WQW: Five Senses: Taste, Food, Recipes

Marsha at Always Write has a Wednesday-Tuesday challenge going on, this week’s sense being taste. Quotes and food are a great combination and there are thousands of quotes about food to be easily found on the internet. I like this one to start:

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

I love fresh fruit, especially berries. I like them on my homemade granola, directly in my mouth, and in the case of blueberries, in my blueberry crisp, the latter a dessert often requested by family. Eating them in any form makes me berry merry. 🙂 (Or, if you’re in Britain, perhaps it makes you Mary Berry!)

This granola recipe comes from my uncle Jerry, well-known as a watercolor artist. That second link will take you to images of his work. But I think this granola recipe is just as much a work of art.

Jerry’s Granola

7-8 cups oats (not quick oats

1 cup each of these raw nuts: sunflower seeds, chopped cashews, chopped pecans, and chopped almonds (I recently used raw slivered almonds and loved the results.)

1 cup honey

1 stick butter

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Melt butter and honey together and pour over oats and nuts.  Mix well.

Spread in a sheet pan with sides.

Stir every 10 minutes until mix is browned a bit.

If you want to add raisins or other dried fruit, add once you’ve put the mix in a large bowl (or bowls) to cool.  Otherwise they’ll get too done.

Enjoy!  Oats are quite good for you as are nuts, so enjoy with the milk or yogurt of your choice or as is for snacking.

“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”
― Ruth Reichl

Our younger daughter spent some time in Japan years ago and quite some time learning Japanese. Okonomiyaki is a fantastic food taste from Japan, sort of a Japanese omelet or maybe more like a frittata. This one from Chicago’s famous Girl and the Goat was fabulous! You can read my post about it as well as find a link to a recipe here.

It’s really difficult to know where else to go with a food/taste topic as I’ve had so much great food and made some myself. Not that I create recipes but I’ve managed to find a few good ones over the years. I learned how to make homemade ravioli and my signature dish, my husband’s term for the meal you use to “seal the deal”, is probably spaghetti carbonara. In the mid-seventies between my junior and senior years in college, I spent almost an entire year in Europe. While in Brindisi, Italy on our way to Greece, the woman I was traveling with and I met two Italian men. I think they might have been expecting more from the encounter than they got, but I got spaghetti carbonara for dinner and my life was never the same. 🙂 (The highlighted link will give you more of the story but also the recipe.)

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
― Charles M. Schulz

I have to agree, although my choice is dark chocolate. One of the things I love about France and Europe in general is that desserts are just sweet enough to add to the taste but not overwhelm the way they often are in the U.S. Whipped cream is cream that’s whipped, not cream whipped with lots of sugar. Pastries in France are amazing (and of course the bread is too.) Or you can sit somewhere like this (we did)…

…and enjoy a regional salad like this (different location, though.)

For some reason, I’m now thinking about heating up the quiche I made last night and seeing what sort of salad a/o veggies I have to go with it. We have some lovely Portuguese red open and dark chocolate for dessert. Cheers and one final quote:

“Humor keeps us alive. Humor and food. Don’t forget food. You can go a week without laughing.”
― Joss Whedon

More than enough

Today spring knocks on my door.  The sun shines, the wind, instead of throwing winter in my face, whispers, “Soon.  Soon.”  Getting out of the car, I shed one sweatshirt, then put my jacket back on, still warm enough.  Gloves go into pockets a few minutes later. 

 The river still overflows its banks after rain on top of snow some days earlier, a log jam of nature’s detritus pushing against the dam.  Water jets out the other side where today no heron fishes, but sunshine sparkles on the rushing water.

 A squirrel sits frozen next to the path, not moving until I do, then scampering further along the mat of brown fall leaves.  Although the prevailing color is still brown, a closer look reveals slender shoots of green and in some places, blatant leaves of some unknown but hardy plant.  In my lawn perhaps it would be a weed, but here a welcome sign of spring.  Red-winged blackbirds make their presence loudly known, although in fewer numbers than in another month or two. 

Next to the damp path, mud and water discourage off-trail wandering.  When I reach the open part of the trail, I think how good it will be once the trees leaf, blocking the houses on the park perimeter so I feel even less part of the city.  I realize again how this time alone, away from people and city trappings, is a vital part of my inner peace, nature stopping me from even acknowledging the unceasing sounds of traffic.  I spread my arms with uncontainable joy, turning in a circle near where the tracks of deer crossed the path, the softer surface exposing the paths the summer trail hides.  I know winter might come again, but there is the beating promise, under the skin of the earth, of spring, of growth, of re-birth,  and that, for today, is more than enough.

