Maebius Musing

This year, we are returning to the Great Festival that started my love of drumming, and fully cemented, solidified, and otherwise convinced me that this Path of mine was ‘Me’.  Yep, Starwood.  That bastion of revelry and fun, which can be described, as the website so reads: A place where Scientists sit with Shamans and Druids dance with Deadheads. Where African drums jam with bluegrass fiddles, and political activism meets Earth spirituality - where theatre and life meld - where days are spent in exploration of inner and outer space, and nights blaze with laser lights and bonfire flames.

I found this image form the last time we went, in 2002, thus proving my existance there at the opening spiral dance ‘ceremony’.  That guy in the white shirt and black shorts?  Yep, me.  That cute chick in the green shirt and flowery purplish skirt?  Yep, the wife.   (this is pre-sprogling times of course) The guy in the robes and blue scarf?  no clue, but friendly! 

This year we are going with some friends of ours, who generally attend the S.C.A. event known as Pennsic.  While this wonderful festival is over ten times the size of Starwood, and has all sorts of cool costumes, workshops, and such, I am totally looking forward to the more laid back and spiritual festival event this year.   It may not be the most serious spiritual gathering, and have more of a party flair, but I’m really really looking forward to “coming Ohm”.
All night drumming bonfire circles, fireworks one night, and the freedom to go skyclad if one so chooses, is simply indescribable for those who have not attended.  (Heck, even this usually conservative person felt no real hesitation to joining the spontaneous “dance naked in the rain shower” that happened last time.)

There are 18 days left as of this posting, which means our next weeks will be full of meal planning,  double-triple-quadruple checking the packing lists, and otherwise getting things in gear to spend and entire week living out of our tent with a bunch of strange folks, many hours from our land.

Otherwise, there’s no real deeper meaning to this poist, other than to say…I can’t wait!

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Yay! Summer is in full swingand the day was long and summery.   Blue skies interspersed with puffy little clouds, then the traditional afternoon grey rumblings and windy “Get indoors NOW” rain threats.

Not much to report, as we were rather busy with daily life,  but it was spent mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, and otherwise fiddling with the land outside. Our little one spent a decent portion of the day in the old corn-crib (his “Smash House” lately) pretending to be The Increduble Hulk, and stomping through various parts of the rotten floorboards.  It’s truly amazing how stomping a weak bit of plywood until it becomes a hole, then spending a good 2 hours enlarging that hole to the limits of rotten-ness and stomp-strength could occupy a child of almost-5 in such a focused manner.  Kids R Kool!

In the afternoon, we went to visit our friend Meg, and got to see her sweetie’s house for the first time.  It’s a nice little place, a bit far down a windy road, tucked off to some forgotten sectino of the suburbs.   You wouldn’t expect to find a secluded little patch of woody fields essentially just off to the middle of “town”, which made the trip there kinda magical.   The yard was about as big as our front lawn and nestled in a little dip of the hillside to make the neighbors all-but-vanish.  With trees behind it stretching to “infinity’ (or 1.4 mile) and a cozy garden, combost bin, and fire circle + hammock, it was perfect!

There were a few kids there for ours to play with, and us adult types mostly jsut stood around and chatted.  We didn’t know many folks, but there were some gransparents, nad a lovely older woman in a wheelchair who devoured the snack we provided.

There was planned a spiral-dance with the kids, and a bag full of rattles, sticks, and such, but as soon as they were getting distributed, the wind suddenly gusted, black couds materialized out of the blue sky, and it the temperature dropped 5 degrees.  You know those times, where you can feel/smell the rain, and the ait itself gets charged with electricity?   I joked that if we danced right then, the final moments where everyone crunches together would be accented by the largest *CRAACK* of lightning, and a torrent of raindrops.   Many agreed, but as much as us younger adults wanted to do that, older wisdom prevailed and we moved the party indoors quickly before the gransfolks got soaked.

(Note, there were only approximately 42 large drops of rain which fell, by the time the frontline moved through, so no real torrents, which made us all laugh at the ‘paranoia’ a few minutes beforehand.)
Concerning snacks,  Doug and I made salsa and guacamole from “scratch” to bring to the party.   I’ve never actually make salsa from a recipe before, and always add a dash of vinegar to tarten it up, but I followed the recipe for the most part this time.  Turned out AWESOME! (Recipe below, and thanks Nettle for helping with tomato-processing questions).

The guacamole was our little guy’s favorite.   Three avacados, a heaping spoonful of light sour cream, a glop of lemon juice, smallish scoop of minced garlic, and a quarter of a chopped onion.   Stir to smoothish consistancy and serve.   The guacamole didn’t last long, and some of the older folks were mock-fighting the lady in the wheelchair since she kept surruptitiously moving the bowl onto her lap and lookis around innocently if someone held a chip out.  

All in all, a fun festive time!

Maebius’s new favorite homemade Salsa:

• 2 large tomatos
• 1/2 large onion
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 1 whole garlic clove (we used about 2.5)
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• Chop all ingredients and mix together in bowl.  Let sit for 2 hours to allow flavour-mingling.  Eat!

We substituted some sliced peppers in oil that were leftover from last season for the fresh jalapeno, and added just over double the garlic recommended.   The whole mess looked suspiciously like Tabbouleh, but tasted much more like the topping Wren used for Bruschetta once.  Tart, not too tomato-y, yet very yummy!

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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!

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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!

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Seems the Spring and summer faeries have visited my blog recently, as things were all strangely formatted and the last post (or two) is somehow missing. If you came here looking to comment on a posting made this week, I can’t find it……. Lets do the Time Warp Again!

/dances with a jump to the left, and then a step to the right….

Otherwise, Beltaine evening this year was one of the more subdued, and yet more fun ones from recent memory. We didn’t actually do anything specifically festival-related other than work outside to trim trees, gather wood for the up-coming bonfire, and make a mental list of things to pick up for the party.

However, we worked outside, cleaned up the garden, got ready to plant this weekend, and generally ENJOYED the evening. Lately, we’ve been too busy to really talk, but we chatted while piling branches. We smiled and flirted, we ate dinner and played “Super Mario Galaxy” as a family when it got dark outside. We had some serious FUN chasing our masked “Walken” around the house. We felt young, vibrant, and in love.
All in all, we did bring up spring topics, and gardening, and I received only a joking “The Look” when I mentioned the traditional Greening of the Fields.

The ritual might not have been there in any depth, but the spirit of the holiday was felt much more deeply. It’s now deep into the Springtime.

Happy Beltaine!

((Further updates on the festivities after the ‘official’ Beltaine party this weekend….Varulv’s even bringing a new friend for us to meet ))

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