One loafer, no loaf.
The tenzo at the Juan Hand Clapping Memorial Zendo & Bicycle Warehouse wandered off the Path yesterday and forgot to bake a fresh loaf of bread.
Thus this morning’s Solomonic treatment of the one remaining slice from the old loaf. As Baba Ram Jimbo Harrison has taught us in “The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand,” the great cuisines of the world — and I would argue, the not-so-great as well — tend to arise from economies of scarcity.
“This calls for resourcefulness in the kitchen, or what the tenzo in a Zen monastery would call ‘skillful means,'” he wrote.
That, and a bread knife.
Tags: bread, Jim Harrison, The Raw and the Cooked, toast, Zen
Mad Blog Media 
December 27, 2020 at 7:40 am |
Which “half” did you get??!! 🙂
December 27, 2020 at 7:57 am |
The right half. Also, the correct one. Herself was loafing, and as Pai Chang has taught us, “A day of no work is a day of no eating.”
Nevertheless, she also got the right half. Also, the correct one.
December 27, 2020 at 8:20 am |
And you indeed got the right “Other Half”!!
Best to you both and to HtE!!!!! 🙂
December 27, 2020 at 8:40 am |
Another one of the kids’ faves, and also a bit of a zen koan wrapped up in there:
EARLY BIRD
by Shel Silverstein
Oh, if you’re a bird, be an early bird
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you’re a bird, be an early bird—
But if you’re a worm, sleep late.
December 27, 2020 at 8:42 am |
Nice!
December 27, 2020 at 8:43 am |
Not with jam of course, but we are a toasted tortilla crew with our eggs. Flour, corn, whatever. So we are rarely out of “bread” like things in the house. This morning’s request is a slice of homemade pizza from Xmas (that we cooked on the comal on the outdoor grill) with an fried egg on top. Another treat here is pizza dough grilled with olive oil, garlic, and red chile flakes. That disappeared in the middle of last night when someone needed a midnight snack. We are all about the cooking here at the casa.
December 27, 2020 at 9:26 am |
In the absence of gabacho bread I’ll generally warm up a couple flour tortillas, then add a dab of unsalted butter, a drizzle of honey, and a dusting of cinnamon. That’s another means of spraying a little ether into the old carburetor.
December 27, 2020 at 10:42 am |
COVID note: Guerroro has been our go-to store brand since moving to CO. The ready to eat tortillas are soft and fluffy, the the kids love them filled with saucy anything. But the uncooked tortillas that you fry up yourself are their favorites. The weird thing is, they have been out of stock since March. You can get everything else that company makes except the uncooked version. No idea if people are stocking up and freezing them, or if there is one ingredient that was a victim of the supply chain.
December 27, 2020 at 9:24 am |
Not cut evenly either!
December 27, 2020 at 9:26 am |
December 27, 2020 at 10:45 am |
The kiddos got books from the America’s Test Kitchen young chef explorers collection, so they’re whipping up something right now. Looks like we’ll have some inkling as to what it is in 12-24 hours. Right now it’s a cacophony of clanking tins and a chorus of “that’s my whisk!”
December 27, 2020 at 11:37 am |
You must forgive me but breakfast this morning shall be a gift left over from our very fine neighbor. She who recently lost her fine husband last month, generously sent over yesterday a foil plate of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Yum! It might have had something to do with that little bit of snow pushing that I did on her walk and driveway on Christmas day. We had a very nice white Christmas.