MAGPIE...Prompt #149

                                                    Image/ R.A.D. Stainforth


THANK YOU, Tess, at Magpie Tales.  Thanks for all your creativity...Happy New Year, one and all...


I WANT

I want to open the windows
in every room,
let the stench
of last year's corruption disappear
in a blur of smoke.

I want to suddenly feel
the promise of springtime in January.

I want my children to be underfoot,
my daily sneezing
to be the worst of it.

I want to forgive all art,
to have poetry
dancing through my wits,
to kiss a prince,
have him stay a day or two.

I want to go through the new year
lead by last year's angels,
and if I'm no longer here at the end,
I want to come to you in a dream
and tell you I'm alright.

                               
                                     
                                                          Happy 2013  


Copyright/ All rights reserved/ 2012


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WELCOME...Merry Christmas..happy holidays!

Enter and enjoy...can't think of anything nicer than to share some luscious, simple recipes.  I'll do the hors d'oeuvres, the veggies, and the dessert.  You can do the main course!  And the good cheer...


Pears with Blue Cheese and Prosciutto
 



 

2 ripe pears, cut into wedges

2 tsps. lemon juice

1 bunch arugula

3 oz. blue cheese, cut into small pieces

6 oz. thin sliced prosciutto

 

In a bowl, toss the pears and lemon juice.  Layer a slice of pear, an arugula leaf, and a piece of cheese on a piece of prosciutto, and roll up.  Serves 8.

 

 

 

Roasted Vegetables  

 

 

                           

1 1/2 lbs. beets, peeled and cut into wedges

1 1/2 lbs. parsnips, peeled and cut into 2" chunks

1 1/2 lbs. baby carrots, peeled.  Leave 1" of tops on

4 tbls. brown sugar

4 tbls. olive oil

2 tbls. apple cider vinegar

1 lb. shitake mushrooms, cleaned and stemmed

 

Heat oven to 400 deg.  Place vegetables in roasting pan. 

In a bowl, whisk together brown sugar, oil, and vinegar.  Pour over vegetables, toss to cover.

Cook until tender, about 1 hour, stirring halfway.  Add mushrooms last 10 minutes, and toss well, finish roasting.  Season with salt and fresh ground pepper.  Serves 8.

 

 

 

Apricot Crumble

 

2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup apricot jam
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger.

Heat oven to 375 deg.  Coat an 8 inch square baking dish with 1 tbls. butter. 
In a food processor, combine flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Pulse to combine.  Add remaining butter and pulse till crumbly.  Add egg yolk and vanilla and pulse till mixture just comes together, but is still crumbly.
Take 1/2 cup of dough to a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and save in refrigerator.  Press remaining dough into baking dish, and push sides up about 1/4 inch around edge.
Combine jam and ginger.  Spread evenly over crust.  Crumble remaining refrigerated dough over the top. Bake until golden brown, about 35 min.  Cool on wire rack for 20 min. before cutting.  Serves 9.


Thanks to Real Simple.com
        A great holiday to all!

                     RIP...Lee Dorman/ 70/ Sept.15, 1942-Dec. 21, 2012

                                  Iron Butterfly/  In-a-Gadda-da-Vida
                                       
                                                                                  
copyright/ all rights reserved/ 2012

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MAGPIE TALES...Prompt #148

                                                                 Photo/ Andy Magee


Thank you Tess, at Magpie Tales.

           Something to share...a bit of good luck.  A really terrific blog, VenusBlogs,  genererally covers "women's issues" in a most creative and enlightened way, asked for permission to post my poem of last week, Magpie Prompt #147, "Lost At Sea".  You bet!! 
           Please check it out....http://venusblogs.com/lost-at-sea/


YOU PROMISED

Follow me to the
end of the world.  Desire me
at the finish line.


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MINUS 5

                                                        Photo/ New York Times/ 12.12.12


MINUS 5

Let's say it's the first day of spring.  At last.  Fifty shades of grey slush are being washed away from New York stoops and sidewalks.  Balmy days are here again.  Well, if you can't bear to see a yellow daffodil popping up in that crack in the sidewalk, have I got a treat for you.

Opening this Spring, and be the first kid on the block to know it, is the Minus5deg Ice Bar.  Winter one more day.  Yay!  Just so you can plan ahead, it's going to be at the New York Hilton.  Can Paris be far behind?

