Shopping and Cooking, The Sequel

This is the lovely supper of fresh caught tilefish, roasted vegetables and sauteed mushrooms with leeks that kitchen alchemy produced about an hour later (see previous post).

Shopping and Cooking

This is a sample of last Sunday's purchases from the Greenmarket at 114th and Broadway.

Duck for Dinner

A rare evening at home alone was my opportunity to finally indulge in a new discovery. I've been secreting a small piece of duck confit, raised, prepared and packaged by Hudson Valley Duck Farm and sold at Columbia Greenmarket. Their instructions; 10 minutes at 500 degrees Fahrenheit. That's it? Can't be.

I tried it. Meltingly good. Crispy skin. Mmmm. With a spoonful of my homemade cranberry sauce, made from fresh Cape Cod berries I bought during the holidays in Massachusetts and have been storing in the freezer. This is the ultimate hot, single-serving fast food.

What a warm taste of the past on a cold February night in New York City.

Our Earth Affirmative

It's already January 18, Martin Luther King's birthday, and I've been away from the blog for a month now, focused on family and home and holidays. 2010 has already reminded us of the political and economic challenges we're confronting. The To Do list remains more or less the same: health care, climate change, education, terrorism, intolerance. Witnessing, from afar, the tragedy in Haiti puts a perspective on things and reminds me of the power of nature and the sanctity of life on earth. Our earth.

I'm repledging myself to the simple habit of referring to "our" world. Replacing the definite article "the" with the possessive "our". In practice, it is a small, spoken reminder of sharing, responsibility, ownership, collaboration. Since the original pact on November 6, 2009, I know that Martin Hope, Martin Frick, Benjamin Barber and I have been mindful in conversation as well as public speeches; it is always now, "our" world, "our" earth. And I'm gratified that so many friends and readers of this blog have told me that they are doing the same.