Olive Oil and Salt Dessert

So I have another vice.

While driving home from Omaha, I was listening to The Splendid Table, and a guest recommended putting sea salt on desserts. One particular image she conjured up was of a chocolate torte with sea salt sprinkled over it. Yum!

She even recommended using olive oil in chocolate cake and drizzling it on vanilla ice cream. (I wasn't so sure about olive oil on ice cream.)

So what did I do?

I made homemade vanilla bean ice cream. Then I made a chocolate cake with olive oil. Then I put them together, drizzled more olive oil over the top, sprinkled it with sea salt, and ate.

End result?

Well...I better start working out more. It was fabulous!

Catholic Priorities

As a Catholic, I have been asked to set aside all other worthy aims and vote for Republicans because they tend to be prolife. Saving the unborn trumps all other causes. I still think it's a worthwhile fight but I'm sick of the attitude that all other battles are moot.

As a Catholic I care about a lot of other things. Adam and Eve were supposedly put on this earth to tend a garden, but we're not being very good stewards of the Earthly garden we live on. We abuse it with mining and pollution, with short-term industrial aims. As a Catholic, I'm a steward of the Earth, and I'm tired of Republicans not caring.

As a Catholic, I have been told to be pro-immigration. I take this to heart, and I think too many other Catholics ignore it in favor of only taking care of people in this country. Does our charity end at our borders?  As a Catholic, I care about all people, and I don't discriminate based on country of origin.

As a Catholic, I'm supposed to follow the example of Jesus. You know, the guy who was charitable and kind to the heathens, and scolded his own people for their legalism. He didn't take political action and try to change the Roman law for the benefit of his own faith. He was kind to those who were different so that they would openly choose the Christian faith.

If I force you not to sin does that save your soul? Nope, I'm pretty sure that requires a change of heart. And what oppressed, belittled person is going to embrace their oppressor?

My faith does not extend into creating laws that force women to adhere to my religious values. My faith does give me any rights to prevent you from expressing your faith. My faith does not provide me with grounds to deny housing or marriage to same-sex couples. My faith does not give me any rights to treat other human beings with less than perfect charity.

So if I ask myself which party embodies the principles of my faith more, I can look to the Democratic Party. As an economically moderate conservative, I have HUGE problems with how they handle things, but as a Catholic, I genuinely believe they have principles I believe in--principles based in charity not finances.

My New Favorite Green

Swiss chard is my new favorite green. It's so buttery and creamy--flavors I never expected to associate with a lettuce-y food. Yum!

I cut out the stalks and saved them to put in a pasta later, and I sliced the leaves into long strips. Then I browned some diced garlic, shallot, and serrano pepper in olive oil in a sauce pan. Once it was browned, I threw in my chard and covered the pan with a lid for a couple minutes. Opened that sucker back up, flipped the chard a bit, and closed the lid again. I pulled it all out when the leaves were a bit wilted.

Then I ate some even though my whole dinner is not ready yet. It was delicious. The only thing keeping me from eating the entire bag's worth for tonight's meal (not really that much with the shrinking that happens during cooking) is that I am back to making menus again. If I eat it now, Thursday will be foodless according to the plans of the menu. Oh well. It will be yummy then, and I won't be forced to eat something lame for dinner on Thursday instead.

Trying a new fish to go with it...swai. It was on sale in the grocery store. I got a giant bag for $8. I have coated it in homemade bread crumbs made from the heel of my french loaf. I mixed the bread crumbs with cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, cumin, and garlic powder. The fish went in an olive oiled pan, was covered in breadcrumbs, and juiced with a bit of lemon. It's now in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. It's already smelling good, so I think it will also taste good.

Mmmmmmm Bread

So I'm making a dill batter bread. As usual, I don't want to follow directions/didn't have everything/didn't want to buy everything. In other words, I tweaked my recipe a bit both because I am lazy and because I thought I could do better.  Mine is just rising right now, but it already smells fabulous.

Things you will need:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (it will be split into 1 cup for initial use, and you'll add the 3/4 cup at the end)
• 1 package dry active yeast
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon dill
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup food-processed sunflower seeds

Things you will do:

• Grease a round 9-inch baking pan.
• Stir 1 cup flour and the yeast together in a large bowl.
• In a medium saucepan heat and stir everything from the water to the salt together until it's warm and the butter is almost completely melted.
• Add the cottage cheese mixture to the flour mixture.
• Beat on low for 30 seconds.
• Beat on high for 3 minutes.
• Stir in remaining flour and sunflower seeds with a wooden spoon.
• Spoon the batter into the baking pan and spread it to the edges.
• Cover it and let it rise for about an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden.
• Immediately remove from pan.
• Serve warm.

As always, eat and be happy. Food makes me happy.

A Proper Villain

So, in continuation of the thoughts of yesterday, I have realized that I don't think I can write a proper villain.

I've always had some issues with my novel's villain. It's a fantasy novel; he should be dripping with evil, though charming. I have these requirements of him, but that's about all he is at the moment. Actually, all he happens to be is charming. I don't know how to write evil. I can't get into that mindframe at all.

For one, I don't genuinely believe in human evil. There are evil acts, but I don't believe any human is evil. Technically, this character is not exactly human, but he's humanoid, and that's a problem for my imagination.

