Food for Thought for Friday -- SOME YOU WIN

HEY! 

Throw the cat the canary and put another pea in the soup :) 

I WON -- The Spring Poetry Contest over at Postcard Poetry & Prose :) 

with an ekphrastic poem entitled 

UNDERSTANDING GRAPHITE 

so away over there and take a keek 

or you'll get no quiche.

Honourable mentions went to my good friends Maire Morrissey Cummins and James Graham

And while you're about it check out this week's Bewildering Stories Issue 522 where I also have a poem -- A Snake Awakes and have a good read while you're there 'cos it's a great issue!

Okay Quiche it is -- 1 quantity short crust pastry = 8oz flour/4 butter/salt/ water to mix / /rest it half an hour/ roll out and put in flan dish then blind bake and sprinkle some semolina or polents into the base to keep itfrom going soggy.

Filling: Cooked spinach in base / cooked broccoli, peppers, onions, mushrooms, or any left over cooked veg you wish -- arranged on top of the spinach (also cooked smoked bacon if you like). 

Pour over 2-3 eggs / a tub of creme fraiche or half pint cream / salt beaten together.
 Cut cheese -- in this case Blue Stilton -- into cubes and add as wished. Sprinkle with black pepper and grated nutmeg and cook at 180 for 35 - 40 mins




Serve with salad and French dressing.

No canaries were injured in the production of this blog :)

Food for Thought for Friday -- Tea Apologist Eats Humble American Pie

In my own defense I had been, two evenings in a row, whipped into a frenzy of patrioitic Tea ferver by a Victoria Wood's Nice Cup of Tea -- a really good treatment of the subject on the Beeb. And I learned rather a lot from that about our national drink Camilia Sinensis which is in effect, a tree indiginous to China. And so when people said you couldn't get a proper cuppa abroad (and in fairness it can be difficult) I jumped on the tea wagon. Then it struck me about some of the good experiences I have had in America (not the Char at Washington DC admittedly) but I found that my friends actually do drink tea! In fact Kath's friend Luann loves tea and Jim never refused a cup of (my favourite) PUNJANA any time I made one.


But more than that -- Ms Wood mentioned that perhaps if they could do a 'starbucks' on tea it might become 'cool' and wouldn't be on the decline. News for you Victoria :)

TEAVOLVE Baltimore MD. 

It's far and away the COOLEST tea place I have ever been to -- introduced to us by Jody Costa in 2010, it does all types of tea including Black Tea (which is American for English tea) and bubble tea which has grains of semolina in the bottom which swell up like bubbles... I reckon we need TEAVOLVEs on every High street in Britain to counter the coffee craze and repopularise tea.


Also in Baltimore there's a Breakfast place called Miss Shirleys. They do a decent cuppa that'll set you up for the day -- just ask for two bags and they'll do it. And opposite Saint Paul's church there's an oriental tea and sandwiches place that does great tea.


Also I confess I practically begged Nathan Rosen to bring me my favourite Bigelow's Spiced Chai when he came to visit -- It tastes like Christmas! Do yourself a favour and Buy some. I even save it when it's gone cold, bottle it and drink it as iced tea -- it's so delicious!


So you see I owed my American friends an apology for being such a stolid Brit :( 

and now that's over -- a nice cup of tea I think :)

Food for Thought for Friday -- Spring in your step

SPRING FLIRTATION Irises? Not quite daffodils yet. That are reluctant to unfurl because of this nithering easterly wind from Scandinavia and I am a bit shy of shedding a coat too. It feels more like February than April.

Salads are off the menu! Slow Cooked Ham is on. Try serving with a nice stir fry of broccoli, peppers, onion rings, mushrooms, celery, sweetcorn, and sliced carrot and the all important triumvirate -- garlic/chili/ginger. And some home made egg-fried rice 
sesame oil in pan --HOT
add egg
salt
cold left over rice

stir quickly and serve.

It's been a good week though, I sent some poetry off and posted a couple of stories to Ether Press for this year's Twisted Tales :) I have ordered Issue 7 of A New Ulster in which I have seven poems (Please BUY  ahard copy if you can) and if you missed it Meteor Strike in BwS. I have another coming up there soon.

And I enjoyed Victoria Wood on TEA
It told me a lot I didn't know about our national beverage and Ms Wood is always entertaining, easy company. 

In Aveyron, 1976 in France I suffered a migraine -- immediately recognised by Aurelie Bardy as withdrawl symptoms it was cured by several cups of une tisane Vervaine -- Verbena tea. In Paris you have to go to WHSmith's tea rooms by Les Galleries Lafayette to get a proper cup! Jennifer Stakes Roberts and Noel and I were desperate for a cuppa in Washington DC and thought the Indian woman at the station might hold the secret. We got CHAR -- tea boiled up in sweetened condensed milk UGH! When I went to US last time I took my own teabags with me. We are indeed a nation addicted to this most benevolent drug but it is not entirely without side-effects as you see and it is also diuretic so gentlemen of a certain age... DECAF! Cheers Rosie-Lee!

Food for Thought for Friday

But I am posting early because today is 4th April and Space died 3 years ago today and my mother died 10 years ago tonight and so my food for thought is just to enjoy life.

4^th April in Memory

Today for me is sand

blown across a windy beach.

You used to love a windy day

and birdsong

‘cleanyourfeet’ you’d hear them say

birdie,birdie,birdie.

“Every crow thinks its own chick’s the whitest.”           

The wind is from north-east

were I at home

tobacco smells would carry

snowflakes in their wake

over the flourishing corn about to bloom

and you would know tell us all the signs

daffodils late

too early to plant sweet peas yet

“Let the winter do its work.”

           

I have missed that kind of wisdom since

Winter did its work

ten years ago today.

I know my mother would have been proud of the poems I have in Issue 7 of A New Ulster -- out today! I dedicate them to her.