onehouse

39

I did a 10K run the other night. My friend measured out 10K around her neighborhood and away we went. By the time the training was finished, I had done more than my 39 sessions, stretching out the last week or two because I missed some runs here and there. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but I'm glad it is over.

Now I am into the Run 10K Faster portion of the training preparing for an actual race on the Thanksgiving Weekend.

Tonight turned into small bits of harvest time. Someone gave me two bags of apples and so we are peeling and coring and slicing while talking about all sorts of things. Apple crumble is on its way. We also harvested four kinds of basil, shaking off some stubborn little aphids, double checking the leaves for any hangers-on, and then adding olive oil, garlic, parmesan, and pine nuts for some batches of pesto.  A little spider tried to make his way across the floor as we were cleaning up. We  caught him in a glass and then let him out the patio door. Maybe he'll have his own fine lunch of aphids flavored with basil. Everyone deserves to eat well. And the aphids need to learn to run 10K faster.

Afternoon Snack Trivia

I'm writing my editorial while eating oranges and drinking tea and thinking of Leonard Cohen ...

Carry on.

Mmmm....beer pie.

Tonight was a fire outside with only a few mosquitos and a couple of folks. They're coming. We know it. Not the folks, the mosquitos.

And there was beer. Beer with a peanut allergy inquiry. Because my organic peanut butter leaked oil on certain beer labels. And then strawberries and dark chocolate. And Orangina for the non-beer drinker. And then pie. Beer and pie is strange but it was okay because there was smoke and fading lilacs so our palates were all mixed up anyway. I offered tea or some more pie-ish drink but beer was the call. Now I have pie leftover. A raspberry one and an apple one. And leftover beer.  What to do...

(Apparently the plural of mosquito can end with either an "s" or an "es". This may come in handy if you are ever in a spelling emergency. I care for you. That is why I offer you this essential information.)

Update: It was a bottle of tipped over sesame oil. I isolated the peanut butter and still oil. Is it somehow steaming out oil?  Having exhausted myself with learning about mosquitos and mosquitoes, it took me longer to find the culprit. So feel free to buy beer and organic peanut butter. Yes, feel the freedom.

More about soup.

I had a chance to have a nice long breakfast with Deegy yesterday and tease him about his blogging habits - ten really good blog entries at a time and each one needing to be savored.

Here are some of his thoughts on soup and the "prophetic witness of the table" to soften the days between Christmas and the New Year:

A shared meal continues to be a blessing and a challenge for me.  We have weekly meals together at the house here, but of course, as Chittister reminded me again this week in Insights For The Ages, hospitality is much more than food and entertaining.  I still feel like I have much to learn about true hospitality, which for me seems to involve overcoming a certain shyness and my bent towards listening rather than talking.  I am challenged once again to share of myself... to model the gift of self with strangers, both at home and especially in welcoming youth at the shelter.  To see the individual before me as a whole individual with their own set of gifts to give me:

Hospitality was not a warm meal and a safe haven. Hospitality in the Benedictine community was attention and presence to the needs of the other. Hospitality was a public ministry designed to nourish the other in body and in soul, in spirit and in psyche.
       Welfare agencies give clothes; parishes collect food for the poor; flea markets provide rare goods at cheap prices.  The problem is that too many of the handouts come with hardly a look and never a personal moment for the people they set out to serve.  Benedictine spirituality sets a standard of comfort and care, conversation and respect - the things that make a human being human - as well as bed and board... none of us can afford to be too busy or too important to do the same. (148-149)

A Merrier World.

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."
- J. R. R. Tolkien.

Pre-Onehouse blogging from a couple years ago:

Tuesday. One of my roommates received this fabulous juicer as a gift. A gift for her is a gift for all of us. I affectionately call it Darth. I'm not fond of the veggie juice combinations but I can feel my body throwing a little parade when a glass of fresh grapefruit or orange is consumed. We are juicing everything in sight so if you get a book or CD from me, it will probably come in a jar with little bits of words or notes floating on top.

I am having to pay closer attention to my eating habits as I try to get healthier this year. I've never had to do that before. To be honest, I've never paid a lot of attention to food. It was more of a "to do" on my daily list rather than an occasion for enjoyment. I do come from a long list of bad hearts and I need to get more serious about the many things a body needs. Eating well helps with things like focus and energy and sense of humor as well. But I also need to be more appreciative of the role that pausing, preparing, and cooking can play in a person's life. These things that I often check off as ordinary, as chores to complete, bring their own experiences of beauty, gratitude and reflection.

In his essay The Pleasure of Eating, Wendell Berry says:

I mentioned earlier the politics, esthetics, and ethics of food. But to speak of the pleasure of eating is to go beyond those categories. Eating with the fullest pleasure - pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance - is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.

***

The pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet. People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and know that the garden is healthy will remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens are at their best. Such a memory involves itself with the food and is one of the pleasures of eating. The knowledge of the good health of the garden relieves and frees and comforts the eater. The same goes for eating meat. The thought of the good pasture and of the calf contentedly grazing flavors the steak. Some. I know, will think it bloodthirsty or worse to eat a fellow creature you have known all its life. On the contrary, I think it means that you eat with understanding and with gratitude. A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one's accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes. The pleasure of eating, then, may be the best available standard of our health. And this pleasure, I think, is pretty fully available to the urban consumer who will make the necessary effort.

Must go juice something. Darth baby, I'm on my way.

Look away...

Deegy sent me this recipe from a friend of his who just came back from Ireland. This we may cook in memory of the now scattered Church of Guinness (pre-Onehouse). I need somewhere to store this:

Iris Beef Stew With Guinness Stout

2 tbsp olive oil

3 bay leaves

2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch cubes (with some fat)

1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 tsp dried thyme, whole

1 tsp dried rosemary

2-3 tbsp all-purpose flour

3/4 cup beef stock

1/2 cup Guinness stout

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1/2 lb carrots, sliced

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

 

Heat a 6-quart stove-top casserole and add the oil and the bay leaves. Cook the bay leaves for a moment and then add the meat.  Brown the meat on both sides on high heat. Add the sliced onion and cook for a few minutes until it is clear. Reduce the heat to low and add the garlic, thyme, rosemary and flour, and stir well until smooth.  Add the beef stock and stout; simmer, stirring, until the stew thickens a bit. Add the remaining ingredients and cover.  Place the pot in a 275 F oven for about 2 hours, stirring a couple of times. Check for salt and pepper before serving.

Deegy's soup.

Deegy, before he left for the Eastern wilds of Canada, also known as Toronto, made a few Filipino meals for the always hungry Church of Guinness. I remember loving this soup. The avocado popsicles - not so much. But ahh, this soup was good for body and soul:

CHICKEN TINOLA 2 tbsp. vegetable oil 3 cloves garlic, crushed 1 small onion, chopped 1 ginger, cut up and crushed (add more for any sickly factors) 3-4 lb. chicken, skinned and cut in pieces 2 tbsp. patis (fish sauce) 4 cups water (you can substitute chicken broth for some of this for taste) 1 green papaya, peeled and cubed (you can also use sayote, and/or potatoes) 1 ½ cups pepper leaves or spinach Sauté the garlic, onion and ginger in hot oil.  Add chicken and cook.  Add fish sauce and water.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer until chicken is tender, about 30 minutes.  Add papaya and cook until tender, about 5 minutes (about 12 minutes for sayote).  Add pepper leaves or spinach and cover.  Let simmer for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.  Salt and/or pepper to taste. Yield: Serves 4-6