Soup, a Poem, and the Kind of Work That Comforts

A soup and poem for your week.

Jack the puppy at the lobster boat races this weekend.

This morning I received an email from a man I do not know who was quite angry that our newspaper (which runs on a newsletter format) sends multiple news stories on most days (this is because we are daily and local). He capitalized a lot of words in his short email for emphasis and asked to unsubscribe. Unsubscribing is easy and there’s a button on every email that allows people to do that. People can also choose to not receive emails and just read the news on the website.

All of that doesn’t really matter at all. It just made my heart hitch the tiniest bits because something he received for free (and opened a lot of, about 80% in the past month), he sort of email-yelled at about.

And I could dwell on this, obviously, but I don’t really have time to do that.

Which makes me think of the comfort that comes when you have other work to do, when you don’t have the moments to spare to obsess about a random man and his shouty email where he wants you to do something he could easily do himself.

Cooking can be a way to have other work to do that can give comfort.

Write (or reading) a poem can too. It takes a bit of work to write a sestina or a villanelle, right?

So, here’s some soup that’s a bit to cook and here’s a poem that someone took a bit to read. I hope you can find comfort in them and also that you have a lovely week with no shouty emails.

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THE SOUP!

Photo by Niranjan _ Photographs on Unsplash

LENTIL AND CURRY GRUMPY EMAIL SOUP

WHAT YOU NEED …

• 2 teaspoons olive oil

• 1 head cauliflower, chopped into small florets

• 2 carrots, chopped

• 2 cups boiling water

• 1 cube vegetable bouillon

• 1 (14 ounce) can reduced-fat coconut milk

• 1 cup red lentils

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon dried onion flakes

• 1 teaspoon curry powder

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

• ½ teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 bunch kale leaves, stems and inner ribs discarded, leaves coarsely chopped

HOW TO PUT IT TOGETHER . . .

1. First find a large pot, do not think about cooking evil emailers, instead put olive oil in it. Put it on medium high.

2. After a minute add the carrots. Add the cauliflowers. Let it saute until it gets soft. This usually takes 7-8 minutes.

3. Boil that water.

4. Pour that water into a bowl or a measuring cup or something and add the bouillon

5. Stir it all up until you do not see the bouillon any longer. Wish that the bouillon was the objective correlative for the man whose email you are surely not thinking about any longer, right?

6. Add this to the pot where the veggies are.

7. Add the coconut milk to the same place.

8. Boil it.

9. Get the lentils and garlic powder. Get the onion flakes, curry, paprika, turmeric, and cumin. Put it all in the pot.

10. Decrease the heat to a simmer if you have to.

11. Cover it up like you’re covering up your emotions.

12. Let it cook about 20 minutes. That is when the lentils will likely be tender.

13. Add in the kale. Put the pot on low.

14. Leave it there for five minutes.

15. Now eat it and rejoice, right? Grumpy email man does not get this or any of your products ever again. That’s kind of nice.

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    HOMER

I wonder if Homer would send such an email?

Via The Poetry Foundation Source: Poetry (August 1970)

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RANDOM FLOWER

I find great comfort in random flowers that people plant. Are you like this? This is one of the many I was lucky enough to see this week. Flowers are cool.

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