September 20, 2016 – Cooking my love – and a recipe

My fresh tortilla soup – the recipe is at the bottom of this post

Listen to this post:

“Love people, cook them tasty food.” As I shared in a post about my love of cooking a couple of years ago, this is what the only bumper sticker on my car says. It’s from Penzey’s, the spice company where I order my dried herbs and spices. I so appreciate that they want to encourage cooking – the bumper sticker has no reference to them – they just want people to cook! Cooking for people, is entwined with the double-helix of my DNA. As much as painting, being an artist and accompanying other artists in their creative process is central in my life, I can cook with more skill and confidence, than I can paint. I regularly cook without referring to a recipe – I put together meals, almost without thinking. Because I’ve been cooking at least 5 days a week since I was 12 or 13, putting together food to make a meal just comes from me. I love the magic of how preparing and then heating raw ingredients in certain ways, can bring such pleasure and nourishment. There’s hardly anything more seductive than the smell of good food. Making delicious food for people is an important way that I love – and I am so grateful that I have the capacity to contribute to others in this way.

How and what we feed ourselves, is also incredibly intimate and personal. If someone criticizes what we eat, it cuts deeply; eating can make us feel very vulnerable. At the most basic level, eating provides us energy, it’s the fuel to keep our bodies going, but there’s so much more to it than taking food into our bodies. Food is connected to a whole lot of what makes us human: emotion, tradition, relationship, family, celebration, healing and enjoyment. Food changes things – imagine going to a gathering, whose main purpose is not eating – like a community meeting, a book club, a prayer group. If there is food, especially food to be shared by everyone, all of a sudden things are friendlier. Even just cheese and crackers or cookies, bring an element to a gathering that shifts things – but if the shared meal or snack is home-made, it brings even more goodness. I’m having a hard time describing the difference that food makes, but it feels primal in the way it connects us.

I was invited to show my art at an event called “Artisano”, which was all about food and wine. You’d think that this would be perfect for this art, all these yummy images I paint – I did too. But when given the choice between tasting a fig stuffed with gorgonzola, wrapped in aged prosciutto, drizzled with a balsamic reduction, or crispy, briny, spicy fresh sauerkraut, or rich and salty local artisan cheeses, or a big, fruity Cabernet or a dry, nose-prickling sparkling wine… well, my bright, life-filled, color-filled art was hardly noticed! Funny, huh? I realized that I never wanted my art to be the least sensual experience at any event again! Just hearing about food and wine as I’ve described it here gets our imagination going, doesn’t it!? It seems that taste buds take precedence over beauty!

A dear friend, one of the women in my life who has mothered me into who I am today, is having a hard time. She is handling a lot in her life at the moment and making meals at the end of her days, is the just thing that can put her over the top. I so love her – and have endless gratitude, for how she’s loved me into loving myself, I’d do anything for her. The idea came to me (taking my bumper sticker seriously), that I could cook meals for her sweetheart and her. We started last Tuesday – a good day to cook – I’m usually home painting after I’ve written to you. It felt so great to see her drive away, with the stuffed zucchini and steamed artichokes that I’d put together for them, knowing that the food I’d prepared was going to feed their bodies – and bring her ease.

I took home all the chicken bones from my family’s Sunday dinner. They are boiling on the stove with some dried jalapeno pepper bits (from Penzey’s), garlic and cilantro. It’s the broth – enriched with the minerals from the chicken bones – that will become a tortilla soup I’ll offer them for dinner. Joe is out tonight, so it will be my dinner too. I adore tortilla soup. I make mine more like a sopa de lima, without any warm chilis – no red pepper, seasoned with just spicy green pepper, plenty of cilantro and squeeze of lime juice. I adorn it with good, thick tortilla chips, avocado and shredded Jack cheese. To make it a meal and bring a bit of freshness – today is supposed to a warm one again – I put it in a big bowl and add shredded romaine lettuce and my fresh pico de gallo too.

Background is all in – ready to start in on the leaves this afternoon

I’ll pack all of this up for my friends this afternoon, and as I make myself a big meal-sized bowl of this soup tonight, I will be thinking of them, feeding their bodies with it too. I’ll also spend some time painting today. The commission I was working on, came together last Tuesday (phew!). I drew it Wednesday morning and have made good progress on it – the whole complex background done in one week. I can now see, that I have a chance to make the end-of-the-month deadline! There’s so much struggle and suffering in the world, I almost feel sheepish about being able to spend a day this way. It’s hard to know where to put my appreciation. What I do know, is that I will do all I can to care for those who I touch today – sharing my love in the ways that I do – painting my love – and cooking my love.

With my love for you – thank you for reading, it’s always a gift,

Cara

Fresh and Tangy Tortilla Soup

• 2 T oil or fat skimmed from the top of the homemade broth
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-3 stalks celery, chopped
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (if you didn’t add to the bones when making the broth, or are using canned broth)
• 1 serrano or ½ – 1 jalapeno chili, minced (for less heat, seed it first – ditto, if you didn’t include it in the broth)
• 4 c. chicken broth, home-made if you can – if homemade, check to see if it needs salt
• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained (I sometimes use pinto or black beans – especially if the chicken bones have smoky flavors)
• 1 ear corn, kernels cut off (if you want)
• 1 medium zucchini, diced (if you want)
• ¼ c. fresh lime juice – or less – you can also offer wedges for squeezing into individual bowls
• 2 – 3 T chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 – 2 c. cooked chicken or turkey – or the chicken from the bones, if there is some
• 4 – 5 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced – unless you have pico de gallo
• Grated jack cheese
• Avocado, diced or sliced
• 4 – 5 leaves romaine lettuce, washed and shredded
• fresh cilantro sprigs
• tortilla chips – thick chips are best, coarsely crumbled (I don’t bother to fry up the strips, even thought that’s what most recipes call for)

Directions:

Sauté onion, celery, carrot, and garlic and serrano, if not already in broth in oil or chicken fat, until soft and onion is golden. Add broth, corn and/or zucchini. Heat up and simmer 20 minutes or so – until the vegetables are soft. Add the beans, cilantro and lime juice (if you wish). Simmer 15 minutes more to meld flavors a bit. Add cooked chicken and tomatoes and cook just to heat through – tomatoes should stay fresh. Garnish bowls of soup with cheese, avocado, lettuce, chips and cilantro as you wish.