Tuesday, 28 December 2010
more music
Today's album is: Suzie LeBlanc's La Mer Jolie. It's not anyone's favourite thing, strictly speaking. But I was trying to find on itunes a favourite album that Parker mentioned--David Greenberg's From Bach to Cape Breton--and I came across this instead. (I would have got Parker's album if it had been available but I was also in the mood for acadian music and wanted immediate gratification!). La Mer Jolie is great. I listened to it yesterday and I'm listening to it now as I type this. I also wondered if this is the same Suzie LeBlanc that Mary, Richard, and O'Brien knew in Montreal? At any rate, David Greenberg is on this album too and I can still look forward to finding Parker's album at some later date.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
favourite ingredient + (bonus) favourite blog
Melissa's favourite ingredient is zatar and she gave me a lifetime supply for my birthday. (Here's wikipedia on zatar: "Za'atar (Arabic: زعتر, also romanized zaatar, za'tar, zatar, zatr, zattr, zahatar, zaktar or satar) is a generic name for a family of related Middle Eastern herbs from the genera Origanum (Oregano), Calamintha (Basil thyme), Thymus vulgaris (Thyme) and Satureja (Savory). It is also the name for a condiment made from the dried herb(s), mixed together with sesame seeds, dried sumac, and often salt, as well as other spices.")
We mainly use it as a dipping spice with French bread and oil. But there are probably other variations as well. Does one cook with zatar, I wonder?
This summer Joel and I discovered another delicious mixture for dipping: dukkah. (And here's a web definition of dukkah: "Dukkah is an Egyptian spice mixture. It is often served with pita breadthat has been basted with olive oil. The bread is then dipped in the mixture. It has a variety of uses. You can use it on meats, rice, veggies - the possibilities are endless with dukkah!")
And here's where the bonus blog favourite comes in. Several of you mentioned favourite blogs and one of these blogs has a recipe for dukkah. See:www.heidilescanec.com
We bought it at the Farmer's market (I had no idea it was something I could make but now that the Farmer's market is closed I may try). We ate it non-stop for a few months and then settled down to a more normal pace. I was reading a Michael Pollan article in the NYT magazine recently in which he mentioned that dukkah is also great on fried eggs. I would never have thought of this and have not yet tried it. I can't say that it's an obvious combination but I will try it if we get organized enough to make a winter batch of dukkah. For now maybe I should just try zatar on eggs.
We mainly use it as a dipping spice with French bread and oil. But there are probably other variations as well. Does one cook with zatar, I wonder?
This summer Joel and I discovered another delicious mixture for dipping: dukkah. (And here's a web definition of dukkah: "Dukkah is an Egyptian spice mixture. It is often served with pita breadthat has been basted with olive oil. The bread is then dipped in the mixture. It has a variety of uses. You can use it on meats, rice, veggies - the possibilities are endless with dukkah!")
And here's where the bonus blog favourite comes in. Several of you mentioned favourite blogs and one of these blogs has a recipe for dukkah. See:www.heidilescanec.com
We bought it at the Farmer's market (I had no idea it was something I could make but now that the Farmer's market is closed I may try). We ate it non-stop for a few months and then settled down to a more normal pace. I was reading a Michael Pollan article in the NYT magazine recently in which he mentioned that dukkah is also great on fried eggs. I would never have thought of this and have not yet tried it. I can't say that it's an obvious combination but I will try it if we get organized enough to make a winter batch of dukkah. For now maybe I should just try zatar on eggs.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
favourite music
A lot of people suggested favourite music pieces. The favourite suggestion I listened to today was The National's "Boxer" album. I didn't expect to like it since I rarely like music that I haven't heard before (a shortcoming for which Joel often criticizes me!). But I did like this album. I will definitely listen to it again.
I have exactly zero musical talent (possibly, even below-zero since my singing contributes to bad sounds in the world). That said, I do love listening to music. I was thinking the other night (at a a party at Paul T's where seven or eight fiddlers sat in chairs in a circle and played music magically, stupendously, beautifully) that one of my top ten, perhaps even top five, favourite things is listening to people playing music in someone's house. Better still, playing music and singing. I love that. I don't know why the house element is so important except that I like the improvised, unpredictable, and intimate feel of it all.
