tofu witch excited

I was telling Ming that I respect his opinion.  Period.  But that he has his particular experiences that affect the way he sees the world.

"One of the most hippie sentences in the world is, 'I used to live in an intentional community in Oregon,'" I told him.   "Oregon is the most hippie state, and living in an intentional community is the most hippie activity."  We considered this, laughing.

"The only way you could intensify it is, 'I used to live in an intentional community in Oregon... trimming weed.'"  We laughed more.  "Or, 'I used to live in an intentional community in Oregon, hypnotizing dogs,'" I said.  "That sounds kind of fun," I said, imagining hypnotizing dogs.  "And I don't even like dogs."

"Or how about, 'I used to live in an intentional community in Oregon, talking to my tofu,'" I said.

Last night I made tofu scramble, which I hadn't made in years.  It's kind of magical because of some surprises that are involved.  I explained to Ming how the first surprise is toasting the spices with the onions, then letting the tofu brown a bit, the patience involved.  The second surprise is at the end, when you deglaze the pan with lemon juice and add nutritional yeast, which creates a slight sauce for everything, semi-magically.

I realized while I was crumbling the tofu into the pan that I was talking to the tofu in my head, and I was surprised by what I was saying.  I admitted to Ming that I was telling the tofu, "I love you."  It was like a blessing I was giving it, while I added it to the pan.  Feeling the texture of cold, wet tofu in my hands.

The funny thing (if that's not funny enough) is that Ming was talking to the tofu in his head also.  He told me that, and what he was saying to the tofu, and we talked a bit about the difference between talking to tofu and talking about tofu.

I exclaimed, "Oh, we're the same kind of crazy, right now!"

It felt very happy, to be the same kind of crazy, and I knew that we would diverge and be different kinds of crazy, over time, but that moment in our kitchen, there we were, matching.

For a long time I was a non-baker, but I bought a little flour recently, and we have baking powder.  We have maple syrup--I want to make this vegan ginger carrot cake I used to make all the time.  My dad loved carrot cake.

Without frosting, it's almost like a carrot bread, like a dessert bread.  A la banana bread.  So it's pretty exciting.