top eleven vegetables, mid-week pick-me-up

first, how much do we WORSHIP reggie watts?  here's a little something to brighten your week.  i know it's only tuesday, but what with spring fever & all it really feels like wednesday, doesn't it?



second, julie complimented my lists, so i'm gonna go with a list today again, what with spring fever, inability to focus for too long, and all.  today's list features the top eleven vegetables that my kids and the adults in the house love equally well (again, in reference to julie's post today about needing spring recipes & making a dinner her kids hated--nothing worse than cooking for your fam & they hate it.  happened to me way more times than i care for.)

1.  cucumbers sliced and peeled with lime & salt.

2. seared cauliflower (got the idea from alice waters):  make small florets, cook on high heat in an olive oil/vegetable oil mix with minced or grated garlic and s&p.

3. broccoli with daddy's dipping sauce ("trees").  this one has a caveat in my house:  if i make the dipping sauce rather than c. aka daddy, the kids don't like it as much.  here's the process:  steam the trees (i leave a lot of stem, or trunk, on so the kids can eat & dip with their fingers) and run them under a quick cold water bath so they remain bright green.  dip in a sauce of honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar.

4. asparagus with butter, lemon & salt.  again, don't overcook.  the kids hate mushy vegetables almost more than the adults, unless of course it's:

5. bam's caramelized carrots:  steamed carrot sticks (she peels the carrots and slices them in half then in half lengthwise--quarters.  i think the heft of the carrot stick is key here.  steam until very tender.  add butter, salt, and brown sugar and toss until all melted & caramely.  these are cecily's all-time favorite.

6.  spinach and cheese omlettes.  the adults like mushrooms & tomatoes, but the kids really like the simplicity of one vegetable at a time.

7.  red pepper flowers.  when i'm prepping sweet red peppers, i slice the cap off and remove the stem so a perfect intact flower remains.  something about the flower shape is extra cute & appetizing.

8. seared green beans.  similar to the cauliflower in preparation.  these are great off-season using a good quality frozen green bean, and if your kids don't mind a little spice, you can add some red chile flakes.

9. seared corn with green chiles.  in the summer, i slice the kernels off the ear and cook with a mild green chile and tomatoes.  in the winter, nix the tomato and used canned chiles and frozen corn.

10. anything raw dipped in ranch.  my mom makes what she calls french salad.  it's like a crudite platter with olives, raw vegetables, and the best part, deviled eggs.  the kids love discrete piles of vegetables, unmixed, that they can choose and dip in ranch (we buy ours at the creamery--in these parts "creamery ranch" is legendary and can be purchased by the quart or 1/2 gallon for family reunions and ward dinners).  the adults can sneak in some more adult-like olives, antipasti type vegetables, radishes, etc.  in the summer we do this as an entire meal, with bread.

11.  artichokes with homemade mayo.  lula (who's 13) can make the mayo now & loves doing it.  it's a great thing for a budding young cook to master.  not hard, but cool.

lastly, our super rad guest blogger and resident yogi kelsey hannon is almost in the finals for her yoga photo--vote for her today--it's the last day--to help her get her picture into yoga journal.  i can't think of a more deserving person to do something nice for today.  you can vote five times today, from each computer or mobile device.  i'm sure your karma will increase if you vote from all your devices!


legwear:  black tights & black boots--april chill

looking forward: to making artichokes & homemade mayo with lula

inspiration:  trees in blossom juxtaposed against mountains shrouded in low april clouds.

p.s.--early tomorrow morning (i have to be there at 6.55 a.m.) i'll be on byu radio talking about poetry for national poetry month.  here's how to listen, from the program assistant:

Hi Lara!
The Morning Show is so excited for you to come by tomorrow to talk about Poetry! If your fans want to listen in, here is how:
1) BYURadio (not Classical 89) satellite #143
2) Stream it (via the link) The show is on LIVE from 7-8:00 am, or listen to the rebroadcast, from 9-10:00 am http://www.byuradio.org/about/
3) Download the BYURadio app for your smart phone.

looking forward: first week of spring

forsythia inside

 crazy how one day i looked outside and there a was a forsythia bush causing all kinds of bright yellow drama.  a flaming bush, the head of a troll doll--flourescence surrounded by brown. 

forsythia outside

here's what i'm looking foward to for my first week of spring:

1)  a renewed commitment to my daily poetic practice.  i'm gonna devise something cool, enjoyable, and new.  i always want to know what kinds of daily practices other people have in their lives--artistic, spiritual, or simply hedonistic.  so if anyone wants to share, you'll make my day.

2)  cooking dutch.  the sunday ny times was irritating the crap out of me today with its full page feature on evita and its devotion to mid-cult literature by annoying white dudes the book review (could anything be less aesthetically or culturally relevant than a revival of evita?), but there are two white dudes at the times who never fail to NOT disappoint.  bill cunningham and mark bittman.  i think it's because they are interested in the people, not merely the elite.  of course, being situated in ny means you have to take into account the elite, but those two dudes don't forget that ny is made up of mostly non-elite, and most trends are formed by people on the street.  bittman's article today on dutch comfort food, a people's food if ever there was such a cuisine, is an example of this.  i want to make the caramelized endive soup and the buttermilk pudding.  okay.  you might say that caramelized endive is a little elitist, but the preparation and ingredients remain basic and pretty inexpensive, and a buttermilk pudding with raisins is pure dutch milkmaid.