I have exactly zero musical talent (possibly, even below-zero since my singing contributes to bad sounds in the world). That said, I do love listening to music. I was thinking the other night (at a a party at Paul T's where seven or eight fiddlers sat in chairs in a circle and played music magically, stupendously, beautifully) that one of my top ten, perhaps even top five, favourite things is listening to people playing music in someone's house. Better still, playing music and singing. I love that. I don't know why the house element is so important except that I like the improvised, unpredictable, and intimate feel of it all.
Friday, 17 December 2010
favourite poems
After a long hiatus, I'm back. At the rate I'm going I will only scratch the surface of my favourite things list in the remaining 250 or so days of my 50th year.
Here's a poem from Mary Oliver, the top poet on the favourite thing list (mentioned by at least four people). This is Bill A's favourite, "What is the Greatest Gift?":
What is the greatest gift?
Could it be the world itself—the oceans, the meadowlark,
the patience of the trees in the wind?
Could it be love, with its sweet clamor of passion?
Something else—something else entirely
holds me in thrall.
That you have a life that I wonder about
more than I wonder about my own.
That you have a life—courteous, intelligent—
that I wonder about more than I wonder about my own.
That you have a soul—your own, no one else’s—
that I wonder about more than I wonder about my own.
So that I find my soul clapping its hand for yours
more than my own.
I want to add my own favourite Mary Oliver poems but can't find my books. Later.
And a few days ago I bought Ann Carson's Nox. In fact, this book is what inspired me finally to return to my favourite things list. The book is stunningly beautiful visually and physically (it is a pleasure to hold and touch!) and the content is equally stunning and moving. It is, I think, the most beautiful (in every sense) new book I have ever seen and read.
Here's a passage from the book:"I have loved this poem [by Catullus] since the first time I read it in high school Latin class and I have tried to translate it a number of times. Nothing in English can capture the passionate, slow surface of a Roman elegy. No one (even in Latin) can approximate Catullan diction, which at its most sorrowful has an air of deep festivity, like one of those trees that turns all its leaves over, silver, in the wind."
Here's another line: "Something inbetween, something so deeply swaying."
And here's Carson's description of the book: "When my brother died I made an epitaph for him in the form of a book. This is a replica of it, as close as we could get."
Here's a poem from Mary Oliver, the top poet on the favourite thing list (mentioned by at least four people). This is Bill A's favourite, "What is the Greatest Gift?":
What is the greatest gift?
Could it be the world itself—the oceans, the meadowlark,
the patience of the trees in the wind?
Could it be love, with its sweet clamor of passion?
Something else—something else entirely
holds me in thrall.
That you have a life that I wonder about
more than I wonder about my own.
That you have a life—courteous, intelligent—
that I wonder about more than I wonder about my own.
That you have a soul—your own, no one else’s—
that I wonder about more than I wonder about my own.
So that I find my soul clapping its hand for yours
more than my own.
I want to add my own favourite Mary Oliver poems but can't find my books. Later.
And a few days ago I bought Ann Carson's Nox. In fact, this book is what inspired me finally to return to my favourite things list. The book is stunningly beautiful visually and physically (it is a pleasure to hold and touch!) and the content is equally stunning and moving. It is, I think, the most beautiful (in every sense) new book I have ever seen and read.
Here's a passage from the book:"I have loved this poem [by Catullus] since the first time I read it in high school Latin class and I have tried to translate it a number of times. Nothing in English can capture the passionate, slow surface of a Roman elegy. No one (even in Latin) can approximate Catullan diction, which at its most sorrowful has an air of deep festivity, like one of those trees that turns all its leaves over, silver, in the wind."
Here's another line: "Something inbetween, something so deeply swaying."
And here's Carson's description of the book: "When my brother died I made an epitaph for him in the form of a book. This is a replica of it, as close as we could get."
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