Contemplating Dinner

I enjoy cooking. Like Joyce Goldstein, I think of preparing and cooking food for My Beloved and our family and friends as a "moving meditation," an act at once contemplative and loving. I like mixing the colors and flavors, tasting and trying new combinations. I have the luxury of time to shop carefully and to research new and fun things to make. Peeling and chopping are not a chore, actually a quiet pleasure. And, of course, I like eating, too, as well as the reward of seeing others enjoy what I have prepared.

On the other hand, every now and then even I like a day off, a day when either someone else makes the meal or at least does part of the preparation. When I felt this way last week, I purchased some marinated "Korean beef" from my butcher. When asked, he said that meant a basic "soy sauce-and-ginger preparation," so I made a stir-fry out of it. You can see all the ingredients in the photo - all I did was slice them, sauté them in toasted sesame oil with a dab of butter and mound them on top of that delicious Massa brown rice.

Perhaps the best part of the meal, although the food was delicious, was the evening light that brought all the colors up for us to contemplate.