Smoky Spanish-Style Pan Roast - made 28 Jun '10

Shawn said "feel free to make this once a week." :-)

1 lb. small red new potatoes, halved
2 T olive oil
3/4 t salt, divided
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper, divided
3/4 lb. shrimp
1/4 lb. Spanish chorizo, thinly sliced
1 lb. green beans, trimmed
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 c pilsner beer
1/2 t Spanish smoked paprika
2 red bell peppers, cut into thin strips
1/4 c fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Combine potatoes, oil, 1/2 t salt, and 1/4 t black pepper in a large roasting pan, tossing well to coat potatoes. Arrange potatoes in a single layer, cut side down, in pan. Bake at 400 for 15 min. or until potatoes are lightly browned.

3. While potatoes cook (if necessary) peel shrimp, leaving tails intact. Devein shrimp if desired, and set aside.

4. Stir chorizo, beans, garlic, remaining 1/4 t salt and remaining 1/4 t pepper into pan. Bake at 400 for 10 min. Add beer, paprika, and bell pepper, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Nestle shrimp into vegetable mixture. Bake at 400 for 10 min. or until potatoes and green beans are tender and shrimp are done. Sprinkle with fresh parsley leaves.

Serves 4.

Dinner and Ruminations 10 May 2010

Thai red curry sauce, thinned out more
less rice noodles
bamboo shoots
fresh basil
big mushrooms

MajohMemory:the smell of red Thai curry slammed me back to standing in the kitchen,
emptying cartons and savoring the smell of food and more to come.

Three Bean Burgers - made 4/28/10

1 (15-ounce) can tri-bean blend, rinsed and drained (black, pinto & kidney)
1 egg
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup bread crumbs
1 1/2 t '21 Seasoning Salute' (from Trader Joe's)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Sea salt and white/colored pepper to taste
A few shakes of Tabasco Chipotle sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
6 whole wheat hamburger buns
6 green leaf lettuce leaves
Smokey sharp cheddar cheese slices

Put beans in a large bowl and mash well with hand potato masher. Add egg, onion, bread crumbs, seasoning, garlic powder, salt, pepper and chipotle sauce. Mix well to combine, then shape into 6 patties.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Arrange patties in a single layer (working in batches, if needed) and cook, flipping once, until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, about 10 minutes total. Transfer to buns, top with lettuce and cheese and serve.

New mom poem from 19 Oct. 2008

between sleep
almost morning
quiet and warm with you, baby
my beautiful little boy
soon our exhausted nights will end
--first poem written w/ my 'Motherhood' magnetic poetry (o:

I know that cars line the streets
but swaying in the dark, urging this boy in my arms to sleep,
the sky and air smell a hundred years old.

1905, standing on my newly-built porch, staring at the dirt street and
listening to the occasional dog howl
Contemplating the yellowing leaves of the trees and the
grim face of the darkened house across the street...

I suppose my petticoat self never thought about drive-bys
Or frowned at cop cars racing 90 down the street.
Instead she might have feared wayward horse hooves
Or street car mishaps - dangers of these downtown suburbs.

But I'm sure we both wished for sleeping babes and a full night's rest
Sweet dreams and a morning sun
And the promise of warmth as the winter whispered hello.

Long-Cooked Pork Shoulder

This is going to be ready in about 2 hours. I finally went to the Asian store by our house (13 block walk to downtown Denver) and was able to find the [Shao Hsing] wine and the double [black] soy sauce, along with some other favorites I haven't bought since my last time in the Falls Church Han Ah Reum.

Long-Cooked Pork Shoulder from Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Peter Perez, Senior Marketing Manager for Chronicle Books.

The Pacific Mercantile store is pretty impressive. And it's less than a block away from the Denver Buddhist Temple, which is just uplifting to walk by. Awesome courtyard.

P.S. I love you, Meiji Kinoko No Yama Chocolate mushrooms, sincerely.

Ruminations - 22 Feb '10

I've decided that there is faith in belief that focuses less on what could exist at large, but what will exist (maybe?) in a century or six centuries or 1,000 years from now. Taking the focus off of what has been (or said to be); instead focusing on what can and most likely will be.

