waffle-laden poet coming in for a landing: april halprin wayland!

March 28, 2011November 1, 2017 ~ jama ~ 1 Comment

#2 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2011.

It’s April, April, April!

What better ‘first poet’ for our Poetry Month celebration than one who’s named, “April”? The always exuberant April Halprin Wayland, whose personal tagline is “1/2 poet, 1/2 author, 1/2 not good at fractions,” brings her own special brand of energy and expansiveness to everything she does, whether writing, teaching, storytelling, fiddle playing, doodling, sun farming, hiking, campaigning for peace or collecting clouds. Her fascinating, adventure-filled life has provided oodles of inspiration for poems and stories, and her sunny outlook has certainly brightened up the alphabet soup kitchen. We thank her for kicking things off!

April: Poetry is a place where I clear the brush, rake the leaves, plant some violets, drag in an old log to sit on. Readers may not see the same things I see, or think the same things I was thinking when I wrote the poem, but they can sit next to me and breathe in the violets.

My book, GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING: A Novel in Poems (Knopf), based on my journals as a teen, is about a teen who writes poetry in secret; it includes tips to teen writers at the end. One poem is about waffles . . . and writing:

WAITING FOR WAFFLES
by April Halprin Wayland

The T.V. talks in the other room,
the ironing board stands, hands on hips,
in the middle of Great Aunt Ida’s kitchen
and I sit on the burgundy booth in my p.j.s as
Great Aunt Ida makes waffles.

I love pouring batter onto the waffle iron.
It’s like writing poems —
from puddles to patterns.

If I stare at the black light
willing it to warm to red,
it takes forever.

Just like writing. Sometimes I have to
not write
in order to write.

So I slide around
the vinyl booth seat
to look out her second story window
at the birds.

I am waiting
for waffles.

© 2004 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved.

Apparently, Myra Cohn Livingston was the one who suggested April write a collection of poems in the teen voice, and April says doing so set her free. Love that! And isn’t it so true about sometimes having to “not write” in order to write?

April: When my sister and I slept over at Grandma’s we’d make waffles. I remember her heavy waffle maker and the waiting, waiting, waiting for that red eye to light up. I think the waiting made them taste better. Yum! I wish I could say that Grandma used this Lemon Waffle recipe. But the truth is that after I wrote this poem, I searched for a good waffle recipe that did not use sugar (I don’t eat sugar), and found this wonderful one on a bed and breakfast site. (I love making pancakes with it, actually –)

I wrote the owners of the B&B, asking for permission to use the recipe; they were very kind, saying it was freely given to them and to pass it on — so I have!

*Behold perfect Meyer lemon specimen from April’s tree!*

Here in Southern California our lemon tree is overflowing with fragrant Meyer lemons. Meyer lemons have thin skins and are milder and sweeter than most lemons.

LEMON WAFFLES
(serves 4)

4 eggs, separated

3 tablespoons honey

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest

1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 cup flour

In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks with the honey. Blend in the lemon juice, lemon zest, and butter, beating well. Blend in the milk and flour alternately. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into batter. Bake in prepared waffle iron until golden brown.

This batter can also be used to make lovely, light pancakes.

Jama’s note: Len and I really enjoyed these — light as lemony clouds, a delicate flavor, and no refined sugar. Definitely worth waiting for! ☺

————————————————————————————

April Halprin Wayland is a farmer turned folk musician turned author. Her newest picture book, NEW YEAR AT THE PIER: A Rosh Hashanah Story (Dial, 2010), won the Sydney Taylor Gold Medal awarded by the Association of Jewish Libraries. April’s work has been called “dazzling,” “honest, heartfelt, poignant,” and “utterly fresh and winning.” Her critically acclaimed novel in poems, Girl Coming in for a Landing (Yearling, 2004), her picture books, and her poetry have garnered numerous awards, including the Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Award for Children’s Poetry, the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry, and MommyCare’s Book of the Year.

She’s been an instructor in UCLA Extension’s Writers Program for over a decade and teaches workshops in schools all over the world. You can find her online at her official website and the Teaching Authors blog. Don’t forget to check out April’s Poem-a-Day Challenge poems throughout the month here. I especially love that whenever a member of her family has a birthday, April writes “Happy Birthday” in raisins in the kitchen, and she’s the only poet I know who once wrote “I Love You” in ketchup on a dinner plate. ♥

dishing up eggs over evie by alison jackson (and there’s cake)!

