My Dinner With Nate and Briana

TWO first class cooks showed up at my house to make dinner Wednesday night. Talk about luscious treats. The best of summer fruits and vegetables got cooked up into wonderful sauces and roasted with fish and roast beef.
It was hot - in the 90s - and outside was the perfect place to set up tables and chairs. The smells inside the house were too much to take anyway. Too, too good!
So we've got the flowers, plates and silverware. We're off to a good start here.
I did have to go back into the house for a few peeks at what was being prepared and to see if the cooks needed anything: a grater, a juicer ... a taster?
Outside the guests were starting to arrive and everyone was hungry and happy to see each other again. It had been a while since our last visit with some of the folks.
It was perfect weather even though it was hot, but there was a nice breeze coming up. One of our guests was especially well turned out, with shiny new shoes on her feet. How about that green grass? No chemicals; just a bit of well water. (We didn't ask Lila to click her heels together and wish she was home. She was so cute we wanted her to stay forever!)
Here is Briana, her mother, and one of our cooks. Briana has her own business, Red Apples, a sustainable private chef service. Reach her at bluewillow32@hotmail.com.
The small grilled pizzas were cut into triangles and served as appetizers. They were topped with the smallest and sweetest tomatoes, sauteed red onion and melting cheese. Delicious again. And the homemade pasta!
Inside the house things were still cooking. It was getting very warm in there with the oven roasting potatoes and pots on the stove boiling away. A gravy reduction was going on for the roast beef. The smell alone was almost enough to fill you up! (Only not quite.)
The pink raspberries (or white; not sure which) were so sweet and ended up in a sauce. That's chard and maybe red pepper on the back burner.
Fresh, organic, sustainable, local. This is a great way to eat everyday. And here are the polenta squares with a savory veggie topping. They were cold and made a nice treat for such a warm afternoon. Nate prepared these, I think. Here he is posing with the beets he bought at the market and then prepared.
Are you almost "pictured out"? Here is my glass of Cubanismo wine from the Willamette Valley and my triangle of pizza. (water back)
What a dinner! I'm running out of time now and don't want to make you too jealous, so I'll stop telling you how wonderful it all was. Please feel free to imagine you were actually there - femminismo

All Alone in the World

Hi! I'm alone in the world and feeling a little bit desperate. Can someone help me?
Preferably someone tall and handsome in a cardigan or turtleneck sweater. And male.
Or maybe someone in a red sports car? Or someone riding a white horse?
This post is very much like Art Sparker's, since she found some abandoned babes in an antique shop. This was Goodwill. Hope this "babe" finds who she's looking for - femminismo

Forgiveness - a powerful weapon

"Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon." from the movie "Invictus"

The movie had hardly begun when Morgan Freeman, as Nelson Mandela, utters this line. A sob caught in my throat and tears filled my eyes.

The concept is beautiful and so simply stated, yet its application is so very, very difficult. But how much of life could be so beautiful if even half of our world was able to do this? - femminismo

Take A Look At August

Here's August clematis spreading to the sky tops and some of my envelopes with a couple of August books - one to be for each day of the month, with a poem inside. Can't you smell the sweet phlox? This was a chance to lie on the grass and gaze at the clouds. Beside the phlox is false dragonhead, which will never die out thanks to all the seeds it produces!

All is going well, with dinner at an Italian restaurant promised for tonight! And music outside under the stars and the waxing moon - femminismo

Summer Is So Ripe!

THE summer days are getting so thick and heady they are practically edible! The air is filled with tiny debris from trees, pollen and bug spittle; and then there is the heavy, thick scent of foliage; the musty odor of daisies, their pretty, fat, white petals frying a thin brown on the edges like sunnyside-up eggs in a skillet; and skinny dandelions are free to reach for the sky in the vacant lots owned by people with better things to do than arrange for lawnmowing, while the rest of us sneeze and say "Tsk, tsk!"

So I've been working in my journal - my August journal - and recently found (in all my "collateral debris"*) a list of what I did all on one day (August 2, 2009! what are the chances?) so I could keep track of my time and find out where it all went. It was a funny list and everything was easier to track because it was a Sunday and I could stop whatever I was doing and go write it down.

This August 2, 2010, was a Monday and work was a little crazy, so I kept telling myself I would do it later - do it later. At the end of the day I was able to recall most of it, but I'm sure I forgot some things. (And I still haven't figured out where time goes.) *collateral debris, AKA, creative tidbits

So these two lists went into the journal. The picture above is of the journal and the beginnings of the Tuesday book. It ended up with quite a few pages so I'm sure I will have to find a longer poem to go in it.

I love painting the envelopes for the books. I am thinking of sending this August Poetry Rolodex off - mailing it to one of my blog buddies - and they can have the joy of opening each pocket and reading the poem. Maybe they will glue in a picture or two (add a short poem, if there's room) and then mail the whole thing on to the next person in line. Sound good? Want to sign up now? Leave me a comment and I'll contact you! I trust the universe ... mainly.

Tonight after work I went to the downtown market and the artists' reception at Valley Art. I met two wonderful women artists who were so grateful to Valley Art for the wonderful, free reception they had: Dorothy Steele and Lin Haak. What sweethearts. Caroline Lau, who worked on the reception with Rusty Seeborg, made a tiny little white clay bridge that was in one of the table centerpieces and it was so sweet I wished I had taken a picture of it. What am I thinking sometimes, I wonder?! It looked like the sort of bridge a Japanese princess would wander over one moonlit night, looking at the sky and wishing for her lover - not noticing the young man in a boat, pulled into the shallows of the stream, gazing at her with such adoration! Oh, isn't the mind a wonderful thing when it can conjure up images like this!
I just know I'm going to hear from Rolodex corporate lawyers for using their brand name - femminismo

Project Begun

August 1, 2010, and I've begun my newest journal today - the recycled annual report. I've also begun a new round of small manila envelopes with a little book in each one to make an essential packet of delight. Such fun to make up the books. No big fuss about measuring accurately or sticking to the rules. No fancy stitches needed on the covers of these books. They are just for fun. I'll show you one tomorrow - femminismo
p.s. Now this is a 'mater - and yes, spell check doesn't like that word.