Lunchbox Liz

Robert Earl Keen describes them best as, “Big and round and sweet and real.” After curing in the field, farm fresh onions are nothing short of superb. They are firm, juicy, and full of flavor.

Today’s Lunch
Buffalo with Sweet Potato and Onion

Melt 1 tbsp of coconut oil in a skillet on medium heat. Chop one-half onion in large slices Add onions to skillet and cook for two minutes. Add 1/3 pound of buffalo in small grape-sized pieces, along with 1 tbsp cumin and coriander powder. Cover and cook for five minutes. Buffalo like lean game meat is cooked best slowly on medium to medium-low temperature. Add one chopped precooked sweet potato (leftovers from the night before) and return the cover for another 5-8 minutes until the buffalo is thoroughly cooked.

Note: I learned how to chop an onion properly while working with Mr. Johnson in the prep kitchen of the Virginian restaurant. Mr. Johnson took his onions very seriously. I’ll pass on my lesson: Chop off both ends of the onion and peel the skin off. Peeling is sometimes aided by scoring the top few layers of the onion. Lay the onion on the chopping board with the cut side down. Chop the onion in half. Set one of the halves with the cut side down and slice the onion in 1/4-inch section in the direction of the rings. Then slice the onion in half against the rings. This creates long strips of onion. You may also slice the entire onion against the rings leaving you with small soup sized pieces.

My dad was listening to American Routes on NPR as a member of the hippie tribe was interviewed. The hippie tribe is a loose assortment of girls and boys that I grew up with in the seventies. They show up in the oddest places. After listening to the interview my dad said that the interview was “true, but not very accurate.” A barrage of memoirs are hitting the newsstand about the children of the sevenites. I find the the ensuing controversy about how accurate they are amusing. I have total sympathy for the authors. After all why let the truth get in the way of a good story? I believe we have the rights to our own reflective history. Who is to say what is “true” your version or mine? So I call a moped a motorcycle, big deal. There is of course the ability to go too far; claiming feats of skill or experiences that didn’t happen at all. That is completely unacceptable. As an editor I have to be respectful of the truth. Perhaps we need a new term. Maybe the one that Calvin coined while discussing his new “revisionist” biography with Hobbs will work. If we put “revisionist” before the title “memoir” we will know that that the author is doing the best they can to tell the truth as they know it.

Today’s Lunch
Salad Greens with Pesto and Goat Sausage

My lunch for the past three days: lettuce with various veggies—today that would be kohlrabi and green pepper--topped with a tablespoons or so of pesto (see post from August 24), and half a grilled goat sausage. I don’t use any dressing as the olive oil and basil in the pesto do the trick of coating the lettuce leaves and mingling the flavors.

Locavores are individuals that commit to eating within a 100-mile radius of their home. The trend started in San Francisco by a group of friends who committed to this concept for a month and a new movement was born. In Los Angeles, three artist started gathering gathering fruit from trees and buses growing on public property eventually filling up food pantries with their spoils. One hundred short years ago neither of these ideas would have been considered very radical, but then niether was organics. Everything that is old is new again.

Today’s Lunch
Baked Apples with Oats

Peel and chop a dozen small apple and place in a 9-by-9-inch pan. Sprinkle apples with a tbsp of cinnamon and 1 cup oatmeal. Slice 1/4 stick of butter into small pats and top apple mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes or until apples are tender. Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Occasionally you see the perfect “thing” in an unexpected place. A few weeks ago I saw this stained glass image of a bluesman at Bishop’s Castle in Southern Colorado. Imagine standing on the second floor of a mass of stone and ironwork that has been formed into a fanciful medieval castle--the work of one man as an omage to freedome of expression and the working class--and seeing this stained glass piece so out of place yet so right. Sort of like cucumbers. They don’t seem to fit with the rest of the vegetable patch and yet there they are.

Today’s Lunch
Cucumber Salad

(Gather these ingredients fresh from the farm if possible; here lies the taste and smell of summer.) Peel two cucumbers and slice. Chop two tomatoes and 1/2-cup fresh basil leaves. Mix ingredients and toss with a drizzle of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve at room temprature.