Parpardelle, by hand, Harvest festival....and family stuff.

So there's this guy. He's pretty cool. The other day he came to the farmers market with me, and helped me carry home a half bushel of tomatoes (one handle each). Then we made fresh pasta together. And rolled it out by hand. I have to say, it was...really fun. Really....nice. And that's not something I'm used to.

You may recall me writing about my family, and grandparents, a little while ago. The same night I got a call from my aunt, very business-like, about estate-settling matters. We haven't spoken in probably 5 years, but there was certainly no love lost on her part. I don't know why things like this bother me. They do though, I yearn for connection. And that's exactly the frame of mind, of spirit, that I am in after returning from Harvest Festival. Everyone there is so full of life, love, friendliness. It made me feel more open and free. I said I had to collect my thoughts on it, but I don't know that that's possible. It made me reconsider my current "career" (if you can call it that), think more about a path (both career-wise, and spiritually, and especially my conundrum with reconciling the two), my experience of joy, and how to experience (I don't know how to define the sensation, but this is my current word of choice) bliss daily, as well as spreading that feeling around as much as possible.



I know I've had a few too many resolutions here, but that is my current one. To live, as much as possible, mindfully, lovingly, connected, and to light that fire in others.

culinary perfection - hear me when i come

For the first time I can ever remember, I cooked something that was *perfect* - I would not change a thing. I am at peace, full of bliss, ecstatically satisfied.

I often eat in front of my computer (woe is me, yadda yadda, the joys of living a solo existence). Tonight I sat down here, with blaring dubstep/drumstep on. I took a bite. I turned down the music. I took another bite. I got up, left the room, went to the living room where things are quiet and calm and rather bland. I took another bite, I closed my eyes, I tried to eat slowly. Culinary bliss.

I swear this is not hyperbole. If I ever made this again - which I want to do (for obvious reasons), but don't want to do (because I don't think I can ever recreate the experience, nor do I want to diminish its meaning) - I wouldn't change a thing. I VERY rarely feel that way about anything I make. And that's ok too. That's part of what I love about cooking; it's a process, a journey of constant learning, like life. That's part of why I keep this (and my other less-organized) cooking journals. So I can adapt, alter, strive for that perfect balance, without ever reaching it. This was so perfectly balanced....so....perfectly expressive of its ingredients. It's like - I just finished a wine course (WSET Advanced level, and by "just" I mean 2 months ago but I'm still waiting for my results) - and when judging a wine's quality part of it is it's balance, but part is also its ability to express that particular grape or regions character. This pasta reminds me of that. Because yes, it was sweet, tangy, earthy, fresh, creamy, toothsome, meaty. The combination of browned (slightly accidentally overcooked) garlic, browned (slightly accidentally overcooked) butter, and chewy/crispy balsamic carmelized shallots, with the sauteed morels and shiitakes was like...heaven... like (I imagine) fresh truffles would be. Combined with the sweet crunchy corn and sweet creamy creme fraiche, with bursts of fresh, grassy parsley...well, its the best thing I ever ate.

I know its a bit unsavoury to post about something that is pretty much identical to another blogger's recipe. However, I *LOVE* dashandbella.blogspot.ca Her writing, photography, realness, approach to parenting, stream-of-consciousness style writing. Its all so beautiful. And I've been dreaming about making this dish ever since I first came across it. No matter that corn + pasta sounded so strange to me at first. In fact, it was this blog that first prompted me to make creme fraiche (so easy, SOOOO delicious!)

My chopping and prepping was done with this ragga mix on (god I love king of the bongo). I went to Skrillex last week and it. was. sick. LOVING the reggae/dubstep thing he's got going on. Wow, there's a lot of love in the this post. I think that's a good thing :)

I could have feasted on just the sauteed shallots/garlic/mushrooms.

The pasta almost seemed superfluous. But tied everything together.

And now I'm making raspberry jam.