So I’ve just finished my vegan chores for next week. There’s a giant, fresh batch of spinach hummus and sliced veggies in the fridge now which ensures healthy eating when I’m a bit peckish from work. So here is a video that I found reassuring that is about other vegans, the animal kingdom, who are frequently targeted as food. I am happily vegan and find there’s a different kind of understanding about the world and its inhabitants when the flesh of others is not a consideration. It’s an understanding not to mention a healthier way of living. It may not be right for everyone, but I’m happier, healthier, and have a greater perspective and appreciation of the world and those who live in it. Not eating meat removes an, for lack of a better word, aggression from me. It has made me kinder, gentler, healthier, and happier. As a teenager I was mostly vegetarian and enjoyed the way it made me feel. Becoming vegan was a conscious decision of no longer eating meat as well as byproducts of animals. My awareness of what I was eating was too keen. I don’t lack for things to eat. Quite the contrary. I eat more of what is good for me and do not desire things that are not. It has made me a better eater with better digestion and fewer digestion issues. It is a decision that I would make again as it has helped me become the person who I feel most identifiable with and at peace with.
Remembering Kurt Cobain and Life in Aberdeen
I lived in Aberdeen, WA in my early 20′s. It was a tough and tumble town with a rapidly declining economy. Paper mills were closing, gypo logging outfits were laying off, and as the economy contracted in pain, Kurt Cobain rose from the ashes of poverty to become the king of grunge. It amazes me how he could focus on his art when living in such pain.
He attended Weatherwax High School and then later Harbor High School, the alternative school in Aberdeen. I have worked at both, but the greatest stories that inspire me to believe in persevering are the stories of his life from those who took him in at Harbor High School. The staff frequently provided a sofa and hot meal for Kurt when he needed it. His stories for needing it are heart breaking. I’m not here to reveal the details of his life that I came to know, but I can say that it was typical of the lives of those who lived there during this time. Divorce, welfare, unemployment, domestic violence, recreational sex, fractured, dysfunctional families, drugs, alcohol, lack of values…all the panaceas of the suffering masses. It wasn’t uncommon for all of these complications to be found in each person’s life there at an early age.
I lived on W. Young Street where Kurt had lived. My spouse and I scraped out a living that kept a roof over our heads and most of us were well fed. I sacrificed daily to feed my children and was very thin. It was hard scrabble times. The neighborhood was nicknamed Felony Flats for a reason. Crime, violence, and poverty were rampant. If anyone attempted to resolve a family dispute that wasn’t their business, threats to burn your house down were common. It was a depressed area that offered little hope. The solution was to leave and leaving felt like exile.
There was something about most of humanity suffering there that united people in their pain. People shared what they had in the smallest of excess with others. This included food, shelter, friendship, and time hanging out. It helped to ease the pain of an economy that was spiraling downward out of control.
I remember Kurt Cobain, the challenges of Aberdeen life as a 20 something, and the compassion of the people there.
Avoiding Writer’s Block, What My iPhone Does, and Things You Might Like
I’m taking a break from writing to write a blog post. I have been more than a little busy this last week. Today, I revised six articles on Celtic history, beliefs, and ancient practices and then uploaded them to a site that makes them available as magazine content. My sales have depleted my portfolio, and this is the time that I have to work on it, then on to a dozen other things. A few of the articles needed a little revision to get them past the keen eye of the editor and as of today, all six of them are now on the market.
Did you know that if you try to write and edit at the same time, you’ll most likely get a headache or just want to stop writing? This is the very definition of writer’s block. To avoid writer’s block, choose which activity you will engage in: creating or editing. I always think of this rule of thumb when I am engaging in revision.
I’m enjoying listing to Pandora while I compose a new blog entry that has been a few days coming. What I once thought was just another web site has become pretty awesome. I created lots of great stations on it, and then I downloaded the app to my iPhone. I can play Pandora stations through my car stereo system and my home entertainment system. If you know how important music is to me, you’ll get this right away. The iPhone app syncs with the AppleTV connected to the tv and the wireless network, and, seriously, my phone becomes a remote control. I stream my favorite stations from my phone to AppleTV which then plays it over the home theater. It’s more than sweet. It’s 7 channel surround sound awesomeness. Oopsy, my nerd bloomers are showing, but I had to share this.
