Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
New Year's
by Dana Gioia
Let other mornings honor the miraculous.
Eternity has festivals enough.
This is the feast of our mortality,
The most mundane and human holiday.
On other days we misinterpret time,
Pretending that we live the present moment.
But can this blur, this smudgy in-between,
This tiny fissure where the future drips
Into the past, this flyspeck we call now
Be our true habitat? The present is
The leaky palm of water that we skim
From the swift, silent river slipping by.
The new year always brings us what we want
Simply by bringing us along—to see
A calendar with every day uncrossed,
A field of snow without a single footprint.
Let other mornings honor the miraculous.
Eternity has festivals enough.
This is the feast of our mortality,
The most mundane and human holiday.
On other days we misinterpret time,
Pretending that we live the present moment.
But can this blur, this smudgy in-between,
This tiny fissure where the future drips
Into the past, this flyspeck we call now
Be our true habitat? The present is
The leaky palm of water that we skim
From the swift, silent river slipping by.
The new year always brings us what we want
Simply by bringing us along—to see
A calendar with every day uncrossed,
A field of snow without a single footprint.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Friday, February 14, 2014
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Lincoln
by David Shumate
If it weren't for the photographs, you might think Aeschylus or
Euripides had made him up. Or that he was one of those biblical
fellows tormented to the brink of what a soul can bear. But there
he stands. Long black coat. Tall hat. Half a beard. Droopy eyes. Ears
large enough to serve several men. Like the offspring of a midwife
and a coroner. A tree impersonating a man. Alongside him, his
generals seem daunted. Anxious for the day they too will grow
into men. Then there's that odd mix of joy and sorrow etched
across his face. As when a joke hits a little too close to home. Given
all that's gone on—Gettysburg, Antietam, both Bull Runs, four
long years of war, more than half a million dead, a wife moaning
on the balconies, a child in the grave—Given all that ... why hasn't
his hair turned pure white?
If it weren't for the photographs, you might think Aeschylus or
Euripides had made him up. Or that he was one of those biblical
fellows tormented to the brink of what a soul can bear. But there
he stands. Long black coat. Tall hat. Half a beard. Droopy eyes. Ears
large enough to serve several men. Like the offspring of a midwife
and a coroner. A tree impersonating a man. Alongside him, his
generals seem daunted. Anxious for the day they too will grow
into men. Then there's that odd mix of joy and sorrow etched
across his face. As when a joke hits a little too close to home. Given
all that's gone on—Gettysburg, Antietam, both Bull Runs, four
long years of war, more than half a million dead, a wife moaning
on the balconies, a child in the grave—Given all that ... why hasn't
his hair turned pure white?
Monday, January 20, 2014
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Jingle Bell Rock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_23xi9ck10&feature=share&list=UU9PEibgWOqZ-1I1JdxRmr6g
Monday, November 4, 2013
Thanksgiving Recipes
As you probably do, every year I watch for new recipes to try and try to improve on old tried-and true ones.
Here are my favorite recipes for cranberries, sweet potatoes and, of course, TURKEY!
Cranberries
Sweet Potatoes
The Turkey is my personal recipe that I have been improving on over the years. Yes, there is a lot of turning involved but you will thank me!
1 whole turkey neck and gibblets removed
2 cups kosher salt
3 tablespoons garlic minced
1 tablespoon black pepper
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 large onions yellow, chopped
4 carrots peeled and chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 bottle white wine
2 cups butter melted
4 tablespoons onion powder (optional)
- rinse turkey, rub inside and out with kosher salt (use whatever amount is needed) place turkey in a large stock pot and add enough water to cover turkey 3/4 of the way
- place garlic, pepper and brown sugar in a sauce pan with 4 cups water and boil until sugar is dissolved. Add ice to cool mixture.
- Add worcestershire to mixture and pour over turkey. Add enough water to submerge the turkey and refrigerate overnight (12 hours)
- preheat oven to 350
- rinse turkey and discard the brine mixture
- stuff turkey with 1/2 the onions, 1/2 the carrots, 1/2 the celery, 1/2 the thyme and the bay leaf
- scatter remaining vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan and pour in 1/3 of the white wine
- place turkey breast-side down on roasting rack and coat with 1/2 the melted butter (dust 1/2 the onion powder if desired)
- roast uncovered 3-3 1/2 hours (for an 8-10 pound turkey) until internal temperature of thigh is 180
- baste every 45 minutes or so
*2/3 of the way through the cooking process, turn turkey breast-side up (use two clean oven mitts to handle the turkey) and coat with the remaining butter and onion powder - continue cooking
- once done, remove from oven, turn turkey breast-side down on roasting rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes
- turn turkey breast-side up for serving
Carve!