At death, does it truly matter that you and your perceived center of the universe disappear? What really matters is what continues to be after you're gone. The belief that things will go on without you, despite you, completely ignorant of you. The belief that things could be going on, intelligently, 800 billion light years away from you. Looking at the scientific and historic record, however, you can accept with great faith that existence, wherever or whenever it may be, will continue. But you can't prove it.

I'm not saying that you can't believe in a higher power or a mischief-making God or an angry God or God transforming the universe with love. Is that the only central question in life? To grapple with other questions, such as:

• Have humans reached their full mental capabilities? If not, can humans reach a higher level of perception/improved use of the mind, or are we at our capacity in current form?
• Do societal pressure and man-made systems slow down our mental progression, and if so, can this be overcome? 
• Can humans save current and forthcoming scientific knowledge for distant generations in a way that is safe and accessible, and easily understandable, should there be a sudden, severe population decimation? Or would great knowledge be lost again?

I am not steady in my faith of humanity itself. I believe that things can and will go on, but not that we could improve ourselves and our consciousness to a level beyond that which has been the norm throughout human history. That will take an extra leap of faith.

Ruminations of Others & Myself - 22 Feb '10

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up. ~Robert Persin

In my head I hear a loop that meanders: Ha! Dried pitted plums. Delicious, but you can't fool me. PRUNES. Say it. PRUNES. Pssh. “Dried pitted plums.”

I'm not denying that it has a much better ring. A female superhero representing antioxidants on a bag of prunes coupon ad is just sad, though.

Ruminations of Others - 14 Feb '10

from COLLECTED POEMS 1948-1984
by Derek Walcott

Love after Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Lazy Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup - made 2/14/10

modified from Sharon123's Recipezaar recipe.

4 cups cooked chicken, chopped (one roasted chicken)
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup carrot, diced
1/2 cup frozen peas
56 oz. low sodium chicken broth
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup with roasted garlic
1 can condensed cream of chicken & mushroom soup
2 teaspoons fines herbes
salt
pepper, to taste
1 package egg noodles, cooked

1. Remove skin from the chicken and chop the meat.

2. Saute the celery, carrots and onions w/ the fines herbes to soften.

3. Put the chicken into a slow cooker with the onions, celery, carrots and peas.

4. Stir in broth and soup. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 8 to 9 hours.

6. When soup is finished, stir in egg noodles.

Feel Good Article of the Day - 4 Feb '10

From Gretchen on Mile High Mamas:
An Ode to the Only Child

Ruminations of Others - 1 Feb '10

from @hikespace

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. ~Wallace Stevens

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing. ~Aldous Huxley

Solvitur ambulando. (To solve a problem, walk around.) ~St. Jerome

Ruminations of Others & Myself - 30 Jan '10

Do you think talent dies over time, or lies latent, waiting for you to get up the courage to do something about it?

from The Angel's Game
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

A religion is really a moral code that is expressed through legends, myths, or any type of literary device in order to establish a system of beliefs, values, and rules with which to regulate a culture or a society.

Everything is a tale...What we believe, what we know, what we remember, even what we dream. Everything is a story, a narrative, a sequence of events with characters communicating an emotional content. We only accept as true what can be narrated.

Ruminations of Others - 28 Jan '10

From this posting.
by Julia Sweeney:

I don't know how full-time moms do it. I can't get anything done when Mulan is around. It's a miracle if I get to read e-mail and keep the house from turning into a dump. I have no idea how someone takes care of more than one kid and does things like... oh, make dinner. OHMYGOD. I am so glad I became a mother because I think I would feel uppity about at-home mothers. Now I know it's the hardest job in the world.

also:

How can anyone think pornography is inherently bad when we involuntarily write, direct and star in it for ourselves while we sleep?

Sometimes I think life is too fragile for me to go through it without anesthetizing myself. I used to do it with God, and then I did it with sugar, and fried food. But now I just feel it, and it feels pretty damn bad sometimes.

Do Be Do Be Doooo

Left the office for once today. Got coffee, walked around the block, and sat in the sunshine on an old bus bench. Watched two policemen checking out an apartment, a man playing w/ his son & a woman w/ her dog in the park, and another woman in a red car sit w/ her turn signal on at the edge of the parking lot for 5 min.

