I have been a fan of King Arthur Flour for a long time. They have been grinding flour for 200 years and they really seem to have it down. Their organic whole wheat, if treated right and soaked the night before in a slightly acid solution, rises as high as white flour in my experience. They have a huge product line and they offer recipes on line and classes in their headquarters in New England.

I sometimes realize how incredibly lucky we are that we all cook, not only cook but love to cook.

With all the holidays and a disaster or two thrown in, I have not had much time to write either on the blog to all of you or to work on our cookbook. I wanted an uninterrupted 3 hours or so with no other responsibilities so I could just dive in. Sometimes writing is like painting, it takes time to submerge yourself. That, in my experience, is when my writing starts to live and breath. Austin, Anjuli’s brother is back from Bulgaria. He is tall and lean and vegetarian. It is hard to keep him full. We all, including him, take turns.

When Anjuli and I get together in a kitchen it is like the improvisation that goes on between jazz musicians. She has an idea and it sparks me, I enhance on it, back and forth we go until, from these sparks, a dish is created. It just flows from mind to mind and heart to heart with no effort and no ego. It is quite amazing to me. I used to sing in the 60s with a partner. Sometimes we would hit a perfect note together. The feeling of the perfection of the note would make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. It had a life of its own. When Anjuli and I cook together sometimes we create a dish that feels like that. We can just feel that it is right.

Choosing a healthy diet today isn’t easy. When I was a kid, class and religion still dictated most of our eating habits. Nowadays pollution, GMO, obesity, and big industry further complicate our choices. The concern over eating a tuna fish sandwich back then was the stink. Today it’s such a loaded issue I take pause before publishing the recipe.

It’s frequently said that making good food is predicated on feeling good. If you’re having a bad day, don’t attempt cooking, because your food will taste like yesterday’s garbage. That was oddly how I approached smoking. I would only smoke when I felt excellent, because it boosted the feeling with a lovely little nicotine rush. When I felt awful, smoking only made me feel worse. Granted, when I was a smoker I wasn’t much into food because I couldn’t taste a thing. But that’s another story.

Oranges, blue cheese, and red onion are a winning combination. In other terms I would say something astringent, something sour, and something spicy go well together. Add in the sweetness of the dressing, the savory walnuts, and the fresh, bitter greens and you have a simple salad with a complex taste. Adding in the salt and brine of a good black olive also works well.

By now know this base recipe by heart, but like to change its embellishments every time. In the spirit of Thanksgiving we made ‘em a little sweet, adding in the warmth of winter spices and plumped currants. Slathered with butter and eaten over the cooling rack, these no-fuss morsels held their own even though our attention was focused on tomorrow’s more high-maintenance eats.