Surfing

Men are a constant source of entertainment for me.



So I found the unemployed poet when surfing:

http://unemployedpoet.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-only-said-one-of-these-things.html?showComment=1278437692817_AIe9_BGl07_

This is an amusing fellow to say the least. The rant on what you will never find in a Mexican resort made me laugh and laugh and laugh.


I've read Dan Savage for years and years and this made me laugh out loud

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=4362335

he's worth reading and years ago when I first found him he wrote an article about a woman watching her grandmother jerk off a parrot and found it disturbing. If I find it again I will send it along.


You can always find a summer laugh at Lemon drop

http://www.lemondrop.com/2010/05/12/your-three-step-guide-to-having-a-filthy-summer-fling/

Summer is about life being a little less serious, eating watermelon, summer romance, writing a love letter and listening to music in the park waiting for fire works. I live on the south side of Chicago so the fireworks go on and on and on. Don't get me started. Summer defines our time when we are healing, when there's not worry of shoveling the drive way with no end and your biggest worry is which new flower will be blooming in the garden. Summer summer summer.

Food For A Summer Pic Nic

Inspired by Ina Garten and feeling like I wanted to eat something that wasn't about meat because the meat thing gets so old. I was missing Best Friend and our afternoons eating Greek. They closed down the little greek place I love so much, made it a mundane lunch and dinner place full of nothing special. So if you are looking for something summer to eat that you can eat cold as well as hot and is beyond simple, this is it.

The best part of this is that you don't need to measure anything really. I started with some fillo dough sheets, two different kinds, two different thicknesses, the thick on the bottom. No need to butter a cookie sheet, nothing to measure here. Just start with a few sheets of dough, and then a little misting of melted butter and a little olive oil, and some defrosted frozen spinach that you will have to squeeze the water out of with your hands. On top of that a little crumbled feta and a smidge of garlic and chopped dill (mine from the garden) and scallions both the white and green cut up. Now sprinkle all the layers except for the top layer with a little bread crumbs to bind it together. Now if you are full of adventure you can add sun dried tomatoes, or some roasted red pepper. The sky is the limit here I wouldn't add more than a few extras because you don't want to hide the spinach of the feta.

Then you'll need a few more sheets of the filo and another layer of the spinach/cheese fun. Don't add too much dill, it will destroy everything and if you are feeling especially summer, cut a lemon and squeeze some of that juice over the top, another layer of the fillo dough a few sheets and some more melted butter. I take the top layer and spread a little of the melted butter and then some egg wash to give it some color as I do not like the fillo dough too crunchy.

Bake at 350 for about 36 minutes you are just really cooking the dough, everything else is already cooked. Ina mixes in some turkey sausage and makes a wonderful dipping sauce but I wasn't in the mood for a summer heavy sauce or rolling it up. I am going to put her recipe below though because she is the mother of all good cooking and watching her is a sublime way to spend a summer afternoon.


Ingredients
nocoupons

* 1/2 cup olive oil
* 1 bunch chopped scallions, white and green parts
* 2 (10-ounce) boxes frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
* 3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
* 7 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 40 sheets (1 box) frozen phyllo dough (such as Pepperidge Farm), defrosted overnight in the refrigerator
* 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
* 1/2 cup plain dry breadcrumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan and add the scallions. Cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Meanwhile, squeeze most of the water out of the spinach and place it in a bowl. Add the scallions, dill, eggs, feta, salt, and pepper and mix together.

Keep the phyllo dough sheets covered with a damp kitchen towel. Unfold 1 sheet of the phyllo dough. Brush the sheet with melted butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Repeat the process by laying a second sheet of phyllo dough over the first sheet, brush it with melted butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs until all 10 sheets have been used. Spoon 3/4 cup of the spinach mixture into a sausage shape along one edge of the phyllo dough. Roll it up. Brush the top with butter and score the roll into 1-inch rounds. Place it on an oiled baking sheet. Repeat until all the pastry and filling have been used.

Place in the oven and bake for 12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Serve warm.

bon appetite!

She Blooms

And she blooms

He loves her through the whole winter
because he sees something in her
even she's forgotten
He stands over her in the rain
and when the sizzle of lightning fills her head
she can hear him whisper in low tones
and she knows anything uncomfortable is temporary
and you grow and grow and grow

He sighs when she's wonky
because a wonky girl is finding her way
and he will be there to celebrate when she's home
and he can figure twenty one grams on a bike
and she grows

He has the power to make her wet
to let his sun shine down on her
and convert all that divine wetness to food
and by God's design
love can change an afternoon and even a flower
for the rest of her life
love love love

So today he kept a promise like a sacred flame
turned a few forgotten days
into the tender rain
and she remembers that if you drink and drink
you can also drown
but she can swim and loves when he's around

when no one noticed
when the wind blew just right
when he tells her she's perfect
when he whispers good night
it didnt make a noise
not even a sound
she closed her eyes
she held her breath
and when his hand slipped around her neck
she bloomed


***************************
The rose is from my garden and it's thorns tore my thumb to shreds.

carrie

Mundane Summer

I was in the garden this morning
and not one but two monarch butterflies appeared
they were dancing and drinking fruity drinks
from the flowers awaiting their arrival
and I was listening as you always should
when the winged marvels of nature appear
and one said to the other
"I miss you terribly"
the other just sort of carried on her
business of garden visits
and she said "I don't think you do."
The other approached her quietly
"I think of you every day a hundred times a day."
"I think of you, thinking of me."
The queen the color of a pumpkin couldn't believe
what she'd heard so she pretended not to hear him
and he would tell her a few more times
so that this courting ritual of one not trusting
flutter of this way and that
and the one so wanted to be trusted danced
and they danced and they danced
and I was witness to their love
when he kissed her the wind was so cool
I was certain the Gods of summer winds
and beautiful purple flowers
stopped and sat with me
in my garden
of mundane summer

New Garden Photos

The garden is coming along nicely this year. Everything is filling in and I have picked about 30 tomatoes and more sprigs of basil and sage than I can count. The cats love the cat nip which is growing in like mad and I love the colors of the flowers. I even added a wind chime and finally finished the light pole to hang some flowers. The new blue bell looking flowers are called chinese lantern flowers. The blooms are delicate and lovely. I am going to plant some packages of seeds tomorrow for some late september surprise and am still looking for a rusty bench. I think anything new will spoil the victorian feel I love about it so much.

Oh Baby oh Baby oh Baby

These are the new photos of the kittens. There are six, I have a few here but will add more later as they get a little bigger and easier to take photos of. Their aunt Sheba has decided to hide them all over the house which sounds like 6 little fire alarms going off when they are missing their mother and moreover her milk. I haven't been able to pick a favorite yet but that little white one in the photos steals my heart.

What is old is made new again

I have this old gas light pole outside the house and for a few years it was just an eyesore. I didn't want to tear it out because I love the bird on top and I wasn't sure what to do with it. This year it was my little project so I sanded the whole thing, spray painted it and then started painting flowers here and there when I'd have some time at the end of the day. I sealed it in a spray, a matt spray and then headed over to the hardware store to find a dowel. The hardware store adventure was serious fun because this is a place full of really helpful men. They cut the dowel for me and then drilled a hole in each end so I could hang a few plants from this new creation of mine. The rest as they say is history.