12-16…PASTA FLORENTINE

There are advantages and disadvantages to embarking on this pasta enterprise at my age. On the plus side, I’ve lived long enough that I can feel reasonably comfortable saying and doing what ever it is that I feel needs to be said, or done. On the other side of the coin: I cannot remember past breakfast, so I’m at constant risk of repeating myself. But, turning the coin over, I can say “what the hell, it is no big deal if I repeat myself”.

The spinach looked especially good this morning at Krogers, so tonight’s dinner will be a simple light tomato sauce with spinach, plus a bit of bacon for an extra punch.



INGREDIENTS”

Pasta
Olive oil
Garlic
Fresh spinach
Bacon, chopped coarsely
1 28oz can of San Marzano tomatoes
Dried basil and Oregano
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

PROCESS:

Cook the bacon, remove from pan, and set aside. Add some olive oil to the pan and cook the garlic until soft, then add the tomatoes, herbs and seasoning, and the beans plus a splash of red wine just for the hell of it. Well not really, it does add to the flavor of the dish. While the pasta is cooking add the spinach to the sauce. Place the cooked pasta in the pan, and add the bacon, and mix well. Parmigiano reggiano cheese on top will complete the dish.

This sauce, where the tomatoes are cooked for no more than thirty minutes, ends up very, loose, almost soup-like, and is what many Italian-Americans consider “marinara”, as opposed to the thick, rich gravy that cooks for several hours on Sunday mornings, often with meat.

COMMENTS:

At the last minute I decided to add cannellini beans to the tomatoes. With or without the beans, this is hearty dish full of flavor, and begs for a big slice of bread to clean up the dish.

12-15…FettuccinI with baby clams, asparagus, and cherry tomatoes

Three days without pasta! That, my friends, is a streak that will end tonight.



INREDIENTS:

Fettuccini
Whole baby clams
Asparagus cut into 1’’ pieces
Cherry tomatoes halved or quartered, depending on their size.
Olive oil
Garlic
Green onions
Lemon juice
White wine
Dry basil and dill
Red pepper flakes

PROCESS:

Saute the garlic and onions in olive oil until soft, then add the asparagus, dill, basil, red pepper flakes, and a splash of wine, and cook for several minutes before adding the tomatoes and clams. Simmer over low heat until the pasta is ready, adding the juice of one lemon along the way. Add the pasta to the sauce, mix well, and serve with parmigianp reggiano cheese.

COMMENTS:

The stark contrasts in this dish are the result of the egg and squid ink pasta I purchased online from a small company in Michigan called al dente. This is their land and sea variety. Other than the color I could not detect any indication of the squid presence.

This was 8 out of 10 good; not my favorite, but I don’t hesitate recommending it.

12-12…Risotto with mushrooms, asparagus, and sausage

It felt like a risotto kind of night…OK…so that’s pushing things a bit, but really, risotto seemed appropriate, and I had just the right stuff in the fridge to make it happen.

INGREDIENTS:

Risotto
Sausage with casing removed
Mushrooms
Asparagus
Olive oil
Garlic, onions
Dill, Oregano, and basil
Chicken brotParmigiano Reggiano cheese

PROCESS:

Cook the sausage, remove, and set aside. Saute the garlic and onion in olive oil, then add the mushrooms and asparagus and cook. Remove and add to the sausage and keep warm.

In a deep pot heat a small amount of olive oil and add the rice, stirring until turning a golden color…about 3 minutes. Then begin adding the broth, about ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly until absorbed. Continue to do so until all of broth is used and the rice becomes soft and creamy. Mix in the cheese, and then the vegetables and serve.

COMMENTS:

This is a great dish…simple, but a bit time consuming with all the stirring, so a glass of wine by the stove helps considerably.

THESE LITTLE THINGS

2x6”…5x7”…4x6”…Since late this summer the great majority of my work has been in or about these sizes. I found myself with little interest in my usual work and after looking around for something to do began sketching from some old photos. I was having so much fun that I decided to re-visit old places via my photo files and recording my “visits” with these drawings, most of which have been posted on the blog over the past 3 months.

It has been interesting seeing how the work, even at this small size and with minimal ambition has begun to evolve. The evolution is an unconscious one, in which some of the drawings begin to become more complicated and their goal more ambitious. Over the course of this series some of the pieces were done primarily as a study for larger work, while others were conceived of as finished pieces.

The most recent development has been replacing paper with scraps of old clay mono types, similar to the clay drawings I’ve been doing since my return from Italy last year.

The challenge, as the work tends to become more involved, is to maintain the freshness and naivety.

Two from early in the series...




Two "intermediates"...




Most recent...





I look forward to continue working in this size and improving my technique, especially with the work on the clay mono types.

12-11…PASTA WITH TURNIP GREENS AND SAUSAGE

I know…it’s Sunday, and I should be making Sunday gravy, but the Turnip greens looked so good at the supermarket yesterday, and being in a veggie/produce mood…I really had no choice.