Series-ly talking, #1

Let’s talk books today.  I read…a lot.  I mostly read mysteries and thrillers with a few other genres thrown in.  There are lots of authors I really like, but I especially appreciate an author who writes a series with characters I love.  I go back to those books time and times again.  I read and I re-read.  Don’t you?  Comfort reading at its finest.  Here’s what I re-read (often and in no particular order) and a cup of tea to sip while you’re reading.

“The Circle”: “1984” for our time

I’m not much of a movie person; I prefer books.  One year, I believe I saw all five movies up for Best Picture, but as I try to find that year, I can’t.  And I rarely like a movie based on a book nearly as well as the book itself.  Quite a few should be neither movie nor book!  🙂

Somewhere I read something that made me pick up “The Circle”, by David Eggers, not my usual mystery/thriller tipple.  I’d like to say I couldn’t put it down.  But I had to.  It was too disturbing:  I could see where it was going and I didn’t like it.

Grapevines, a Friday Fictioneers reprise

Originally published on July 12, 2012, this story is based on a man we often see on our walks around the small lake only a few blocks from our house, fact presented as fiction in 100 words.

Lakeside for our evening walk, we see him in the garden, engendering life, whatever the weather.  His garden is verdant: deep green leaves, fruits and vegetables of varying hues, brilliant flowers.  A radio sometimes  shatters the silence (whether he’s nearby or not—perhaps to keep away birds.)  We attempt a  compliment, but he speaks no English.  “Beautiful garden”, accompanied by an expressive gesture including the whole.  He smiles; we smile.  He sounds eastern European, lives with his daughter and her husband, wrapped in his lack of English, speaking through his garden and the trellised grapevines that shelter and surround it.

Sunday stories…Buzzards!

Time for another Friday Fictioneers story.  Remember, these are 100-word stories based on a photo.  This is my second story for this great group, four years ago.  By the way, welcome to 2017!  (Yes, I know this isn’t a buzzard, but it is fiction!)

copyright Roxann Phillips

Look alive.  Here comes a buzzard.

Basta!!  You see me (looking dramatic in B&W, I think) and I know what you imagine: death, evil, decaying  flesh.

Contemplate for a moment. Where would you sci-fi, futuristic doom-mongers be without me?  Your future always holds darkness, war, and death. Bodies everywhere.  So you need us.  The carrion-birds.  Cleaning up your messes so you don’t die of terrible diseases due to all that rotting flesh.  (Zombie apocalypse people, this means you, too.)  A little gratitude wouldn’t come amiss!

But instead? “Bird brain” is bad enough, but “buzzard breath” and “old buzzard?”  Beyond the pale!  How would you feel?

………………………………

(The title is a saying by Lady Stella Reading.)

The Night Before Christmas…That worked well!

It’s Saturday, which means I’m putting out another Friday Fictioneers story from my archives and I just happen to have one that is about the night before Christmas.  It’s Christmas Eve Day, so how could that possibly work any more neatly, I ask you?  I hope you enjoy this bit of Christmas poetry and also a joy-filled Christmas Eve.

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‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
(With thanks to Clement Clarke Moore for the original)

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Just one creature was stirring and it wasn’t a mouse.
The stockings were hung on the mantel with care
Just a jump-able distance away in the air.

The tree looked delightful, amazing to see,
The perfect playground for a Christmas kitty.
The family was snoozing away for the night.
Now was the time for some Christmas delight.

All of a sudden, there arose such a clatter
They rushed down to see the whole lot in tatters.
But in the kitchen, there was nothing to see
Save an innocent-looking, complacent kitty!

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I struggled this week to not run amok and re-write the entire poem because I had some great lines that I couldn’t get in to this version. (May do it another time.) However, I ruthlessly channeled my inner Rich/Nazi English teacher (NOT saying that’s you, Rich, but I know you’ll give me a hard time about it anyway) and pared and re-pared until I actually got down to 100 words, my goal each week just because it is. 🙂  I hope it gave you a good laugh and got you in the Christmas spirit!

Friday Fictioneers–The Big Cheese or The Gjetost of Christmas Past (reprise)

I thought I’d go with a reprise of something seasonal for this week.  I hope you enjoy it because if you don’t, it will cheese me off.  This one was from December 2012.

  ********************

My first thought was someone at the end of life thinking of all the choices made, one inside each door.  However, something ran amok inside my head and what emerged was a riff on that idea.  Or maybe just riff-raff.  Who can say?

The Big Cheese
Or
The Gjetost of Christmas Past

His mind wandered.  So many choices throughout his life.  Not all perfect, but he was satisfied.  Head of Dewey, Cheatum and Howe, Attorneys-at-Law, (plural intentional but deceptive—no other power here), people averted their gazes when he passed, feared him.  Life was good!

