xmas 2011

I have been thinking about this year's xmas and decided what I really need to do is Friday chicken about it. [The link will take you to the explanation of this wonderful ritual on the fluent self.] Even though there is no Friday nearby.

The Grinchy Stuff--

Blue Music --I played a xmas album from my childhood and I was propelled into a cranky and weird place. It took me several songs to realize this and turn the damn stuff off. Then I was sad because I didn't want the music to make me sad. Huh.

Rare insomnia--So little sleep the night before made me much less resilient. [and crabby part of the next day]

The haddock-- not skinned

Meaningless communications from afar--left me feeling inauthentic and grumpy. It also awakened a younger past hurt self which may be why the music affected me so much.

Missing friends who are sick -- :(

Bad Guessing -- Must return present, not the right size.

Pain -- hip, foot, neck, shoulder. Ow. Carrying a lot of pain and trying to be gentle about it. Hating how hard it is to sit.

Breaking -- brand new stuff breaking like mini acceptance reminders. Disappointing but I did remember to be curious about it.

The Sparkly Stuff--

Best Music--some xmas music did make me happy and this version of this song is my favorite this year. Does it make you want to dance? There was lots of dancing in our kitchen. I am shocked to find I like it better than the Chuck Berry version. Any other opinions on best music?

Dinner -- the food turned out wonderful. People ate more pasta than in past years, so next year cook at least 2# and make triple batch of Pollo alla Cacciatora.

Gifts -- The care and thought supporting some of gifts I received moved me to tears of awe. I love that people know me. Also my wife loved the gift I bought for her last June. It was totally worth waiting until now to give it to her.

Weather -- I have been grooving on the brown lawns and clear sidewalks. For once I don't miss the snow. I have been walking every day for 7 days in a row and watching the blackbirds with wonder. They are awesome. Today they all had patches of orange light on them as the sun hit their sooty feathers just right.

Halfway through Yule -- Feeling smooth as I swoosh downhill toward more revision time.

Dharma talks and Play time -- I had space and time for myself to do self-care, nurturing stuff. I was pretty good and hushing my gremlins who tried to tell me to do 'shoulds' instead.

November and Nanowrimo have started

I hope you all can put up with my bloggy snippets as I once again try to win nanowrimo this month. It is going to be a challenging one.

I have house guests for 10 days. I have a birthday to celebrate. I am once again starting late. But I have to give it a try, it is just so much fun. You can still join the crazy throng.

Samhain was awesome. There was a fabulous ritual in a graveyard. There was warm sunshine and soup eaten outside. There was nano prep and fabulous japanese food. And now it is onto November. Hopefully I'll be updating you on my word count soon.

Remember: 'write like the wind!'

xo

samhain 2010 and walnut cake

Samhain is here already. [And my computer thinks we went into daylight savings time over night, even though here in the states it's not until next week]

For my practice new year starts tomorrow. I love having many new years to celebrate and I am really looking forward to the day. There will be a ritual remembering our dead this afternoon with sisters and later a festive dinner with my wife. Life is good. Tomorrow starts nanowrimo and the new year. Are you signed up yet? It's not too late. I'll be prepping my ideas in my head for the big start!

This weekend I have been trying to cook out of my pantry as part of my plan to waste less food. I wanted to bake so this is what I ended up with; a small walnut cake with frosting. Not too big, rather hearty and like all of my baking not too sweet.

Walnut Cake based on a recipe from Great British Cooking by Jane Garmey

Heat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 8" round cake pan.

1/2 c butter softened
1/3 c agave nectar
2 eggs, room temp
1 1/4 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 c ground walnuts


-cream the butter and agave nectar together
-add the eggs one at time and mix
-sift the flour and baking powder together
-add to the butter mixture
-stir in the ground walnuts
-spread in the greased cake pan
-and bake 20-25 minutes until a knife to the center comes out clean

Remove from oven to a wire rack and remove from pan after 5 minutes. Cool completely then frost. The frosting I used was a cooked 7 minute frosting with palm sugar instead of white sugar. Half of a typical recipe is enough for this small cake. But I could also see a cream cheese frosting being yummy on this or perhaps a chocolate frosting.

I hope everyone has a glorious Samhain and enjoys some cake if that's your thing.
Samhain Mhaith!

third first one

I can hardly believe that our third wedding anniversary is here. In some ways it went so fast and in some ways it seems like it was just yesterday all the family was in town.

We are having a brilliant week with the perfect autumn weather we were hoping for back in 2007. The woods are stunning with a carpet of gold stretching out under the brilliant trees. The sky and the lake are incredible shades of blue.

