Art is work

The following snippet...

A. motivates me
B. pisses me off
C. makes me laugh
D. none of the above
E. all of the above

"An interviewer once asked Ursula Le Guin's advice for writers, and she replied, 'I am going to be rather hard-nosed and say that if you have to find devices to coax yourself to stay focused on writing, perhaps you should not be writing what you're writing. And if this lack of motivation is a constant problem, perhaps writing is not your forte. I mean, what is the problem? If writing bores you, that is pretty fatal. If that is not the case, but you find that it is hard going and it just doesn't flow, well, what did you expect? It is work; art is work.'" (taken from The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor, Tuesday, 21 October 2008)

More pe-pe-pe-pepita

This just in: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/pepita-salad-recipe.html

Got(ta) Loose Change

Spoiler Alert: If the personal is political, this is definitely one of those posts.

I got no food tonight, just a weird and painful hunger and some Loose Change.

But this hunger, I didn't even know what it was. It's been relatively easy to ignore--something to sleep right though. And I've been exactly that--lazy, comfortable, sleeping. But enough noise, enough "terror," has a way of jostling me. I'm up now. I'm getting the message.

And Loose Change, it's a documentary I just discovered. And as I watched, this "Loose Change" turned from a thing that chinga-chings to become a much bigger thing I must bring.

I tell you what--it's something you already know: Hunger--any kind--doesn't go away. It just might take a lot--I mean a lot--to get me to do something, anything about it.

It took Sean Penn, and Sean Penn again. There was Naomi Wolf, Bill O'Reilly and...name someone...Dave Letterman, Michael Moore, even Phil Donahue! (In the aforementioned clips you can see O'Reilly's fear and rage, exactly the thing that the "extremist" Sean Penn speaks to in his first letter.) Oh--let's not forget Hardball.

Then there's what I saw today at the British Museum: this photo. (The one behind Leibovitz.) It's of the most powerful people in the world, you might say. If you look reeeeal close (go ahead, click, I'll wait)...you'll notice that Bush's belt buckle is the American Seal. Isn't he funny. Isn't he clever. Isn't he sitting on top of the world.

Yeah. He is. And with that odd smirk that "extremist" Sean Penn speaks about, too.

Loose Change. It's given me a new sense of 911--a powerful, no-good sense--that demands sharing. It's given me a clear and frightening reminder of my own responsibilty to be--as it is reported Gandhi said it--the change I want to see in the world.

Loose Change. Won't you?

I made the pepita

When I say anything about pepita, a word that is new to me, I like to use a bad Italian accent. I know it is seriously wrong, but I can't stop. pep EEE thaaa. Like Ma MEEE aaa.

So once more, with feeling: I made the pepita!

I must say it is surprisingly cheese-like.

And in the spirit of the pepita post, I made these pumpkin enchiladas. So easy. The grandma and the uncle like them very much. The parents said the sauce was too garlicky. Poo on them and their nasty aversion to sulfites. I stuffed some with chicken like ms. Martha says to in the recipe. But most with black beans and spinach.

easy. Very very easy.

A double-chinned Orlando Bloom to Sir Elton John: Is that a Truffle Mini Burger in your pocket, or are you just chuffed to see me?

Hours of good reading on this blog has kept me from my normal cooking duties. Well, that and I haven't had a kitchen the last few mostly sunny London hotel-filled weeks. But I've endured. (And, uh, judging by my stretched belly, prospered).

I've eaten grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, deep-fried over-medium eggs, and bacon and HP sauce* sandwiches for breakfast; honey-drenched yogurt for lunch; and marvelously Mid-Eastern mint-inflected curry, frizzle-fried seaweed, scrumpy soy-braised shrimp, and Polish veal cutlets to make my babcia in Heaven (one should hope ;) weep for joy.

But the time has come: an English recipe for Refridger readers. (I'll make it as soon as I can get mesewf to a royt propah kitchen.)

This from Sir Elton John, as printed on the "entertaining" page of InStyle UK's October 2008 issue:

Truffled Mini Beef Burgers (serves 12)

1 tsp diced onion
1 tsp crushed garlic
1T olive oil (for frying)
80g beef mince (0.17 pounds)
1 tsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp Worcester sauce
1 tsp English mustard
1T chopped parsley
pinch celery salt
1 tsp truffle oil
salt and pepper to taste

To serve:
6 cocktail brioche buns, halved
handful of mustard leaves

Sweat the onion and garlic in the olive oil over a medium heat until soft. Allow to cool, then mix with the other ingredients. Mould into 12 burgers and chill for an hour. Fry in a little olive oil over a high temperature on each side for one minute, then lower the heat and cook for three more minutes. Lightly toast and butter the brioche buns, place a burger and a mustard leaf on each half and skewer with a cocktail stick. Serve immediately.

Mind you, Sir Elton served these hot and beefy little buggers with smoked fish and duck-egg tart with caviar, black bass with potatoes, artichokes and pea voloute, chocolate cake leafed in gold, and an edible $10 note. I know you will, too.
--

*HP (named for the rumor that the sauce was made in the House of Parliament)--similar, I say similar to, not the same as, A-1 Steak Sauce--contains Malt Vinegar, Tomatoes, Molasses, Spirit Vinegar, Dates, Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Salt, Modified Starch, Rye Flour, Tamarinds, Spices, Onion. No Artificial Colours, Preservatives or Flavours, Low in Fat, Suitable for Vegetarians.

This post is brought to you by Tina and the letter M

I posted this on my other blog. Maybe it is cheating to post here too. I can't help it though. I just want to share. Share share share.

So if you want to read some literary trash talk. Be my guest. And if you want to read some responses to the literary smack talk, again, be my guest.

If you are trying to reduce the negativity in your life. Read this.

Or you could revisit the work of one of your favorite American authors. Speaking of favorite authors, you could drink a glass of expensive scotch or tequila in honor of Tim O'Brien, who is probably blowing out some candles today.