Today's poem by Mary Oliver

If you have read my blog for a while, you'll know that I love Mary Oliver's work. In the poems section (under the blog header photo), there are more poems by her than any other. She has meant so much to so many people. Last evening as I was going down my blog list, blogger after blogger had a piece on her. I've got many books of her poetry but on this sad occasion I knew just the book from which I wanted to choose a poem. Dog Songs.


School


You're like a little wild thing
that was never sent to school.
Sit, I say, and you jump up.
Come, I say, and you go galloping down the sand
to the nearest dead fish
with which you perfume your sweet neck.
It is summer.
How many summers does a little dog have?

Run, run, Percy.
This is our school.

Mary Oliver
1935-2019

The gift of old books

I wrote recently about a cookbook my sister-in-law sent me. That same woman also gave me a big box of old books she had sitting on her shelves. I guess I must be known as a book lover! Anyhow, I was as delighted as could be. This was in October 2017, and I've been meaning to write about them ever since.

These are pictures I took when I first opened the box.

The variety shows the interests of children from Tom's grandmother's childhood, through his mother's, to his sisters'. Mrs. Mike which I noted here was one of the books in the box.

The cover isn't in great shape but it made me love it all the more.

So far, this is the only one I've read, but they sit patiently on the floor of the study waiting for me.

Refrigerator Rolls

I first mentioned this cookbook eight years ago, here. My friend Les gave me the book and I so love it.

On Wednesday I made some soup.

Soak over night in crockpot:

T. each:
cannellini beans
brown rice
moong dal (In India, "dal" is the word for lentils, and "moong dal" is the general term for mung lentils, also known as split yellow mung beans.)
black lentils
and einkorn (info here)
Next day, cook on high until all are soft. Then I added 1 cup of homemade tomato sauce. Delicious, and enough for supper and lunch for two people.

I wanted something to go with it, and decided on rolls. I haven't made rolls that often, and usually when I do it is my regular bread recipe with one of the loaves being rolls. So I went looking around, and came up with this one that didn't sound too hard for a sort of roll novice. 

I'm going to put up pictures of the recipe. You may click to make them bigger. 

You'll see that I made them with "my girls". Hazel had a snow day and they walked up and both helped with the rolls.

And then when they left, Hazel waved to the deer who were eating from our buffet of sunflower seeds.

You may be wondering what those delicious rolls looked like.

Can't you almost taste them?! PS I didn't cover with plastic wrap. I used a damp towel. And I used two 9x13 pans, greased with cooking spray, with 8 rolls per pan. This worked perfectly. Strong bread flour described here.

You may visit Beth Fish Reads for more food related posts.

Addendum: Sunday evening, the 13th I made the rolls with half whole wheat and half strong white bread flour and they were great. We both preferred them to the plain white. Made hummus and spread it on the rolls. Delicious!

Mind over matter

If you've got ten minutes, this is a really interesting piece.

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/01/09/dna-results-change-behavior-physiology

Elvis

My favorite Elvis Presley song on what would have been his 84th birthday.

Today's poem by Donald Hall

An Airstrip in Essex, 1960

It is a lost road into the air.

It is a desert

among sugar beets.

The tiny wings 

of the Spitfires of nineteen forty-one

sink under mud in the Channel.

Near the road a brick pillbox

totters under a load of grass,

where Home Guards waited

in the white fogs of the invasion winter.

Good night, old ruined war.

In Poland the wind rides on a jagged wall.

Smoke rises from the stones; no, it is mist.

Donald Hall

The Selected Poems of Donald Hall, 2015  

Tom's 2019 Reads

This is just a collecting post

2019 Book Facts

This is just a collecting post

Books Read in 2019

January - 

1. Little Christmas

by Agnes Sligh Turnbull

fiction  1964 in book form, 1947 in Farm Journal magazine

print

reread

finished 1/6/19 (on Little Christmas)

American writer/American setting

2. Someday the Rabbi Will Leave - book 9 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1985
Kindle
reread
finished 1/7/19
American writer/American setting

3. One Fine Day the Rabbi Bought a Cross - book 10 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1987
Kindle
reread
finished 1/10/19
American writer/American setting

4. The Day the Rabbi Resigned - book 11 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1992
Kindle
reread
finished 1/14/18
American writer/American setting

5. That Day the Rabbi Left Town - book 12 (and last) in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1996
Kindle
reread
finished 1/19/19
American writer/American setting

Bean Dip

On the twelfth day of Christmas we had our family Christmas down at Michael and Estée's house. A glorious time was had by all!!

I made these brownies and cheesejacks. Tom made his famous (in the family!) bean dip. Here's what he does.

In a crockpot, mix together:

And about 1/3 of this 2 pound package of cheese, grated. (Sorry, blurry picture)

Turn on crockpot to low until mixed together and nice and warm.

This is what it looks like part-way done. The cheese melted in a little more.

Serve with

You may visit Beth Fish Reads for more food related postings.