I sat looking at that parking lot, which was a fenced-up wasteland for 2 of the 3 years I've been looking down at it out my work window. I reflected on how little I actually leave the building during the day to just sit, although I could easily do so. And I thought about the great urge to DO vs. BE.

I would say that the compulsion to do is greater, but there is a fair amount of guilt about not taking the time to be. Every day, with the vast amount of media at my fingertips, I spend plenty of time thinking about how I should work on this, or craft that, or read those books & articles & tech tips, etc. etc. - all the do urges.

But to be would mean standing back from all this input and making sense of it. Connecting the dots and forming an internal vision of how events/people/histories tie together; or alternately, taking the time to understand something in great depth, research and all. Maybe a class, or maybe just personal, insatiable knowledge, to set an example for my son.

Which leads back to the need to do...and instead, the other night I sat in bed and watched an awful movie on instant Netflix.

One walk outside at a time?

Ruminations of Others - 21 Jan '10

From this Ameritrade article.

Posted today by my friend Jacque:

Our time is up, says Scottish historian Alexander Tytler, recently quoted by economist Marc Faber: "The average life span of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years." Then "once a society becomes successful it becomes arrogant, righteous, overconfident, corrupt, and decadent ... overspends ... costly wars ... wealth inequity and social tensions increase; and society enters a secular decline."

Ruminations of Others - 20 Jan '10

Posted on this Denver Post article.

by Susan E:

While I love your post and Gandhi's quote, I see things quite differently. The churches and people who call themselves "Christian" often aren't. It's just a label they like to use. It's their public relations effort to convince themselves and others that they are good and the more troubled they are, the more they need to use this label.

"Christian" simply means Christlike. True Christians often don't bother with the label. I've noticed many Buddhists and Unitarians are more Christian than those who think of themselves as Christian. Christians are out in the world doing God's work; their fannies are not warming pew benches. Pew benches are for those who would like to be Christian, but will probably never get there.

Christians are followers of Christ. Those who are extremely familiar with the Bible, but are judgmental and full of hatred for others are not followers of Christ. They are simply doing their own thing. They are incapable. Meanwhile people like Gandhi, who are aware of Christ's teachings and follow them are Christians. I believe that there are great people in the world who may not be all that familiar with Christ and his teachings who are natural followers of Christ and don't even know it.

Chicken Noodle Soup - made 1/17/10

(modified from original Cooking Light recipe)

2 cups water
1 (32-oz) carton fat-free, low sodium chicken broth
1 T olive oil
1/2 cup onion
1/2 c celery
1/2 c carrot
1 t salt
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
6 oz. leftover egg noodles (with some broccoli thrown in)
2 1/2 cups shredded skinless, boneless chicken breast (poached)
2 T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
garlic salt

1. Heat oil in a pot over medium-high heat, swirling to coat. Add onion, celery, carrot, salt & pepper, and saute until almost tender.

2. Pour in broth and water and bring to a boil. Stir in noodles & chicken breast - cook 1 min. or until thoroughly heated. Stir in parsley.

6 servings (Serving size ~ 1 cup)

Bison & Mushroom Lasagna - made 1/16/10

1 can cream of mushroom soup (not condensed)
1 lb. ground bison
2 1/4 cups spaghetti sauce w/ mushrooms (used Blue Parrot from Louisville, CO)
6 large mushrooms, sliced
9 no-boil lasagna noodles
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1. Heat oven to 400F.

2. Cook bison in skillet until well-browned. Drain, and add to mushroom soup. Stir until well combined.

3. Cover bottom of shallow baking dish (I used a 9x13) lightly with 1/4 cup sauce. Layer:

• 3 noodles
• 1/2 bison mixture
• 3 sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup sauce
• 3 noodles
• rest of bison mixture
• rest of mushroom slices
• 3 noodles
• rest of sauce
• mozzarella, then Parmesan cheese
  

4. Cover, and bake 30 min. or until hot.

5. Heat broiler. Broil 4" from heat for 2 min. or until cheese is golden brown. Let stand 10 min.