Sunday, Bloody Sunday!

Spent much of the day rescuing Scott, who was sideswiped by a jerk on a bike. After hitting Scott, he stopped briefly and then rode on without leaving his name or showing any concern. Fortunately, two other bicyclists saw what happened and stopped to render assistance. One had a cell phone, so Scott was able to phone me.

By the time I arrived at the bridge, Scott had been taken to a hospital, so I turned around and drove to the hospital. He was pretty shaken up and thought his shoulder had been dislocated. X-rays showed that his clavicle was shattered in several places.

He's home now, having showered and taken some ibuprofen. He didn't seem to be in too much pain, but I think the shock is numbing his pain to a certain extent. Anyway, we shall see how he's doing tomorrow, when I go over to change his dressings. I hope he remembers that ice is his friend.

Miscellaney

If you can't see the entry for Tuesday, it's a problem in the jpg. which affects WinDoze.

Trying to be supportive of a friend whose husband left her. I'm stunned. They seem well-suited but he's left after one month of feeling like it wasn't what he wanted! WTF? His actions demonstrate a remarkable immaturity. But, given his age, it appears that it's about time for his mid-life crisis. ugh.

Cat Friday

Being Beautiful
Originally uploaded by vajra.

This Is Why I Didn't Post Yesterday

How to make an Origami Crane

My friend J. McIntyre is making 1000 cranes for peace and I enlisted my friend K.H. to make some, too. K's are beautiful.
nuff said.

Camp Marafiki

Collections and Clutter, redux

COOKBOOKS

1. From a Monastery Kitchen - Elise Boulding with Brother Victor Avila
2. From a Monastery Kitchen: Revised Edition - Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila- Latourrette
3. This Good Food - Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette
4. Twelve Months of Monastery Soups - Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette
5. Tassajara Cooking - Edward Espe Brown
6. The Tassajara Bread Book - Edward Espe Brown
7. The Tassajara Recipe Book: Favorites of the Guest Season - Edward Espe Brown
8. The Vegetarian Epicure - Anna Thomas
9. The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two - Anna Thomas
10. 108 Recipes: Gourmet Vegetarian Cooking from Nyingma Institute - Nyingma Institute
11. This Can't Be Tofu - Deborah Madison
12. The Greens Cook Book - Deborah Madison
13. The Savory Way - Deborah Madison
14. Cooking With Conscience - Alice Benjamin and Harriett Corrigan
15. The Rancho La Puerta Cookbook - Bill Wavrin
16. Potager: Fresh Garden cooking In the French Style - Georgeanne Brennan
17. Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook - Alice Waters
18. Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook - Alice Waters
19. Chez Panisse Desserts - Lindsey Remolif Shere
20. Pomp And Sustenance - Mary Taylor Simeti
21. The Open Hand Cookbook - Robert C. Schneider
22. Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle
23. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume II - Julia Child and Simone Beck
24. Simca's Cuisine - Simone Beck
25. The Way to Cook - Julia Child
26. The Cooking of South-West France - Paula Wolfert
27. The New Basics Cookbook - Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins
28. Great Good Food - Julee Rosso
29. Fresh Start - Julee Rosso
30. Good Food Book - Jane Brody
31. From a Baker's Kitchen - Gail Sher
32. Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings: Recipes and Reflections - Edward Espe Brown
33. Moosewood Cookbook – Mollie Katzen
34. Moosewood Cookbook: New Revised Edition – Mollie Katzen
35. The Enchanted Broccoli Forest – Mollie Katzen
36. Southwest Indian Cookbook – Marica Keegan
37. In the Pink – Rosalea Murphy
38. Janos: Recipes & Tales from a Southwest Restaurant - Janos Wilder
39. The Feast of Santa Fe – Huntley Dent
40. The Breakfast Book – Marion Cunningham
41. The Supper Book – Marion Cunningham
42. Sunset Mexican Cook Book
43. Coyote Café –Mark Miller

More Gazpacho

1 32 oz. can fire-roasted tomatoes or same amount of tomato juice
1 cucumber, peeled
1 bell pepper, seeded
1 onion, peeled
3 large cloves garlic, peeled
2-3 celery stalks
1/4 c. olive oil
2 T. fresh lemon juice
2 T. red wine or balsamic vinegar
2 roasted green chiles, preferably New Mexico chile
1 t. basil
2-3 t. oregano
salt and pepper to taste (I don't add salt as I find tomatoes are salty enough.)
1 or 2 slices good day-old bread, .e.g. pain au levain, sour dough, french baguette, etc.

