Philly Cheese No-Steak Sandwich

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 or 2 medium onions, sliced as thin as possible and rings separated

1/2 cup thin sliced mushrooms

1/2 – 1 package of Deli Sliced Tofurky “Philly-Style” Steak Deli Slices or Hickory Smoked Tofurky Deli Slices

Salt and coarsely ground black pepper

Provolone, Swiss, cheddar, or vegan cheese slices

Italian, French or sub rolls

-Caramelize the onions in olive oil, you can also add sweet bell peppers, add the mushrooms.

-Lightly toast the rolls, sliced longitudinally

-While the veggies are cooking, take several slices of Tofurky and cut into thin strips, add the “meat” and spices when the veggies are almost done.

-Sautee for a couple of minutes, stirring the ingredients’ together.

-When about done, shape into a rectangle to fit the rolls, add cheese slices on top, cover pan with a lid until the cheese is melted.

-Scoop up and put on the toasted roll (add some Hellmann’s if you like) and serve with dill pickle spears and / or Italian pickled peppers.

-Enjoy!  Feel content that no mammals where harmed to make this delicious Veggie Cheese Steak!

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Tomato Sandwich Sutra
Can a Tomato take you to Enlightenment?

The tomato than can be had at market
Is not the true Tomato…
– Lao Tze, Taoist Chef

A sutra is a religious text.  So how, you may ask, is a tomato sandwich recipe like a holy writ? If you’re asking that question, obviously you have never had one of these sandwiches! Sit down, do some Presencing, meditation, or tantric qigong. You are embarking on a spiritual path of bliss.

The Tomatoes

I admit it. I am a severe tomato snob. Those pale pink things you get in the market – you have to know in your heart that they are made of polyethylene. Most likely, the same stuff that those carcinogenic water bottles are made of. Perfectly round, hard, devoid of nutrition and taste, one may suspect they have been bio engineered to degrade your spirit and poison your soma. Probably by DuPont or Dow.

A ripe organically grown tomato, on the other hand, is a singular creature of beauty. You can’t even find her in a farmer’s market. A demoiselle both dainty and voluptuous, she does not abide rough handling and long distance travel very well. You have to occasion her acquaintance locally. Forget those faux supermarket sirens that end up being vacuous and unresponsive upon your tongue, a home grown, fresh-faced, tomato-next-door is what your spirit yearns for.

If you’re going to cultivate the dalliance of a real tomato, an old fashioned heirloom is preferred, although hybrids may blossom into a true belle if cherished correctly. Paradoxically, and in contrast to their elutriated temperament, these scarlet seductresses respond best to dark dirt, composted manure, along with deep, even irrigation.

An intelligent courtier of these down-home debs will let them linger far past the point that the brash and impetuous beaus of agribusiness would consider. A whole order of magnitude of succulence can be obtained by waiting. Persevere until she is so full of juice that she literally bursts through the corset of her skin, her zaftig bounty on display for your delectation.

Pick them warm from the sun, effulgent and luscious. Slice them. Thick or thin, it doesn’t really matter, salt them to taste, use potassium salt if sodium is a concern.

The Mayonnaise
Hellmann’s. There can be no other. Many are the pretenders to the throne of this most majestic of condiments, but none can compare. Use the full fat version. You’re worth the extra calories, and the season, alas, is so short.

The Bread
It may seem ironic that the best bread may be the cheapest. Perchance Ms. Tomato likes to go slumming, or maybe she just prefers a partner who will not attempt to occlude her opulence.  She is fragile. A hard crust will rudely crush her, and a dense, overly odorous dough is antagonistic to her spirit. A brutish bread can never be her soul mate, whereas a light, airy bread will both complement and decline to compete with her savor. That most prosaic of blue-collar breads, Safeway Oven Joy Wheat, is a fittingly self-effacing confrere for Ms. Tomato’s sensibilities. Light-hearted and affable, it toasts to crisp perfection while not attempting to rival her royal presence.

A continental quality can be obtained by using a latitudinally sliced baguette. The crust is much too hard of a shell to slice longitudinally, as in the déclassé sub sandwich. Our Hot Tomato does not abide being abused and eclipsed by hard and leathery crusts. Of delicate disposition, she is a true August Leo, desiring to be reverently on display at all times. Sliced thinly in sections and lightly toasted, a home baked baguette can provide just the right amount of physical support and charm for our vine ripened honey. Garnish with some fresh basil for a subtly piquant perfection.

