Fast from a Meal until the Oil Outrage is ended

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote of the responsibility of all men in a free society (Heschel insisted that in a free society where some are guilty, all are responsible) in "The Moral Outrage of Vietnam".

"It is weird to wake up one morning and find that we have been placed in an insane asylum while asleep at night. It is even more weird to wake up and find that we have been involved in slaughter and destruction without knowing it."

The words may be about Vietnam, but there is a taste of crude oil in it when I hear it. There is a truth to the weight I feel when I wake up and remember that my need for fuel and energies of fuel has been responsible for the fuel leaking into the Gulf right now. I am the one responsible. We are all responsible.

People of faith - particularly the religious leaders - should be making more noise about this tragedy. Can't we see that the "waters are turning to blood" again. We have seen this before, this type of destruction and greed. We have allowed too much "fast technology" to tread in areas they obviously have no business treading. 

There should have been a few - if not more - viable options on standby for such a hideous occurrence. Have we learned nothing from the Exxon Valdez incident.  This oil leak is not a spill, this is a horror. The religious leaders should be down on the Gulf calling people to fast and pray, begging for an answer and challenging people to put on sackcloth and ashes and call on God. There should be no silence.

Fast from one meal a day and call on God for an answer and a repairer of the rig. Pray the arterial surgeons would share how they stop arterial leaks with these oil hounds. Pray that people would be able to clean up the horrible affects of oil and for the countless people whose lives will be altered beyond recognition.

Fast and Pray because of this moral outrage - and don't sit still.  Get others involved.

Ciao!

TJM +

Odd Numbers and Plating Things Up

I run a camp kitchen, so there is no vision a five star rating in my future, but that does not mean that we don't try to go a little gaga with the food sometimes.  I insist that my soups be homemade, rich and sumptuous.  I like to serve special items on occasion to break up the routine - like hot chai.  And we often serve our cakes plated up with a drizzle and a mint leaf.

We don't do this all of the time, but doing a little something out of character of "camping foodservice" in order to WOW folks and make them say, "these guys are willing to go a little beyond".

It is important to use odd numbers when doing designs and plating.  Say you want to do a chocolate cake with a strawberry on top and a chocolate glaze drizzle.  Lay the strawberry slice on the corner of the cake and drizzle the chocolate over the cake diagonally, corner to corner ( or on the plate under the cake in a corner to corner pattern - in relation to the cake ).

The eye is somehow more attracted to odd numbers and angular layouts.  I think it is because it poses the "conflict for resolution" in peoples' minds.  People equate a resolved issue with even numbers because of fairness.

Anyhow, try plating food in odd bunches of 3s or 5s, not 2s and 4s and see what it does for your eyes.  Drizzle corner to corner and offset that drizzle with a dot of another drizzle somewhere along the corner or edge of the plate/food item.  It makes a difference.