Spicy Roast Cauliflower with Turmeric & Toasted Cumin in hammered copper on The Barn’s reclaimed cedar planks.
Summer has arrived in the Midwest bringing with it seasonal produce. Local farmstands once shuttered, now open and buzzing with activity. Stands piled high with fruits and vegetables. Stirring memories of dad’s quick stops near Erb’s farm before Little League games to score a beefsteak tomato or two. Perhaps early experiences with in-season, peak-of-perfection produce cultivated my love of summertime’s local bounty found within our town.
However, no doubt my introduction to a mother’s home-cooked, traditional South Indian cuisine by her daughter is the root of my deep appreciation of vegetarian cooking. Long commutes to Hyde Park over thirty years ago with a co-worker and now long-time friend brought new understanding while on the Metra:
Vegetables, legumes, and fruits could be featured front and center—the foundation of a meal, no meat required. Furthermore, that spices, some new and others known, could be tempered in hot oil and used in unfamiliar ways.
The clothesline is empty. So is the blooming clover that fills the yard. Yesterday’s bumblebees have not yet reoccupied their spiky white posts. The stillness of the early hour broken only by our flip flops clicking an unintended chorus. Their perfect rhythm times a whiney creak. The lonely song of the handle of a pail. Swinging back and forth, wrapped around my arm on my elbow like a purse. For a moment it quiets. Paused at the putting hole, pocketing a forgotten golf ball, I look back towards the house. Our steps have left an interesting trail in the cool dew. Grandma calls my name. Ahead of me she’s stopped, waiting for me to catch up.
sueBthefoodie 