Everything And Nothing

There is Pleasure in the Pathless Woods

By Lord Byron

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 
There is a rapture on the lonely shore, 
There is society, where none intrudes, 
By the deep sea, and music in its roar: 
I love not man the less, but Nature more, 
From these our interviews, in which I steal 
From all I may be, or have been before, 
To mingle with the Universe, and feel 
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

 

Three Louisiana state parks and one in Mississippi have scheduled New Year's Day hikes in a national program to start the year outdoors and active. Find out more here.

New Year Resolve

by  May Sarton

The time has come
To stop allowing the clutter
To clutter my mind
Like dirty snow,
Shove it off and find
Clear time, clear water.

Time for a change,
Let silence in like a cat
Who has sat at my door
Neither wild nor strange
Hoping for food from my store
And shivering on the mat.

Let silence in.
She will rarely speak or mew,
She will sleep on my bed
And all I have ever been
Either false or true
Will live again in my head.

For it is now or not
As old age silts the stream,
To shove away the clutter,
To untie every knot,
To take the time to dream,
To come back to still water.

[ via Writer's Almanac ]

How to tell a leap of faith from a stupid decision

While flipping through the January 2013 O magazine and reading the perfunctory "new year, new you" stories, this sub-headline of Martha Beck's jumped out at me: "How to Tell a Leap of Faith from a Stupid Decision." The slant of the story is that most of the time we don't take chances because of fear, but, I suppose, the advice holds just as true for those of us who tend to leap first and look later. (I can still hear my third-grade teacher, Sister Rose, shaking her head sympathetically and whispering in my ear, "Look before you leap, little one. Look before you leap!")

She points out that it's not unusual for humans to base almost every decision on fear, but "fear-based decisions lead to hollow victories at best, endless regret at worst. Only love-based decisions create lasting happiness."

I was just flipping through a magazine (albeit electronically) a few seconds before, so it took a minute or so for that one to sink in... And then I started thinking about the big decisions I made and tried to determine if they were fear-based or love-based. (And she's the expert and she even admits it's sometimes hard to tell the difference at the time.)

The trick is imagining your world with no fear and making sure the decision is not made on fear of rejection or poverty or looking dumb (or even, sometimes, the fear of succeeding, really).

Need some help? Here's some leaps of faith to get you started in the new year. Take one:

• Leap of Faith (the play)
• Leap of Faith (the movie)
• Leap of Faith (the autobiography)
• Leap of Faith (the song)
• Leap of Faith (the bungee rental)
• Leap of Faith (the TV series)

 

Remembrance of Things Passed...and Things to Come

Gretchen and me

On the way to see Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh open for John Prine last night, my husband asked, "So how did y'all originally know each other?"

There was a time when I would have covered my mouth and mumbled "on  my blog" or "on  Twitter" because of the strange looks I got - but, now, I have made so many great friends over the years, I say it more like a badge of honor. (And, honestly, I find so many more new cool people online I don't know yet, I've decided that there's just no way to meet all of the cool people before I die and I'll just have to make peace with it and enjoy the ones I have the time to know.)

I don't know exactly when, but at some time in 2007, I received an email from Gretchen that said red was her favorite color, she loved chandeliers, she preferred the window seat to the aisle...and she also had completing Remembrance of Things Past  on her Life List. When I started my Proust of the Day plodding through the book, she finally broke down and wrote to me. She told me she was a singer/songwriter/musician and travelled all the time, but she enjoyed my blog and always tried to keep up with my shenanigans.

Of course, I was beyond flattered. The woman who wrote many country hits for others and was writing herself many folk hits enjoyed MY blog. (I did write way more back then. Eight blog posts a day. Every day. Not quite on that schedule post-Facebook and -Google+ and writing for work blogs all week.)

Gretchen, Barry and Nigel

Through Gretchen, I met Barry Walsh (her boyfriend at the time and now her husband). And shortly after we all began emailing back and forth, he was coming to Madison, MS, with The Boxtops to play for a concert. We became fast friends too, and I even got to visit with both of them (and their dog, Nigel!) en route to their honeymoon in New Orleans. 

Over the years, through newlsetters and emails and Facebooking and tweeting, I've got to know both of them fairly well. I have read about their kids and their families, so it was especially meaningful to me that I brought my son last night for his first concert...to see Gretchen and Barry! (I told them they are now my son's Night Ranger. And the only reason my father let me go is that I won tickets from the local radio station.) 

If you want to get to know Gretchen and Barry too, sign uf for Gretchen's e-newsletter, like her page on Facebook, and follow her and Barry on Twitter. I have collected all of their songs available on Spotify below in a special Gretchen & Barry Playlist!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

When I took my son to see The Beasts of the Southern Wild, we saw a preview for The Perks of Being a Wallfower. The preview said it was based on a book. It seemed geared towards a teen audience, so I told him we should read the book together and then go see the movie. He rolled his eyes. (After reading the book, not sure I'm quite ready to discuss some of the themes with my 12-year-old son anyways.)

