(Photo by Steve Rawley)

“We are the night ocean filled
with glints of light. We are the space
between the fish and the moon,
while we sit here together.”

— Rumi

“Bottom line is we’re all flawed in this world. No one’s perfect,” film director Richard Linklater, accepting his Golden Globe award for directing, “I want to dedicate this to parents that are evolving everywhere and families that are just passing through this world and doing their best.”

I’ll see how many categories I can hit here… Ready? Ready-steady-go!

* Pacific Ocean: It’s beautiful. It makes me happy, i love my negative ions i get from the ocean, and the wildlife is so fun to watch. The sea lions in that picture are making what’s called a “raft.” They all hold onto each other and float around. Hippies :)

* Book review? Here’s what on my nightstand (and on the Kindle): Re-read “Wild,” re-reading “Torch,” re-reading Carol Shields magnum opus, “Unless,” reading “Quiet” and learning all kinds of stuff about introverts, extroverts, high reactives and the modern age, just finishing Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy,” genius, and… that’s all I can think of.

* Recipes:

Oven-Fried Spuds (excellent, best potato recipe ever)
Soup! (Steve’s recipe. This one clears up your head, fast)

1 onion, sliced thin
1 bulb garlic
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
6 cups water

Reduce water and bouillon by half to thicken.

* Work… is going well. Super well. I love working at a school (computer lab again this year), I’m with the best staff and boss in the universe (no I’m not saying that because they might read this — they really are gifted, funny, smart, wonderful with the students and everything else I was hoping for) and I love that my students are willing to work on my Spanish with me. #yohabloespanolmasomenos

* My own kids… are great. Whoever said, “Eh, you think that when they’re little they really need you, but when they’re teenagers? That’s when they really need you,” that person was so smart. (Seriously, probably 20 people said that to me when the kids were toddlers, and I thought they were joking.)

* Nekkid Neighbors — remember them?

* Sex? Not at work, people, keep that in mind, always. Or with the Nekkid Neighbors. Just a bad idea, aight? Lol. We’ve been watching Californication on Netflix, and swear to God, every time I watch it, I feel like I’ve been in an orgy, and it was kind of great, but equally horrible. Yeah.

* Speaking of pop culture… movies. We saw “Wild,” loved it, “Nebraska,” also great, “Boyhood,” one of the best movies I’ve ever seen in my life. Seriously.

* Holidays: How can 2015 be a real year? It’s so space-age sounding.

* And in the category of Pets, Stupid… Our sweet, loving, funny Wacky Cat 2 passed away last month. I keep looking for him, thinking I see him, missing him. It just sucks.

* Houses & Homes: We’re cleaning & rearranging & opposite-of-hoarding like mad right now because we’re moving again.

In five years.

But, as one of my 80-something-year-old neighbors told me after New Year’s, “Every year, I don’t know what it is. The days go slower and the years go faster.” Then he gave me a big smile, I smiled back, and he pedaled off on his bike. I know just what he means.

All for now, xo,

wm

Once upon a time, I was a little girl, and I loved to eat cookies.

Some things never change.

Over the years, I’ve craved my Mom’s soft, crispy, crumbly and rich Chocolate Crinkles, her mom’s chewy-addictive chocolate chip-banana cookies, and the reindeer sugar cookies (secret ingredient: almond extract) the sweet neighbor across the street used to bake for us every year. Thin, crispy, and perfect. But the cookies I have craved the most are my grandma’s butter cookies. My dad’s mom was from North Dakota, no-nonsense, and knew just how to keep me happy: Books to read, apricots to nibble on, a Kentucky Fried Chicken picnic in the park with the entire family, and a Tupperware container full of the best cookies in the world.

And I had no recipe for them.

I’ve searched through my mom’s files, my own files, my grandma’s cookbooks (inherited *all* of the cookbooks from both grandmas #blessed) and no luck. Tears. Sadness. And a yearning for “how did she make those, exactly?” I’ve guessed, experimented, no luck. Was thumbing through her copy (which looks like it was her mommy’s copy, it’s vintage and gorgeous and about 100+ years old) of “Pantry Secrets,” compiled by St. Aldolphus Altar Society, Langdon, North Dakota (produced in the plant of the Cavalier County Republican, Langdon, N.D.).

