GREEN MAN AND MOUNTAIN OSTRICH
Green Man met Ostrich
Mountain Ostrich smiled vaguely
They had met before
Where have you been now?
Where are you going now, Man?
This be my hood, Man....
I be goin' down -
Mountain Men are few and far
Follow my own Star...
Mountain Ostrich laughs:
You been just up-country, Man!
They all Pagans there!
They follow you Home
They follow most every where
You be goin' down...
Green Man Laugh Big, Long!
You be funny, Foothill Bird!
Far from your own home!
Don't you miss Desert?
Don't you yearn for hot sweet nights
Down under somewheres?
Mountain Ostrich grins
Here they feed me plenty, Man!
Here I be Some Bird!
Just like you I Live
Here where Spring needs you, needs me -
Needs to have Magic!
You and Me : Magic!
Don't belong most any wheres -
Be in Modern Time -
Don't believe in You -
Don't believe in Me - not much!
We be Ghosts of Pasts...
Green Man laughs and laughs!
You be so right, Mountain Bird!
Ostrich and Green Man!
Here, up-country sings
Songs of old Superstitions -
Of the Mountain Folk...
Only They see Us -
We bring Spring, Magic for Them -
They can See Us True...
Mountain Ostrich sighs
Bring it on now, Mighty Man
Bring on Pagan Spring!
Now Daffodils bloom -
Yellow is their magic song -
Green Man sings along....
2/28/13
2/27/13
WARM SUN DAY is a special day we spent out-of-doors driving around Calaveras County in the False But Believable Promise of Spring To Come.....
WARM SUN DAY
Where all these towns breathe
In and out and in and out -
Rattlesnakes sun, too...
We are so alive
We miss the Daffodil's death
Into its Bulb Heart
Preoccupied now
With Life and Death and Illness
I Console, Console
Compassion: hot red
Scarves of heat waves flow past me
Into Deep Blue Pools
Ghost Towns of Greed Past
Miwok Wilderness of Dust
No Miwok would build
Managing This Land
Was not the same as Neglect
They knew each Tree, Seed....
Spring is slow comin'
Here in Up Country, Cold Hums
Songs of Prevalence....
Apple Trees in bloom -
Too early, Woodpecker cracks:
They will all Fall Down
Stones Grow out of Dirt
This you can see here, and huge:
Granites, Others: Old
Oak Woodlands now bare
Of either Leaf or Acorn
Wait Simply for Spring
Cold in shade - Warm Sun
Reddened unaccustomed skins -
Put us to deep sleep
Here we will wait, lone -
Snowflakes will fall again, yes -
Blizzards hail This Spring....
Where all these towns breathe
In and out and in and out -
Rattlesnakes sun, too...
We are so alive
We miss the Daffodil's death
Into its Bulb Heart
Preoccupied now
With Life and Death and Illness
I Console, Console
Compassion: hot red
Scarves of heat waves flow past me
Into Deep Blue Pools
Ghost Towns of Greed Past
Miwok Wilderness of Dust
No Miwok would build
Managing This Land
Was not the same as Neglect
They knew each Tree, Seed....
Spring is slow comin'
Here in Up Country, Cold Hums
Songs of Prevalence....
Apple Trees in bloom -
Too early, Woodpecker cracks:
They will all Fall Down
Stones Grow out of Dirt
This you can see here, and huge:
Granites, Others: Old
Oak Woodlands now bare
Of either Leaf or Acorn
Wait Simply for Spring
Cold in shade - Warm Sun
Reddened unaccustomed skins -
Put us to deep sleep
Here we will wait, lone -
Snowflakes will fall again, yes -
Blizzards hail This Spring....
2/26/13
THIS LETTER is the only posting I have on this Blog that was written by someone else...I want to be able to read it myself, when I need to have Courage beyond my capacity...hoping I can face my Life and my Death as he is doing now....
I'm posting something unusual today: the letter to just everyone possible, by a dear friend of mine, about his dying, which is going to happen sooner than anyone, even he, knows. This is the Bravest Letter I have every read. I am honored to be his Friend in Life and in his Crossing Over....
Here it Be, as He is: my dear, talented, Intense, and Alive Friend:
How am I feeling, Mr. Status? Well, pull up a chair...and careful of the questions ya ask.
I will write and share something with you all, but I am going to ask that you please not send me morbid inquiries. After all, it long been my belief that the devil is in the details. The details are unimportant at this point…
It’s an easy thing to look over another’s life and say, “I told you so.” Like B. Dylan once wrote, “backseat drivers don’t know the feel of the wheel…but they sure do know how to make a fuss.” No fuss is needed; nor will any fuss be entertained as concern. No, at this point, it’ll be greeted as icky Facebook voyeurism.
If you’re tight with me, then you already know the details. If not, then you’ll know where I’m at – and on the next ride of this wheel, let’s make a vow to stay more in touch.
Right. Was told years ago to stop smoking, and how it would kill me. And of course it wasn’t believed. I would live forever, as I always have. It was akin to telling a teenager to just wait until he or she is a parent – unfathomable, unthinkable. Well, so it was with me – try to convince me that I’d ever see beyond the age of 50…with this fucked up broken body I was given…and I greeted such news as the teen who’s future parenthood has been prophesized.
I will see a specialist in a few days, one I’ve known for years. He’s a doctor, and he’s a good one, a kind man, a compassionate man. But he is human. And dedicated men and women such as he do not like to think that someone got lost while on their watch. So, I know I’ll be told of the magic drug…over $1,000 a vial…that could have kept me alive and pain-free for many, many years. If only I’d stayed with the program…
But staying with the program meant that I’d never be free. I’d have to do this job that I do out of necessity, like a slave to health benefits and health care. And then I become no better than the weird mongrel government worker who called me a “sell out” for working *my* job while trying to advance the career of his “non-sell out” spooky wife who works for a lawyer’s office (glad the dude saved money on college tuition).
And, really, I should not even give such worthless dead weight consideration or time in this farewell. But we all run against such dead weight in our lives. We’ve all known their kind – they tell you there’s no Heaven, they tell you there’s no Santa Claus, they remind you with certainty there was never an Eden…in short, they kick you in the gut on the very day that your dog or roommate cat dies. You hope that they mean no harm or malice…for if they do, then scary evil. Nah, they’re just clueless and limited in scope/talent. It’s why they’d play “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” at the end of the night, even though they’re face to face with one who actually is a-knocking. Hell, it’s a lack of imagination and flexibility…it’s having to do an unrehearsed song on the spot. If imagination, flexibility, and being so rigid in one’s ways is where a person is at, then that person equals dead weight in this world, at this stage of the game.
But the universe has laws…and it will take care of such dead weight in its own way and manner. Always has, always will.
And the universe is scolding me in its own way…for a lack of faith. For not believing that life could be sweet in its golden years. For not recognizing the joys that would come from children who’ve grown into wise adults who have become as much caring and loving friends. For not realizing that someone very beautiful could still love you, even when your body is broken…so long as your spirit still soared.
It was a slow suicide in hindsight. But, c’mon, I lived through a head-on collision unscratched. I died on an operating table for 30 seconds, none the worse for the wear. My car rolled over into a ditch and the car…along with myself…came out without a scratch. I survived six major surgeries and over half a year residing in a hospital bed. I drank poison only to become immune to poison. I did everything I knew to be wrong, pretty much flipping the bird to every threat or ill-wind that blew a reminder of mortality.
My “heroes” were often of the “live fast, die young…leave a pretty corpse” variety. Of course, they now grow content with their millions in hidden, exclusive retreats in Connecticut, the Bahamas and Maui. But I was taught to believe the art…not the artist…so no hard feelings, Keith.
So, you’ve one year left…or “five years stuck on my mind”…what to do with it?
How to keep the fear of the ride ending from becoming so strong that you forget to enjoy the ride while still upon it? It’s harder than they make it out to be in movies and books, I can tell you that much.
Never lose faith…that will kill you more than anything. No wonder despair becomes the one sin in a good book that is not so easily forgiven nor rectified.
But an Italian dictator who was a horrible man said a truth, “better to live four years as a lion than forty like a lamb.” Flawed a man as he may have been, he was right. And a good, wise woman said, “If you live fast, you always die young...even if your body dies old....”, and how I wish I’d heard those words two, three or four years ago. Life would different now. Life might still seem endless.
But it isn’t endless. The ride ends. And I don’t know if we ride the wheel again. I don’t know if we rest on ice for a spell. I don’t know…and I hate not knowing. Always have. My whole life, if there was a locked door then it became my mission to find its key. Wish I’d applied that to my own life…instead of spending so many years encaged as a slave with the key right within my grasp.
Before my father died, he tried to open his mouth and tell me something. He had a look of fear in his eyes, as though he’d seen into the next world…and did not like what he saw. Or felt overwhelmed and unready for it. He couldn’t talk, so I’ll never know. And people find it funny when I say this, but his eyes seemed to say to me, “I understand, son, why you loved that singer Sam Cooke so much. I get it now…” In short, my old man died a soul man. Always knew Vallejo would have a positive effect on the old grouch. Ya can’t teach Sylvester Stewart (of Sly and the Family Stone fame!) without it having some sort of influence on you. After all, it is all connected. Nothing is random. Nothing is chance. There are no accidents, and there is no such thing as coincidence.
And why Sam Cooke? Because he could tell you that we were having a party…and still make it sound as though it’s bittersweet, like the second line of a New Orleans funeral. Because he made his do-re-mi as a gospel singer, but was still honest enough in the end to say, “It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die… 'cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky.”
Amen, Sam Cooke. Over on this end, I do not know what is more frightening. That it could be a permanent lights out/game over. Or getting to that place could be the most screaming painful thing that’ll make Jesus’s three hours on a cross seem like a walk in the park by comparison.
In other words, I don’t know what will be worse…the dead or dying part.
Really, I thought for certain I’d live forever. And maybe I will…in a song, in my children, in my students, in the ones for whom I did not burn every bridge or treat like dung (becoming more and more a rarity as I get older). Wish I could come back to tell you which is worse…the leaving or the destination. But when you go, no one follows… “that path is for your steps alone.”
Warts, flaws and all…I want it known right now – I have loved and have been loved. So, it was not, nor will ever be a wasted life. But it’s getting scary, and more so with each day.
So to Dr. Levy, my mom, my brothers, Miss Lindsay, my close friends, my roommate/bro Little Mate and others who’ve been good to me…I know where I fucked up. There is no need to say, “I told you so…” I’ve done it enough for all of you. If you want to be my friend, if you want to show a kindness or give some comfort… just help me exit with a bit of dignity. I am scared, and this comes from someone who tried to live with no fear…or “four years like a lion.”
Besides, I lived in a world where they had radio, Atticus Finch and Napoli's Pizza, Indian food, Christmas and Diwali. It's been a world of hearing trains at night, the prettiest gal in the world saying my name like a prayer, the most beautiful girl in the world calling me "Dad." It's been camping trips and sailing ships and sunny days in Mexico and the streets alight like Carnival...everywhere from home to abroad. Sometimes a never ending Mardi Gras. It's been a blessed and charmed life. Wish it could just go on and on and on...but my, wouldn't that make for a crowded world?
