"Why had God created man's face so that he might not see it himself? ...But then ones face was for others to see. Did it not resemble love?"

-- "The Moon on the Water," Yasunari Kawabata

Underneath a cold Saturday evening, the campus hummed with the weekend night life: some snuggled up in dorms for a movie, others gathered in the student union for coffee and a casual acoustic concert; some socialized over clinking dishes and food. But in a cocoon of warm light scented with tea and cookies, I sat in a chair, waiting for an author to weave his tale of something so particular and different from my own world, something I had only known through books, chapter by chapter. We met in a small pocket of the thicket garments of campus, cast aside but not forgotten: an elderly local couple, three professors, the author’s wife, two old friends of the author, and a handful of students.
It was here that the author of the book Navajos Wear Nikes, Jim Kristofic, spilled out his story: personal experiences from the reservation within an autobiographical frame, sprinkled with Navajo folk stories.

Why do we have stories? Folktales? He began by asking this question. Folktales are used to explain strange things. We believe in strange things everyday: for example, time. There is no such thing as a second, a minute, an hour – we made it up. We have calendars and watches to back us up.

He told stories of Skinwalkers, Coyote the trickster, his Navajo culture class he had to take, the Navajo creation story (insect world to the swallow world to the glittering world), stories of his childhood when he would get in fights or play basketball, learning that physical toughening (violence, running) was essential growing up and maturing. He told the stories organically, beginning with the day they moved to the reservation and finishing around college when he went away from the reservation after living on it for so long. It was a fluid, immediate wash of stories in which he imitated sounds like a creaking door or a blowing wind and embedded Navajo phrases and dialogue between characters. He used a piece of string tied to itself and made figures with it like cat’s cradle. He talked in present tense and second person so the listener because the experiencer of some wild ride. He nested stories within stories as well. The time he and his friend ran out of a wash (a small canyon), thinking they saw a ghost, perhaps a Skinwalker, he inserted another story of a time when his mother had found a dog with bloodied lips from encountering a wraith. "This story is going through my mind as we’re sitting there, with the door closed, heart pounding…"

Once when he was playing basketball, sweat pouring, and he falls down. An elder picks him up and there he inserted a story about the hands that picked him up – "hands that could so skillfully and flawlessly paint a figurine could firmly lift a boy out of a dusty, sweaty court."

When I walked out into the cold night, I took the long way back to my dorm. I was very glad I went to the presentation. Yet at the same time I found it quite displacing. Made me feel small too. I realized how far away Native American culture was from what I knew despite how much I read. Naturally any book’s account doesn’t match an eyewitness full sensory experience and times have changed. I don’t know what it’s like to live on a reservation… except I know a little more now than I did. Such a particular thing, very beyond and outside of my realm of experience.

I think these feelings are good, though. Cognitive dissonance, exposure to a new culture… all of that is good. Especially in a healthy way. And so I won’t disparage. I can’t anyways. I have a lot of respect of the Native American culture and I appreciate their oral tradition and their stories and folktales. I wish I could know more of them and their stories. I am very interested in oral culture especially in this culture where orality and the art of storytelling has been changed, a lot of it lost, to words on a page (not to disparage that either) or a screen for more modern relevance. Language is primarily oral. Language is the medium that people both then and now have given, cherished, and passed on stories, the carrier of culture and heritage, the space for community and relating. I hope the Navajos keep their tradition going on, keeping their wisdom and legacy alive with story after story.

 Rainy and cold. Pieces of fire dot the sidewalk. I want to go camping.

This morning I stopped by a meeting in the lobby in my residence building. They had fresh muffins and tea. Can’t beat that.

Their topic was international missions. I had a lot of work planning for that precious Saturday (reading, mostly) but I wanted to know more. So I asked Bekah, the representative for the missions organization, for a nutshell of what they do.

She unfolded a brochure with a DVD and read the mission statement. Opened another flap and read the four main actions their company does … partner with other organizations, church planting… oh, and watch the DVD.

Nice.

But dissatisfying. I don’t want the brochure, the disc, the other literature. I don’t want another sign-up interest card to fill out and hand in. I just want your words – nothing more than a few but nothing less than passion, experience. Infect me with it. Tell me what the missions do, what you’ve done, where you’ve gone, what you’ve seen. Not about your organization, its structure. As a student I have already eaten enough of that. 

The branches keep sprinkling promises of October all over the shivering ground.

 

I'm not much of a food blogger -- you can tell just by the pictures you're about to see. But I have fun cookin' and bakin' up wholesomely delicious food and sharing it with people (or just eating it myself). I've accumulated a plethora of pictures for this entry. I don't like taking pictures of food -- I'm not a photographer and my pictures look tacky but on the other hand I take them to (a) remember the recipes I did for future reference and (b) share them with you! :)

So here it goes.

Sunflower Muffins. These guys came out of a fluke when I tried to make my own sunflower seed butter. I didn't roast the raw seeds first so the butter didn't taste or look quite right. But it made dense, moist muffins. Pretty good for a fluke ;) I saved the modified recipe I used so do ask for it if you please!

 

Individual homemade Pizza. Added asparagus, home grown tomato paste (reduce tomatoes in medium heated pan with olive oil, salt and pepper), mozzarella, spinach, yellow peppers, garlic + herb boursin on top of whole wheat pizza dough. There might also be some fresh basil leaves on there too.  

Oats in a Jar -- a classic KathEats recipe with my own toppings -- pecans, granola, oats, cinnamon, spot of extra milk, cranberries all ontop of a jar of oats and milk and granola left in the 'fridge overnight.  Yay for TJ's!! (Trader Joes.)

Good ol' omelet of protein and vegetables! First chop some bright, happy vegetables (or maybe not so happy because they get to meet Master Knife.)