INGREDIENTS:

Fettucini
Turnip greens, coarsely chopped
Olive oil
Garlic, onion
Sausage, casing removed


PROCESS:

Brown the sausage, remove and set aside. Discard any excess fat, and sauté the garlic and onion in olive oil. Blanch the greens in boiling water for about 4-5 minutes, drain, and add to the pan along with the sausage and cook for 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime cook the pasta in the same water used for the greens.

COMMENTS:

Comfort food…not the typical Sunday pasta, but just as good.

A CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM A DEAR FRIEND

One of my oldest and dearest friends, a never failing Star Person in my life for over 40 years, has been a constant reminder to me that the Christian faith embodies far more than than what we see and hear from the extreme fundamentalists. As an ordained minister in the Methodist church he took a leave of absence to open and run The Yokefellow Center in Rising Sun, Maryland, patterned after the international Yokefellow movement started by the Quaker theologian, Elton Trueblood.

With his permission, I would like to share his Christmas letter.


The Yokefellow Center
36 N. Queen Street, POB 482
Rising Sun, Maryland 21911
410-658-2662
halowens@zoominternet.net


Dear Yokefellow Friends,

The season of Advent comes again! What a wondrous season this can be for each of us. I recently placed 34 candles in the windows at the Yokefellow Center. We’ve done this for the past 27 years! The light from these candles represent the light of the Christmas Star, guiding those Wise People of old on their journey in search of the Baby in Bethlehem. The candles also remind me of the Star Persons who have guided me through the years to what Douglas Steere called the “Bethlehem of the heart.” I am grateful for each of them, for without their guidance, encouragement and light, I may never have embarked on the journey.

This year as I placed a candle in each window I named it for one of my Star Persons. It was quite an experience. I discovered that there were not enough candles or windows to name all those who have given me light for my journey. In American society there is a prevalent attitude that “rugged individualism” gets us where we want to go. We do it on our own, according to some, pulling ourselves up by our own shoe strings. This is certainly not true in my experience. John Donne said it so well: “No [one] man is an Island, entire of itself, every [one] man is a piece of the Continent…” We need “one another.” These two little words “one another” form one of the most important phrases in the New Testament. This all-important phrase is the reason the Yokefellow symbol is a double-Yoke instead of a single one.

Most of the Star Persons in my life (past and present) do not have great titles or hold important positions. They are just ordinary folk. But each one in their unique way was able to “light up my life,” as a popular song put it a few years ago. Their light gave a burst of new insight at just the right moment. They were and they are my Bethlehem Stars.

The Christmas season has a way of “lighting up” the darkness for us. Each year when Christmas comes we have another opportunity to ponder its mystery. Last night, those 34 candles in the Yokefellow Center windows (each just a tiny little light) lit up the whole building and surrounding area proclaiming the abiding promise of Christmas: “The light continues to shine in the darkness and the darkness has never extinguished it” (John 1:15). These tiny little lights also describe Star Persons and how their little light makes a tremendous difference in a dark and broken world.

The “little light” Star Persons give to your life and mine comes from another realm—a Light from beyond. The Light that lights up the Yokefellow Center also comes, not from 34 candles, but a Light from beyond. These small “pieces of light” are a reflection of the Bethlehem Star, inviting everyone to revisit Bethlehem and to reconsider its miracle. This Bethlehem to which the light beckons is not far away in some Holy Land. It is rather the Bethlehem within our own human hearts (also holy ground). Here, in the Bethlehem of the heart, we will find the Child into whom God poured out His very being; all of His love—to demonstrate in human flesh his passionate care for each of us and the world in which we live. Here, in this Bethlehem of the heart, we will find the Light from beyond, the Child, who became the Son of Man—being and doing what man and woman is called to do—letting God’s passionate love shine though His life. It is here, in the Bethlehem of the heart, that Star Persons are born. It is here that we too can be re-born in some new way this Christmas. The words of Angelus Silesius of the 17th century still describe this possibility—the continuing miracle of Christmas: “If Christ were born a thousand times in Galilee it was all in vain until He is born in m
e, in thee.”

The Yokefellow Center is called to let God’s passionate love shine through its ministries and presence.

We wish you a Merry Christmas filled with love, hope, joy, and peace, but most of all, we pray for you a wondrous revisit to the Bethlehem within your heart and all that such an experience may mean for you and the world.
With gratitude and love,

Hal E. Owens

“Fling wide the portals of your heart; make it a temple set apart from earthly use for heaven’s employ, adorned with prayer and love and joy.

Redeemer, come, with us abide; our hearts to thee are open wide; let us thy inner presence feel; thy grace and love in us reveal.” (Georg Weissel, 1642)

12-9…A QUICK “FIX YOUR OWN” TONIGHT

Patience and I went our own ways tonight. She crashed, recovering from yesterdays 12+ hour day at work, fixing her own dinner, while I went to the opening reception at Gallery 1025. Returning home, it was my turn to eat, and after looking at a pretty empty refrigerator I turned to……pasta.

I cooked a handful of large shells, chopped up a few sun dried tomatoes, and grabbed the jar of basil pesto I keep on hand in the fridge. Tossed the cooked pasta with the two ingredients, grated some Parmigiano reggiano cheese on top and feasted to the sounds of a Tuscan CD.