See weed?

Goodness gracious gentle reader, its been too long!! How have you been? Hugs!!

What an incredible two months I've had! Life has been beyond good to me. November and December brought with them, an embarassment of riches. Much good food has been consumed, my soles are worn and my heart is full.

I've been an absolute slug about blogging because I wanted the dust to settle. I waited for my experiences to crystalize into perfectly shaped, clear droplets. I hoped that memory and reflection would smooth any rough edges and bring clarity and perfect understanding. Like the perfect glass menagerie.

As much as I treasure my little unicorns, life, with cheerful boisterousness, jostles us all. The past is happily enmeshed with the present and the future. So much for staying inside the lines!

And so I will acquiesce and jump in. Joyfully. All those tastes, touches, smells and smiles still linger in my brain. Perhaps, they will rush unbidden into my mind one afternoon. Maybe shimmer lightly just before I open my eyes. Like invisible threads, they draw me to future tastes and smiles. The mysterious wonderful web that the universe weaves around us.

On to less abstract matters - wakame! A Japanese girl I knew swore by the power of seaweed - she said her hair had been lustrous in Japan because she ate more seaweed when she lived in Japan! Many moons later, I found myself in a mighty-foods phase and her seaweed testimonial rang in my ears.

Long story short, I found Wakame in an Asian grocery store. Rehydrating it was like magic. I immersed the wakame in a little water and in a few minutes, presto, silky green sheets emerged where dry, black tendrils had been!

Wakame salad (based on recipe from Epicurious)
- 3 tablespoons rehydrated wakame (1 tablespoon dry)
- 1/2 inch ginger, chopped fine
- 2 cloves garlic chopped fine
- 3 tablespoons tamari
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- fresh cilantro / sesame seeds for garnish

Make the dressing and toss in the rehydrated wakame. Thats all there is to it! Its unbelievably delicious! Turned out just like the seaweed dim sum at Golden Port.