At this point, scratching and clawing in anger and fighting with the universe is just making a damn fool of me...and making me destroy the very things that make life sweet & worth living. And that's no way to die...or live.
love,
=B/.
and that is all he wrote....
Here it Be, as He is: my dear, talented, Intense, and Alive Friend:
How am I feeling, Mr. Status? Well, pull up a chair...and careful of the questions ya ask.
I will write and share something with you all, but I am going to ask that you please not send me morbid inquiries. After all, it long been my belief that the devil is in the details. The details are unimportant at this point…
It’s an easy thing to look over another’s life and say, “I told you so.” Like B. Dylan once wrote, “backseat drivers don’t know the feel of the wheel…but they sure do know how to make a fuss.” No fuss is needed; nor will any fuss be entertained as concern. No, at this point, it’ll be greeted as icky Facebook voyeurism.
If you’re tight with me, then you already know the details. If not, then you’ll know where I’m at – and on the next ride of this wheel, let’s make a vow to stay more in touch.
Right. Was told years ago to stop smoking, and how it would kill me. And of course it wasn’t believed. I would live forever, as I always have. It was akin to telling a teenager to just wait until he or she is a parent – unfathomable, unthinkable. Well, so it was with me – try to convince me that I’d ever see beyond the age of 50…with this fucked up broken body I was given…and I greeted such news as the teen who’s future parenthood has been prophesized.
I will see a specialist in a few days, one I’ve known for years. He’s a doctor, and he’s a good one, a kind man, a compassionate man. But he is human. And dedicated men and women such as he do not like to think that someone got lost while on their watch. So, I know I’ll be told of the magic drug…over $1,000 a vial…that could have kept me alive and pain-free for many, many years. If only I’d stayed with the program…
But staying with the program meant that I’d never be free. I’d have to do this job that I do out of necessity, like a slave to health benefits and health care. And then I become no better than the weird mongrel government worker who called me a “sell out” for working *my* job while trying to advance the career of his “non-sell out” spooky wife who works for a lawyer’s office (glad the dude saved money on college tuition).
And, really, I should not even give such worthless dead weight consideration or time in this farewell. But we all run against such dead weight in our lives. We’ve all known their kind – they tell you there’s no Heaven, they tell you there’s no Santa Claus, they remind you with certainty there was never an Eden…in short, they kick you in the gut on the very day that your dog or roommate cat dies. You hope that they mean no harm or malice…for if they do, then scary evil. Nah, they’re just clueless and limited in scope/talent. It’s why they’d play “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” at the end of the night, even though they’re face to face with one who actually is a-knocking. Hell, it’s a lack of imagination and flexibility…it’s having to do an unrehearsed song on the spot. If imagination, flexibility, and being so rigid in one’s ways is where a person is at, then that person equals dead weight in this world, at this stage of the game.
But the universe has laws…and it will take care of such dead weight in its own way and manner. Always has, always will.
And the universe is scolding me in its own way…for a lack of faith. For not believing that life could be sweet in its golden years. For not recognizing the joys that would come from children who’ve grown into wise adults who have become as much caring and loving friends. For not realizing that someone very beautiful could still love you, even when your body is broken…so long as your spirit still soared.
It was a slow suicide in hindsight. But, c’mon, I lived through a head-on collision unscratched. I died on an operating table for 30 seconds, none the worse for the wear. My car rolled over into a ditch and the car…along with myself…came out without a scratch. I survived six major surgeries and over half a year residing in a hospital bed. I drank poison only to become immune to poison. I did everything I knew to be wrong, pretty much flipping the bird to every threat or ill-wind that blew a reminder of mortality.
My “heroes” were often of the “live fast, die young…leave a pretty corpse” variety. Of course, they now grow content with their millions in hidden, exclusive retreats in Connecticut, the Bahamas and Maui. But I was taught to believe the art…not the artist…so no hard feelings, Keith.
So, you’ve one year left…or “five years stuck on my mind”…what to do with it?
How to keep the fear of the ride ending from becoming so strong that you forget to enjoy the ride while still upon it? It’s harder than they make it out to be in movies and books, I can tell you that much.
Never lose faith…that will kill you more than anything. No wonder despair becomes the one sin in a good book that is not so easily forgiven nor rectified.
But an Italian dictator who was a horrible man said a truth, “better to live four years as a lion than forty like a lamb.” Flawed a man as he may have been, he was right. And a good, wise woman said, “If you live fast, you always die young...even if your body dies old....”, and how I wish I’d heard those words two, three or four years ago. Life would different now. Life might still seem endless.
But it isn’t endless. The ride ends. And I don’t know if we ride the wheel again. I don’t know if we rest on ice for a spell. I don’t know…and I hate not knowing. Always have. My whole life, if there was a locked door then it became my mission to find its key. Wish I’d applied that to my own life…instead of spending so many years encaged as a slave with the key right within my grasp.
Before my father died, he tried to open his mouth and tell me something. He had a look of fear in his eyes, as though he’d seen into the next world…and did not like what he saw. Or felt overwhelmed and unready for it. He couldn’t talk, so I’ll never know. And people find it funny when I say this, but his eyes seemed to say to me, “I understand, son, why you loved that singer Sam Cooke so much. I get it now…” In short, my old man died a soul man. Always knew Vallejo would have a positive effect on the old grouch. Ya can’t teach Sylvester Stewart (of Sly and the Family Stone fame!) without it having some sort of influence on you. After all, it is all connected. Nothing is random. Nothing is chance. There are no accidents, and there is no such thing as coincidence.
And why Sam Cooke? Because he could tell you that we were having a party…and still make it sound as though it’s bittersweet, like the second line of a New Orleans funeral. Because he made his do-re-mi as a gospel singer, but was still honest enough in the end to say, “It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die… 'cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky.”
Amen, Sam Cooke. Over on this end, I do not know what is more frightening. That it could be a permanent lights out/game over. Or getting to that place could be the most screaming painful thing that’ll make Jesus’s three hours on a cross seem like a walk in the park by comparison.
In other words, I don’t know what will be worse…the dead or dying part.
Really, I thought for certain I’d live forever. And maybe I will…in a song, in my children, in my students, in the ones for whom I did not burn every bridge or treat like dung (becoming more and more a rarity as I get older). Wish I could come back to tell you which is worse…the leaving or the destination. But when you go, no one follows… “that path is for your steps alone.”
Warts, flaws and all…I want it known right now – I have loved and have been loved. So, it was not, nor will ever be a wasted life. But it’s getting scary, and more so with each day.
So to Dr. Levy, my mom, my brothers, Miss Lindsay, my close friends, my roommate/bro Little Mate and others who’ve been good to me…I know where I fucked up. There is no need to say, “I told you so…” I’ve done it enough for all of you. If you want to be my friend, if you want to show a kindness or give some comfort… just help me exit with a bit of dignity. I am scared, and this comes from someone who tried to live with no fear…or “four years like a lion.”
Besides, I lived in a world where they had radio, Atticus Finch and Napoli's Pizza, Indian food, Christmas and Diwali. It's been a world of hearing trains at night, the prettiest gal in the world saying my name like a prayer, the most beautiful girl in the world calling me "Dad." It's been camping trips and sailing ships and sunny days in Mexico and the streets alight like Carnival...everywhere from home to abroad. Sometimes a never ending Mardi Gras. It's been a blessed and charmed life. Wish it could just go on and on and on...but my, wouldn't that make for a crowded world?
At this point, scratching and clawing in anger and fighting with the universe is just making a damn fool of me...and making me destroy the very things that make life sweet & worth living. And that's no way to die...or live.
love,
=B/.
and that is all he wrote....
2/25/13
WINGS FOLDED is Haiku, one after the other, about the Cold Up-Country here where we live now....it is deep to the marrow for me - less so for my fellow, who often finds it refreshing....I await Spring with longing....
WINGS FOLDED
Wings folded: so Cold
In China, the Birds don't sing...
Heard this One Song, once....
Costs to bring Heat Home -
There is so little Warmth here -
We snuggle closer...
Snow, at times, cold Rains -
Sleets and Huge Crystals loom large...
Melt in only days...
I've been told of Spring:
There's Beauty, Flowers and Warm -
My body feels this
Summers are hot, dry -
Lakes will sit still and fish plop -
On the deck: Iced Tea
Fall is easy smoke
All the Trees in colors wait
Raised Wings move on South
Down this Mountain side
We're traveling away, Cold:
Birds, Animals, Us....
Love this House of ours -
Still: it has been Cold since Fall -
Cold to the marrow....
Wings folded, once, twice:
I will fly but don't know when -
Ice in each feather
There is only Cold -
Wings mean nothing: flight: too late -
Trapping me here, in
By the fire: warmth -
And light, Courage in the dark
When Cold is not there
Give me warm sunshine -
Give us warm Wings to fly now -
Unfold these Cold Wings....
Unfold these Cold Wings....
Wings folded: so Cold
In China, the Birds don't sing...
Heard this One Song, once....
Costs to bring Heat Home -
There is so little Warmth here -
We snuggle closer...
Snow, at times, cold Rains -
Sleets and Huge Crystals loom large...
Melt in only days...
I've been told of Spring:
There's Beauty, Flowers and Warm -
My body feels this
Summers are hot, dry -
Lakes will sit still and fish plop -
On the deck: Iced Tea
Fall is easy smoke
All the Trees in colors wait
Raised Wings move on South
Down this Mountain side
We're traveling away, Cold:
Birds, Animals, Us....
Love this House of ours -
Still: it has been Cold since Fall -
Cold to the marrow....
Wings folded, once, twice:
I will fly but don't know when -
Ice in each feather
There is only Cold -
Wings mean nothing: flight: too late -
Trapping me here, in
By the fire: warmth -
And light, Courage in the dark
When Cold is not there
Give me warm sunshine -
Give us warm Wings to fly now -
Unfold these Cold Wings....
Unfold these Cold Wings....
2/24/13
GOLD TOWNS GROW OLD is Haikus about the aging, even further, of the wonderful Old Gold Country Towns, such as Sonora, and Jamestown, high in the Counties above in the up country Foothills of the Sierra....
GOLD TOWNS GROW OLD
Gold Towns are so old
Oldness wears them like a coat
Threadbare, falling thin
A mountain Ostrich -
Cheeky! Grabbed at my hand strap!
Felt his bill brush by
Up here are dark caves
Some filled with gold, still, crystals...
Limestone drips, drips, drips
Victorian House -
Across the street: red and mauve
Victorian Church
Missing teeth, he smiles -
Cowboy hat filthy, hands sly...
Mountain Man begs coins
Big Truck - two dogs, horse -
One Big Man and two Wild Kids -
Mom looks so tired...
Everything closed-down
Except this Bar, Antiques, Books,
Ice Cream Sodas Shop
Sometimes you can see
All the Glory - the Riches-
All that Gold, That Gold!
Gold Towns are so old
Oldness wears them like a coat
Threadbare, falling thin
A mountain Ostrich -
Cheeky! Grabbed at my hand strap!
