Poem of the Week

i had no one to watch the meteor shower with
not with whom
but with
as in you are or not “coming with”.
putting a preposition last,
the same as placing
myself
in this foreign land,
where collared shirts are tucked
mothers and fathers are addressed as Mr. and Mrs. So and so.
if I wanted to cheer for my country while watching the television
then perhaps I would have someone to watch something with

by Cristina Paul

Upside Down Peach Cake With Cornmeal and Lavender

Serves 8

INGREDIENTS:
5 1/2 ounces (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup light or dark brown sugar
4 medium ripe peaches (about 1 1/2 pounds), skins on, pitted, and cut into ¾ inch wedges
1 cup medium ground yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons chopped fresh lavender, or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried lavender
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
¾ cup baker’s sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat, using a pastry brush to coat sides with butter as it melts. Sprinkle 1/4 cup brown sugar evenly over the bottom of skillet and cook until sugar starts to bubble and turn golden brown, about 3 minutes. Arrange peaches in a circle at the edge of skillet, on top of the sugar. Arrange the remaining wedges in the center to fill. Reduce heat to low, and cook until juices are bubbling and peaches begin to soften, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder, lavender, and salt in a medium bowl.
Cream remaining stick of butter and 3/4 cup baker’s sugar with a mixer on high speed, until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of the bowl. Mix in vanilla and cream. Reduce speed to low, and beat in cornmeal mixture in 2 additions.
3. Spoon batter over the peaches and spread evenly using an offset spatula. Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer skillet to a wire rack and let stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife or spatula around edge of cake. Place your serving dish on top of the skillet. Quickly and carefully flip both skillet and serving dish to invert cake onto your dish. You may need to tap the bottom of skillet to release all of the peach slices. Reposition peach slices on top of cake, if necessary. Cool slightly before serving. Hand whipped cream or crème fraiche are nice accompaniments to this recipe. The cake is also quite nice for breakfast if there are leftovers the next day.

*** Peach season is from June to September. Ripe peaches will feel heavier than they look, give slightly to a firm touch, and have a perfumed scent. To speed up the ripening process, place peaches in a brown bag on the counter, alone or with an apple in the bag.
**Peaches contain lactones - fatty aroma notes also found in molecules contained in coconut and cream.
** Lavender is a flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae.
* Lavender is thought to have many medicinal qualities. Lavendar oil has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties, but beware if you are a prepubescent male. Recently, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine ascribed abnormal breast tissue growth in a small number of prepubescent to the use of products containing lavender oil. It seems that the oils can mimic estrogens (yes, the steroid hormone). This actually may bode well for the unfortunately endowed lady who favors lavender bath products...

Recipe adapted and perfected by Cristina Paul

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

Various pensioner's groups in London call this street sign insulting and ask that it be replaced. Age Concern and Help the Aged said that the hunched figures do not represent the elderly as they are today. I think the sign's awesome. I can only hope to be the kind of octogenarian that can still tap ass like the little old lady above. In fact, the sign is truly forward-thinking. That lady is totally rockin' the women's lib, I-don't-need-no stinking'-cane-'tude.

Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale

Measure the walls. Count the ribs. Notch the long days.
Look up for blue sky through the spout. Make small fires
with the broken hulls of fishing boats. Practice smoke signals.
Call old friends, and listen for echoes of distant voices.
Organize your calendar. Dream of the beach. Look each way
for the dim glow of light. Work on your reports. Review
each of your life's ten million choices. Endure moments
of self-loathing. Find the evidence of those before you.
Destroy it. Try to be very quiet, and listen for the sound
of gears and moving water. Listen for the sound of your heart.
Be thankful that you are here, swallowed with all hope,
where you can rest and wait. Be nostalgic. Think of all
the things you did and could have done. Remember
treading water in the center of the still night sea, your toes
pointing again and again down, down into the black depths.

