-style sauceables, and this- what we're calling the Rodrigo Sauce (look- I've linked it twice- I'm that serious) you can pretty much cover every dish in the world with saucy goodness. Here it is- my knives hadn't yet been sharpened, so instead of dicing myself to death, I threw the ingredients in my uber-cool Starbuck's pitcher and put the immersion blender to work.

There it is, next to the salad that we had along with some very simple
pan-fried tilapia.
 You can mix it in one of those bullet things too. It'll be less cool,
but just as tasty.

It was only later that I began to realize all that this sauce (like any great sauce) is capable of.

Here, I'll show you:

In other weekend news, the interval between too cold and too hot known in more temperate climes as Spring fell on a Friday here, so we missed the chance for a Springtime Saturday picnic. Instead, we spent a nearly too hot Saturday at Dallas Farmer's Market; I'll bet there are fruit stands and farmer's markets near you that are swinging into warm weather glory (or autumn glory if you have the good fortune to be reading this upside down in the Southern Hemisphere) so, you know-   

Go get to there. 

Did you know that once, a long time ago, a guy named Archimedes said

"give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it,
and I will move the world."

and he wasn't bragging. Unassuming tools are often capable of moving the world in astounding ways.

 I've been thinking alot about that-

about dulling, and sharpening, and the people I'm lucky enough to know who possess and are possessed by strong sharp minds and strong brave hearts. 

I hope this week, as the world around you needs moving, or mending, or a steady hand to still it, that you feel (even if just for a moment) the sharp strength of the best tools you will ever call your own:

 your own heart and your own mind.

 I hope in that moment you know this; when you blend the keen resourcefulness of your strong mind with the compassionate courage of your strong heart, this ruined, wild, wonderful world had better take notice. Because it's about to be loved into order by someone really, truly

quite formidable.