Felt his bill brush by
Up here are dark caves
Some filled with gold, still, crystals...
Limestone drips, drips, drips
Victorian House -
Across the street: red and mauve
Victorian Church
Missing teeth, he smiles -
Cowboy hat filthy, hands sly...
Mountain Man begs coins
Big Truck - two dogs, horse -
One Big Man and two Wild Kids -
Mom looks so tired...
Everything closed-down
Except this Bar, Antiques, Books,
Ice Cream Sodas Shop
Sometimes you can see
All the Glory - the Riches-
All that Gold, That Gold!
2/23/13
IN THE QUIET OF THE ANIMALS is Haikus about the Animals around us in the Winter months...we are all waiting for Spring, very ardently!....
IN THE QUIET OF THE ANIMALS
In quiet times here
Animals come to eat, chat,
To scold and to wait
Turkeys head down roads
Fatter than expected now
Winter being Cold
Deer sing for apples
You can hear the silent song
Brouse is gone - hungry...
Skunks stink in hollows
Near this place on icy roads
We call it Skunk Drive
Gray Squirrel is bossy
Sasses me - hates granola -
Prefers plain peanuts
No raccoons up here
They like warmer places now -
Went down the mountain
Four Blue Jay families
Went down to Jackson for warmth
Won't be back til Spring
No birds at Feeders
None singing in the trees here
They knew when to leave
Chilled to the marrow
We humans struggle with Cold
Turn up the heat now
Spring will come, surely...
We are going to hope more:
Winter, End. It's Time....
In quiet times here
Animals come to eat, chat,
To scold and to wait
Turkeys head down roads
Fatter than expected now
Winter being Cold
Deer sing for apples
You can hear the silent song
Brouse is gone - hungry...
Skunks stink in hollows
Near this place on icy roads
We call it Skunk Drive
Gray Squirrel is bossy
Sasses me - hates granola -
Prefers plain peanuts
No raccoons up here
They like warmer places now -
Went down the mountain
Four Blue Jay families
Went down to Jackson for warmth
Won't be back til Spring
No birds at Feeders
None singing in the trees here
They knew when to leave
Chilled to the marrow
We humans struggle with Cold
Turn up the heat now
Spring will come, surely...
We are going to hope more:
Winter, End. It's Time....
2/22/13
OLD SACRAMENTO is a Sunny Day in yes, Old Sacramento....impressions about a place that has changed and changed...and yet, has not changed at all....
OLD SACRAMENTO
Old Sacramento
Older Buildings: new kids there
Order Ice Cream Shakes
There: History Is
No one sees it quite alive
Looks dead, in person
Cobblestones racket
Uneven and stone, so hard
Tires rattle, too
The Delta Queen sits
In River Bottom silt, mud -
No where left to go
Trash is Fun to buy -
Breaks right away, but who cares
Old is Old, not New
History - hers, too
Military Museum Dust
Honor Bright and True
Railroad Cars, Engines -
This is Wonderful and Huge:
Dining Cars are Best
Wooden sidewalks clack -
All are raised - travel is slow
Down the street: click, clack
Horse-drawn white buggy
Up and down and up and down
Old Streets in these times
Historic Plaques shine -
Brass and Fine Words tell Stories
Some of Us can hear
Old Sacramento...
No Antique Stores anymore
Fake Old Photo Shoots....
Leaving off the Bridge -
Huge New Buildings - Pyramids!
Back to mountains now....
Old Sacramento
Older Buildings: new kids there
Order Ice Cream Shakes
There: History Is
No one sees it quite alive
Looks dead, in person
Cobblestones racket
Uneven and stone, so hard
Tires rattle, too
The Delta Queen sits
In River Bottom silt, mud -
No where left to go
Trash is Fun to buy -
Breaks right away, but who cares
Old is Old, not New
History - hers, too
Military Museum Dust
Honor Bright and True
Railroad Cars, Engines -
This is Wonderful and Huge:
Dining Cars are Best
Wooden sidewalks clack -
All are raised - travel is slow
Down the street: click, clack
Horse-drawn white buggy
Up and down and up and down
Old Streets in these times
Historic Plaques shine -
Brass and Fine Words tell Stories
Some of Us can hear
Old Sacramento...
No Antique Stores anymore
Fake Old Photo Shoots....
Leaving off the Bridge -
Huge New Buildings - Pyramids!
Back to mountains now....
2/21/13
RIVER RUNS DOWN is a tribute to the Mokelumne River, which is a river very close by to us, which I am growing to love as if it was a person, more and more every day....
RIVER RUNS DOWN
For these fine three miles
River runs down to join Life
Deepest in it's bones
No River has blood
Still you see the sinews tight
Against these great rocks
Fight for wild, for free
For the chance to be alive
With the Animals
Carry me with you
Ophelia, still, alive
Bent on gliding home
Child of River Life
In love with each River's Song
River Rats Sing, too
Bring the boulders home
Bring home the trees, roots and all
Bring them to this sea
At mouths of each sea
Rivers are singing of land
Places they have been
When I am well gone
My ashes go to River
River will do well....
For these fine three miles
River runs down to join Life
Deepest in it's bones
No River has blood
Still you see the sinews tight
Against these great rocks
Fight for wild, for free
For the chance to be alive
With the Animals
Carry me with you
Ophelia, still, alive
Bent on gliding home
Child of River Life
In love with each River's Song
River Rats Sing, too
Bring the boulders home
Bring home the trees, roots and all
Bring them to this sea
At mouths of each sea
Rivers are singing of land
Places they have been
When I am well gone
My ashes go to River
River will do well....
2/20/13
ONE DAY ON THIS SIERRA ROAD is Haikus in honor of a beautiful day in the Sierra up past 9000 feet into the New Snow of a sunny February day....
ONE DAY ON THIS SIERRA ROAD
Ice Falls over Stone -
Snow Falls: Majestic, still: Cold...
Sierra Silence....
Men across the Snow...
Powder behind every Ski -
One more Run this Day!
Whistle Up-Country -
Watch the Rain to Sleet to Snows...
Whistle the Weathers....
In Jackson Town Streets
No one is biding Hello...
Quiet Gold Town Day....
Ordinary Day...
Snow is a sleeping white dog:
Winds settle his furs....
Sunrise comes True Gold...
False Gold Evening Sky flames
Red, Orange, now, Scarlet....
Old Collectables
From Old Stores in Old, Old Towns...
Reminders of Gold....
Tell Sierra Tales -
Tall Tales and Tales of By-Gone
Times of Deep Snowfalls....
Across this Dark Pass
Emigrants with heavy Loads
Went before to Live....
Snow again falling
Angel's Hairs stream in the wind...
Sierra Night Sleeps....
Ice Falls over Stone -
Snow Falls: Majestic, still: Cold...
Sierra Silence....
Men across the Snow...
Powder behind every Ski -
One more Run this Day!
Whistle Up-Country -
Watch the Rain to Sleet to Snows...
Whistle the Weathers....
In Jackson Town Streets
No one is biding Hello...
Quiet Gold Town Day....
Ordinary Day...
Snow is a sleeping white dog:
Winds settle his furs....
Sunrise comes True Gold...
False Gold Evening Sky flames
Red, Orange, now, Scarlet....
Old Collectables
From Old Stores in Old, Old Towns...
Reminders of Gold....
Tell Sierra Tales -
Tall Tales and Tales of By-Gone
Times of Deep Snowfalls....
Across this Dark Pass
Emigrants with heavy Loads
Went before to Live....
Snow again falling
Angel's Hairs stream in the wind...
Sierra Night Sleeps....
2/19/13
Snow Today! and so, a Poem, one Poem...for Snow in these Sierras....
ONE POEM FOR SNOW
The Fire is almost warm in the face of this Snow
No Wind is not engaged in rings of silver with this Land
I hold you for warmth and will not let go
To my bones is Cold and no Snow is a blanket
For this human need
The White is clean and brighter than the Moon
Still, the Sun will send it into water then to transpire
Into clouds not of our making
Snow is not Royalty as Ice can be
It can kill but is not willing
Ice is willing, Fire, more than Ice
Snow Avalanches fall from every Tree
Rain Snow down to the earth
Each crystal shatters
Is not Snow anymore
Bears who are still in Dens
Stretch and yawn and smell
This Snow
Turn over in their sleep
To wait for Melt
Snow Melt will come
Land gives over to Water
Snow leaves quiet
Somewhere inbetween
Only this patch
Black from cinders on this road
Reminds:
Once I was Great and Covered All
Once I was No Sign Of Life
On the Life of this Land
Once
I was
Snow
2/18/13
COLD AS THIS AIR IS is haiku poetry for the Miwok, The First People of this Central Miwok Region of the up-country Sierra. it is fitting that a foreign person, as I am, would use another foreign poetry form to write my impressions about my learnings!...I hope these People will be patient with this student!.....
COLD AS THIS AIR IS
Cold as this Air is
Mountain Sun makes Life warmer
I wait in This Sun
Four months of Deep Snow
Miwok never lived This High
Too Cold for Acorns
Bear is Like a Man
You would not kill this Fine Man
He is One Brother
Grinding Rock Cleaning
Soaproot Brush and clean feet, skirts:
Women are Cleaning
When the Time is Right
You will know the Bulbs are Here
Digging Stick goes deep
Learning Old Ways, Signs -
Things used long ago and well
Gather in Harvests
These are not my Ways
Still, the Ways of these People
Sing, for me, This Song
Cold as this Air is
Mountain Sun makes Life warmer
I wait in This Sun
Four months of Deep Snow
Miwok never lived This High
Too Cold for Acorns
Bear is Like a Man
You would not kill this Fine Man
He is One Brother
Grinding Rock Cleaning
Soaproot Brush and clean feet, skirts:
Women are Cleaning
When the Time is Right
You will know the Bulbs are Here
Digging Stick goes deep
Learning Old Ways, Signs -
Things used long ago and well
Gather in Harvests
These are not my Ways
Still, the Ways of these People
Sing, for me, This Song
2/17/13
SWEET GHERKIN PICKLES are crisp, cool, wonders of the Pickle World...really delicious and really sweet on a hot summer evenin'...second only to Vena's DILL PICKLES, which I swear I will teach you about quite soon....Gherkins are a great cucumber and make a Great Pickle, that's all a Wisconsin Farm Woman can tell you about 'em....
well, I think we'll do SWEET GHERKIN PICKLES next...since Cherylanne asked about them....they are a Lot like Bread and Butter Pickles, only sweeter and exotic in their spices, to my taste - and their Crunch Appeal is out of this world!...this is a Four Day Process, by the way, so settle in for the duration....it's worth the Pickle!....
