P. I. E. An Essay-Making Acronym

Follow this formula, especially when you're stuck. Do it for every paragraph.

P  - Make A Point

I - Provide an Illustration

E - Elaborate

I didn't make it up.  : ) More soon.

Paolo Antonio Barbieri - The Spice Shop, 1637

"The Spice Shop" by Paolo Antonio Barbieri
Oil on canvas

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Visit the Pinacoteca Comunale in Spoleto, Italy to see the painting up close. 

**Tonight, I think we deserve to look at something beautiful after the bombing in Boston, and the factory explosion earlier this week.

Progress

And they are marrying­...

It seems the limp, narrative poetry I penned in earnest all those years is slowly breathing life into my fragmented prose, flying it like bright, birthstone kites, waving it like a valliant flag, making fast soldiers of what for eons lay dead and charred on the railway.

-MDB

Pondering Life Choices Through Dessert

A few weeks ago, I had a fabulous trip to San Antonio, Texas, which Mark Twain declared one of the four unique cities in the United States. Since I've lived in the first two cities and within a two-hour's drive of the third, I think a move to San Antonio is on the table.

It offers the chance to live in a more affordable southern city near both my mother and another key person in my life. But until I make the physical move (I've got another year of grad school), I will ponder how the River City provoked me through food. For now, here are the pictures.

I purchased the small cinnamon roll from Los Cocos Bakery and ate it right away. It was delicious and is definitely meant for one. As it write this, I observe how nicely it fits on the small dish with the black and white leaf design. 

This next dessert amazed me. A classmate had told me about the cinnamon rolls from Lulu's Bakery and Cafe but I was astounded when I finally saw one. It weighs three pounds and is wider than most infants! I was only in San Antonio for a few days, so I couldn't bring myself to dig into it. It needs to be shared with several people so I've frozen it. I like the way it looks wrapped up for later. 

I've decided that appropriate names for these desserts are the Western Cinnamon Roll and the Southern Cinnamon Roll. They look good together, I think.  

–MDB

A Shockingly Modern 600-Year-Old Poem, by Hafiz

Sharing this timeless poem, published most recently in Harper's. Not only is Mookie's Food Odyssey about food, it's also a way to demonstrate my commitment to reading and thinking about the written word, so that shortly after I'm finished with school I can get a related job, thereby feeding myself, thereby filling my soul. 

I'm delighted to now know Hafiz's work, copied below. Writers and scholars, I think, often worry that the works closest to their own hearts will degrade in meaning over time. Hafiz can rest assured we get him here, as if wrote yesterday and not over 600 years ago. 

===

Untitled Poem
by Hafiz (Persian, c. 1320-89)

All I want to do
is get drunk with my wife

An endless glass of wine
both of us on the floor

So what if squares
Look down on us?

Boring and misguided
are their miserable lives

When my wife is in the city
and I'm home
I want to cry

The moonlight
on the cypress tree
is a bitter light

No book has ever kissed me
like she does

Central Valley Meat Co. and School Lunches

North Bay Cow

I saw this cow a few years ago while hiking with friends.
If you live in California you may already know about the elitism: many San Franciscans–and North-Bay dwellers as well, thumb their noses at the much muggier Central Valley where this cow, I might add, was lucky not to live.

I missed last summer's Huffington Post story on the closure and re-opening of Central Valley Meat Company after its employees were caught on video abusing dairy cows. Clients CostCo, McDonalds and In-N-Out Burger suspended or cancelled their contracts.

Perhaps the most important purchaser of meat from this company was the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), which later renewed its contract.

The plant's temporary closure affected some 450 people, a small number compared to the nation's fast-food patronage and consumers of NSLP.

***
An equally provocative story: At the start of the school year at Moss Bluff Elementary in Lake Charles, Louisiana, school administration announced a plan to expedite the lunch line by scanning student's palms. The school of over 1,000 students had had some complaints about student's being charged but not eating lunch. The scanner would act as proof either way and was entirely optional.

Some parents called it the mark of the devil, so I'm not sure where things stand.

So That Your Coffee Will Remind You of New Orleans

I've normally gone straight to the source for my coffee with chicory (CDM and Cafe Du Monde are good brands) but I figured it might be nice to manually combine the two things at home.

Here are a few fun facts about chicory, which may or not be news to you:
*It's a perennial plant that's been grown for centuries
*Cultivated much like sugar beets; also used in salads
*Caffeine-free
*Economical–let's you brew half the normal amount of coffee
*Imbues coffee with a mellowness and accentuates the aroma

How to Add Chicory to Coffee 
-from ehow.com

Use half your usual amount of coffee grounds. For example, if you typically make 8 cups of coffee using 8 tablespoons of ground coffee, use only 4 tablespoons.

*Add the same amount of ground roasted chicory.
*Pour the full amount of water needed into the well of your coffee maker. For example, if you added 4 tablespoons of coffee and 4 tablespoons of chicory, add 8 cups water.
*Brew as usual.
==
Visit the Cajun Connection's site for chicory extract and chicory milk recipes. New Orleans Coffee delves into the history of chicory use. Interesting stuff.

Looking for chicory in San Francisco? Try Rainbow Grocery or San Francisco Herb Company. Back soon with more East Bay leads.

-MDB