And Welcome to Summer Tomato!

My friend Linda just send me this link to Summer Tomato, a wonderful fresh food blog from San Francisco.  This is one happy Sunday (or Sinday, as some folks have started to call it in FaceBook)!  I love blogs from foodies who care about what and how you eat, and HOW MUCH IT COSTS!!  Summer Tomato scores high on all counts.  Holy crap!

My son arrived from Iowa a month ago, where he had worked for a grocery store on and off (5 years off for the Navy) since he was 14 years old. His jaw DROPPED the first time we took him to Whole Foods.  For a treat, I bought a wonderful little rack of lamb--8 wee chops from New Zealand--for $19.95 a pound!  He couldn't believe it.  I could.  I adore those racks of lamb with the itty bitty chops.  I baste them with a recipe my then husband got from the man who owned the motel in Dickinson, ND. He got the recipe from his grandmother, who grew up 40 miles from Jerusalem. Basically, it's equal amounts of lemon juice, honey, oil, and garlic blended till it's creamy.  You brush it on the lamb, and expose it to the heat (either a rotisserie or grill or frying pan or roasting pan) until you think it's done.  (You can tell....trust yourself!)  When it smells divine and looks like it's cooked, separate the little chops and bathe them with the rest of the lemon-oil-honey-garlic sauce, and, well, enjoy!!  Goddess....this is one divine dish!!

Welcome to semiswede!

I've found another great blog--semiswede!  The author is Maia Brindley Nilsson, a fairly recent (2008) American immigrant to Sweden, where she is a "featured monthly writer for The Local, the Swedish news in English."  

Swedish food was the stuff of my Catholic childhood lived in exile among mostly Scandinavian Lutherans--many of whom had cooks!!  Imagine my delight when I spotted this headline among Nilsson's recent articles:  "Ten soul-satisfying Swedish comfort foods"!!!  And on the list?  One of my all-time favorites--yellow pea soup!!  Here's what Nilsson says:

"Ärtsoppa or yellow pea soup has been a Thursday tradition in Sweden since the Middle Ages when    Sweden was largely Catholic and Friday was a day of fasting. Filling up on the hearty pork-filled soup was intended to get you through the next day’s fast. 

Today the tradition is still going strong as evidenced by the profusion of plastic-cased tubes of pea soup in supermarkets year-round. If you really want to warm up you can chase it with a little warm punsch which became a popular addition to the pea soup tradition during the 1800s."


(You used to be able to get canned yellow pea soup wherever Habitant soup was sold.  In the US, that would be close to the Canadian border, as Habitant was made in Montreal (I think--the label was partly in French, I remember that).    

Yoga in the Art Gallery of Ontario

When Debbie, Sally, and I visited Toronto in the early 1980s, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) blew me away.  The vast gallery on the second floor that held the mammoth Henry Moore sculptures was overpowering, and I could look in there only for short periods.  Art museums have that effect on me, and that's why this article from the Toronto Star is so exciting.  AGO now is offering yoga in this gallery.  People, including some AGO staff, come early in the morning and practice among the larger than life figures as the sun rises.  No music, no hot rooms--just yoga practitioners and their individual mats.

When I first saw the city of Toronto, I fell in love with it.  The individual neighborhoods with their unique markets, the subway, the people--it was all so charming and civilized!!  And best of all was the AGO.  I saw my first Breughel paintings here, and of course, the Henry Moore sculptures.  I've always wanted to live here, too.  It feels welcoming to human beings, and it's not that far away.  My favorite Canadian writer for years was Robertson Davies, and he was Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto.  One of his most delightful books is High Spirits, a collection of ghost stories that he wrote himself for the Master's traditional address to the members of Massey College at its Christmas dinner.  They seem so plausible in this humane, vibrant city.  Toronto feels as if it's haunted by creative spirits.

Mature Landscaping: SC: The Trash Heap Has Spoken. Nyeh.

Mature Landscaping: SC: The Trash Heap Has Spoken. Nyeh.: Click to hear Marjorie sing The Trash Heap Blues . Alternate lyrics available on request. South Carolina is a Cut-Off-Your-Nose-To-Spit...

They're sawREE...well, some of them are. Actually, the only one I know of. I had to share this cuz of the Paula Deen Do-nut Brunch Burger. Thanks, Nance. We needed to read this.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Coffee in Three Minutes

Everything You Wanted to Know About Coffee in Three Minutes

Here's my dog....Name of "Runt"

From the Swedish "ligger runt husen"--"lying around the house." He doesn't eat anything or chew my boots or pee on the floor.  Very quiet but very companionable....If MurrMurrs can have Pootie, I can have Runt.   

For Martha, December 16, 1936 - January 17, 2012

"Radiant, intelligent" Martha
in the 1980s? (Note the glasses)

Back to the Future.....

Well, I tried.  I really did love the flipcard layout that's been on display here for the past week or almost. Problem was, I find the posts are only half of my blog.  The other half is the sidebar content:  the moon phases gadget, the  crossword puzzle (hey, I really really like that--I do it over at least once or twice until i can score at least 5,000 points. It's not so much getting the clues right as it is TYPING them.  gah....), the weather reports from places in my heart, the links to some of my favorite commentary, the "blogs i love," and so on.  I find I don't want to live without these very handy shortcuts to my own state o' mind.  Also, I really want to pay more attention to writing my own content.  For the last six months or so, I've mainly just been reposting wonderful items from other persons & places.  The bright folks at Democracy for California's inventive offshoot, Democracy for Bell, for example, have run especially entertaining videos that I've passed on here because I think my readers (yes, all six of you) (you, too, Diana) would like them.

