happy halloween

"I'm a secret agent man. In polka dots."

BEST LINE of the night - I only wish I had more
candy for the tiny little man of mystery, for making
me smile.

Our neighborhood is beautiful, diverse, and full of
kids that "take one" and say thank you, smile and
wave at me through the french doors. I saw an astronaut,
carmen miranda, elmo, the scream guy, and various princesses,
fairies and dinosaurs. But no witches, mummies or frankensteins.

Perhaps in our day different sorts of characters elicit fear..

On to sweet November.

polka dot

Show me your polka face.

Blob's Park

Nope, not kidding. Please do make your way
over to Blob's Park one fall evening
to enjoy Polka and German fare.

We happened to have been there the night a 15-time
grammy award winning hop-til-you-drop polka band
took the stage. We had many pitchers of Heifeweitzen
and even more sausage- so much in fact that I must troll
the web for the NAME of this band and write a proper
review, with photos. Until then- grab your partner.

what wine pairs with twinkies?

It is no secret in certain circles that at one notorious
office Christmas Party I received a Twinkie Making Kit
during the secret santa exchange, and that the culprit
responsible for this heinous gift kept her identity
a secret until through a diligent process of
elimination I was able to find her out, and promise revenge.
And it turns out, revenge is sweet.

I had forgotten how fake-angry I was until Carri's
daughter Eva pulled out the lady-fingeresque bake
pan from one of my cabinets along with the little
half-twinkie-half-cowboy plastic figurine/twinkie
storage device and said "whassiss?" Whassis, indeed.
Whassisdoinginmykitchenstill? The recipe booklet
fell out of the cabinet. I picked it up, expecting:

Ingredients
Enriched Wheat Flour - enriched with ferrous sulphate (iron)
B vitamins:
Niacin
Thiamine mononitrate [B1]
Riboflavin [B12] and
Folic acid
Sugar
Corn syrup
Water
High fructose corn syrup
Vegetable and/or animal shortening containing one or more of
Partially hydrogenated soybean
cottonseed or Canola oil
lard and
beef fat
Dextrose
Whole eggs
Contains 2% or less of:
Modified corn starch
Cellulose gum
Whey
Leavenings:
Sodium acid pyrophosphate
Baking soda
Monocalcium phosphate
Salt
Cornstarch
Corn flour
Corn syrup solids
Mono and diglycerides
Soy lecithin
Polysorbate 60
Dextrin
Calcium caseinate
Sodium stearol lactylate
Wheat gluten
calcium sulfate
Natural and artificial flavors:
Caramel color
Sorbic acid (to retain freshness)
Color added (yellow 5, red 40)

But instead, "flour, sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder."
Seriously? We had to try this. Of course, the recipe is
not THE recipe, so we were making twinkie-shaped
yellow cake, but it was fun to pretend.
Turns out I converted my baking supplies to
organic a while back, so as an added insult to Hostess,
they turned out to be Organic Twinkies, and we made
a chocolate sauce instead of the white...stuff.

This made me think: "I'll bet Hostess does this in
the next year or so. Cause everyone else is."
Even Wal-Mart is "going organic". As if.

Twinkie-making made for a nice evening.
We (the adults of course) drank a nice
Cabernet and had a good giggle about the whole thing.
In fact, the evening was so pleasant that I
consider my grievances aired and will not, in fact,
place a tofu and spinach- filled whole wheat version
of this otherwise harmless (ok, not harmless..)
treat outside the door of the sarcastic ms. claus.
This does not, however, preclude the best re-gifter
ever. And there are many culinary options to be had
in the aisles of Toys-R-Us. Many options indeed.






Oh this thing doesn't really work. I just felt like I was violating the poor thing.



Zelda and Eva wait patiently for dessert to be served.

embracing pink

I was walking through cross street market and saw them.
The pale pinks, the deep rosy tones, the scarlet, which I passed on-
buying red roses for oneself is...well I don't like them anyway..

Pink is important in the second or third week of April, when the
cherry tree out front blooms, sighs, and sheds its rosey robe like
a burlesque queen. I walk under the heavy boughs and marvel at
the tissue paper sensuality in that particular shade of blush.

And speaking of blushing. Very important in many arenas: when one
blurts out an indescretion, admits a mistake, or realizes, upon a glance, or
an almost imperceptible brush of pink-laden limbs, that one has fallen in love.

And then there's the "four-cheek blush." As seen on babies, and "polar bear" swimmers.

And besides all that, pink makes me feel 'sportif.' Thank you, pink.





Something to Consider:

"Here is the crux of the problem, the single greatest obstacle to American literature today: guilt. Guilt leads to the idea that all writing is self-indulgence. Writers, feeling guilty for not doing real work, that mysterious activity, turn in shame to the notion of writing as "craft." "Craft" solicits from them constipated "vignettes" – as if to say: "Well, yes, it's bad, but at least there isn't too much of it." ~Elif Batuman

consider n+1

the last of the summer peaches

no by-the-side-of-the-road strawberry stands for me
no sir
all-ferocious peach off the tree
juice down my chin and down to the bayou
barefoot on gravel
right before the bitterness sets in
and never frozen
and always in august
sticky sweet first kiss
and the fuzz stings a little
on my cheek

in the kitchen

In the kitchen
You prepare life
drinks
dinner
breakfast
scones and laughter
In the kitchen
no matter how wide or narrow
You can cram everyone in there
and they'll smile and drink wine
until it is done
and the belly aches
from laughter
not that apricot cream cheese
or even the bean dip
no matter how gassy it gets in there
from loose buttons and metaphors
what we all share
love is that meal-




When she was little she had little jars
in which she collected the beans from
bean bag chairs.

authentic stripes

authenticity is tricky.
a cat has no choice - nothing inauthentic about eating, bathing, and sleeping-
blending into the carpet.
but when we stop to ponder, there's the rub, and it's uncomfortable.
often against the fur. ick. an uncomfortable truth.

ponder, in the cool breeze of early fall, the difference between
living an honest life, and living an authentic life-