So it’s a good night for a warm fire and a cozy state of mind. I’m wrapped in the comfort and relief of so much done this weekend with another day left to spare. Assurance that I’ll live to write another day. Yes, I understand Shahirazad now.
So what are some moments to be had on the interwebs and just people with brilliant ideas? Here’s the short list:
- Brian Dettmer’s book carvings
- The best advice to writers web site
- Krist Novoselic has a brilliant idea: “Here’s an idea! I take the bunker scene in “Downfall” of Hitler raving in German then paste in English subtitles of whatever takes my fancy.” Should be interesting. Thanks, Krist.
I’ve put in a full day plus and am absolutely drained/ready to be poured in between cool, crisp sheets. Now boarding for the dreamland express. I always want to accomplish so much in writing in each sitting, but few days live up to the full extent of my expectations. Today was an exemplary writing day. As much as I wanted go run around, I struggled but stayed in the chair and finished a huge chunk of writerly stuff. Getting focused isn’t the problem. It’s sitting still. The weather has improved so much that I want to be exercising, moving, doing, spending energy. Tomorrow.
I did so much today that tomorrow will have a big chunk of exercise time in it. I will engage in computer chair avoidance. My annual post-holiday commitment to fitness is well underway, and I’m enjoying success in this as well. I’m feeling incredible and energized beyond belief. I am doing my yoga, walking, and committed to my vegan diet on most days. Occasionally I needs just a little bit of cheese, please. The results have been an overall sense of well being and increased energy levels. To think it all started with the book The China Study and yoga in the Gorge. My health just seems to continue getting better and better.
Well, I hear the warning whistle of the dreamland express. Waving goodbye for now and bidding you the sweetest of dreams.
Artist in the Kitchen: Spinach Hummus
This post is dedicated to those who love hummus and find that it gets eaten entirely to quickly. I tried this from Whole Foods and gone in no time at all. So me thinks…how hard could it be to make it? As it turns out, not very hard at all, and it’s fresh. This recipe is for a double batch. One taste, and you will understand why. Save yourself time and dish washing and make a double batch.
So ingredients…
- 2 cans of drained garbanzo beans
- 2 tablespoons of minced garlic
- 1/4 c of olive oil
- 2 generous handfuls of spinach, stems and all
- Sea salt to taste (about a tablespoon)
- 2 tablespoons of Tahini (sesame) paste (Asian food section)
- Either of these:
Lemon juice, garlic powder, and a little pepper
Or
Lemon pepper and garlic powder
Put all of this in a food processor and let it blend, blend, blend.
You get to slice cucumbers, broccoli, and celery while the spinach hummus is blending, put them on a plate, with a dish for soon-to-be-ready spinach hummus, and then dish up the best hummus ever. Veggies with spinach humus is so good as are garlic pita chips with the hummus. Whole Foods also has a vegetable chip that is really good with this. Look at all the green goodness that will get eaten here. This is good!! And better yet, it tastes good!!
With more for later…Lunch next week!
Now I’m not always a good eater of raw veggies unless it is a really good salad or something like this. Usually, I like stir fries and such. This concludes how to get me to eat my raw veggies…I mean…how to make the best spinach hummus ever. It’s amazing good and good for you.
Enjoy!!
Chinese New Year
Tonight was the Dragon Dance of the Chinese New Year at Lan Su’s Chinese garden in Portland, Oregon. It was a closed event with all of the tickets sold in advance. I got there a little early to get in to the tea house early. The waxing moon shown through the trees of the courtyard as I waited for the gates to open.
