Fruit Salsa...

                                                    photo/ karry hosford/ myrecipes



We're used to veggie salsa..well here's a tantalizing recipe for Fruit Salsa.  So easy to make..you can make it in your sleep.  Please let me know if you do!  And feel free to add or subtract any fruit that pleases you...can't go wrong!  Enjoy.


FRUIT SALSA

1 cup chopped cantaloupe
1  1/2 cups chopped pineapple
3/4 cup chopped orange sections
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup chopped, peeled mango
1/2 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
2 tbls. chopped cilantro or fresh basil
1  1/2 tsps. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper or to taste
2 tbls. lime juice
1 tbls. honey
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

Combine all, tossing gently.  You can serve immediately, or refrigerate for several hours.  Serves about 6.  Serve with grilled chicken, turkey burgers, fish, anything!  Plain, eat it over the sink, or with chips...

Or with chocolate..no, no sorry about that.  Hard to break the chocolate with everything habit.

I think a fruity white Riesling would go with any of the recommended dishes.  Again, enjoy....

http://www.minblu.blogspot.com/
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MAGPIE/ Prompt #18

                                        photo /willow/ magpietales


EXCUSES

Pointless yellow stubs
lie scattered
on my table.

I sweep them into the waste,
the dull sound of woody scraps
reprimand me.
I beg them not to try
to scale the sides
and yet they tap a message to me.

Write!

I will as soon as I find
some really first-rate pencils,
line them up like good soldiers,
red, yellow, blue.
Attention!

Pick and choose each one in turn,
chisel a point
and hope the graphite
carries a vein of life's blood within,
to inscribe some dazzling words.

I will carve an edge sharp enough
to cut through any excuses,
from rising dawn
through eager night.

I promise to start a poem
with a momentous word.
Write and write and write.

And drown out the voice
that asks,
what's the point?


@copyright/ all rights reserved/ 2010

Don't forget to check on all those who have participated in Willow's magpietales prompt! 


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Child's Play

HERE'S A POEM THAT I FIRST published in my book of poems, TWO GHOSTS.  Self published.  It works, is nice to see your book published.  But bear in mind that it can be a money pit.  Because every few months "they" (publishers) present an idea to help you sell your book.  Outlay of money on your part.  Promoting the book, on their part.  I generally say, no thank you!  Maybe that's why my book isn't a best seller.  But that's OK.  We're talking poetry here.  It's just nice to hold a book of my poetry in my hands.  I'm not the most driven person in the world.  Although I'd sell the screen rights in a minute.  Anyone?

I may have posted this poem before..well, here it is again.

CHILD'S PLAY

Eleven years old

and the light in his eyes

dims to black points.

The roundness of his chin

takes on a shimmer

that looks like whiskers.

Little ancient boy will never smile,

he's slipped out

the backdoor of childhood.

A Buddhist teacher at his side whispers,

"You have 84,000 different emotions,

and the three poisons.

Just thoughts.

Don't be distracted".

The boy shrugs,

no stranger to the study of virtue.

Break free.

Be empty.

Go away.

Come back.

But first he wants to run outside

and play in the snow.

Simply a thought.

@copyright/ al rights reserved/ 2008

Two Ghosts/ poems/ Lyn Rochelle/  http://www.amazon.com/

MAGPIE/ Prompt #17

photo/ willow/ magpietales

 ANNE

I hope the window I stand before in dreams,
finally opens and lets the sparrow out. 
Tomorrow I will lose my certain touch,
eyes that could kiss,
my taste for wine, 
and the velvet skin brushed lightly 
by he who gives my name to myth forever.

Black light, a dim glow that seems to be rain,
runs down the walls. 
I hope that God grants me my wish
to hold my eyes open. 
I will become a rivulet of red. 
But I'll keep my eyes open. 
I beg the executioner 
to say I never closed them. 

I pray that courage eats my fear, 
so I may watch my ebbing soul. 
The sparrow flies out the window. 

Who stands there? 
Who is that who stretches arms out to me
and whispers so low that I have to walk closer?

Come here, child, she says, walk with me. 
I have a prize to show.  
She leans over a headstone,
brushes leaves and tiny spiders,
spinning across the open eyes of memory.
  
Forever the sandstone head of a girl amazed. 
Eyes open and waiting,
and a gasp that never makes a sound.   

If I should die before I wake? 
Am I awake before I die? 
Tomorrow.

ANNE BOLEYN
Born  1501-1507?  Died  May 19, 1536/ Tower of London


@copyright/all rights reserved/ 2010


Attention!! Don't forget to look in on the other bloggers for this prompt!!  magpietales


http://www.minblu.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/lynxny

Messages...

MESSAGES

A fold of paper
holds my prayer.
I find my niche
in the crumbling stone.
My message is tucked
into a fracture.

Walls shield temples
and bells in the wind
offer the reassurance
of God listening.

Just as fountains receive
the coins of return,
slivers chip off
the archeology of walls
to become the sands of time.

A compelling question
once was clutched
in the hand of a maiden.
She slipped her prayer
under a rock.

Did she get the life she pleaded for,
or did she get a life of plagues?

But that was a thousand years ago,
how can it matter now?

I pray for blessings,
I pray for the maiden,
as I slip my fate
between the stones.


@copyright/ all rights reserved/ 2010


http://www.minblu.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/lynxny

MAGPIE/ Prompt #16

photo/ willow/ magpie tales

ANTI-STILETTO

I don't wear shoes that seduce,

named after a weapon.

I don't buy stilettos with lessons attached,

to teach me to walk this way.

Once my clackety-click

in high heeled shoes

used to be alluring.

