microveldt.com

As anyone who has spent more than five minutes riding in a car with me anytime over the last 3 months knows, I have developed (and rather monotonously expressed) a weird antipathy to my sofa. The antipathy is caused by its look, not its ability to fulfill the other core functions of a sofa. It is a) very comfortable and, b) large enough to lie on and take a nice nap. A few months back it got so bad and mixed up with my penchant for absolutist postions so completely, that I was convinced the only solution was to get rid of it, swear of sofas in the future and collect chairs.

My busy day, like the busy days of many others, was interrupted with news of the bomb explosions near the finish of the Boston Marathon. I very deeply saddened by this senseless, horrific and cowardly act. And not just because lives were lost and innocent people injured, of course, that saddens me. But there's more, there's a tenuous personal connection that I have, not because I know people who were there, but because, on my good days, I belong to a tribe of people similar to those who were there.

It hasn't been a non-stop cavalcade of kale at the homestead. Just last night I made some fish tacos with tilapia and kiwi grapefruit salsa and I will post that recipe. But tonight is the last night before the next CSA delivery so the kale had to be dealt with. That left me with one option. That's right, a kale-off. A kale-off is like a sad-off but with less Samuel L. Jackson and Anne Hathaway and 4 more stalks of kale.

I picked up my CSA box today ... kale ... Did you hear me ...KALE, and quite a bit of it. Also another round of kiwis and apples. And carrots, grapefruit and basil.

So the challenge was how to burn at least six stalks of kale. Then, in a "wax on, wax off" moment. it came to me ... the challenge - how to burn at least six stalks of kale - was the solution. I would char the kale! It was a nice night, I'd just fire up the Smokey Joe and char that kale with some grilled red onions, sweated collard greens and blue cheese. It would be stupid good.

I have a post on the Fission Strategy blog on Lean Coffee - give it a read. So jazzed to have joined the super-smart folks at Fission Strategy - it's a great team of people passionate about making meaningful social change - a real learning organization!

So the post title tells you it has not been a banner day for my culinary efforts.

It started with the idea to make crepes. For the past year or so, I've been making crepes with vanilla almond milk. You take a hit on the lightness, but it's not tragic. Well today I went a step further into Almond madness, mixing almond meal into the all-purpose flour - the ratio was half ans half. Results were less than stellar. The batter never really set up right.

Ingredients

1/2 cup tricolor quinoa
juice of 1 clementine
1/2 teaspoon minced habanero pepper (seeds removed)
2 Tablespoons minced red onion
1 slice avocado, diced
1/4 cup and 1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic pressed or minced
1 teaspoon italian parsley
1 leaf fresh mint, minced
1 pinch minced fresh lemon thyme
4 leaves raw collards, cut chiffonade
1/2 cup arugula

The title really says it all for me. The statement is based on both on my real life experiences and academic exploration. The counter-claim that markets exist in some natural state outside of us is based on conflating the observation that market operations follow regularities that we then call "rules" with the idea that markets have some kind of independent existence, and that people should not interfere with the operation of these "rules."

Change how America does Business.

• The purpose of data is to enable meaningful decisionmaking
• Data will show the weaknesses in your practice like nothing else will
• Data will help you see an abstracted view of the total picture - but remember it's an abstraction. That's why it's important to remember why you started collecting it in the first place
• Data can help you be more effective, especially if you actively work it
• Data gives you a great big "You are Here" marker. When it's really good it helps you figure out how to move from here to there