Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sweet surprise

Posted on July 9, 2013 | 4 comments

For me, one of the great joys of blogging has been the other people I meet through the blogosphere. The nature of these relationships is inherently paradoxical: casual and intermittent, depending on the frequency of posting and reading, while at the same time affording moments of personal revelation over an extended period of time.

For a little while now I’ve been following Jnana’s Red Barn, the blog of an interesting man who is in turn deeply interested in life. This comes across in his poetry, his photographs, the books and blogs he talks about, the comments and observations he makes about the world. I’ve come to respect him as much as I enjoy his blog, which is to say considerably. So I am greatly honored that he nominated me for the Super Sweet Blogging Award. Thank you again, Jnana!

According to the rules of accepting this honor, I must now answer Five Super Sweet Questions:

Cookies or cake? Or both? I’ve become increasingly particular about sweets in my middle age, and given the disappointing nature of an awful lot of baked goods out there, I choose door number three: pie (especially black-bottom banana pie from Missy’s!)
Chocolate or vanilla? I’ve also become a chocolate snob, preferring to go without if it’s not very, very dark. So unless it’s 80% cocao or better, give me vanilla.
Favorite sweet treat? I’m less into sweet than I am into flavor, so anything more flavorful than it is sweet gets my vote. (See note about chocolate above.)
When do you crave sweet things the most? When I have a good strong cup of coffee to wash it down with.
Sweet nickname? Mamacita, because it was bestowed on me at Epcot by Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo.

Next I must nominate a baker’s dozen other bloggers for this award. This was much more difficult than it seems, because I know of so many wonderful blogs. After several days of feckless dithering, here they are, in no particular order:

cozywalls, where I have discovered some of the most amazing recipes ever (not to mention some lovely photography)
FlourWaterYeast&Salt, where my dear friend Murphala talks about bread-baking, cheese-making, soap-caking, guitar-breaking, and dogs. Oh, and Tom Petty.
Baker Bettie, where I have discovered more amazing recipes and marvelous photography. (She’s really into cookies.)
Velveteen Rabbi, where Reb Rachel lets us run with her through motherhood, poetry, Torah, and other blessed cycles in our lives.
My Pajama Days, where Emily shares the trials and triumphs of parenting, plus the discoveries and difficulties of moving gracefully on from one part of life to the next.
Notes from Rumbly Cottage is one of my favorite sources of movie reviews and suggestions. I’ve also picked up recipes, craft ideas, gardening tips, and other bits of everyday wisdom there, too.
Eggton for recipes, true stories that make me laugh out loud, clever videos, and Thunder. (I came for the recipes, but I stayed for the Thunder.)
Shawn L. Bird for delightful poetry, thoughts/tips/ideas about writing, and occasional harp music.
Adventures in Beeland, where I have learned about beekeeping, kept abreast of what’s blooming in west London, and gotten to vicariously enjoy tea and cakes now and then.
Tarot in a Teacup, where I have discovered both lovely decks and interesting spreads, and get to see glimpses of summer in the depths of winter. (Monica blogs from New Zealand.)
Bridget’s Fire for eclectic spiritual exploration and thoughts on intentional living, parenting, and leaving our comfort zones, with a bit of Celtic flavor.
Multimedia Meditations for movie reviews, cultural commentary, and life observations that are marvelously off the beaten path.

Now I’m off to notify my nominees. I hope you enjoy reading their blogs!

4 Comments

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Tagged blogging awards, blogosphere, chocolate, Super Sweet Blogger Award, vanilla

Prompted poetry: promise

Posted on April 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

It’s time to pollute the blogosphere again with some of my poetic calisthenics. Please share responses and/or suggestions!

