To cook, perchance to write

A clean house leaves no other option but to cook and write.  When there's messes piling up in every corner, watching the latest celebrity gossip news seems inevitable, like a good reminder that your life could never be that fancy, so it doesn't matter that there's crap all over your house anyways.

Mark's been busy at the controls, creating shelves and drawers, so counters are clean and shouted to me: cook something!  So I made veggie-chili:

In large cast-iron skillet, heat: 1 tablespoon olive oil\

Add: 2 small onions, chopped

Cook until translucent

Add: 1 small tomato and 1 small smoked dried chili (guajillo guantanamera), chopped

Cook until tomato and chili are soft

Add: 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder

Cook until onions & tomatoes are covered in spices

Add: 1 package tempeh, mashed and 4 cloves garlic, smashed

Deglaze with: 1/8 cup red wine

Add: 1 fake chorizo sausage, dice

Add: 1/2 can diced tomatoes (fire roasted if possible)

Cook until all is mixed and warmed

Add: 1 pint of pre-cooked adzuki beans, last 1/2 of can diced tomatoes

Cook until all is mixed and warmed

Add: 1/8 cup red wine & 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Salt to taste

Mix, warm, serve & top with:

chopped scallions

grated monterey jack

sprigs cilantro

sliced avocado

cabbage/onion slaw (chop into fine pieces red cabbage & red onion, at ratio of 2:1, salt & lime liberally, let sit 15 minutes)

a stiff beer

I think I'll call this clear mind chili (though after the stiff beer and a month of hardly drinking, the mind is less clear - and less inhibited!  Hello!).  This recipe made me realize how many delicious things I make all the time and don't write down the recipes.

taco salad a la mexicana independente: blackened grilled tofu/white fish (marinate in bbq sauce, cover in herbs & spices, grill until you're happy), grated carrot & beet, boston lettuce, avocado, jicama sticks, chunks of grapefruit, toasted tortilla strips, dressing of lime & olive oil, salt pepper (other good things to add to this: radishes & cabbage!)

The first time I saw beets & carrots crated raw into a salad was like an epiphany.  In a Yucatecan wasteland of greasy whistling men, greasy heavy food and boiled vegetables, it was refreshing to see that I could take charge of these readily available veggies piled high in the airy market stalls.  It was also refreshing to hang out with a bunch of international women, renting a sunny apartment in Merida.  Cooking in their kitchen, rinsing the veggies, wary of the water, I remember feeling so liberated.  I was still yet to make some more poor mexican decisions, but I could think of that as a point past the turning point, on the upturn from a long rocky patch.

Some day, perhaps a cook book.  I know it's been done before, but, stories followed by recipes.