So how do I write this evil character? I'm not sure. If I really try to get into it, will it make me a bit batty or evil myself? CS Lewis was clear that in writing The Screwtape Letters from the point of view of a demon he risked losing something of himself. Getting into the mindset of a demon tainted him, and he had to work hard to get it out.

So do I indulge in my evil sides so that I can become this character when I write him the way I do my other characters? Or do I risk inauthenticity? I don't know.

Here's a fabulous Toni Morrison quote that I can't help but share in reflecting on the risks of writing about evil: "[C]haracters make claims, impose demands of imaginative accountability over and above the author's will to contain them."

On Novel Revision and My Research Endeavors

When is revision too much? For me, it may always be too much.

Every time I sit down to work on my novel, progress becomes locked in a grid of "what if?" I seek to network the needs of varying audiences, themes, missions, plots, agendas, social requirements. Any complication I can think of will halt the writing process. I have to plan to work everything in.

Twice I have made an overhaul of this novel, revising it entirely with something foundational molded anew or scrapped and replaced. First, I erased my main character because she was hollow. In her stead two male characters have arisen. Their rough outlines were taken from a short story I wrote for a class, but in the course of the narrative they grew into two human beings who I know intimately. They were not a plan. They were organically born and as I wrote I got to know them.

Lately, this organic approach to writing has shriveled. My second major revision is to make this novel a rhetorical opening out. A gateway to understanding and acceptance of a variety of viewpoints, but my own is so narrow. Needing to know more, I research and research and research. I have lengthy lists of books to read to help me fully develop the themes I want to ecapsulate and develop real characters to create those themes where my personal experieince will fail me. This is a daunting task.

I intended to finish my novel by the end of 2012, but after developing a research plan, I decided it would be more feasible to shoot for the end of 2015. Do I really need four extra years?

The answer is no. I've got to stop. Simplicity is needed.

I'm currently reading Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. I just finished the chapter "Black Matters." At first, I thought I should, as a writer, do what Morrison describes as "entering what one is estranged from." This was already a goal of my writing, but as I continued reading, it became clear that I should limit myself to alien things closer to home--to experiences of alienation that, though not my own, I have at least been witness to and can begin to imagine. Empathy is a natural trait for writers in my opinion. It lets them easily jump into the lives of others and live the experience. Morrison is surprised by some of the successful capturing of perspectives that are other than the authors she encounters.

I felt sure that somewhere in "Black Matters" I would find the key to what I want to do, but I think I perhaps found the key to what not to do. Through the course of this piece, Morrison recognizes that in engaging with the Other, a writer may reinforce prejudices. I was quick to think, "I don't want to do that! Lead me on to the path of avoiding this affront," but Morrison didn't. The issue is complicated. In a nutshell, Morrison clarifies that the risk of working to undermine prejudices also inherently carries with it the liklihood of inauthenticity.

How does a person successfully undermine a problematic system when the system is in part a key to authenticity? Furthermore, how does a person create true authenticity in narrative when the system is foreign. It's not just a matter of character. Is there any way I can organically imagine an Othered character and the complex background they would arise from the way I can my two heroes? Could I intimately know such a character and how they would react in any given circumstance? I don't think so.

If I tried, I would fail. I should point out that Morrison is appreciative of such failures. Though they are indeed failures and subject to criticism, she recognizes that the act of such a writing endeavor is a brave and worthy cause for the mind of the author if no one else. I think I will continue such exercises of the mind, but for now, I will leave them out of my writing--or at least writing I intend to share. This novel project is simplifying to concentrate on issues I know that I can write naturally without a concerted effort to try to work beyond the limits of my own imagination. I'm not ready for that.

Honey or Brown Sugar

So the folks in the graphics department at work discovered that I keep a drawer full of cookies. I'm going to have to start keeping a larger stockpile on hand. I'm thinking more variety too.

I usually take requests from my office mate. We've had regular chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal walnut dark chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and sour cream chocolate drop cookies. Most recently, he put in a request for oatmeal raisin cookies, so I'm planning oatmeal raisin cookies and oatmeal craisin cookies (you know, with dried cranberries) because I don't like raisins when they've been cooked.

Of course, he's on vacation this week, so I've actually been dragging my feet about making cookies even though it's really hard for me to make it through the day without a mid-morning and an afternoon cookie.

Then the graphics department was complaining that they needed sugar, and one of the graphics guys who knows about my drawer informed them of the cache of cookies. Unfortunately, I didn't have any cookies for them. The drawer has been empty for days.

I decided, however, that cookies might be the way to bridge the department gap. We don't have a huge chasm dividing us, but there is a small divide. In the spirit of community cookie sharing, I took a cookie request from the person I know best in graphics. She apparently LOVES peanut butter cookies. The all caps is necessary because that's how she emailed me her cookie request.

So I'm making her peanut butter cookies, and I learned a new trick from my peanut butter cookie recipe as part of the process. You can replace brown sugar with 1/2 as much honey. The dough turns out gooier, but if you pop it in the fridge for a bit, you can remedy any difficulty created in dough handling.

Let me tell you...this batter is yummy. I don't imagine this will do anything to prevent how hard peanut butter cookies turn, and I hope it doesn't make that issue worse. Regardless, at present, the flavor is heavenly. I don't know that I would exchange brown sugar for honey in all my cookie recipes, but for peanut butter cookies, it's delectable--which is kind of the goal.