Your love is peachy / Like the bouquet of roses / You gave me today!
Note on picture: Two dozen roses for no reason whatsoever is what I got yesterday. Peachy roses on a snowy Saturday from a routine trip to the supermarket– it doesn't get better than that!
Month: February 2011
Dancing Americas @ The Power Center
Last evening, I had the pleasure of attending an exquisite show at the Power Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of the University of Michigan. There were four pieces each unique in style and composition. The official write-up of the event is as follows:
The University Dance Company’s 2011 concert celebrates the intertwining of music and culture throughout the Americas. Acclaimed dance artist Dianne McIntyre creates a new work set to music inspired by Bo Diddley, Eric Dolphy, and Dizzy Gillespie played by students in the UM Jazz Department. McIntyre’s extensive career has stretched from performing to choreographing for modern dance, theatre, television, and film, as well as winning numerous awards, including the 2009 American Dance Festival Award for Distinguished Teaching. “One of the most engaging [dancers] you’ll see anywhere…McIntyre whips together narrative, exceptionally fluid dancing, and music.” (Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post). Sandra Torijano premieres Tango con la vida, a work examining the deep, shared spirit underlying Latin America’s rich dance and music cultures. Towards a sudden silence by Melissa Beck is inspired by the poems of American poet, UM graduate, and Hopwood Award winner Marge Piercy. Rounding out the evening will be a MinEvent, presenting an uninterrupted sequence of excerpts from masterworks by Merce Cunningham, accompanied by John Cage’s “Cartridge Music” played live by the Digital Music Ensemble.
Here’s some pictures, just FYI:
Super Bowl of Bounties
Well, if you think I mean Chilli and Chips-and-Dip, or Buffalo Chicken-Wings and Pizza, well, no, I didn’t mean that kind of Super Bowl fare.
Granted these are the standard finger-foods for this great American event– the annual NFL football championship–each year in late January/early February, but I was referring more to the bounties of a Sunday afternoon lunch. The bounties on our table today were all glorious in their effective simplicity:
- A traditional Indian-style Egg Curry (only I halved the boiled eggs)
- A Chicken & Mushroom Stirfry w/ paprika and chives
- A Broccoli & Yellow Potatoes sidedish w/ red onions, garlic and coconut-chutney seasonings
- Greek-style Pitas lightly stove-top toasted
Here’s what it looked like:
Ravioli Casserole In A Flash
Okay, so for all my non-Italian friends, ravioli is square pasta-pockets with a filling, usually a cheese or meat filling. I suppose you can make them from scratch, but I’ve never done that. But then, neither have I bought the ubiquitous canned variety either. Instead, I prefer the frozen kind.
And here’s why: you can make a Ravioi Casserole dish in no time with essentially three ingredients in 55 minutes flat (5 minutes to assemble; 50 minutes to bake), and still give the impression that you slaved over it. So, here’s how you’d do that:
- Open your bag of frozen ravioli and empty its contents in a nice casserole dish; spread them around dish as evenly as you can
- Open a jar of spaghetti sauce and pour over the ravioli (I like the Prego mushrooms and onions variety)
- Sprinkle a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese on top; cover w/ foil; bake at 350 for 50 minutes
Serve with love! And thick slices of homemade bread if you have any (the cheating kind is fine, btw!); otherwise, store-bought will do just fine!
Bon Appetit!
Cheating At Baking Bread
It happens all the time. And it happens more often than you think. Cheating at baking bread, that is. Well, if I’m wrong, then, at least, I’m honest as far as my own baking record goes. Yes, I did bake all of these loaves of bread at home today. But you see, I didn’t prepare the dough– I didn’t measure and mix the yeast, add it to the flour, knead it into a dough and all that good stuff.
All I did was buy the loaves from my grocer’s freezer. I then left them out to defrost in the fridge overnight; this morning, I covered them in saranwrap and let them rise for several hours; then, I put them into a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
What you see is what you get. Which is absolutely phenomenal! Check out the slideshow below:
A Duvet For Any Day
Beautiful duvet / You make all coverings new / And freshen my room!
Glorious Leftovers
I was thinking that if ever your dinner plate on an ordinary weekday looks as grand as this– and when you know that every item on that plate is a leftover, well, then you are certifiably fortunate!
Because when leftovers are as glorious and grand as these, imagine what a fresh meal might look and taste like!
p.s. and in case you’re wondering about what’s what exactly, going clockwise from the whole-wheat rotis, you have palak saag, chicken curry and broccoli subzi! yeh hui na baat!
Uncertain Of The Length
If You Were Coming In The Fall
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the Fall,
I’d brush the Summer by
With half a smile, and half a spurn,
As Housewives do, a Fly.
If I could see you in a year,
I’d wind the months in balls —
And put them each in separate Drawers,
For fear the numbers fuse —
If only Centuries, delayed,
I’d count them on my Hand,
Subtracting, till my fingers dropped
Into Van Dieman’s Land.
If certain, when this life was out —
That yours and mine, should be
I’d toss it yonder, like a Rind,
And take Eternity —
But, now, uncertain of the length
Of this, that is between,
It goads me, like the Goblin Bee —
That will not state — its sting.
This picture is one that I took in the summer of 2008 in my friend Parveen’s house in Calcutta. She is the artist of this picture.
