March 29, 2012

Poem of the Week: Diagnosis:Birds in the Blood by Anna Journey

The hummingbird’s nervous embroidery
through beach fog by our back

patio’s potato vine
reminds me of my mother’s southern

drawl from the kitchen: She’s flying,
flying like bird! I’ve heard that

as a child I involuntarily flapped my hands
at my side during moments

of intense concentration. I’d flutter
over a drawing, a doll, a blond hamster

in a shoebox maze. There are ways
to keep from breaking

apart. My guardians. My avian
blood. I believed

birds bubbled inside me—my own
diagnosis—though the doctors called it

something else: a harmless
twitch. A body’s

crossed wires. The lost
birds of my childhood

nerves have never
returned. But when you held

my elbow as we walked the four
blocks to the boardwalk,

we saw the brief
dazzle of a black-

chinned hummingbird—the first
I’d ever seen. It sheened

and tried to sip
from my sizzled wrists’

vanilla perfume. I knew
a single one

from the magic
flock had finally found me.

–
A big thank you to Alison McGhee for her curation of these beautiful poems.
For more about Anna Journey, please click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Journey
–
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Alison-McGhee/119862491361265?ref=ts

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March 25, 2012

Vikram Vij’s boatman’s curry (Prawn Curry)

This is delicious. As my mom used to say (in Dutch) Vij could make a shit taste good which is the ultimate compliment. This prawn dish is different than any other curry I’ve made because most of the recipes I’ve tried are Northern Indian and this is South Indian. I can’t actually describe it so you’ll have to try it for yourself.

I couldn’t find cokum so I used tamarind instead – neither did I add the 11/2 cups water because I am almost compulsive about not being able to follow a recipe. It was still fantastic. I served this with a rice (roti) – I was planning on making Eggplant Bharta with it but ran out of time. This came by way of the Globe and Mail.
Here goes:

Chef Vikram Vij is the owner of Vij’s in Vancouver.

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ready In: 1 hour
Ingredients

½ kilogram prawns
1 teaspoon coriander powder
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon red chili powder
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/8 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 cup onions, sliced length-wise
4 shallots
1 teaspoon ginger, sliced long and thin
12 cloves garlic
3 green chilies, split in half, seeds removed
8 curry leaves
4 ¾-inch-round pieces cocum fruit, washed and soaked in water (or substitute 1 tablespoon tamarind paste)
1 cup water
2½ cups good-quality coconut milk
Salt to taste
Method

Wash and devein prawns and set aside. Combine the coriander, chili powder, turmeric and red chili powder.

Heat the oil in the pan over mediumhigh heat. Add mustard seeds.

Add fenugreek seeds, onion, shallots, ginger, garlic, green chilies and curry leaves and fry until the onions turn golden.

Add the powdered spice mixture to the pan and fry over low to medium heat until fragrant.

Add the cocum fruit or tamarind paste.
Add prawns and coconut milk and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes on low heat until the prawns are cooked. Add salt to taste.

We ate this roti style with slices of tomato, cucumber and onion with lime juice and salt and pepper. Delish!

The original article is right here

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March 21, 2012

Quinoa Cakes with Lemon Dill Sauce – Gluten-free, Vegetarian, Dairy-free

I discovered this recipe on the Canadian Living site and I loved them. Super easy to make and quite light. I made some adjustments to account for my diet so if you want the original recipe (for example for the yogurt sauce I used mayonnaise, and substituted corn flour for wheat flour).

