Curry, My Love

Spoiler Alert: You won't find a recipe at the end of this post. It is instead a love story, my personal ode to the versatile, delicious, globally beloved curry.  

❤

Growing up in 80s, in the upper Midwest Great Lakes Region, I never experienced a curry dish. I don't recall my mother ever making curries to stretch veggies and meat. In fact, I don't even remember if she kept curry powder in her huge cache of spices. I also never had curry at the homes of relatives and friends or at restaurants. I am not sure I would have understood what curry was if I had been asked to describe it as a child.

The first time I tried curry was with my friend B at this new Thai restaurant that had sprung up in our city. This would have been around 1990 and I was in my late teenage years. I had also been a vegetarian for 4 or so years. I had no idea what it was, but I ordered the yellow curry and I can still remember how much I loved the pineapples in it. It's wild to think how this was such a new taste for me and, to date, Thai curries are still some of my top favorite curries. Around the same time, an Indian restaurant opened up and I discovered even more curries: Madras, dals, tikka masala, Rogan Josh. My little Midwest world literally expanded each time I found a new curry to try. 

 Later, I discovered ones from Japan, Carribean, Europe, Korea, Vietnam, Africa, so many places contributing a unique spin on the broad taste of curries and encouraging my lifelong love affair with its spicy, saucy goodness. What does surprise me a bit is how long it took for me to find curry. I mean punk rockers and the PETA-card carrying youth of my youth all depended on curries to feed them cheaply and healthily. I've read so many biographies where after a show, the band was fed a cheap, wholesome curry. For more on the punk rock connection to curry, read the cookbook/memoir Please Feed Me by Naill McGuirk. He talks about the curries that sustained them when they had no money to pay the punk bands circulating through Scotland. I also have a very hazy memory of hearing about curry from the Young Ones. I'm sure as a teen I also saw recipes in the PETA newsletters B gave me (from his mother who was a very early supporter of the organization) and the 'zines that were circulating. Where was my curiosity? Did I ever contemplate making curry? Did I eat one and not know it was curry?

 

Circa 1993 eating something not curry

I do remember sometime around 1993, B, another friend and I made a veg curry using a steamer he had thrifted. We didn't call it a curry, but I am pretty sure that is what it was. We basically made it up as we went along and it was yummy; I remember it vividly to this day. It turns out, even though we did not come from a traditional curry culture or even called our concoction "curry", we nailed the basic concept of what constitutes a curry by smothering steamed veggies under a spicy sauce. It took me probably a decade later before I would come to depend on curries for regular meal planning and my own curries, I consider to be very different from the ones I order at restaurants specializing in a particular cultural curry. But that is one of the very lovely aspects of curry.

According to Wikipedia, curry is basically a gravy or sauce seasoned with particular spices. Here is a mind-blowing fact about curry's origins: It took the discovery of the New World and her gift of solanaceous plants like peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes for the old world to invent curry. And Portugal is the first nation to claim curry in a published cookbook. The word 'curry' is said to be derived from Kari which a Southeast Asian word for "burnt". As we all know, it was SE Asia and India that really took the concept and shook the rest of the world with their very fine curries and, Britian for one, was smitten as curry became the UK's national dish. It didn't take long for to this dish to become a worldwide sensation. Also mind blowing to me, curry eventually came to the Americas having been made from her own native vegetables.

Let's just read the bit from Wikipedia because they describe curry's world travels so well:

A first step in the creation of curry was the arrival in India of spicy hot chili peppers, along with other ingredients such as tomatoes and potatoes, part of the Columbian exchange of plants between the Old World and the New World. During the British Raj, Anglo-Indian cuisine developed, leading to Hannah Glasse's 18th century recipe for "currey the India way" in England. Curry was then spread in the 19th century by indentured Indian sugar workers to the Caribbean, and by British traders to Japan. Further exchanges around the world made curry a fully international dish.

As part of the pantry challenge, I am making curry and it's the second one I have made since January 01. I now make them so often, including sauces and curry starters from my garden's tomatoes and peppers, you can bet on one at least every month (if not more often). Curry is a perfect way to stretch veggies or use up small amounts on hand. The one for today is a red Thai curry and I am using up some of the pumpkin I grew in my garden, plus various bits from the refrigerator and a store-bought sauce lingering in the pantry. I had planned to use a jar of the green beans I grew as well, but once I had all the veg cut up, I felt it was enough to make a satisfying curry. I will add tofu as the protein. If I ate meat, curries are also a perfect way to stretch meat for a family.