The book is an interesting read. If J.D. Salinger and Nick Hornby had a love child, this book would be it. Music is almost a third character throughout the book. Music and books. (To Kill a Mockingbird, This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, A Separate Peace, The Catcher in the Rye, On the Road, Naked Lunch, Walden, The Fountainhead, The Stranger, Peter Pan, Hamlet.)

And for those days when you need to remember how you felt in that moment, when you were infinite, here is a The Perks of Being a Wallflower playlist - a combo of all of the songs mentioned in the book and songs from the movie's soundtrack too. (I hope I get a gold star!)

A Diamond in the Rough

Shawn Colvin had a lot of great songs, but, sadly, none about a girl named Shawn, as I lamented many years ago. But, since we share the same (weird) first name, I've always felt a kinship regardless.  She added author to her singer/songwriter title with Diamond in the Rough.

I enjoyed the book, and I collected all of the music she mentioned in the book (including her own) in this Spotify playlist. Enjoy!

Now I understand...

I love claw machines. I don't care what they say. 

It's not rigged. It just requires teamwork. Family teamwork. One person at the claw...and a spotter on the side to overcome the distortion of the mirror.

It's only "rigged" when the claw sucks. Which happens often. You put your money in and the claw couldn't pick up a bale of cotton candy, much less a giant SpongeBob.

"In a way, it’s like gambling, but with the added detriment that the player might just be terrible at gauging distance."

It all makes perfect sense now! 

You just leave all the goodies for us spatially challenged gamblers, suckers! ;)

Now Open...

I know that most think Instagram is to photography as frozen dinners are to fine dining. Go ahead. Call me bourgeois...then go and visit my new InstaCanvas Gallery! ;)

The Kindness of Strangers

I'm excited to share that the Black Rose Theatre in Brandon is performing my one-act play, The Kindness of Strangers, July 12-15 during a night of one acts.

The play is a kind of love letter to Streetcar Named Desire and New Orleans - two of my favorite things!

My son was in Black Rose's production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown at the beginning of the year. I spent a lot of time in the theatre. Sitting. Waiting. Sitting and waiting. And pacing.

At the end, I decided to use the time to write myself instead of just sitting there. I wrote the play in a week while sitting in the back row of the same theatre it will be performed. (Because I found out about the one-act play competion the week before.) It was a very rough draft.

I'm very excited but scared to death. Auditions for the one acts are June 18th and 19th... so if you've been wanting to try out for a play, come on out and be scared WITH me! ;)

The play is attached below. I have to come up with a set that can be moved easily too. If anyone has any ideas of how to create a bar scene inexpensively that can be moved quickly and easily, let me know!

Download Bluemoon

Five Favorite Things

My five favorite things for this week...

1. Google Plus - I love it! It's like the early days of Twitter. Lots of great conversations and I've even met some cool new folks too!
2. Spotify - My playlist addiction is in full force again...making them AND listening to others too.
3. Sopapilla Cheesecake - This recipe tastes like King Cake. My son and I are already plotting our Mardi Gras version with green, yellow and purple sprinkles on top. But, regardless, it's perfect just the way it is already!
4. Dark Chocolate Banana Babies - Yum! I just found these recently. I know I could make my own too, but I don't know if they'd be much better than these!
5. My parents - This coming Saturday I'm taking my son for a weeklong visit with his grandparents. (I'm picking him up the next Saturday. It's a lot of driving.)  But I'm so thankful he has grandparents who he wants to spend a week with and who are excited to be spending a week with him!

Dinner Tonight

Sweet-Hot Chutney-Grilled Chicken

This recipe was courtesy of Serious Eats. And I couldn't find mango chutney at the grocery store, so we used a mango salsa instead. I think the chutney would have clung better to the chicken, but it was still good. (It does have a bit of heat though!) Quinn threw some ears of corn on the grill too with the chicken and I made zucchini fries too!

Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

This recipe, courtesy of Confections of a Foodie Bride, is a great way to sneak in some veggies with the kids. (If your kids are like my son, dipping anything seems to make it taste better too.)

Philly Cheesesteak Pizza

We had a cookout on Sunday and had steak left over, so I was searching for something different besides steak and eggs or steak quesadillas to make with the yummy leftovers. So, here it is...

This recipe + this recipe =

(Shawn's) Philly Cheesesteak Pizza

2 cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
Ranch dressing
12 slices of provolone cheese
Leftover steak (about 2 cups, sliced thinly)
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, thinly sliced
10 oz. baby bellas, sliced
4 c. mozzarella cheese
Steak seasoning (I used McCormick's Montreal Brand seasoning)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Unroll crescent rolls into rectangles. Place in ungreased 11 1/2 inch x 16 1/2 inch jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Press dough over the bottom and 1/2 inch up sides to form crust.  Bake at 375 oven for 11 to 13 minutes or just until golden brown.

