Sauteed Mushrooms from FWDGT

fricassee de champignons sauvages

"The mushrooms are cleaned without water, with only a clean, dry towel and a paring knife. A bit of oil and butter is put in the frying pan, and when it's sizzling hot, the mushrooms are sauteed with some very finely sliced shallots, lemon juice, parsley, and salt and pepper. That appetizer with a glass of Champagne is, to my mind and palate, one of the greatest food-and-wine pairings."

Cancer, Dead Dogs, and Vampires

Cancer Vixen by Marisa Acocella Marchetto



The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time by Mark Haddon

and about to start

French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

"Know Thy Food and Know Thy Self!"

Magical Leek Soup (Broth)

Serves 1 for the weekend

Ingredients

2 pounds leeks

1. Clean the leeks and rinse well to get rid of sand and soil. Cut off the ends of the dark green parts, leaving all the white parts plus a suggestion of pale green. (Reserve the extra greens for soup stock.)

2. Put the leeks in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes. Pour off the liquid and reserve. Place the leeks in a bowl.

The juice is to be drunk (reheated or at room temperature to taste) every 2 to 3 hours, 1 cup at a time. For meals, or whenever hungry, have some of the leeks themselves, 1/2 cup at a time. Drizzle with a few drops of extra-virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Season sparingly with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped parsley if you wish.

This will be your nourishment for both days, until Sunday dinner, when you can have a small piece of meat or fish (4 to 6 ounces -- don't lose that scale yet!), with 2 vegetables, steamed with a bit of butter or olive oil, and a piece of fruit.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I didn't get much reading done on the flight to and from Chicago, due to post-midterm fatigue on the way there and post-trip exhaustion on the way back, but I did finish this book shortly after returning. It's about listening to your heart and finding your Personal Legend, but despite the happy message it falls short of my list of good books. Coelho tends to make lots of statements about the truth of the Universe which was kind of a turn-off for me. It's hard to relate when there are no questions asked and nothing to contemplate. I'm sure though that it's one of those books that I will return to in a year or two and be like, "Whoa! there is so much that I missed when I first read this!" So now The Alchemist is sitting on my desk between Rainer Maria Rilke and Thomas Moore becuase the spine is a pretty soft brown color. and yes, I like poetry and self-help books.

The boy didn't know what a person's "Personal Legend" was.
"It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is.
"At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend."

Sundays

Sundays were made for sleeping in, brunch, housework, food magazines, and cooking.

pretty word

"In megacities like Shanghai and Guanghou, certain neighborhoods have been dubbed 'concubine villages' for the pampered inamorata living in them."

- "Breaking Up is Easy To Do" by Hannah Beech
Times Magazine, November 6

inamorata - (noun) female lover

Skinny Jeans

"Every woman has in her closet a pair of skinny jeans that represent the "skinny" self she either was at one time, or has always dreamed of being. Some of us might have two, three or a dozen, but ALL of us have at least one pair. Why, because we can't let go of the dream. Wearing the skinny pants means that we are beautiful, accepted, acknowledged and desired. Mind you, you don't need a pair of pants to make you feel all those things, but deep down, where no one will admit it outloud, we do. If we can just back into those skinny pants, everything in life will be better, so we believe.

Many of us have successfully made that journey back into those skinny jeans. You remember the day. You've spent months sweating on the treadmill, air kicking, counting calories, and eliminating carbs. Then the day came when you went back into the closet and pulled out the skinny jeans, and put them on. "Holy Sh*t!!!" You are in seventh heavan and can't wait to tell everyone you know. You can't wait for Friday night so you can go out with your girlfriends, put the skinny pants on, a sexy top, and strappy Manolos. Let's not forget the lip gloss. You want your lips to look smacking luscious in case you should meet Mr. Handsome Charming. It's all absolute heaven.

This euphoria lasts for a short while, and then reality rears it's ugly head. Things happen that were not part of your "magical" dream. All the stress and ugliness you never planned on pops up. Things like: Your girlfriends start to get jealous because they liked you better when they looked better than you. Jealousy from other women like your female co-workers, your boyfriend's girlfriends, your Dad's girlfriend, the sweet old Mrs. Anderson at the library, your cat, hell, anything with XY chromosones starts to hate you. The men in your life become more jealous of other men, get insecure, or leave you because they liked the old you.

On a side note, it is ironic that women can be tight in the throes of sisterhood except when it comes to our looks. We can be so vicious, petty, and undermining. We may not even be conscious of our attitude, but it will happen. Is it in our DNA or is it culturally burned into our brain to do whatever it takes to be a belle of the ball? I admit that I have fallen target to low vibrational pettiness. Not proud of it, but it has happened. So, we grow and learn.

Probably, the biggest disappoint though is that your life is not better because you are in the skinny jeans. You look prettier, yes, but life is not necessarily better. In some cases, it could be worse. Our culture and society puts high pressure on women to look pretty. Because of that pressure, we tie our value and self-esteem to what the scale says, our dress size, or what other people think. We will torture, maim, and manipulate ourselves for the sake of good looks.

Beauty does matter, and it is a lie to say that it doesn't. Beauty is all around us, not only in humanity but in nature and the arts. Beauty becomes distorted in humans when we apply unrealistic standards and judgments as to what is beautiful and what is not, when we create hierarchies of power based on physical appearance, and when we have and receive love only when we fit into a mold of singular attractiveness."

- http://cravingideas.blogs.com/backinskinnyjeans/2005/11/welcome_to_back.html

Lightness and Weight, history

And again he thought the thought we already know: Human life occurs only once, and the reason we cannot determine which of our decisions are good and which bad is that in a given situation we can make only one decision; we are not granted a second, third, or fourth life in whic to compare various decisions...
If Czech history could be repeated, we should of course find it desirable to test the other possibility each time and compare the results. Without such an experiment, all considerations of this kind remain a game of hypotheses.
Einmal ist keinmal. What happens but once might as well not have happened at all. The history of the Czechs will not be repeated, nor will the history of Europe. The history of the Czechs and of Europe is a pair of sketches from the pen of mankind's fateful inexperience. History is as light as individual human life, unbearably light, light as a feather, as dust swirling into the air, as whatever will no longer exist tomorrow.

recent dining adventures

In the past week, I have frequented the following culinary establishments:

La Note for Tuesday brunch
Tacubaya
Rivoli, for Christine's birthday dinner
Mangia Mangia on San Pablo
Chocolat, on Solano, for a chocolate bar for Alisa
Epicurious Garden, where they sell spicy mayan hot chocolate and a killer jalapeno chocolate with a badass kick

and of course, Bacheeso's.

here's an amazing site for one of my favorite stores in Berkeley, Castle in the Air