Refrigerator Roundup: Between Seasons Summer/Fall Samedi Soiree.

Having wheeled home yet another bike load of fabulous vegetables from my favorite Farmer's market, I spent Saturday night cooking what I couldn't fit into my too-tiny coldbox. After surveying all the veggies still on hand from the last trip, and what would likely be the first to pale from most recent one, I decided to throw together these two down-home delights. While the butternut squash hints at the Fall that is still yet to come, I like pretending we are actually going to feel a change of seasons here in the Deep South, and winter squashes are my favorite staple veggies to have on hand…they keep well without refrigeration for a long time, and singlehandedly, make a stew a meaty, meatless delight…toss with some beans and cook-up for a hearty meal that even a carnivore would love.


Spicy Butternut Squash and Pinto Frijole Achiote Stew

Ingredients:
One butternut squash, Peeled and Cut into approx. 1 inch chunks.
2-3 small yellow onions, skinned and chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 orange pepper, chopped
4-6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can or 2 cups beans your choice…I used pinto beans.
4-6 chopped tomatoes, or you can cheat like I did and use 1 can prepared chopped tomatoes.
Approx 1 tbs Achiote [Annato seeds]
2 tbs Olive Oil
Approx. 4 dried red chiles.
Cumin
Paprika
Cayenne

Preparation:
Assemble and prepare all of your vegetables.
**Tip: I find it easiest to peel a butternut squash if it is microwaved for approximately one minute before cutting.

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven or 4 quart pot.

Add the chopped onion, begin to stir until translucent.

Add the garlic, stir.

Add the achiote, stir until it begins to dissolve. The onions and garlic will immediately color golden.

Add the green and orange pepper and stir.

Once everything has begun to season, Add the butternut squash, continue to cook until the squash begins to brown ever so slightly at the edges.

Add the beans, stir.

Add the tomatoes, stir.

Season liberally with cumin, cayenne, and paprika.

Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and let it cook until the flavors meld and everything begins to soften a bit – approx 20-30 minutes.

Remove dried chiles before serving.

**For outright belly-lovin' decadence, serve over cornbread or polenta – in a word, yum.


Saturday night, I also threw together this southern delight. While the orange juice hints at Summer, the shallots complete the dish with a savory sophistication. I was very pleased at the result…and to think, I had previously only taken the time to compost the greens…I had no idea what I was missing out on!

Beet Greens with Caramelized Shallots and Balsamic Orange Glaze

Ingredients:
One bunch Beet Greens, rinsed well – stems cut into 1-2 inch pieces, leaves cut into ribbons
2tbs. olive oil
2-3 shallots, skinned and thinly sliced
One orange, skinned and cut into segments or
Approximately 1/3 cup of orange juice
Splash of white balsamic vinegar
Pinch of raw or brown sugar
Coarse sea salt; pepper to taste

Preparation:
Rinse the beet greens thoroughly…these tend to be gritty buggers. I prefer to fill a bowl with ice and water and baptize them several times letting the sand to dislodge into sediment at the bottom of the bowl. It is not necessary to dry thoroughly…I just give them a shake or two before cooking.

Heat olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat.

When warmed, drop the shallots with a sizzle into the pan…brown slowly, stirring often.

When the shallots have cooked past translucent and are beginning to brown, throw in a pinch of sugar

Follow with a splash of balsamic, cover and allow to reduce.

Add the greens and stir to coat.

Continue stirring until the leaves of the greens begin to give up their water and reduce.

Add the orange segments…add the orange juice.

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Once again cover, reduce heat and allow simmering until it reduces.

Serve up steaming hot, and try to eat just one serving.

falling down, being undone, and the great immutable law of Love.

I fell down this morning, and it hurt.
Accidents, mishaps, catastrophes — they all happen like that, so suddenly. Your world spins in the momentum which leaves you wondering, "what happened?" for a disorienting space of time before you can make sense of the…this…led to that…perspective.

I was making my way by bike on the road to work, and all of the sudden I was bleeding on the sidewalk. It was shocking at first. And then, it hurt. And then, it became clearer with each passing minute, as the blood pooled beneath my skin in a feverish swell of black and blue, that it was going to hurt worse.

I am lucky.
There were 4 cars that did not hit me.
I am lucky.
I was catapulted to the side of the road, even as my bike was launched over me.
I am lucky.
It is merely a flesh wound.
I am lucky.
There was a safe place to stop nearby where I could address the immediate pain, and assess the damage.

Some ice, and tenderness, and a cleansing cold wash with a rag, and a friendly cup of coffee later, I was on my way again…straining a bit at first, against the twisted memory of a new pain…I continued – and finished – my journey.

And the whole while, a somber thought, I carried in the pocket of my heart. It was there like an unspoken dawning, the awareness of what day this is.

I thought of it
as I awoke this morning.

I thought of it
as I listened to coverage and remembrances on NPR as I readied for work.

I thought of it
as my friend hastily put together a compress of ice for my bruised and bleeding knees.