While the crust is baking, lightly saute the onion, mushrooms, and green pepper with a small amount of butter or margarine and garlic. (Do not over cook.) Drain and set aside.

Drizzle Ranch dressing on top of crust and spread out with knife. Layer the provolone cheese on top. Spread the steak around and then the veggies on top. Put the mozzarella cheese on top of that and sprinkle with steak seasoning.

Return to oven for 3-6 more minutes until cheese is melted.  Serve immediately.  Makes 12 main dish servings or 48 appetizers.

Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Tomatoes

This recipe + this recipe =

(Shawn's) Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Tomatoes

1 lb asparagus, trimmed
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 tsp minced fresh garlic
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place the asparagus and tomatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Mix together the minced garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and drizzle over the asparagus and tomatoes. Toss to coat completely.

Roast for 25 minutes, until tender but still crisp.

After removing sprinkle with the goat cheese. Serve immediately.

I served it with Sesame Beef. Yum!

Friday Family Fiesta Night

We had this for dinner and dessert tonight. It was all delicious. And a fun Friday Family Fiesta Night.

This recipe is courtesy of Real Mom Kitchen blog. The basic recipe could be easily changed up, and I've already been dreaming up Mediterranean Pizzas and Greek Pizzas. I think cream cheese would be a great base. But this Mexican rendition...I KNOW it works. It was delicious.

Dessert was Sopapilla Cheesecake (another Real Mom recipe). And my son, who loves cheesecake in any and every form, says that this one is his favorite yet. Quentin says this tastes a lot like king cake - so at Mardi Gras we're gonna try it with green, yellow, and purple sprinkles instead of cinnamon sugar!

I didn't plan this, but, somehow, tonight, I have used more Pillsbury Crescent Rolls than I have in the last five years combined! (Obviously Real Moms use refrigerated crescent rolls often!) ;)

I found both of these recipes on Pinterest. Want to see more recipes? Browse through my Yummo and Let Them Eat Cake pins (where these recipes wait permanently now).

It wasn't cheating. It was research...

I can't have candy, unless I've never tried it before and it's a review for this blog. And it's on sale. And last week, the coconut M&Ms were 2/$1 at Kroger. I had been avoiding them for a while. I'm not a big fan of coconut and I just couldn't even figure out how M&Ms could possibly taste coconut successfully.

But, luckily, I was wrong. These taste like mini Almond Joy bars. And they are much softer on the inside than the other M&Ms, so I'm guessing they would do well in baking and in ice cream. (I love mini M&Ms in ice cream but they do get hard as a rock!)

I think I'll have to try this Chocolate Coconut M&M Cookie recipe and report back!

Angel Food Cake with Strawberries

Quinn's father loves angel food cake - and I don't. Which is not really a problem except that I obviously tend to lean towards making sweets I love and I had never made an angel food cake.

Well, now I have. I used this recipe, and, from what people tell me who like angel food cake and think it tastes yummy, it was delicious. (I had some too. It tasted like angel food cake.) ;)

I did think the strawberry sauce I made up on my own was pretty good though. The container was about a pint but seemed a bit larger. I cut the strawberries up in small bites and then put them in a pan with 1/3 cup sugar over medium heat. After they got a little mushy I added a tsp of vanilla and a tbsp of butter and served it warm over the angel food cake.

Happy (sort of) birthday, Lady Liberty!

On this day in 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor. Formally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World," she was a gift from France, and was funded by the French people.

Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi first had the idea for a monument to commemorate the friendship between the United States and France in 1865, but he didn't begin actual construction until the early 1870s; he chose Bedloe's Island — now called Liberty Island — because the statue could welcome the boats full of immigrants, who would pass by the statue on the way to Ellis Island. He was delighted to learn that the island was the property of the United States government, which meant all the states — not just New York — could claim equal ownership in the statue.

Lady Liberty is made of sheets of copper over a framework of steel supports; the framework was designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame. She was constructed in France and then was disassembled to make her journey to New York, where she was reassembled to her full height of 151 feet, 1 inch. Mounted on her pedestal, she stands 305 feet tall. Her torch was wired for electrical power in 1916. The seven rays of her crown represent the seven seas and the seven continents; the broken shackles at her feet evoke freedom from slavery and oppression; and the tablet in her left hand represents the law. Bartholdi completed her right arm and torch, as well as her head, before the rest of the statue was designed, and the arm went on display in 1876 as part of the United States Centennial celebrations. Liberty's face was modeled after Bartholdi's mother.

