LAVENDER, BEETS, QUINOA

It’s Oscar night and this is my “red carpet” salad menu together with yellow beans and tomatillos verde. I had cousins visiting me from the east coast and I wanted to “showcase” what I eat on the island and what from local sources - they are very curious of my food lifestyle here now given so much greens grown all year.  They loved the freshness and simplicity of my techniques - I wanted the vegetables to speak for themselves coming through as character over the vinaigrette, like the fragrance of the herb elucidating the beets. My welcome drinks were ginger soda bellinis and wellness shots of the beets and sweet potato juice with a squeeze of lime, my vegan, zero-proof version of chilled sangria in a tequila glass. Amazing, they said. Thank the beet, I said. Process and creativity are everything to extend the use and versatility of food - and thinking on your feet if you don’t have much time or much to offer or have an impressive home bar. This is the healthiest meal we ever had. My, this is the happiest I’ve been in a long time, seeing you all. The recipe of the soup (not in photo) is butternut squash cubes boiled down to purée liquid with a masher and creamed down with oat and cashew milks and enhanced with a tiny bouquet of oregano-parsley-dill garni (from my garden). They loved that I grow my own food supplementing beautifully their presentation in the table as natural as can be. They noticed, too, my skin, my slimness, my vital inner sanctum glow - and connected everything with what and how I eat. I didn’t know what to say, beside poetry. I loved that my cousin helped me wash dishes and dry off plates and store silvers in their drawers and containers in their cupboards together as family, I’ve missed. And thanks to the awards show, dashing Elvis was in the house, too.