I thought of it
as she sat across from me – of how she was there – in that city caring for frightened children on that terrible day.

I thought of it
as I considered the countless others whose lives are forever, irreversibly changed.

Those who lost fathers, and mothers, and brothers, and sisters, and daughters, and sons, and lovers, and friends.

Those who lost comfort, and safety, and security, and focus, and vision, and purpose, and dreams, and perhaps even faith, or hope, or love.

And I thought of it
even as my wounds simply smart, how they are just a temporary grief.


And grief is like this. It changes who we are. It causes us to re-evaluate our journey.

We come to grief, often so unexpectedly, so suddenly, our whole lives

Stop,

and unravel, and are undone.

We are opened up in a way that seems we have no choice but to hurt. We are often shocked. We are hurting. We are so immobile for a while, even as the world continues to spin. We are frightened, or angry, or despondent, or heartbroken. We are raw.

But we are still here. And this grief has now – regardless of our choosing – become a part of who we are. It is now a part of our journey…which will end, now and here, if we stay in this place. But now/here is nowhere…and even as we come to an acceptance of this change, we must keep moving.

And this is no easy task. How is it when we lose all sense of what we know as sure that we can know which way to go? It is helpful to remember, and has become a touchstone for my own life…that choosing the path of love will always expand our horizons, while choosing the path of self-protection, or hatred, or fear, will always lead to a diminished, closed-off, narrow existence.

If I had refused to get back on my bike, I would not be here/now…it is embracing with an open heart each new moment that will slowly bring us back to life with grace.

And it is loving, really loving when we are challenged. When our world is devastated. When our heart is crushed. When we lose everything. When we are broken. When someone would wish to do us harm. When we are stripped of everything we could ever hold as dear to us, that we can know for certain. Only love is real. [and living and giving that love is our highest purpose.]and,it is this great truth, that is scryed upon my heart –


All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction.
Love is therefore the only law of life.
He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying.
Therefore love for love's sake,
because it is law of life,
just as you breathe to live.


- Swami Vivekananda -

le bon mot du jour: bien-aimé, je t'aime tellement ça fait mal

No one gets to heaven
by following the rules
– or breaking them.
Heaven must burst forth from your breast.


IVAN M. GRANGER

it's pretty simple.

stale donuts.

stale glazed cake donuts
remind me of
micheline eleanor

and that

makes me

happy

Hoooooo-rah! Women for Women: how and why.

Hoooooo-rah! I just received my sponsorship packet in the mail today from Women for Women International.

For those of you who don't know, Women for Women is an award-winning nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lot of women in war-torn countries. What makes Women for Women so incredible is that it builds one-to-one connections between sponsors [people like you and me] and women survivors of war in currently 8 different countries. Often times, these women, are socially excluded [due to their status as widows, or victims of war] and often, they are their family's sole breadwinner and caregiver.

Realizing that financial assistance alone is not enough, Women for Women helps women survivors develop marketable skills, cultivate an understanding of their rights and potential as women, and create secure ways to earn an income for years to come. In so doing, women can gradually overcome the horrors of war and civil strife — family loss and widowhood, rape, murder, forced migration, poverty, starvation, trafficking and torture — and gain the strength and stature that can help them rebuild their lives, families, and communities.

You can sponsor a woman, which entails a $27/month donation. $5 of this donation keeps the organization running, and the rest provides your sister with staples for her family, and pays for job and rights-awareness training. Depending on where and how educated your sister is, you may be able to correspond with her. At the end of one year, each woman "graduates".

The upshot is — this organization helps women in warn torn countries find each other, recover, start self-sustaining businesses, and apply for micro-credit — regularly demonstrating world-wide,

That one woman can change anything.

But…

MANY WOMEN CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING.


Why did I choose to become involved? Because I believe…to whom much is given, much is required. We have so, so much here in America…and no distance physically or geographically between my life here and my sister's in Rwanda makes foreign to me her basic desire to live and care for her family. She is 6 years younger than me, with 5 children…but if it is true [and I believe] that we are all interconnected…the basic welfare and well-being of a woman and her children half a world away matters to me when I go to sleep every night with a roof over my head, and wake up to the security of food to eat. I don't have a lot by this society's standards, [I arise early each morning to pack up and bike 10 miles to work], but I have an overwhelming abundance by comparison to hers…and I believe no act of love or compassion is ever insignificant. I did the research on this organization and was so moved by the personal difference they are making in women's lives, and so I decided to take the risk to reach out to someone who has known a very different life than mine. It is through building bridges between hearts like this that I believe, in this day of apathy or outright violence, we can mend the fabric of the world creating a future of hope for all our children.

-jen


hope you're interested. here's some nifty links:

Women for Women

Charity Navigator Guide to Intelligent Giving

imagining world.

photo by michael wilson



In my dream,
the angel shrugged
& said, If we
fail this time, it
will be a failure of
imagination


& then she placed the world
gently in the palm of my hand.


BRIAN ANDREAS