Emma Lazarus's oft-quoted sonnet, "The New Colossus" (1883), which was written to raise money for construction of the statue's pedestal, is engraved on a brass plaque inside it:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

[ via The Writer's Almanac ]

Asparagus Roll-Ups

 
Image via Fresh Fridge

I pinned this recipe to my Yummo folderr on www.pinterest.com and tried it tonight. It was delicious! I was going to try it with pancetta instead of ham, but the Kroger in Madison didn't have any. They did have thin-sliced smoked pork so I used that instead. I made a few changes to the original recipe...

Asparagus Roll-Ups

Yield: 8 roll-ups

1 bunch asparagus spears, cut down to about 3 1/2-inches with the head
1 (8 oz) package refrigerated crescent rolls
1-2 tablespoons honey mustard
8 thin slices of smoked pork (available near bacon and Canadian bacon)

Preheat the oven to 375˚F.  Spray a  baking sheet with nonstick spray.

Saute the asparagus in a dash of olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook the pork about 2-3 min. on each side.  Meanwhile, separate the crescent roll dough into 8 triangles and lay flat on the baking sheet.  Spread a thin layer of the mustard on each triangle.

Wrap two or three spears together in one piece of pork, then place at the wide end of a dough triangle and roll up the dough.  Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until slightly golden brown.  Serve warm.

(We had it for supper. I served two as a meal with creamed spinach, sauteed mushrooms and sliced tomatoes. YUM!)

Middle Class Blues

Photo by Flickr/Quinn Dombrowski

by Dennis O'Driscoll

He has everything.
A beautiful young wife.
A comfortable home.
A secure job.
A velvet three-piece suite.
A metallic-silver car.
A mahogany cocktail cabinet.
A rugby trophy.
A remote-controlled music centre.
A set of gold clubs under the hallstand.
A fair-haired daughter learning to walk.

What he is afraid of most
and what keeps him tossing some nights
on the electric underblanket,
listening to the antique clock
clicking with disapproval from the landing,
are the stories that begin:
He had everything.
A beautiful young wife.
A comfortable home.
A secure job.
Then one day.

Shower Smoothie



Celebrities happily drop $405 on the Ultimate Total Body Hydra-Dermabrasion Resurfacing treatment at the Ole Henriksen Face/Body Spa in Los Angeles. Ole adapted the recipe for Redbook magazine — and it costs only $10. (Much closer to my pay grade.)

Shower Smoothie

2 oz wet coffee grounds
2 oz Epsom salts
1 ripe avocado, mashed
2 oz plain Greek yogurt
Sunflower seed oil

In a medium bowl, mix coffee grounds and salts. In another, mix avocado and yogurt. Combine the contents of both bowls, stirring thoroughly. Mix in just enough oil to make a smooth — not runny — paste. Now step into the shower, get wet, and turn off the water. Here comes the fun part: “Using the entire palm of each hand, vigorously scrub your body from feet to neck for several minutes,” Henriksen says. When you’re done, just rinse and glow. Bonus: “You’ll feel an immediate lifting and constricting of the skin from the coffee — and incredible smoothness too.

 

Perfectly Summer Dinner

Something about 100 degree temperatures makes you want to eat differently. For me, it brings back childhood boat days of small, light snacks all day (rather than one big meal). Last night, we threw together an admittedly strange combo that just worked somehow.

We started out with this fabulous Watermelon and Feta Salad. (The picture doesn't do it justice - and the watermelon and red onion just do something wonderful to each other.)

We hadn't broke out the fondue pot in a while, so we decided on cheese fondue as the main course, with steamed artichokes on the side. The last time I made fondue I used a recipe that had a strong wine taste and neither of us liked it much, so I tried this recipe (which has no wine at all). It was definitely more to our taste, and it's very basic, so now that we know we like it we can start adding our own touches.

We have grilled and stuffed artichokes and not found any keeper recipes in any of them. So we decided to go back to the basics and just steam the artichokes. (Thanks to the Aiming Low blog for some basic guidelines.) I served it with just a basic butter dipping sauce (1 stick butter melted, 2 tbsp lemon juice, & 1/2 tsp minced garlic).

Some times, when you try all new things for dinner (OK, most of the time), at least one thing is not going to turn out well, but this was just one of those perfectly summer dinners that all came together perfectly!

Cataloging local finds with Pinterest

 

We had to get the oil changed in our cars today (to get ready for our trip to Point Clear, Ala., next week), so, as usual, we walked over to the Lakeland Yard & Garden Center right next door while we were waiting. (And, as usual, we spent too much money on plants. Can't seem to pass a bookstore or a garden center without spending money these days! Sheesh.)

I played with the Pinterest iphone app and tried out its feature of taking pictures and pinning local items. I can see that it would be very useful to help other friends locally find cool things and to remember things that you might want to go back and get later. (I helped a friend make decisions about potential office decorations once and we took pictures and posted them on Flickr, but using the pinterest app would have been much simpler!)

It would also be useful as a local foodie guide. Take pictures and post them. And make the board open so others could post them too!