So today, now that I've banished the flipcard layout, I'm thinking what I want this blog to be.  In the beginning, I had the notion to talk about the English language itself--thus the subtitle "Love Notes to the English Language."  As usual, life intervened, and I have gone far afield from linguistics in the almost six years I've been blogging. Never underestimate the power of the monkey mind!

Anyway, the lovely portrait of the Frenchie in the upper left corner is "Mr. Clunk,"* a multi-media collage by my dear friend Martha's daughter Gretchen.  Gretchen, an art & design grad, made it partly out of candy wrappers--she really LOVES candy.  The gold parts came mostly from Rolo wrappers.  The big Mr. Clunk portrait is on display over Gretchen's fireplace.  (M. Le Clunk is her dog.)

It seems fitting that he can serve as an icon of what can be done with almost nothing at all but some glue, paint, a canvas, candy wrappers, a lively mind, a skilled hand, and a vibrant approach to life.  I don't lay claim to any of these qualities--not all the time, anyway.  Still, it's all part of a piece.  Or pieces.

*with permission by the artist, who owns all the copyrights.

Things to remember

"The Joy of Books"

(Humming to self) "There is nothing like a boooook!  Nothing in the world!   Bookstores hold happy times if you'll just loooook.  Is there anything like a book?"
(Nothereisn't!)




"The Joy of Books" is a post from Open Culture

Ketchup Was a Vegetable

Watched "Forks Over Knives" last night.  It, and the book it's based on, has a message I needed to hear--again!   "If it had eyes and a mom & dad, don't eat it."  Eat fruit, vegetables, whole grain.  When I stop eating vegan, that's when my weight and blood pressure begin to creep up.  NO dairy.  Goodbye, dear butter.  Chocolate?  Pillsbury's big biscuits in a can?  Rye bread?  I'm just not gonna think about it.  I am going to fill my mind with visions of oranges, apples, grapes, plums (not sugar plums), tomatoes, green vegetables, purple vegetables, squash.  Fabulous salads.  Ripe, delicious fruits.  I'm maybe about a third or even half of the way there now, but I can improve.

We are the world leader in medical costs per person, but we're far from healthy.  We're getting grossly fat (obese is the word they use).  Old Egyptian Proverb: "1/4 of what you eat supports you, the other 3/4 supports your doctor."  

  

Time for a Commercial Break - Fellini

First Snow of 2012: January 9

It started snowing lightly late this afternoon....The flakes are getting bigger, and the lights are coming on.  First snow of 2012.  May I be allowed one Grinch-like wish:  hope it's the last, too.  One is enough.....

Honoring Lakota Women

The song pays respect to the Lakota Woman and her contributions in strengthening the Lakota world.

Lakota Wia Kin, Nagiksapaye Niye On Etanyan , Wicingacaya Oyate Kin Han Yan Waciniyape

Lakota women , think wisely it's from you our children come from and are raised

The people are now depending on you

Dedicated to women of all Native Nations


http://youtu.be/dutnEqldyzk

The singer is our friend Janice Howe's aunt, Sissy Goodhouse.  Here's Janice with Peggy (r), Sally (l), and Katie (front) on our back porch in Bismarck.

If you read nothing else today, read this from Digby

Hullaballoo  ("in the absence of passion, we are tender of our persons")

The best explanation yet of why right are as vicious as they are, and the left have to get over being so NICE and ACCOMMODATING!!

modern Durer paintings

Those bright folks at DemocracyforBell have done it again.  (Sent me some cool stuff!!)

http://www.freakingnews.com/Durer-Paintings-Pictures--2440-0.asp

My favorite?  Between "baby in a man's hands" and "shroud of Turin"....(I also liked Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as Mother and Child.)

For auld lang syne

Thanks to Kay  for this:  

Happy New Year, y'all!!  Can you imagine our governing body holding hands and singing?  Let it be so!!

Meeting life head (hat) on.....

Maybe my readers will remember the post about my friend Karen who got married for the first time at age 72 or so, and her wonderful wedding HAT?  The name of her hat, purchased at an art fair on the campus of our alma mater, was "It's About Time."  We all had a big laugh about that.

Alas, Karen died on December 28.  She had surgery recently and never fully recovered.  A trip back to the hospital after Christmas ended with her death.  Her husband, Jim, was at her side.

I remember Karen from our days in the novitiate together at 1890 Randolph.  I remember her bright eyes and wonderful smile and tender spirit, and she never lost those.

It's very sad that Karen and Jim had not even two whole years to be married.  But it's not that she was never finally, really, honest-to-goodness happy until she reached the age of 72 and finally got married.  Throughout her life, Karen had a great capacity to meet life with enthusiasm, whatever its twists and turns.  As our former postulate mistress used to say, "It's all part of a piece."

Rest in peace, Karen.  We'll miss the occasional editions of your poetry, lively e-mails, and warm spirit.  We'll miss you.