Free Range Friday ~ From Spooning to Peru

An email from The Flying Tortoise came in the other day with a very beautiful photo of hand carved spoons. I happen to love wooden spoons and hadn't seen these before. A Norwegian, Stian Korntved Ruud, has a year long project to carve a spoon a day. At one spoon a day I wasn't expecting much. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. It is a good thing to be wrong sometimes, opening our eyes a little wider.

From the website of Stian Korntved Ruud

You can see each spoon he's carved so far if you go here to the spoon section of his website. The thing about this man, as seems to occur with extremely talented people, he doesn't just make spoons. Not by a long shot. He makes furniture. He makes elegant circuit breakers. He makes videos. He made a crazy thing called a Rhythm Loop Machine. He has made a Blue Box, light therapy to combat the long, depressing days of a Norwegian winter. I'm thinking a spoon a day might be therapy for himself, to focus that amazing brain and talent for just a little while each day. You can read all about him and see his creations using the links above.

Beautiful objects with practical purposes in the kitchen and for the table. What's better than that?

Food to use the spoons with, that's what.

I have a feeling these dishes were made using some wooden spoons, but that's just a guess. Ben and Michelle are in Peru, playing and eating their way through another wonderful country as they do every year. I figure if I'm drooling I shouldn't be doing it alone! All photo credit is to Michelle Millet and Ben Zickel, with permission. Thanks, Ben and Michelle!!

Grilled mussels

"Grilled beef heart"

"Chimichurri octopus flambeed with pisco, over leche de tigre amarillo."

"Japanese style tiradito."

"Roasted salted corn is served before every meal."

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"Peruvian prawn chowder"

3 kinds of cevhiche

Olives!!

Many kinds of potatoes

"Mixed local root vegetable chips and dipping sauces. The classic pisco sour."

If you aren't seriously hungry now, you should, perhaps, check in with a doctor. This is just a small sampling of a trip they are about half way through. It might be possible to live off of these photos vicariously, but even more fun is trying to replicate at least some of them. Have at it and have fun!

Ben & Michelle and the oasis

Have a far-flung feeding frenzy of a Friday. Do something fabulous.