by Dan Albergotti from The Boatloads

Fennel, Orange, and Olive Chicken

Serves 4 - they'll beg for more



INGREDIENTS:
1 1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds), patted dry with paper towels
1 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
1/3 dry white wine
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter
1 medium bulb fennel , sliced thin (see below) - about 2 cups)
3 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 4 teaspoons)
1/3 cup chicken stock or low-salt canned broth
the zest of one orange
1 orange peeled and cut (see below)
1/3 cup pitted black olives
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Kosher salt and ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:
1. Sprinkle salt and pepper over both sides of the chicken breasts or thighs. Heat oil until shimmering in a skillet, at least 10 inches across bottom, over medium-high heat, swirling pan to distribute oil.
2. Place chicken thighs or breasts skin in skillet; cook, without moving chicken, until well browned, about 4 to 6 minutes. Flip chicken and brown second side, 3 to 5 minutes longer; transfer chicken to plate and tent with foil to keep warm.
3. Add wine butter, fennel, and garlic to pan and reduce heat to medium, scraping the pan bottom with a wooden spatula to loosen browned bits. Cook until the fennel is softened about 4 minutes. Stir in chicken stock and cook for 1 minute more.
4. Now, place chicken breasts or thighs back in skillet. Cover the skillet with a lid or tightly cover with aluminum foil and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for about 8 - 11 minutes or until cooked through. When the chicken pieces are done, add zest, oranges, and olives to the pan sauce. Adjust seasonings, adding salt and pepper to taste. Transfer chicken pieces to serving plates and spoon sauce over meat and sprinkle with parsley leaves. Serve immediately.

How To Intimidate People Just By Cutting An Orange:

1. Cut a thin slice from the top and bottom of the orange and stand on end. Slice away rind and white pith.



2. Cut in half from end to end, remove stringy pith, cut each half into three wedges, and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces.

How To Prepare a Fennel for Cooking

1. Trim and reserve stems and fronds from fennel.









2. Trim a very thin slice from base and remove any tough or blemished outer layers from bulb. 3. Cut bulb in half through base. Use small, sharp knife to remove pyramid-shaped core.






4. Cut cored fennel, crosswise, to yield 3 or 4 slices.






5. Cut these slices, lengthwise, to yield long strips about 1/2-inch thick, (or thinner if desired).
(Illustrations are from Cook's Illustrated Magazine)

N.B. This:
*****Fennel has many medicinal properties. Many people make tea out of the seeds, noting its carminative properties - it helps us with gas expulsion. Beano's got some competition. Also, a phytonutrient compound in fennel called anethole has repeatedly been shown to reduce inflammation and to help prevent the occurrence of cancer in animals.
****In medieval times, fennel together with St. John's Wort and other herbs, was used as a preventative of witchcraft and other evil influences. People hung the plants over doors on Midsummer's Eve to ward off evil spirits.
***All parts of the fennel plant are edible - seeds, roots, stalks, and leaves.
**Fennel is best between autumn and early spring
*Fennel belongs to the Umbellifereae family and is closely related to parsley, carrots, dill and coriander (cilantro).

Recipe by Cristina Paul

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

The fiery passion of Petrarch's poems is no match for my love of the topsider. Boston has ruined me and reignited my irrational love of the boat shoe. I do not own a boat nor do I belong to a yacht club, BUT I would find a way to embezzle the cash, to buy the boat, to join the club, and purchase the swank champagne flutes - which would be the proper sipping equipment - so that I might legitimately sport the shoe. Fortunately, you needn't bother with all the accroutrements of boat culture. If you simply need the shoes - or would like to while away the day browsing through a superabundance that would make Captain Ahab click his heels and forsake the whale, then visit: www.sperrytopsider.com

A Brief History of Topsiders:
They were invented in 1935 by boating enthusiast Paul Sperry. Sperry wanted to design a shoe that could handle the slippery situations on the deck of a boat without leaving unsightly scuff marks. He created a white (look ma, no marks), grooved sole that mimicked the cracked textured of a canine's foot. Eventually, the Navy caught the Sperry bug and began manufacturing the shoes. Soon after, topsiders became available nationwide and the brand is now owned by the Stride Rite Corporation.

Why I Love Them:
*they can be both ironic and sweet
*they are available in a veritable rainbow of hues
*their earnest slogan: "get wet"
*some have laces, some don't - options are essential to the modern consumer
*they are sturdy but neat
*they take time to break in - so you feel like you've earned the right to wear them
*they now come in patent leather
*if the shoe had a nose, it would point up - it's okay to wear them in fancy places
*nevertheless, they say - "Approach me!" (they never forget to announce themselves without an exclamation point)
*with their sporty utility and squeaky assertiveness, they subscribe to the optimism of life boats and silver bullets

home

home is the crook of that arm
breakfast sounds
the steering wheel turning the corner
the broken chair you won’t stop sitting in
a coffee cup that doesn’t match
to covet the same object and then share
the hair of a hug
a finicky light switch/doorhandle/appliance
the memory a scuff in the floor evokes
a catalogue of smells
being where you would’ve called
having your place on the couch
under covers, too close to see where eyelashes end and eyelids begin
knowing your way, middle of the night, to bathroom
running in wet grass
holding hands
a tree house
wanting to be nowhere else
feeling like someone
knowing

by Cristina Paul