You pickle the newly early-mornin'-picked Gherkins Cucumbers in batches of about eight pounds at a time - which reminds me that Aunt Verna had a Big Kitchen Scale she used all the time...you want to stay pretty accurate with pickling, to get the product you want, and not just any old pickle - or, worse still, a batch of really sour or 'musty' pickles....anyways: clean the little Gherkins - the little knobby ones, that are only about one and a half to two and a half inches long. drain them...get six cups of plain water (preferably not from a well loaded with iron in it) and mix in a 1/4 cup on no-iodine salt called canning salt, usually. pour over all the gherkins in a non-reactive bowl, and let them sit in a real cool, dry place overnight, or at least eight hours. Verna then would drain them and do the same thing again (this is two days straight, as you can see) the next day, she'd drain them a prick each one once with a fork. Then, mix three cups of white cane or beet sugar, three cups of clear white vinegar, and just a half teaspoon of turmeric in a large non-reactive pot. now, you tie a little cloth bag called a spice bag, with two sticks of cinnamon, a scant teaspoon of whole allspice, two teaspoons of the packaged whole mixed Pickling Spice, and two teaspoons of whole celery seed. add the Spice bag to the liquid. Bring the whole thing to a boil, and pour the hot liquid over the gherkins. let them sit in this liquid in a cool, dry place for eight hours. Then drain the cukes, but save the liquid they were in. Now, add two cups of white sugar and one cup of white vinegar to this liquid they were in. Pour this new solution over the gherkins, and let it all 'stand' again overnight, in a cool dry place....on the last day, drain them again, and keep the liquid. Add Another two cups of white sugar and a cup of white vinegar to the 'reserved' liquid, and bring it all to a boil again. Pour it all over the cukes one more time, and let it stand for eight hours. Take out the spice bag. Drain the gherkins again! keep the liquid again! Add one more cup of white sugar, and bring to a boil. now pack the pickles into hot scalded jars, and pour the liquid over each one, leaving a 1/4 inch 'headspace' in each jar. Process the lidded, rimmed, newly sealed jars in a fifteen minute boilinf water 'bath'....let cool in the bath a bit. take them out with the tongs...when cool enough, check the seals, and store in a cool, dry, dark space. Verna stored her pickles in her basement mainly, as Sweet Gerkins were served for 'special' - brought up if folks asked for them, at supper-time with guests present, usually....every one knew they were Four Day Pickles, so they were indeed 'special'... and sweeter than most other pickles too, with that Crisp Gherkin 'snap' to 'em.....
You pickle the newly early-mornin'-picked Gherkins Cucumbers in batches of about eight pounds at a time - which reminds me that Aunt Verna had a Big Kitchen Scale she used all the time...you want to stay pretty accurate with pickling, to get the product you want, and not just any old pickle - or, worse still, a batch of really sour or 'musty' pickles....anyways: clean the little Gherkins - the little knobby ones, that are only about one and a half to two and a half inches long. drain them...get six cups of plain water (preferably not from a well loaded with iron in it) and mix in a 1/4 cup on no-iodine salt called canning salt, usually. pour over all the gherkins in a non-reactive bowl, and let them sit in a real cool, dry place overnight, or at least eight hours. Verna then would drain them and do the same thing again (this is two days straight, as you can see) the next day, she'd drain them a prick each one once with a fork. Then, mix three cups of white cane or beet sugar, three cups of clear white vinegar, and just a half teaspoon of turmeric in a large non-reactive pot. now, you tie a little cloth bag called a spice bag, with two sticks of cinnamon, a scant teaspoon of whole allspice, two teaspoons of the packaged whole mixed Pickling Spice, and two teaspoons of whole celery seed. add the Spice bag to the liquid. Bring the whole thing to a boil, and pour the hot liquid over the gherkins. let them sit in this liquid in a cool, dry place for eight hours. Then drain the cukes, but save the liquid they were in. Now, add two cups of white sugar and one cup of white vinegar to this liquid they were in. Pour this new solution over the gherkins, and let it all 'stand' again overnight, in a cool dry place....on the last day, drain them again, and keep the liquid. Add Another two cups of white sugar and a cup of white vinegar to the 'reserved' liquid, and bring it all to a boil again. Pour it all over the cukes one more time, and let it stand for eight hours. Take out the spice bag. Drain the gherkins again! keep the liquid again! Add one more cup of white sugar, and bring to a boil. now pack the pickles into hot scalded jars, and pour the liquid over each one, leaving a 1/4 inch 'headspace' in each jar. Process the lidded, rimmed, newly sealed jars in a fifteen minute boilinf water 'bath'....let cool in the bath a bit. take them out with the tongs...when cool enough, check the seals, and store in a cool, dry, dark space. Verna stored her pickles in her basement mainly, as Sweet Gerkins were served for 'special' - brought up if folks asked for them, at supper-time with guests present, usually....every one knew they were Four Day Pickles, so they were indeed 'special'... and sweeter than most other pickles too, with that Crisp Gherkin 'snap' to 'em.....
2/15/13
BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES and HASTY PICKLES are two Standards in the Pickling Business of Life...Aunt Verna taught me, and I will teach you what I remember and wrote down....if you try these, you'll be happier than you expect to be.....
PICKLES are served at every meal under the sun in Wisconsin, except breakfast, and I've even seen BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES on the breakfast table...at Aunt Verna's house on hers and Uncle Joe's Farm....
O, I am going to tell you so much about Aunt Verna over time as I post these Recipes....I admired her and respected her mightily, and I missed her most of all my kid's dad's side of the family, when I moved away from Bumpity Road Farm in Portage, Wisconsin in the early seventies....
Verna raised her own pickling cucumbers, and they were picked at different stages of growth for different pickle recipes...Bread and Butter Pickles are picked when they are about as big as a bratworst sausage, in the early morning when the dew may still be on them. the heat of the day is no time to be picking cukes anyways, or you'll get heatstroke for sure. Verna would bring in about a gallon of these medium-sized cukes, and wash them in the big iron sink, and then cut them very thin width-wise without peeling them. then she'd slice up, also very thin, eight large white onions. She'd mix the two veges and then mix in a half cup of dairy salt, which has no iodine in it. let the big non-reactive pot of these sit for over three hours in a cool place - for her, that was the Spring House, with its stream of cold water running down the canal in the cool stone building, between the 'setting stones' where the milk pans and other cooling pans were sitting, as well....She'd drain them in big colanders, and then pack them by the spoonfuls into hot scalded canning jars. cover them to the top with a Brine of five cups of white sugar, one and a half to two teaspoons of tummeric powder, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves, two tablespoons of white mustard seed (or yellow, if no white is available), one teaspoon of celery seed, and five cups of scalding hot apple cider vinegar...put the lids and rims on tight-sealed, and then process them in boiling water in the big enamel pots on the stove, for ten minutes...she'd fish them out of the water with the big canning tongs when the water had cooled enough, check the tightness of the 'seals', and then leave them on the counter over a day and a night. next mornin', she'd check the seals again. the jars without tight seals would go into the big ice box to be used up first...the others would be put into the fruit cellar, where it was cool with a steady light humidity - almost dry - for use way later - right through the winter, as she'd keep putting up these pickles until the crop gave out...dozens of jars. Seals are checked on all the jars every week...'broken' seals: up into the ice box you go.... you can eat these pickles in about three weeks - four is best...the ones in the icebox you eat sooner, and they are called HASTY PICKLES, and are fresh and crisp and ready to eat - not as Bread and Butter - but still, a good pickle!
If Verna had four or five large, seedy Cukes, she'd make HASTY PICKLES anyways. she'd scoop out the seed with a spoon, and cut them very thin., or would slice them crosswise about 1/4 inch thick - she'd layer them with one white onion also cut thin, into a small open bowl or crock. over them, she'd pour one cup of white vinegar mixed with a quarter cup of pickling salt and a cup of white sugar, and she'd put a little cloth bag of 'pickling spices' (bought in bulk) suspended into the liquid. then she'd cover the bowl or crock with a dessert plate or the crock cover, and place in into the icebox. they'd be ready to eat in two or three days....sometimes, she wouldn't use the salt at all, for a sweeter pickle....these were cool and refreshing to eat!
Verna put Pickles 'by' all summer long. Next post, we'll do the Dill Pickles and the Dilly Beans. They are a whole other world of Pickles! Important to know, is that Verna would put-by Produce every single day of the Summer through the Fall. the Stoves were always going, and she was always chopping up every vegetable and meat in sight. Her Fruit Cellar and Basement were full of canned goods. By late fall, all this produce was ready to go for the Winter and well into the Spring. This was the way of the Farm Woman in Wisconsin, and no one thought anything special of it. Verna was better at preserving than many women in her county, but not better than all of them. She won prizes at the County Fair for much of her work, but so did other Ladies. She was a Queen of Putting Things By....but there were many kingdoms in her time.....
2/13/13
PUTTING FOODS BY is my next postings, throughout the forty-some days of Lent! The recipes are easy - I know, cuz I've done em, many a time...preserving foods is a lot of fun, not that time-taking, and has you feeling good about your self and your work and the foods themselves....try some of these recipes as they 'come up' - they are tried and true!
LENT PRESERVES AND JAMS
For forty days and forty nights, I am goin' to attempt to eat healthy foods of all kinds...and these perserves and preservations and jams and so on are Very Healthy Foods, indeed they are!
Here are my General Public Health Rules for preserving all foods, especially by 'canning'...all these recipes from my Putting Things By Book are Tried and True: which means I made them at least once and usually much more. I gleaned them all from older Wisconsin Women Family and Friends near Bumpity Road Farm in Portage, Wisconsin in the early 70s. Every Woman for miles about Preserved Everything in sight that wasn't nailed down permanent or running away!
Public Health Rules:
1) Wash everything washable with a vegetable brush under running water.
2) Cut out any soft or bruised spots - very fresh produce only!
3) Cut off the blossom-end of any fruit or vege - especially cukes or zukes.
4) Select same-size of cut pieces to same-size as much as possible.
5) Use canning or pickling or sea or dairy or kosher salt: do Not use table salt, which has iodine in it.
6) Use vinegars the are four to six percent acid only.
7) Use cider vinegars most often; not wine vinegars.
8) Be Exact in measuring vinegars.
9) With white vinegar, be sure the color is clear.
10) Sugar in preserving is usually cane or beet white sugar.
11)When using brown sugar or honey, you'll need 1/2 more than with white sugar, often.
12) Use only fresh whole spices of herbs in little cloth bags (make yourself or easily purchased) unless you want that country-effect, visually!
13) With garlic, always blanch the cloves for two inches before adding - they'll spoil in the jars otherwise.
14) Crisp pickles with alum if you want, but grape or cherry leaves crisp better with no commercial aftertaste, so are especially good with dill pickles.
15) Utensils should all be enamel ware, stainless steel, or glass, only. wooden spoons to stir. Earthenware Crocks, glazed, no lead. Tongs, funnels, food grinders should all be of these same materials.
16) To weigh-down veges or fruits into brines, use china plates with glass jars filled with water, on top.
17) To Brine: in long-method fermentation (three weeks or over) you must remove the top scum daily, and keep the brine cool, or it will all spoil something awful.
18) To Brine fresh-pack, for a pungent taste: brine overnight.
19) For Fruits, brine in a sweet and sour syrup, overnight.
20) Processing means boiling the product in its clean or sterile canning jar with lids and rims on tight, for anywhere from ten to thirty minutes in a 'water bath' that covers the jars in a big pot. this preserves the product against spoilage for months. Recipes should tell you how long to 'process'.