Already in New Zealand, Monte Carlo, Las Vegas, now you can look forward to freezing  your ass off in New York for an extended winter.  All-ice bar, chairs, tables, glasses made of ice.  All the ice to clink in your drink is Canadian.  Glasses frozen in New Zealand.  What, even our ice has to be outsourced?

Ice sculptures inspired by ice.

No food, (not even a frozen TV dinner), just drinks.  $17. for a drink.  The specialty of the house, vodka, at the top of the list if you have fond memories of Siberia.  And to ward off frost bite, you will be given a parka, with faux fur.  And boots.  And a hat.  Upon entering.  Check your stilettos at the door.

Can't wait to see the ladies room.  Penguins in attendance?

Hi, do you come here often?


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MAGPIE...Prompt #147

THANK YOU, Tess, at Magpie Tales...


LOST AT SEA

Ulysses sails
the map of my back,
tracing a path
where balmy currents
thaw
the Cape of Good Hope.

The Flying Dutchman
set his wrist
to my pulse,
then rushed away
to doom.

Don't fear
the Cape of Storms.
Here is the path
to the covenant,
where sugarbirds
search for nectar,
and patches of lilies
give up their scent.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #146

 

 

OBJECT TO BE DESTROYED/ Man Ray

 

 

 

THANK YOU, Tess, for Magpie Tales....

 

 

 

TRY

 

Great saints, even Joan and Polycarp,

having doubt at the final bind to the tree,

reach through the burn for the brass ring.

 

What if heaven's eye opens to darkness,

time is a click, nothing more,

and a name engraved on a stone

is all there is?  Born and died,

a box of days, laid in the earth.

 

Martyrs sway with their last breath,

hearing a requiem

as they approach the endless blaze,

sputter like twigs,

 

try to take wing,

find their soul,

grab hold of the savior's hem.

 

 

 

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MAGPIE...Prompt #145

 

 

         

                                                      RED CHAIR


THANK YOU Tess, for Magpie Tales


PASSAGEWAY

Half demolished,
the house of early days.
Windows,
shapes without glass,

every breath,
freed from the walls,
now part of the wind.

All I feared
were simply tales,
old wives whistling.

Days of first dreams
now have
the weight of silk, fraying.
Chairs splinter into fossils, 
specters work.

Timid memories
float from my mind.
All phantoms left behind,
asleep in Samsara.

I pick up a key
to swift passage.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #144

                            
                                                     SQUALL/ 1986/ Andrew Wyeth


THANK You, Tess...for Magpie Tales.


TEMPEST

Flung open the door,
grabbed my binoculars,
fine-tuned to the prospect
of bird watching.

No need for
a yellow slicker today,
still wet from yesterday's tempest.

Sun, like weak tea,
paints itself into a corner,
spreading over the crazed wall.

No ships at sea now.
A blameless horizon
backing away,
heading for a smooth current,

leaving the shore
piled high with splinters.
Once had names.


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Will Barnet

                                                          WOMAN READING/ 1970/ Will Barnet

                                                                      5/25/11- 11/13/12

My muse, a print of this hangs over my desk.  I see it dozens of times a day.  It is always dynamic, pure, full of zest, and life.  This is a portrait of the artist's daughter, reading a book, with the seemingly coziest cat ever.

Will Barnet, known for beautifully stylized portraits, died on Tuesday, November 13, 2012, at his home in Manhattan.   He was 101 years old.

                                                              RIP

                                                                Photo/ Anthony Brown

Will Barnet, National Medal Of Arts recipient... painter, printmaker, receives Medal from Pres. Obama at East Room ceremony at the White House.  On Feb.13, 2012.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #143

                                                  Verdun, 1917/  Felix Vallotton


THANK YOU, Tess for Magpie Tales...


ELEVEN  ELEVEN

What color dust
have you become?
Did you drink in red
as you were sliced?

Is it soul or skin
that drifts upwards
to add a stain
to the eternal cloth?

I'm the shade of hell,
the mud trench we died in.
You sink into me.

A raven calls the time,
eleven, eleven.
On my back
dead eyes
stare at the azure sky.

Part of forever now,
I'm the blue in the rainbow,
don't search
beyond that
for me.

copyright/ all rights reserved/ 2012


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