With an overflowing mind like mine, literally starting to talk back at me when I open my eyes in the morning, preparing food for others almost always turns into a t-party, unrelated to the hot fermented drink but a structured way for me to tackle the top five territories in the cooking domain that I can trustingly point to: theory, time, taste, theatre and tenderness.
Sure, there are many ways to skin a cat (I’d never!) but no matter how simple or complicated the meal to be will become, these are the pillars I’ve learned to rely on to keep any pressure at bay. I loathe stress, with its bitter taste threatening to spoil the lot and I will move heaven and earth to obliterate it from my kitchen, with various degrees of success; go ask Ivory.
On my drawing pad of planning a lunch, dinner or other food rave there’s not much room for research or recipes. My theoretical thoughts about the work ahead of me mostly revolve around quantities and my deepest fear of not serving enough. Overkill, in all honesty, has never been my strong suit and the truthful aspects of ‘less is more’ never really sunk in deep enough with me. I’m getting better at it though.
Treating time and taste, twined together as thick as thieves, with the dignity and respect they need to shine, will give me a head start for sure. This is vegetable gardening one-o-one: growing one’s own food takes time (and effort, but this is a t-party, remember?) and once you know when the different crops are at their best, their taste is unsurpassed and you will soon forget about preprocessed stuff. Our greenery has gone out of its way to offer us its best, so I think it’s only fair that I put in the time it takes to perfect their striving. Long or short, I’ll let them dictate.
Clearly theatre is all about presentation and even though nowadays I trust my eyes more than my taste buds, only going downhill getting older, I can obviously still miss the boat in this department sometimes. I have learned however not to beat myself up over it too much and let tenderness rule.
Yesterday’s lunch had this Flowery Les Pierres Garden Salad in its leading role. It was a reasonable t-party, even if I do say so myself. Totes!
Put in the time it takes to perfect their striving
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