21) Preserves of all kinds have to 'Season' for awhile. Alcohol products are carefully capped or corked, and then have to season for six to nine months, sometimes more, in cool, dry places. Recipes will tell you how long it will be before the product will be seasoned - pickles take weeks; jams: just a few days, for example.
22) Follow every step in a good recipe exactly as you can. It's a lot of work for nothin', if it doesn't come out tasty and safe!
These are the Basic Rules...
The First Pickles will be tomorrow's post! Aunt Verna's Prize Bread and Butter Pickles!
For forty days and forty nights, I am goin' to attempt to eat healthy foods of all kinds...and these perserves and preservations and jams and so on are Very Healthy Foods, indeed they are!
Here are my General Public Health Rules for preserving all foods, especially by 'canning'...all these recipes from my Putting Things By Book are Tried and True: which means I made them at least once and usually much more. I gleaned them all from older Wisconsin Women Family and Friends near Bumpity Road Farm in Portage, Wisconsin in the early 70s. Every Woman for miles about Preserved Everything in sight that wasn't nailed down permanent or running away!
Public Health Rules:
1) Wash everything washable with a vegetable brush under running water.
2) Cut out any soft or bruised spots - very fresh produce only!
3) Cut off the blossom-end of any fruit or vege - especially cukes or zukes.
4) Select same-size of cut pieces to same-size as much as possible.
5) Use canning or pickling or sea or dairy or kosher salt: do Not use table salt, which has iodine in it.
6) Use vinegars the are four to six percent acid only.
7) Use cider vinegars most often; not wine vinegars.
8) Be Exact in measuring vinegars.
9) With white vinegar, be sure the color is clear.
10) Sugar in preserving is usually cane or beet white sugar.
11)When using brown sugar or honey, you'll need 1/2 more than with white sugar, often.
12) Use only fresh whole spices of herbs in little cloth bags (make yourself or easily purchased) unless you want that country-effect, visually!
13) With garlic, always blanch the cloves for two inches before adding - they'll spoil in the jars otherwise.
14) Crisp pickles with alum if you want, but grape or cherry leaves crisp better with no commercial aftertaste, so are especially good with dill pickles.
15) Utensils should all be enamel ware, stainless steel, or glass, only. wooden spoons to stir. Earthenware Crocks, glazed, no lead. Tongs, funnels, food grinders should all be of these same materials.
16) To weigh-down veges or fruits into brines, use china plates with glass jars filled with water, on top.
17) To Brine: in long-method fermentation (three weeks or over) you must remove the top scum daily, and keep the brine cool, or it will all spoil something awful.
18) To Brine fresh-pack, for a pungent taste: brine overnight.
19) For Fruits, brine in a sweet and sour syrup, overnight.
20) Processing means boiling the product in its clean or sterile canning jar with lids and rims on tight, for anywhere from ten to thirty minutes in a 'water bath' that covers the jars in a big pot. this preserves the product against spoilage for months. Recipes should tell you how long to 'process'.
21) Preserves of all kinds have to 'Season' for awhile. Alcohol products are carefully capped or corked, and then have to season for six to nine months, sometimes more, in cool, dry places. Recipes will tell you how long it will be before the product will be seasoned - pickles take weeks; jams: just a few days, for example.
22) Follow every step in a good recipe exactly as you can. It's a lot of work for nothin', if it doesn't come out tasty and safe!
These are the Basic Rules...
The First Pickles will be tomorrow's post! Aunt Verna's Prize Bread and Butter Pickles!
2/12/13
CAJUN DRINKS FOR FAT TUESDAY is three usual Cajun drink recipes for Families...not the fancy drinks...just the usual ones. save nice Jars to serve them in...it's somewhat traditional to drink from jars rather than glasses, even for your Cafe Au Lait! ...Let the Good Times Roll!!
CAJUN DRINKS FOR FAT TUESDAY...and, for anytime you're havin' a Cajun Meal!
First One: CAJUN LEMONAID!
Stir together in a big punch bowl or in a glass gallon jar with a pour spout: two cups of light run, a big can of frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed, and a teaspoon of Tabasco sauce. add in a quart or a liter of club soda, chilled, and pour over crushed ice to suit, or cap and take to the party, or ladle out of the punch bowl into jars. Cajuns like to drink from 'jar' glasses when they can. Really! of course, you leave the rum out if it's for the kids....
CAFE AU LAIT
is a strong brewed coffee, a dark French roast With Chicory, with half scalded milk: pour them together from two separate pots. The best brand of this coffee to buy is Community Coffee, which is a New Orleans Coffee brand, and you can order it on line to have at home, or some places that sell coffees and teas in bulk and so on, also have it There are other good brands, if you can't find them. you use a drip coffee maker Only. serve each cup with half a cup of coffee and the other half of the cup with the barely scalded milk (no 'skin' on top!). Most people sweeten it with a teaspoon or two of white sugar. some even put honey in, or a dash of cinnamon. Do NOT make this coffee like an expresso with frothy milk, or no Cajun will drink the stuff!
CAJUN SWEET TEA
Like any other Southerner, a Cajun Person drinks ice tea sweet and black and that's that. they prefer an Orange Pecoe, but any black 'china' tea will do in a pinch. You boil up the water and use twice as many teabags as you have cups of water. Steep it until the brew is dark, but not bitter. add white sugar to taste. Do NOT Dilute with ice...cool it to room temperature - the way a Sun Tea would be. Pour it into a pitcher filled with ice just before serving it. Southerners serve it Sweet...period. REALLY Sweet. just a warning. sometimes, there's a sprig or two or crushed mint in it, but usually, plain! Cajuns don't serve ice tea late at night, usually...only in the heat of the day....
POEM
pass dat jar ta me, he scolded
yer ma ain't got no bssness tellin'
me wat ta do, cher!
dis lemonaid is tres bon, girl,
wit or witout that demon rum!
but wit the rum, dis is as
close to hebben as your pa
is gonna get!
now go help your ma
fixin' the dinner -
go along now!
First One: CAJUN LEMONAID!
Stir together in a big punch bowl or in a glass gallon jar with a pour spout: two cups of light run, a big can of frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed, and a teaspoon of Tabasco sauce. add in a quart or a liter of club soda, chilled, and pour over crushed ice to suit, or cap and take to the party, or ladle out of the punch bowl into jars. Cajuns like to drink from 'jar' glasses when they can. Really! of course, you leave the rum out if it's for the kids....
CAFE AU LAIT
is a strong brewed coffee, a dark French roast With Chicory, with half scalded milk: pour them together from two separate pots. The best brand of this coffee to buy is Community Coffee, which is a New Orleans Coffee brand, and you can order it on line to have at home, or some places that sell coffees and teas in bulk and so on, also have it There are other good brands, if you can't find them. you use a drip coffee maker Only. serve each cup with half a cup of coffee and the other half of the cup with the barely scalded milk (no 'skin' on top!). Most people sweeten it with a teaspoon or two of white sugar. some even put honey in, or a dash of cinnamon. Do NOT make this coffee like an expresso with frothy milk, or no Cajun will drink the stuff!
CAJUN SWEET TEA
Like any other Southerner, a Cajun Person drinks ice tea sweet and black and that's that. they prefer an Orange Pecoe, but any black 'china' tea will do in a pinch. You boil up the water and use twice as many teabags as you have cups of water. Steep it until the brew is dark, but not bitter. add white sugar to taste. Do NOT Dilute with ice...cool it to room temperature - the way a Sun Tea would be. Pour it into a pitcher filled with ice just before serving it. Southerners serve it Sweet...period. REALLY Sweet. just a warning. sometimes, there's a sprig or two or crushed mint in it, but usually, plain! Cajuns don't serve ice tea late at night, usually...only in the heat of the day....
POEM
pass dat jar ta me, he scolded
yer ma ain't got no bssness tellin'
me wat ta do, cher!
dis lemonaid is tres bon, girl,
wit or witout that demon rum!
but wit the rum, dis is as
close to hebben as your pa
is gonna get!
now go help your ma
fixin' the dinner -
go along now!
2/11/13
CRAWFISH BOIL, the night before Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday...a Big Feast and a Bon, Bon Temps....
CRAWFISH BOIL: THE FEAST IS ON!
CRAWFISH BOIL is not hard to make, but it takes big pots and a lot of standing around together prepping and boiling stuff while you gulp down 'jars' of rum or whisky or moonshine or whatever...It's a FEAST and Mardi Gras is all about Feasting and Dancing and acting-up something terrible!
This Recipe feeds about eight to ten people....
You have to have at least a five gallon pot with a big strainer insert, if possible...fill it half full with water. Throw in three big heads of garlic, which don't have to be peeled, a handful of bay leaves (5-6), a product called Crab Boil seasoning - at least a tablespoonful, no-iodine salt and lots of fresh ground black pepper, 4 oranges, halved with seeds out; four lemons halved with seeds out, three or more whole large artichokes, and twenty red potatoes, washed, whole. Bring to a boil and then simmer for a half hour. Sir in thirty or so baby corn pieces, a pound of fresh trimmed green beans, two large onions, diced large, and simmer another twenty minutes... Now, stir in cut slices of any favorite smoked sausage - about 30 ounces of it, and simmer for another ten minutes. Finally, and here's the Heathen Part: Add in four pounds of LIVE crawfish that you've rinsed off in a colander under cool water. Bring the mix back to a boil and simmer until the shells turn bright red and the tails pull out easy, which is about five minutes. don't overcook them, or they'll get tough really fast, and they are too expensive to waste. To serve your Boil Louisiana Way, you drain the mass of food in the big strainer, and the spread the whole mass out on clean newspapers spread out on a big picnic table. give folks brown butcher paper and lots of paper towels and let them go at it! It's a big, glorious mess, and I've only done it once and it was really, really delicious, but I really can't go through boiling those crawfish alive to death any more. I'd eat it if someone else did it though, in a quick Cajun second, which is faster than most....
Now, how to eat a crawfish, fresh boiled. First if the tail is straight and NOT curled, then toss that crawfish away, cuz it means it was dead when it got cooked and it's not 'safe' to eat...Then: first: remove the head by holdin' the top of the crawfish with one hand, and then put your other hand above and around the tail. twist so the tail separates from the head. then pinch the very end of the tail with one hand, and pull the tail meat out with the other. pop it down the hatch, sometimes having dipped it in a garlic/cayenne/salted butter sauce if you want to...some people also suck out the head, but I usually can't watch that one, much less try it...I mean, these animals have legs and whisker stuff and eyes and all...nope. I'm not Cajun enough to muscle that one....
.
Poem:
Crawfish Boil so fine, so fine
Pass that jar, cher,
Pass them rice and beans
An' when you do get done
We'll all feel good
We'll have a bon, bon temps
Sweet Cher
We'll have us a real
Good Time....
CRAWFISH BOIL is not hard to make, but it takes big pots and a lot of standing around together prepping and boiling stuff while you gulp down 'jars' of rum or whisky or moonshine or whatever...It's a FEAST and Mardi Gras is all about Feasting and Dancing and acting-up something terrible!
This Recipe feeds about eight to ten people....
