Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

life seems to be full of hard lessons, im slowly becoming certain that the only real lessons in life are the hard ones. By no means is this the first hard lesson i have had, but a friend said the following to me tonight, and as usual, it is one of those things that you already know, but you get blindsided, you turn so far in, that you forget to look out to see if what you are finding inside even makes sense.

“YOUR NOT GOING TO BE HAPPY IF YOU FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT AND NOT WHAT YOU HAVE IN FRONT OF YOU”

thanks JM I needed that one, I do have a fantastic son, and friends and others around me,and I never want to forget that again because it has done me in once already.

“…in front of me…” right now other than lyrics:

at my computer table littered with art and notes and books and cords there is the mound of silly bands my son has collected, and they sit nestled up to my glass of chinese fortunes (believe me you never know when you may need one), i tunes, via my headphones, currently playing damien rice and the piece of watermelon i decided to eat, on one of my favorite plates that i happened to just now drop on the floor and split in two (for those of you that know me, this seems rather symbolic of life right now, but im not going to read to much into the state of a broken plate that i tried to cut watermelon on while it rested on the edge of a table, it was my fault, of course that is another problematic statement, thus the dialogue on watermelon will end) and finally a section from the last page of the book I am presently reading.

"It would never have crossed her mind spontaneously that somebody might actually need silence. That silence helps you to go 'inward', that anyone who is interested in something more than just life outside actually needs silence..."

and thus i sit amongst these things that remind me both of what i want and what i have, they are equally inspiring and depressing. and thus here i sit. . .

So someone who knows me quite well knows that I love to cook things at home, and like anyone who is interested in food, I enjoy new, interesting and exotic ingredients. Well, Saffron may not be the new kid on the block, but the good stuff is not in the realm of my general trip to the grocery budget, if ya know what  I mean; and a long story short, I got some as a gift for valentines day. Lacking a paella pan, and knowing that is exactly what I wanted to use it for, it has thus been nestled snugly into my spice cabinet awaiting its debut.

Alas, the day of the saffron has arrived. My dear friend Jen got a a paella pan. I brought an interesting, dry french rose’ (strong finish of banana, its good, but different), chorizo and saffron. She got the seafood, the pan and other necessary ingredients.

If your not familiar with paella, then in a nut shell, is a Spanish style rice dish with a saffron broth and then meat, seafood or mixed with fresh peas, red peppers and arborio rice. Most commonly you see chicken legs/thighs used along with mussels, clams, shrimp and chorizo.

Our paella was mixed using the three listed seafoods and chorizo, we, out of laziness, opted to avoid the preparation of chicken. And thus, it was quite tasty, but trial two shall be using the rendered fat of chick thighs.