Posthumous

Would it surprise you to learn

that years beyond your longest winter

you still get letters from your bank, your old

philanthropies, cold flakes drifting

through the mail-slot with your name?

Though it's been a long time since your face

interrupted the light in my door-frame,

and the last tremblings of your voice

have drained from my telephone wire,

from the lists of the likely, your name

is not missing. It circles in the shadow-world

of the machines, a wind-blown ghost. For generosity

will be exalted, and good credit

outlasts death. Caribbean cruises, recipes,

low-interest loans. For you who asked

so much of life, who lived acutely

even in duress, the brimming world

awaits your signature. Cancer and heart disease

are still counting on you for a cure.

B'nai Brith numbers you among the blessed.

They miss you. They want you back. 


by Jean Nordhaus from Innocence

Black “Bean Me Up” Soup

Serves 4





Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 shallots, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon finely chopped dried guajillo chile with most seeds discarded (any medium chili will do)
2 15- to 16-ounce cans organic black beans, undrained
1 15-ounce can petite diced tomatoes in juice
1 1/2 cups organic chicken broth
¾ teaspoon salt
1 tsp fresh oregano or substitute ¼ teaspoon dried oregano

Directions:
1. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add shallots, carrot, pepper, and garlic. Sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes.
2. Mix in cumin, paprika and chili (you can reserve some of the seeds and add them later if you desire more heat). Add beans, tomatoes with juice, and broth; bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until carrots are tender, about 30 minutes.
3. Transfer 2 3/4 cups of soup to blender or immersion blender cup and puree until smooth. Return puree to pot. Simmer the soup until thickened, about 30 minutes. Add salt and oregano. Taste and you may wish to season with remaining chili seeds or more salt.
4. Halve bell peppers and serve soup in these natural soup bowls for a beautiful presentation.

**** Queso fresco, sliced scallions, pepitas, and nasturtiums make a tasty and beautiful garnish for the soup

Brought into bean by Cristina Paul

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

My Two Favorite News Stories This Week:

Heavenly Flight
Attempting to raise money for a rest stop for religious truckers, 41 year old Brazilian priest, Adelir Antonio de Carli, was carried off by 1,000 helium balloons and is still lost at sea. What, precisely, would those truckers have reflected upon at this prospective rest stop? Perhaps God just did not approve of any rest for the weary truckers. Alternatively, God may be making a statement against the insensitive use of helium during a time when bright-faced birthday boys and girls in first world countries are being charged up the ying yang for this golden gas.

Bright-Faced Children in First World Countries
Just watch the video

Poem of the Week

Happy Birthday To Ye!

No one really knows when the Bard was born, but records of his christening on April 26th suggest that April 23rd is his birthday. So many of our ideas about this guy who wrote in iambic pentameter, had no formal education, and who we all had to read in school or otherwise are dubious. There is even speculation as to whether or not Shakespeare wrote all the plays and sonnets which have been attributed to him. Recently, scientists ran his plays through a fancy computer program to compare his work to his contemporaries, such as Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and the Earl of Oxford. The only writer who used words and phrases similar to Shakespeare's was Queen Elizabeth I, and she was eventually ruled out.

Wielding about 30, 000 words, like so many swords, Shakespeare boasts one of the largest vocabularies of any English writer. Plus, he's responsible for some pretty incredible idioms and phrases, including "foul play," "as luck would have it," "too much of a good thing," "good riddance," "in one fell swoop," "cruel to be kind," "play fast and loose," "vanish into thin air," "the game is up," "truth will out" and "in the twinkling of an eye."

Sonnet 29
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Oh My Cod

Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 8 oz skinned fillets of black cod (must be fresh!)
2 Tbsp tamari soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp honey
1 1/2 Tbsp chopped shallots
1 generous Tbsp chopped, fresh ginger
1 garlic clove
2 tsp brown sugar

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients (except fish) in a food processor and process until your marinade has an even consistency.
2. Pour the marinade in a dish with enough room for both fish fillets. Add fillets and make sure the fillets are coated with marinade. Refrigerate the fish in the marinade for at least 30 minutes or as long as a few hours.
3. Place the fish and the marinade in a pan over medium to medium high heat and cover the pan. The cooking time will vary depending upon the thickness of your fillets. Fish requires about 4-6 minutes of cooking time per inch. If the fish begins to flake, it's already overcooked - so watch carefully. Serve with as much or as little of the sauce as you like.
* Garnish with grated carrots or cucumbers and avocado.

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

So food prices are soaring even though we (the US of A-holes) are producing more corn than ever. The catch is that we are using much of this corn to produce ethanol - fuel which does not really free us from oil dependence on countries which still practice female mutilation and other pleasantries. Nor does this ethanol substantially lower our carbon footprint. So staples like wheat and other grains are at an all time high.

I don't wish to make light of the food riots or the terrifying fact that our water and food supply are dwindling, but I have become shamefully obsessed with a new game which I enjoy playing on my expensive laptop in my first world bed with a full stomach. It's painfully addictive - so be sure to have snacks at hand as you entertain the ridiculous idea that your mindless computer-clicking could possibly be philanthropic.

Check out the fun at www.freerice.com

Poems of The Week

Two     For     One

For     One     Too





Go     For     Broke

  Forgo       Broke



by Cristina Paul