Flotsam of Fidelity

broken bits of promises lie
scattered on that futile
ocean whose treacherous bed
glitters with bones of wrecked
lovers forsworn in storms of deadly tedium
foundered in monotonous
habit of heart

Nantucket sleigh ride in the sky

Posted on March 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

After a too-long hiatus I’ve returned to listening to Moby Dick via the Moby Dick Big Read audio project. Today was Chapter 57, the last of three enchanting chapters in the center of the book in which Melville critiques the ways in which whales have been depicted in art. Each chapter is worth reading (or hearing) in itself, but the third ends with a passage that leaves me breathless with delight. Read it aloud for the best effect, and I dare you not to find yourself carried away in the process!

Nor when expandingly lifted by your subject, can you fail to trace out great whales in the starry heavens, and boats in pursuit of them; as when long filled with thoughts of war the Eastern nations saw armies locked in battle among the clouds. Thus at the North have I chased Leviathan round and round the Pole with the revolutions of the bright points that first defined him to me. And beneath the effulgent Antarctic skies I have boarded the Arg0-Navis, and joined the chase against the starry Cetus far beyond the utmost stretch of Hydrus and the Flying Fish.

With a frigate’s anchors for my bridle-bitts and fasces of harpoons for spurs, would I could mount that whale and leap the topmost skies to see whether the fabled heavens with all their countless tents really lie encamped beyond my mortal sight! (p. 261)

(Quoted from the Franklin Library edition, published in 1974 and beautifully illustrated with colored plates. A cherished gift from a very dear friend.)

Lenten devotion for 2 March 2013

Posted on March 2, 2013 | Leave a comment

[The following meditation was based on the hymn, “My Song is Love Unknown” (Hymn 343 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship). It was published in 2013 Lenten Devotions by the East Kentucky Conference of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.]

“My song is love unknown.” Love doesn’t have to be acknowledged to be real, to be powerful, to do its work. God loved the world into existence and has been loving the world into redemption ever since, whether we know it or not.

“My song is love unknown.” Love doesn’t have to be understood to be real, to be powerful, to do its work. God’s world-making, world-redeeming love operates in us, around us, and through us, even when we are most unloving and unlovable.

“My song is love unknown.” This love is the deep magic to which C.S. Lewis refers in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the inexplicable and relentless Love that continually remakes us and the entire world in its own image.

It is often unknown because it works in ways that we do not always recognize or understand, but it is not unknowable. We experience it in the filigree of miracles that sustains life. We encounter it in the daily grace of living with other beings. It is manifest in the Christ, the One who died and was raised, the One we see in the faces of enemies and strangers as well as family and friends.

O Love unknown, help us remember that you are always at work, even in the least likely places. Stir up in us a desire to know you, to seek you in the unfamiliar and the perplexing. In the name of Jesus, who gave himself in love to redeem the world. Amen.

Pancakes for the road

Posted on February 12, 2013 | 2 comments

When the kids were little, we belonged to a church that had a wonderful Shrove Tuesday tradition. Everyone gathered in the fellowship hall that evening, bringing with them electric frying pans, home-made applesauce, and any food they were giving up for Lent. We ate the snack-type foods while preparing supper together, and everything else was either eaten during the meal or taken home by someone who wasn’t giving it up.

Catsup not pictured (for the more delicate of stomach)

It began with the peeling crew, who started in on several dozen pounds of potatoes. Kids carried peeled potatoes into the kitchen to be shredded, mixed with eggs and flour, and pressed into pans of hot oil. As soon as the first batch was draining on paper towels, the applesauce and sour cream (and catsup for the kids) went out on the tables and the feasting began. The peelers ate first and rotated into the kitchen so the shredders, mixers, and fry cooks could eat.

It was a small congregation and nearly everyone turned out for this festive occasion. The kitchen and fellowship hall formed a kind of great room, so conversation flowed back and forth between those who were cooking and those who were eating. As people finished eating, they filtered back into the kitchen to clean up. It was like a big family dinner where everyone shares the work as well as the meal.

We all went home with hearts and bellies full, fortified in both body and soul for the long Lenten journey we would begin, together again, the following evening.