Butter "chicken" sauce I canned from garden veg

I cannot express my love loud enough for curry. As I said, I don't have a recipe to share because, to me, curry is a very personal affair. The internet abounds with base curries to try. To me, it goes like this: You make a curry-spiced gravy and add in whatever your preference. If you like veg, almost any will work. If you eat meat, there are chicken, beef, lamb, and even fish curries. Tofu, chickpeas, seiten and other plant-based "meats" work just as well in curry. I even love pineapples and other fruits in my curries. The amount and types of spices round out this intimate relationship. While I love mine very flavorful with garlic, ginger, curry, cumin, and other seasonings, my hot pepper tolerance is not what it was back in my 20s. Also, I highly recommend visiting a SE Asian/Indian market. You will be blown away by the assortment of different curry spices available (and don't even get me started on the various chutneys to go with the curry!)

I encourage you to learn to make a curry you love, especially if you are looking for a global, frugal, veg-heavy, pantry challenging meal. Bonus: Curry tastes better and better in the days following creation, making it a great one for leftovers. 

Happy Gregorian New Year 2025

I can' remember if I've ever had a year with no new year's goals. Perhaps, in my sullen twenties where my hormones ruled my better sense. If I am being honest with myself, these crone years are already easier than the ones from my youth. But I digress... 

On to the 2025 Goals: 1. Blog more. I am shooting for once a week, but we shall see how it goes. I would love to record the journey beyond photographs in 2025. How did I feel? What motivated me to do better? What made me cry or laugh or want to share with others?

2. Under-consume for the planet, for my budget, for my future goals. I have too much, I buy too much, I want off the merry-go-round of Amazon, fast fashion, Earth-destroying crap. I am not buying anything beyond the strict needs. I will continue to thrift (with a strict budget and list of wants only). This goes by many names: No Spend, No Buy, Frugal Life, Minimalism...on and on. I hear it's trendy which makes me both happy and also a bit nervous because our modern lives are so centered on a booming economy of junk.

3. Use it up before buying more. This one is a sister to under-consumption. I have already consumed, I am beyond blessed with stuff, and I need to use up what I have. I will be doing a pantry challenge from Jan-March. Maybe I will record my weekly plant-based meals using up the things I canned, the contents of the freezer, the crap I bought with no plan.

4. Grow a bigger garden, forage more, preserve more. I had so much fun in the past couple of years doing all of these, so this one continues on into 2025.I am hoping to move in 2026 to a rural property with trees and less car sounds, so this might be my last year of gardening at this house.

5. Enter canned goods in the New York State Fair. I am super excited about this one. I hope I get a ribbon!

6. Create more art. Focus energy on spun cotton crafting. This is historic craft that is new to me. I started late in 2024 and I enjoy it. I want to get better at it. I will also craft more using up stuff I have hoarded: Miniatures, junk journaling, upcycling clothing. Again, this one relates to 2 & 3.

7. Spend at least 30 minutes outside every single day. What does this mean? More sunsets, more beach time, more waterfall seeking adventures, more time at Onyare Forest, More nature observations, more mushroom hunting, more dog and girl adventures...

8. Develop an organizational system for the household. What can I say? While I am improving year-by-yesr, I have spent too many years as a hot mess I want to inventory my stuff, know what I have and where the F it is. This includes another big purge, especially since I am hoping to move again in a year or so.

9. Read more. I used to be a bookworm. I really believe social media is re-wiring our brains...or maybe just mine. Either way, I plan to read at least 26 books (two-ish a month which seems really realistic at this busy point in my life). I also am including a side-quest here: Three must be classics I have never read. I have picked out two with one TBD: Bambi (Saltan) and History of New York (Irving). And, yet another side-quest: The books must be from the library, my own or the public one. Last, limit social media time and read.

10. Get the house ready for sale. This one could sadly be determinate on the conditions of our society, the state of the world and the economy. Either way, I have a roof over my head and I am grateful. However, I want to manifest a change to a quieter place, surrounded by trees and nature. I am so exhausted by city living. I need to be able to sleep to sounds of owls and not mufflers.

OK, I have a bigger list and a lot of life-changing events in the queue for 2025, but these are my 2025 goals in a nutshell and the ones I am likely to share results here. Do you set New Year goals? Above all, I wish you a happy and healthy 2025!

