Puppies in the Wings

This month I've been thinking a lot about how, although they are now fully-functioning, mostly-grown-up dogs, the puppies didn't yet exist in any form as recently as a year ago. (Their mother was a stray, and already pregnant when I found her on Election Day 2012, so I can't be sure when exactly the puppies did begin to exist, but it was probably some time in the last week of October 2012.)

In my own weird, overly-sentimental way, I decided to illustrate the fragility of existence, and the randomness, and the what-if-ness of it all by making portraits of each of the pups peeking at me through the gap in their playpen, as though they were waiting in the wings of the stage of being, in order to represent how close they came to never entering my life, or possibly, never even existing at all.

Well, they're some pictures of puppies, anyway.

Ben

Ah, I see that all is ordered as it should be:

Vive Le ROI!

I'm more liberal arts- than business-minded, so when I saw this mailer for Make-A-Wish, I thought they were trying to say that they treat children with life-threatening illness as though they are French kings, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Turns out the acronym ROI stands for "Return on Investment," which, in this case, means smiles!

Anecdote: In high school, a girl who I didn't yet know had leukemia asked me which I'd rather have: a $1,000 shopping spree, or a week in Hawaii. "Hawaii. Definitely, definitely Hawaii," I said. (I hadn't seen "Rain Man" yet, so that wasn't supposed to be a reference.) A while later, she told me that she'd been offered to "Make-A-Wish" and had chosen to go to Hawaii, and that she was glad she had gone there and believed she had made the right choice. I'm still very relieved she thought so. As far as I know, she survived her illness.

Things I Did in September

Ugh. I have no excuses for September. I mean, the first half was still very hot (early September in Dallas is just like Indianapolis in late July, if that helps you out at all), but really, I was just lazy a lot and gave in to Twitter. I tried to finish the book I started reading in August, but I'm an INCREDIBLY SLOW READER. I didn't really try many other things. Oh well. Onward. 

PHOTOS: I got pretty obsessed with capturing the sky and different qualities of light. I'm going to omit captions on these and just say that all the photos are about light and how it affects colors and textures, and that my crappy 2 megapixel camera was actually kind of advantageous in giving a lot of the photos a flattened, silhouetted look:

HEALTH GOALS: Wow, you know I did next to nothing when the second item is "Health Goals"--it's supposed to be hidden at the bottom with the recipes where no one will see it. Okay. No great advances here. The puppies are still not going very far on their run/walks, and I'm not getting out on my own, so that needs to change. I'm still working on my system/formula for selecting foods based on their particular balance of nutrients (I've just got to look up a few more things and get it typed up, basically). I tried to find a dance class, but everything is way way way too far away. I have high hopes for October. PLEASE October. I'm going to be THIRTY in a little over a month, and I'd like this decade of my life to be MUCH better in EVERY WAY!!

100 RECIPES GOAL: Only three months left and I'm not even halfway through. It didn't help that I was working out of a mini-fridge all summer, but now there are no excuses. I have only 84 days to try out 52 new recipes.

#46. Whole Wheat, Flax, and Apple Muffins

#47. Tomato, Chickpea, and Olive Pasta

#48. Spiced Coffee

#48. Spiced Coffee

This "recipe" came from an unlikely source: a year-old article in The New Yorker about the Sudanese conflict. The article was written by Jon Lee Anderson, and it was full of interesting little details, even funny anecdotes (for example, all pigs in the Nuba Mountains are referred to as Mr. Pig, in English--no one knows why).

One of my favorite parts was this one:

"A half day's drive from Tes, the S.P.L.A.-North maintained its military training camp, disguised as a village: a smattering of straw huts amid a wilderness of low, brushy trees. The base commander, Brigadier Mahana Bashir, sat in the shade of a large baobab. He had gold braid on the shoulders of his uniform, and he wielded a field-hockey stick, decorated with bright racing stripes. While we talked, a young woman ground coffee with a mortar and pestle, brewed it with cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom, and served it in little porcelain cups."