The garden was dark and completely beautiful, lit with hanging and floating lanterns. I went to the tea house for hot rose petal black tea and cookies before the Dragon Dance. They said that rose petal tea is suppose to warm you internally even moreso as rose petals have herbal properties. I especially enjoyed the rose fragrance of the tea. The steam of warm tea is such a welcome sensation after being outside in the cold. Now add the fragrance of teacup roses. I came home with some. It was an easy sell. The tea sold itself.
Then outside to enjoy the Dragon Dance. Colorful lanterns floated on the water throughout the garden, and the Dragon Dance began on center stage then worked its way around the entire garden.
So much fun and so incredibly beautiful! It was covered in colorful lights. The Chinese lady next to me said the Year of the Dragon is a very special year. The dragon is a good luck symbol which suggests a lucky year. I am hopeful that it will be.
Artist in the Kitchen: Pad Thai with Peanut Sauce
Hold on to your taste buds. This is going to rock your peanut sauce loving world. This recipe was snipped from a great Thai food hole in the wall in Portland, OR.
So, as usual, I start the rice first in the steamer. It keeps it toasty warm and moist when done until you’re ready for it.
Okay! Here we go. Usually I mix up a batch of restaurant quality peanut sauce next and let it simmer verrry slowly while I stir fry the veggies. You’ll notice there is no meat in this dish, but you could easily stir fry a little chicken before the veggies for meat eaters.
So peanut sauce…in a sauce pan add one can of really good coconut milk, 1 cup of smooth peanut butter, 2 tablespoons of minced ginger, 2 tablespoons of chili sauce with garlic, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, and some cilantro. Heat, whisk, and simmer.
Now chop a variety of veggies. There’s no right or wrong, but here is what I have come to prefer: broccoli, baby corn, green pepper, mushrooms, lemongrass, and then whatever else I can add. Tonight it was spinach. Stir fry in olive oil over medium heat.
Layer the rice, then veggies, followed by peanut sauce. Enjoy! It’s terrific!
Rumors of Water
From “The Stolen Child” by William Butler Yeats
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.
An excerpt from “The Stolen Child,” one of my favorite poems… And just to say, the fairies had it right. Find joy, find release, and leave the realm of misery, complacency, and thoughtlessness to encounter imagination, creativity, and joy. Yeats was a master of mood and fantasy. This is so in the moment with its sense of urgency that the reader is running along, escaping to the land of the fey.
I’m finishing a book on writing, Rumors of Water by L.L. Barkat and about to start another. There are lots of meaningful lists in this book that I admired, gave a nod to, or otherwise flicked the page corner down as a salute to skill, observation, and accomplishment.
Here is some of the fruit of this book that gave me pause.
Principles of Writing (Common, practical sense)
- Have goals
- Rest on a weekly basis.
- Choose writer friends carefully.
- Choose sharing time (about the project) wisely.
- Watch out for syphons (people who don’t give you your creative space.)
Strengthening the Structure of a Book
- Search for pet words and delete them.
- Remove repeated words from a paragraph.
- Trim sentences so they read aloud without glitches.
- Vary sentence length and complexity.
- Switch sentence order in a paragraph to add surprise or prevent confusion.
- Check for details/add as needed.
- Simplify details. (spread them around, not too close together)
- Delete the first paragraph or the last one.
- Scan down the left side of a final draft and note how each sentence starts.
- And when working on a book, move chapters around, delete chapters, and add a recurring detail.
Artist in the Kitchen: Thai Green Curry Kind Of Night
I am blogging my very awesome Thai green curry recipe snipped from a Thai place in Hood River, OR. This is a very easy recipe to follow that will yield green curry success.
First, make cooking fun and gather ingredients and cookware before cooking. The necessary tools should be ready and waiting for you to create something wonderful.
Alright, and here we go. Put some rice on first. I like jasmine rice and enjoy a steamer. It works well independently while I’m doing other things like chopping vegetables, things like sweet potato, zucchini, and green beans. When the rice is done, the steamer will hold it at warm automatically until I am ready for it. Nice.
So these veggies are a denser variety, well the sweet potatoes and green beans are. So instead of stir frying, they are par boiled over medium heat in water while you put the sauce together from these ingredients in a saucepan. From left to right: ginger root, coconut milk, Thai green curry paste, chili sauce with garlic, fish sauce, soy sauce, and cilantro.