You have to have at least a five gallon pot with a big strainer insert, if possible...fill it half full with water. Throw in three big heads of garlic, which don't have to be peeled, a handful of bay leaves (5-6), a product called Crab Boil seasoning - at least a tablespoonful, no-iodine salt and lots of fresh ground black pepper, 4 oranges, halved with seeds out; four lemons halved with seeds out, three or more whole large artichokes, and twenty red potatoes, washed, whole. Bring to a boil and then simmer for a half hour. Sir in thirty or so baby corn pieces, a pound of fresh trimmed green beans, two large onions, diced large, and simmer another twenty minutes... Now, stir in cut slices of any favorite smoked sausage - about 30 ounces of it, and simmer for another ten minutes. Finally, and here's the Heathen Part: Add in four pounds of LIVE crawfish that you've rinsed off in a colander under cool water. Bring the mix back to a boil and simmer until the shells turn bright red and the tails pull out easy, which is about five minutes. don't overcook them, or they'll get tough really fast, and they are too expensive to waste. To serve your Boil Louisiana Way, you drain the mass of food in the big strainer, and the spread the whole mass out on clean newspapers spread out on a big picnic table. give folks brown butcher paper and lots of paper towels and let them go at it! It's a big, glorious mess, and I've only done it once and it was really, really delicious, but I really can't go through boiling those crawfish alive to death any more. I'd eat it if someone else did it though, in a quick Cajun second, which is faster than most....
Now, how to eat a crawfish, fresh boiled. First if the tail is straight and NOT curled, then toss that crawfish away, cuz it means it was dead when it got cooked and it's not 'safe' to eat...Then: first: remove the head by holdin' the top of the crawfish with one hand, and then put your other hand above and around the tail. twist so the tail separates from the head. then pinch the very end of the tail with one hand, and pull the tail meat out with the other. pop it down the hatch, sometimes having dipped it in a garlic/cayenne/salted butter sauce if you want to...some people also suck out the head, but I usually can't watch that one, much less try it...I mean, these animals have legs and whisker stuff and eyes and all...nope. I'm not Cajun enough to muscle that one....
.
Poem:
Crawfish Boil so fine, so fine
Pass that jar, cher,
Pass them rice and beans
An' when you do get done
We'll all feel good
We'll have a bon, bon temps
Sweet Cher
We'll have us a real
Good Time....
2/10/13
CATFISH JOHN SAUCY SOUP is my make-up name for this Catfish Soup/Sauce that makes good of a poor-man's fish....only Cajun 'Clear'-Water Fish Recipe I know....
CATFISH JOHN SAUCY SOUP
is my effort, not unheard of, to make Catfish, which is the Cajun 'fresh'-water fish for cookin', palatable for me to eat. I am NOT fond of Catfish, but then, it is no longer like it was when I was a kid. Bottom-feeder Fish is more muddy-tasting to me now than it was back in those oldy-days, I swear it....and Farm Catfish just plain taste horrible to me. period. so, anyways, if you have some real fresh Catfish, cook this, and you will like it for certain....
Directions:
Make your Roux, dark brown, with one cup of flour with one cup of vegetable oil, and then stir in two cups on onions and two cups of celery and one cup of red or green bell pepper, all chopped fine - make it in a big cast iron or heavy five quart pot. This is one of those rare Cajun dishes that uses tomatoes, so add a cup or two of diced tomatoes and 1/2 cup of ketchup - stir in - now add two and 1/2 quarts of fish stock, or same amount of water with one chicken bullion cube and one vegetable bullion cube and a half cup of coffee in it - I do the bullion one, to cut the fish taste down to size a bit....add this liquid a ladle-full at a time, stirring it in...then stir in about two ounces of lemon juice, put three bay leaves in, and stir in some dried thyme and some dried dill and some no-iodine salt and ground black pepper. simmer all of this for around forty minutes. add in a cup of chopped green onions..now, add three or less pounds of washed catfish fillets, cut into cubes. Simmer only five or six minutes more...turn simmer down real low to start to thicken, which you can do with a 'cold roux' or file' or just cook down a bit more, if you want it to be a thick sauce. if you want it to be a soup, then leave it a bit 'soupy', or add cooked rice right to it. If it's like a sauce, then it's sort-of an ettouffee, and you can spoon it over the rice, or serve cooked (long-grained) rice, on the side, like you do with a gumbo... this all tastes as good as catfish is going to get, if you ask me!!
Here's a Poem for the Poor Catfish....
Swimmin' with whiskers outreachin'
In the dark 'clear' waters of this river
Along the stones and muddy bottoms
Where lots'a plants and muck are growin'
Dark and slick his body slithers
Full of Life and Mean and Crafty
Ain't got no purchase on the Light
No place in the brighter world -
Puts on white flesh that tastes right fine
When your Family's hungry, though...
So I won't be puttin' him down
No ways, No...just pass the Soup
I'm eatin' homey, eatin' good -
Dat Catfish tastes just like he should....
is my effort, not unheard of, to make Catfish, which is the Cajun 'fresh'-water fish for cookin', palatable for me to eat. I am NOT fond of Catfish, but then, it is no longer like it was when I was a kid. Bottom-feeder Fish is more muddy-tasting to me now than it was back in those oldy-days, I swear it....and Farm Catfish just plain taste horrible to me. period. so, anyways, if you have some real fresh Catfish, cook this, and you will like it for certain....
Directions:
Make your Roux, dark brown, with one cup of flour with one cup of vegetable oil, and then stir in two cups on onions and two cups of celery and one cup of red or green bell pepper, all chopped fine - make it in a big cast iron or heavy five quart pot. This is one of those rare Cajun dishes that uses tomatoes, so add a cup or two of diced tomatoes and 1/2 cup of ketchup - stir in - now add two and 1/2 quarts of fish stock, or same amount of water with one chicken bullion cube and one vegetable bullion cube and a half cup of coffee in it - I do the bullion one, to cut the fish taste down to size a bit....add this liquid a ladle-full at a time, stirring it in...then stir in about two ounces of lemon juice, put three bay leaves in, and stir in some dried thyme and some dried dill and some no-iodine salt and ground black pepper. simmer all of this for around forty minutes. add in a cup of chopped green onions..now, add three or less pounds of washed catfish fillets, cut into cubes. Simmer only five or six minutes more...turn simmer down real low to start to thicken, which you can do with a 'cold roux' or file' or just cook down a bit more, if you want it to be a thick sauce. if you want it to be a soup, then leave it a bit 'soupy', or add cooked rice right to it. If it's like a sauce, then it's sort-of an ettouffee, and you can spoon it over the rice, or serve cooked (long-grained) rice, on the side, like you do with a gumbo... this all tastes as good as catfish is going to get, if you ask me!!
Here's a Poem for the Poor Catfish....
Swimmin' with whiskers outreachin'
In the dark 'clear' waters of this river
Along the stones and muddy bottoms
Where lots'a plants and muck are growin'
Dark and slick his body slithers
Full of Life and Mean and Crafty
Ain't got no purchase on the Light
No place in the brighter world -
Puts on white flesh that tastes right fine
When your Family's hungry, though...
So I won't be puttin' him down
No ways, No...just pass the Soup
I'm eatin' homey, eatin' good -
Dat Catfish tastes just like he should....
2/9/13
PICKLED OKRA is my favorite Pickle of all - more than Dill or Butter Pickles, my Midwest Favs...it's the OKRA...no other Vegetable like it...when we lived in St. Charles, Illinois, we were the only kids who even knew what Okra was...in the whole Fox River Valley....
OKRA PICKLES are my favorite Pickles ever, ever, ever. If you cannot buy them made the Cajun Way, especially, then you need to preserve your own, and it's not hard at all....
Here's how:
Wash 4 pint jar and their lids and rings in hot water. Wash two pounds of very fresh, small tender, young okra. pack them into the jars. put one garlic clove, one tiny mild red pepper or a few red pepper flakes, a dash of celery seed, two to four black pepper seeds, a pinch of mustard seeds, a pinch of no-iodine salt, a pinch of dry thyme, and a pinch of onion dry flakes, into each jar with the okra. Bring a quart of white vinegar to a boil. Pour over the okra and seal. process (boil the sealed jars covered with boiling water) for ten minutes. cool slowly. check the seals. Let the pickles 'stand' in a cool, dry, dark place for eight weeks...now they are ready to eat! When you have opened a jar, keep it in the icebox. the jar will 'keep' for a week or so there. But you know, you will have eaten them all up by then!
Here's their Poem:
OKRA.
people look strangely:
slimy.
don't like Okra much...
For Some:
So Comfort -
So Thick with Good -
Gumbo -
Chowders -
Fried -
Pickled -
The South is Green
The Same as Okra...
That Thick, Dark-Gray-Green
Of Spanish Moss
Thick in Swamp Trees -
Thick like that -
Married to Roux -
Blessed by the Holy Trinity...
Celery, Onions, Green Peppers...
Taste of Home and Heat...
Slidell. Monroe. Shreveport.
South of my Young Years...
OKRA.
Here's how:
Wash 4 pint jar and their lids and rings in hot water. Wash two pounds of very fresh, small tender, young okra. pack them into the jars. put one garlic clove, one tiny mild red pepper or a few red pepper flakes, a dash of celery seed, two to four black pepper seeds, a pinch of mustard seeds, a pinch of no-iodine salt, a pinch of dry thyme, and a pinch of onion dry flakes, into each jar with the okra. Bring a quart of white vinegar to a boil. Pour over the okra and seal. process (boil the sealed jars covered with boiling water) for ten minutes. cool slowly. check the seals. Let the pickles 'stand' in a cool, dry, dark place for eight weeks...now they are ready to eat! When you have opened a jar, keep it in the icebox. the jar will 'keep' for a week or so there. But you know, you will have eaten them all up by then!
Here's their Poem:
OKRA.
people look strangely:
slimy.
don't like Okra much...
For Some:
So Comfort -
So Thick with Good -
Gumbo -
Chowders -
Fried -
Pickled -
The South is Green
The Same as Okra...
That Thick, Dark-Gray-Green
Of Spanish Moss
Thick in Swamp Trees -
Thick like that -
Married to Roux -
Blessed by the Holy Trinity...
Celery, Onions, Green Peppers...
Taste of Home and Heat...
Slidell. Monroe. Shreveport.
South of my Young Years...
OKRA.
2/8/13
MARDI GRAS KING CAKE can be a really labor intensive recipe of love and tradition, or an easy one like mine, for the kids to help you bake for fun! It's a Mardi Gras tradition to serve this cake, and it's fun and delicious with all that icing all over the place!
MARDI GRAS KING CAKE
Mardi Gras King Cake Made Real Easy is a real short-cut to making a Cake that can even go so far as having Yeast in it, if you make it from scratch. You have to have your Family and Friends eat some for Mardi Gras! And, you hope some worthy kid will find the little plastic child/baby doll hidden in the cake, for very good luck! The icing can be done by kids you know, with lots of sparkling sprinkles in wild designs all over the cake! It's all just for fun....!
