A Poem for Saturday

This is another poem from Morning Song, the new poetry anthology for either new parents, all parents, or anyone who's ever been born (depending on who you ask).

Richard Wilbur is a bit of a local hero around here. He graduated from Amherst College in 1942 and lives up in Cummington, in the hilltowns. He recently turned 90 and still teaches at Amherst and gives readings.

I hadn't known this poem before I found it in the anthology, but I think it's lovely. If you go to Poets.org, the website of The Academy of American Poets, you can hear him read it here.

The Writer

In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten.  I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.

Richard Wilbur

Friday Link Love

Well, that was nerve-wracking! Blogger was down for almost 24 hours, and yesterday's post plus any comments after early Weds. afternoon vanished into the ether! I am relieved that I was able to cut and paste yesterday's chicken post from an old screen shot. In any case, the delay threw me off. Please, Blogger, keep working!

Anyway, crisis averted for the moment, and on to today's links:

DFW Links:

Since his posthumous unfinished novel, The Pale King, came out last month, there's been a lot of new press about David Foster Wallace recently. (For those new to this blog, my own connection to Dave is explained here.) I haven't read the novel yet, but there were two pieces I found especially interesting.

One was this thoughtful essay in The Awl by Maria Bustillos who went through Dave's personal library, now in the archives at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and wrote about all the self-help books she found there: "Inside David Foster Wallace's Private Self-Help Library."

The other is a rare interview with Dave's widow, Karen Green. She stays out of the press, mostly, but she spoke to The Guardian around the time of the release of the novel.

A more cheerful literary link:

Although I've only read a few of the essays in Elif Batuman's book The Possessed, I've decided that she's such an entertaining writer that I'd read what she wrote no matter what it was about. I loved this essay in the Guardian. It got attention when it first came out because of the part where she asks Jonathan Franzen whether he has any weed, but that's only a small part of why I liked it: "Life after a bestseller"

From Possessed to Possession:

Since I'm (sort of) on the subject, I found myself at lunch the other day with a bunch of young scholars talking about how much they loved what they discovered in the archives. So, it was to my astonishment that I brought up A.S. Byatt's book Possession only to discover that none of them had read it! It's been more than 20 years since Possession was first published, and my first read of it still remains one of my most satisfying reading experiences ever. Byatt can be hit or miss, but Possession is worth all the praise heaped upon it back when it was published and won the Booker Prize. I've heard mixed things about Byatt's newest, The Children's Book (which I bought in nice compact form in India in January), but I'm still going to give it a try.

The Delicious:

I haven't made too many things from Martha Rose Shulman's "Recipes for Health" in the NY Times, but this week's spring vegetable recipes looked great.

I'm particularly intrigued by the recipe for Asparagus with Green Garlic and the one for Green Garlic, Potato and Leek Soup.

(Other green garlic recipes can be found on this very blog:
Spinach and Green Garlic Soup and Green Garlic and Chive Souffle, both delicious!)

Today's photo is courtesy of a shop in the Greater Kailash N-Block Market in Delhi. I don't think the cat was for sale.

A Chicken Story

Chickens are in the news these days. Not long ago, my town passed a zoning ordinance that allows people living in certain neighborhoods (including mine!) with properties of at least a certain size to keep chickens. This is a change from a few years ago when there was a front page story in the local paper about two children who had to make a special case before the zoning board so that they could keep their four chickens—Guinevere, Gurley, Mabel and Carmelo--who had been deemed illegal. Meanwhile, another person in my office just got chickens, bringing the number up to three in one small office.

All of this talk about chickens brings to mind a particularly memorable chicken, one I encountered a number of years ago in India. Here is my chicken story.

It was summer, monsoon season, and I was in Bangalore. My hotel had once been handsome but now was dumpy. My room was forgettable, the food lousy. But there was a lovely garden and a veranda beside it. In the garden lived a flock of chickens along with one scary rooster who charged at me whenever I walked by.

