Must be Spring

[eredien]

It must be getting closer to spring; I am eating and craving cold foods again.

So, I've discovered a few important things in the past two days.

1.) Never read about the Winchester Mystery House at 2 am with your back to the rest of the room.

2.) Don't hold a tomato in your hand and try to cut it, no matter how dull you think the knife is. If it's sharp enough to cut the tomato, it will cut you.

3.) I wanted to do more standing meditation and felt I didn't have enough time. But I realize that I can do standing meditations on the train on the way home and on the way back, which is two hours' worth of commute time, not to mention good exercise for my legs. [aichmetes: horse stance, or forward stance if there's room, grasping the bar with fingertips when need be.]

4.) One such hour of meditation on the way home today left me with enough energy to go up the stairs at the T stop. All of the stairs. The short flight, the stairs next to the escalator, and then the stairs up from the commuter rail. That's a lot of stairs. I was happy; this is more energy than I have had in a month. (It is impossible to find out how long the escalator is by doing this Google search--though one person claims they are at a 90-degree angle--but you get a lot of rather intriguing and opinionated local bloggers.)

5.) Making your own salad dressing is a good idea. Presented for your yummification:

Fruity Pepper Dressing

All measurements are approximate; I cook mostly by smell.

1/3 c whipping cream
1 8-oz yogurt cup, flavor of your choice
2 tablespoons tomato/basil hummus
at least 2 teaspoons coarsely ground fresh black peppercorns, more to taste.
dash salt

Put the whipping cream in a bowl; beat it with a whisk until it just starts thickening.
If yogurt is the kind with fruit on the bottom, mix it thoroughly before attempting to use it.
Fold in yogurt until blended.
Fold in hummus. Beat until thoroughly blended.
Add pepper and salt.

Pour over salad. Toss to coat salad.
Makes enough to cover a salad for four people, or one if you are weirdquark.

Notes:
- Week-old tomatoes, even vine-ripened organic ones such I had, do not go well with this dressing; the tomatoes were too bland to bring out the subtle flavor in the dressing and tasted of nothing but sogginess. If you can't grow your own tomatoes (the ideal choice, at least in summer), for God's sake get the vine-ripened organic ones and use them the day you bring them home from the store. Do not use hothouse tomatoes; they are no good.

- Slices of citrus are very good with this dressing. I think clementines or tangerines would be best; something with larger sections might have enough juice to overwhelm the dressing. Grapefruit sections cut up small might be good though. I can also imagine the dressing served as dip with little toothpicked citrus slices on a plate, for hors d'oeuvres.

- This would probably also be great over cold fruit salad in the summer.

- The lettuce I tried it with (romaine) was fresh and crunchy but did not have quite enough taste of its own underneath the dressing. I'd suggest a mixture of romaine and spinach, as I think just spinach alone might overwhelm the dressing.

- I would recommend the following kinds of yogurt for this salad if you were putting it over vegetables, in this order: strawberry, raspberry (the kind I used), black cherry, peach, blueberry. I think that strawberry or raspberry or cherry, especially, mix well with the flavors of tomato and basil in the hummus and provide a kind of richness that is important if you are having this salad in a cold time of year. The other two might be better towards late spring and summer. I would recommend against more exotic flavors like lime or pina colada because I think they'd do unholy things to the hummus.

- On the other hand, I think that it might be good to try odder flavors on a fruit salad, which is sweeter and has a different capacity for picking up flavors. I can see pineapple doing interesting things, and wonder if chocolate yogurt might be really good.

6.) If you think in semi-British English and spell in American English you will have a heck of a time with the word "yogurt" when you go to proofread this journal entry.

Comments

[gallian.livejournal.com]

3.) I wanted to do more standing meditation and felt I didn't have enough time. But I realize that I can do standing meditations on the train on the way home and on the way back, which is two hours' worth of commute time, not to mention good exercise for my legs. [[info]aichmetes: horse stance, or forward stance if there's room, grasping the bar with fingertips when need be.]

you won't be the first or only one doing it either. justin used to talk about that. i remember trying it on my way to and from my penn class.

[esgalaith.livejournal.com]

6.) If you think in semi-British English and spell in American English you will have a heck of a time with the word "yogurt" when you go to proofread this journal entry.

Ah no! I've been having enough trouble remembering how it's pronounced either way (and doing so).