There's Beauty in the Bellow

Frida Kahlo is famous for her self portraits--she painted around 200 of them. Looking at the parade of faces, hair rarely varying, posture hardly altered, the stare emerging out of the canvas, the number seems to have little to do with vanity. It's more as if Kahlo is trying to simultaneously reveal something about herself to the world while trying to discover something about herself. Some of her odd externalized internal landscapes are rather obscene, though I am tempted to excuse them for their intensely visceral personalness. For me, her paintings are like miniatures of her own psyche (which probably is narcissitic, but she did suffer some intense pains).

The other day I took a bite of canteloupe with some basil leaves that were lying on the counter. Would be very good as a salad with toasted almonds (sliced would have best texture to go with the softness of the melon and the chewiness of the basil), lemon juice, lemon zest, a pinch of salt, and some black pepper. I tried fresh papaya for the first time this summer, and the basil treatment works beautifully with that as well. Papaya/basil and canteloupe/basil would make good sorbet--someone's probably already beat me to it. Papaya, basil chiffonade, toasted nuts and spinach make a delicious salad--and don't forget the papaya seeds! They have the texture of pomegranite seeds with a peppery bite, very fun to eat on your salad. You can salvage a disappointing piece of fruit by sprinkling it with lemon juice, salt and honey/agave nectar. Try it with just the lemon and salt, and then add the extra sweetener. I ended up dressing the papaya this way fairly often. Even when it was rip