I feigned a glamorous stance,

walked on 4 inch impalers,

dipped into

the embrace of a tango

and all the bliss it entails.

Learned a long time ago

how to put one foot

in front of the other.

Currently I plunk and glide,

trying not to overreach my stride.

When I kick off my old soft shoes,

seduction has nothing to do with it.

A warm bubbly soak

is all I require,

and old slouchy scuffs

fulfill my desire.

c copyright/all rights reserved/ 2010

Please treat yourself to the other participants of Magpie Tales.

http://www.minblu.blogspot.com/

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Memorial Day

                                      MEMORIAL DAY/ 2010


GOD BE AT MY END,
                 and at my departing.

16th century primer



http://www.minblu.blogspot.com/
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SHERLOCK...

                             Watson, Holmes, Adler

Here's a bad movie.  Like, in don't see it.  And if you have, and you liked it, so be it, we can still be friends.

Boys will be boys, and Guy Ritchie, the director, likes to dig into their fantasies.  So he put together something identified as "Sherlock Holmes", for the cool set.  Boys of about 11 to 16, add a couple of dozen years or so.  Watched it on Netflix.  Was on the "long wait" list for a very long wait.

I get fooled by hype.  Still.  How bad can just one more Sherlock Holmes movie be?  Especially one starring Robert Downey, Jr. as Holmes, and Jude Law as Watson.  Hee, hee.  Very.  Because first of all, this one seems to be based on a lost manuscript by Dan Brown, which I'll just call, "Demons and Holmes".  The one that never got published, but it's obvious who and what inspired this script.  I think that Brown should get a token of appreciation, if not a kick-back.

Next, lets examine performance.  Downey seems too pleased finding himself cast as Holmes.  It's as if he's really playing House, playing Holmes.  Which, sucker that I am, would probably pay to see.  Hugh Laurie, as House as Holmes.  And just an aside..Downey's aging rather quickly, something's catching up to him!  I think he's talented, but his elocution got lost in the sauce in this one.  All over the English map, and next time, sub-titles, please.

And of course Holmes falls for Jude Law.  The movie tries to deny it.  Law is sort of almost like a person as Watson.  Lots of fisticuffs and special effects divert them, and it's just right for the teenagers watching.  Me, I'm hopeless, always looking for a plot!!  Maybe in the sequel. 

Villain comes back from the dead, too much eyeliner, thought this was more Drac trash.  Irene Adler is a saucy dish...she'll have to return..but will Holmes really care?  On the plus side..really gorgeous to look at, set design,  extravagant London.  Just turn off the sound, watch the action for a while, take a nap. 

Vampire Mom / Choclat Sin #21

VAMPIRE MOM

What's a vampire Mom to do?

Well, get some good blood today,

that's my priority.
Not as if the milkman
will leave a quart at the door.

I'm thinking ahead to a dark tomorrow,
maybe an eclipse

can shorten the daylight

so that silver edges bleed into night.

Pay attention!
When I say look, you look,
when I say run, you run,
when I say grab her,

you better listen.

And don't stay out too early.

What kind of stork brought you,
you ask?
A bird whose span covers the slit of dawn,

feathers tufted with ebony plumes.

Come out of your bed,
sleepyhead,
let's play a game
with archaic toys.
Place the Ouija board

on the edge of the slab

and urge a dark spirit
to come through to me.

Hark!  A troubled soul listens
when I open my beckoning arms
and say yes,

I know how to be your Mom.

                                             

                          Melted chocolate.  What did you think it was?

                                     Just a bit of Choclat Sin.

c copyright/ all rights reserved/ 2010


http://www.minblu.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/lynxny

MAGPIE/ Prompt #15

                                    photo/ willow/ magpie tales


WE WERE PLAYING TRUTH OR DARE.  AND I DARED MY PALS TO JOIN ME for a very special fish dinner.  Not such a big deal on its face, but jaws dropped when I told them what I had in mind.  How about a bit of Fugu? 

The infamous puffer fish, lethally poisonous if prepared incorrectly.  But a notorious and very celebrated dish in Japanese cuisine.  Japanese Roulette, any one?  I merely wanted to try a new restaurant around the corner.  After all, there are about 17 licenced Fugu restaurants in the US, and 12 are in New York City.  So how bad can that be?

For some reason I was faced with scepticism.  This from a group that's planning an excursion to investigate Mothman sightings.  There is a festival on Sept. 17, not too late to join the adventure...anyway...

The Japanese Emperor is forbidden to eat Fugu.  From time to time Fugu has been totally banned.  The Tiger Blowfish, which is the most poisonous, is also the most edible.  The Ministry of Health has a list which shows parts that can be consumed safely. The best time to eat Fugu is autumn and winter.  If you die of Fugu poisoning, your friends will know, because you will look like a dead fish.  I just made that up....

Nowadays most Fugu sold comes from fish with a small amount of toxin.  The "Forbidden Fruit" is the liver, still eaten by fools, and amateur cooks, often with fatal results. 

A dish of Fugu can cost about $50. in Japan.  A full dinner, is $200.  Due to the expense, the fish is sliced very carefully to obtain the largest possible amount without poison.  A Hiki knife is used to slice the fish, and is usually stored very carefully in a separate location. 

I'd like to add that even though I'm inviting my friends to some Fugu and Chips, I do understand their point of view.  They may be influenced by the fact that Fugu is totally banned in the European Union. 

I don't like to eat alone and am still waiting for some takers.  Anyone??

The great poet, Buson (1716-1783) wrote this famous Senryu:

       I cannot see her tonight
       I have to give her up
       So I will eat Fugu.



Once again I thank Willow at magpie tales for thinking up this dare, and urge you to check out the other participants!!


http://www.minblu.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/lynxny