I’ve been on a surprising Dolly Parton kick lately. Whilst getting my teeth cleaned today, and just after learning that my saliva production is now “not normal” (cancer, what else will you take away from me!?) I almost started crying when from the dentist office radio I made out the lyrics of Hard Candy Christmas for the first time. Damn, Dolly’s good. “Me, I’ll bounce right back!.”
“I’ll be fine and dandy/ Lord it’s like a hard candy Christmas/ I’m barely getting through tomorrow/ But still I won’t let/ Sorrow get me way down.”
If there is to be more chemo, this song is getting added to the playlist. KP and I have been trying hard to not let sorrow get us down. The Roosevelt hotel (wearing the closest to Marvelous Ms. Maisel I could muster from vintage thrift shopping and gold toed shoes matching KP) and the Swamp Solstice bike ride this last weekend were helpful in that regard. Buoy on.
And still the kindness of colleagues and strangers—this meal was brought to me week before last, and I’m still salivating with the glands and tastebuds still intact when I remember how delicious this was. Thank you, Deb!
Ginger Eggplant Tofu Curry with Roti
Recipe from Deb Levy (handwritten to me, and transcribed)
1-2 tablespoons high heat oil, like coconut
75 g Maeploy red curry paste “country style”
2 cans coconut milk (DON’T SHAKE THE CAN LIKE IT SAYS)
1 block firm tofu
Handful of broccoli florets
½ small eggplants, diced into ½ inch-1 inch size pieces
1 kefir lime leaf (torn but kept in one piece) and zest of one kefir lime
Cilantro for garnish
1 TB sugar
1-2 TB fish sauce (to taste. Deb first wrote optional but then crossed it out and wrote “per Michael, 100% NOT optional,” haha- Go Michael, apparent king of savory)
Thumb-size piece of ginger
1 cup stock or water
Cut tofu into desired size pieces, and pan fry in oil. Set aside. In pot, heat 2 TB coconut cream off the top of the coconut milk can, unshaken. Once oil separates, add curry paste and fry until fragrant. Add broccoli and eggplant to coat in curry paste. Bring to a simmer, but keep the veggies in the good stuff. Add ginger, kefir lime leaf and zest, sugar, fish sauce, and stock. Simmer about ten minutes. Add tofu now. Remove ginger and lime leaf. Add salt and fish sauce to taste.
Serve with steamed jasmine rice and roti flatbread. Garnish with cilantro.
What is roti flatbread? A revelation to me! This is the first time I had had roti, but Deb made it with 1/3 spelt flour to healthy it up a bit.
She adapted her recipe for roti from Vatch’s Thai Street Food by Vatcharin Bhumichitr.
This is seriously one of the best dinners I’ve had in months. Thank you Deb! In other vegan news, I’ve been perusing the mouthwatering pages of Catherine Gill’s latest vegan cookbook The Complete Hummus Cookbook which has over a hundred variations on a hummus theme. Can’t wait to test!
If you are looking for stocking stuffers, I think A Little Bit of Mindfulness by Amy Leigh Mercree is a nice nudge toward health. This is a large pocket-sized precise on why and how of a mindfulness practice. It’s hard to put yoga in a stocking, but I would still try.
Or maybe a neti pot? These from Nasopure are a nice size and come with little packets of salt to make hypertonic saline to squirt into your dusty sinuses. And they are stocking size.
Definitely put Garner’s Garden products in stockings—these are all lovely: body balms, oils, face washes, natural deodorants and mouth washes, all great and you can feel about these ingredients going into your drain and eventually into the ocean—less toxic! All hyperlinked products have been gifted.
