three imaginary boys in orange

climbing out of the subway, i meet a girl face-to-face. hers is wide and pale, shocked by our confrontation. "it's not my fault the doors opened," i say. "they just do that." i get out, you get in. but her eyes look at me, accusatory.

later, on a quiet street, i startle a middle-aged woman deep in thought on the steps of her apartment. she is smoking a cigarette and her face registers the same level of shock as the girl on the subway. she hangs, suspended, on the other side of her frozen smoke-cloud, dangling delicately from its salty plume.

this is one of my favorite lines: "Justin's
syncope still lasted, and his eyeballs disappeared in the pale sclerotics
like blue flowers in milk."

we are people flowers. pink disappearing inside the milky snow. huzzah.


Summer-Colored Winter Slaw

1 head of kale, leaves stripped from stems and roughly chopped
1/2 head of small purple cabbage, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1 apple, cored and roughly chopped
2 tbsp apple-cider vinegar
1 tsbp olive oil

Place olive oil in pan over medium high heat. Add cabbage and apple, turn to coat.(I also added a 1/4 cup of water to the pan to help steam the cabbage down.) Cover, turn heat to medium, let cook for approximately three minutes -- until cabbage softens slightly. Uncover, add apple-cider vinegar. Stir. Add carrot and kale, let cook down until kale wilts slightly, stirring and turning the mixture steadily. (This won't take long, kale cooks very quickly).

all the world an oyster

I'm not minding this winter so much. Last year things were a little bleak, I got a little sad, etc. Not this year! Not for me. There ain't no cure for the summertime blues, but there is a very, very tried and true cure for seasonal depression: soup (or stew, in this case). The purest distillation of sweet comforts.

Oyster-Mushroom & Split Pea "Stew"

You Will Need:

1/2 pound oyster mushrooms
1 cup split peas
2-3 cups stock
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 tbs olive oil
Salt/Pepper To Taste

To Make: Warm the tablespoon of olive oil over med-high heat and then throw in the onion and mushrooms--cook them up for just a few minutes until they start to smell real good and brown at the edges. Remove from heat. Bring splits peas and stock to a boil in a large pot, then simmer. Let cook for about ten minutes, then add carrot, onion, and mushrooms. Let the whole concoction simmer while you taste and balance the flavors, add salt and pepper as you see fit. Cook, cook, cook. Eat, eat, eat.

(Ideally, this recipe would be pureed prior to adding the mushroom, but I am unfortunately lacking such equipment in my current situation.)





It's so pretty! How could I resist it?