Thursday, November 17

A tasty interlude off exit 368 between Dallas and Waco, the Fried Pie Shop (Arbuckle Mountain company originally started in Davis, Oklahoma).  I had two, a pumpkin and a sweet potato fried pie while driving with two pineapple ones placed carefully in the passenger seat for my wife and daughter once home.  The pies were fresh and smelled up the car and were still slightly oily to the touch even seeping through the wax paper pouch they came in.

Wednesday, November 16

About this time of year I like remembering the difference between Plymouth, Jamestown and Roanoke.

Plymouth colony was where 102 Pilgrims of the Mayflower settled in 1620 in Massachusetts seeking religious freedom.

Jamestown was settled in 1607 in Virginia by 104 individuals sent by King James of England for commercial purposes.

Roanoke Island, off the Virginia coast, was where 117 of the first permanent English settlers sent by the Virginia Company settled in 1587.   Nearly three years later when a supply team returned to the colony from England they found everyone gone, their disappearance remains a mystery.

Tuesday, November 15

There are three styles of gelato, Italy’s version of American ice cream.  In Southern Italy and Sicily, the gelato is made with just milk.  In central Italy, like Florence, the milk gets egg yolks added to it. In northern Italy where dairy products are more plentiful, cream is added to the milk and yolks.  Gelato has overall less cream and butterfat than ice cream.   Gelato is denser because with less cream and butterfat, there is less to bind with air molecules so ice cream seems lighter. The classic gelato flavor is pistachio. 

Monday, November 14

My wife’s favorite local jeweler had an opal show featuring a visiting vender.  The gems were mined in Australia’s Andamooka Opal Fields, mostly black and crystal.   Paul Christensen was the seller and he had cut and polished the stones himself on his own equipment.  Australia provides about 95% of the world’s opals.

The other gemstone varieties are:

	Emerald
	Ruby
	Sapphire
	Amethyst
	Opal
	Topaz
	Peridot
	Aquamarine
	Tanzanite
	Citrine
	Ametrine
	Garnets
	Tsavorite Garnet
	Demantoid Garnet
	Mandarin Garnet
	Tourmaline
	Rubellite Tourmaline
	Green Tourmaline
	Paraiba Tourmaline
	Yellow Tourmaline
	Blue Tourmaline
	Multicolored Tourmaline
	Lapis Lazuli
	Fancy Sapphires
	Quartz
	Zultanite
	Jade
	Zircon
	Iolite
	Spinel
	Fire Opal
	Moonstone
	Alexandrite
	Chrysoberyl
	Kunzite
	Beryls
	Morganite
	Chrome Diopside
	Andalusite
	Amber
	Turquoise
	Coral
	Agate
	Onyx
	Bloodstone
	Jasper
	Pearl
	Diamond

Sunday, November 13

Attended the conference,

Longing for Beauty,

presented by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, celebrating their 30^th year in existence.

Some key recurrent words used during the lectures were aesthetics, consciousness, reverie, imagination and dreams.

Saturday, November 12

Swerve, in Latin, clinamen, means an unexpected, unpredictable movement of matter.

Harvard professor, Renaissance scholar and writer, Stephen Greenblatt in his new book, The Swerve, How the World Became Modern, writes that the rediscovery in 1417 of a poem written a thousand years earlier by the Roman Lucretius was such a swerve. 

We can probably think of other examples of things going from near oblivion to near universal awareness.  

In our own lives we can probably think of examples of a remarkable coincidence or chance meeting or undertaking that changed the trajectory of our lives.

Keep swerving.

Friday, November 11, 2011

11/11/11

Bread Recipe

Desolina Merlino's, Panne di Corpisanti (Bread of the Holy Spirit), as recorded by Frank and Debra Merlino while watching on 12/16/94 (Mom was born in the tiny town of Corpisanti, in the Abruzzo region of Italy.  My wife and I visited it in 2004.)

6 potatoes

5 lbs unbleached flour (separate out two big handfuls to use later when kneading as needed)

2 Fleichmann's Active Dry Yeast packets

teaspoon of sugar

teaspoon of salt

in a cup pour 2 Fleichmann's Active Dry Yeast packets and a teaspoon of sugar, stir, then add warm water up half way, stir, and put aside to rise to top of cup

peel and boil and mash potatoes (save the water to add to dough when kneading as needed)

mix potatoes, flour, cup of yeast/sugar and half cup of potato water(from being poured into yeast cup to rinse any yeast remnants), add teaspoon of salt - knead, adding flour put aside and potato water as needed

let rest in a covered pan for one hour

remove and work over adding flour to sides of pan and hands to de-stick as needed then return to pan and cover for an hour

repeat above once more

then cut pieces off and form shapes and place in pans greased with olive oil and sprinkled with flour, cut a cross on top

let rest in oiled/floured pans for about 15 minutes

bake at 425 for about a half hour

Life is a work of art designed by the one who lives it.

Enjoy