3) tights giveaway!  i can't be clever, you might say.  or i can't wear holey tights, you might say.  but let me ask:  are you sure?  or, let me ask this:  who in your life would think you were the raddest uncle, mother, friend, sister, piano teacher, etc, etc. if you gave them a pair of holey tights? who?  i'm sure there's someone.  so leave GITP a comment!  we heart you and your comments.

4) going to the shoulder doctor to figure out how to fix it.  i hope.

5)  catching up on all my work so i can take spring break with my kids by a pool in arizona, surrounded by cousins, tamales, spring desert flowers, cacti, and mostly just a lot of sun.

6) our first guest boy blogger tomorrow.  he's uber-rad.  can't wait.

7)  the premiere of c's piece, how to be spring for tenor and chamber orch.  i wrote the text and will read sections of the poem during each movement.  okay, i'm not a soprano soloist in front of an orchestra, but  this is probably the closest i'll ever get.  pretend diva for a day. & plus it's a piece about spring.

8)  reading my poetry students' first poems of the term.

9)  hanging out with my boise nephews and my parents.

10) watching rude boy with c.  it came in the mail from netflix and we haven't had a chance to watch it yet.  hoping to get some rad inspiration from the clash.

 i heart lucille clifton a lot.  don't you?

spring song

the green of Jesus

is breaking the ground

and the sweet

smell of delicious Jesus

is opening the house and

the dance of Jesus music

has hold of the air and

the world is turning

in the body of Jesus and

the future is possible

looking forward: sunday night simpson's watching with the fam

legwear:  not sure yet

inspiration: bright yellow blossoms

DOUBLE tights give away, girls and boys

holey tights for a warm day, or layered over another pair for a chilly day

sheer blue micro-netted tights with a wild rose pattern

1)  enter by 31 march at midnight by leaving a comment.

2)  we're changing up the rules a bit for march.  this is not a random drawing--this contest is MERIT BASED.  the cleverest comment wins,  and "cleverness" will be determined by an esteemed guest judge selected from our pool of rad guest bloggers.

3)  you can enter once for each pair of tights.  we will select two winners.

i went to the sock store looking for daffodil yellow tights (in honor of julie) for spring, but alas there were no yellow tights to be found.  i did find the beautiful pair of royal blue tights on the right (sheer with a micro-netting and a wild rose pattern) and, as i was exiting the store, saw those rad holey tights on the mannequin.  on a whim, i went back in and bought them.

i thought they looked like they could give you some room to breathe.

like you wouldn't have to sit down on the sidewalk (like julie did last week) in front of the guggenheim and peel them off when the day warmed up.

or, as we are prone to freak spring snowstorms in utah, you could layer them over some other rad patterned tight if you encountered a winter spring day.

plus, as we've discussed, march seems to be a difficult month for a lot of us generally.  like hairdresser on fire--check her out.  to get through march this year, she's accessorizing her hair every day.  to get through march i'm cooking like a crazy woman.    to get through march. . .  i'll let julie tell you herself how she's getting through her particularly hellish march.

march is an exciting and dreary, sunny and gray, helluva bi-polar month.  it has holes in it.  one day, a magritte blue sky.  one day a freezing windy rain.  one day optimism, one day dread that you'll never make it to summer.

but you will.  and you'll be extra rad in a pair of GITP tights.

and we'll feel extra rad reading your comments.

so write something for our comments section, babies!  write!

list of spring: e.e. cummings--goblin valley--the anti-sonnet

we go to goblin valley every winter when it's just about spring

i'm in list mode.

lists seem very spring-like to me, when sustained thought becomes suddenly

uncontrollably

difficult,

and the schizophrenia of the season is reflected in the skipping from thought to thought, the move from thick grey tights covered in over the knee stockings and boots (what i wore last night to a friend's snowy cabin in provo canyon)

to bare legs and a skirt (what i wore yesterday afternoon)

to tights and sandals and a dress (what i wore to church this morning)

within one twenty four hour period--

here are ten things that mean spring's coming in utah:

1)  a day trip to goblin valley

2) teaching my two-week locavore cooking class at walden--here's a post from our blog from march 2010

3) e.e. cummings ((the very anti-sonnet of him))

(speaking of sonnets, read this hilarious onion article on the n.e.a.'s funding of the 1.3 million dollar sonnet)

4) eggs, asparagus, and strawberries

5) planning our annual spring break trip to visit my peeps in arizona

6) last year i planted a garden for the first time--so maybe gardening will become a permanent feature of spring? i'm not so good at this, but maybe i'll become?

7) writing more--i get feverish with ideas this time of year

8) sandals--i start looking at sandals obsessively--my favorite footwear--so glad we can wear them with tights these days--a perfect hybrid of seasons--and the girls in locavore always start busting them out during our two-week march inter-session--

9) snowy mountains/sunny valley--i love a sunny day over a white mountain

10) shedding punctuation--trying to avoid the closure of the period in favor of the freedom of the dickinsonian dash, the cummingsesque airy spaces -- the freedom of the bare leg at last--

                    --something like     

                                                  this    cummings   here:

[in Just-]

[in Just-]

in Just-

spring          when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far          and             wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles

far

and

wee

legwear:  charcoal tights, black wedge sandals

inspirations:  dashes and air

looking forward:  after church road trip to some small utah town