One rainy afternoon, I had no plans and decided to sit on the veranda and write some letters. I sat down at one of the tables with paper and a pen. The other tables were empty, but a hen from the garden hopped up on one of the chairs and promptly went to sleep. This amused me, but I didn’t think much of it.

A little while later, a man came out and sat at the table where the chicken was sleeping. I guessed he was the hotel accountant because he carried with him an armload of bulky ledgers which he spread out across the table. He wore thick spectacles and settled down with the books, adding up numbers, making notes. Hard at work, he didn’t notice the chicken, and they coexisted peacefully for a long while.

The chicken’s peace was disturbed, though, when one of the hotel servants alerted the man that he was sharing his table with a chicken. The accountant had the servant shoo the sleepy chicken back into the garden. The chicken was not pleased. And so the battle began.

From the moment she was banished into the garden, the chicken attempted to regain her seat. At first, her forays were furtive. If a chicken could tiptoe, that’s what this chicken was doing. Every few minutes, she would hop up onto the veranda, and the accountant would shoo her away, sometimes with a stick, sometimes with his hand. She tried to go around the other way, not obviously up the steps right in front of him. A few times she nearly made it, but he caught her every time. It goes without saying that I was rooting for the chicken. It also seemed to me that the accountant was just distracting himself unnecessarily because clearly she wasn’t going to give up. This was one tenacious chicken.

The stalemate lasted for more than an hour. I recorded it as a play by play in the letter I was writing. The chicken did not accept defeat and join her sister chickens in the garden. She wanted her seat back, and she would not be refused.

Finally, the accountant got up and left—not for long, but long enough for the chicken to get back to her chair. I swear she looked around to make sure the coast was clear. I like to think he left as a means of conceding defeat. When he came back, he resumed his seat, the chicken had resumed hers, and we all sat there quietly for the rest of the afternoon. The accountant, I will add, left before the chicken, who stayed until it got dark, secure in her victory.

I don’t know if this means more about tenacity of chickens or the vagaries of memory, but I no longer remember the name of the hotel or even, really, what else I did in those few days in Bangalore. But ask me about the chicken, and I can tell you a story.

*Enormous thanks to my colleague, Nancy Eckert, chicken owner and chicken artist extraordinaire, for today's illustration!

**The Blogger Outage of 5/12-13 wiped out this post and the comments. I've re-posted it in case blogger isn't able to restore it. Very frustrating.

Morning Song: Poems for New Parents

The timing could not have been better. One day, I received a slew of photos from my cousin Tim of his brand new baby, Adam. The next day came an email from Emily, announcing that the poetry anthology her mom had co-edited, Morning Song: Poems for New Parents, was about to be published.

Morning Song began as a handmade book for Emily on Tommy's birth, now nearly 9 years ago! It is now a gorgeous hardcover filled with wonderful poems. I sent my friend Beth to the book's website, and after reading the selection of poems included there, she said, "They should market this as a book for all parents, not just new parents." Later that same day, I saw Susan Todd at a reception and told her this. She smiled and said, "I think of it as a book for anyone who's ever been born."

The book is really lovely and has a wide array of poems from poets ancient to contemporary. There's also an audio version, with a number of the poems read by Richard Wilbur (who recently turned 90!) and other poets as well. If you're in the Pioneer Valley and have no plans for tonight, there's a reading at Forbes Library at 7:00 p.m. with many of the local poets included in the book.

Here's one brief poem from the book, one that made Alex and me laugh when I read it to him:

The Video

When Laura was born, Ceri watched.
They all gathered around Mum’s bed —
Dad and the midwife and Mum’s sister
and Ceri. "Move over a bit," Dad said —
he was trying to focus the camcorder
on Mum's legs and the baby's head.

After she had a little sister,
and Mum had gone back to being thin,
and was twice as busy, Ceri played
the video again and again.
She watched Laura come out, and then,
in reverse, she made her go back in.

Fleur Adcock

Haikus of the Day

Today is the second blogathon theme day--Haiku Day! Unfortunately, I missed last week's theme day, but it's always fun to do haikus. (And it's nice to have a shorter than usual post to do on a busy day.)