Combine vegetables, seasonings, and liquid in blender until the soup reaches a texture that you find appetizing. Add the bread and purée until bread "disappears."

Refrigerate. Gazapacho is always better the next day. You might garnish the soup w/ diced avocado, tomatoes, onions or croutons.

Buen provecho.

Cool Soup For a Hot Day

GAZPACHO
*****
4 or 5 large ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 serrano pepper, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large cucumber (optional: peeled, seeded, and diced)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 ripe but slightly firm avocado, peeled and diced
(optional: 4 cups light beef stock or chicken stock)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons medium-acid red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsely
4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
kosher salt and black pepper in a mill
1/2 cup best-quality extra-virgin olive oil

Combine all of the vegetables in a large bowl. Add the [stock,] lemon juice and vinegar and stir very briefly. Stir in the fresh herbs and season with salt and pepper to taste. Chill the soup for at least one hour before serving. Remove from the refrigerator, stir, let rest for 15 minutes and then pour the olive oil over the soup and serve.



*****


1 small sweet onion, quartered
1 large green bell pepper, seeded and quartered
2 medium cucumbers, scrubbed and coarsely chopped
1 rib celery, coarsely chopped
3 large cloves garlic, peeled
2 large fresh ripe tomatoes, quartered
2 cups tomato juice, or use canned whole tomatoes with their juices
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Hot sauce (optional)
Place the onion, pepper, cucumbers, garlic and fresh tomatoes in a processor; process until very finely chopped. Add the tomato juice, basil, salt, pepper, vinegar, olive oil and optional hot sauce. Process until soup is the desired texture. Taste for seasoning; chill for at least one hour before serving. If desired, garnish with finely chopped cucumber or whole basil leaves.

Notes: If the soup is too thick, stir in more tomato juice. If desired, use all fresh tomatoes and omit the juice entirely.


*****


GAZPACHO From Spain

It is difficult for me to give you definite weights or quantities for this recipe; please forgive me.

Lots of red, ripe tomatoes Cucumber (with the part that attaches it to the plant removed: it is bitter) Anaheim peppers (or any green pepper which is not sweet)Old, hard bread (my favourite for gazpacho is extra sour dough, but others will do too)

Garlic
Red vinegar
Olive oil
Salt
Water

There might be as many recipes of gazpacho as families are in Spain. This is the one i have learned at my house. There is nothing "gospelly" about it.
As a rule, you want more tomatoes in the gazpacho than anything else. A nice looking gazpacho should have a pretty orange-red colour. Therefore, add the ingredients according to this principle. First, cut the vegetables in pieces that your blender can manage. You do not need to peel the cucumber or the tomatoes or remove the seeds from
anything (at least i never do).
Cut some bread and soak it in water.
Add it to the blender. Add the olive oil, salt, vinegar and water.
Turn the power on until everything blends "homogeneously". Take a spoonful and taste it. At this point you can decide what is missing, what is in excess, etc. You can experiment with the recipe: some people like the gazpacho very thick, so they add a lot of bread, while some others like it very liquidy, and they add more water instead, or less bread, whatever.
Some people get crazy adding garlic, while some
others hate it.
I prefer gazpacho at room temperature. However, as it is a typical summer dish, it is usually served cold. In some places this is so true that they even throw ice cubes in it when ready to eat.
As with many other dishes, when you save gazpacho from one
day to the other, it tends to improve in flavor.

Enjoy!
Gloria


*****

< Aportado por: Christine Corrado-Knutson>

Hace unas semanas alguien pidió una receta para gazpacho. No me acuerdo si ya ha salido una receta, así que os ofrezco ésta.

Ingredientes: 8 tomates rojos
2 pepinos pequennos
1 rebanada de pan
2 dientes de ajo
2 pimiento
cuarto litro de aceite
vinagre
sal
agua

Elaboración:
Triturar en la batidora los pimientos--sin semillas y partidos por la mitad--los tomates, los pepinos pelados, los ajos, el pan, y el aceite, con un chorrito de vinagre, un poco de agua y sal.

Cuando esté muy bien batido, vertir todo en la fuente en la que vaya a ser servido y agregar agua hasta que adquiera la consistencia de una crema ligera. Servir muy frío.

