Weekend Update, Sunday June 8

“when ideas are shared, the result is always greater

 than than the sum of the parts” 

Rich Willis

Last week, dinner was served up vertically. More or less. That is, instead of friends, or the internet, or magazines, the inspiration for last week's dinner was received from family members who are my straight line (and sometimes straight arrow) descendants. True, that inspiration came from my children to me, which anthropologically speaking is a straight vertical line backwards. But really, in this kitchen,

backwards is often the only way forward.

There seems to be no end of things to learn about things to eat! And no end of ways to learn it! This week, in a mind-blowing meta conversation, my brain helped me conduct a conversation with another person's brain about the ways that people's brains have classified the ways that people's brains learn from other people's brains.

It was like this, but in my brain.
Otherwise you would have heard it.
With your brain.

You can learn from someone who teaches with a sort of direct authority- sort of like this:

note that instruction falls in a straight line that is
perpendicular to the pointy stick (aka the information reception device).
This is why the people in the front row learn more.

 Or you can learn horizontally- from peers or print or the internet:

 And horizontal learning
with a book is one of the nicest ways of learning that there is.

Or you can engage in the twisty-turny topsy-turvy mental jenga game known as brainstorming:

The thing is, most of what you know, you learned somehow from someone, whether you wanted to know it or not. Even when it feels like you learned something all on your own, chances are you took in something that you picked up somewhere and chewed it over and gave it room to expand.

Well, maybe not quite like that.

Or you learned something, and tried it, and adapted it to fit your needs. Or threw it on the useless information heap.  Sort of like this spicy whole roasted cauliflower, which I'd decided to try because my daughter suggested doing something Indian with cauliflower this week, and this looked fun.

Here's the recipe picture:

Yummy!

Here's what I learned from an actual attempt:

It looks like brains on a plate.
and not in a good way.

Despite more than an hour of baking at 400 degrees, it was still unpleasantly crunchy in the middle. But all of us have learned what to do in times like these: cut the thing up, toss it in olive oil and roast it like that's the way you meant it.

At this point the oven stopped working.

No matter. If there's one thing the internet has taught me, it's that grills are great for vegetables. So, a little more olive oil, and onto a grilling rack! Then, with what I thought was a rather melodramatic sigh, the propane tank threw its last flame and gave its last last fiery gasp to the cauliflower.
After which, some bit of knowledge embedded in the cook's collective unconscious murked its way to the front of my mind with a very helpful suggestion:

"Let's compost this stuff and go out."

Fortunately, not all of this week's trial and error learning leaned so heavily toward the error side. As an example, this:

my Mother's East Texas garden.

Though you may not have familial access to brambly vines heavy with blackberries, you probably have access to blackberries, abundant and cheap. If you do, you may want to learn the glories of this:

Salad with blackberries, spiced pecans and goat cheese.
One of the nicest salads I've had in a long time.
This goes into the summer salad hall of fame.

 This great healthification of a traditional Asian Cabbage Salad was a lesson worth learning too:

Perhaps you too were taught by a more experienced cook to always keep something fast and easy around the house-

No! Not that kind of fast and easy! 

THIS kind of fast and easy!

Well, it was good advice- a bag of frozen shrimp, nice fish sticks, even a frozen pizza- it's always a good idea to have something in the freezer for nights when take away is too expensive and the cereal's all gone. Potstickers fit the bill. Easy to cook, fun to eat and versatile. Ours came to dinner looking like a big deal next to the Asian Salad and two dipping sauces, but they would've been just as nice on their own, or with a little broccoli, or some leftover rice, or floating in a bowl of soup...You get the idea. Sometimes you learn about one simple thing, and suddenly the possibilities start multiplying and multiplying

like a band of bunnies!

. 

And while I would never wish on you banjo playing bunnies, I do hope that this week brings you knowledge.

I hope wherever it comes from,

and whatever form it takes

that this week you learn things

that thrill your mind

and sustain your soul

and nourish your body.

I hope that this week

you find no end to amazing,

and no end to knowledge

and no end to learning. 

Because wish you limitless learning

is eventually the same

as wishing for you

limitless love.