What’s For Dinner?

My kids have a longstanding habit of calling before coming home at dinner time and asking “what are you making for dinner?” I’m not quite sure if this a vote of confidence in my cooking skills or an attempt to assess their options; I think the latter. I’m the chief cook in our household and have always been one to wait until the last minute to decide what to cook for dinner. Of course I do plan ahead on important occasions but I enjoying playing the game with myself trying to make something out of what is on hand at the very last minute. The phone rings..."I’m on the 5:30 ferry..see you in 20 minutes”, I spring into action. I even amaze myself sometimes because often I have no idea what I’m going to make until I look at what’s hanging around to work with. 

Like most cooks I have my standard repertoire of meals, some family favorites others not so appealing to all. I like to experiment.  I’m not one to do things the same twice.  When asked “what was in that dish you served last week?”, unfortunately I often can’t recall, I rarely write things down, or follow a recipe and thus may only have a general idea. Now this habit is not foolproof, I don’t fail often but when I do it is usually big, rendering a meal that only I will eat.  My daughter Lorean once exclaimed with an anguished look.. “Dad, why don’t you just make regular food?”.  Regular food… what’s that? 

One of the benefits of being a vegetable gardener is that the possibilities for the last minute are greatly expanded. I’ve even been known to pickup a flash light and head out into the woods looking for chantrel mushrooms in my last minute flurry.  Although it is Fall and the garden is on the wane there are still a few things growing.  In the picture above you will note a lovely cauliflower, chard and bok choy (but of course you recognized them!) the eventual ingredients in a last minute stir fry.. very tasty.  You will also note the inserted photo of me showing a cooking aptitude at an early age.  No, that is not the same apron.  Don’t ask me what’s in what I made, I told you I can’t recall such things.

One of my last minute innovations that has now moved to standard family fare and is a universal hit with the kids (when they are all at home that is) is pizza with artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, vegan cheese if we are fasting feta and mozzarella if we are not, garlic, onions, olives, pine nuts, basil on a homemade crust.  It really is great, feel free to give it a try.  I recommend Costco for the main ingredients, their feta is cheap and the best around.... of course this requires that the reader plan ahead!

Now if my family can only get through all the telemarketer calls tonight at dinner time so I know when to start dinner! 

Great Endings

There is something about a great ending that regardless of what has gone on before brings a feeling of elation and fulfillment that leaves one wanting more, to do it all over again. By “great ending” I mean an ending that somehow adds to one’s understanding and appreciation of an event or performance.  A “great ending” need not make one feel “good” or tie-up all the loose ends, that’s the easy way out.  A “great ending” provokes, it stirs, it moves us to a new level of awareness, perhaps allowing us to see things in a new light.

This notion was brought home so clearly this past week by two very different theatrical events. The first is Wagner’s monumental work the “Ring des Nibelungen”, four operas: Das Rheingold , Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung staged over a one week period. I had the great pleasure of seeing the Seattle Opera’s production last week. For seventeen hours over four nights I was drawn into Wagner’s mythic world that explores as no other opera work before it, the depths of the human psyche via words and music. It is an outlandishly twisted tale that draws from both Germanic/Norse mythology, the politics of the mid-19th century, and the influential philosophies of the time.  With three of the four operas at five or more hours at times it is an endurance contest, with moments of frustration and impatience when one thinks .."why can’t he (Wagner) just got on with it!” after taking 30 minutes to have two characters express their love for each other and embrace. Yet, the very next minute Wagner will hook you and draw you back in with a expressive melodic line or leitmotif (see and a hear), it is pure genius.  People literally come from all over the world to see these productions, many avid Wagner lovers who have seen the Ring Cycle many times over (if you think a normal opera crowd is old, you should see a Ring crowd!).  Just being in that kind of committed crowd is enjoyable in itself.  Of course there a a few who take things a bit far and strut around during intermissions wearing a viking helmet but generally speaking it is a very serious enthusiastic crowd.

Back to the idea of a “great ending”.. in the last of the four operas, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), the final scene in Stephen Wadworth’s Seattle production was breathtaking. The “ring” (the object of everyone’s obscession) has been returned to the Rhinemaidens and order has been restored but the rein of the"gods" has come to an end and Valhalla goes up in flames.  The scene was simply stunning, it left me thinking (in spite of the fact that we sprinted out the door to catch of ferry) “wow, the time and expense ($110/seat/night!) were all worthwhile, this was something really special to be a part of”. 

As I usually do before any opera, I try to listen to the music ahead of time. I’ve been working on the Ring for months. One doesn’t go through 17 hours of music easily.  Wagnerian opera does not make good background music around the house in ways that operas of Mozart, Puccini or Verdi do.  I had a hard time connecting with it quite honestly, as I do with most of Wagner’s operas before I see them.  I listened to Scenes 2 and 3 from Das Rheingold the other day and heard it in a whole new light...it was marvelous.  There is so much going on in these operas that a small foothold helps bring things into focus.  If you asked me after the third opera, Seigfried, if I’d go again the answer would have been NO, now, I’d pony up the big bucks without question.... “great endings” have the power to do that.

Now to the second “great ending”. I have been a longtime fan of the HBO show ”Six Feet Under”. Created by Alan Ball, the Academy Award winning writer of ”American Beauty”, the show takes a “darkly comic look at life and death from the perspective of a dysfunctional family that owns and operates an independent funeral home in California”. From the fabulous opening theme music and credits ,created by a Seattle company Digital Kitchen, to the dark and off-beat story lines it is great television in my view.  I highly recommend renting the first season, it comes on four episode DVDs. As with many programs, I think the first season was the best and most inventive.

At any rate.. I just happened to catch the show’s last episode the other night and the last 15 minutes was one of those “great endings”. In the imagination/daydream of one of the characters, Claire, as she drives off “into the sunset” are death scenes of each of the show’s characters.  Now if you aren’t familiar with the program you are probably thinking “what? how morbid!”, but every episode of the series starts with a death in a short one minute or so vignette.  Remember, the program is centered around the funeral business. The eventual funeral of that person becomes a minor background theme for the episode, it is very clever.  Getting back to what I said at the top, I was left with a feeling of satisfaction, that what I had enjoyed about this inventive program was confirmed by the well done finale.

As they say at the opera… “Bravo!”

The Ring family tree
Great Ring des Nibelungen resource
Six Feet Under at HBO