A Ronald Johnson Brunch

Yesterday the old man made an amazing souffle from Ronald Johnson's cookbook, Simple Fare: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Humble Food. Guy Davenport, as you may well know, described Ronald Johnson as "America's greatest living poet," for Johnson was alive at the time this particular cookbook was published and running a restaurant in San Francisco. Johnson wrote many cookbooks that are extremely helpful and creative. He describes the souffle by its dictionary definition, "a breath of wind." He says, "...any souffle should be a wonder created for the moment--not sneezed or cajoled, but snatched from the air for silent eating." I love the silent part. I forgot to take a photo of the old man's souffle and was going to leave you with a photo I took of Ronald Johnson's former house in Kansas, but I'm transitioning to a new computer and haven't imported all my photos yet. So please believe me when I say that very late at night, after the old man's poetry reading at the University of Topeka, I took a photograph of Ronald Johnson's house. You're going to cook a souffle soon, right? Ronald Johnson says, "It only sounds like a lot of trouble to those who have never made a souffle. Learn the knack and trust the souffle to behave."