As I did last year, I've written two garden-related haikus. My first is, in fact, a sequel to one of last year's haikus. It seems fitting to put them together under one title:

The Neighbor's Cat Visits my Garden

i.

The cat from next door
has napped on my baby greens.
Leaves crushed into soil.

ii.
I have moved the greens
to a new bed in the shade.
Please, cat, stay away!

And the second, perhaps a common sentiment this month:

The lawn is awash
with violets and clover;
I don't want to mow.

More poetry tomorrow, though not of the haiku persuasion.

Meatless Monday: Smoky Minestrone with Cheese Tortellini and Parsley Pesto

I love soup. I've often spoken on this blog of my love for Deborah Madison, soup genius, but I will take good soup wherever I can find it. This particular soup I found on Food 52. Food 52 is the new-ish food site created by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. When I first explored it, soon after it was created, I was a bit overwhelmed. There were contests to enter, recipes to test, prizes to be won. Not that I am opposed to any of those things--it just seemed a bit more involved than I was prepared for. Now, a year and more later, Food 52 is still all of those things--but it's also a source of really great recipes. All of those recipes that were entered in contests and tested by numerous readers and awarded prizes--they're all there. My explorations have been somewhat limited so far (there are a lot of recipes), but there's no question that this recipe, which was an Editor's Pick, is a winner. I read the recipe and it looked good, but I got even more intrigued as I started reading through the comments and saw one person after another saying, "This is the best soup I've ever had." Of course I had to give it a go.

The original recipe, submitted by WinnieAb, called for bacon to create the smoky flavor. I eliminated the bacon and added a teaspoon of smoked paprika to similar smoky (though not bacon-y) effect. I also used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. What is lovely about this soup is that it is mostly vegetables . . .

and more vegetables . . .

and yet the soup doesn't taste abstemious in the least, thanks to the cheese tortellini and the lovely dollop of parsley pesto on top.

A few notes: Don't skip the parsley pesto! It adds a nice jolt of flavor to the soup. While I like the idea of hand-chopping pesto in theory, I like the ease of my mini-chopper more. I started with the parsley, then added the garlic, oil, pine nuts and finally cheese. It took just a few minutes and tasted delicious.

This is a generous recipe and makes a good 6-8 bowls. If you think you're not going to eat it all and would like to freeze some of it, then cook the tortellini separately and add as needed. Once the tortellini are in the soup, they continue to suck up broth, so your leftovers will be more stew-like than soup-like. They are still delicious--just perhaps not as photogenic.

I've now made this soup twice since I discovered the recipe just a month or so ago. And all of those comments about how good it is were totally spot on. I'm always hesitant to name something "the best soup ever," but even without that superlative, this is really delicious soup and absolutely worth having in your dinner rotation, whether it's a Meatless Monday or not.

Smoky Minestrone with Cheese Tortellini and Parsley Pesto

Adapted from WinnieAb's recipe on Food 52

Serves 6-8

Soup:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 leek, trimmed and sliced thinly
• 1 tsp. smoked paprika
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1 potato, peeled and chopped
  
• 1 quart of vegetable stock, homemade or not
  
• 1 15 oz. can of cooked chickpeas, preferably organic
• 1 28 oz. can of peeled San Marzano tomatoes, with juice
• salt, to taste
• 1 cup kale or Swiss chard, chopped fine
• 1 9-ounce package of high quality, all-natural cheese tortellini
• Grated Parmesan cheese for garnish-- optional but recommended

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Ask a question about this step.
2. Add the chopped onion, garlic and leek. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until softened. Add the smoked paprika and cook another few minutes. Ask a question about this step.
3. Add the chopped carrot, celery, zucchini, potato and stir around for a minute or two. Ask a question about this step.
4. Add the stock, the chickpeas, and then the tomatoes, crushing them with your hands as you go. (You can also puree them, depending on your feelings about tomato pieces in your soup.) Add a few generous pinches of salt (be judicious if your stock is salted already). Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30-40 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender. Ask a question about this step.
5. Add the kale or chard and the tortellini, and continue to cook over a simmer until both are tender and cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Serve garnished with a spoonful of the pesto, a few drops of aged balsamic (if desired), and a generous sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese. Ask a question about this step.