My only complaint is that sporadically the app just shuts down. It seems to happen more often if you're taking pictures within the app (rather than using the iphone camera and finding the pic in the library).

I hope to use the app more in the coming weeks! Stay tuned! (And see all of my finds at Lakeland Yard & Gard Center here.)

It's time for a Pinterest intervention too...

It's all Rebecca's fault. She sent me the Pinterest invite...probably just knowing that I wouldn't come up for air for weeks!

 

For a girl in love with everything and nothing, it's like a kind of 2.0 (second) home for me! It's basically visual bookmarking, but it feels like a community of folks who all love fashion and food and funky and fun.

And since I'm spending so much time there (instead of here), I guess I'll just have to show you here what I'm doing there from time to time.

 

Here's my Hats Off board. (Don't roll your eyes...you know you SO want that Yoda cap!)

So hat's off to Pinterest for collecting so many fabulous ideas in one place. And hats off to Rebecca Benson for sending me the invite (even if it has led to too many nights of saying, "How could it possibly be midnight already?!").

It's time for an intervention...

Quinn has been on a spray paint rampage outside - pots, wicker furniture, trellises, birdhouses, birdbaths, signs. It's obviously contagious because I've started on the inside now! ;) But not with a new obsession...I have had an owl thing for a while now.

I got this owl at Forget Me Nots in Brandon for $6.

Then spent almost as much for this metallic paint (just 'cause we hadn't tried metallic spray paint yet).

And voila...

I like it...and, as Quinn pointed out, it's now "hand-painted" (as I held the can in my hand and all!). ;)

Tomorrow...bookends!

E&N Notebook, Thursday, April 21

• Move over, man in the moon. Now there's more to see...thanks to the first detailed lunar-surface map.
• A lovely lullaby CD created to help some kids who really need it
• The science of tornadoes
• Magic Fudge
• Enter The Age of Man
• In case you ever wondered what a "real estate novelist" is while singing Piano Man badly too
• The cast of Dr. Who reads celebrity tweets
• What makes music expressive?

God Says Yes To Me

by Kaylin Haught
from The Palm of Your Hand

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

Boulevard du Montparnasse

by Mary Jo Salter
from Sunday Skaters

Once, in a doorway in Paris, I saw
the most beautiful couple in the world.
They were each the single most beautiful thing in the world.
She could have been sixteen, perhaps; he twenty.
Their skin was the same shade of black: like a shiny Steinway.
And they stood there like a four-legged instrument
of a passion so grand one could barely imagine them
ever working, or eating, or reading magazine.
Even they could hardly believe it.
Her hands gripped his belt loops, as they found each other's eyes,
because beauty like this must be held onto,
could easily run away on the power
of his long, lean thighs; or the tiny feet of her laughter.
I thought: now I will write a poem,
set in a doorway on the Boulevard du Mont Parnasse,
in which the brutishness of time
rates only a mention; I will say simply —
that if either one should ever love another,
a greater beauty shall not be the cause.

E&N Notebook, Friday, April 8, 2011

 

• Spring is Fireball season
• "Glory Days": A Playlist for The Opening of Baseball Season 
• Sitting down with Frank Gehry 
• How to think like Shakespeare 
• Watch the ENTIRE recent NYC LCD Soundsytem concert on YouTube for FREE 
• The future of libraries in the e-book age 
• Richard Branson launches Virgin Oceanic: deep-sea exploring submarines

Spicy Black Bean Soup with Limed Up Shrimp

Supper tonight. Yum!

It's courtesy of some random search I was doing (I'm sure on something totally unrelated) which led me somehow to sweet tea in texas blog. I did not use 16 jumbo shrimp because I'm cheap. I used 1 lb of medium shrimp ('cause 16 just ain't enough!). I did no "arranging" of the shrimp besides trying to get MORE in my bowl, so I added a dollop of Greek yogurt and some parsley on top for garnish instead. I also used Bush's Seasoned Black Beans instead of just plain black beans 'cause that's what I like. (And if you're looking for South Beach Diet recipes, this would work on any phase!)

Spicy Black Bean Soup with Limed Up Shrimp

5 Tbsp EVOO
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 Tbps chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
Salt & black pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Zest & juice of 2 limes
1/4 Cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
16 jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined, & butterflied
2 14 oz cans black beans, rinsed & drained
1 14 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
5 Cups chicken stock
1/2 Cup Fat Free 1/2 & 1/2
Hot Sauce, to taste

Heat a medium soup pot over medium-high heat with 2 Tbps of the EVOO (twice around the pan). Add the onions, three fourths of the garlic, the chili powder, cumin, salt, & pepper. Cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the onions are tender, stirring frequently.

