Maebius Musing

In Everthorn did Maebius
A stately fire-bon decree
With ribbons round a maypole ran
Young girls, some women and their man
Down trunk of sacred tree.
So then his patch of fertile ground
With labyrinth was girded round:
And there the gardens bright with wildcraft frills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing weed;
and spirits ancient as the hills,
Dancing the sunny spots of greenery-d.

—

Ok, forgive the poem. I was…inspired…last night. (not quite in the way the original was inspired, mind you, but still )

This weekend, we had planned a lovely bonfire and maypole party. The wife got horridly ill (possibly food poisoning?) and thus we spent the day inside sleeping or watching TV. So we made due with what we could accomplish in light of the situation.

In the evening, we got all our starter-seeds planted and hung a grow-light from the ceiling above the counter. This should prevent our little sprouts from straining too tall in search of the sun, which tends to happen each year. (insert picture here)

The sprogling and I made salad entirely from yard clippings, with him learning the tastiness of garlic-mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and realizing that our mint patch has finally grown enough to pick. (If given the opportunity, he will sit in the yard and eat mint for a good hour)

The garden-proper has been tilled again, and ready for planting this week when the rains stop. The outdoor chicken enclosure is within an hour of being completed (once I get adult assistance to hold the fence while I hammer posts, etc). And, the side yard labyrinth will start being outlined with wheelbarrow-loads of black composted pony-droppings. All in all, a good weekend’s progress, considering.

I did manage to spend a little time out by the maypole, meditating, circle casting, and inviting the spirits of the land to stop by and play if they wanted. I discovered that our ‘Grandma elder” was very very unhappy, with a small bushy plant that was starting to grow right beside her trunk. Trimmed that, and was quite surprised at the literal emotional imagery that smacked me in the head with that message. Usually plants and nature spirits are more a general faint feeling, not so much a “Hey, you whippersnapper, get over here!” complete with almost-vision of creamy-white-haired crone with berry-stained hands and knobby knees. Yet there she was: Grandma elderberry.

Got it, I’ll trim the weeds!

More musings on spirits and such for tomorrow’s New Moon Muse. Stay tuned, and Happy MayDay!

Not much to report on, regarding deep philosophical musings, since lately we have been busy cleaning up around the yard, getting fences fixed, gardens tilled, and such. (Yes, I’ve said that the past three blog updates, but it’s a long drawn out process since we only have about an hour from when I get home from work, eat, and then need to put the young one to bed)

In relation to food, this article is related to this grocery-themed posting…for better or worse muses later.

Also, I took this new moon time to reflect on organization of the blog (and thus spent a good 2 hours re-catagorizing things and cleaning up some typos and database entries that were redundant). Spring cleaning, virtual, physical, and spiritual! Triune clean!
/poses like Link gaining a fragment of Tri-force…
However, I did have a little outdoor meditation, where I tried to re-attune to our land, get a sense of what needed fixed up, cleared, built, or otherwise mindfully noticed around the property. Mostly, in relation to the more permanent labyrinth that is being constructed in the side yard (initial image seen from space here, taken a few years ago.

Two friends and I are engaged in a fun Iron Chef challenge, using Artichokes as our secret ingredient.

See my blogroll (Kwitchery, andalso Nettle’s Blog) for details and updates.

My own entries, are all cold dishes, making a subtle nod the Northern regions we live in (relatively speaking). Simple picnic fare mostly, representing the humble joy of country life, and it’s casual connection to nature, yet still holding within it’s myriad ingredients a mirroring of the complex web of life. Each dish is topped with a fresh violet, symbolizing the spring season, and offering a token of friendship towards this chef’s lovely challengers. (Sound sufficiently Asian/esoteric?!?!)

-=- Appetizer -=-

First, we have a Artichoke Pâté, served on a bed of fresh Romaine leaves, surrounded by various multi-grain crackers and pita slivers. Garnished with a fresh violet leaf and flower. Recipe was mostly followed, with some minor adjustments in terms of slightly less olives, slightly more garlic, and a touch of cilantro-sprout to bulk out a slightly insufficient quantity of Parsley.

* 15oz artichoke-hearts, drained
* 4oz low-fat cream cheese
* 1/3 cup grated parm cheese
* around 3 Tbls fat-free mayo
* 1.5 tsp minced garlic
* 1-2 tsp lemon juice
* 2 Tbls finely chopped parsley
* 2 Tbls finely chopped black olives
* 2 Tbls chopped, roasted red peppers
* Salt and Cayenne pepper, to taste
Process the heck out of all ingredients, then leave in fridge for a while to let flavors blend. (will it blend? Yes!) Serve with starchy/firm accoutrements like crackers, breads, or melba toasts.
The taste was pleasingly subtle, with the initial tartness of the peppers, lemon, garlic, and artichokes offset by the cooling firmness of the cream cheese.