I was so enchanted, I went for my X-ACTO and cut out the entire paragraph to keep. I'd just endured long summer of being good and drinking nothing but green tea for protection against the sun (okay, I cheated once with a box of Earl Grey--but it was a good brand on clearance!), so reading this, I immediately wanted to know what that coffee tasted like. I got some Peruvian stuff at Target (couldn't find anything African) and put two heaping tablespoonfuls in a measuring cup along with a big chunk of peeled fresh ginger, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp. cardamom. I poured in boiling water, let it sit, then strained it into some mugs. The article didn't say if the coffee was sweetened or not, so I wanted to try it six ways: black, with sugar, with honey, with spices, with spices and honey, and with spices and sugar. Every way was good, though I think "with honey" and "with spices and sugar" were the two that won out. (My mom turned up for an unexpected visit just at the end of my experiment, and I so quickly filled the room with words upon words upon words that I'm afraid I scared her off.)

Later I tried mixing in the spices after brewing, leaving the hunk of ginger in the cup, and that was even better. But I wouldn't recommend overdoing the cardamom. I first bought it last year so I could put a dash in my tea (as a local Iranian-born restaurant owner I know does--try it!), and later I began using it frequently in making Indian food, but I don't especially like it with coffee. Now, as I'm finishing off the bag of coffee, I find myself merely tossing in a dash of cinnamon and omitting a sweetener. More than anything, these experiments have only piqued my curiosity as to what exactly went into those "little porcelain cups," and how much of it...

I can't give this recipe a letter grade because I'm sure I'll never know.

UPDATE: The best formula I've tried this so far is a heaping tablespoon of coffee, a dash of cardamom, and two dashes of cinnamon brewed in 6 oz. water for 3 minutes--then add two big chunks (about 3/4-inch across) of crystalized ginger and let it sit until the sugar on the ginger has dissolved. (If you squint while you drink it, you can see the arid plains in the distance....)

#47. Chickpea, Olive and Tomato Pasta

This is a recipe of my own invention, based loosely on hummus. Hummus is a blend of chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, and a sesame seed paste called tahini (I omit that last ingredient here). I invented this particular take on the ingredients of hummus as a quick, easy meal to make when one is low on fresh provisions (you don't even really need the fresh tomatoes--they're just nice to have).

1. Cook some pasta. I like to use penne. Start with 2/3 c. dry for one large serving or 1 1/2 c. for two large servings.
2. Chop a couple of small tomatoes, or one large tomato, or several grape tomatoes.
3. Open a can of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) and rinse them. Add half the can to the tomatoes if you are making one large serving (probably enough for two people, but I like to eat it by myself), or the whole can for 2 large or 4 small servings.
4. Open a can of black olives and use half or all of the can as above, but DO NOT RINSE them. In fact, I like to sprinkle some of the brine over the pasta before serving it.
5. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the tomatoes, chickpeas and olives, two lemons for the larger (full can) serving.
6. Add a tablespoon of olive oil for the smaller serving, or two for a bigger serving.
7. Mix in the pasta. Season with salt and pepper (remember not to use too much salt if you added olive brine).

The San Pellegrino is only in the picture because space was at a premium that day, but like most pasta, this dish is in fact very good with mineral water and/or wine. 

A (I'd give it an A+ if I hadn't invented it myself)

#46. Whole Wheat, Flax and Apple Muffins

This is a fairly straightforward muffin recipe I found on the Hodgson Mill Milled Flaxseed box. I paraphrased it on an index card, which I'm copying here:

1/4 c. milled flax seed
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. white flour (I used 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and no white)
1/2 c. sugar (use the full amount--I only had 1/4 c. to use the first time I made these, and the muffins came out edible but not very fun)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 1/2 c. finely chopped apples (this is one large apple or two small ones or 1 1/2 medium ones, etc.)
3 tbsp. oil
1/2 c. milk (I used water--you will probably need more than 1/2 c. liquid to be able to mix the batter)
1/2 c. chopped nuts (walnuts are good)

1. Mix dry and wet ingredients separately. Blend together.
2. Fold in apples and nuts.
3. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit or until top springs back when touched. (I take them out when the tops start to brown and let them sit in the pan for a while, but then again, I have a heavy black muffin "tin" that holds heat.)
MAKES 12 MUFFINS

IMPORTANT: The first time I made these, I just mixed ingredients at random and ended up with a very thick and doughy batter. I'd forgotten that if you let milled flaxseed get wet, it acts as a thickener. Keep wet and dry ingredients separate until the last minute, or add the flaxseed last.

This photo is from my first try at the recipe, and as you can see, the batter didn't flow down and fill the muffin cup:

A (they'd probably taste even better made with milk)

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