I had my usual breakfast of granola, raisins, blueberries, yogurt, and milk, let to sit for a few minutes to convert the milk into a light yogurt sauce that softened the granola.
I then re-read Wyoming vs. Colorado to clearly understand that in interstate disputes over water in the Western U.S. that the priority doctrine is applied that gives the better right to the water to the earlier state to put the water to continuous beneficial use.
Then I started watching the market as it took off like a scared rabbit with the Dow ascending 331 points by the end of the day and breaking through the $24,000 barrier after breaking the $23,000 barrier just 45 days ago. The economy appears to be on a serious upward trajectory if the stock market is a forward indicator, as it is supposed to be.
The mail brought a tax form that Willy needed to sign, so I called an left a message for him. He called back and we planned to meet at Vinaigrette for lunch. I drove and he walked and we met for lunch at noon. He ordered a seasonal offering of sautéed red Swiss chard with mushrooms, some onion, and cooked hulled barley, which was quite delicious. I ordered my usual Frisée Salad with extra lardons (pan fried chunks of pancetta) and a light vinaigrette dressing and a poached egg on top. Because of the extra lardons the salad had a slightly enhanced bacon grease flavor which I found pleasant.
Willy also had a specialty drink with carrot juice, turmeric, ginger, and soda water.
After lunch I started prepping for the evening’s book club meeting at my house, filling bowls with nuts, crackers, and candy. And making a sesame seed dressing for the steamed asparagus.
Sesame seed sauce
I followed the recipe in my Japanese cookbook by browning 3 oz. of white sesame seeds in a dry non-stick skillet and then grinding them with a mortar in a suribachi into a flaky almost paste. Here is a photo of the suribachi and mortar after bringing the sesame seeds.
Here is the recipe for the sesame sauce.
I then added ¾ cup of dashi (made 1 tsp. of dehydrated dashi dissolved in ¾ cup of warm water) to the crushed sesame seeds and then added 4 T. of soy, ¾ T. of sugar, 2 T. of sake, and 1 T. of aji mirin. Here is what the sauce looks like.
I then read the recipe on the package of chicken/cilantro pot stickers for the dipping sauce and several recipes for dipping sauces for dumplings in various cookbooks and came up with my own recipe for the pot stickers. Here is a photo of the recipe on package.
Pot Sticker Dipping sauce
4 T. of soy
2 T. of sake
1 T. of aji Mirin
1 tsp. of red pepper flakes in oil
1 T. of rice vinegar
1 tsp. of sesame oil
2 tsp. of finely minced ginger
2 scallions thinly sliced
1 T. of finely chopped cilantro
3 T. of Hoisin Sauce
I loved the flavorful sauce with just a hint of spiciness.
I then snapped the ends off 45 stalks of asparagus and put them into the steamer with water.
Suzette arrived a bit after 5:00 and we got really well organized, like organizing the cheese board and wine and sake, and then rested until 6:20 when we started cooking the three main dishes.
I sliced and toasted slices of Fano baguette and arranged them in a basket.
Suzette heated the propane grill outside and cut and soaked the cedar planks. She then put the salmon filet on the two cedars boards on the grill and then sautéed two batches of pot stickers in peanut oil and sesame oil and steamed the asparagus. At 7:00 members began arriving and I poured wine and we served the asparagus and pot stickers. Then we took the salmon from the grill and I served it, walking through the living room with a baking pan full of smoking cedar and salmon. Everyone said they enjoyed the food.
The discussion was lively but it was clear that the group did not have the same attitude about the Dharma Bums as I did. They mostly thought the protagonists, mainly Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Philip Whalin, and Allen Ginsberg were acting sophomoric and were not serious zen practitioners. They also saw and were repulsed by the awful contradictions in Kerouac’s persona, gay, alcoholic, and catholic wanting to be a good zen practitioner, which ultimately prevented him from being fully committed. Their grades were mostly C’s.