While the onions are cooking, in a shallow dish combine the remaining garlic, the remaining 3 Tbps of EVOO, the red pepper flakes, lime zest, parsley, & a little salt. Add the shrimp and coat them thoroughly in the mixture. Let the shrimp sit while you move forward with the spicy black bean soup.

Add the black beans to the skillet with the onions. With a potato masher or the back of a rubber spatula, smash the equivalent of half of the beans – the mashed-up beans will thicken the soup. Add the fire roasted tomatoes, chicken stock, and heavy cream (or Fat Free 1/2 & 1/2) to the pot, stir, and turn the heat up a bit to bring the soup to a bubble. Once at a bubble, turn the heat back down to a simmer and let it cook for 10-12 minutes. Give the pot a stir every now & then to ensure that it’s not sticking.

While the soup is simmering, preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once it’s hot, add the shrimp & cook them for 2-3 minutes on the first side. Flip the shrimp, add the lime juice, and continue to cook them for 2-3 more minutes or until the shrimp are opaque.

Taste the soup & adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper, & hot sauce. To serve it, place a few ladles full of the spicy black bean soup in shallow soup bowls, and arrange 4 shrimp standing up in the center of each bowl.

 

The sweet tea in texas blog got the recipe from Rachael Ray's Express Meals. Here's a few more I found online to try from the cookbook:

• Cowboy Spaghetti
• Smoky Sweet Potato Chicken Soup
• Not-sagna Pasta Toss
• Pasta with Broccoli & Sausage with Ricotta Surprise
• Bacon-Wrapped Halibut with Seared Cherry Tomato Sauce & Smashed Peas
• Chicken Dumpling & Noodle Soup
• Chicken & Egg Sammies Deluxe
• Chicken with Scallion Lime Sauce & Carrot Rice
• Turkey Burgers with Peppers and Onions
• Wafflewiches
• Chicken, Chorizo & Hominy Soup
• Balsamic Chicken, White Beans & Wilted Spinach
• Bacon & Creamy Ranch Chicken Burgers
• Chicken with Apple Mushroom Sauce
• Italian Style Sloppy Joes
• Spinach & Zucchini Calzones
• Steak Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette
• Turkey Sausage Burgers with Peppers & Onions & Chips
• Chicken with a Sweet Corn & Pepper Saute
• Bacon Bit Burgers with Steakhouse Fried Onions & Spinach Salad
   

love is a place and yes is a word

love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places

yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds

-e.e. cummings

[ via 37 days ]

E&N Notebook, Wednesday, March 30, 2011

 

• It's time to talk to your kids... about Crossroads!
• MIT neuroscientists explain 'Proustian effect' 
• Free Grateful Dead concert archive 
• iPhone: The World's Most Popular Camera (via @rM1L)
• Free admissions to national parks in April 
• Books Will Survive The 'Use And Abuse of Literature'
• Enhancing music albums for the ipad 
• Friends don't let friends use IE6 
• NASA nixes James Cameron Mars 3D camera 
• A first look inside the Virgin Galactic spaceship

Zuchinni Frittata

The roasted veggies are so good, you'll (almost) wonder why you didn't just eat them like this instead of putting them in a frittata!

4 cups Roasted Zucchini, Onion, and Peppers
1 teaspoon olive oil
10 large eggs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish pie plate with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Drain any liquid from leftover roasted zucchini, onion, and peppers; place in pie plate.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with grated Parmesan cheese, coarse salt, and ground pepper; pour over vegetables.

Bake until top is golden and center is set, 35 to 40 minutes; cool 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

[ via Martha Stewart ]

E&N Notebook, Saturday, March 26, 2011

• Jazz gets its own stamp
• NASA is looking for a few good high school kids
• Elizabeth Taylor was 15 minutes late for her own funeral (a request she had outlined in her will)
• What are your favorite one-dish recipes?
• Last Oprah episode to air May 25
• 15 facts about Starbucks that will blow your mind
• Coffee drinkers go mobile at Starbucks
• First woman running air campaign
• Elizabeth Dole on women taking voting for granted
• The New York Philharmonic opens its digital archives
• David Lynch directs Duran Duran concert in L.A.

E&N Notebook, Friday, March 25, 2011

See all of my other pics from Savannah here.

• All-Time Greatest Toys (Baby Alive!)
• Transit schedules through Foursquare 
• Tommy Lee's Travel Show for Syfy  (When Larry the Cable Guy got hired by The History Channel, Tommy decided to get it on the TV action!)
• Delta lets you check in on Facebook 
• WTF?! 
• Most Americans have regrets about romance 
• Google launches quarterly magazine 
• April is Grilled Cheese Month. Plan now for your celebration!

The Writer in the Window Lives On

 

In 1984, hopelessly blocked on a novel, Georgelle Hirliman hit on the idea of setting up shop with her typewriter in a Santa Fe storefront. Beside her, she placed a sign:

Help Me Cure My Writer’s Block — Give Me a Topic.

