Philosophy - The Role of Focus

But you can catch yourself entertaining habitually certain ideas and setting others aside; and that, I think, is where our personal destinies are largely decided.

-Alfred North Whitehead

In her book "Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life," Winifred Gallagher argues that much of the quality of your life depends not on your personal circumstances or what fate brings your way, but on what you choose to pay attention to. You selectively focus on particular elements of the world at the expense of other details, and your mind and behaviour appropriately conform to the shape of your attention. This process subtly redirects your life, influencing your career, your location, your relationships and your interests. Interestingly, the same process also influences your attitude and quality of life. Someone who can spin a snowstorm into a pleasant opportunity to stay home and enjoy themselves is going to have a very different outlook on life than someone who seizes the chance to complain about inclement weather.

Recipe - Chilled Cucumber and Artichoke Soup

The inspiration for this soup came at 1am last night when I could not sleep (thank you very much, upstairs neighbors). I was thinking of what I could make with some of the leftover ingredients that have been hanging out in the fridge the last few weeks. My mom used to always make "clean out the ice box" dinners, which I thought was very June Cleaver of her. So in the spirit of my mom here is a yummy soup made from a mishmosh of leftover ingredients.

Ingredients:
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 bunch of celery (or most of a bunch)
1/2 can of artichoke hearts
1 can of chicken broth
1 small tub of sour cream
3 Tbs olive oil
1/2 Tbs butter
1 tsp celery seed
2 cups raw spinach
1 tablet of vitamin C
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. I like to cut everything up before getting started. That way you're not in a mad dash to chop the last of the celery while your garlic is buring. First the onion.

2. Next, garlic. I used to have one of those handy garlic presses but it broke so now I just chop each clove into tiny pieces. The press would probably be better but I haven't bothered to get a new one.

3. Next the celery. I have a warm place in my heart for celery. When my dad was growing up he lived in Sanford, FL, where they grew so much celery the town was named the Celery Capital of the United States. Farmers would cut off the tops of each bunch before sending the celery to market, so there would be huge piles of celery tops leftover. My dad and his brothers loved to climb up a ladder and jump into the celery leftovers. Hey says they always turned bright green and they got in trouble every time, but it was such fun they couldn't resist.

4. You can use as many artichoke hearts as you like. I ended up using 4, cut into quarters.

5. Once you've chopped everything up you're ready to go. Heat the butter and 1 Tbs of olive oil over medium heat.

6. First add the garlic. Let it cook for about a minute before adding the onion.

7. When your onions are nice and translucent add the celery.

8. Sautee the celery 5-6 minutes or until it starts to look slightly translucent before adding the artichokes.

9. Add a few shakes of celery seed and sautee until everything has roughly the same yellowish green color. About 10 minutes.

10. Turn off the heat and use a food processor to homogenize your mixture. This food processor is tiny so I had to do it in small batches.

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11. At this point I wasn't too sure what the next step was going to be. Lucky for me my friend Jim stopped by and asked what I was doing.

Melly - "making soup!"

Jim - "it looks like a French bolognese sauce"

Melly - "a what?"

Jim - "French bolognese. You put the vegetables back in the pot with some olive oil and cook for a long time, letting the bottom burn a bit before you mix it. It adds some nice caramelized flavor."

Melly - "a what?"

Thanks Jim for the awesome advice. Put 2 Tbs of olive oil into a stock pot over medium heat. Then add your processed vegetables and spread into a single layer.

12. Don't stir the vegetables until they've had some time to brown! Say 5 minutes or so. This took a lot of self control but was completely worth it.

13. Here's the fun part. When I was dreaming up this soup in the wee hours of the morning I envisioned a beautiful, bright green masterpiece. But as you can see from the pictures, our soup is more of a yellowy brown. So I thought I would borrow some fabulous advice from Food Network and green up our soup. With spinach! Use the food processor to finely mince 2 cups of spinach. To keep the beautiful bright green color you can use a pinch of powdered vitamin C. The antioxidant properties keep it from changing color. I ground up a tablet in a coffee grinder but you can also use a mortar and pestle. I added the powder right to the spinach before processing.

14. Once your spinach looks like this, put it all back in the food processor. Then add all of your soup. What once took 4 batches now all fits into one. Because everything has already been through the processor once, it should now blend more smoothly into a thick paste. When you're done put it back in the original pan (but wipe it with a paper towel first so there are no leftover big pieces).

15. What you end up with is pure gold! It may not look good right now but just you wait, it's about to be beautiful. First add the can of chicken broth. Use a whisk to combine it so you break up all the small pieces of condensed goodness.

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This is a good time to add salt and pepper. Or if you added some before, taste and adjust. The chicken broth will add some salt but you may need more than you think.

16. Finally, the sour cream. This will add significantly to the flavor of the soup but may mask some of the original artichoke/celery flavor, so you may want to add it one dollop at a time. Whisk to make sure there are no rogue clumps of soup or sour cream.