Darkness Falls

Today is Mabon 2024, also known, in the northern hemisphere, as Autumn Equinox. Some pagans believe Mabon is the day the Holly King faces off
with the Oak King and it is a day of harvest celebration. Today, as the sun sits center with the equator, we are gifted with an equal number of light and dark hours. Then, as the days march towards December, we enter the darkest time of year and the Oak King reigns.

The dog and I took our daily walk down by the Mohawk River. In nature, one cannot ignore the changing of the seasons as the declining green bursts into moments of red, yellow, orange and brown. The fallen leaves float gently in the quietness of the river and all around the crickets and katydids are singing.

I, too, am celebrating the harvest. The backyard garden is still robust with tomatoes, eggplant, herbs and flowers, and pumpkins. Even the Brussels sprouts I almost gave up on are growing little sprouts in the armpits of the branches. Bees are also worshipping the last of the rays of sunlight as they harvest the nectar from the pumpkin blossoms, the nasturtiums, and the wild golden rod and asters. I've been sharing tomatoes with the chipmunks all summer and now they are allowing me to harvest some too. This is why I am a Pagan. I feel much more at home with a religion that is not just about humans.

I am also preserving the harvest. Today I made pints of German red cabbage, pickled cherry tomatoes, and crabapple infused vodka. More crabapples are slow cooking into butter. I threw nasturtium blossoms into white wine vinegar to make an infused concoctions for winter salads. It turned a gorgeous orange. I started another batch of red cabbage for tomorrow. There is about a bushel of local apples to do something with soon and lots and lots of green tomatoes still on the vines. I am preparing for winter like any good beast should this time of year. 

Born in early October, I have always been an Autumnal witch. Comfortable in the shadows of a late year's waning sun, I love this time of year, her softness, her darkness. This year, however, I am also realizing that I am entering the Mabon of my life, the youth of my senior years. I am officially a crone now. My youngest child is in his last year of high school and will be off to the Marines come summer. Next autumn, for the first time in decades, I will have no dependent humans to directly care for in my home. This feels both interesting and bittersweet at the same time. I feel like I am wrapping up a major project, and soon, I will embark on a new adventure. I feel both ready for the next stage and, significantly unprepared at the same time. I have a lot to do to finish this project and it can feel a bit overwhelming at times. It is why remembering to celebrate a season can be so therapeutic, a necessary semi-colon right before a major life change.

So, today on this beautiful Mabon afternoon I will not worry about completing my projects. Instead, I celebrate autumn in moments of slanted sunlight, the blush of red in the maple's canopy, the yellow leaves of the cotton tree floating in the Mohawk River. I will watch the squirrels play ghost in the graveyard in the cemetery next door and the bees sipping sweetness from the crimson chrysanthemums. I will breathe in the scents of dying flora, the autumn flowers and eat an apple fresh from a nearby tree. I will place the mason jars of preserved harvest on my shelves and fill another basket full of vegetables fresh from the garden. 

Stay Tuned...

 Bringing back the blogging 2024.

No Photos/Just Blah Blah Blah

 Hello...where do I start?

Terrain Vague No. 1 is no longer in my life. I sold my house and pretty little garden lot last May and have moved to a new state. I have a new job, zone, house, village, situation. It can happen so quickly.

I recently learned the village I now live in has a community garden and I do plan to try for an allotment there. I also have a good size yard that is mostly grass. I’ll garden there too. I’ll have to relearn northern gardening tactics having gone from a 7a-b (microclimate) in KY to upstate New York’s zone 5b. In fact, yesterday, 5-6 inches of fresh snow fell upon us.

I also hope to find a Terrain Vague No. 2 at some point. I have an idea of one that might be a future post.

I’ve been feeling down the past few weeks. I’m sure it’s a cocktail of seasonal depression, relationship and job challenges, middle age/existential crisis, lack of vitamins B12 and D, yearn for spring and the life transition itself. I’m overwhelmed. I feel homesick. I’ve reached the point where I question my actions. Did I do the right thing moving here? Did I mess up my destination? Will this start to feel comfortable? 

 I traded in a lot to take a chance on this something new. It’s hard starting over again. I’m sure digging in dirt will help me in my search for answers. 

So, I’m back to trying to make sense of life and all the vagueness that comes with the future, I’ve become a Terrain Vague myself: My original path has been forgotten and my potential has not yet been created.