Yes, that’s right. Suddenly, there it was. The clouds parted, the sun came out, and there was much rejoicing.

They’re that good. Hallelujah and Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

My Grandma’s Delicious Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 well-beaten eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in one tablespoon hot water
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
4 1/2 cups flour

(notes say: roll with date filling — no recipe for that — and “make in roll in icebox or add chocolate drops)

We made drop cookies with one batch of dough, and used the second batch as cut-out cookies. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

We did a basic powdered sugar frosting, dyed green and red, to ice them. (I also have a great recipe for “10 Minute Justrite Fudge” and some quite fantastic recipes to share from the Jiffy Cookbook, but those will have to wait for another time.)

Bon appetit!

— wm

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Wacky Cat 2’s blindness is presenting some challenges. For us more than him.

“You’re working out? Here, I’ll walk under the elliptical.”

“The fan is turned on? I’ll stick my nose into it. And lick it. Now, where’s a wall?”

I love him so much. He had some kind of virus a few weeks ago, we thought he was a goner…

“But the cat came back/
the very next day/
thought he was a goner/
but the cat came back/
no he couldn’t stay away…”

17 years old now, skinny, sack of bones, but happy, eating & drinking OK, loves to sleep on me, interested in life, and there you have it. Also loves to purr in my ear and snuggle in on my shoulder, when I’m kicked back.

Best kitty in the world.

Enjoy your week, y’all.

xo

wm

Dec. 3, 2014: RIP, dear, dear Woogie, 1997-2014. You were a joy and my best friend. love you, cat. xoxoxoxo

That’s my question for the daredevils in the crowd. I get it. I ask, Why? You ask, Why not?

Great episode of Oregon Field Guide, featuring our own Mt. St. Helens.

that’s right. Blogging is so four years ago, with the exception of those of us who still keep our online journals: Zoot, Y from the Internet, who I’ve known for so long I call her that, Amalah, Doocie, and me.

The big five, baby, that’s where we’re at. Not the big 5-0, the big 5. Kidding.

I will persevere.

I mainly blog nowadays because I need the archives — especially for updates on my kids (my daughter is driving now, btw) (uh, it’s true. This little girl…), a cookbook (you can always buy a hard copy), school work, and whatever else I need. Quotes of the day, funny jokes. Ha. Funny to me jokes.

So you know that your Facebook archives aren’t really archives, right? And that your photos might or might not disappear eventually, if that’s where you’re storing them? Just saying.

So here’s what I’m working on reading this school year. And first things being, as always, first: the potboilers.

I read Theodore Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie” when I was an 18-year-old college freshman and knew everything. I would like to talk with that girl and have her answer a few of my several hundred questions, now that I know nothing. Dear Lord, what a difference between 18 and 50.

“You should see her ass in that dress.” — my friend Nicole, to my then-lover, talking about me and my brand-new little black dress, circa many years ago. We were at a bar downtown. It may have been the Virginia Cafe. Or Hamburger Mary’s, or the Veritable Quandary, or that place where they served the delicious little Cornish game hens? The Vat & Tonsure. Then (to me): “You hit 27 and your ass just falls. I don’t know what it is.”

My main concerns then:
1) how am i going to get these bills paid?
2) where are the parties this weekend?
3) what about this “27 changes everything” thing? (defer)
4) why does she (neighbor/friend/family member/co-worker) put up w/ that shit? (from spouse/children/grown children/neighbors/co-workers)

I have to go water the yard now, and write more when I get back. No more bars, just chores, out here on the farm. I could really use another load of manure for the east 40.

Back! So. “Sister Carrie,” which I always throw together with “Portrait of a Lady,” “Anna Karenina,” “Madame Bovary” and “The Awakening”… Well, it’s its own animal. I just love the book.

Finished it up, and on to “An American Tragedy” (also Dreiser), which I’ve been meaning to read ever since I saw the Elizabeth Taylor/Montgomery Clift classic, “A Place in the Sun.” God, it’s brilliant, too. So I’m happy, with lots to read. And I have a good excuse (for the moment) to put off reading all of these for work (ps check out this week’s issue of The Nation. On the cover: “Saving Public Schools: A Growing Movement Confronts the Failure of ‘Reform'”:

Being Bad: My Baby Brother and the School-To-Prison Pipeline: Being Bad (Teaching for Social Justice)
by Crystal T. Laura

Bon appetit!

