The View Up Here

Thanksgiving is next week! What the... how did that happen? It seems like I was just in Giselle's garden in Salt Lake City, picking cosmos for the living room table, and cherry tomatoes and basil to make a batch of The Sauce. This year has been big for me - paying off credit card debt, getting new (bifocal) glasses and two root canals, moving from Utah to New York, and of course being granted a way to handle the student loan debt when I find the right community to enter. I also had my heart broken over two Carmels that didn't end up working out (it's okay! better things were on the way), only to be introduced to St. Clare and a deepening awareness of my own Franciscan/Clarian charism, leading up to my live-in with a Poor Clare monastic community in Massachusetts in January, 2016. I am humbled by all of this incredible grace. Can I just empty this thing and crawl inside until Jan. 2? And now we're all looking at the calendar, realizing that Thanksgiving is ...

We'll be having apple crumble for dessert, since the Dutch apple pie hit the deck on the way out of the oven. Coulda been worse - coulda landed upside-down, in which case there'd be nothing for dessert (except homemade pizzelles and not-homemade Milano cookies). At least I haven't dropped the lasagna (yet).

Aldi vs Wegmans 1. The first Aldi was opened in Southeastern Iowa in 1976 and has since spread all over the U.S. Wegmans is family-owned, started by Danny Wegman of Rochester, NY in 1916 as a local chain which has spread beyond New York State to include six states, most recently Massachusetts. 2. Aldi's prices are very cheap, being a bargain grocery store, but with better selection than you'd imagine. Their imported chocolates, for example, are pretty damned impressive. So is their cheese offering (it's not just orange American slices and string cheese). At the holidays, Aldi adds things like goat cheese to their selection. You often have to carefully examine what's on the shelves and stacked in the boxes. It ain't a luxury shopping experience. Wegmans is really fucking expensive. They have everything, though, plus all the extras like recipes, samplings and tastings, and services such as dry cleaning, catering, a pharmacy and a florist on site. 3. Aldi's carts ...

My grandmother's name was Archangelena, but everyone either called her Lena or Cambio. Her sauce was indescribable. She taught my mom how to make it, and Mom, despite being Irish, made one helluva sauce, too. Mine isn't as good as Lena's; there was some kind of Gramma Magic involved with hers.* But still, it's a damned good way to spend a Sunday afternoon with friends and family. I've written this with the absolute beginner in the kitchen in mind, so for those of you more advanced cooks, please ignore the extra descriptions. This makes 2-4 servings, depending upon who's eating and how many young bachelors are at the table. YOU WILL NEED: A wine glass, a sharp knife, a blender, a large pot for the sauce , a huge-ass pot for the pasta, a strainer, and a spatter shield and huge-ass serving dish (both optional). You will also need implements for stirring and tasting. INGREDIENTS: 4-5 roma tomatoes (Romas are the sort of oblong tomatoes, rather than the fat and ro...

Lately I've been paying attention to dreams, and by that I don't mean lifelong aspirations and goals (although I've certainly been paying more attention to those, too, but that's another post). Rather, I mean the wanderings of the mind in the depths of sleep where the subconscious rules and the conscious mind takes a back seat. I used to keep a dream journal a few years ago, but eventually stopped for one reason or another. I found that notebook about a month ago, and decided it was time to get back to that practice. Right after the last full moon, I began having very detailed, even narrative dreams. At least one of them has a screenplay in the making, I'm sure of it. I also began having dreams driven by that part of me that might be termed "intuition" or "Higher Self" or maybe even my "Spirit Guide." Whatever. One of these intuitive dreams was rather gruesome and had to do with chickens and ovens. That's all I'll say, because...