Start with the creamy coconut milk. Very nice. Take the top off with a can opener. It’s thick and creamy. Not all coconut milks at the same. This is really good coconut milk. Put it into a sauce pan. All of it. Then find the Thai green curry paste. Three tablespoons whisked into the coconut milk should blend nicely. Mince a tablespoon of ginger root and add to the coconut milk curry mix. Add a tablespoon of the chili and garlic sauce. No need to heat this yet. Find the fish sauce and add about 2 tablespoons and then about 4 tablespoons of soy sauce. If you like a little more garlic, add a tablespoon of minced garlic. Whisk again to blend. Now a little spice. You can’t miss with 2 pinches of garam masala and 2 pinches of Chinese five spice. Whisk again. Add a teaspoon of corn starch to thicken, heat over medium heat, and whisk at it thickens slightly. Strain fork tender veggies and add to the curry sauce. Add chopped cilanto and stir a little to mix and coat the veggies. Spoon over a bed of rice and enjoy!
Artist in the Kitchen: Homemade Gnocchi My Way
Gnocchi is an Italian potato dumpling that is very small and is served with a sauce. So I leveled up the gnocchi by making it myself, adding a selection of veggies for good health, and spicing them up a bit, too, with Italian flavors.
This is my version of gnocchi. Gnocchi, spinach, mushroom, broccoli, and pesto sauce. I made the gnocchi, and here is how…(pre-chopped my veggies and simmered Knorr’s Creamy Pesto Sauce while cooking gnocchi)
Cook a potato (boil), then put in the food processor, add seasonings like basil, garlic powder, and seasoning salt. Blend to a mush then start adding flour to make a dough. This is potato dough. Take out, flour your cutting board, and roll a third of the potato dough into a snake.
The dough…
Rolled into a snake and sliced…
Add veggies: I used spinach, broccoli, and mushrooms. This can be done in advance. Then brown one side of the gnocchi in olive oil. I use my wok for pretty much everything. Flip gnocchi over, add veggies, and stir fry.
Top with pesto sauce and enjoy!! For one serving, I used one third of the dough. The pesto sauce can be Knorr’s Creamy Pesto when cooking quickly or make your own pesto sauce if you have time. I also enjoyed a little bit of Asiago cheese bread (Safeway) with this.
So that was a fun and interesting culinary experience. Now yoga a little later.
Migraines, Koi, and Art Store Before the Storm
The snow is melting, and I guess another storm is on the way for tomorrow. I’m not so concerned about the weather as much as I am the change in air pressure. It’s the migraines. The one I got today was a real bell ringer. I’m just getting over it….four hours, six Excedrin, and very long nap. I tried to sleep through most of it. Pretty intense. I haven’t had one like that for a while. So many places are flooded outside of Vancouver, four counties have been declared a disaster area in Oregon, and it’s not over. Here in Vancouver, the worst I encountered today was water over part of the roadway in one spot. That was it. Not so bad/thankful for so much.
So I’ve got a painting in the works. I sketched out some koi yesterday and am almost ready to put them on paper. Scratch that. It’s on watercolor paper now. I’m working out the composition before I transfer it to watercolor paper. Yep, done with that, too. Done. Less erasing on the watercolor paper this way, and I can keep my sketch in my sketch pad. I’m pretty excited about beginning the painting and had hoped to paint tonight, but it looks like it will be tomorrow. I will do some prep work tonight, but painting will wait until I am pain free. Sheesh. Migraines!
So I visited a new Dick Blick store in Portland today. They absorbed my go-to art store downtown, and it’s nice, very well organized, and very typical of a Dick Blick store. Came home with some paper and, of course, a few extras. I am in the zone for drawing and painting and just in time for the weekend. So I’m stocked for the arts whatever comes my way.
It is the ever so weest hour of the morning and need to sleep, I suppose, at some point before dawn! Pleasant sleeps and sweetest of dreams.