A knock.

“Enter.”

“A Mr. Gjetost to see you.”  Fat Tim, AKA“Tiny”, handed him a card, departing silently but for his limp.

What the dickens?  This guy’s a Norwegian cheese?  Ebenezeer scrutinized the card.  Mr. G. H. Ost.  Tim and names!  Wonder what this guy wants?

“Mr. Ost, how may I help you?”

“Au contraire, Mr. Skruge…”

Stream of Consciousness…iron-y

Some of my  blogging friends participate in a Stream of Consciousness challenge.  I haven’t until now.  Actually, I’m not participating officially now, as that challenge has a theme and this week’s isn’t “ironing.”  A SOC usually arrives when I’m somewhere I can’t write it down, often while driving.  This one flew into my head while ironing.  I was going to say I can’t remember the last time I ironed, but that would be a lie.  It wasn’t that long ago, when I ironed my first set of sheets.  But before that?  Who knows?

Yes, of course I’ve had sheets before. I don’t just sleep on the mattress pad.  But all my sheets prior to this have been the kind you can just pull from the dryer and either put back on the bed or away. My goal in life, at least my goal regarding laundry and related activites, has been to iron as little as possible.  My husband being an IT guy makes that much easier.  He has always worn polo shirts and casual pants to work and now that he’s working mostly from home, I won’t even tell you what he wears…or doesn’t.  J But none of those clothes need ironing.  Pull ironable things from the dryer at just the right moment, when still somewhat damp and before wrinkles, hang  them, and hey presto!  The wrinkles iron themselves.

But when I was in France this summer, my s-i-l took me to an outlet store for linens, pillows, etc.  Her birthday present to me was a set of sheets and pillowcases, a lovely set made of percale.  Percale, in French or English = ironing.  I had to venture into the basement, dust off the ironing board, haul it upstairs, find the iron and the distilled water.  I was afraid both the iron and I might have forgotten how to iron, but it must be like riding a bicycle, because we both did fine.

Ironing isn’t a bad thing.  I have time to think (a LOT of time with this queen-sized set), but ironing a fitted sheet is quite interesting.  However, ironing one pales in comparison to attempting to fold one in any sort of decent shape!  If you’ve ever tried it, you understand.  If you haven’t, there’s no way to convey the frustration.  However, watch this short commercial for Lowe’s, which conveys it perfectly and made me jump out of my comfy chair the first time I saw it and shout, “Yes!  That is SO true!” (or something like it.)  Click here and do watch it!  She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed has spoken.

Ironing led me rabbit-tracking to Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House books fame.  Folding a fitted sheet pales in comparison to ironing anything and everything (they were probably glad not to have many clothes when it came to washing and ironing in those days) with an iron that had to be heated up over and over and over and over and likely weighed a great deal.  Laura was born in 1867 and died in 1957.  Just imagine what she saw during her lifetime!  Here’s a not-too-annoy-because-of-ads spot that lists some of them:  http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/inventions-and-discoveries-of-the-twentieth-century/inventions-1900-to-1990/.

I’m not sure where Laura let me because about that time, my husband came downstairs wondering what was for lunch and just before we finished, the man came to replace bits of the water meter, and then my Consciousness had evidently all streamed out.  That’s where it stands as of this moment (and how often do you see a stream standing?) and as my tea is rapidly cooling, I’m going to sit and enjoy it (the tea).  I can tell people that today I was streaming live!

Friday Fictioneers….Memories may be beautiful and yet…

Time for another hundred words, despite being a bit distracted today by the news that my mom’s in the hospital for a few days with a UTI and blood infection.  Thankfully, the former caused her to go for testing, which discovered the latter, making it much easier to treat.  An IV antibiotic should kick them both out on their not-so-merry ways.  Fortunately, the story more or less wrote itself in my mind while on the way home from work the other day.

Thanks to David Stewart of The Greenwalled Tower for the photo prompt and to Rochelle for hostessing the menagerie of writers each week.

Memories may be beautiful and yet…*

“Wow! The houses look so small. I remember them as big.”

“The tree we used to climb is gone. Wonder if the creek’s still there?”

“Oh, man, looks like Love Canal or something. There’s that spiky gate Jimmy almost impaled himself on.”

“Remember when…” and we were off and story-telling. Joe’s hands shaped paper boats like the ones we used to float in the creek. Jimmy, Joe, and Jenny. Inseparable. Until they left.

I launched every boat, one for each year. “Ooh Rah, Jimmy,” we both said softly. Joe saluted, then turned the wheelchair around and headed for the car.

 

*Thanks to Alan and Marilyn Bergman for the line from their song, “The Way We Were.”