smoky spanish gazpacho

I actually started with a recipe and then abandoned all sense of order and made up my own.  In the end, I decided that this gazpacho was maybe the best one I'd ever made.  Smoky, spicy and yet balanced with the acidity and sweetness of the watermelon.  These measurements are rough, but you'll get there by tasting and adjusting both as you make it, and again after it's chilled.  Here's sorta how it went down.

In a food processor, combine the following ingredients.  You're creating a soup base with part and the rest is being set aside to stir in afterward.  You'll end up with a nice base and just enough chunk and crunch.

7 ripe Minnesota-grown, vine-ripened tomatoes - cut these in quarters and pull out the gooey, seedy part; chop about 2 tomatoes into 1/4" dice and set those aside
2-3 garlic cloves - chopped roughly
1/2 - 1 whole large red onion - about 1/4 of the total onion should be cut into 1/4" dice and set aside with the tomatoes 

1 large hothouse/English cucumber - peel this just a bit and cut 1/3 of the total cuke into 1/4" dice; set aside
24oz tomato juice
1 small or 1/2 of one large jalapeno pepper - seeded and minced (all of this goes in the food processor); add more if you like it super zippy
1/4 of a whole watermelon - dice about 1c of this and set aside
1T smoked Spanish paprika - I love the Penzey's brand for this
1/4c Sherry or red wine vinegar
2-3T good Spanish olive oil - or you can use any kind, just make sure it's fruity and delicious right out of the bottle since there's not going to be any cooking or infusing going on.
1t kosher salt

Zip this all together in the food processor until pretty smooth and chunk-free, and then pour into a large bowl or container that will fit in the fridge.  A metal bowl will help cool things quickly if you're in a hurry.  Then stir in the diced tomatoes, onion, watermelon, cucumber and
1 yellow pepper - 1/4" dice

Taste and adjust the salt and paprika, if needed.  Add more vinegar if you need that bite.  But don't go too crazy.  Flavors will meld and change as the soup chills, so re-season just before you serve too.

Chill this for a good couple of hours. Then, mmmm. Enjoy!

happy, happy monday

I know this is going to sound like workplace kool-aid of a hallucinogenic sort, but I have come to really love Mondays.  In my still-new world of independent consulting, I have been testing and trying and balancing.  I've been time managing and retrofitting my week.  I've been sorting.  Culling out the unnecessary and unmanageable.  All while maintaining a sense of an integrated, reasonable life as a whole.  And sometimes this journey isn't smooth.

I don't get all excited about typical work hours - or even days, anymore.  I work either when necessary or when inspired.  So if that's 9pm on a Sunday evening, or 6am on a Tuesday morning - or any random time in between - so be it.  And if I need to scoot out for groceries, a client meeting, happy hour with an old friend, my precious time at the gym, well then I do that too.  I work when my clients need me (or need something from me) and I work when my brain is on and the productive juices are flowing.  If I'm stuck or having a less-than-creative day, I stick to billing or financial models.  Or I go for a bike ride to reset.  And when I'm "on" I try to stay in the groove and follow it.  Which doesn't always work out.

But I've also found that my fondness for working with small, entrepreneurial clients has necessarily led to engaging with more of them simultaneously.  So I'm learning to develop that fine balance between rainmaking, base touching, networking, info gathering, relationship managing...and actually doing the work.

I won't say that all that old "traditional corporate workplace" mentality has bled out of me yet, but in the past 10 years I've worked for companies that have started to realize the importance of flexibility and adaptability in our jobs.  With all the travel, conference calls with folks in other countries, and other whacky things in today's work world, we either get integrated or go lose our minds.  And the other key?  I think many company leaders - including me, in my tiny little company - have learned that productivity doesn't directly correlate to a 40+ hour work week.  You don't get 8 quality hours out of an employee every day just because they "show up for work."  You get quality, creative output when workers are energized and ready to work.  Oh and whether I'm working for me or for someone else, 4 hours of meetings a day talking about the work doesn't offset the actual work that still needs to get done!

