some orange

Still not sure what that card that was served to me with the homemade orange/carrot cocktail said. Well, thanks anyway.

the mystery of the cabbage

It's impossible that this tastes as good as it does, sauteed with ginger, sesame oil, garlic and shitake mushrooms. It is impossible.

mugwort tea

Good for the stomach!

Roots and Churro

It was a bright moment in the kitchen on Saturday when I heard this story about sacred sheep being returned to the Navajo while I absent-mindedly took pictures of these roots, branching from a sprig of rue I'd salvaged in early spring.

stilts and swords

Sick, bored, boring and home with the kids for Spring Break, I've figured out a way to spice things up a bit. We pretend inanimate objects have eccentric compulsions, and I try to do everything I can with a plastic sword. I'm getting pretty good at cutting the oranges in mid air, but find it hard to pare my cuticles.

So far, our big outing since returning from Virginia; a trip to the Neergaard on 5th Avenue. I got Sambuca Negra, elder syrup. Meanwhile, news of my mom's Rhode Island neighborhood keeps flooding into our house from the radio, and she tells me the Pawtuxet River was 6 inches deep in her basement this morning. She needs some stilts.

home one the range

The leeks had me dreaming of the ramps and garlic scapes I'll soon be seeking out in various famer's markets, the mustard seeds, once popped, made the foundation to a chickpea curry, and the navel had me contemplating.

Last legs?

The old caloric double oven in our kitchen. Who knows how old it is.

It has problems, the ovens don't bake things evenly, the pilots go out easily, it's internally grimy beyond rehabilitation, but man is it cool. Certain parties are bent on seeing it replaced very very soon. But I can't let go. I think.

I saw the new things at Sears. What gives me the creeps more than anything: the digital components. Do they really add anything besides opportunities for repair? What should I do?

porkmanteau

There's plenty of practical things I need to do now but I'm caught pondering the graphic that accompanies the discussion of the 2009 buzzword 'aporkalypse.' Is that really a Sri Yantra on that plate beneath the pig? Is someone going to get offended? Where did that image come from? Will this aggregate's appearance at the top of the Week in Review augment or detriment the mandala's reputed ability to rake in cash, allaying the Grey Lady's financial troubles?

To accompany the pigmanteau, a tiger-pig I was compelled to make yesterday posing in front of the Eye of Providence. To lead me to think about the transmutation of material desire into works of imagination, I guess. Dream guiding dream. Pigs fly!

Gratuitous pancake bearing crescent moon burner branding. To keep the piglets warm.

calligraphy and blow torch

Spectral tangine; several people report sightings of the ghost dog in the house lately. I haven't seen it for over 8 years. Woof, Boo! If I've been stepping in ectoplasmic dog crap all these years, it certainly hasn't befouled my boots.

breakfast views: pangaea