IDEAS IN FOOD

Creativity and Surprise

I have been meaning to publish a link to this notebook since March and am only now getting around to it.  Again I note, this is a notebook, works in progress, ideas, concepts and visions.  This one is also several hundred pages long, so if you have trouble sleeping it may cure that problem.  The notebook is named Creativity and Surprise.  The password is surprise.

The Twelve Course Notebook

Notebooks are fun.  They are a place for ideas to blossom, thoughts to be remembered and recipes to be collected.  My notebooks are rarely organized.  I assemble thoughts on pieces of paper, usually post it notes, and when the pile gets big I type them into the computer.  I have recently started carrying a small notebook, a moleskine, which has a hard cover, lined pages--actually you can get them blank, with grids or even divided into panels-- and works well as an idea mule so that I will not forget.  I still forget, but at least the idea is written or scratched onto a piece of paper.

With regards to notebooks I am reminding and informing individuals that I have put two long and extensive notebooks on this website.  I mention this again because when I first started putting notebooks on line we had just a few loyal readers.  We now have more loyal readers and I felt it would be fun to bring these notebooks back to the forefront of everyone's minds.  These notebooks are long and not for the faint of heart or time.  I know there are misspelled words, run on sentences and more.  On the positive, they are chock full of unedited ideas and inspirations we have come across through the passage of time.  That is why they are notebooks and not published works.

With that in mind, I am also adding a third notebook.  This one is actually organized, the contents are arranged by course.  This notebook is based on our, really my, ideal menu length.  Aki thinks it is a bit long and too much food, but she is half my size.  (What Alex is failing to mention here is that this particular notebook was originally designed as the outline for a book that we have been working on for the past few years.  The reason that I agreed to twelve courses is that readers can pick and choose from any and all of the courses to create a meal of their own choosing.  It's like giving people basic leggos and seeing what fantastic structures they can come up with on their  own.)  We are still working out the kinks.  Anyway the notebook is Twelve Courses, the password is twelve.  If you happen to go in and read these notebooks good luck, they are voluminous but compiled with passion.  (As it happens, the longer we worked on the project, the larger it became.  Trying to narrow down the list of dishes to things that we both felt were essential was especially difficult without an editor to restrain us.)

And if this notebook is of interest, check out the other two as well.  All three are posted with the appropriate links in the notebook category of our site.  Peruse them with an open mind and at your leisure.  As always we are open to questions and comments on anything you find of interest.

The Evolutions of a Cook

The weather is turning from fall to winter.  Somehow the changing of the seasons has sparked my interest in my older notebooks.  Since I am revisiting past ideas with a new outlook on food, I felt it only right to share those notes.  I have once again used the writeboard approach.  These ideas are under the heading The Evolutions of a Cook.  The password is notebook.  The notes are varied in length and thought, though I have always been stimulated by ideas and know that I am not the only one.  Perhaps as it gets colder and darker outside these ideas can be of interest inside.

Ideas the Key, and a Leap of Faith

I think about food, a lot.  Because of the culinary ping pong which takes place in my mind I end up filling notebooks with ideas, concepts and thoughts on food.  Our blog has helped me focus and execute ideas, yet there are hundreds of ideas I have not visited for years.  I continue to jot down thoughts and then type them into the computer in order to free prescious mind space for new thoughts.  Today I am going to use technology to open my yellow notebooks to the world.  This is a compilation of notebbooks from several years ago, ones I have not visited for awhile.   Enjoy, and please remember these are only ideas from my yellow notebooks  not completed dishes.  With that in mind,  the way  the  program works is that it is an open medium such that anyone is able to simply read or make changes in the writeboard.  If you have new ideas or evolutions please make them and save them as the next step in a progression of ideas.  Or, just sit back relax and enjoy my culinary ramblings.  My only request is that the ideas remain true to the nature of food.  I believe this will work.  The password is yellow.