Here goes:

Ingredients

    • 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) quinoa
    • 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) vegetable broth
    • 1/2 cup (125 mL) olive oil
    • 1/2 onion, chopped
    • 3 cloves garlic, minced
    • 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
    • 1/4 tsp (1 mL) pepper
    • 3 cups (750 mL) trimmed fresh spinach
    • 3 eggs
    • 1/4 cup (60 mL) grated parmesan cheese (I did not add the cheese)
    • 4 tbsp  corn flour (substituted for flour)
    • 1/2 cup corn meal
    • 1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) baking powder
    • 1/4 tsp (1 mL) grated lemon rind (I used the rind of a whole lemon and it was fantastic)
    • 1 tbsp (15 mL) toasted sesame seeds or pine nuts or slicedalmonds
    • Lemon Yogurt Sauce:
    • 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) Balkan-style plain yogurt (I used 3 heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise)
    • 1/3 cup (75 mL) thinly sliced green onions
    • 3 tbsp finely minced dill
    • 1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon juice (juice of 1 whole lemon)
    • 1 pinch salt
    • 1 pinch pepper

Preparation

 Rinse quinoa under cold water and drain. In saucepan, bring quinoa, broth and 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) water to boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Drain in fine sieve; let cool.Meanwhile, in skillet, heat 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the oil over medium heat; fry onion, garlic, salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 4 minutes. Add spinach; cook, stirring, until wilted and no liquid remains, about 3 minutes. Let cool; coarsely chop.

In large bowl, whisk together eggs, (Parmesan cheese), flour, baking powder and lemon rind; fold in quinoa and spinach mixture. With wet hands, form into 16 cakes; transfer to waxed paper–lined tray. Lightly sprinkle with corn meal on each side. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

In nonstick skillet, heat half of the remaining oil over medium-high heat; fry half of the cakes, turning once with 2 spatulas, until golden, about 8 minutes. Keep warm on baking sheet in 200°F (100°C) oven. Repeat with remaining oil and cakes. Serve drizzled with Lemon Yogurt Sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Lemon Yogurt or Mayo Dill Sauce: Stir together yogurt (or mayo), onions, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Set aside in refrigerator.
I served this with a nice green salad and voila! Delicious.

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March 16, 2012

iPhone – Black & White – Sunbeams

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March 14, 2012

Steampunks: Etch-a-Sketch Vodka image. Hilarious.

This  completely cracks me up. A friend sent it to me and she got it from Steampunks.

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March 11, 2012

Poem of the Week – Philip Levine – You Can Have It

My brother comes home from work
and climbs the stairs to our room.
I can hear the bed groan and his shoes drop
one by one. You can have it, he says.

The moonlight streams in the window
and his unshaven face is whitened
like the face of the moon. He will sleep
long after noon and waken to find me gone.

Thirty years will pass before I remember
that moment when suddenly I knew each man
has one brother who dies when he sleeps
and sleeps when he rises to face this life,

and that together they are only one man
sharing a heart that always labors, hands
yellowed and cracked, a mouth that gasps
for breath and asks, Am I gonna make it?

All night at the ice plant he had fed
the chute its silvery blocks, and then I
stacked cases of orange soda for the children
of Kentucky, one gray boxcar at a time

with always two more waiting. We were twenty
for such a short time and always in
the wrong clothes, crusted with dirt
and sweat. I think now we were never twenty.

In 1948 in the city of Detroit, founded
by de la Mothe Cadillac for the distant purposes
of Henry Ford, no one wakened or died,
no one walked the streets or stoked a furnace,

for there was no such year, and now
that year has fallen off all the old newspapers,
calendars, doctors’ appointments, bonds,
wedding certificates, drivers licenses.

The city slept. The snow turned to ice.
The ice to standing pools or rivers
racing in the gutters. Then bright grass rose
between the thousands of cracked squares,

and that grass died. I give you back 1948.
I give you all the years from then
to the coming one. Give me back the moon
with its frail light falling across a face.

Give me back my young brother, hard
and furious, with wide shoulders and a curse
for God and burning eyes that look upon
all creation and say, You can have it.

–
Many thanks to Alison McGhee for her curation of these lovely poems.
For more information on Philip Levine, please click here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/philip-levine
–
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Alison-McGhee/119862491361265?ref=ts

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March 9, 2012

Skateboarder – b&w Nikon FE

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