Author: Mapgirl

I eat. I pray. I read. I write. I share. Here.

Worshipping our Sun

stonehenge-summer-solstice
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/summersolstice.shtml

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
(Sonnet 18) Wm. Shakespeare

Mark Twain is still speaking…

When I’m need of a little bit of inspiration, I can always count on Mr. Samuel L. Clemens.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
&
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
but never one to remain too pious for too long,
Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.
and so,
All generalizations are false, including this one.

Amen.

Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, Calistoga California

“I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and find it hard to believe. The names, the shapes…the courses of the roads and rivers…are an inexhaustible fund of interest for any…with eyes to see or two penceworth of imagination to understand with.”

Treasure Island, 1883

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Robert Louis Stevenson  and bride, Fanny Vandergrift Osbourne spent the summer of 1880 honeymooning  at in a cabin at an abandoned mining camp on Mt. St. Helena. Perhaps not surprisingly, no record of Fanny’s review of this romantic setting can be found. There is a small marker 1 mile up the forested, sometimes rocky trail. Hike 4 miles beyond that spot on mostly gravel forest road, up, up, up to 4337 feet to look out from North Peak, the highest peak in Sonoma County on a mountain shared with Napa County. The dogs were barking, but Mr. Stevenson was the inspiration for this adventurer!

 

 

Small plates, big taste at Willi’s in Healdsburg CA

When in wine country, it should come as no surprise that the topic turns to food. With so many choices, we tend to like small plates to allow for more variety in tasting dishes and avoiding the “food baby” syndrome at every meal. Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar delivered perfectly the other night.

Voveti Prosecco, Italy N.V.
Fresh & graceful with honesuckle, apple, melon & peach with a long creamy finish.(I don’t speak ‘wine tasting’, but if I did, this is what I’d ask for!)

Charred Rare Ahi, Cucumber, Avocado, Truffled Soy

BBQ’D Bacon Wrapped Scallops, Tamarind BBQ, Clantro Pumpkinseed Pesto

“Dale Caesar” Toasted Capers, Pineuts & Aleppo Pepper

And the icing on the CHEESEcake!
For me, the “I usually skip dessert” girl,
No Bake Lemon Cheescake, Burnt Meringue (think perfect campfire marshmallows), and Mexican Spiced Cookies (with chunks of ginger!)
Absolutely delicious!

Discussing fasting with Kathleen…

flunking sainthoodYou never know what other people truly find important until you find a way to ask. Kathleen M. and I found we have a common interest in the benefits that come from “doing without” because we have so much.  She is a cool librarian and recommends these reads:

Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor by Jana Riess (Nov 1, 2011) (Kindle ready)

The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle (Sep 19, 2006)

The Rule of St. Benedict by St. Benedict, PlanetMonk Books and Boniface Verheyen (Apr 30, 2011) (Kindle .99)

So read, eat – (or not), and it may lead to whatever you call prayer.

Dinner at Libertad – a gift from Ann & Joe

We Pray.  My Aunt Ann & her husband Joe came to Chicago in March for my mother’s Mass & Memorial Luncheon. We celebrated mom’s life with her other sister, Kay, my cousin Eileen and family and friends from near and far.

We Eat.  At some point, my son Chris was asked by Ann & Joe to get a gift certificate to a restaurant that Mark & I would enjoy.  As James Taylor sings in Nobody But You, “What you gonna do with folks like that?”

Well, on a recent Saturday in June, we felt like we could finally exhale for an evening and so sauntered over to Skokie’s gem of a spot for a meal that simply must be documented!

  • Libertad Manhattan ~ libertad house oak infused tequila, la pinta pomegranate tequila (insert Mark smiley face here!)
  • Libertad Real ~ garbel prosecco brut sparkling wine, la pinta pomegranate tequila liqueur, cinnamon bitters (insert Ann smiley face here!)
  • Albondigas ~corn fritter, wild mushrooms, turnip, tomatillo-basil sauce
  • Aguacate ~ frisee lettuce, avocado, croutons, manchego cheese, radish, jerez vinaigrette
  • Venera ~ scallops, black rice, long beans, yuzu-habanero butter sauce
  • Salmon ~ mezcal-range-chile de arbol glazed salmon, aspargus rice, jicama, lemongrass beurre blanc
  • Exotic Custard* ~ passion fruit-mango-banana custard, prickly pear anglaise, banana sorbet

*can be known to compel one to want to announce to entire restaurant that “Everyone here MUST try this dish!”

That’s it! Simple, elegant, perfection!  Gracias mi familia!