March 16, 2011November 13, 2017 ~ jama ~ 2 Comments

RECIPE FOR EGGS OVER EVIE

1 girl, age thirteen
2 parents, divorced
1 dog, big and friendly
1 cranky old neighbor
1 stepmom expecting twins
1 cute cooking partner
Lots of eggs
Pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients without crowding the pan. And don’t forget to sprinkle in a quirky teacher, a missing cat, and a few snob dinners with Chef Dad. Stir gently!

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As soon as I finished reading Alison Jackson’s Eggs Over Evie, I just had to try one of the many recipes included in the book. It was the perfect way to extend my enjoyment of this sweet and savory story about budding chef Evie Carson, who lives with her Mom.

Cooking helps Evie cope with some of the changes and adjustments that come with being the child of divorced parents. She’s always shared a special bond with her Dad, a celebrity chef and cookbook author who married his young editor (now expecting twins). When he moves to a condo on the other side of the lake, he takes their dog and all traces of their family life with him. Making soufflés, pies, pizzas, cookies and brownies helps Evie stay connected to her father. Challenges such as learning how to get along with her new stepmom, reaching out to a grumpy neighbor who’s lost her cat, making a new friend at cooking class, and accepting her mom’s new dating status, all provide unique opportunities for character development.

Evie bakes a Red Velvet Cake for her neighbor, whose cat’s gone missing.

Evie’s voice is authentic and engaging, and I like how the story focuses on her personal relationships without glossing over the difficulties of divorce. Her vulnerability and true-to-life reactions endear her to the reader, and the minor characters are well drawn for such a short novel. Of course I especially appreciated how the food theme was extended throughout with quotes from famous chefs and a recipe and cooking tip for each chapter.

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friday feast: raspberry rapture (a poem and a recipe)

March 11, 2011November 1, 2017 ~ jama ~ 1 Comment

Not too long ago, while I was busy tap tap tapping on my keyboard, I picked up the divine scent of raspberries.

They beckoned like shamelessly seductive sirens from a far-off fairyland: “Come, come to us! We’re mingling with flour, sugar, eggs and buttermilk! We can make you happy! O come, and bring your butter knife!”

You can see I had no recourse but to investigate. The aroma of something wonderful baking in the oven is what I live for, and I absolutely love love raspberries! It wasn’t coming from my kitchen, sad to say; the resident bears were all napping. So where? I clicked through to a few of my favorite foodie websites. Dorie Greenspan was busy baking thousands of gourmet CookieBar cookies, and CakeSpy was happily working on her new book, due out this Fall!

Weakened by longing, desperate with curiosity, I briefly closed my eyes and let the rich raspberry rhapsody wash over me. I had to find those vixens! Aha! I should have known. Those ruby red rascals were right here on LiveJournal! My highly trained olfactories led me straight to Jeannine Atkins’s blog. Yes, she had just set out a plate of freshly baked Raspberry Muffins. Oh my, what beauties! Big, bumpy, bursting with berries. Taunting and tempting, even contaigious, since it didn’t end there. Within minutes days maybe a week, those very same muffins appeared on Jo Knowles’s blog.

Have mercy.

Just as big, bumpy, berryful and beautiful.

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friendly day soup recipe

February 22, 2011October 23, 2017 ~ jama ~ 2 Comments

“Let’s go and see everybody,” said Pooh. “Because when you have been walking in the wind for miles, and you suddenly go into somebody’s house, and he says, ‘Hallo, Pooh, you’re just in time for a little smackerel of something,’ and you are, then it’s what I call a Friendly Day.” ~ A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

Hallo, my windblown, winter-weary but eternally good-looking friends! Are you out of hibernation yet?

Just in case you’re in dire need of a little smackerel of something, I’ve cooked up a special batch of Pea-Bean Alphabet Soup, with a recipe from the new and revised Winnie-the-Pooh Cookbook (Dutton, 2010).

Is anyone familiar with older editions of this cookbook — one with recipes by Katie Stewart (Methuen, 1971) and the other with Virginia Ellison’s recipes (Dutton, 1969)? I have not seen Ellison’s older edition, and wondered whether the Pea-Bean Alphabet Soup recipe was in it, or if it was newly added this time around. Years ago, I purchased the Katie Stewart edition in London; looks like different culinary writers were used for the British and American versions. Cool, but a little confusing, since both books have the exact same cover.

