Romeo Kitchen and Garden

Some of the pics that Federico took of Roméo.  A couple in the kitchen while I was making a peach cobbler and the others the next day in the backyard of my home.

Quiche

Jonesing for some broccoli and landed on making quiche!

I use a pillsbury crust that I place in a glass pie dish that I've prepared by greasing with butter.

The Filling:

Take one 8 oz package of cubed Italian Pancetta and cook in a large skillet.  After it's started to crisp up, add an 8 oz package of Button Mushrooms that you've chopped into cubes.  Mix and cover to let the mushrooms cook down.  Next add a head of Broccoli that you've also chopped, you want to give it a chance to steam, but not cook, so you will need to stir and cover, after about a minute stir and cover it again and then remove from heat.  Grate a gob of Swiss Cheese.  Go back to the broccoli mix and stir in a bunch of Scallions that you've also chopped (bulbs and stems).   Fill the shell by layering the broccoli mixture and shredded cheese (see above)

In a blender combine:

5 Eggs

1/4 cup of Half and Half

A few good cranks of freshly ground Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

a pinch of Kosher Salt

...and blend.  Pour into pie shell.  It won't cover the broccoli, but when it cooks it will rise and fill in around it.  Bake @ 375˚ for about 45 minutes.

I served the finish quiche with some Hollandaise Sauce for a little special bling.

Today's Sermon

Babu Will Show You to Your Room

       Ballynahinch Castle, September 2012

we follow Babu
     he turns
           we turn

he enters a corridor
     with us behind
           he trots down stairs
                 we do the same

more turns
     further hallways
           through a lounge
                 veering left
                       around a corner

we wonder
     how far more
           Babu can
                 lead us

is it possible
     this journey
           is never-ending?

we do not ask
     we are Babu's followers:
           holding hands

since that's what
     Hansel and Gretel do
           when they get nervous

~ Julie O'Callaghan

Little Free Library Up-date

11 months into its tenure in front of my home, my Little Free Library #8921 is going strong.

Romeo's Godfather

As some who know me know, my dog, Roméo is a street rescue from Costa Rica.  This inevitably leads to the question, "How on earth!?"  How on earth, indeed.  In the short and sweet of it, I taught at a private school in San Pedro, Costa Rica in 1984 (30 years ago).  Three years ago I became reacquainted with a former student from those days.  Two years ago he was sharing with about this dog rescue group with whom he works, Rescate Animal.  And a year and half his parents rescued a stray who became christen Roméo and who came to live with me in the US.

And this weekend that former student, Federico, traveled from California where he now lives and visited Roméo for the first time, and we reunited for the first time in 30 years!

 Federico took this photo of Roméo with me on the trail down on the creek.

 He brought gifts and here Roméo is preparing to annihilate this rainbow circle.

 This morning on the deck preparing to take some photos with Federico, and Federico and Roméo.

See you again soon!

Simply Awesome

Farmer's Market Tomatoes, Pasta, Capers, Ripe Black Olives, canned Mushrooms, fresh Parsley and Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

April Rimpo

Bought of lovely painting of hers a few years back and I'm on her mailing list!

Not For Sail

Friday's junk mail...

A Little Vase

I am all of sudden loving this little vase.  It's a tchotchke to be certain, the gift of a former student from Iran.  I have taught children from all over this world in my 31 years as a teacher, and as a set the Persians are the most hospitable and loving families on the planet.

Here with a geranium blossom and a leaf cluster from on Japanese Anemone on the window sill in my bathroom.  We must all fill our lives with tokens of grace to recognize better the grace all around us.

Pride Birthdays and Memorials for the Week ~ August 31st to September 6th

Latest Poem From Friends of Sligo Creek

A Tale of Two Schmischkins

More Cat memories! Buster-the-Usurper arrived in my life when I lived on Haggin Lane, a lonely dead end road that straddles Jesamine and Woodford counties in central Kentucky. It was my habit back then (1990) of walking the mile length of the road in the evenings after school. On one of these walks, she emerged from the thick weeds along the ditch, and once her cries captured my attention, I stopped briefly to scratch her chin (she was all the size of a tea cup!) and she followed me the 8/10's of a mile back to my house on her little obsessive legs. Once home, I put a little saucer of milk on the porch for her. And within a week we were bonded.

Three and a half years later I met my ex- and within 8 month I moved to Washington, DC to be with him--Buster was just part of the package. At some point in our relationship, From a life in the wonder, rural expanses of bucolic central kentucky, she found herself an indoor cat in a kingdom of three stories with two litter boxes. She took to it like breathing air. Nary a problem. She also accepted my ex- sans concern, and he loved her dearly, too. As a child, he was never allowed to have a "pet."

I think around 1999, a colleague of my ex-'s was forced to move and could only take one of her cats with her--(I have to this day found this story more than dubious)--and my ex- asked if we could give the other cat a home. I honestly could never say no to him. So, Miko joined our family. The other cat that his colleague kept was named Chico, ergo I christened her "Miko-sin-Chico". Cats deserve hyphenated names. Just sayin'.