17. You can serve this soup warm if you like, but I think it's lovely served cold.

18. Bon appetit!

Recipe - Fruit and Root Salad with Citrus Champagne Vinaigrette

A beet is technically a root right? Whatever it is, it's my new favorite vegetable. Its sweet earthy flavor combined with that perfect soft/firm texture gives it its own signature place in the realm of culinary creativity. One of the easiest ways to incorporate beets into your diet is to throw them into whatever salad you happen to like. And as one of a few, elite superfoods, how can you resist their antioxidant goodness?

Since strawberries were on sale this week ($2 per pound!) let's make a beet and strawberry salad. We'll throw in a little of the blue cheese that was on sale last week. I will leave the amounts of each ingredient up to you.

Ingredients:
Lettuce (I like arugula and spinach)
Strawberries
Beet, sliced
Blue cheese
1 Tbs Olive Oil
1-2 tsp Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar (Trader Joe's)
Splash of lemon juice
Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Get out your favorite bowl and put in as much lettuce as you need. This salad was just for me so I used about 2 handfuls.

2. Next rinse and dry your strawberries. I slice them fairly thick so they give the salad a little weight.

3. Next our friend the beet. You can buy canned beets or make them yourself, which is much easier than it sounds. Just cut off the top and bottom of each beet, peel with a peeler and boil for about 40 minutes until easily pierced by a knife. You can serve them hot or refrigerate them and slice when cool.

I just cut off one slice for this salad. Again, to give the salad a little weight I kept my pieces fairly thick. Personally I prefer tiny wedges, but cut them however you like!

4. I used one slice of blue cheese and kept the crumbles fairly large. They will continue to break up as you eat it so don’t make the pieces too tiny.

5. Finally the dressing. I absolutely love this vinegar and have been putting it in everything lately, from salad dressing to marinade. The bottle even says you can make a spritzer with it but I haven’t tried that yet.

Add your olive oil to a bowl and whisk in the vinegar so that it emulsifies. Then add a few drops of lemon juice. It’s pretty powerful stuff so don’t use too much or you’ll lose the orange flavor of the dressing. Finally a little salt & pepper.

6. Dress. Toss. Serve.

7. Mmmmmmm!

Recipe - Baby bok choy topped with a spinach, carrot, garlic hash

Served aside acorn squash filled with spicy Italian sausage.

This dish takes me back to college when my roommate Rachel and I would cook together. We loved the savory flavor of sausage paired with delicious Winter squash. "Sausage and Squish" became a regular favorite and remains one to this day!

Ingredients:
1 medium to large sized acorn or delicata squash
1 package of spicy Italian sausage (not in links)

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Cut the squash in half and place each half cut-side-down in a baking dish with 1/2 inch of water. Bake for 35 minutes or until easily pierced by a knife (be careful not to overcook the squash). The sausage will only take 10 minutes or so, so you can do this at the very end.

Next the greens! I was inspired to make this side dish after a delicious anniversary dinner with Barry at a restaurant in Charlottesville, Bang!

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Ingredients:

15 - 20 baby bok choy (sold at most asian grocery stores)

1 cup of raw spinach, minced

1 carrot

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Splash of beef broth

1 tsp soy sauce

Salt & pepper to taste

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Begin with the hash since you can re-heat it if needed.

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1. Peel and dice the carrot and cook in a steamer basket or boiling water until soft. Mash with a fork and set aside.

2. Next, heat a splash of olive oil in a sautee pan and toss in the garlic. After a minute or so add the spinach, stirring frequently to prevent burning. When the spinach is a vibrant green you can mix in the mashed carrot. Next, add 1 tsp of soy sauce and pour in the beef broth a little bit at a time so that the consistency is somewhere between oatmeal and cream of potato soup. That's not very specific... just add as much as you like! You want to make a sauce that you can pour over the bok choy while still maintaining some texture. You can set it aside at this stage, or blend it in a food processor to get a creamier texture. Season with a little salt & pepper to taste.

3. Wash the bok choy very carefully. They often have a lot of sand in them so I like to use the nozzle attached to most kitchen sinks to really clean them. Try to shake off as much water as you can so you don't make a mess when you sautee these bad boys.

4. Heat 1 Tbs olive oil over medium heat. Add the bok choy and toss regularly to keep them from getting too wilted on any one side. Keep cooking them until they're tender but firm. If they're taking too long you can put a lid on top and steam them quickly.

Now back to the main dish!

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2. Heat 1 Tbs of olive oil in a sautee pan over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and break up with a spoon/spatula/whatever utensil your heart desires. Sautee until cooked through.

3. Remove the squash from the oven and flip them over, cut-side-up. Put each one on a plate.

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4. Pour the hot sausage and oil directly into the squash cavity. The dish already has so much flavor it won't need any other seasoning but you could add salt & pepper if you like. Or if you're like Barry, a little Sriracha sauce goes well with everything!

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5. Place 8-10 bok choy on each plate so that they're all oriented the same direction. Pour the spinach hash in a single line across all of them.

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6. Serve and enjoy!