Menus, June 11, 2014

"Fire and hope are connected, just so you know."

Jodi Picoult

Connected in a curving line of mythic causes and epic consequences, but still connected- pretty much. It happened like this: after an eon or two of trickery and subterfuge among the residents of Olympus, Prometheus noticed that mankind, for whom he had a special fondness, was shivering under mastodon blankets at night and stuck eating cold oatmeal and steak tartare and raw onions day in and day out. 

That's because being warm on a cold night
 and eating cooked food was a privilege of the gods.

So one night, while all the other divinities were sleeping off a bacchanalian binge, Prometheus stole a burning stick of something and high tailed it down to earth,

where he hosted the first barbecue.

After that things got heated. The gods, more than a little miffed about having to share yet another of their nice things, spread  vengeance around thicker than sauce on a pulled pork sandwich. Prometheus was chained to a rock where his perpetually regenerating liver was daily ripped out by an eagle,

or, what some of you would call just another day at the office.

And for the dual crimes of receiving stolen goods and enjoying a gift from the gods, man also was punished. Sarcastia, the goddess of passive-aggression, got even with him by presenting him with a woman. The beautiful Pandora was given to man, bringing with her a different sort of heat and a pretty little box that she had been sternly warned against opening. And so man was punished with the gift of a wife, who in turn had been cursed with the gift of curiosity. 

Residents of Olympus really struggle with the whole
presents are for making people happy thing, don't they?
The year after this, they invented the Christmas sweater.

Of course Pandora opened the box, and released into humanity all the ills and evils it didn't already have. In a panic of fear and remorse she slammed the box shut just before the last spirit, the spirit of Hope, could escape. Now. Here's a thing that has always puzzled me: if releasing the evils allowed them to multiply, why not release hope to multiply as well? Why did mankind and godkind heave a sigh of relief when hope was trapped in the box at the last second?

That's a ponder for another time...A time that is not dinner time.

At dinner time, it's enough to know that even though summer has descended on the Northern Hemisphere and no one wants to heat up a kitchen, we need not be reduced to eating microwave dinners and cereal. 

Because this week fire and hope will be inextricably linked- as they were when you were young, and on your way home smelled the smell of something on a grill and thought "gee, someone's having barbecue tonight. 

I sure hope it's me."

Because this week, where there's smoke, there just might be dinner. 

Wednesday: Grilled Skirt Steak and Grilled Vegetables

 It's no secret that up to this point, I have treated the grill as an outdoor stove. No longer. Curiosity impels me and the internet assists me, and I will learn this week how to cook with fire. I hope. 
We're going to start here, with a relatively simple dinner and a salad with its leftover's tomorrow, and use that confidence to do some hard-core barbecuing later in the week.






Skirt Steak salad

Leftover steak settles in nice and easy under a lime and cilantro dressing for a terrific main dish salad. Gotta have some carbs? Think of warming up some tortillas and wrapping your salad up like a burrito.







Maple Grilled Salmon and blackberry salad

Once more onto the flames for a poor piece of Salmon. Maybe this time I'll be able to fish it out before it over cooks. This salad is so good, that it's showing up for the second week in a row. This time though, the dressing will be a simple maple syrup/balsamic vinaigrette. 

Grilled Pizza and grilled eggplant with tomatoes and basil

What to grill when the vegetarians are with you? This. Well, I hope so. I've heard great things about grilled pizza, and I'm willing to try. Even if it burns to a cinder, we'll still have the veggies, and they look terrific.




Barbecued Ribs and Potato salad. 

Here's the week's next challenge: a long, slow, true barbecue- a thing I have never done. I've linked a step-by-step lots of pictures type recipe, and though it looks a little time consuming, it looks possible. Not even the potato salad heats up the kitchen- the potatoes are grilled along with the meat, then tossed along with the vegetables in a creamy Italian dressing.

Well, that's the line up- look again and you'll see that neither the stove or the oven get turned on all week!  New techniques that need learning, curiosity to satisfy, and a house that needs to keep its cool.  Wow. Put it all together and it seems a little daunting. Well. One dinner at a time, right?

I hope this week 
fans the flames of your passions
and yet keeps your cool.
And I hope that this week those passions
get their turn on the front burner.
Because it's true, you know-
the things that light you up,
that set your heart on fire,
they are connected to 
your most ardent hopes.
So this week, when sadder parts of being human assail you,
Dig deep.
Look again at things you thought were empty.
And maybe, just maybe, 
 in the bottom of the box,
you'll find everything you need to kindle one more