May your Shrove Tuesday be replete with good food and warm fellowship, regardless of your religious inclinations.

(This post is offered in thanksgiving for the congregation of Good Shepherd Lutheran in Hamden CT, saints both past and present with whom we gladly lift our forks today.)

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Tagged applesauce, Good Shepherd Lutheran, Lent, pancakes, potato pancakes, potatoes, Shrove Tuesday, sour cream

Happy Groundhog’s Day!

Posted on February 2, 2013 | 3 comments

Do you know why they have to drag poor old Punxatawny Phil out of his lair every year? It’s because he knows that the beginning of spring isn’t tied at all to whether or not he sees his shadow. Like all intelligent creatures, he realizes that spring begins the day that pitchers and catchers report for spring training.

Seeing as that event is inevitable and preordained by powers other than himself, he’d just as soon stay tucked up in a cozy ball of rodenty slumber. Who wouldn’t?

But those nasty men in top hats and weird coats nevertheless haul him out by the scruff of his neck to stage their little weather charade. You can tell from their antiquated dress that even they recognize, in their heart of hearts, that the whole thing is a sham: meaningless, outdated, and entirely superseded by the National Pastime.

And don’t fall for any of that vernal equinox nonsense, either. Regardless of where the planet is or what angle the sun is at, spring begins on the day when pitchers and catchers report, which this year falls on February 11. I mean, come on: they don’t call it winter training — it’s SPRING training. Ergo, it must be spring.

So the next time you find yourself wondering when spring will begin, don’t go dragging any large rodents out of their dens. Just check the baseball calendar.

3 Comments

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Tagged baseball, calendar, catchers, groundhog, Groundhog's Day, National Pastime, pitchers, Punxatawny Phil, spring, spring training, vernal equinox

The secret’s in the sauce

Posted on January 9, 2013 | 6 comments

Inspired by Molly Katzen’s Autumn Vegetable Soup (Still Life with Menu, p. 49), today I made Whatever the Heck You Have on Hand Soup.

I had a quart bag each of chopped turnips, white sweet potatoes, and acorn squash in my freezer. I had some carrots, celery, tomatoes, and red bell peppers left over from holiday party crudite platters. I had a bit of frozen chopped onion and some frozen chopped Red Russian kale.

I chopped up the leftover crudite, then sautéed the carrot, onion, and celery in canola oil until it began to smell yummy. Then I dumped in the turnips, sweet potatoes, and squash, added 3 cups water and one Garden Veggie boullion cube, and cooked it over medium heat until the turnips were soft. I stirred in everything else, plus three cloves minced garlic, salt, pepper, a little soy sauce, a bay leaf, and a dash each of basil, oregano (in place of marjoram), cayenne, curry powder, and Mrs. Dash. I turned it down to simmer and let it fill the house with savory goodness.

Despite the hearty aroma, the broth tasted a little anemic. I rummaged through the fridge and found a small amount of leftover homemade spaghetti sauce. That did the trick: I stirred it in, and the soup went from mezza mezza to bravissimo!

Now to see if the kids will eat it.

(Supper update: The kids liked the flavor but found the texture of the veggies a bit off-putting. A few minutes with the potato masher sufficiently broke down the offending chunks to please the diners’ sensitive palates.)

6 Comments

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Tagged cooking, kale, soup, spaghetti sauce, squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, veggies

On the twelfth day of Christmas…

Posted on January 5, 2013 | 2 comments

We kicked off our Twelfth Night celebration last night by having pancakes and eggnog for supper. Then we played Bananagrams until about an hour past our usual bedtime, read aloud Chapter 5 of On the Blue Comet (a Christmas gift) and finally turned in.

The festivities continued this morning with the entire household sleeping late. Even the cat refrained from walking on our heads until almost 8:00. Unheard of! Everyone had surfaced by 10:00, at which point we agreed to watch the extended edition of The Two Towers. Breakfast was chocolate- and caramel-covered Boy Scout popcorn and soda. (In our defense, the caramel popcorn did have fancy nuts in it.)

