Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Simply Extraordinary

Last night I roasted a two bunches of asparagus, quite a few Brussels sprouts and an entire Spanish onion. It's amazing how much flavor can be brought out in roasting veggies- squash, bell peppers, zucchini or eggplant. Deliciousness abounds!

I toss the chopped veggies with salt, pepper, garlic powder and olive oil. After spreading them on a cookie sheet I leave them in the oven at about 375 degrees for 10 minutes, toss and turn them with my tongs and cook them another 10-15 minutes. Chris is amazed at how wonderful roasted veggies taste. "I could eat these all day long. You just need to make about four times this amount, and we'd have a decent amount of food." He thinks that roasted veggies are simply extraordinary.

But it's simple. And yes, while roasting does omit much of the fiber and nutritional value of any vegetable they do taste scrumptious this way.


Roasting just requires a little preparation and time. It's not hard. It's easy. It's simple. But compared to a raw Brussels sprout it's extraordinary.
...

In my mind simple and extraordinary are not synonymous. Usually, I think of them in opposite terms. Something extraordinary requires planning and preparation. Extraordinary things are well thought-out, planned, and need a production manager, an E-vite, a Daily Planner or someone with a clipboard and stopwatch.

But some things are simply extraordinary. They just are.

The moon outside my window Sunday night
Perennials that can survive the freezing temperatures of winter
How cinnamon makes everything taste better
Canadian geese in flight
The way a musician can make so many sounds from a trumpet that has just three keys
Fireflies and surfers and rainbows and two cells becoming an entire being all it's own in just nine short months

I've been waiting on something extraordinary to happen. I've been looking for contracts though. And assignments and announcements and big bold letters and emails with the Subject of: Meeting Scheduled, or This is Your Opportunity, or Congratulations, we accept your proposal. But none of this has happened. And I'm not saying that it can't happen that way, it just probably won't. It will probably be a heck of alot more simple.

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