On Jots and Triggers, Books and Crocus.

Where are those mornings when I can sip my coffee, peruse a book, and leisurely look for gorgeous lines to note and share???? I ask you???

Some people call it ‘biting off more than you can chew,’ but all I know is that leisurely breakfast time of sipping, reading, jotting, and thinking is a bit out of reach for me right now.

Now I am back to a previous pattern of carrying my coffee around with me as I tend to a million things in the morning, and journaling/reading gets pushed into the afternoon.

And it’s all my doing. I started projects that proved to be more challenging than they appeared to be at first. Challenging creatively and challenging my time management skills.

Time management???? Lol… We just met, trust me. I can’t do schedules. It is what it is.

As for the projects I have bitten into?

I’m writing. Books (two juicy novels).

One has a running issue in the background: a generational curse and generational healing. Generational curses? Or ‘traumas’? The other book is culinary fiction and family drama.

Yes. Books. In the plural. I know. You are asking why one isn’t enough to work on.

But the answer is actually quite straightforward—

It’s because I have all the content ‘ready’ in my head for the two books, and I don’t want to lose that creative momentum.

But try tackling two when you sit down and write. One at a time would be the common-sense approach, but with both projects blooming their creative blossoms in your mind at the same time, it’s pure creative chaos.

But then again, that’s very me. That’s how I operate; let me kvetch. I will get over it. Creative projects are my thing. And overload is my modus operandi. Whatever.

So. Today. I finally got a chance to sit down and journal. Ah, some gastronautica…writing about food is like taking a cool dip on a hot day. Or like tasting a dollop of freshly whipped cream scooped with your finger.

Licking the whipped cream off your finger, like a child sneaking a taste—or just wading on the shore on a hot day—these and so many other ‘simple’ moments put a smile on people’s faces automatically. They are smile triggers.

Triggers.

Everything triggers something.
Or rather,
everything is a trigger
and
everything is triggered.

Sosanni V

Scent is a trigger like no other, and you don’t need to have read Proust to know that. Reading Proust’s work is a triggered journey and a read to be savored. ‘

Scent unleashes memories, dances with our moods, and provokes the senses.

And that brings me to saffron.

Saffron has a medicinal aroma.

Although some people don’t ‘take’ to the aroma at first, it grows on you if you give it a chance.

And it’s one of the few spices that I consider truly ‘exotic’ because it conjures and creates like no other—just using a few threads has the power to transform with their strong scent, stunning appearance, and the ability of these gorgeous, deep lipstick-red filaments to create shades of gold and amber.

Saffron is very expensive because you need over 100 flowers to create a gram of the spice.

Most of the world’s saffron comes from Iran, but Greece has grown saffron for millennia and still grows quantities in various areas.

Saffron comes from the crocus flower—and those gorgeously delicate red filaments of saffron are actually the fine threads, the stigma, that are in the bloom of the flower. Each crocus flower produces somewhere between 3 and 5 filaments. A specialty item, right?

I came across a honey that will change your life. It is Greek honey infused with saffron threads. Yes. Gorgeous red flecks of saffron in thick Greek honey.

I use saffron grown in Kozani, Greece, and it is amazing. I add it to tea, and I add it to the seasoning I use for roasted chicken. But I also use it when making sweet egg breads like tsoureki or challah.

For the breads, I add the saffron to the dough by first brewing it as a lightly steeped tea and sweetening it. Then, I add this sweetened (always with honey) lightly steeped saffron tea instead of plain water when making the dough. It adds a gorgeous yellow hue to the bread.

Same goes for the chicken—saffron helps to give a gorgeous color. But when using it with other spices, like in a dry rub, I use powdered Kozani saffron so it can ‘perform. ‘If you just add a few threads to the chicken spice rub, instead of powdered ground threads, the threads will ‘get lost’ in the crowd of spices.

The List of “Speaking of which.” “Must-haves” & “Trust me.” Recommendations.

Saffron. Try this. You will be hooked on it like the rest of us. Just for the color, if nothing else. Spice meets art. Trust me.

Proust. I mentioned him in passing when writing about scents and triggers. His novel In Search of Lost Time is beyond classic. It defines literature. If you haven’t read it, you have been denied a literary experience. He writes on a triggered journey about a triggered journey.

Gastro Obsura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide. I don’t recommend books unless they seriously are a ‘must-have.’ And this, believe me, is a cult read for food lovers and gastronauts who journey into food culture.

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