This is a post about how my brain works. I don’t know how other people’s brains work but mine is like a rabbit. It jumps. From one idea to another, from one focus to another. If I don’t fence it in, I don’t get anything done.
And it’s a smart rabbit. It can figure out how to chew through or jump over the fence, so I need to constantly move or add fences. It’s always been a rabbit and has gotten me in trouble many a time in the past and will probably do so on occasion in the future. A seeming tendency towards procrastination being the biggest thing to get me into trouble. When most of the time it isn’t procrastination, it’s just that the rabbit of a brain kept moving. For example, it has taken me half an hour to write even these few sentences because I started chatting with a friend about building a computer and a car, checked my bank account, looked at the amount of tokens I have in my Pogo.com account, started running another episode of BSG through Netflix and read about the antics of the Chicago mayoral candidates. (Yeah, I know, easy access to the internet doesn’t help fence in the rabbit. Heh)
I’ve learned for the most part how to deal with it. Never take your eye off the rabbit, pretty much. I’m constantly asking myself, “What are you suppose to be doing right now?” and “Which one of these things that you’re dealing with takes priority?” I’m just constantly prioritizing and constantly reminding myself. I make lots of little notes. You’ll find me surrounded with scraps of paper and little notebooks scribbled with words and not necessarily in any uniform pattern. But I know what they mean and where to go looking for most things I write down. I’ve learned to focus on little goals. Get this done before the rabbit thinks it’s time to jump. Now get this done before the rabbit wants to jump again. And so on.
But every once in awhile I do let the rabbit roam wherever it wants to go. When I find myself doing one of my ‘zen’ tasks and not having any immediate priorities. And I get surprising results and ideas, most of which never fully come to fruition because the rabbit starts moving again. But sometimes they do become something. And when they do, I get really excited about it.
Recipe ideas are one of those things that gets me REALLY excited. Because a lot of times it starts out in an odd place. Every once in awhile I come up with ideas and use them for weekly specials at work. One of my recently best ideas, meaning it sold well and tastes awesome, was a pork and cheddar slider with jalepeno jam. That idea started with an apple. Yep, an apple.
How does one come up with pork and cheddar sliders when they see an apple? This is how.
Hmm, two apples sitting on the spice shelf. What can I do with these apple? It’s only a couple apples, can’t really make a meal out of two apples. I could make a jam. But that’s not a lot of jam, two apples. And what would I put apple jam on anyway? What else we got? Well, we got those ten dozen mini buns that accidently got sent to us. We also have brie. Hmm, brie and apples. Always good. But, meh, been there, done that. And too mushy. Not the right kinda mushy. And still, it’s only two apples. Not a lot. Okay, so what can I put these apples in? Jam, jam, jam, jam. Hmm, what do we have in house. . . . jalepenos? OOH, jalepeno jam! That sounds neat! And the apples can be put in to provide the pectin gooey! Yeeeahh. . .jalepeno apple jam. Sugar and spice, everything nice. On what? Buns, you got the buns. Need to use all those buns. Too many buns. Mini buns equals sliders. Sliders with jalepeno jam. Pork with jalepeno jam. And cheddar. Creamy. Savory pork, sweet and spicy jam, creamy cheesy. WIN! He won’t go for it. (‘He’ being the chef.) How are we cooking the pork? Our typical BBQ braised? Blah. no. He won’t go for it. And I want different. And I want it to be really shredded and soft and nomnom flavorful. I want it to be like in good tacos. After all, it’s jalepeno jam. Going Hispanic with the chilis. Yeah, like tacos. Like carnitas. CARNITAS! That’ll be the word that sells it to him. CARNITAS! Pork and cheddar sliders with jalepeno jam. That would so sell! What time is it?
This is your brain on rabbits.
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