Things That Nourish

Still no word on when I'll start my new teaching gig. So, while I wait, I've been experimenting with a few 'comfort food' recipes. You know, the old staples that we turn to on days when we don't feel like being fashionable with our food. We can, however, get slightly creative with these old hats.

This weekend, I found a recipe online for roasted chick peas. The flavors of chili pepper, lime juice, and cilantro sounded exactly what I was in the mood for, but when I read what the final product would be like, I changed my mind. It was designed to be a crunchy, crispy finger-food snack for the afternoon. Instead of roasting them for forty-five to fifty minutes, I only warmed them in the oven for about ten minutes, to let the flavors gently waft together for a bit. Then, I popped it all in a blender and poured a massive amount of olive oil in the mix, with a little bit of sugar, and voila. Delicious hummus. Always a favorite fallback dish.

Last night, as I wandered around the corner grocery store and wondered what I felt like eating, I saw a dense, grainy bread, covered in pine nuts and remembered that I still had half a block of Irish Gouda in my fridge. Light bulb: open-faced grilled cheese and tomato soup. Dessert was inevitable a few spoonfuls of the all-powerful Nutella. Thank goodness for imported food.

So, between stuffing my face and waiting for my job to commence, I'm trying to write a little poetry and submit to journals. My new obsession is the desert and its barren beauty. Beijing sometimes reaps the effects of the Gobi Desert (sandstorms and whatnot), and so I think part of me will want to write about this soon. Now, however, I'm more focused and fascinated with the American Southwest, a place I've never actually seen firsthand. I also have begun to write about Wyoming, something I was not able to do when I lived there. Absence is the perfect fount of inspiration.

Thanks, by the way, to all the literary magazines that have electronic submission options. Otherwise, I'd be up to my eyeballs in overseas postage fees.