-=- Main course -=-

Artichoke pasta salad with grilled chicken. Grilled chicken tenders, marinated in artichoke juice & minced garlic, rubbed prior to grilling with a mix of paprika, oregano, salt and pepper. Served on a nest of linguine pasta tossed with more artichokes, black olives, peppers, olive oil, and cider vinegar, plus the seasoning mix used on the chicken, atop a plate of fresh romaine lettuce leaves. Served cold, except for the chicken, which was added at the last moment steaming hot off the grill.

While using similar ingredients to the appetizer, this meal was quite tasty. More tangy and very full of marinated artichoke flavor. The kid loved this a lot, especially due to “slurpy noodle” potential.

-=- Dessert -=-

I had planned to make an artichoke-based ice-cream (since EVERY japanese recipe seems to involve some sort of frozen treat using almost any ingredient you can imagine), but ran out of time to prepare it again, as the initial attempt did not work right. More of a sorbet, I rinsed marinated artichoke hearts to remove most traces of the vinegar and oil, and pureed them until smooth. Then I added about a quarter cup of table-sugar and some more water (less sweetness than traditional European Sorbets, more like Asian “green tea ice-cream” in palate).

Unfortunately, the making of good sorbet requires a constant freeze/mix cycle that I was unable to work into our schedule properly, and am not submitting without a proper consistency and last-minute tweaks of recipe to ensure a quality entry. My initial result either froze solid and needed quite a lot of blending/refreezing, or started to separate a bit and freeze mostly sugar-water on the top of a denser artichoke-dust.

While this entry may sound rather off-putting, it was not too bad by my initial test. The artichokes, once rinsed, became more of a binding agent than a flavor, and added merely a slight subtle ‘greenish-bitter’ taste to the otherwise sweet frozen sensation. I think removal of a bit more vinegar, or using fresh artichokes blanched/boiled, then powdered, might work better. Still nothing earth-shatteringly well received, but a unique dessert which does compliment the other two dishes in flavor.

Summary, the initial sweeter appetizer, with crunchy crackers, followed by a more hearty and savory-salad made for a fairly well-rounded meal. While the desert course was initially unsuccessful, it was mostly due to time and technique rather than a failure of ingredients, and got a head-shaking (semi-sarcastic) bonus point for creativity and risk-taking.

Bon Appétit!

testing, testing, testing… hoping Wordpress re-install works now, correctly notifies feed readers, and actually displays posts with some semblance of order….

Our little one is entering Kindergarden, and turning 5 years old this fall. (He’s all growed up!) What follows is a photo-spam of his recent school artwork, and him riding the buss when they visited the Kindergarden school this week. Dialup users BEWARE!

He went in for his official evaluation yesterday, and completed the battery of tests with fairly predictable and proud-parent results. Forgive me for a bit of well-intentioned bragging.

As for mental development, he was well over average in terms of vocabulary (he’s reading signs on store shelves now, while his Pre-K peers are learning their letters), and impressed everyone with his creativity, and exuberance to get tested. Average IQ for intellectual/creative/vocab wound up being somewhere around 125 (vocab/language skill was up at 131!).   GO BOY!

Otherwise, our concerns about his general habit of fidgeting during class, not paying attention, and constantly mumbling stories or singing under his breath were slightly assuaged. This type of behavior is slightly disruptive, but…. His ability to memorize lists and such, even though initially outwards he was not “paying attention”, then reciting them back later and getting all creative like saying them backwards, showed that he fidgets because he’s somewhat ‘bored’ with the simple things he does in school. Thus, he fidgets to stay stimulated.

One noticable improvement-area was a possible lack of focus in his left eye. He can not cross his eyes at all, and turns his head to follow a pencil moved towards that peripheral. Granted, I can not cross my eyes either, which my wife never knew. Nothing as serious as needing glasses, just something to watch… (and if he does, they will need to be prism glasses, like vertical bifocals). Otherwise, I’m going to summarize his “evaluation” as him being Gifted, and slightly out of focus, which causes the tired tantrums if he’s been playing games or inside all day. I’m guessing our noticing that video games tires him out slightly is due to effort at concentrating/focusing. All in all, a great report-card!

/cue Proud Papa.

In art, they made collages. The brown label/note reads as follows: “Piet Mondrain / Henry Matisse : Mondrain used primary colors and basic shapes. When Matisse became too feeble to paint, he did collages. We combined both styles for this project.” Our little one made the rather zen collage with three yellow shapes, centered on black. One circle, one square, one triangle. “That’s all it needed”, he said.

Next, we have the portrait class. He has two teachers, one with straight short hair, one with curly hair. See if you can tell which one is which.

Next on our Tour De Artiste, we have the interpretation of “sunflowers” by Vincent Van Gogh. Doug’s is the one of the bottom left, which I think looks remarkably like an orange dragon traipsing through a wooded field. He describes it as “The yellow are dandelions, the green is chive stems, and the orange is our yummy violets because she didn’t give me purple.“. How kawaiii!

Finally, the wall outside their Pre-K classroom, filled with painted flowers, bumble-plate-bees, and a rainbow of hand-prints.