Daily Archives: March 1, 2010

Love and Loss

Posted on March 1, 2010 | 3 Comments

Why did I gravitate to country/folk music and to simple recipes with great ingredients? People. Real people. Not celebrities or rock star chefs.

Yes, my dog died, perhaps a guy left me for another gal and my pickup (SUV) may have a flat but I want to hear the stories of real people. As a teenager or early twenties-something you don’t know anything about love and loss. It’s only when you’re older and wiser (and wearier) that you know something about life, and certain things ring true.

Love, when you find true love, keep it. If anyone lies to you about anything except “do I look fat in this” ditch them. There are few true friends in this world – if you have one, keep him/her. As to in-laws, know your spouse and you’ll know what you’re getting into, and if his Dad has no hair at age 50, he won’t either.

Cook with abandon, whether you know how or not. If you don’t know, watch your mother, m-i-l or friends, or take a class. In my mind, nothing shows love more than a well thought-out and crafted meal to appease guests. I love cooking meals just for us, or for family, friends and large gatherings. Given time to plan and prepare I can wow our guests. Given 15 minutes, with my essential pantry (see right column for entries) I can pull something together on short notice.

My guitar has had little action lately except for making sure it is properly humidified. But I’m starting to dream again about music and am particularly fond of a couple of songs in the critically-acclaimed movie, Crazy Heart. I’m reading the novel now (got through half of it in a day) and admire T Bone Burnett and his cohorts for the music.

I’ll debate any issue I know something about but when the issue is me, and I’ve no idea the source of information and am deprived of any data, that’s just throwing punches in the dark. Around here they make sure you don’t have a clear target, a person to politely talk to in order to make things right.

As of this morning we may lose our home, a dear part of our family and more. Love and loss. Perhaps I can write a country song around it and make amends. Not so cheery today, Dee

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Posted in Editorial

Sisyphus

Posted on March 1, 2010 | 2 Comments

You know, the guy that was destined to push a large boulder uphill and it kept falling back on him so he could never make the summit? That’s me this week.

So forgive me if I’m not present, or if I’m omnipresent. I try to keep it somewhere in the middle. One friend does yoga to get out the kinks, I try to write. Today the boulder has come all the way down to about 20 feet from the ground and I’ve several thousand feet to climb.

Much is going on and a lot of our future hinges upon creative, successful solutions to complex issues so I’m putting on my thinking cap and know your kind wishes are with us. Sincerely, Dee

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Posted in Editorial

O Canada, The Gold Belongs With You

Posted on March 1, 2010 | 1 Comment

Congratulations on the hockey sweep. I know my cousins must be ecstatic, as they took to the ice at an early age in Montreal and Toronto and still play. Yes, I missed the game (shame on me) but as 1/2 Canadian, this gal from the lower States is cheering with you. Bravo! Now I’ll just have to cook up some hearty Canadian food, eh?

I did fry onions for my first time. I had a large red onion left over from the torta experiment so sliced half of it thinly. Before doing so, I put together a beer batter (only needed one beer so chose Labatts from Canada instead of Corona). Beer, flour, salt and pepper and it sat the required hour. The house still smells like onions but the rings were very thin, I thinned out the batter with another 1-2 T beer and they were light and delicious. I can’t believe it took me all these years to fry something other than goujonettes of sole and parsley (hockey-playing cousin Steven cooked the parsley as a last-minute garnish to my cooking school grad dinner at the James Beard House).

The batter recipe was from epicurious, look up beer batter and fried kale. Looks like a basic recipe to me but they sue if you reprint them.

Once again, cheers to the Maple Leaf teams for winning hockey Gold and to our northern neighbors for hosting the Olympics. I also welcome home Utah’s own athletes. It’s exciting to be in a town in which many Olympians were raised and/or trained. Cheers! Dee

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Posted in Editorial, Recipes

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