The Mudra of the Sandwich
1. Toast the bread. A baguette should be toasted gently while a light whole wheat should be toasted moderately. After it is done, leave it in the toaster so the residual heat drives out any excess moisture. Remember, albeit light, the bread must also be resolute enough to receive the nectar of this lubricous lady, as any astute escort should be.

2. While the bread is toasting, slice la tomate, fresh picked from the garden and warm from the sun.

3. When the toast is cooled, liberally apply the Hellmann’s, warmed to room temperature. Cover the toast right to the edge with a seriously thick layer, a masonry trowel may be helpful.

4. Carefully arrange layers of juice-filled tomato, salt to taste, cover with another mayo-laden toast, or leave open-faced.

5. Serve forthwith on fine china. Or wolf it down immediately, over the sink.

If this doesn’t bring you present to a state of Spiritual Ecstasy, I doubt anything will. Om Shanti! © 2009 Keith E. Hall & www.inner-tranquility.com  All rights reserved.

Nutritional content of one cup of tomatoes, Probably less if store bought, more if homegrown:

Calories 30 Calories from Fat 0
—————————-% Daily Value
Total Fat  0g—————— 0%
Saturated Fat  0g———— 0%
Cholesterol  0mg————-0%
Sodium  15mg —————-0%
Total Carbohydrates  6g—- 2%
Dietary Fiber  1-2g———–4%
Protein  1-2g—————— 2%
Vitamin A ——————– 15%
Vitamin C——————–  50%
Calcium———————— 2%
Iron—————————– 4%
Zinc—————————– 0%
Thiamin———————— 6%
Riboflavin———————  4%
Niacin————————–  4%
Vitamin B-6——————-  6%
Folate ————————– 4%
Vitamin B-12—————— 0%
Phosphorus——————– 4%
Magnesium——————— 4%
Vitamin D———————  60%

Presencing™

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I Sing the Rutabaga Electric

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420 Rough Trade Ruta Baga
4 – 6 Ruta Bagas from the wrong side of the tracks
1/4 teaspoon Old Salt
Water
1 or more tablespoons of olive oil (a fresh virgin preferably)
Nutmeg and pepper to spice her up.

Peel and cut rutabagas until they go to pieces. Put them into a saucepan, add salt and water. Work her up to a boil, then turn heat slowly down to a slow, sinuous simmer and cook until tender and compliant. Drain and save the fluid. With a potato masher, thrash the rutabagas in a pot adding in some of her hot juice as needed.

Add the virginal oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve her in a bowl sprinkled with nutmeg, fresh sage or other herbs.

S&Mashed Potatoes and Rutabagas
Equal parts rutabaga and potatoes, denuded and nipped into 2-inch pieces
1-3 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup milk
Couple slashes of salt, pepper and nutmeg, or to taste

Boil rutabaga and potatoes. When docile, remove from heat. Drain and mash, then add butter, milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Whip and beat until they moan a little. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Garnish with a corset of chopped parsley.

Mash on the lovely Ruta with Onions
One rutabaga, dicey.
Chop 1 well endowed onion
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil rutabaga and onion in a small amount water until tender and very willing. Drain, mash with butter, salt, and pepper. You know you are a masher, so do it well.
She will serve four quite enthusiastically.

Put the Carrot in the Rutabaga Casserole
1 large rutabaga, shaved and glabrous
Several medium carrots, well rubbed and glistening.
2 tablespoons butter
A good egg
A couple spoons of your schweet brown sugar
Dash pepper, salt
A cup of evaporated milk (or soy)
A cup of cooked rice

Cook rutabaga in boiling water until obliging and lithesome. Heat carrots in boiling water until just slightly soft but still adequately tumescent.

Transfer cooked rutabaga to a bowl and beat with butter, egg, brown sugar, salt, and pepper until silky smooth and all fluffed up. Stir in milk and rice; put the carrot in her. Spoon her well in a buttered baking dish. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes.
Serves the higher and lower natures of 6 to 10.

Cheesy Studio 54 Rutabaga
Ms. Ruta Baga baked with cheese sauce and breadcrumbs.