— wm

These are all so good, go make them right now.

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips

1 cup butter (or margarine or shortening)
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups oatmeal
1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars together, mix in eggs and vanilla and then add dry ingredients; fold in chocolate chips and oats. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets, bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Or spoon batter into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or so until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Hawaiian Macaroni Salad

2 cups whole milk
2 cups mayonnaise
1 tablespoon brown sugar
salt and pepper
1 pound elbow macaroni
1/2 cup cider vinegar
4 green onions, sliced thin
1 large carrot, peeled and finely grated
1 celery rib, chopped finely

Make dressing: Whisk 1 1/2 cups milk, 1 cup mayo, brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tsp pepper in bowl

Cook pasta: Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in large pot. Add 1 tablespoons of salt and the pasta; cook until very soft, about 10 minutes. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add vinegar and toss until absorbed. Transfer to a bowl and cool pasta 10 minutes, then stir in dressing until pasta is well coated. Cool completely.

Make salad: Add green onions, carrot, celery, remaining milk and mayo to pot with pasta mixture and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Chill at least an hour… or a day or two. Optional: Add a handful or two of frozen peas.

Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar, beaten into the eggs
2/3 cup pumpkin
1 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together and spread on greased and floured 10×14 inch cookie sheet with sides. Bake at 375 for approximately 15 minutes. Remove from pan and roll immediately in cloth or wax paper. Let set for a few minutes.

Combine:
1 cup powdered sugar
6 oz-8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla

Unroll cake and spread frosting. Roll cake again and freeze.

Brazilian Black Bean Soup

2 cups dry black beans, soaked overnight in 6 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups chopped onion
10 medium cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons cumin
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 medium carrot, diced
1 medium bell pepper, diced
1 1/2 cups orange juice
black pepper to taste
cayenne to taste
2 medium tomatoes, diced

Toppings: sour cream, cilantro, salsa

1. Cook soaked beans in 4 cups of water; boil, cover and simmer until tender about 1 1/2 hours.
2. In olive oil, saute onion, half of the garlic, cumin, salt and carrot until carrots are tender. Add green pepper and remaining garlic; saute 15 minutes or so until everything is very tender. Add mixture to the beans.
3. Stir in the orange juice, pepper, cayenne and tomatoes. Puree all or some of soup and then simmer 10 minutes more… serve with sour cream, cilantro, and salsa.

Optional: Add cooked diced chicken to step three.

Cooking.

Writing.

Reading.

Gardening.

Playing.

Enjoying school, work, sleep, school, work, homework, fun, sleep. Sleep, fun, homework… You get the idea.

Hope life is good in your world.

— wm

(Photos by Steve Rawley)

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

My husband and I are coming up on our… 17th anniversary? No, 16th. But we’ve been together for 17-plus years now and sometimes, believe it or not, we get on each other’s nerves. We spend a ton of time together, which is how we both like it. On the other hand, he loves the ocean. I love the ocean, too, but I also love hanging out with a book by the pool, or maybe, I dunno, going shopping. Or for breakfast. But he really, really loves the ocean, as in, being alone at the ocean, riding his bike along the shore, taking loads of photos, hiking for miles, traipsing up winding, crazy lighthouse stairs.

This ocean appreciation came as a surprise to me, because when I married him, he was definitely a mountain man.

This scene, from “The Perfect Storm,” sums it up:

Bobby Shatford: “I got a woman who I can’t stand to be two feet away from.”
Captain Billy Tyne: “Congratulations.”
Bobby Shatford: “Then again, I love to fish.”
Captain Billy Tyne: “Son, you’ve got a problem.”

We were having coffee, planning out our weekend, and Steve said something about, “What was that you said, about ‘spaces in your togetherness’?” First of all, I was being a smartass when I said that, and second of all, I didn’t say it — Khalil Gibran did, and I’ve heard the lines at approximately 80 percent of all the weddings I’ve been to.

Ever.