En cuanto a las cantidades de los ingredientes, no hay que ser muy exactos con ellos. Además, hay un montón de modos de preparar el gazpacho según el gusto de cada cocinero, pero esta receta es bastante básica y fácil.

¡Buen provecho!

Cat Friday

Isbella In the Sunshine
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Dogwood

Where a flower is
is beauty
is place
is there
anything

Sticking Together

Birds of a Feather

Au Revoir

Will be signing off for several days. Going to Vancouver, B.C.

Calling All Angels

Santa Maria, Santa Teresa, Santa Anna, Santa Susannah
Santa Cecilia, Santa Copelia, Santa Domenica, Mary Angelica
Frater Achad, Frater Pietro, Julianus, Petronilla
Santa, Santos, Miroslaw, Vladimir
and all the rest

a man is placed upon the steps, a baby cries
and high above the church bells start to ring
and as the heaviness the body oh the heaviness settles in
somewhere you can hear a mother sing

then it's one foot then the other as you step out onto the road
how much weight? how much weight?
then it's how long? and how far?
and how many times before it's too late?

calling all angels
calling all angels
walk me through this one
don't leave me alone
calling all angels
calling all angels
we're cryin' and we're hurtin'
and we're not sure why...

and every day you gaze upon the sunset
with such love and intensity
it's almost...it's almost as if
if you could only crack the code
then you'd finally understand what this all means

but if you could...do you think you would
trade in all the pain and suffering?
ah, but then you'd miss
the beauty of the light upon this earth
and the sweetness of the leaving

calling all angels
calling all angels
walk me through this one
don't leave me alone
callin' all angels
callin' all angels
we're tryin'
we're hopin'
we're hurtin'
we're lovin'
we're cryin'
we're callin'
'cause we're not sure how this goes
___Jane Siberry

iPod Nation

I've now set up my 40 Gig iPod. The pictures are reeeeeeally small. But, of course, color is always fun. I may take it on my vacation instead of the mini, in order to transfer photos from my camera. It's nice to have both. Redundancy has a different meaning when you're talking about Apple and me.

Not All Leaves Are Green

straighten
deep pink
gathering summer grasses

Flower

Flower
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Summer filigree.

It's Scott's Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Scott!

Camp Marafiki

Welcome
Run with elite Kenyan Runners. Improve your stride. Improve your time. Spend a week in the beautiful city of Santa Fe.

Cat Friday

Isabella
Originally uploaded by vajra.

Isabella sitting in the shade.

Welcome

A chance to spend a week in New Mexico and get training from elite Kenyan runners. Wow!

Welcome

In harmony with the Tao,
the sky is clear and spacious,
the earth is solid and full,
all creatures flourish together,
content with the way they are,
endlessly repeating themselves,
endlessly renewed.

When man interferes with the Tao,
the sky becomes filthy,
the earth becomes depleted,
the equilibrium crumbles,
creatures become extinct,

The Master views the parts with compassion,
because he understands the whole.
His constant practice is humility.
He doesn't glitter like a jewel
but lets himself be shaped by the Tao,
as rugged and common as stone.

from The Book of Questions

Dime, la rosa está desnuda
o sólo tiene ese vestido?

Por qué los árboles esconden
el esplendor de sus raíces?

Quién oye los remordimientos
del automóvil criminal?

Hay algo más triste en el mundo
que un tren inmóvil en la lluvia?







III.

Tell me, is the rose naked

or is that her only dress?



Why do trees conceal

the splendor of their roots?



Who hears the regrets

of the thieving automobile?



Is there anything in the world sadder

than a train standing in the rain?

__by Pablo Neruda
Translated by William O'Daly

Blindness

Nadie rebaje a lágrima o reproche,
Esta demostración de la maestría,
De Dios, que con magnífica ironía,
Me dio a la vez los libros y la noche.

Nobody should make light by tear or reproach,
Of the mastery of God who,
With excellent irony,
Gave me at once the books and the night.
___Jorge Luis Borges

Be Kind To Your Web-Footed Friends

The Utility of Non-Existance

Though thirty spokes may form the wheel,
it is the hole within the hub
which gives the wheel utility.

It is not the clay the potter throws,
which gives the pot its usefulness,
but the space within the shape,
from which the pot is made.

Without a door, the room cannot be entered,
and without windows it is dark.

Such is the utility of non-existence.

__Lao Tzu

Beautiful July

Cat Friday

IMG_3858
Originally uploaded by tienmao.

Tienmao's Kitty
(all rights reserved)