Sunday Afternoon

I haven't seen Christina in over a year. We recently re-connected. She moved to the Gorge, an hour's drive from here. We lost touch. It took over a month to get our schedules in sinc so that this Sunday was possible. It was just a lovely day. We went to the market for fish and vegetables and came straight home. No errands. Too much talking to do. Gifts to exchange. Stories to tell. I cooked - she ate.

I made a mango avocado salad with fresh herbs and balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing. We had bought this imitation crab leg that was really really tasty and I sauteed that in butter and she ate that straight out of the bowl. It was absolutely sinful. I'd serve it to anyone, no matter that it was imitation. It was so good. It was made from real fish, just not crab. I am going to have to look for it again and buy more. I swear, it is something that could be very addictive.








For the salmon, I thinly sliced up three colored peppers, snow peas, broccoli, carrots. I think that was it. These I lightly sauteed in a pan pre-seasoned with oil and candied ginger. At the very last minute, I added chopped cilantro of course. I put these on a tray to keep warm in the oven while I worked on the salmon.

I then made a broth with white miso paste and got that going at a good boil. I dropped in the two salmon steaks and let them sit in this broth for about ten minutes. Then I divided the vegetables, and placed the fish next to them and poured on the herbs. The miso makes such a lovely broth. And the fish is so moist and tasty. It was very good.

Thing is, too, you can freeze the broth and use it again for more fish as it just gets better every time you use it.


I did make a dessert, but we got so into eating it we forgot to take a picture. Before the whole dinner preparation began, I cooked some huge blackberries with a spoon of sugar and got maybe a quarter cup of essence from it. This I sieved twice in tea strainers so that it was completely delicate. When it came time for desert, I took out the container of cream and Christina began whipping a small amount of it. But it wasn't whipping up. So I took over and I got confused. What was wrong? I opened the fridge and looked. I grabbed Half And Half instead of Whipping Cream at the grocers. Disappointing. So....

No bed of cream under the ice cream. I made Matcha green tea ice cream with an orange essence which I served in little bowls and drizzled the berry juice over it lightly. I wanted each taste to be complete. It was accomplished. I wanted to serve it on a cloud, but the cloud did not appear. No matter. We enjoyed.


The day was great. We talked about so many things. I gave her Baba's cloth which probably means nothing to any of you, but it means a lot to us. Baba Muktananda is a Guru long past now. Dear to both of us. It was an emotional moment between us. Reparation. Things should not stand between people. We don't have time for that. Too much is happening in the world. People are separating and isolating out of fear. We need to gather more. I know this personally. My phone rings maybe once a week? I am a big isolator. It is not good. I leave my house to go to work, to go to the grocery store, or to the doctors. I never go anywhere.

We need to come out of our caves and embrace each other. Listen to each other. Help each other. Just be there.........