category: superfluous things for the kitchen...

this would fit so nicely in my kitchen. as if i have any extra countertop space...
           italian glazed antiqued salt box

tess 3.0...

recommended reading...

eat, pray, love: one woman's search for everything across italy, india, and indonesia.

so, i just finished this book, and i'm recommending it to everyone i know. especially those of the female persuasion. I NEVER buy books any more, but this one will certainly make its way into my library.

an excerpt from each section of the book...

italy
it was interesting for me to discover what i did not want to do in italy, once i'd given myself executive authorization to enjoy my experience there. there are so many manifestations of pleasure in italy, and i didn't have time to sample them all. you have to kind of declare a pleasure major here, or you'll get overwhelmed... i found that all i really wanted was to eat beautiful food and speak as much beautiful italian as possible. that was it. so i declared a double major, really - in speaking and in eating (with a concentration on gelato).

india
the other day a monk told me, "the resting place of the mind is the heart. the only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and argument, and all it wants is quietude. the only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart. that's where you need to go."

indonesia
then, yesterday, i was standing in the courtyard, saying my good-byes to ketut, and nyomo came shuffling past with her broom, sweeping and pretending not to be paying attention to everything that happens in her empire. i had my hands clasped behind my back as i was standing there, and she came up behind me and took one of my hands in hers. she fumbled through my hand like she was trying to untumble the combination on a lock and she found my index finger. then she wrapped her whole, big, hard fist around that finger and gave me this deep, long squeeze. i could feel her love pulsing through her power grip, right up into my arm and all the way down into my guts. then she dropped my hand and limped away arthritically, saying not a single word, continuing her sweeping as though nothing had happened. while i stood there quietly drowning in two rivers of happiness at the same time.

and the last paragraph of the entire book:
in the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. in the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.

handmade...

the post office has a new set of stamps featuring the quilts of gee's bend. in a word, they're stunning.

have you heard of the women of gee's bend? if not, here's an introduction from their website:

Gee’s Bend is a small rural community nestled into a curve in the Alabama River southwest of Selma, Alabama. Founded in antebellum times, it was the site of cotton plantations, primarily the lands of Joseph Gee and his relative Mark Pettway, who bought the Gee estate in 1850. After the Civil War, the freed slaves took the name Pettway, became tenant farmers for the Pettway family, and founded an all-black community nearly isolated from the surrounding world. During the Great Depression, the federal government stepped in to purchase land and homes for the community, bringing strange renown — as an "Alabama Africa" — to this sleepy hamlet.

The town’s women developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional American (and African American) quilts, but with a geometric simplicity reminiscent of Amish quilts and modern art. The women of Gee’s Bend passed their skills and aesthetic down through at least six generations to the present. In 2002, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in partnership with the nonprofit Tinwood Alliance, of Atlanta, presented an exhibition of seventy quilt masterpieces from the Bend.

tania and i saw the second exhibition of the quilts of gee's bend this summer at the museum of fine arts, houston. these works of art emerged by the hands of women who were simply working to keep their family warm by cutting up old work clothes and sewing them in to quilts. they are a living history - a testimony to the tenacity and determination of these women, raising their families in the post civil war south. and generations later, the women of gee's bend are still quilting.

never would they have imagined that their work would wind up on a stamp...

as always, NPR delivers in spectacular fashion. the women of gee's bend are profiled on this episode of all things considered...

another tale from the christian ghetto...

a gem from the piece, business gets religion, on NPR...

FaithGuard car insurance waives your deductible if you're in an accident on your way to or from a church function, or, as it happened to Pastor Jim Goforth, in an empty church parking lot.

and this isn't even the most unbelievable statement made in this article! you'll know what i'm talking about when you read the transcript, or listen to the entire story here...

everybody's got their thing...

season six of gilmore girls comes out on dvd today.

this is good news...

sugary sweet...

raise your hand if you knew that a can of del monte stewed tomatoes contains HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

this irritates the heck out of me.

how did i make this discovery, you ask? well, it's okra season, and i love me some okra. i recently ran across a couple of recipes for stewed okra and tomatoes, and picked some okra up at the farmers' market yesterday so i could whip up a batch. one of my recipe calls for canned tomatoes, and another for fresh. today i decided to try the recipe with the canned tomatoes, and as i was opening the can to dump them into the skillet with the okra, i read the ingredients. first ingredient (thank god): tomatoes. second ingredient: high fructose corn syrup. grr...

perhaps it was purely the power of suggestion, but the okra seemed too sweet to me. i mean, it was still tasty in all its slimy loveliness. but still...

so, this experience has led me to a couple of resolutions:

1) try the recipe that calls for fresh tomatoes. it will be interesting to note if, when using non fructose corn syruped tomatoes, the dish is less sweet that what i made today.

2) i am instituting a boycott of del monte stewed tomatoes. or, for that matter, any stewed, diced, or chopped tomato containing anything other than said tomatoes and perhaps a few spices within the auspices of its can. tomatoes, by nature, are tart and sweet at the same time. there is no need for sugar syrup in my stewed tomatoes. soup season is coming up (hooray!) and i go through multiple cans of tomatoes each week. this year, they will not be the tomatoes of del monte.

(mary begemann, i thought of you the entire time i wrote this post...)

not today, popeye...

E. coli in bagged spinach kills 1, sickens dozens

happy birthday!

holy crap, i'm running behind...

happy 30th birthday to tania on september 2
happy 30th birthday to lauren TODAY!

another reason to move to portland...

Realtors in and around Portland, Ore., will soon be able to search more easily for homes that have met national green-building standards. Starting in 2007, houses certified by LEED, Energy Star, and other such programs will be searchable in Portland's authoritative Regional Multiple Listing Service. Added amenities like on-site solar power and high-efficiency furnaces will be searchable individually. "People increasingly want energy efficiency in their homes, indoor air quality, and lower energy bills. This gives them the ability to find those features and a mainstream tool, which is important," says Terry Miller of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development. Advocates hope that the new policy will benefit low- and middle-income buyers; lenders may be willing to give bigger loans for energy-efficient homes, as money saved on electric bills could potentially go toward paying a higher mortgage.

source: grist

according to gram parsons...

the best thing we can do is learn from the past and live our lives the right way so, in time, when we can do something to change things, we will be real people. not sick or haunted by what life has done to us. we have the advantage of seeing definite examples of what can happen when people permit life to tangle them so badly that there is no escape. for us there is time - life can be real and beautiful if you build it that way honestly so there will be no lies or shadows to be afraid of later...it requires alot of work, knowledge, and love.

FINALLY...

new pictures of baby tess...

this is national public radio...

NPR how do i love thee? let me count the ways...

today i love thee especially for introducing me to a new band, the weepies.

listen to their interview from weekend edition here.

and a visit to the NPR website indicates they're going to be in kansas city next month!

NPR, you're so great...

two things...

1. i SUCK at blogging these days. (clearly)

2. just in case you were wondering, i have fabulous new glasses...

more soon, and thanks for your patience,
laci