shameful and other secrets

annual halloween performance of christian asplund's fall of the house of usher

1) my secret writing place--i found a new spot and no one knows where it is.

don't try to read what's in my notebook.  it's a secret.

2) moses' secret crazy carrot coconut soup & popovers.  if i have the wherewithal, i'll make it for halloween tomorrow night.

digging cheesy new country such as lady antebellum

3) i've been listening to the eagle, 101.5, salt lake city's new country station.

and early zeroes alicia

4) i'm obsessed with mariah carey's butterfly, alicia keys butterflyz, and dolly parton's love is like a butterfly.  what can i say.

questionable television programming

5) i watched every episode of californication in a week's time.

moses and i created this soup last summer.  

Crazy Coconut Carrot Soup

1 ½ T. coconut oil

1 ½ T. vegetable oil

1 ½ c. diced yellow onion

3 large minced garlic cloves

¾ cup diced celery

¼ cup washed and finely chopped cilantro stems

2 ½ t. kosher salt

1 t. ground cumin

1 t. garlic powder

¼ t. garlic chili oil

2 cups cubed  and peeled potato

2 cups cubed and peeled sweet potato

2 lbs. peeled and chopped carrots

6-8 c. water

1 32 oz. can diced tomatoes (including juice)

1 16 oz. can coconut milk

cilantro leaves for garnish

1)   In a large kettle, heat oil to medium and sauté onion, garlic, celery, and cilantro stems.  Saute gently for a few minutes until transluscent. 

2)   Add salt, garlic powder, cumin, and chili oil and cook for a few more minutes. 

3)   Add potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, water, and tomatoes and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until all the vegetables are so tender that they fall apart when forked.

4)   Add coconut milk and blend with an immersion blender, or in batches in a regular blender or food processor. 

5)   Adjust salt to taste if necessary, and heat the soup for a few minutes on low.  Before serving, garnish bowls of soup with cilantro leaves.

6)   Serve with Cheddar Cheesy popovers on the side—delicious for dipping in the soup.

Cheddar-Cheesy Popovers

(makes 12 medium sized popovers)

5 medium eggs

1 c. 2% milk

½ c. half & half

1 ½ c. flour

1 ½ t. kosher salt

1 c. of your favorite cheddar, grated

cooking spray

1)   Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.  Spray a cupcake tin with cooking spray.

2)   Beat eggs in medium mixing bowl.  Add milk and half & half.  Stir in salt, grated cheddar, and finally, flower.  Mix briskly with a wire whisk.  It’s okay if a few lumps remain in the batter—kind of like pancakes, if you over mix these, they will be tough.

3)   Fill cupcake tins 2/3 of the way with batter.

4)   Bake on 450 for 20 minutes. 

5)   Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for 12 minutes, then check on the popovers every two minutes until they are brown, dry, and crispy.

6)   Immediately remove from the cupcake tins so they don’t get soggy, and serve right after baking with your Crazy Coconut Carrot soup.

the whiteness of the whale

summer mountains.  no pictures of fall mountains because i've been too busy looking to photograph.

i've spent the past two daytimes in the mountains by myself letting time rest for a minute.  starting last weekend i decided to practice boredom and nowness.  actually, i didn't decide to do that, but stumbled into it because i was staying in a place that had no internet or t.v.  i brought books and notebooks and music, but i got really interested in doing nothing, thinking nothing, sitting & talking about nothing.

turns out i like nothing quite well.

so i did very little this week except enjoy the ground i'm standing on and my body's fleeting residence on this earth--letting the flaming trees in the canyon and the brightness of the late fall sky & sun take care of me.  too many more words than this won't help me to say what i mean.  

i guess i don't mean anything.

just happy, today, to be.

xo

Stevie Didn't Want This

A well-earned, mostly open Wednesday wherein all I did was revise one nine-page story for submission to a place Lara recommended.

It's all I did, when I started the day with a list of four things. At least.

Why do I forget these things should go faster than they do?

How much does it suck that I have only one really good day in the week to do this, and that I ended up at a PTA-related event tonight.

I was just reading about Stevie Nicks, how she never wanted to be a parent because she wanted to be an artist and being a parent means a lack of focus and PTA meetings. And Stevie didn't want that.

I actually find myself volunteering at PTA.

I write this on the eve of my oldest's 16th birthday. Here we are together, age 34 and one month:

everything new

it's the birthday of sister gertrude stein's tender, tender buttons

on the mountains of which my poems often speak.  including the one on this blog.

i'm about to read it.

i wrote this weird little piece, about christmas of all awful subjects for a poem, and was inspired by sister stein.

hope it's something.

if not, it's something.

one of the most important works.

setting off 2013                        from merry christmas chapter 22

was it starry? stilly? were clouds smoky, low, or thick were we breathing burdened air particulates from wood smoke & car exhaust? was a stave of psalmody bouncing between the walls of our mountains, here on the wasatch front, here in our valley of valleys? was our basin filled with a hymn from some solo from some lit bungalow near the lake? were the feet of the soloist beautiful? was it christmas day or right before? were we anticipating or regretting? were we disappointed yet? were we recalling pleasant havens—and glades eternally vernal—fruit & mead?

i recall that it was not altogether unpleasant to be so cold.  deer foraging in grassy starry patches down the meadow of locust lane & children donned velvets & fowls & beasts laid upon the table for us, burnished, roasted            (((flowers were continuing on the mountain and low the valley without our attentions)))                         & the families & bigger families still in the concentric way of families in private beauty places & so on & so on & we thought some one would break us & so on & we searched for a break we never found & so it was as it were                         and all