I look around at the beauty and feel luckier than ever. My wife is someone I really do enjoy more and more most days. I feel rested and full and grateful for our health and lives in general. I am so happy we got married 3 years ago and that so many of you were around to witness or hear about it. [If you weren't there is always the archives]

I hope that everyone out there has something to be happy about today.

autumn equinox 2010

So far it's been a great holiday. It's been a bit hard balancing all the things I want to do with my day off and how tired and head achy I have felt. Depletion continues I guess.

Still, I had breakfast outside on the terrace next to the waterfall. It was lovely to sit in the sun and not feel too hot. We visited an apple orchard, had a picnic next to a lake, and did a short ritual welcoming autumn. The apple smell of the orchard was amazing. It was like the best apple perfume in the world. Just the memory of it makes me smile.

Now time to prepare for dinner out [Indian food], perhaps get out a few autumn decorations and try to deal gracefully with the ongoing headache. I'm going to wear my new boots in celebration of the official start of autumn. I am so happy about my favorite time of year being here.

I hope everyone finds some joy today, even if it is as simple as walking in a cloud of apple smell.

summer solstice 2010 and cherries already

brilliant, it's summer solstice already. Although we are having a humid and rather gloomy day thus far still the glorious light is always a reason to celebrate. Just last night I was invited out for dinner, I hesitated realizing I needed to spend time in the garden as well then I realized it's light until about 9:30! I can easily eat dinner out and still get an hour in garden before dark. The joys of summer solstice.

This is also a busy time of year since it coincides not only with one of my best friend's birthday but gay pride is also held this time of year in Minneapolis. 2010 has the extra addition of the UU general assembly which I will probably miss entirely, it was just the wrong week for me. oh well.

Also this weekend I started picking cherries from our tree, weeks ahead of last year. See the spring was really early this year, I did not imagine it. [too bad that didn't result in my getting my garden in early -- don't ask] So since it was not too hot I turned on the the oven and made clafouti again with my cooking cherries. Here it is version 2:


[Cherry] Clafoutis v. 2

preheat oven to 375 and butter a round cake pan or ceramic baking dish,

Mix together on medium until light in colour and rather foamy, 3 eggs and 1/2 c coconut sugar.

[Basically I just keep the kitchen aid going on low as I add the rest to the egg/sugar mixture.]

Add 5 T of melted butter gradually, while mixing.
Add 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour and mix until incorporated
Mix together 1/2 c yogurt with 1 T maple syrup and 1/2 c water, then pour this mixture slowly into batter
Add 2 t flavoring [with cherries use almond]

The batter should be smooth.

Pour batter in pan, place 1.5 c cherries, sour or sweet, on batter
Your choice as to whether you pit the cherries, it's traditional [and easier] to leave the pits in but then warn people before eating, if you plan on sharing it that is.
Bake until set and lightly browned about 30-40 minutes.
Let sit 10 minutes before eating.

Some claim clafoutis is only good fresh from the oven and it is delicious. However I am firmly in the camp that believes that leftover clafoutis is a near perfect breakfast and pretty good for dessert the next night as well. I would be happy to eat your leftovers if you disagree.

springtime gold

As we enjoy this lengthy gorgeous spring I get to revel in so many wonders. A week ago the world was dizzy with the smell of lilacs. Beltane was duly celebrated. And over the weekend we saw morels in season at the coop.

These are truly like gold, because of the price, but so worth it. We had a simple saute of them along with our hamburgers last night and they were sublime.

-clean carefully
-heat olive oil and butter
-cooked sliced mushrooms for about 10 minutes until tender
-deglaze pan with water or white wine
-add fresh chopped thyme and enjoy

Their rich fragrance lingered for hours after they were gobbled up.

food! cooked by others

This past week had several interesting food experiences, way more than I usually have in one week. It also made me realize just how much I miss Heidi's since it burned down in February.

Sunday-dinner before dancing with friend at Obento-Ya, fabulous as usual. It was chilly so I didn't have sushi this time, [I'm not crazy about cold food in cold weather] but we had classic bento boxes and dumplings to start and were very happy. And were still able to dance afterwards for a couple of hours, the food is never heavy.

Monday - quickie meal at the Bryant Lake Bowl, their mock dock rolls, an entree pretending to be a starter are fabulous. The salad we shared was good but it was too much with the rolls. We were stuffed to the gills.

Tuesday - My wife and I went to Vincent. Since this was our first visit here I am still processing my impressions. The food excellent [scallops, halibut] to quite good [salad, gnocchi] . Wine recommendation excellent. The panna cotta,, hmm perhaps an old classic that had been tweaked too much, it was in a glass and rather runny. The room was very beige, the staff very nice, the location right downtown was fine.