The lines have become, OK, I’ll say it… somewhat trite, along with over-used, but so are a lot of other lines. Shakespeare’s, for example. Which kills me a little inside because I’m Shakespeare girl for many years now. But it made me think… You know what would be perfect? Wedding vows that were a mash-up of Polonius’s lines to his son, Laertes, along with the lines from “The Prophet.” Oh, yeah, honey, now that’s the motherlode.

The words from “The Prophet,” I’ll put into italics. Polonius’s quotes I’ll put in bold. Ready?

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”

“Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, and you are stay’d for. There; my blessing with thee! And these few precepts in thy memory see thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel…”

“But do not dull thy palm with entertainment of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy…”

“Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”

“For the apparel oft proclaims the man, and they in France of the best rank and station are of a most select and generous chief in that. Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine ownself be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!”

God, I love the Internet. Adieu! And Stevie, here’s to the rest of our lives. I love you.

xoxoxoxo

wm

(Photos by Steve Rawley)

http://youtu.be/OJJxu16HCCI

Oh, yum. Thank you, Giada. Again.

Tomato-Basil Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Filling:
Butter, for greasing the baking dish
1/2 (8 ounces) multi-grain loaf, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large or 2 small shallots, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
12 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 packed cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded Parmesan

Custard:
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Filling: Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 13 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Add the bread cubes and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until slightly soft, about 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the basil. Pour the tomato mixture and Parmesan cheese over the bread cubes and combine well.

Custard: In a large bowl, beat the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper together until smooth. Pour the custard over the bread mixture and gently toss to coat. Bake until slightly puffed and golden, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the pudding from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve.

Sweet Basil Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Butter, for greasing the pan
1/2 cup (4 ounces) ricotta cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (4 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup (3 ounces) goat cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
Pinch fine sea salt
1/2 packed cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, for serving
Serving suggestion: assorted crackers
Special equipment: 4 1/2-inch diameter springform pan, about 2 1/2 inches tall

Directions:

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 4 1/2-inch diameter springform pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment paper. Wrap the outside of the pan with a piece of heavy-duty foil.

Place the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, and goat cheese in a food processor. Pulse

until mixed. Add the sugar, egg, egg yolk, and salt and blend until smooth. Add the basil and pulse until incorporated. Pour the cheese mixture into the prepared pan. Place the pan in an 8-inch by 8-inch square baking dish. Pour enough hot water in the baking dish to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake until the cheesecake is golden at the edges and the center of the cake moves slightly when the pan is gently shaken (the cheesecake will become firm when chilled), about 50 minutes. Turn off the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven for 1 hour. Remove the springform pan from the baking dish and remove the foil. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate the cheesecake for at least 3 hours and up to 2 days. Remove the cheesecake from the springform pan. Allow the cheesecake to come to room temperature before serving, about 30 minutes.

Using a pastry brush, brush the top of the cheesecake with extra-virgin olive oil and serve with assorted crackers.

(Photos by Steve Rawley)

Saw these wild roses and hips on our walk to the beach, growing by the side of the road. Maybe I’ll have to pick some…

This one is from Cazuela, one of our friends at allrecipes:

“The rose hips in this jam are uncooked so the jam tastes fresh and sweet; it retains its bright rosy-orange color. The hardest part is seeding the hips which can be sticky, but so worth it! Use wild or cultivated rugosa roses that haven’t been sprayed with pesticide; pick them in the fall when they are bright red. I adapted my recipe from one in a Euell Gibbons field guide.”

Ingredients:

1 cup trimmed and seeded rose hips
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups sugar
1 (1.75 ounce) package powdered fruit
pectin
3/4 cup water

Directions:
1. Put the prepared rose hips, water, and lemon juice in a blender; blend until smooth, about 15 seconds. Small bits of rose hips skin are okay. Gradually add the sugar while blender is running. Blend until sugar is dissolved, about 30 seconds or so.
2. Stir the pectin into 3/4 cup water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil; boil hard for about 1 minute. Slowly pour into the rose hip mixture; blend for about 30 seconds.
3. Pour into small containers with lids. Store in the refrigerator. Jam that is not used within a few weeks can be stored in the freezer for up to a year.

Hope you’re having a great summer. Bon appetit!

wm