Something lovely

Via Vamoose

This is the best thing I've seen all day. Happy Friday.

The Baroques

At my house, we listen to this Baroques record over and over and over for some reason.

Bon après-midi

Aren't they dashing?

Joan Didion

Jack Kerouac

Anne Sexton

Cesar Vallejo

Cesar Vallejo

Here is my favorite poem, written by Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo. I wish I could find the original Spanish version but I haven't been able to in a long time. If I do though, I will memorize it so I can recite it.

This September night, you fled
So good to me… up to grief and include!
I don’t know myself anything else
But you, YOU don’t have to be good.

This night alone up to imprisonment no prison
Hermetic and tyrannical, diseased and panic-stricken
I don’t know myself anything else
I don’t know myself because I am grief-stricken.

Only this night is good, YOU
Making me into a whore, no
Emotion possible is distance God gave integral:
Your hateful sweetness I’m clinging to.

This September evening, when sown
In live coals, from an auto
Into puddles: not known.

Eat Food That You Make

I used to really hate cooking, or rather, feel really overwhelmed at the thought of cooking, as if it were too hard to get it all together or something. Not anymore. So I'm going to share with you something I make pretty regularly, something that is really easy and pretty good for you. It's basically a little casserole that I adapted from this recipe over at Sustainable Pantry. I don't know what to call it...it's basically polenta with some kind of beans, tomatoes in some form, some cheese, and some vegetables. And it's good! I've fed it to vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike and they all seem to like it. So here goes.

You will need:

• 1 1/4 cup Coarse-grind cornmeal. (If you can't find coarse-grind, regular will do)
• 4 cups water
• 1 can (16oz?) of white beans, either cannelini or great northern
• 1 can (16oz) of diced tomatoes, well drained (and I mean WELL drained. Or, you can use fresh chopped tomatoes. Fresher is better, I always like to say.)
• parmesan cheese
• mozzarella cheese (I used a mozzarella ball, but you can use whatever type you want)
• 1 small white onion (or whatever you have on hand)
• mushrooms (or not, your call)
• Salt, pepper and whatever other seasonings you want to add

Directions:
1. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Mix the cornmeal with the 4th cup of water. When the water is boiling, slowly add the cornmeal/water mixture and whisk so it doesn't clump up. Bring it back up to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Stir it frequently or it will stick to the bottom of the pot. You'll want to cook it for about 15 minutes. It will thicken as you cook and you want it to be fairly thick. This is the fun part because as it cooks, it will bubble and kind of look like lava (that's how they describe it at Sustainable Pantry and they're right).  I even took a little video of it while it was cooking so you can see for yourself:

                                      (Notice my unicorn trivet)

2. While the polenta is cooking, dice the onions, chop the mushrooms, shred the cheese if necessary, drain and rinse the beans and drain the liquid out of the canned tomatoes. Maybe take this opportunity to pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. But don't forget to stir the polenta from time to time.

3. When the polenta is done, turn off the heat and throw the diced onions in there, some salt and pepper, maybe some garlic powder, and a handful or so of parmesan cheese.

4. In a 9x9 pyrex or other square casserole dish, layer one half of the polenta. Then add the beans, then the tomatoes, then the mushrooms, and finally the mozzarella cheese. Pour the remaining half of the polenta over the top and spread it around. You can add some more parmesan cheese on top if you'd like.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. It really won't need more time in there than this. You'll find that if there's too much liquid in the tomatoes, the bottom will be watery, but that's okay, it will still taste good.

Ok, now you try.

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Ginza Honeybee Project

The majestic bumble bee

Yesterday morning on the way to work, I heard a story on NPR about a problem Tokyo is having with crows. Apparently they're taking over. Even the mayor's pissed about it because one dive-bombed him while he was golfing, causing him to declare that crow pie will become Tokyo's favorite dish. Anyhow, there's a group in Tokyo called the Ginza Honeybee Project which the reporter visited in the story, and she said two amazing things:

1. These honeybees are so friendly toward humans that they'll let you pet them; and
2. These honeybees actually chase the crows away

For these two reasons, I am declaring publicly on this blog that I love bees. I love them, I don't care what anyone thinks. They make delicious honey, they have a striking jacket and the big fat bumble bees remind me of my cat. Listen: my brother is allergic to bee stings, and I still love them. Listen further: I got stung by a bee for the first time just last summer (a swarm of bumble bees had made a hive underneath my boyfriend's porch where we'd all hang out around dusk each day in the summer and these bees always got a little angry and stressed out at dusk) and sure, it hurt. But I learned a few things that day: 1. I am not allergic to bee stings and 2. I still like bees in spite of the fact that they sting. 

And while I'm at it

Pick up a Richard Brautigan book. Any of them. I think he's one of my very favorites, ever, and I can't believe I didn't know he existed until I was in my 20s. I don't even know how to describe his writing, but my absolute favorites of his are (in this order): The Abortion, In Watermelon Sugar, and The Hawkline Monster. But then again, they're all good. I even picked up the last book he wrote before he died. I didn't finish it, I couldn't really get into it, but someday I will, I promise you that.

Something to Read: Up and Down with the Rolling Stones

I read this book last spring and I find that it makes a great conversation piece at parties. At least if the people at the party are talking about the Rolling Stones. So now I’m recommending it to you! Also I like saying the title out loud. It’s one of my favorite sensational band biographies, right up there with The Lives of John Lennon by Albert Goldman. The author of this book, Tony Sanchez, was a member of the Rolling Stones entourage. As a result, there are many incidents in the book where various members of the Rolling Stones smash a really expensive car into a wall and then taking off, leaving Tony Sanchez to sort it out. But mostly I liked the parts about Anita Pallenberg. True or not, it doesn’t matter to me. Anita Pallenberg is also the main reason to see the movie Barbarella. Your boyfriend will also enjoy watching Barbarella with you.

My Humps My Humps My Humps

I have a lot of plans for this blog for the upcoming year, including new team members coming on, fantastic discussion topics, showing things and so forth. There's a winter storm going on here in WI right now, so I'm putting up this picture I took last winter at the lake. Those are the lake's shapely humps. That photograph was taken with a Diana F+, a very fun, albeit expensive, camera to use. Enjoy and stayed tuned!

Etsy Shop Update

Did you know I have an Etsy shop? Well I do, and you should check it out here. Here's what's new in the shop:

Macrame earrings in grey

Macrame earrings in coral

Did you know that macrame dates back to the ancient Egyptians? Well, okay, Wikipedia says it was the Arabs, but my Sunset macrame book says it was the Egyptians. Either way. That's how you know it's good.

New Time, New Day

Oh what a world. In the past week, or even the past month, it's been non-stop parties. But now, the x-mas tree is out by the curb and there is a big pot of black bean soup cooking on the stove because tomorrow is the beginning of that horrible part of the year where there are no holidays or days off, no excuses to celebrate and the sun keeps going down each day before you're ready. But let's not fall in that winter time hold, let's keep each other out with constant dance parties and pots of soup.