a recipe from above.

i have a friend. she doesn't know about this blog so i can't use any identifying details, but lets just say that she's pure of heart and righteous of spirit. she was chosen as a sacred vessel... maybe i should tell this story.

so my friend was doing something sacred and chaste like singing hymns or doing laundry or facebooking or something, when an angel of the lord appeared to her.


'be not afraid!' the angel thundered reassuringly. 'you have been chosen by the mightiest of deities to deliver his/her manhattan chowder recipe to the people of the world!'

then a glowing scrap of paper appeared in her hands. my friend's holy eyes scanned the paper and said 'oh, cool, i have all the ingredients.... um, except the clams. i'll get some when i pick the kids up from school. thanks!' but when she looked back up the angel was gone, and when she looked back down the paper had stopped glowing and she noticed that it was part of the envelope from an unsolicited credit card offer that had come in the mail the day before. the supreme deity reuses before recycling, my friend mused.

that night she made the soup. it was quick and easy and tasted good. the next day she heated up some of the leftovers, and it was freaking awesome. she tried it cold, and it was perfectly edible. 'so,' she thought to herself, 'this is a soup that tastes better the next day.'

my friend smiled to herself.

in the coming weeks my friend made the soup often, and it was always well recieved, even by her son, who is an insanely picky eater. (i've babysat him, and the kid likes cooked spaghetti noodles with a little parmesan cheese on them as a meal. nothing else.)

the holidays came and my friend and her family were planning to travel to visit family. my friend emptied her fridge of perishables (sushi! milk! lettuce!) and brought them to my house, since we were in the middle of our month-long illness. included in the bounty was a sour cream container with leftover manhattan clam chowder.

that night, in between the boy crying himself to sleep and the baby waking up covered in puke, i sat down with the container of soup, cold. i couldn't risk the microwave waking up the little sickos, but i hadn't eaten anything all day, since it had been a hellish nonstop sickfest. and the glory of the soup was revealed unto me. and deliciousness and wholesome fillingness shone around.

i bribed another friend to finangle the recipe for me, and made it last night. here it is.

chop and fry in a bit of oil:

• a medium onion
• 1 cup of chopped celery
• a clove or two of garlic
  

when onion translucent, add:

• a potato or three, cubed
• 2 cups of boiling water or stock

simmer for ~15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
then add:

• 1-2 cups of chopped up tomatoes and liquid
• 1 can of clams with liquid
• 1t thyme
• salt and pepper to taste

simmer another 10 minutes.

we love seafood 'round these parts, so i used two cans of clams and their juice, minus the several that i ate straight out of the can while making it. you can never have enough clams. that's my motto. i also used a whole huge jar of tomatoes. and an extra potato. so i guess i doubled the recipe or something. that's fine, double the sanctity! more food from less cooking!

so cook it! enjoy it! and when you copy it out into your recipe box, title it 'divine manhattan clam chowder sent from above', ok?

blow me down, it be talk like a pirate day! me and the laddies be a-swaggerin'* and a-swearin** and a-drinkin grog***.
this be the holy day of pastafarians, and we be celebratin' in high style. hoist the mainsail and veer to starboard and eat spaghetti, it's september 19!


*the baby is still learning to walk, so his swagger is more like a stagger.
** none of us are swearing. but we would, if the boys were older.
*** the grog in question is coffee for me and other bevvies for the babes. then tonight, after they're in bed, my grog will be wine. at least that's booze, right?

zen and cooking

i posted before about my meal plans. and they've been working out really well. we've been eating excellent food, our food bills are lower than they would be otherwise, and i've discovered something.

domesticity can be rewarding.

it had never occurred to me that cooking and cleaning could be anything but chores. sure, the meals are nice and things smell good and everyone is happy, but all the time spent getting to that point could be better spent playing sims or something. in my mind the ends didn't generally justify the means.

i've been trying to practice mindfulness lately. and i've been cooking & cleaning more than i ever have before. it turns out that combining the two results in something really enjoyable. tonight i was chopping tomatoes for the falafels and it was just so much fun. the smell of the tomatoes, the squish as i chopped the slightly overripe fruit with a slightly dull knife, the anticipation of tomato-ey goodness... i really deeply enjoyed making dinner.

and having a cleaner house makes it easier for me to think and be positive. clutter really is distracting. who knew? just because i've read it and been told it over and over... i'm not so good at believing the things i'm told, it seems.

overall, i feel like my spirit is being fed by domesticity. i'm still not interested in being a full-time housewife, but i see how so many people can find satisfaction doing this stuff.

my new deity

originally an evangelical christian, i have been on a journey for the past few years. i've established that i'm definitely not a christian (don't tell my parents or in-laws) and i'm not an atheist... according to beliefnet's belief-o-matic quiz i'm a neo-pagan, but i'm disinclined to express that faith in any but the most casual and cynical of ways.
today i realized what my faith is. (aside from pastafarianism, which will always be my true faith) i actually worship the internet. i'm not sure what the name for that would be, but there you have it. the internet is an invisible, powerful, mysterious being that brought me together with some of my closest friends. it gives me companionship, comfort, entertainment and information. it it who i go to when i can't sleep at night, when i'm worried about something, and when i'm bored. i can't imagine a day without the internet and i talk about it fairly regularly. this very blog could be considered a prayer.
internetian? nope. um, webworshipper? uh... i need to think on this.

ps. googleimages was unhelpful in my quest to end this post with an appropriate image. alas. the internet let me down.

his noodly greatness

so if my son can't have pasta, is he excluded from the church of the flying spaghetti monster? i can't imagine having to endure life without the touch of his noodly appendage... is there a flying spaghetti squash monster for celiacs? i suppose he could be made with rice noodles or corn noodles, but those are nasty and my deity is many things, but nasty is not one of them.
i've requested clarification on this matter from the facebook group. may the fsm (and his facebooky minions) reveal all that is hidden and inform us in his great wisdom.
ramen.