Snow for Days

 

"You will find me if you want me in the garden

Unless it's pouring down with rain..." ~

Einstürzende Neubauten

I spent a little Sunday afternoon time over at Terrain Vague today. I had a bucket of compost to drop off and my son wanted me to check out the avant-garde snowman he spent all weekend building; it's rare to get so much snowman worthy snow in our southern city. 

The temperatures are finally climbing out of the deep-freeze and the garden is half snow/half mud. I have a few things overwintering in the greenhouse and they look sleepy, but very well indeed. I checked on the ootheca (praying mantis egg case) I found on the Yule greenery and placed there last month. The snow on the roof made the greenhouse all grey and cozy. I gave everyone a little water and tucked them all back in for a few more weeks of cold.

All I can say is I am ready for spring. I am yearning for that old dirt-under-nails showdown in the garden. Back at the house, I've started a couple of seeds already: Slow germinating hot peppers and chives, but I am waiting for the spring sun to warm up the greenhouse and then my seed sowing quest begins. This year I want to fill every space of Terrain Vague with plants. I hope to grow a good percentage of our vegan diet on this lot. I want to attract more wild things. I want to focus back on the goal I set out to accomplish when I obtained this forlorn Terrain Vague back in 2019. She deserves to be restored into something beautiful, a natural refuge for wild things and for me. 

Window Greenhouse: Our 1 Year Anniversary

 

Here’s a post I’ve been meaning to write for some time. I’m coming up on the one year anniversary of my old windows greenhouse build at Terrain VagueNo. 1 (and 2 year anniversary of having the lot) and I realized I never shared this project on the blog. I’m still not done with her, but I thought I’d catch up with a post about her birth and her first year. My hope is to do more greenhouse update posts this year. Well, actually my hope is I’ll get her finished soon.

Building a greenhouse from old windows has been on my to-do list for decades. In my old life (pre-divorce), I saved a barn full of beautiful, old oak windows which, sadly, I wasn’t able to retrieve. So, around the time I got the TVNo1, I started scavenging windows from the curb or cheap from the Habitat Restore. I stored them until the day I finally decided I had enough to the job (I ended up with way more than I needed).

Next, I selected a site and prepped it for the build. And that’s when procrastination set in...again. See, I have rudimentary building skills and I had no idea where to start. I watched some videos on building greenhouses from windows and some on building sheds, but I struggled with confidence. I just couldn’t get the courage to begin. This is where my then new boyfriend stepped in and said, “Let’s just do it!” 

And, with that, we framed it in together using my vision and that was the push I needed to do the rest myself. And, the relationship with my poor guy survived our first project together!

It took me over a month to get it to a point I could use it. It also wasn’t cheap, however, it was far less than a new build would have cost, mainly spending for wood, greenhouse roof panels and screws. I also can’t say it was easy; I had issues ranging from cuts and bruises, shitty screws, broken windows and rain...so much rain! I used my living room as a wood shop (lacking a garage or electricity at the lot) and I had wood dust everywhere. 

  

And, fortunately, there were many elements I did find on the frugality side, such as a can of exterior paint in grey for $9. I found a lovely vintage louvre door that made up part of the north wall for $12 at a local Salvation Army. The door was so heavy I nearly couldn’t get it in, but my 13 year old son helped. It allows for perfect summer venting. I also found some glass bricks at Restore for around $2 each and I used red bricks left behind from the old house that sat on Terrain Vague for flooring. I even found an eclectic “Y B Normal?” Sign that fit a gap perfectly.

This greenhouse has been a labor of love and I can truly say I really enjoy spending time there. The other day I was watering some overwintering fig trees I have stored inside her and I noticed it was 76 F whilst it was just 48 F outside. It doesn’t quite warm up at night or on an overcast day just yet because I still need to finish the top part and fully enclose it for winter. We are Zone 7a and probably micro-climatic in this urban environment to 7b, so it’s usefulness is between  November to April and this year I’m going to try more seed starting there. I wasn’t organized enough to try cool crops this year, so I have  autumn plans too.

Well, this is just a quick update so I can now bring the greenhouse into some future posts. Here’s a bit of timeline of the build. 

I still have a way to go on her, but I love this space and love spending time there. Building a greenhouse mostly alone was a great achievement and a jump out of my comfort zone. I can’t say I’ve learned to be a carpenter, but I did learn I can accomplish my dreams if I just get out and do it. Who cares if there are mistakes and imperfections? To me, it’s perfectly mine.