randoms on an evening. or night, rather.

i love green fin- a white table wine that sells for about four dollars at trader joe's. very fruity, fragrant. the one thing i just can't figure out about it, though, is this "notes of orange blossom" thing. another wine i tried this weekend (at vosges, actually) had this in the inscription and i can't quite detect it. so, it's like, orange but also a flower? hmm. at this point i'm only able to identify orange, and flowery. separately. hmm. i need to get me some orange flower water i think.

also, olives (black, nicoise specifically) are a dream with dark chocolate. new favorite snack.

and, finally, oh do i love the kayoko, the beautiful truffle from vosges' green collection that just debuted. beautiful, buttery white chocolate encasing a vibrant green tea ganache. you bite into it, and it's like you've transformed, you're wearing a flowing dress and are standing in the dirt in bare feet. and you're eating candy grass, and it's not weird. fantastical.

food that inspires

i've decided to make it a point to document, in some fashion, my recent fantastic experiences with food and drink. i need to share but as it stands now the only person who really gets to enjoy all of it is my beloved ryan! so, here you (all?) are.

part of this is sudden feeling is due to my new job at vosges haut-chocolate (www.vosgeschocolate.com) as a seller and lover of chocolate. my mind has been blown and widened in the last few weeks, and continues to be as each day i try something new (or many somethings new!) and talk about it with my manager. it is so inspiring to have my tastes and my ideas challenged but supprted at the same time. apparently, i've shown so much enjoyment and interest in the flavors and textures that they've already decided to "promote" me (term used loosely) to ohare's first ever "food concierge." in exchange for the title i'd be involved in all of the extra foodie endeavors of the company, plan truffle/chocolate pairings with which to educate the staff, and possibly converse with katrina on conference calls about new products. has my day-job dream come true?!? i think so. speaking of katrina (as in markoff, the creator and ceo of vosges) , i've taken it upon myself to experience all of the recipes she comes up with and posts on her blog (www.peaceloveandchocolate.com). hence the need to express! so, here are my newest delights in the food world:

for the love of paninis:

three to be exact. the first i tried was made on a soft wheat bread (although the original recipe calls for bread like those below) with sliced organic bananas, a few squares of vosges organic peanut butter bon bon bar (deep milk chocolate, pink himalayan sea salt, maldon sea salt, and peanut butter- IDIE) and salted butter. i made this with my dinner with my first official chicago friend, lauren. (who may, for the record, love wine and cheese more than i. debatable, i know, but....)

i recognized after this first panini that i was going to be eating a lot of things between bread in the near future... so i proceeded to make my first ever classic tuscan loaf, out of the joy of cooking anniversary cookbook (thanks micah my dear!). this turned out fantastically, and i was armed for the next two, more savory, italian-style sandwiches.

enter bacon and chocolate, one of the best things ever in the history of all things that are the best things ever. this panini, made on newly baked bread, consisted of vosges deep milk chocolate and bacon bar, a slice of applewood smoked bacon, and my (perhaps brilliant) addition of red onions caramelized in a homemade vanilla sugar. (organic cane.) again, i'm dead, dead, dead and LOVING IT IN BACON+CHOCOLATE HEAVEN.

(speaking of which... pudding made of maple syrup, cream, vosges organic single origin milk chocolate scooped with a bacon spear... yeah. i made that last weekend.)

and the third, perhaps most bizarre but also fantastic panini idea from katrina: prosciutto (i found mine at the lovely local shop pastoral- www.pastoralartisan.com), buffalo mozzarella, nicoise olives, basil, and vosges organic single origin dark chocolate doused in extra-virgin olive oil. i've also made it with the mind-boggling organic enchanted mushroom bar from vosges (reishi mushroom powder + walnuts + dark chocolate) and have had it in some form for dinner the last three nights. a new love has surfaced, indeed. i enjoyed this one of the nights (or day, actually, with ryan!) with one of my new favorite spring wines, the vin-koru white table wine found at trader joe's for five bucks.

speaking of wine, i was introduced to colombelle (a fantastic french specimen) at tracy lett's party a few weeks ago. some lovely soul brought it, where i proceeded to consume two glasses of the stuff with my hip attached to the wine counter. no big deal. i believe it goes for nine bucks at whole foods, seven or eight at binny's if you're lucky enough to have one near you. very fruity and floral, as if you're drinking strawberry shortcake and smelling the spring outside. actually, so inspiring that ryan and i made his (grandmother's?) recipe for strawberry shortcake, which i don't know if i'd ever had before. and... wow. mmm, the warm shortcakes surrounded by a good vanilla bean ice cream matched with sugared strawberries... yes please. i wonder how it'd be if one soaked them in an aged balsamic vinegar? heavenly, perhaps. although i wonder if ryan would let me tamper so with a classic favorite of his.

and then there are these bacon-cheddar-chive biscuits that disappeared in record time (except for the few i've hidden in the freezer:) i had an abundance of chives growing on my windowsill and thought, what else? i have been on this bacon kick, after all. the recipe came from april's? bon appetit magazine. so pillowy, flavorful, warming... oooo.

that's all i can think of for the moment. oh, and i've just recently tasted taleggio cheese for the first time. soft, stinky, and packing a punch of flavor. vosges actually has a truffle-penned the rooster-that mixes the pungent stuff with walnuts, vanilla bean, and dark chocolate. woa. that was good. all of this will, i'm guessing, become more regular, as ryan and i have just signed up for our first csa. an abbreviation for "community shared agriculture," this basically means that we own a share of harvest moon farms in wisconsin, who once a week drive into chicago to drop off boxes of organic produce, cheese, and eggs (in our case) but can also include flowers and grass-fed, free-range chicken and beef (www.harvestmoonorganics.com). i was so proud and giddy to have finally signed up, i almost peed.

so, love to any and all out there! live and eat with a happiness and inquisition!

the books lyrics

lyrics to "a little longing goes a long way" by the books. it's so very tao te ching. love.

Yes and no are just distinguished by
distinction, so we choose the in-between.
Give up your books and put an end
to your worries. Enjoy central park in spring.
Our minds are empty, like we're too young
to know to smile.
We know to fear what others fear
is nonsense, right?

The books suggest we set our hearts
on doing nothing,
and then nothing's left undone.
Everybody's busy waiting for the go-ahead,
but by then their heads are gone.
Our minds are empty, grave as well as
strange. (Take this.)
We know to seek success is utter nonsense.
The best is to be blank.

standing still and learning to be astonished.

i did it! i stood on my head! three times!

i was so excited and surprised at my ability to do something i never thought i'd have to the strength to do that i wanted to stand up and cry out to everyone in class. and just like that, as i'm silently bathing in my excitement, sharon reminds us all to let go of whatever has just happened, good or bad. "detach it from your ego." she continues, "when we attached things to the ego, we become disappointed." and i thought, yes, this is true in all things. in yoga, in life, and most certainly in art, to which i give my life's work. and as we came back into the world and into ourselves after savasana, she read this poem, "messenger."

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

Mary Oliver

and i thought, yes. yes, this the truth.