Brushing Teeth and Stealing

Have you thought lately? Really, just sat or laid down with no other purpose than letting your mind wander? I haven't. I try not to let my mind wander these days. It is difficult to focus on your focus when your focus is thinking about recipes for whipped cream while your trying to switch lanes, eat an apple and sing along to Taylor Swift. You end up with apple on the steering wheel, warbling like a bird and getting stuck behind a car going 50 on the highway.

Last night while brushing my teeth, a task which is fairly thought-bankrupt, my mind was wandering. I was thinking about what I needed to write about. Not want, need. These are things that I've been mentally masticating, stuck in the depths of my mind like leafy greens in your teeth. Life will not and cannot continue until you get them out. While I should have been focused on battling periodontal disease, I was struck by the thought that I had left two blocks of tofu on the counter, just chilling, waiting for a marinade. It was 12:30. I was tired. What to do what to do? You guessed it. I 86ed the tooth wash and ran downstairs to save the tofu from its imminent death-non-death. I lathered those guys up with a tasty marinade and fridged'em. I could then sleep in peace with the mental-spinach -in-the-teeth removed.Whew. 

Aside from when I have actual things that I have forgotten about and need to address promptly, of late, my musings mostly relate to my recent stint at Flour. These three months were some of the most grueling, thought provoking and rewarding I have ever had. I met fantastic people- and that is not just limited to the day I chatted with Dorie Greenspan, spotted Bobby Flay or was lucky enough to converse with Ming Tsai. The prep cooks Baby Johna and Orlando always made me laugh, taught me Spanish (Adras- meaning behind-the perpetual cry of the kitchen) and jokingly scolded me for stealing bites of their roasted tofu. Chef Jeff and his effusiveness cheered me on my worst days.He regaled me with stories of his old mustangs, experiments with veganism and adoration of cooking with fresh ingredients. I'll never forget the day he brought Maine-grown carrots strung with ornaments of dirt, gleefully offering me a bite of freshness at its finest. It was the first afternoon I actually felt like I belonged.

But they and their stories will be later additions and editions.

I've sidebarred them in my mind and on paper. Sidebarring in our kitchen was and is life. You are sidebarred if you forget to clean a station, make a bogus batter, or send out a product that is just not up to par. When you still have your training wheels on, you may as well expect to be on the sidebar daily because there is always an aspect of your day with needs improvement. That is the left hand side of the sheet. The middle is the task list. Straightforward for me, considering I was responsible for the same production list everyday. The right side is where you noted what needed to be made. For me this was life and death. If I didn't have my cookie dough made, there would be nothing for me to bake. And if per chance someone took the back up cookie doughs in the walk-in fridge without telling me, then friends, I was a canoe with a hole in the middle of the Atlantic, simply and utterly screwed. So now I have adopted this method into my writing madness. The left side of my planning sheet is for articles I need to read, the center for things I have in the works currently, and the right is ideas for future stories. Sarah, my former boss and now perpetual source of inspiration, would be proud of my writing sidebar.

Mondays and Thursdays were my favorite days in the kitchen because there were more relazed than the frenetic hurry of the weekend and it was always tofu day. Orlando, one of the prep cooks, would take the marinating tofu out from the fridge and roast it, the smal little cubes adopting a deep tone of caramelized brown after their 40 minute stint in the convection oven. Although I attempted to be covert about my snacking, there was always a soy sauce outline of the tofu announcing the robbery.

The markings of my crime as obvious as this guy ^

Soy and Sesame Tofu

1 Package of Extra Firm Tofu

1 Cup of Reduced Sodium Tamari (for Gluten Free Version) or Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp of Wasabi

2 Tsp of Ground Ginger or you can grate fresh

¼ C Rice Wine Vinegar

1 Tbsp of Sesame Oil

1. Preheat Oven to 375 Degrees
2. Drain your Tofu from the packing liquid. Wrap that little guy in a towel or several paper towels and let him hang out under a book or a basket of bananas while you prep everything else
3. In a 9X11 Pyrex baking dish or large bowl, add all of the other ingredients. I start with the wet and add the dry at the end for sake of ease.
4. Whisk together, making sure to break up the wasabi in the marinade.
5. Slice your tofu into cubes or steak size depending on how you like to eat it. Although be forewarned that in cubes it inspires stealing bites from the pan
6. Put them in the oven for 40 minutes, stirring every 8-10 minutes so each side gets that amazingly crisp exterior
7. Try to stop yourself from eating as they cool. Or don't