In Manhattan she wrote in the windows of The Village Voice, Shakespeare & Co. on the Upper West Side and B. Dalton on Fifth Avenue, among other places, sitting daily for eight hours at a stretch.

Though Ms. Hirliman passed away in 2010, her inspiration lives on now through a New Yorker now living in Savannah, Lauren DeRosa. She occupies the window at Paris Market on Broughton St.

I talked to her briefly in the store. I didn't understand the history of her "project" at that time. It just intrigued me.

A writer in a window. Are you on display, like a zoo or a mannequin? Seeking to answer questions in an artsy store, are you part of the block or part of the writer? But there were beautiful words everywhere (whatever the answer).

She asked me if I had a question for her to answer, but, honestly, I saw so many pictures in my head...words escaped me.

How much is that writer in the window?  “I stopped answering that,” Ms. Hirliman told The Albuquerque Journal in 2000. “Nobody paid.”

Have a Good Hair Day

Mix 2 egg whites with 1/4 cup yogurt. Work into your hair and let sit 30 minutes. Rinse with cool water.

[ via Food Network magazine, April 2011 ]

The Noodle Effect

Does anyone else (besides me) get obsessed with a new word? Maybe it's the lack of pasta in my life lately, but I read about "spaghettification" on World Wide Words this morning and it's just intrigued me all day.

Michael Quinion writes:

 A story on the BBC website a few days ago introduced me to the scientific term SPAGHETTIFICATION. It has nothing to do with Italian cuisine but refers to what happens to an object that is caught in the gravitational field of a black hole. Some theories hold that it is stretched vertically and compressed horizontally until it looks like a length of spaghetti. The term has been around for at least a decade and is said to derive from a comment by Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time that an astronaut passing through the event horizon of a black hole would be "stretched like spaghetti".

What word has intrigued you lately?

Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub

1 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. sweet almond oil
2 vitamin E capsules
1/2 t. vanilla extract

Combine brown sugar and almond oil in a mixing bowl. Pierce capsules with a knife or cut in half with kitchen scissors. Empty oil into sugar mixture and discard capsules. Add vanilla and stir well to combine. Store in an airtight container. Makes about one cup. (Add a drizzle of honey for extra moisturizing!)

Pour into a jar with a rubber seal, add the label above and surprise someone special!

[ via Recipes for Kindness and Gooseberry Patch Blog ]

 

Baked Eggs

I have been sifting through my thrift-store cookbooks for items to feature on my new blog, Recollected Recipes. But typing all of those recipe cards (and reading them) made me hungry, so I tried a new recipe from Cane River Cuisine this morning.

6 tsp butter
6 eggs
6 tsp grated Cheddar cheese
6 tsp crumbled bacon
6 tbsp minced parsley
Salt and Pepper
Worcestershire
Paprika
Tabasco or Sriracha

Using a six-cup muffin tin, place 1 tsp butter in each cup. Gently break egg into each cup and sprinkle with 1 tsp cheese, 1 tsp cooked bacon, and 1 tsp parsley. Add salt, pepper, Worcestershire, paprika and hot sauce to taste. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 min. or until eggs are done until desired consistency. Serves 4 to 6.

Note: I cooked for 15 min. and the yolk was about the consistency of a hard-boiled egg, so if you want it runnier you may want to try 10 min. Also, I would spray the muffin tins with non-stick spray next time. I served it over a whole wheat English muffin. Yum!

E&N Notebook, Feb. 23, 2011

 

• I heart Maira Kalman! (And she has two new books out, 13 Words and And the Pursuit of Happiness. Yeah!)
• Barcode to Bibliography - Remember all those hours you used to spend typing up bibliographies?! Sheesh. Kids today...
• Humanity's Endless Quest to Invent a Death Ray: A History 
• A shockingly short history of Hello 
• Smithsonian holds vote on video games for exhibit 
• Blogs wane as young drift to sites like Facebook, Twitter
• Old corks can get a new life! 
• Speaking of cork...did you know that the New York Jets are making wine?

Love One Another

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart.
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

~ Khalil Gibran

E&N Notebook, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011

• NPR Valentines
• 7 free Valentine's Day music playlists
• Valentine's DIY and downloadables

 

My last Valentine's cupcakes, most likely. My son's fifth grade party is tomorrow, but, as I recall, middle school was more buy-someone-a-flower-white-means-friendship than cupcakes.

Mmmmm cupcakes! ;)

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Ride on, Uncle Jim...

 

Mr. James “Jim” C. Stringfellow, a resident of Ft. Valley, GA, and native of Mobile, AL, passed away Friday, February 4, 2011, at his residence. He was 48 years young and had been bravely fighting cancer since August 2010.