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for dedicated work time and dedicated personal time.  It's just that I've come to believe - at least for me - that these times don't necessarily have to be scripted and consistent.  On the other hand...

...recently I've come to adopt Mondays as my revered and fiercely-guarded "productivity days."  And I've found this exponentially important as summer has hit and our weekends are as rushed and busy as our weekdays.  Otherwise we end up arriving at Monday, feeling as if we need a vacation from our weekends!  So I've blocked my calendar and started focusing on what's most important for setting up a solid week.

Mondays now look like this:

• 7ish - wake up, throw in a load of laundry, put on the kettle and deal with the dishes that were ignored yesterday
• tea, email, google reader, review social media for myself and clients, switch laundry
• SHINY OBJECT: reorganize junk drawer, sort through mail and take out the recycling
• 9ish - Starting to really wake up and get going.  Refocus on the week ahead, aka go Post-It crazy.  My technique includes:
• Post-It Calendar - one section for each: clients, boards, bus dev/ops, and personal.  This calendar is a giant pad where each week gets ripped off at the end of the week.
• Post-In Notes - one standard-sized note for each client, stuck all over my desk underneath the Calendar
• I review my Outlook calendar for the week and note on my Post-It calendar the appointments I already have scheduled - client meetings, networking, social, gym.
• I sort through my notes & emails from the previous week, jotting down all the to-dos - by client - on their sticky note. Then I assign these tasks to a day  the calendar when I know I can sit and do.  
• Sometimes I just do the work quickly while I'm jotting it down, giving myself that oh-so-satisfying checked off item.
• (I've just found that this system works best for me, as most time management techniques fail miserably in my world.  I've figured out that I'm way too ADD, multi-tasking, free-association, and overscheduled for something much more complicated.)
• 10ish - more laundry, email, a smoothie.  But by this time, I'm hitting the productivity apex.  So I'm starting to dig into client projects like crazy.
• 5ish - by this time I've done the rest of the laundry, given a light buff to the bathrooms and the kitchen, eaten something resembling lunch (though around 3pm so it's starting to feel a little dinner-ish), and been horribly hard-working with my client deliverables.  I'm truly in "the zone" at this time and am running at full stride.
• If I don't get wrapped back into my client projects, I'll take time to walk over to the studio for a 6:45pm yoga class.  But honestly, the past 2 weeks I've completely missed it.  At 7pm I look at the clock and realize I've blown right through the start of the class.  Bummer, but I value the uninterrupted productivity on this one day so I SCHEDULE the workouts on the other days.  Again, it's about finding a system that works.
• And then sometime around 9pm, I grab a glass of wine and maybe either watch a Law & Order re-run or take my Kindle to bed and am asleep by 11.

And you see what's missing?  No meetings, no clients and - if I've done it properly - no leaving the house, with the possible beneficial exception of going to yoga.  Just a good solid 12 hours of being industrious, productive and effective.  Sure, I go to sleep at the end of the day with the all-day-at-the-computer stiffness in my shoulders and neck, but that's okay.  It's worth it to me to carve out this day of work - for all aspects of my life - in order to stay dedicated and present.

I have actually started to look forward to Mondays now.  What a difference it can make when you joyfully anticipate settling in and being successful in your efforts.  It brings a whole new definition to workplace productivity - one that I've defined for myself and one that I can continue to edit and refine and adapt.  And I will...because I just realized I need a half hour for blogging...

perfect buttermilk dressing

Ok, well it's possible that this ISN'T perfect but I made it for the first time today and really believe it to be true.  I'm generally not a fan of creamy dressings at all, but this one ended up having just the right tartness to cut through any heavy feel.  It's quick to make and full of nummy flavor and will probably be dressing my market greens for the months to come.

Having never made this before, I found a couple of recipes that sounded interesting and riffed on them.  But I will say that this is shaping up to be one of those recipes that you can modify to your heart's desire.  The other typical herb is tarragon (though I'm not a huge fan myself) but I also saw a version with lots of fresh basil that sounded delish. I actually measured it all this time!