Here are my favorite recipes for cranberries, sweet potatoes and, of course, TURKEY!
Cranberries
Sweet Potatoes
The Turkey is my personal recipe that I have been improving on over the years. Yes, there is a lot of turning involved but you will thank me!
1 whole turkey neck and gibblets removed
2 cups kosher salt
3 tablespoons garlic minced
1 tablespoon black pepper
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 large onions yellow, chopped
4 carrots peeled and chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 bottle white wine
2 cups butter melted
4 tablespoons onion powder (optional)
- rinse turkey, rub inside and out with kosher salt (use whatever amount is needed) place turkey in a large stock pot and add enough water to cover turkey 3/4 of the way
- place garlic, pepper and brown sugar in a sauce pan with 4 cups water and boil until sugar is dissolved. Add ice to cool mixture.
- Add worcestershire to mixture and pour over turkey. Add enough water to submerge the turkey and refrigerate overnight (12 hours)
- preheat oven to 350
- rinse turkey and discard the brine mixture
- stuff turkey with 1/2 the onions, 1/2 the carrots, 1/2 the celery, 1/2 the thyme and the bay leaf
- scatter remaining vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan and pour in 1/3 of the white wine
- place turkey breast-side down on roasting rack and coat with 1/2 the melted butter (dust 1/2 the onion powder if desired)
- roast uncovered 3-3 1/2 hours (for an 8-10 pound turkey) until internal temperature of thigh is 180
- baste every 45 minutes or so
*2/3 of the way through the cooking process, turn turkey breast-side up (use two clean oven mitts to handle the turkey) and coat with the remaining butter and onion powder - continue cooking
- once done, remove from oven, turn turkey breast-side down on roasting rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes
- turn turkey breast-side up for serving
Carve!
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Quote of the Day
"Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best gift, To that of life and an immortal soul!"
- James Thomson
- James Thomson
Quote of the Day
"We, and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees"
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
At the Vietnam Memorial
by George Bilgere
The last time I saw the name Paul Castle
it was printed in gold on the wall
above the showers in the boys'
locker room, next to the school
record for the mile. I don't recall
his time, but the year was 1968
and I can look across the infield
of memory to see him on the track,
legs flashing, body bending slightly
beyond the pack of runners at his back.
He couldn't spare a word for me,
two years younger, junior varsity,
and hardly worth the waste of breath.
He owned the hallways, a cool blonde
at his side, and aimed his interests
further down the line than we could guess.
Now, reading the name again,
I see us standing in the showers,
naked kids beneath his larger,
comprehensive force—the ones who trail
obscurely, in the wake of the swift,
like my shadow on this gleaming wall.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds
by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Actual Super Bowl Sunday Conversation
(Standing outside of church with a doughnut in one hand and a cuppa joe in the other)
Me: I goota scoot. I need to get home and make a batch of guacamole for the Super bowl party.
Friend #1: You? You're watching the Super Bowl?
Me: HEY! I'll have you know that I LOVE the Super Bowl.
Friend #2: You probably just love it because of the commercials.
Me: That's not true! I also love the national anthem and the delicious snack foods.
Friend #2: Do you even know who is playing?
Me: The 49ers
Friend #1: Aaaaand??????
Me: I have no idea.
Friend #1: The Ravens
Me: Never heard of them
Friend #2: They are named after Edger Alle . . . .
Me: Pleeeeeaaaase. As If I give a sh#t. I gotta bounce. The guacamole isn't going to make itself.
http://youtu.be/prhHI0lJenY
Let me know when the commercials are on, I will be over here minding the chips and dips . . . .
Me: I goota scoot. I need to get home and make a batch of guacamole for the Super bowl party.
Friend #1: You? You're watching the Super Bowl?
Me: HEY! I'll have you know that I LOVE the Super Bowl.
Friend #2: You probably just love it because of the commercials.
Me: That's not true! I also love the national anthem and the delicious snack foods.
Friend #2: Do you even know who is playing?
Me: The 49ers
Friend #1: Aaaaand??????
Me: I have no idea.
Friend #1: The Ravens
Me: Never heard of them
Friend #2: They are named after Edger Alle . . . .
Me: Pleeeeeaaaase. As If I give a sh#t. I gotta bounce. The guacamole isn't going to make itself.
http://youtu.be/prhHI0lJenY
Let me know when the commercials are on, I will be over here minding the chips and dips . . . .
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