Parsley or Basil Pesto:

• 1 cup loosely packed basil or parsley
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon olive

1. Chop, chop, and chop the basil or parsley some more by hand until it's very fine...when you do this, you'll reduce it down to about 1/4 cup. You can also do this step in a mini chopper. Ask a question about this step.
2. As you chop the parsley/basil, start to incorporate the other ingredients and chop them fine, too, until you have a lovely, finely chopped pesto. Ask a question about this step.
3. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in the olive oil. Use as a garnish for the minestrone.
   
4. Note: I did this whole thing in the mini-chopper, and it came out nicely. So, whatever is easier for you.
   

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

On Friday night, Kim Boyce won the James Beard award for Best Baking and Dessert cookbook for Good to the Grain, her cookbook on baking with whole grains. Boyce is a former pastry chef as well as the mother of small children, and her interest is not just in making things healthier but in taking advantage of the different flavors and properties of different whole grains. Her book has chapters on oats, corn and whole wheat but also on spelt, amaranth and teff, to name a few. (I've never baked with teff, but it's used in the Ethiopian bread called injera.)

Despite their use of whole grains, these are not lo-cal, low sugar or low fat recipes. Boyce was, after all, a pastry chef. But they are thoughtful recipes and almost always delicious. I've made three or four things from the book already (and have several others bookmarked), but the one recipe I've returned to multiple times is her whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe. While chocolate chip cookies (much as I like them) are not usually my standby cookie recipe (that would be one kind or another of oatmeal), this recipe might challenge that--or, if I'm honest, is challenging it already, given how many times I've made these in the past few months.

I've made a few changes to Boyce's original recipe. One is that I cut it in half. The original recipe--2 sticks of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 8 ounces of chocolate and all--makes 20 large cookies. As a person who likes to eat cookies and also doesn't want to later regret eating said cookies, I prefer to make smaller cookies. My half recipe makes about 30 small cookies, ones you can eat (relatively) without guilt. The other thing I did in this version was to replace 2 tablespoons of butter with peanut butter. This was less for health reasons than that it seemed like a slight peanut undertone might go well with these, and it does. (If you skip the peanut butter, use a full stick of butter.) I followed Molly's advice and used white whole wheat flour and would recommend that, though regular whole wheat flour makes good cookies as well. I also opted for a chocolate bar broken up and put in the mini-chopper over chocolate chips. It gives you some chocolate dust as well as chips and integrates itself into the batter nicely.

One other thing to note--these cookies seem to gain flavor with time. They also freeze very well. It makes a person feel better about everything to know that there's a Ziploc bag of delicious cookies in the freezer, ready for when unexpected guests arrive or just for when the day calls for a cookie or two. There's no reason to hide the fact that these are made with whole grains, but if you don't tell, I'm not sure anyone would guess. But whether you disclose the ingredients or not, whether you add the peanut butter or not, whether you make large cookies or small ones, I hope you will agree that not only is Kim Boyce a winner, but these cookies absolutely are as well.

Happy Mother's Day and enjoy!

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups white whole-wheat flour, plus more for the work surface
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
  
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into 1/4- and 1/2-inch pieces

Directions:

Position oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl, adding any large bits of grain or other ingredients that remain in the sifter.

Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer; beat on low speed for about 2 minutes, until just blended. Add the peanut butter and blend until combined. Add the egg, then the vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture and beat until barely combined. Stop to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the chocolate, and beat on low speed just until evenly distributed.

Lightly flour a work surface. Transfer the dough to the work surface and use your hands to fully incorporate any remaining flour or chocolate from the bowl.

Scoop small mounds of the dough onto each baking sheet, spacing them several inches apart. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through. . Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool before serving or storing.

Repeat to use the remaining dough.

Approx. 30 small cookies