1 small shallot, finely minced

1 garlic clove, minced and then mashed into a paste with a bit of salt (use the flat edge of your knife blade and just work it around on the cutting board)

1-2T cider vinegar

1/4 t white pepper
1/4-1/2t salt, if you didn't get too crazy with your garlic paste; taste first and adjust later

1/4 t dry mustard powder

1/2 c. low fat buttermilk, well shaken

1T mayo (I love the eggy Japanese mayo that you can get from Asian markets)

2T sour cream (though I only had Mexican crema and went with that instead)

1T dried or 3T fresh chopped chives

Let the shallot and garlic mingle in the bottom of your bowl with the cider vinegar to "bloom" for 5 min or so while you get the rest of the stuff together.   Add the rest, whisk together.

Or, use a jam jar and shake everything together while dancing around the kitchen.

Particularly if you're using dried chives, try to let this dressing sit for 10 min or so once it's mixed, just to let them soften and let the rest of the flavors come together.

You really only need about 2-3T of dressing per LARGE serving of greens; the idea is lightly dressed not swimming in goo.  I served this (to myself!) with a leek & goat cheese frittata and a crispy glass of white wine and thought myself quite fortunate.

reconnecting

I’m not sure how it happened, but I lost touch with my food.

I didn’t put two and two together until I was giving myself a stern talking to about why my food cravings intensified and my will-power crashed proportionately. It would have been easy to slip into that mode where I beat myself up and make excuses, but the reality is, I just lost my way for a bit. And I was trying to put my finger on how, where and why that happened.

I love food. I love reading about it, eating it, cooking it, taking illicit iPhone photos of it, twittering about it, sharing it and writing about it.  I truly – in the most basic sense of the word - honor food.  Which is why it's so perplexing when I recognized some iffy eating behaviors that had taken over my life.  So what happened?  Well, generally speaking, life happened.  But along with the usual and expected effects of a too-busy, too-frenzied, too-blessedly-full life, I completely lost touch with food.

When I'm disconnected in the food department my fridge is empty and my visits to the co-op are further apart.  My kitchen stays clean, sure.  But it's a little sad and lifeless too.

When I'm connected I spend more time thinking about food.  I devour my Bon Apetit and Cooking Light magazines (ahem, amongst several others in the cooking vein).  I'm watching more of my favorite Food Network shows.  I'm picking up fresh veggies and experimenting with new grains.  The kitchen is humming.  People are dropping in after last-minute invites to nosh.  It's fantastic and it feeds my soul.

What happens, I think, is that the further I slide away from these engaged habits and connected practices, the less mindful I become about what moves from my fork to my mouth.  Even the effort of cooking (a practice which I really do enjoy) becomes less enticing.  Then I revert - as so many people do - to eating more packaged and what I call "quick fix" foods.  I'm pretty well-wired now to keep these foods organic and unprocessed as much as possible.  But when I'm on my 6th day of living on cereal and almond milk and nothing green has passed my lips, well then.  Houston, we have a problem.

So I've chosen to go back and dabble more.  Play mad scientist.  Try some new things that I normally wouldn't attempt.  I've turned May into "mostly vegan May" and am cooking out of my two new-ish cookbooks:  The Conscious Cook and The Kind Diet.  I made a somewhat scary (read: $140) trip to the co-op and have visited the St. Paul Farmer's Market.  I'm digging out the past few months of my cooking magazines and revisiting them, looking for inspiration.  And most importantly, I've invited a few people round for dinner, cocktails, brunch.  An excuse to cook and maybe even wow people a bit always inspires me to attempt new things.  And I can't wait to see how the month plays out. 

Also, stay tuned for vegan, vegetarian and unabashed meat recipes as I experiment through out the month.  And please, share your knowledge.  If you have some other great ideas for inspiration, recipes, mindful food habits, anything...please comment. 

Happy nibbling!