Muhummara -- Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Dip

This is the great dip one of the members of my writing workshop brought to our last class meeting. I emailed her to ask for the recipe and when I didn't hear back,  I found a recipe on The Food Network (HERE)   and followed it exactly -- even to the fiddly business of roasting the peppers and scraping (most of) the skin off.  

One of the ingredients is pomegranate molasses -- which my local grocery doesn't have -- so I bought some pomegranate juice and made my own, thanks to another RECIPE on the internet. It was simple -- add some lemon juice and sugar and boil till reduced and syrup-like. 

I made it the day before I made the dip and when I took my little jar of home-cooked pomegranate molasses out of the refrigerator, it  had hardened till a spoon bounced off the surface.

Despair! And cursing! But I added a little water, stuck the jar in the microwave, and hoorah! there was a thick, spoonable syrup.

After that it was just a matter of throwing all the ingredients into the food processor.

It was as tasty as I remembered (but not quite the same.) And it has the advantage of being gluten free and vegan, making it acceptable to people with all manners of food constraints.

Then I got an email from my student with her recipe. She is in Costa Rica and, as she put it, has been 'gloriously off-line.'  This is her version. (Thanks, Lynda W.!)

Lynda says:

Unfortunately, I don't have access to my recipe (adapted from a version provided by Reza (an Asheville restaurant) ) but I found this version online that is pretty close as I recall. The main thing is to play with it until it tastes good to you. When there is a range in amount, use the least and add to taste. Note: the garlic flavor blossoms after a couple of hours so don't add too much at the beginning.

Muhammara (mu-HUMM-a-da) or [moo-hahm-MRAH]

Ingredients:

1/2 cup toasted walnuts

• 4 roasted red peppers, peeled and seeded 
• (I use a large, 14oz?, jar of roasted red peppers, drained well)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 - 1.5 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin, more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili paste, more to taste
• 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
• (I use more, available at greenlife/earth fare, this stuff is amazing, tart and sweet, great on pancakes, biscuits and in cocktails)
• 1 to 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup crushed plain pita chips
• (or any cracker - including gluten free rice crackers - ritz/townhouse style are my favorite for smooth texture)
• Sea salt, to taste
• Ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

In food processor:

• blend walnuts thru garlic until well-mixed
• add crackers, blend until smooth
• season with salt and adjust heat, sweetness, spice, tartness, and texture by increasing other ingredients
• let sit at least 3 hours

Note: 

• serve with raw veggies, crackers, etc.
• also great as sandwich spread or with pasta.

The Season is the Reason . . . for Some of Us

Solstice! The day the sun stops its steady crawl to the south and looks northward once again. In the picture below the sun is rising at its southernmost point. The far left margin of the picture (or perhaps a little beyond) is where it will rise on the Equinox and it will travel the same distance again to rise on the Summer Solstice way over there. (Yes, I know it's the Earth moving, not the Sun but this is what it looks like. I'm using Poetic License here.)

Imagine primitive Man, especially in the northern regions, -- watching the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer and wondering where it would all end. Perhaps they thought that a spot of sympathetic magic was in order -- so they lit fires to drive away the dark and recall the sun to its duty. And we still do, in some ways, keep those fires burning against the darkness by celebrating  and giving thanks with light and fellowship and food. 

Though Christmas and Hanukkah and, perhaps, Yule are the holidays/holy days most widely celebrated at this time in my part of the world, there have been and are any number of festivities at the Winter Solstice --  honoring Mithras in Rome, Baldur in Scandinavia, Ameratsu in Japan, to name a few. (See more HERE.) Indeed, many scholars believe that December 25 was designated as Christ's birthday to compete with the Pagan festival of Sol Invictus (the triumphant Sun.)

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, dark December needs all the light it can get. The return of the Sun and the promise of another growing season ahead should speak to all. I say, the more celebrations, the merrier --- whatever your belief (or non-belief.) Solstice time belongs to everyone under the Sun. 

Christmas at the Bridge

The fella who lives in the little trailer behind the old brick building at the bridge always puts out a quirky little Christmas display. 

This one is more restrained than previous efforts but I am captivated by its naive charm.

Bringing in the Greenery

Take Time to Look . . .

Another day passed in a blur of Christmas preparations . . . the gifts are wrapped and now it's time for some advance cooking . . .

More candied grapefruit peel, spiced pecans, and even pomegranate syrup -- an ingredient in a really good dip one of my students brought to our last class meeting. (I'll make the dip in the next few days and share the recipe here.)

  

These pictures are from Tuesday when, towards four or five, I looked up from a welter of wrapping paper and cards to see a bit of a light show going on. The sun was almost behind our mountain and clouds were dodging about, giving a kind of spotlight effect to these last rays, lighting up first one area, then another for a magical few minutes.

It was a reminder, I think, to take time -- even in the midst of holiday busy-ness -- to look up, to breathe deeply, to enjoy the day before it's gone entirely.

Gift Wrapping Day

The Persecuted and the Persecutors

Hoorah! A Very Nice Guy at North End Computers (Weaverville, NC) brought my laptop back to life -- while I waited. He says something probably shorted out and it could happen again but, for the moment, here I am.

I personally suspect that the short may have been due to all the vitriol that was flowing on a particular page on Facebook, shortly before  the laptop went black. I was horrified and fascinated at the same time -- it was like watching a mob gather with pitchforks and torches.

It happened like this. There's a FB group for folks from the Appalachians. Someone invited me to join several years ago and though I'm "not from here," as they say,  I'm interested in the stories about the old times and the pictures and recipes that are the usual fare of this group.  I rarely comment or post but for some folks it seems to be a daily social event. And people are enjoined to stay away from politics or bad language -- unlike a lot of the FB posts I see (and enjoy.) All in all, a pleasant, G-rated sort of place to visit.