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease a baking/cookie sheet. Open three cans of refrigerated sweet dough roll and unroll and pat them into three ribbons of dough, from each can, for a total of nine ribbons of dough Place the three side by side and pick them up together to make one large strand. Fold the dough in half and roll into a fat log of dough Do this with all three sets of dough. put the three logs on the baking sheet and shape to make a ring of all of them and pinching the ends to make a complete circle. Bake the ring/circle until firm to the touch and golden brown, which should take just an hour. Cool on a wire rack. Put the Cake ring on a serving plate and place the small plastic baby deep inside a slit in the cake, hiding it from view.- now, divide two large cans of creamy vanilla ready-to-spread frosting into four bowls. thin each bowl's frosting with a tablespoon of milk or 1/2 and 1/2. Stir food coloring into each bowl to suit: greens and reds and yellows and purples are the usual Mardi Gras colors. Drizzle the cake with the icings in any patterns you want and then toss multicolored sprinkles all over the place...some like to insert the Mardi Gras coins all over the top, too, or throw beads all over the cake. It's your call!
Here's Kind Cake's Poem!
King Cake is cut now -
Little Jim found the Baby!
Luck for him, for sure!
CORN PONE is your basic poor man's starch - it's a comfort food - no, it is the Queen of Comfort Foods - right after King Grits!
CAJUN CORN PONE
is a hearty addition to any meal, and of course, along side any Cajun Stew-like dish like Gumbo or Chowders. It's fun to use your iron Corn Pone Mold if you have one, or just your old iron skillet...we don't use our old iron cookware half often enough....
In a pretty big mixing bowl, pour in eight ounces (one and 1/4 cups) yellow coarse-ground corn meal: mix in one tablespoon of fresh minced garlic and a teaspoon of salt, oregano to taste, about a teaspoon of file', celery flakes or salt or really finely minced celery leaves and tender stems, and about an ounce of very finely minced green pepper. add 1/2 of a diced yellow onion and red pepper flakes to suit until covered with the corn meal. pour in and eighteen ounce can or so of creamed corn with two beaten eggs. mix until pretty well smoothed. spoon out the pourable batter into well-bacon greased corn pone molds over a hot flame for two minutes. flip them all over into a large bacon greased iron skillet to finish off the other side for at least two minutes, with the frying pan covered all this time. flip them over again to be sure the other side (with the corn mold pattern on it) is nice and brown, too. Be real careful not to burn them. what you want is crisp and brown on the outside, and soft, cooked-through and warmed through completely on the inside. If you're only using a frying pan skillet, then keep it covered while cooking both sides... sprinkle lightly with fresh ground pepper and serve them nice and warm.....
Here's the Poem for Corn Pone:
For every Corn Pone ever fried-up
There's a Lady standin' by a
Big Hot Flamin' Iron Skillet
Watchin' all that Batter fry
An' Children standin' by all wide-eye
Waitin' for the Pone be done
Cuz it's so good to eat it hot and
Bakin' is so wonderin' fun
The fire's dyin' down now, Lady
Put in another stick or two
Adjus' the damper Blow the coals
Dis Corn Pone here be almost through
Crisp and brown with corn-cob pattern
Soft and full of Good to Eat
Ain't nothin' quite as hearty as some
Corn Pone - it can not be beat
is a hearty addition to any meal, and of course, along side any Cajun Stew-like dish like Gumbo or Chowders. It's fun to use your iron Corn Pone Mold if you have one, or just your old iron skillet...we don't use our old iron cookware half often enough....
In a pretty big mixing bowl, pour in eight ounces (one and 1/4 cups) yellow coarse-ground corn meal: mix in one tablespoon of fresh minced garlic and a teaspoon of salt, oregano to taste, about a teaspoon of file', celery flakes or salt or really finely minced celery leaves and tender stems, and about an ounce of very finely minced green pepper. add 1/2 of a diced yellow onion and red pepper flakes to suit until covered with the corn meal. pour in and eighteen ounce can or so of creamed corn with two beaten eggs. mix until pretty well smoothed. spoon out the pourable batter into well-bacon greased corn pone molds over a hot flame for two minutes. flip them all over into a large bacon greased iron skillet to finish off the other side for at least two minutes, with the frying pan covered all this time. flip them over again to be sure the other side (with the corn mold pattern on it) is nice and brown, too. Be real careful not to burn them. what you want is crisp and brown on the outside, and soft, cooked-through and warmed through completely on the inside. If you're only using a frying pan skillet, then keep it covered while cooking both sides... sprinkle lightly with fresh ground pepper and serve them nice and warm.....
Here's the Poem for Corn Pone:
For every Corn Pone ever fried-up
There's a Lady standin' by a
Big Hot Flamin' Iron Skillet
Watchin' all that Batter fry
An' Children standin' by all wide-eye
Waitin' for the Pone be done
Cuz it's so good to eat it hot and
Bakin' is so wonderin' fun
The fire's dyin' down now, Lady
Put in another stick or two
Adjus' the damper Blow the coals
Dis Corn Pone here be almost through
Crisp and brown with corn-cob pattern
Soft and full of Good to Eat
Ain't nothin' quite as hearty as some
Corn Pone - it can not be beat
2/7/13
ALONG WITH TREES AND STONE AND SNOW is lyrics about Winter Love....when it's this chilly to cold all the time, you learn to hug a loved partner all the more!
ALONG WITH TREES AND STONE AND SNOW
Along with Trees and Stone and Snow
There are Ways that I must know
Places I must always go
To meet my Heart with Joy
We are not the usual pair
We are old and younger too
We are often in the Ways
Of Courage and less Fear
Along with Trees and Stone and Snow
There are Ways that I must know
Seas where I must always go
To meet my Life with Grace
We are sold on Love for good
We're so broke just spent it all
We are sometimes laughin' hard
With Freedom and with Luck
Along with Trees and Stone and Snow
There are ways that I must know
Mountains where I'm meant to go
To meet my Love with Kisses
To meet each Kiss with Love
Along with Trees and Stone and Snow
There are Ways that I must know
Places I must always go
To meet my Heart with Joy
We are not the usual pair
We are old and younger too
We are often in the Ways
Of Courage and less Fear
Along with Trees and Stone and Snow
There are Ways that I must know
Seas where I must always go
To meet my Life with Grace
We are sold on Love for good
We're so broke just spent it all
We are sometimes laughin' hard
With Freedom and with Luck
Along with Trees and Stone and Snow
There are ways that I must know
Mountains where I'm meant to go
To meet my Love with Kisses
To meet each Kiss with Love
O MY PECAN PIE is the simple recipe of the deep South and it tastes just right...don't forget the dash of whiskey over it all to please the menfolk....
O MY PECAN PIE
This recipe is a 'me oh my oh' sort of dessert. it's totally Cajun, and you will not have leftovers, so just accept that!
First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat three large eggs and then beat in one cup of white cane sugar, and then two tablespoons of melted butter and then beat in four tablespoons of all purpose flour. then, beat in one cup of molasses (dark blackstrap or lighter, as you wish) and one teaspoon overflowing of vanilla extract, and a couple of gratings of lemon zest as desired. and 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Beat until pretty smooth. now stir in two cups of pecan halves. Pour this mix into two uncooked pie crusts shells. bake them both in the oven for an hour, or until a knife in the middle comes out clean. don't bake em til they're too dry...they'll taste ok, but texture is a big part of enjoying these pies. I serve them warm with heaps of fluffy heavy whipped cream. great with vanilla ice cream, or all alone, too....you can sprinkle some dashes of whiskey or run over the pies just before baking, or after they come out of the oven, as you wish....
Here's the Poem for these Pies:
Shellin' Pecans ain't easy
Sat all day and shelled
Mama's kitchen all hot
From cookin' all day
For dat Fat Tuesday
An' den I had ta run
For the blackstrap
To the store where all de
Old Joes sat around with
Jars an' Cal say
Be sure ta get some whiskey
Into dat dere Pie, baby girl,
Hear me? I like a tap a
Whiskey with Pecans
So I tole Mama an' she just say
Dem Men. shakes her head. sigh.
Den I sees her put a dash a whiskey
Over the Pie innards and put dem
In dat oven. I ain't sayin' nottin but
You know I'm glad dat Cal said
What he said. yessir. dis here
Pecan Pie
Is gonna be da Best.
It be da Best.
This recipe is a 'me oh my oh' sort of dessert. it's totally Cajun, and you will not have leftovers, so just accept that!
First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat three large eggs and then beat in one cup of white cane sugar, and then two tablespoons of melted butter and then beat in four tablespoons of all purpose flour. then, beat in one cup of molasses (dark blackstrap or lighter, as you wish) and one teaspoon overflowing of vanilla extract, and a couple of gratings of lemon zest as desired. and 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Beat until pretty smooth. now stir in two cups of pecan halves. Pour this mix into two uncooked pie crusts shells. bake them both in the oven for an hour, or until a knife in the middle comes out clean. don't bake em til they're too dry...they'll taste ok, but texture is a big part of enjoying these pies. I serve them warm with heaps of fluffy heavy whipped cream. great with vanilla ice cream, or all alone, too....you can sprinkle some dashes of whiskey or run over the pies just before baking, or after they come out of the oven, as you wish....
Here's the Poem for these Pies:
Shellin' Pecans ain't easy
Sat all day and shelled
Mama's kitchen all hot
From cookin' all day
For dat Fat Tuesday
An' den I had ta run
For the blackstrap
To the store where all de
Old Joes sat around with
Jars an' Cal say
Be sure ta get some whiskey
Into dat dere Pie, baby girl,
Hear me? I like a tap a
Whiskey with Pecans
So I tole Mama an' she just say
Dem Men. shakes her head. sigh.
Den I sees her put a dash a whiskey
Over the Pie innards and put dem
In dat oven. I ain't sayin' nottin but
You know I'm glad dat Cal said
What he said. yessir. dis here
Pecan Pie
Is gonna be da Best.
It be da Best.
2/6/13
OYSTER AND CORN CHOWDER is so healthy and delectable and smooth as velvet on your tongue...it's the only way I can eat Oysters...the secret is not to let it all boil...it's a low, slow fire sort of meal....
OYSTER AND CORN CHOWDER
Chowders are famous all over Cajun Country, and the deeper southwest you go the richer they get in texture and flavor. This is the only recipe I know for what I often also call Oyster Stew, and it is delicious. One secret is: cook it up on low heat all the way through the process, so the oysters don't stiffen up and get tough, and so the texture stays like velvet....
In your three quart cooking pan, mix a 10-12 ounce package of frozen cut corn, or three to four ears of cut corn with the milk, about a two cups of cleaned, cut-up leeks, two teaspoons of chicken bouillon cubes crushed, a quarter teaspoon or white or black fine pepper, a pinch of salt, a full bay leaf, and 3/4 cups of weak-coffee water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. cover simmering for about ten minutes. don't drain em. stir in two cups of half and half, and then stir in about an ounce or so of flakes of swiss cheese... cook over low heat for about 3 minutes or so. stir in two eight-ouch cans of whole oysters, shelled of course...heat the whole mix through, stirring gently over the low heat. serve from the pan into soup bowls, after taking out the bay leaf!... garnish with chopped chives and maybe a few very thin strips of red and yellow bell pepper...sometimes, I add a roux to this Chowder, along with the Holy Trinity, to make the whole dish more of a stew....
