The Start of a Great Adventure

I had plans, plush lavish satiny plans. Emboldened with a little taste of meat and the beckoning smells of simmering wine, onions and herbs in my kitchen, my recently dormant appetite has abruptly been reawakened. I am now ravenous and back to my usual tricks of dreaming up ornate multi-tiered plats. Those tiny silver wrapped remnants of Halloween past will no longer keep this wolf at bay, not to mention the fact that few if any of these goodies exist any more. Inspired but not quite enough to create my own recipe, I have perused the pages of Epicurious for some ideas. For starters I thought Prune Kumquat Sticky Pudding with Armagnac Toffee Sauce might set me straight. But before I could utter the phrase “crazy as a kumquat”, I got the phone call. Within a few days I will dash away for unknown days and nights to the medical facility of my choice for rehabilitation. It sounds dark, exciting and mysterious…and it sort of is. I am going for physical restructuring; I am going to put more meat on them bones. Being a great strategist and self proclaimed cheap skate, the sort that can visualize the contents of ones refrigerator, the varied expiration dates of individual items and turn out the precise number of meals with minimal throw out before departure time, I had to turn my back on that Sticky Pudding. However, I have been determined to add a little soul to being full and realized that I had most of the ingredients begging to be used already in my kitchen for Jerk Chicken with Collard Greens. The cook up is a cinch since the marinade is whipped up in the blender. The meat promises to be a celebration of habanero heat, lively citrus and salt mellowed with the warming sun of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Baked up juicy with ribbons of steamed calcium rich collard and a few buttery nubs of potato on the side, this meal is final bon voyage for the next great adventure and sustenance for some in-depth undercover analysis of hospital cuisine. I can hardly wait for the party to begin!