too much vodka beet salad

ok so, I went to the organice farmers's market in the strip on saturday and got a little bunch of beets, and some little carrots, and a few little zuchini - yum!

and this is what happened to the beets, to purify my slightly toxic system:

Beet greens washed and sauteed in peanut oil with some mirin

Beets boiled until soft. (I was not going to turn on the oven for roasting)

extra firm tofu cubed (1/2 a block)

all tossed together with toasted sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, and rice wine vinegar - served over white rice with goma shio. which I have also seen as one word, but it's two on the jar. Black sesame seeds with salt and sugar. and soy sauce. the japanese kind. the name of which is escaping my seive brain at the moment, and I finished it, so the bottle is gone...

mmmmmm. happy happy.

I adore goma shio. especially with avocado and shredded carrots with soba noodles and tofu in a miso-rice wine vinegar-aforementioned japanese soy sauce* - sauce. more mmmmmm.

The desire to cook things is overwhelming today and even though it is about 90 degrees with 90% humidity - blueberry muffins will be baked and lime syrup will be made. It's the sadness and existential lonliness - makes me want to nest and nourish.

*tamari. ai. the memory, it has these blank bits sometimes.

I just looked it up and actually, it is shoyu. to paraphrase the new Joy of Cooking - tamari is a Japanese term misapplied to japanese soy sauces of varying qualities. True tamari is brewed without wheat and is rare in Japan. It is dark and recalls the ancient ways of making soy sauce learned from the chinese.

who knew? anyway, it is less salty and a little sweeter than chinese soy sauce.

and on another note - to reference the vodka - Why is it, that there is this game, the wait until the bar is closing game? Is everyone that coy? Do people not like to sleep? I do not like to go to bed at 4am as I prefer to get up around 6:30am. Anyway. One of the mysteries of the world. Thank god the bars don't stay open until 4am.

I do not like to start drinking these days because I am the sort of drinker that doesn't stop with one. So, I haven't been at all. But it was a strange night at the bar - and I guess sometimes these excesses are necessary for further other causes.

cheers!