August Prayer

All I Have

Lyrics by Mat Kearney

Well here we go at it three years later

Would you help me to dream it all up again?

Tired of the same song everyone's singing

I'd rather be lost with you instead

Don't you come around here

Come around here any more

Dragging my fears

Dragging my fears out the door

All I have all I have all I have, well, you know it's yours

Every breath every step every moment I'm looking for

All I have all I have all I have is yours

And you watch my heart break a little bit more

My heart break a little bit more

My heart break a little bit more

Is it cold yet in New York City?

Round here the trees been blowing up red

And everyone's talking about change on the airwaves

But I still got you on my breath

Lord, I'm still trying at this my hardest

Would you pick us all up from a fall?

Rip a little corner off the darkness

Just a crack of light in the middle of it all

Stuff Jen Likes IV

The smell of tomato vines

Baking on parchment paper

The cello

Kaleidoscopes

Front seats on roller coasters

The contrast of bright white planes or birds against dark clouds

Parsley. I'll eat your garnish right off your plate.

Cherries from canned fruit cocktail

Dichroic glass jewelry

Cake. Ice cream. But not cake-and-ice-cream together on the same plate. I don't like when the cake soaks up melted ice-cream.

Skirts. Much preferred to pants.

Iconography in medieval and renaissance art

Bougainvillea

String bracelets

Robert Talbott ties

Earl Grey tea

Tomato paste in a tube

What I Have to Show for My Summer

A broken foot

A lovely vacation, up until (and quite frankly, even including) the aforementioned foot

Catching up with a long-neglected friend in California

A lot of grading:

- 2413 question-1s on the 2010 AP Chemistry exam

A lot of cleaning:

- A better cleaning of a friend's refrigerator than I have ever done to my own.

- An organized pantry, two bedrooms, and an office (in progress), inspired by the aforementioned friend's pre-move cleanout.

A lot of reading:

- Francis Chan, Crazy Love

- Donald Miller, To Own a Dragon

- CS Lewis, The Four Loves

- Brent Curtis and John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance

- Henri Nouwen, Spiritual Direction

- Ravi Zakarias, Light in the Shadow of Jihad

- Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis, Tea with Hezbollah (in progress)

- Jim Wallis, The Soul of Politics (in progress)

- Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love (in progress)

- A year's worth (or so) of backlogged Saveur magazines

A lot of book-buying:

- Several by Jim Wallis

- Several by CS Lewis

- Several by Kahlil Gibran

Lots and lots of cooking and baking.

I'm never as productive as I intend, but I'd say this was a summer well-spent.

Kitchen (Mis)Adventures

Who has two thumbs and fails at pocket-pie making? That's right, this girl.

Like most misadventures, it all started out fine. I got some empenada discs at the grocery store, intending to fill them with jam for a sort of riff on pop-tarts. You know, a quick on-the-road breakfast, what with school starting soon and all. So I plopped a tablespoon (okay, more like two) of my homemade blackberry jam in the center, folded, crimped, buttered, and sugared. Cute, right?

Halfway through, I caught a glimpse of my honey bottle out of the corner of my eye and thought, "brilliant!" so I made a couple blackberry-honey pies, and once the blackberry jam jar was exhausted, made a couple honey-only ones. (Thought about maple syrup - maybe another time)

But then, in a flash of blinding stupidity, I forgot to prick any vent holes in the tops. So, I had filling containment breaches all over the place.

Including the honey. Which you can see, in this picture, is now permanently baked onto my pan, I suspect. I was getting ready to wax all poetic about parchment and how I bake nearly everything on parchment and how wonderful it is. Alas, it was no match for 400-degree honey hell-bent on oozing right out of my pies.

Made some fresh banana ice cream, too, but it didn't freeze quite as firm as it usually does.

Maybe this string of fail is just a sign it's time to get out of the kitchen and into the office to start preparations for the school year, which - for teachers - begins on Wednesday...

UPDATE:

The kitchen has been redeemed by lunch. Made myself a lunch of vegetables and fruit only, after binging yesterday in the Publix produce section (I love summer produce!). Romaine salad, roasted broccoli, raw carrots, thomcord grapes (that grape-jelly flavor (1) but seedless), and two kinds of zucchini soup - and I am happily stuffed.

I had been looking for a creamy zucchini soup recipe to re-create a saffron-courgette soup I had last summer in the UK. Found this recipe on allrecipes.com, but the curry sounded good, too, so I split the recipe into two: half curry, half saffron. The hand-blender gave it the creamy texture without the need for cream (and I marvel at the ability of curry - well, turmeric, really - to render everything in a 10-meter radius yellow, including the lower 4cm of my hand blender...). When I do it again, I'll add more saffron, but that sure makes for a pricey soup. The curry is equally good, actually, probably better. Garnish with a drizzle of cream, toasted croutons, and maybe a grating of fresh zucchini. Got a garden full of zucchini (and can't stomach any more zucchini bread, plus the neighbors are onto you and the bags of zucchini left on their doorsteps under the cover of darkness)? Give this a go.

Creamy Curry Zucchini Soup

2 T. olive oil

1 large (or two small) onions, halved and thinly sliced

1 T. curry powder (go on, kick it up a notch - you won't be sorry)

4 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced

4 c. chicken stock (2)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and curry powder. Stir until softened. Add zucchini slices and cook until zucchini is tender. Add stock, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15-20 min. Use a hand blender, or transfer in batches to blender (make sure you vent the lid!), to puree soup until smooth.

1 The wine-snob term for this is "foxy" :)

2 I don't see why vegetarians couldn't substitute vegetable stock here

More Kitchen Adventures

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get on the unflavored gelatin wagon. Turn any liquid into Jell-o?? I'm in!

Americano Jelly

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (could use sheets, too, I imagine, but the Knox stuff is available everywhere)

1 c. cool water

1 c. hot espresso

Brew some espresso (or just make some strong coffee).

Meanwhile, soften gelatin over cool water. (I just want to poke it!)

Line a 8-inch square pan with plastic wrap.

Mix hot espresso into gelatin mixture, and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved (4-5 min). Add some sugar, to taste. Or don't. Or substitute a little cool milk for some of the water (a latte jelly!). Or don't. It's your jelly - do what you like!

Pour into pan! Refrigerate until set! Cut into cubes!

Jelly cubes! Look how cute!

Cubes at the bottom of my iced coffee, all boba-style. Word.

Tonight's dinner: Pizza Bianca with olive oil, fresh basil, rosemary, parmesan, mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, and prosciutto. The crust was AMAZING. Beats the socks off the Publix dough we usually use and doesn't take much work - just time.

Earlier tonight: Cocoa and Sea-Salt Shortbreads again, but with darker cocoa (still no cacao nibs). Inky-black and highly addictive - even more so than the first batch.

Later tonight: Fresh yogurt, and some homemade pop-tarts (made from this summer's blackberry jam and empenada dough.

Breadventures

The loaves in this picture differ only by a couple tablespoons of milk and a couple tablespoons of honey instead of sugar. I must have measured something wrong on the oddly-shapen right loaf. It tastes fine, but it's as dense as lead.

I turned two slices of the left loaf into the most enchanting French Toast to ever pass my lips. A generous shake of my new kitchen-magic Cake Spice didn't hurt.