Alternatively, I saw the Dharma Bums as entirely the opposite; a historic document of the beginnings of three strong cultural movements from the viewpoint of the persons involved in their creation, the
Beat Generation (named and defined by Kerouac), the West Coast Renaissance, which became the
Zen movement in the U.S. and the hippie movement, and through Gary Snyder, the beginning of an
active environmental movement. In other words this small group of people were instrumental in
defining the major cultural trends of the last half of the 20th century in America that influenced the world.
I tried to where Kerouac made some break through in his awakening in Chapter 21 of the
book but public opinion had turned against the book
After the meeting I thought of a way to explain the experience of enlightenment from a mathematical/physical perspective derived from Chapter 2 of Ouspensky’s A New Model for the Universe that I first read 57 years ago and I re-read to make sure I recalled it correctly.
Ouspensky was a Russian esoteric mathematician affiliated with Madame Blavatsky and the
Theosophical Society.
His mathematical proof is as follows:
Everything exists in a time space continuum.
You start with a point in time
Then link that point to all points in that moment to form a time line of all moments at that moment in time.
Turn that line perpendicular and you have a three dimensional volume of all existence in three dimensional space at that moment in time
Since we exist in three dimensional space, this is the three dimensional space where we exist in each moment. But time is constantly changing to new three dimensional moments as time changes
So if we turn all the points of three dimensional moments on their axisees it unifies all the present moments of three dimensional existence into a plane of all existence as it travels through the space time continuum. In other words, all existence in each moment becomes a plane with all other three dimensional moments passing through the continuum of time. The linkage of all existence in each moment into a plane with other moments of existence passing through the space time continuum is the fourth dimension.
There are two simple conclusions derived from this awareness of the fourth dimension. First, that for each moment in the fourth dimension all the third dimensional expressions of existence are a unified whole as they relate to their moment in the time space continuum of the fourth dimension (as the third dimension becomes a plane passing through the space time continuum).
I think this is the understanding that the Buddha gained when he reached nirvana or enlightenment. That everything in this moment is unified. Second, that suffering comes from not properly understanding that existence is constantly changing through time and letting our thinking get stuck
thinking that our existence is fixed. In other words, getting stuck in the self-centered moment rather
than realizing that we are all passing through time and every new moment is another new existence in the space time continuum. Buddhists often describe this understanding as follows: If you are standing by the river and put you foot into the water, did your foot enter the spot you first saw when
you decided to put your foot into the river.
The way the Buddha described this was, “There is no past, there is no future, there is no present”. There just is this ever new moment. That awareness is often described as emptiness and the understanding of it is typically called awareness. Self centered thoughts divert own’s attention from that ever new moment. The confusion and desires that arise from self centered thoughts are what cause suffering that the Buddha stated in his four noble truths. Buddhists believe living life in accordance with the eightfold path is the mechanism to liberate one from the suffering caused by
connection to past, future, and present thoughts, which are called attachments. These are very strong thoughts such as love of one’s mother or insecurity of one’s homosexuality that leads one to get caught in a moment or a set of thoughts as reality, as Kerouac did. Snyder through his understanding of this concept became all accepting of all things in the moment and has prospered as a creative person to this day.
I selected three red wines, a Gruet Pinot Noir, a 93 point 2014 Campo Arriba Monistrell blend ($8.95 at Costco), and a 2016 Casa Avril Tempranillo grown at Budaghers. For the white I bought a Mohua for $11.99 at Costco, a highly rated for the money Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region in New Zealand (international Wine Cellars gives it a 90 point rating).
For dessert we put out the PPI chocolate pecan pie from the Stagecoach Inn in Salado, Texas that Suzette made for Thanksgiving with a bowl of the poached Quince and raisin compote we made from this year’s crop of quinces at a Suzette’s Center for Ageless Living. I squirted liberal amounts of Reddi-Whip whipped cream on each member’s dessert.
Here is the address for the Stagecoach Inn’s Chocolate fudge pecan pie recipe,
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/prt/0,1837,156174-253193,00.html?
By 10:00 we were done and after a quick tour of the recent art pieces we said goodnight.
Bon Appetit
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