Poem here:
My Daddy was from the Deep South
To the West where the Cajuns sing
An' pass dat jar of whiskey bright
Eat Oyster Chowder through the night
Filled with corn and roux so right
Brightens us until the Light of
Early Mornin' come up
Til Early Mornin' come
Chowders are famous all over Cajun Country, and the deeper southwest you go the richer they get in texture and flavor. This is the only recipe I know for what I often also call Oyster Stew, and it is delicious. One secret is: cook it up on low heat all the way through the process, so the oysters don't stiffen up and get tough, and so the texture stays like velvet....
In your three quart cooking pan, mix a 10-12 ounce package of frozen cut corn, or three to four ears of cut corn with the milk, about a two cups of cleaned, cut-up leeks, two teaspoons of chicken bouillon cubes crushed, a quarter teaspoon or white or black fine pepper, a pinch of salt, a full bay leaf, and 3/4 cups of weak-coffee water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. cover simmering for about ten minutes. don't drain em. stir in two cups of half and half, and then stir in about an ounce or so of flakes of swiss cheese... cook over low heat for about 3 minutes or so. stir in two eight-ouch cans of whole oysters, shelled of course...heat the whole mix through, stirring gently over the low heat. serve from the pan into soup bowls, after taking out the bay leaf!... garnish with chopped chives and maybe a few very thin strips of red and yellow bell pepper...sometimes, I add a roux to this Chowder, along with the Holy Trinity, to make the whole dish more of a stew....
Poem here:
My Daddy was from the Deep South
To the West where the Cajuns sing
An' pass dat jar of whiskey bright
Eat Oyster Chowder through the night
Filled with corn and roux so right
Brightens us until the Light of
Early Mornin' come up
Til Early Mornin' come
2/5/13
CAJUN BEIGNETS are rich and wondrous Donuts - French Donuts! You will eat them all, though there is no 'hole' or roundness to the lot...still, they are of New Orleans, of the deep Cajun South...sweet as Sugar Maglolias....
CAJUN BEIGNETS
Cajun Beignets are also called Cajun Donuts. They are rich, rich, rich!! They are eaten with relish at Mardi Gras for certain, but of course, are a treat whenever you want a Southern taste of Donut...Beignet is cajun french for Donut. They were first made popular in New Orleans.
First, cream together a half cup of crisco shortening with a half cup of white sugar and a tsp of salt. mix in one cup of boiling water with a little coffee in it, and one cup of whole milk or half and half or evaporated milk. Then, mix a package of yeast well in 1/4 of a cup of warm water. add this and two beaten eggs to the mixture thoroughly. Now, add a bit over three and !/2 cups flour and beat it with a spoon. add three cups more of flour (all purpose flour). Mix this dough until 'thick', and then place the dough into a greased covered container in the icebox Cool for at least an hour or so. The dough will keep there in the icebox for up to a week. When you're ready to fry your donuts, roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick and cut into three inch squares, with a half inch slit down the middle. Fry them in deep fat until golden brown on both sides. Drain them on paper towels. Sprinkle them with powdered sugar when slightly warm, rather than hot
Here's their Poem:
Beignets on my tongue
Puffs of clouds of sugars
First Spring Days in the
Court of the Three Sisters
Where we drank deeply
Black Coffee with Chicory
Air smelled too sweet
Magnolia Blossoms fell
Birds splashed listlessly
In the small pond
Hazes of Spring went
Through the Courtyard
Crystal clinked discreetly
White napkins caught
Crumbs and only Crumbs
Beignets
.
2/4/13
CAJUN CORN PUDDING is usually served in little balls of corn mush in restaurants and is nothin' like home-made Corn Puddin' - you try my recipe: you will like it!
CAJUN CORN PUDDING
is a side dish, but if you add sausage to it, it could be the main dish. I once made it and ate the whole dang thing all by myself, and that is how good it is. Corn Pudding is often served with greens, but rarely with another vegetable or with rice. It's that rich all by itself, along with any Sausage you wish, especially...and the collard greens, of course.
Butter up a baking dish bottom and sides and coat the whole inside of a three quart baking pan with fine bread crumbs...preheat the oven to 375 degrees. cut and scrape, including all the 'milk', four or five ears of sweet corn into a bowl... in a large frying pan, over medium heat, dash in some olive oil, about a scant quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a teaspoon and 1/2 of sea salt (or without iodine in it), and the corn. Saute it all for about five minutes, add in chopped up bacon - about six slices - and saute until they crisp up...then add about a cup of diced yellow onions, a half cup of diced bell pepper: cook until they are tender. turn the heat off. now, whisk together two cups of heavy cream and one cup of whole milk and a half cup of fine cornmeal, a quarter cup of white sugar, two tablespoons of black pepper, a teaspoon of oregano, minced garlic as you wish, a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese and a full quarter teaspoon of grated nutmeg. mix the corn mixture with this mixture and pour the whole mass in the baking pan. Bake forty minutes. Serve hot right away. Most folks serve them into Ball shapes with a large ice-cream scoop - but you can slice it nicely, too! It is So Delicious!
Here's the Poem:
Corn Puddin' is the best of meals
Don't know why. Can't say why...
Something Comfort. Something Good.
Warms you like a meal should, and
You can eat it all alone or with them
Greens all vinegar-sweet and you can
Fill your belly up with Boudin -
Fine to eat...with Corn Puddin'...
With Corn Puddin', Joe -
With Corn Puddin'....
is a side dish, but if you add sausage to it, it could be the main dish. I once made it and ate the whole dang thing all by myself, and that is how good it is. Corn Pudding is often served with greens, but rarely with another vegetable or with rice. It's that rich all by itself, along with any Sausage you wish, especially...and the collard greens, of course.
Butter up a baking dish bottom and sides and coat the whole inside of a three quart baking pan with fine bread crumbs...preheat the oven to 375 degrees. cut and scrape, including all the 'milk', four or five ears of sweet corn into a bowl... in a large frying pan, over medium heat, dash in some olive oil, about a scant quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a teaspoon and 1/2 of sea salt (or without iodine in it), and the corn. Saute it all for about five minutes, add in chopped up bacon - about six slices - and saute until they crisp up...then add about a cup of diced yellow onions, a half cup of diced bell pepper: cook until they are tender. turn the heat off. now, whisk together two cups of heavy cream and one cup of whole milk and a half cup of fine cornmeal, a quarter cup of white sugar, two tablespoons of black pepper, a teaspoon of oregano, minced garlic as you wish, a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese and a full quarter teaspoon of grated nutmeg. mix the corn mixture with this mixture and pour the whole mass in the baking pan. Bake forty minutes. Serve hot right away. Most folks serve them into Ball shapes with a large ice-cream scoop - but you can slice it nicely, too! It is So Delicious!
Here's the Poem:
Corn Puddin' is the best of meals
Don't know why. Can't say why...
Something Comfort. Something Good.
Warms you like a meal should, and
You can eat it all alone or with them
Greens all vinegar-sweet and you can
Fill your belly up with Boudin -
Fine to eat...with Corn Puddin'...
With Corn Puddin', Joe -
With Corn Puddin'....
CAJUN.CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES are just one of many, many Cajun Chocolate Desserts...they have their own Holy Trinity of Seasonings: Strong Coffee, Cinnamon, and Cayenne. yes, Cayenne....!
CAJUN CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
The Special Part about Cajun Desserts is that many of them have one or more of three 'Secret' Ingredients: Cayenne. Cinnamon. and/or Strong Black Coffee....doesn't sound like they would be delicious-making seasonings, but they are. Chocolate Cupcakes are one of the Desserts that use all three. These are Cajun and they're chocolate, and I don't think there are many Cajuns who do Not LOVE Chocolate, cuz a lot of their Desserts use Chocolate just everywhere!
Here's a good recipe for them:
Sift one and 1/4 cup of all purpose flour with a cup of cocoa powder, three teaspoons of baking powder, one and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/3 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and a pinch of salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat together one and 1/2 cups of light brown sugar and four tablespoons of soft butter, until light and fluffy. add in two eggs and one and 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla mixed in well. start mixing the dry ingredients with the fluffy mix with drizzles of one cup of whole milk, slowly (mixer on low) until you have a smooth batter. if everything is still too dry, add drizzles of strong warm coffee. or, a third of the fluid can just be the coffee...now, beat everything on medium for about two minutes, until it's all fluffy as can be...
scoop a quarter cup of this batter into each cupcake tin (buttered), for up to twenty cupcakes...bake at preheated 325 degree oven for fifteen minutes...have them cool completely and then frost them....Frost them all with any chocolate icing of your choice, but be sure to have a pinch of cinnamon, a pinch of cayenne and a dash of coffee into each batch of icing, to carry the flavor through.
You'll be surprised at how Rich Chocolate tastes, when these seasonings bring out it's Sparkle!
Here's the Poem:
What child of Cajuns has not begged for
Chocolate Bread on wintery days -
Toasted up Evangeline Maid -
Best of White Breads in most ways...
Dipped in Chocolate in the pan
Warm and just-so Bitter-Sweet -
Dip both sides now, don't be stingy:
Chocolate Bread - tres bon to eat!
The Special Part about Cajun Desserts is that many of them have one or more of three 'Secret' Ingredients: Cayenne. Cinnamon. and/or Strong Black Coffee....doesn't sound like they would be delicious-making seasonings, but they are. Chocolate Cupcakes are one of the Desserts that use all three. These are Cajun and they're chocolate, and I don't think there are many Cajuns who do Not LOVE Chocolate, cuz a lot of their Desserts use Chocolate just everywhere!
Here's a good recipe for them:
Sift one and 1/4 cup of all purpose flour with a cup of cocoa powder, three teaspoons of baking powder, one and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/3 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and a pinch of salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat together one and 1/2 cups of light brown sugar and four tablespoons of soft butter, until light and fluffy. add in two eggs and one and 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla mixed in well. start mixing the dry ingredients with the fluffy mix with drizzles of one cup of whole milk, slowly (mixer on low) until you have a smooth batter. if everything is still too dry, add drizzles of strong warm coffee. or, a third of the fluid can just be the coffee...now, beat everything on medium for about two minutes, until it's all fluffy as can be...
scoop a quarter cup of this batter into each cupcake tin (buttered), for up to twenty cupcakes...bake at preheated 325 degree oven for fifteen minutes...have them cool completely and then frost them....Frost them all with any chocolate icing of your choice, but be sure to have a pinch of cinnamon, a pinch of cayenne and a dash of coffee into each batch of icing, to carry the flavor through.
You'll be surprised at how Rich Chocolate tastes, when these seasonings bring out it's Sparkle!
Here's the Poem:
What child of Cajuns has not begged for
Chocolate Bread on wintery days -
Toasted up Evangeline Maid -
Best of White Breads in most ways...
Dipped in Chocolate in the pan
Warm and just-so Bitter-Sweet -
Dip both sides now, don't be stingy:
Chocolate Bread - tres bon to eat!
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