Thursday -- a gala dinner with friends to support Dining out for Life at Al Ventos, a platinum sponsor. This is probably my favorite April ritual, getting the list of participating restaurants and finding the one, then gathering as many people as we can to go out and eat. We eat at Al Ventos quite often so we know what is reliably good and what is not. Their desserts seemed turned up a notch in the sweetness range, our table was not happy about that. But still a lovely evening. I hope everyone had something yummy to eat this week.

springy rituals and joys

I love a personal simple rituals. I seem to create them with ease and before I know it there are little ritual flags all over my mental calendar waving at me.

I love flowers as well, and since I live in a place where flowers are non-existent in the winter I look forward to the first flowers of the spring. As I child I remember waiting for the lilacs or lilies of the valley to bloom, the first violets then I moved someplace with longer and colder winters, so I adapted without realizing I didn't want to wait for May.

By the middle of March you start to see bunches of daffodils in the grocery stores. I love these flowers, for me they are the heralds of spring. Although their scent is elusive I also play with the idea that they have sound, that one can actually hear them singing with the waking world. I thought about all of this last week and pondered if I should buy some when I knew I would be going out of town all too soon. Should I spend the money? I was going to a place where spring is in full swing surely that's enough?

I didn't need to decide, my dear wife saw them in the stores and picked them up for me as a matter of course. I love them. They are spring and joy embodied by slender green stalks and golden trumpets.
I am so grateful for the turn of seasons and the sweetness of a spouse that notices and remembers. I love to hear about the rituals of others. I wonder how mine will evolve this year.

winter solstice 2009

Happy solstice to all those out there of the pagan persuasion! Heck happy happy to everyone.
word count: 57,451

I had to decide when I started this post if I was going to indulge in a mini rant about christians who complain about how all the rest of us are ruining xmas for them. Then I decided really I just have 2 things to say on the subject before I go onto merrymaking for the next 12 days of Yule:

1] Yo, Jesus was not born in the winter, xmas was set at this time of the year so that the early christian church could take over [and try to tone down-ha!] a raucous midwinter festival that no one wanted to give up. So really it wasn't your holiday in the first place and spare my ears about how 'non christians' are just ruining it for you. Take care of your own damn spirituality and traditions. To my christian friends [and my wife] that give me hope that the christian religion isn't totally screwed, I love you.

2] I do not know what it is like to be jewish in this country [ though being pagan is no picnic let me tell you] but I will not give up my midwinter festivities because to you they all have christian connotations. Though I empathize with the pain that has been done by those calling themselves christian to you and yours and I hope you take care of yourself at all times. Call me selfish, but see #1 above, it was a pagan festival first. I am putting up my yule greens if I want. oh and I love you as well.

There we go, my mini rant. It can be such a sucky time for people this time of the year, so perhaps I will simply indulge in some wishes that I hope everyone can support.

For all: Clothing, Food, Shelter, Safety, Peace, Ease, Good Health and Love.

holidays have begun 09

Word count: 52029

For me the holidays begin with a day long event with one of my best friends. Which does not have a clever name or acronym like IMAD does, which really it should. hmmmm.

Anyway 13, 15, a lot of years ago, [were we still in college when we started!?!] we agreed that we really didn't want to 'buy' each other something for the winter holidays what we would rather do is:
- have a fabulous meal together somewhere
- spend fun time together during a sometimes frantic season
- perhaps get some present buying done for others

This year was a rousing success. We did find some gifts for others, our personal purchases was minimal [thank you IMAD] , we had two fabulous meals, picked up tickets for a food shelf concert we support every year and I, I'll speak for myself, had a great time.

We have even planned a fabulous addition to our holiday celebrations this year. Nothing says happy holidays like Klingons.

What you didn't know I was a big old geek? The fact that my degree was in mathematics and I married a physicist didn't clue you in? Aren't you the non judging soul, good for you.

I hope the klingons sing!

second favorite at this time of the year

I do think about more than daffodils at this time of the year. Corned beef with cabbage. [and carrots, onions and potatoes]

I bless the coworker who brought in corned beef and cabbage to the pot luck this past week. My tired brain needed the reminder. Her corned beef was quite good although her veggies had a bitter spice/taste to them that I never could identify. There was no way I could gorge...stuff...um satisfy my craving with my fair portion at the potluck. A much needed trip to the food coop resulted in 2 beautiful, all natural, nitrate and antibiotic free, uncured briskets.

This awakened me from a cooking torpor that has been hanging over me since perhaps our last dinner party. I slow cooked the meat, then the veggies were cooked in the yummy broth and it has been heaven.

I remembered an old friend Theo who burned out his kitchen while attempting to make it years ago and felt grateful that my results were delicious and safe.

I wish my Dad was in town to share it with--a brilliant Irish American tradition he loves even though he's Italian to the core. Good food is just good food.

Sláinte Mhaith.