poet and didn't know it

i'm reading this book of essays about zora neale hurston , which is exciting in and of itself, b/c y'all know i'm a huge fan of zora and her work.

so far, i've read essays about zora being a choreographer, and about her being an environmentalist before such a term really entered our lexicon, and of course about her fiction and plays, etc. one essay in particular stood out b/c it discussed zora's poetry and how a lot of people (myself included) don't really think of her as a poet. the essay closed with 2 poems of zora's that i hadn't read before, and one of them really hit home:

This Year Has Been

This year has been
a great trial of endurance
for me.

I don't mind saying
That more than once
I have almost said:
I can't endure.

I shall hold on,
But every time
I see a cat slinking
in an alley
fearing to walk upright
lest again
she is crushed back
into her slink
I shall go to her
and acknowledge
The sisterhood
in spite of
the skin.

and now i have yet another reason to swoon over zora, as if i needed one. :-)

modern-day mourning

there's an article in the new york times about mourning in the digital age. for the most part, i found myself concurring with the piece, but there was one quote in particular that didn't sit too well with me:

“We’re just too busy in this world to deal with losing people,” said Maggie Callanan, a hospice nurse for the last 30 years and the author of “Final Gifts,” an influential book about death and dying. “And yet we have to.”

the notion of people being too busy to deal with losing people just doesn't resonate with me. maybe i'm spoiled b/c y'all showed up in such an amazing way when james died. maybe my opinion of myself is too high when i think that despite the current insanity that is my life, i'd do my best to support a friend in their time of loss.

maybe i'm overreacting b/c i've been thinking about james a lot during the past week. but i really feel that the day that we're too busy to be genuinely supportive of one another, regardless of the circumstance(s) or what that support looks like, is the day that humanity's doing it all wrong.

and that's all i have to say about that right now. you may now resume your regularly scheduled friday night programming. :-)

recipe review: easy roasted potatoes with garlic

burgers were on the menu for tonight, and we'd decided to have potatoes as a side dish. red potatoes were in the fridge, along with a white onion. my original plan was just to cut them up and throw them in a skillet for a quick saute, but then i found this recipe in my files and decided to follow the basic outline of it.

i say "basic outline" because i:

--added the white onion which isn't in the original recipe
--used a teaspoon of sweet paprika instead of cayenne pepper b/c we all know i'm a wuss when it comes to spicy food. that, and i didn't want the potatoes to be too spicy for the 3 y.o. in case she decided to try them. (she didn't, but oh well.)
--used about a tablespoon of bottled minced garlic instead of chopped b/c that's what was in the fridge

i didn't cube the potatoes; more of a rough dice/chop, which translated to a slightly longer cooking time (about 40 minutes, plus a few minutes under the broiler).

simple. nom. would make again. the end. :-)

recipe review: maple-roasted chicken with sweet potatoes

i'll admit to being a little more nervous than usual about trying out this recipe. not because of the actual recipe itself; it's pretty straightforward (imo) and i knew that once i'd gotten the sweet potatoes under control, the rest of my prep would be easy. the reason for my anxiety? this was the first meal i made for the folks i'm currently staying with. (not up-to-date on that? go check out my other blog.)

so, nervous. i lost count of how many times i copped the "i haven't tried this before so i have no idea how it's gonna turn out" plea in the past 24 hours.

it turned out nomtastic! here are the substitutions i made:

--dried thyme instead of fresh b/c that's what was on hand (let's say i used about a teaspoon or so)
--a combination of pancake syrup & honey b/c, again, that's what was on hand (i'd say at least a tablespoon of each, maybe? i didn't actually measure any of the spices. or oil, for that matter.)
--i probably added less salt & more pepper than the recipe called for. did i mention i wasn't measuring things?

when i make this again, i'm adding more sweet potatoes. why? b/c i love sweet potatoes and i felt like the ratio of chicken to sweet potatoes was uneven. aside from that, we all enjoyed it. woo!

as promised: the "things that will be (back) in my life this year" post

i had to go back a few posts to confirm that i actually made such a promise, and i did, so here goes.

