Dense Fortunate Modus

 scan those feathers

Today is Bocce Day, and thankfully we have thunderstorms predicted so perhaps maybe perchance I am going to be curled up with my knitting this afternoon rather than sobbing on the bocce court and trying to look sportsmanlike.  I've been self analyzing lately, wondering why I hate sports competition so much and have come up with a little insight-  basically I need Do-Overs!  In art and life there are lots of ops for starting again, for messing with until it gets right, for fudging the edges, if you're 'one of my kind' you get what I'm talking about.  In sports you are either a winner or a loser.  I am basically a loser, not just because I actually DO lose about everything I attempt sporty-wise, but because I 'lose-it' internally too.  Cannot stand to not do things right or at the very least have options open to give it another try.  Rather than be the fat blob girl chosen last (though I can't remember that ever happening nor am I a fat blob yet) while everybody on the team sighs in resignation, I'd rather not play at all.  OK, so it's probably the Leo ego raising it's maned head, shaking it back to big-hair, and stalking off to the veldt or wherever they stalk off to, to pursue whatever egos, err.. I mean Lions, pursue.  I am gonna pursue knitting today, so go do a rain dance for me. Thanks!

Remember a few posts ago where I had found a woman whose paintings include little redwork patches and we both had used the same goat?  Well, she found my post and she lives in the town next door to me!  And we wrote back and forth a few times and she showed me a few more of her paintings that also include the same star patch I've used from an old quilt. There must have been something in the air in Newton because of the serendipity of this odd choice.  One of her pieces is called COWGIRL and of course one of mine is COWBOY.  How odd is that?  LOVE her stuff, and she will be having a show at the Bromfield Gallery in March so I am gonna be there.  She sent me a squirrel, I am so excited, you do know how obsessed I am with squirrels...

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Putting Giant watermarks over your portfolio work is like peeing in your own been to claim your territory. Christian Jackson

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Last night I go a phone call from Nate, at a gate in the San Franscisco airport, about brining a turkey, and coincidentally just an hour earlier I had been reading about the Zuni Cafe (Sand Francisco restaurant) dry-brine method of cooking a turkey so I explained it briefly and sent off the recipe for reading when the plane lands this morning in Boston.  (Where we have actual turkey farms where you pick 'em out on the hoof, then revisit them a few weeks later when they are plucked and rinsed and wrapped in butcher paper.)  Plus it'a a much easier method they swear has even better results.

That got me thinking to traditions and our former family Thanksgivings over the years, and I remembered that I make stellar Cranberry Sauce.  I gag a little when I see this jelly from a can and cannot understand why making sauce is too tough.  My favorite recipe takes 5 minutes and lasts in the refrigerator for weeks.  I can't even think of Thanksgiving without it.  In fact, though we are invited out this year, I am taking this with me, a double batch so I can hold back a little for turkey sandwiches, even if I have to get deli turkey!

NO NO NO

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        Sandy's Cranberry Ginger Sauce  YES YES YES 

ingredients

16 ounces fresh cranberries, picked over and rinsed

1 cup granulated sugar

1  cup fresh orange juice

1 /4 cup  finely chopped crystalized ginger

Finely grated zest from 1 orange

1/2 c. toasted pignola nuts or slivered almonds (but pine nuts are best)

preparation

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the berries pop open, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. Skim foam off the surface with a metal spoon and discard. Cool to room temperature. (Add nuts just before serving or they turn red!)  Refrigerate, covered, for up to 3 months.

And since I am sot of talking about cooking today, or at least thinking about it, I have a video for you.

Love this TED talk-  my favorite quote from it:  "If you can cook, nothing will happen to you!"

And so, because it's bright and sunny and I don't go outside, I am headed for the dark and cozy studio to wallow in my messy ways until Bocce time, which, if god is good today, will be cancelled for weather.

(I know I should put a piece of tape over the comma key!  And probably the exclamation key too.)