Between discs (yes, this four-hour epic requires more than one DVD) we made pizza – Pillsbury’s whole-wheat pizza dough is a nice alternative to frozen pies. We rounded out our Tolkien overdose with more soda for the kids and hops-based beverages for the adults. It was 4:00 by the time the credits rolled, and we all needed showers.

Some shoe shopping, some ice skating, then supper at Culver’s. Now we’ve settled in at home again to watch the Vikings and the Pack face off at Lambeau Field. Tomorrow we’ll remove the decorations and put the tree on the deck to provide shelter for birds coming to the feeder, but for one more night it graces our living room with twinkling lights and the delicate scent of fir.

Some star ornaments will linger about the house through Epiphany, reminders of the star that beckoned to wise men of old, the morning star that shines for the peoples of the nations, and the people themselves, more numerous than the stars.

Even twelve drummers drumming is not loud enough to drown out the wonder and mystery of the silent night that began this season.

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Tagged Bananagrams, Boy Scout popcorn, Christmas, eggnog, Epiphany, fir tree, On the Blue Comet, pancakes, stars, the twelve days of Christmas, The Two Towers, Tolkien, tree, Twelfth Night, twelve drummers drumming, wise men

Waiting, with lights

Posted on December 15, 2012 | 4 comments

This is an Advent tree, not yet a Christmas tree. Last Sunday we wove two types of lighted strands through its branches: warm incandescents, whose light reminds us of stars in the sky, and cool LEDs, whose light appears Advent blue and whose bulbs make us think of icicles.

For a week now the tree has cast a soft glow over the living room, the space in our house where we work and play. When I was a child, I would spend hours beneath our tree, staring up through the branches and imagining I was looking at the stars through the canopy of an evergreen wood. The enchantment of tiny lights has never entirely worn off; I suppose it’s one of the reasons I also love fireflies in summer.

Tomorrow we will add another layer of meaning to the tree in the form of ornaments or garland, depending on what box comes out of storage. When the children were small, we made paper chains for garland every year. They drew pictures or wrote on the strips of paper, and I tore off countless small pieces of tape for them to secure the ends of the links. It’s a kind of miracle, you know: simple circlets of paper interlock to form a chain of any length. Sometimes we each made our own chain before joining them together to create a single chain long enough to encompass the whole tree. You wouldn’t have seen it in Better Homes and Gardens, but our garland always seemed more beautiful to me than the most elegant tinsel.

4 Comments

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Tagged Advent, family, garland, lights, paper chains, tinsel, trees

Waiting

Posted on December 7, 2012 | 2 comments

The tree stands in a corner of the room, majestic in its solitude. It brings with it a wildness: the sharp tang of winter air, the soft contours of evergreen foliage. This tiny piece of northern forest seems doubly incongruous in a home in the Shallow South, its firred limbs a striking contrast against the tangle of leafless branches outside the backdrop of windows.

A horticulture professor has discovered that Fraser fir can be grown even here, at the extreme limits of its climate zone, if the soil conditions are ideal. Six days ago, this tree stood in a field of its fellows, just a couple rolling country miles down the road from here.

For the first week of Advent, it remains unadorned in our house, reminding us that life is always there, waiting, even when the world seems flat and grey. As the tree adjusts to the indoor temperature and humidity, we spend the week admiring the elegant beauty of its shape, getting to know the curve of its branches and the spiky softness of its needles.

This Sunday we will weave lighted strands through those branches, and the tree will sparkle as the night sky above the North Pole itself. But for now it is a shadowy and mysterious presence in darkness, a slim figure of patience in the light, exuding a faint air of balsam that I always associate with wonder.

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Tagged Advent, Fraser fir, home, patience, Shallow South, trees