Until.  Until one member posted asking if there were any other members of the group who were atheists, agnostics, or unbelievers who would be interested in a FB group for non-religious Appalachian folks.  (There is a lot of JESUS talk in this group and that's never been a problem as far as I know -- folks in Appalachia are probably overwhelmingly Christian by heritage.)

Well, I think this person was just looking for a few like minds to chat with but you would have thought the Devil Incarnate had just posted -- at least according to many of the responses. (It's a big group --  well over a thousand members -- and certainly it was just a small percentage that got so ugly but still, it was kind of terrifying.) 

The poster was told to leave the group, that she was going to hell, that she had no business asking such a question, that she was fat, that she had ruined the group for others, that she was an example of SATAN trying to lure away believers,  that this was an example of the 'war on Christians,'  that that believing in JESUS was a criteria for being Appalachian  . . . (all done without any cursing or vulgar language, for what it's worth.)

As I said, it was kind of terrifying. But then other comments began to come in: other non-believers who were interested, some who said they'd been bullied by Christians all their lives, and some who were Christians and pointed out that this virtual lynching was far from Christian behavior . . .

Finally, when emotions were at a fever pitch,  the moderators deleted the whole thread and told people to get off this subject. The next day, one of the most rabid of the negative commenters apologized to everyone on the list -- except to the unfortunate woman who' d dared to suggest that not everyone on the list was a believer.

It was, for me, a vivid demonstration of how many people fear and feel threatened by the unfamiliar. And it was sad, to see so clearly the hatred just below the surface -- and all in the name of The Prince of Peace.  (In the thick of the verbal battle, one woman kept posting "Merry Christmas' over and over, feeling, I'm pretty sure, that she was fighting the good fight in the war against Christians and Christmas and really sticking it to the godless unbeliever who was threatening her (the Merry Christmas woman) own beliefs.)

I'm shaking my head and thinking, it seems to me that if your faith is threatened by someone else's non-belief, you never had much faith to begin with.

. 

Arrgh!

Computer problems (the black screen of death)  -- atop the holidaze -- have me tied in knots. Hoping to figure this out soon. . .

I'll try to do a real post and blog visit soon . . . 

Through a Glass Darkly...

Well, it's been a while since I shared one of the spam messages my blog receives. I think this one takes the prize for incomprehensibility -- especially in the last three lines.

Perhaps it's a message from the Universe -- in which case, I'm out of luck.

 Or maybe I just have a shakiness.

I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here.
The sketch is attractive, 

your authored subject matter stylish.
nonetheless, you command get got an shakiness 

over that you wish be delivering the following.
unwell unquestionably come more formerly again 

since exactly the same nearly very often 

inside case you shield this hike.

Signs of the Season

Sunshine -- An Appreciation

After several days of grayness and gloom, a clear sunshiny day was like a blessing -- especially to someone trying to take pictures.  

 The sun set alight a few tenacious beech leaves . . .

 

And decorated the little church down the road with shadow shafts and filigree . . .

It illuminated the hoarfrost on a distant mountain . . .

And silvered a simple power line . . .

It lingered in the bare tree tops . . .

 Before skulking along the ridge to the south.

Little leaves cupped to catch the last precious light . . .

Blades of grass glowed spring-green . . .

And Otis positioned himself to catch the last rays.

Re-Visiting . . .

After posting a visit with Miss Birdie back on Halloween, I found myself taking a notion to spend some more time with her and read her book  -- The Day of Small Things. Of course I've read it before -- many times -- while I was writing it and re-writing it and proof-reading it over and over. But none of these are the same as just reading for fun -- with the writer/editor eye turned off. And enough time had passed that, at times I could forget I'd written it and just read . . .

I was so pleasantly surprised that I picked up Signs in the Blood  and read it. It was better than I remembered, if I say it myself.  Again there was that strange disconnect between reader and writer -- I kept coming across little family jokes and little odds and ends that are parts of my past . . .

As  I always say, Elizabeth isn't me -- but we share a lot -- Little Sylvie's cabin next door . . . the dogs . . .

She and Phillip sat on my blue bench . . .

In Art's Blood - yes, I kept on reading right through the rest of the books -- Elizabeth and Kyra make wreaths in her workshop -- John's workshop in my world . . .

Old Wounds gets very close to my world -- Elizabeth and family live in this barn while they are building their house in 1984 -- just as my family lived in it in 1974 while building that same house . . .

(I hasten to add that, unlike my unruly Elizabeth, I was never tempted by a charming neighbor -- nor by a bed-room eyed snake handling preacher either.)

Every time I go to town I drive past this brick building that is the home of the enigmatic Troll of In a Dark Season. 

And sometimes I kind of expect to hear mariachi music floating from Justin and Claui's house -- home to Elizabeth's Mexican farm hands Julio and Homero in Under the Skin.

Rereading these books was a surprising experience in that I became  the reader not the writer and I kept finding myself thinking, Why, that's just the way I'd say that or That sounds familiar only to realize suddenly, Well, duh . . .

I also realized that I am now closer in age to Miss Birdie than Elizabeth (who was ten years younger than I when the first book came out in 2005. ) 

It was an interesting experience, reading right through those books that took over six years to produce -- reading right through them in less than two weeks. 

I've moved on to two more series -- binge re-reading -- and I'll talk about them another time.
Meanwhile, I apologize for the sudden appearance of that wretched Word Verification in the Comments -- Blogger is messing with me again. My settings are set at NO Word Verification but there it is. However, several folks have told me they just ignored it and their comments posted anyway . . .

Mysterious are the ways of Blogger . . .