Mr. Stringfellow is survived by his loving wife Heike Stringfellow of Ft. Valley, GA; one daughter, Elizabeth Stringfellow of Mobile, AL; two step-sons, Marcus Dusold and Kevin Howell, both of Ft. Valley, GA; three sisters, Lanice Curts and Elizabeth Calametti of Mobile, AL, and Sandra Macey of Denver, CO; two grand children, nieces, nephews, and many loving and devoted friends.

Jim loved riding his Harley with his wife, Heike, along with other friends and members of the Southern Cruisers Motorcycle Club. He was a great cook and entertainer, and often enjoyed having his family and friends over for backyard BBQs. An amateur musician, Jim was a member of the Knee Deep band, who recently recorded their first single “POW/MIA – You’re Not Forgotten."

Jim was kind, giving, always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need, and a faithful Christian. Jim will be missed by all who knew him, and by his devoted dogs Duckie and Zeva.

There will be a memorial motorcycle ride for Jim, details to be announced at a later time. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made directed to the family at P.O. Box 384, Ft. Valley, GA 31030.

E&N Notebook, Friday, Feb. 4

 

• Super Bowl Tech 
• More than 75,000 applicants applied to work at Google during the week after the company's announcement that it will bolster its staff by more than 6,000 in 2011. 
• NASA scientists have identified what they believe to be more than 1,200 new planets, some the size of Earth
• Smaller New Orleans After Katrina, Census Shows - Results of the 2010 census show that the population of New Orleans is 29 percent smaller than it was a decade earlier. 
• Bring your ipad to the big game
• Score: Super Bowl Party Recipe Roundup
• White House hosting a Super Bowl Party
• How An Accidental "Reply All" Email Inspired One Of This Year's Super Bowl Ads
• 7 People Injured, 1 Critically, By Ice Falling From Cowboys Stadium Roof
• The Super Bowl may harm your masculinity
• Designers & Books (50 designers share the books that inspire them)
• The Super Bowl becomes Four Square's first "promoted venue" (and you don't have to be in Dallas to get your Super Bowl badge!)
• How much is the Super Bowl worth?
• Black Eyed Peas keeping Super Bowl playlist super quiet
• Super Bowl playlist
   

E&N Notebook, Thursday, Feb.3

 

• Farrah Fawcett goes to the Smithsonian (or her red swimsuit, at least)
• Code of Best Practices for Fair Use of Poetry (Best practices? Best practices? Where art thou?) 
• How supermarkets play shoppers for suckers 
• Visual search engine Qwiki now available 
• Baby, it's cold outside. Donate used jackets and hats - or organize a coat drive 
• ZombieFit... fitness to survive the apocalypse
• Remember those really ugly photo cutouts you can put on cakes? Well, now you can put them on pizza too! 
• There's now scientific evidence that screw-cap wines taste just as good as corked wines: In an Oregon State University study, the majority of taste testers couldn't tell a difference between the two. (But then, logically, they could taste just as bad as corked wines too, though, right? Regardless, my penchat for Red Tree pinot grigio is now justified!)
• Marky Ramone says The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra are the secret to his pasta sauce (but I still prefer The Gipsy Kings while cooking). "The ingredients can be found on the label, but the real secret is the music I listen to while I'm cooking."

E&N Notebook, Jan. 27, 2010

 

• Kindle singles (including TEDBooks) 
• The Journal of Universal Rejection (It's not you, it's them!) 
• "Bohemian Rhapsody"... on the ukelele 
• Vintage Coffee Bean Bag Chairs 
• The cost-benefit analysis of football injuries 
• Do Nothing for Two Minutes  (I failed.)
• Saints tag available in Mississippi March 1 
• Beyond the Still: The Largest Online Collaborative Film Contest 
• When Strangers Click (HBO is premiering When Strangers Click—a documentary from Food Inc. Robert Kenner about the online search for human connection—on, of course, Valentine’s Day.)

Where's the Beef?

• It's obviously not at Taco Bell either...
• Where's the Beef? (A project by kids explaining farming and types of cattle)
• Where's the beef (from)?
• Where's the beef? Bittman serves up three meaty dishes
• Where's the beef? (One man's search for steak)

Smile...

"Oh, please come find me with your dirty mind.
Hold me down until I cry
With your wicked, secret smile..."

• There's more to a smile than just teeth and lips
• The Duchenne Smile
• How to smile
• "Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been." ~ Mark Twain
• Only 254 days till World Smile Day
• Make A Child Smile (send a card to a sick child)

Baked Cheese Grits

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking grits
1 stick butter
1 stick Velveeta cheese (16 oz.), cubed
3 eggs
Hot sauce (to taste)

Make grits according to package directions, but add the stick of butter to the water amount. Add Velveeta and stir until melted. Whip three eggs in a separate bowl. Add a small amount of grits to eggs so as not to curdle the eggs from the extreme heat. Add eggs to grits. Place in greased 13x9x2 pan and bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees F.

Yummy!