2011 was pretty craptacular, for myriad reasons. i still have a bit of optimism left, though, so i've decided to make a list of things that will be (back) in my life in 2012. i wouldn't consider this a list of goals or resolutions or anything like that - just some things i'm looking forward to in the coming year. i'm sure i'll come back to this list as 2012 progresses, either to check things off or make some additions/changes. in no particular order:

--a smartphone w/a data plan

--voice lessons

--room service

--an apartment of my own in chicago

--less debt

--live music (as in going to concerts more often)

--a vacation that involves an airplane and/or a change in time zones

--dining out (as much as i love to cook, i really miss going to restaurants. so many places to visit, both old and new.

--arts/cultural/entertainment outings

--at least one trip to the casino, preferably on christmas eve for jesusjack

--a job that doesn't suck

--medical insurance

--visits to my doctors that don't involve me begging for free samples of meds

--going out with friends spontaneously (vs. having to plan things out w/r/t my budget)

--disposable income

--a savings account that has more than the minimum amount needed to keep the account open

--a retirement account, or at least something that resembles a retirement plan

--more book purchases (and bookcases to put them in)

--a trip to the dentist

--a new watch

--regular attendance at ddpp

fun with online contests

my track record with contests on twitter has been pretty solid as of late. this morning, i found out that i won my first prize of 2012. woo!

that said, i just entered another contest this morning for a macbook air. want in on the fun? of course you do. click here to enter and we'll see what happens.

happy hump day!

stockyards palate

a new york times article about charlie trotter closing his restaurant came across my twitter feed on sunday. the person who shared the link seemed a bit taken aback, if not offended, by the "stockyards palate" mention in the headline. i shared the outrage at first, primarily in a "how dare this nyt writer talk about chicago in such a way" kind of way.

but then i thought about it. charlie trotter's has been open for 25 years, which means i would've been, oh, 10 years old or so when it first opened. my memories of dining out from that age that didn't involve mcdonald's or other fast food? old country buffet and any number of chain steakhouses - ponderosa, bonanza, sizzler, etc. oh, and shoney's, but that was for the breakfast buffet and we were almost always traveling when that happened. this was also during the time when kids could be fooled into thinking that "chopped steak" was a fancy meal, instead of a hamburger sans bun. yes, that happened to me. i was probably a freshman in high school when i was allowed to upgrade to real cuts of steak. mmm...steak. i've definitely become more adventurous in my food choices as i age, but steak and potatoes never fails to make me a happy girl.

i say all of that to say that, maybe, the notion of my fair city having a stockyards palate back in the day isn't that farfetched. i'd love to hear from other folks who grew up around here and can remember going out to dinner w/their families. where'd you go? what kind of impact do you think those types of restaurants/meals had on your current palate?

first recipe review of 2012

i knew i wanted black-eyed peas and collard greens today. yes, i support the "black-eyed peas for luck and greens for money" superstition. i also knew i'd want something relatively easy to make. i remembered that i had this Cajun Chicken With Collard Greens recipe on my hard drive, and decided to give the collard greens part of it a try. i'd already made chicken wings earlier in the week, so i didn't need to make another main dish.

when i finally managed to get dressed this afternoon (note: migraine + cramps + migraine-induced nausea + all the vodka i drank last night = one of the worst mornings i've had in a long while), i knew i was only going to eat one meal today. once i managed to establish that i could indeed go longer than an hour w/o regurgitating and could actually think about consuming food instead of the water/7up diet i'd been on all day, it was time to start cooking.

note: i used minced garlic instead of the slices called for in the recipe b/c i had minced garlic on hand. i also "cheated" and used a bag of precleaned/prechopped greens that i picked through and rinsed thoroughly. good thing i did, b/c the greens were still a bit gritty and there were still plenty of stems that needed to be discarded. oh, and i used seasoned salt instead of salt/pepper. i didn't measure it, though, so i can't give you a measurement for that. sorry. also, i let the collards cook a little longer than the recipe specified; maybe 10-12 minutes or so before i added the peas.

anyway...nom. so nom, in fact, that i had to stop myself from finishing all of it in one sitting. i might actually eat some more later tonight as a snack.

i just realized that the last 2 recipes i've written about have been vegetarian. that wasn't intentional on my part, but i know there are some of y'all who can appreciate that. :-)

bon appetit!