Everyone! The Puppy Is a Go!
JOYCE, VEGETARIAN FRENCH-CANADIAN SPLIT PEA, AND SOME OTHER THINGS...
Um.
The puppy is a go!
I just want to tell you all since I am SO excited.
We are going to have a giant rescue puppy here and that is awesome. And she’s a Pyr, which are pretty much my comfort dog since I’ve had them for so long and dreamed about them even longer.
I even put one in my TimeStoppers series. I’m seriously in love with Pyrs.
And now I’m letting myself get excited about her coming. I realized today after writing another post for Living Happy/Write Better Now that one of the great gifts my parents gave me is just how excited and exuberant that they’d get over things that I might gloss over.
Making mashed potatoes? Yes!
Found some amazing pickles? Swoony.
One of their friends was coming over for coffee. What a good day!
I think I’ve been leaning toward good things giving me anxiety about how those good things could go wrong. It was like I didn’t want to get excited over something and then not have it happen.
And that?
That doesn’t seem like a wise way for me to look at life and moments. Instead, I’m going to work on trusting myself that I can fix and/or deal with the things that happen and lean into the joy of moments like puppies coming and mashed potato making, super cool pickles, and interacting with other humans.
THE POEM
Watching the Needleboats at San Sabba
By James Joyce
I heard their young hearts crying
Loveward above the glancing oar
And heard the prairie grasses sighing:
No more, return no more!
O hearts, O sighing grasses,
Vainly your loveblown bannerets mourn!
No more will the wild wind that passes
Return, no more return.
Trieste, 1912.
Copyright Credit: James Joyce, “Watching the Needleboats at San Sabba” from Pomes Penyeach. (Paris: Shakespeare & Co., 1927.) Public domain.
Source: Pomes Penyeach (Shakespeare & Co., 1927)
THE SOUP: VEGETARIAN FRENCH-CANADIAN SPLIT PEA
This is from The Fig Tree’s blog post all the way back in 2013. The site is still up but the posts stopped in 2015 and if you’re interested in vegetarian and vegan recipes, it’s a really great resource.
Ingredients
4 large slices of vegetarian bacon*
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1 small onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 and 3/4 cups of yellow split peas
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
2 bay leaves
8 cups of reduced sodium vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
Note: I used maple smoked tempeh bacon and it worked great
Method
1. “In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of canola oil over medium-high heat. Add the vegetarian bacon and onion. Sauté until the onion is translucent and the bacon is crisp (about 5 minutes). Add the garlic, chopped carrot and celery and sauté another 5 minutes.
2. “Stir in the split peas, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper. Add 8 cups of reduced sodium vegetable stock. Bring soup to a boil, cover, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 and 1/2 hours (or until the split peas are very soft and soup has thickened). Note: Stir the soup every so often to prevent burning.
3. R”emove the bay leaves. Break up the split peas with the back of a wooden spoon. For a smooth soup, purée with a hand immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
“Serve with a crusty piece of bread or a slice of bannock.
Yield: 6 servings”
RANDOM PHOTOS FROM OUR HIGH SCHOOL
I went to speak at our high school for its career day. I was escorted into the room, which was obviously an English teacher’s room because . . . books. :)
No one was there before it started, so I snuck these photos to send to you. I think it’s comforting to think of teachers and schools and books and the tiny bits that make the setting of their rooms.
I hope you do, too.
Congratulations on the puppy!! What a cutie! 🥰