In any case, the new Pooh Cookbook, just released in October 2010, is quite lovely, as it contains full color illustrations from Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, as well as the eight original pen-and-ink drawings by Ernest H. Shephard commissioned by Dutton in 1966. Like its predecessors, the new cookbook is sprinkled throughout with excerpts from both Pooh books and features approximately 60 tasty recipes, all guaranteed to feel yummy in your tummy: Breakfasts, Smackerels, Elevenses & Teas, Provisions for Picnics & Expotitions, Lunches & Suppers, Desserts & Party Recipes, Winter Delights and Honey Sauces.

My Katie Stewart cookbook contains things like Chocolate Rock Cakes, Honey and Raisin Scones, Cottleston Pie, Bread and Butter Pudding and Watercress Sandwiches, etc., but it doesn’t have any soups! So I was tickled pink to find three soups in Ellison’s new book: Tomato, Corn and Shrimp Chowder, and the aforementioned Alphabet Soup, which got my full attention right away. ☺

I cheated a little on the recipe, making it in the crock pot rather than simmering it on the stove, so my finished product probably wasn’t as thick as the stove version. But that’s the beauty of soup — it’s hard to ruin, allows for all kinds of experimentation and variation in ingredients, and always hits the spot. The resident bears had fun adding the alphabet pasta and spelling out the characters’ names. Hope you’ll try this hearty soup sometime; while it’s cooking you can read a Pooh story, and once you’ve had some soup, you’ll be all set, tiddely-pom and tra-la-la, rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.

PEA-BEAN ALPHABET SOUP
(makes approx. 10 servings)

3 T each of dried beans, such as red, Great Northern, garbanzos, pintos, or black for a total of 15 tablespoons
5 T lentils
4 T split peas, green or yellow
2 quarts water
2 beef bones, marrow or shank, with a little meat on them
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 cups canned tomatoes
6 sprigs parsley, chopped fine, leaves and stems
1/2 cup alphabet noodles
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cover the beans and peas in water and soak for 3 hours or longer.

2. Drain and rinse with fresh water.

3. In a pot with a tight-fitting lid, cover the beans, peas, and lentils with 2 quarts of water and add the meat bones, onion, and parsley. Bring to a boil.

4. Add the tomatoes, and simmer until the peas disappear and the beans are tender, about 2 hours.

5. During the last 10 minutes of simmering, add the alphabet noodles.

6. Put in plenty of P’s for Pooh and Piglet and the initials or letters of your own name.

7. Remove the bones and any meat that has cooked free of them. Dice the meat and return to the soup.

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“Do you know what this is?”
“No,” said Piglet.
“It’s an A.”
“Oh,” said Piglet.
“Not O, A,” said Eeyore severely. “Can’t you hear, or do you think you have more education than Christopher Robin?” ~ The House at Pooh Corner

Oh! My favorite recipe in the whole book is, “A Recipe for Getting Thin.” You’ll have to get the book to see for yourself, says the newly thin soup maker. ☺

friday feast: absolutely NO soup for you, a recipe, and a giveaway!

February 11, 2011November 13, 2017 ~ jama ~ 1 Comment

ilovemypit/flickr

So, are you drooling over this beautiful bowl of lentil soup with fresh berries on the side?

Well, drool is all you’re gonna do, because today, there will absolutely, positively be NO SOUP FOR YOU!

That’s right. No slurping or sipping or swallowing or anything else. I realize it goes counter to everything I stand for around here, but today’s a special day and I’m making an exception.

Bouillabaisse by Zen Chef/flickr.

Remember last week’s cookie fest with Mr. Dumpty? Diane Lockward, the fabulous poet who created that scrumptious poem, has graciously granted me permission to post yet another delectable delight from her latest book, Temptation by Water. What could be better than melt-in-your-mouth cookies, you ask? Soup, of course!

Mulligatawny by anjuli_ayer/flickr.

I swear I’ve never actually met Diane, but it certainly seems she’s writing many of her poems just for me ☺. Recently, I asked her about the genesis of and writing process behind today’s poem, “‘No Soup for You!'” I learned that she loves soup and has a bowl for lunch almost every day throughout the year — and, *wait for it*, her husband owns a restaurant!

*swoon*

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