Who Wants Pie?

I have to say, I definitely needed these last few days off. I caught up on grading & read A LOT of Dostoevsky's Demons, which I'm teaching over at CSI.

In addition to Dostoevsky, I read Farrah Field's Rising, which I'll blog on more later, but it is definitely a damn impressive book. I'm left smitten.

On Thursday, my friend Czar Hohl was sick so instead of heading to Harlem for Thanksgiving I went over to Hong-An's in Williamsburg. Her & her bf prepared the best vegetarian/vegan feast I've ever tasted.

Upon leaving it was still a nice evening so myself, Deep Disco, Sandy & her bf, Francis, decided to walk over the Williamsburg bridge. 'twas nice.

Friday, I met up with Veronica for a minute to sample her sweet potato pie & pick up a copy of her chapbook( All The Little Red Girls), which I blogged about a few days ago.

Pie & poetry are/were both stupendous.

Saturday Lila came back from upstate & we went over Czar's for a post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. More food. More drink. More wit. More fun.

Sunday Lila & I were lucky enough to catch the wonderful poet, J.Mae Barizo, doing her day job, which is a violinist at Carnegie Hall. It was a 2'oclock show so we arrived early & ate bagels in Central Park then met up with J.Mae who gave us a backstage tour. The the performance began & she, along with the rest of the orchestra, were completely enchanting.

Now it's back to Demons.

Sometimes You Just Want A Sandwich

Earlier today I was flipping through the 'wichcraft cookbook and decided to leave the park, come home, and make a sandwich. As you can see, I made two. Sadly, hardly any of the ingredients are from my CSA. The bread is Trader Joe's Tuscany bread which is quite good if toasted and perfect for hardier sandwiches.

I sauteed an onion (CSA) with sunflower seeds, olive-oil, sea-salt, pepper, and thyme(dried). Once the onions began to carmelize I added mushrooms and black olives. I poured in a little of the olive juice (for added salty-ness) and squeezed some lemon then sauteed for a little while longer.

The first sandwich has the above ingredients plus fresh mozzarella,arugula and tomatoes. For the second sandwich I switched the mozzarella for a sharp cheddar and the arugula for red-leaf lettuce (CSA).

You can make either of these sandwiches vegan by excluding the cheese or simply replace the cheese with fresh apples slices (I suggest something crisp and a bit tart like a Granny Smith or Pippen or Crispen(if in season) if you use a Crispen make sure it's on the smaller size- there's an exceptionally bad batch of over-sized Crispens right now which is a true tongue downer).

Basil King

Wow, this has felt like a long semester & since it's coming to a close, I've been spending my time grading papers & sleeping badly. Such as it is; such as it goes. So far I only have two classes for the summer so the hustle continues.

On Friday after teaching at College of Staten Island I headed over to Williamsburg to catch J.Mae Barizo's reading. Good stuff. Then I went to a going away party which also included readings by Amy Lawless & Alex Smith. Although I didn't stay out too late I still felt tired for all of Saturday. I managed to make it to the Whitney ISP, then have vegetable dumplings with friends, then head over to a belated bday party for Rich. After that I took the train over to Prospect Heights.

This morning I had a banana peanut-butter sandwich for the first time. I also had some mango. & a dark chocolate bar with mint and rosemary essence. I wandered through Chinatown & bought basil, brown beech mushrooms, garlic, an onion, & tomatoes. Tonight I'll make a pasta with cream sauce using the bought ingredients + a little bit of lemon rind. Or so I think. I actually don't feel like doing dishes. Or cooking. & then doing more dishes. Right now I'm eating salted plantain chips & trying to put off cooking until at least 9.