Her transition to our home was traumatic to say the least. She'd never lived with men before. Buster thought she was a cat--and Buster thought she HERSELF was a dog--and dog's don't care for cats! Not long after arriving (30 minutes?), Miko just disappeared. Fucking disappeared. We tore the damn house apart and could NOT find her. After 6 days, my ex- just started crying at the drop of a hat over it. But I told him that she probably wasn't dead, because we couldn't "smell" her. And dead things generally really stink. (I know, not my best strategy!)

On the 8th day our friend Lisa came for a week's vacation visit. The next morning after breakfast my ex- and I left for work--but neither of us mentioned Miko to her--we didn't want to spoil her vacation. So that evening when we returned and Lisa said, "Hey, why didn't you tell me you had another cat?" we did a quick double-take and asked in unison, "WHAT!? You saw her!?"

Not only had she seen her, but after we left, she settled down on our couch to read a book. Within 15 minutes, Miko appeared and joined her on the couch, purrring and settling against her for a long desired cuddle fest.

Through the course of the next week, Lisa helped Miko to accept her new home and us.

Over the years, Miko-sin-Chico was by far my ex-'s girl. She grew to delight in him. She tolerated me. And especially when I was prone--that's how she liked me best. When my ex- up a split, he left her behind...just one of many complications that he abandoned. So we three brave souls did our best to make a family. 

The pics are of me and Miko just the way she preferred me to be. The other is of the "Two Schmishkins": Buster-the-Usurper and Miko-sin-Chico. We always called them Schmischkins whenever they would act like "friends".

Miko's first companion was Noriko a jewelry-marketing designer and colleague of my ex-'s at the National Gallery of Art. My bottom-line theory of the case is that being a rather difficult soul psychologically (that is Miko, NOT Noriko) Noriko took advantage of her move to loose Miko and my ex- was the purrrfect patsy in the equation. Not that we and then I didn't try to love her, we certainly did. But just like Noriko, my ex- abandoned her, too. I kept her "for" him for over two years after he split. And she and I did our best to co-habitate. But she destroyed things and fouled things and never seemed happy, and made me most unhappy many times over. All the while my ex- claimed he was trying to find her a home, and finally I threatened to just toss her out and gave him a date certain for the event (not that I would have, but goddamn it, he needed to man up and take responsibility, and years of playing nice had gotten the situation nothing toward a resolution). So he came by and got her. And then he emailed me that he had taken her to a vet and had her euthanized. It's the most asshole thing he ever did.

Alex Minsky Rocks!

How many of you are familiar with the model Alex Minsky? He's been stunning the world with his gorgeous body and take no prisoners self-esteem for years now. And I just find him very compelling. He was a marine serving in Afghanistan when his leg was blown off. He spent 58 days in a coma before regaining consciousness. 

He has some of the most stunning tattoos I've ever seen, but of course he presents a stunning canvas to the artist. He isn't afraid to let it all hang out--and with good reason. But I given to understand the FB censors his images, even the one that appeared on the cover of Mens Health and was displayed in grocery stores aisles where he was naked and his buttocks in silhouette was exposed. I'm assuming some of these will NOT past FB muster.

Today's Sermon

[untitled]

The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away,

We sit together, the mountain and me,
unitl only the mountain remains.

~ Li Po, 701-762

Tuna Pasta Salad

Super easy peasy: Chopped up celery, red bell pepper, hard boiled eggs, a couple of scallions, and Tuna--Light Solid Tuna (much less mercury, real Tuna flavor, and chunks that are actually chunks), and cooked pasta. I've shared this before I think. However, here's the twist this time, and I got this idea from Adele, or Dee or one of my other foodie friends. Instead of store-bought sweet salad cubes I used my home canned Bread & Butter pickles--Ooooh la la! The whole is mixed with mayonnaise to your liking.

Throw Back Sunday: 1986 Wilmore, Kentucky

Throwback Sunday....I'm cleaning and in the process discovering...It's a slog for sure. So I came across this painting in a closet and then all the wonderful memories, too. When I first came back from Costa Rica, I returned to central Kentucky and got my first apartment. It was two bedroom and so I also always had an apartment mate. Often they were friends from college who remained to continue their studies at a local seminary. And so my circle of friends went from college students to seminarians. My apartment was close the campus and so it became a sort of hang-out for seminarians and their friends. We'd have dinners, story reading evenings, music evenings, even a watercolor club! 

The painting is the first made by Jonathan Moore who would become a roommate and often led the music gatherings. That's also him in the hammock on one of our camping excursions to the Smokey Mountains--what a trollop! 
The other is a picture of my then roommate Bill Seitz discovering his inner Picasso. What good years those where.

Morning Glory GLORY!

More Tomatoes!

$3.00's worth from today's Farmer's Market.  Delish!

Atheism 101.01

My Veggie Garden: Cherry Tomatoes

Ebola Virus 101

The confirmed cases of Ebola. It's only just getting going...

My TV Tribe

I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and TV was as much a part of my life as computers and cell phones are for kids growing up today. I knew I was gay by the time I was five, my first same sex infatuation was in kindergarten. And for the most part, I felt very alone with my “secret” and from that time until much later in life, I realized that it was not something safe to share. And there was TV. And my family adored it! We ate most of our meals on TV trays, in fact! But here’s the thing. Sitting there watching the actors make me laugh, solve crimes, travel to other worlds...without realizing it, I was not alone. Here is a smattering of my GLBT Tribe from the shows I grew up watching.

Roméo Meme: Random Quote #165