1/4 cup melted butter or butter flavored Tantric massage oil
1/4 cup flour or other white powders
2 cups milk or soy
1 cup totally tattered Cheddar cheese
Salt, pepper
One voluptuous rutabaga, cleaved and cooked.
Toss and fling 1/2 cup bread crumbs with 1 tablespoon butter

Put on a white 3-piece suit and a little too much cologne. Melt butter in a pan over low heat and jounce in the flour. Stir it up until fervent and smooth, then slowly add in milk. Cook, stirring constantly until creamy and thick. Add the cheese and excite until your have a smooth, cheesy 70′s lounge lizard quality. Salt and pepper to taste. Place Ruta in a buttered baking dish, as shallow as your old disco persona, and pour your warm sauce over the top of the slightly stewed Ms. Baga. Sprinkle with buttered breadcrumbs. Drink a few martinis under a mirrored ball and bake at 400° for 15 – 20 minutes or until it is as done as your are.

Be brave, step outside your cultural prejudices and dare to heat up this tuberous little honey. She will likely return the favor. © 2008 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

Tomato Sandwich Sutra

Presencing™

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Instruction & Coaching

In deep winter, preserving your lifeforce to maximize health and well being becomes increasingly important. This is a somewhat “tongue-in-cheek” follow up to Winterize Yourself!

More seasonal guidelines for conserving the ojas ( male lifeforce) can be viewed at
Emission Control, The Seasons

The premise here is that following macrobiotic guidelines would indicate that the winter is the time to consume the denser Chi of root foods such as tubers.

My apologies in advance to those with unremittingly serious demeanors…..

I Sing the Rutabaga Electric

“Lonely at home
Call any vegetable
And the chances are good
That a vegetable will respond to you…
Rutabaga, rutabaga, rutabaga, rutabaga…”
– Frank Zappa - Call Any Vegetable

Genetically Caught between its sulphurous cousin the cabbage, and its distant white trash relatives the turnip family, the hottie half-breed rutabaga is secretly a beet wannabe.

A beet with an attitude.

Somewhere between ruddy and rutty, slightly spicy, but not as hot and tarted up as a radish, this impudent little tuber wants to warm your cockles this winter, if you will only give her a chance.

Ms. Ruta Baga is full of both staunch New England fiber and the sultry heat of the South. She is voluptuous with nutrients such as Calcium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Pantothenic Acid Phosphorous, Potassium, Selenium, Zinc, Vitamin A, B ,C, E, and folic acid.

The lovely Ms. Baga

Ruta is rarely prominent on the supermarket’s fluorescent-lit stage. The fruit and vegetable managers, downscale produce pimps that they are, often try to conceal the lovely Rutabaga. They tend to keep her in the dark like a bad mushroom, as if she were a Plain Jane sister that they want to hide from their school buddies. Sometimes they call her (Mellow?) Yellow Turnip, thinking you won’t recognize her brazen sensuality (though they secretly adore her and expend considerable effort to apply wax to keep her skin fresh, moist, and soft. I suspect the waxing is partly Brazilian. )

All this ambivalence, shame, and negativity has made her a little shy. Track her down and you might find that, like an old high school sweetheart, she has really blossomed, matured, and is eager to please. Be bold; ask for her by name.

Rutabagas can be roasted, boiled, steamed, stir-fried, mashed, or stewed. Mash or roast them with potatoes. Stick ‘em in stews and soups. Stir-fry with onions or other vegetables, you can even French fry them. My favorite is the simplest:

Zen Rutabagas, or “Chop Bagas, Carry Water…”
1. Cut up some rutabagas and boil until soft. (They really do coat the root in wax, so you have to peel them)
2. Mash them with some salt and butter; add a little pepper if you like.
3. Eat with gusto.

You can spice them up with some onions, or put them in a pan, top with cheese and / or bread crumbs, and bake yourself a little casserole.

Being a little timid, even embarrassed by her humble roots, Ruta Baga has hired some PR and personal image consultants to improve her public acceptance. Here is some of their work:
© 2006 Keith E. Hall. all rights resverved.

Presencing™

See how the change of the seasons affects your Qi and Life Force:Tantric Taoist Sexology & The Seasons.

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