Then sautee them in a lil' skillet (which is also my favorite band) with some olive oil and some sel et povoire.

Meanwhile mix up two eggs and a spot of milk (add fresh herbs here like thyme or basil) and pour it in another buttered pan (depending on how thick/thin you want it -- bigger pan = thinner omelet).

When eggs are pretty cooked through [clicky here for more on that] add feta on half of the circle then add your sauteed vegetables. Wait for the cheese to melt, flick off the heat, flip over the bare side of the omelet, slide onto plate and voila!

Tilapia poached in green tea with sauteed spinach and pecans on the side. Inspiration here and here.

Tasting? Earthy, woody, warm green notes.

Oeufs en cocette. Recipe on this wonderfully lovely new favorite blog :)

Sauteed white beans (1/2 can) with olive oil and of course salt and pep. Spinach and strips of asparagus with beans on whole wheat bread. Inspiration here on the Sandwich Make Over video.

Delicious and savory and healthy!! Homegrown asparagus is lovely.

Walnut Olive Oil Cake topped with vanilla yogurt. Found in this book.

 

White bean soup. Used this recipe, added carrots, and from out garden: lots of leeks + fresh oregano! Such amazing simple flavors. Topped with parmesan cheese. Used chicken stock (Better Than Boullion) instead of vegetable stock. I will certainly make this again.

 

Spiced old world scones with oven dried blueberries -- used toaster oven to dry blueberries. Inspiration there  and yonder.

Blueberries decided to have a party and make art while they hung out in their sauna.

Flax crepes filled with ricotta cheese, honey and poppy seeds. (Just added whole flax seeds to crepe recipe. I didn't have chesnut flour -- bummer, see here, but  all purpose with some whole wheat worked just finely.) Creamy, warm and sweet.

Tribute Cake from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet. AMAZING. Made it with my lil younger sis. :) Sorry about the blurriness. Icing is chocolate and butter -- so glossy! Middle and top filling is whipped chocolate ganache made with heavy cream. Cocoa is used for the cake -- the actual chopped dark chocolate is used for the ganache and chocolate glaze (about a pound of chocolate needed... we used TJ's Pound Plus dark chocolate ... 72% cocoa). We poured the glaze on the cake, let sit for a bit then with a knife, drew up the drizzles and puddles of glaze back onto the sides of the cake. Not that professional but it worked for us. We didn't have time to do all the cooling that Alice required in the recipe but our improvise was nonetheless deilcious! Also, we didn't have 3 cake pans so we just did two thicker layers rather than 3 thin. A lot of work but ... so worth it. Now if only my birthday came every month... *sigh*

Whipping together chocolate with forming cake batter. So fluffy and delicate. Halfed the sugar which helped a lot! Less sugar, more chocolate is our motto. (Nowadays there is often too much sugar in store bought desserts. Laaame.)

Bruschetta made with a TJ English muffin, toasted, smeared with herbs + garlic boursin, topped with chopped beefsteak tomatoes from the garden, dollop of TJ's bruschetta tomato spread and fresh basil.

Cream scone with dark chocolate chunks from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet (see Tribute Cake above for link). With fur on the side: Nellie, my lil sis's dog, whizzed by when I took this picture.

I figured out a way to make a single scone recipe by 1/8-ing Alice's recipe. Sounds crazy, right? It worked just great! Threw it in the toaster oven with a scrap of parchment paper and BAM. Revolutionized my scone making. (Normally I'm the scone lover of my family so I don't get much help on eating the scones I make. Plus my mom doesn't like baking in the summer because it heats the kitchen so I made a way to make everyone happy. I get my scone and the kitchen stays cool save for the toaster oven.)

Others I made but didn't take pictures:

http://www.wholeliving.com/recipe/egg-kale-and-ricotta-on-toast [used spinach instead of kale]

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2002/03/vanilla-scented_granola One of the best granolas I've ever had! That's sayin' a lot. Eliminated white sugar and only put in a little more than 1/4 c. light brown sugar. Delicately sweetened, clustery granola!

http://www.veganreader.com/2009/09/12/almond-milk-recipe-the-creamiest-of-them-all/ Yay for almonds!! They are my favorite nut so I've found this summer. I used my cleaned, empty almond butter jar to store the milk. Very cool 8)

I'm sure there were more. If I think of them I'll make a Part II post... which will probably be much shorter than this one. Thanks for stopping by and enjoying this feast of summer! :) Happy baking and cooking.

 

My barefeet brush against the grass, crushing fallen poplar leaves in their wake. The leaves throw up scents of autumn. School is coming very soon, summer is taking her last frolicks in the wind and earth, a slow fade until the year turns again. Such a strange union forms with the dry (sometimes wet) sweet summers and the earthy, crunchy autumn as the two meet, joining hands for just a short while.

I suppose I'm in this sort of suspension: between summer and fall. I don't want to go back to college. And yet in the quiet hours I've spent in bed before falling asleep, trying to mentally prepare and calm myself for another semester away, I can't help but look back.



So many things are changing this year. My older little sister is away now in college. Nine and a half hours away. (My mom and I returned home yesterday after dropping her off.) I miss her a lot. The house is so empty, especially her room. She will never return the same. Things will never be the same. My younger little sister will be the last one standing as my big brother, my sister and I are all away in college. She's already started school, entering her sophomore year.

Sometimes even in the silence and stillness, in the aloneness of my mind, I'm still racked with all that must change. There is beauty in change like there are in the seasons, but there is always something lost, never to be found, only remembered in dreams and memory. On the other side of the mountain, there is something gained.

Whatever it is that will be gained this year, I'm standing and waiting for the first step on the journey to find it. As for you, my friend, what changes are happening in your life now?

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth
seeking the successive autumns."
- George Eliot