charles waters heats things up

April 12, 2012September 7, 2017 ~ jama ~ 37 Comments

#10 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

Holy Soup Spoon! Mr. Excitement is here!

Can you feel the joy and the love? I’m tickled pink that actor and children’s poet Charles Waters agreed to join our Potluck this year. I’m sure whoever coined the phrase, “life of the party,” must have had him in mind.

I first “met” Charles at one of GottaBook’s 30 Poets/30 Days events. Immediately loved his positivity, sense of humor and offbeat child-centric take on life. He’s a veritable wellspring of creative energy who, interestingly enough, discovered his love for children’s poetry while touring for 3 seasons with Poetry Alive!®. Performing poetry for kids all over the country inspired him to write his own and eventually develop his one man show, Poetry Time with Uncle Charles.

Charles’s poem and recipe prove that his favorite dish is indeed hot stuff. Sounds like this special chili has helped him write and perform awesome poems and get people of all ages fired up about poetry. Never underestimate the power of a good chipotle!

SANTA FE CHILI

My friend Isabel’s
Santa Fe Chili
Compels me to act
Downright silly.

My taste buds soar,
I click both heels,
A top confection
Out of all her meals.

Black beans mixed with
Canary rice,
Combined aromas
Made to entice.

Chipotle peppers,
Sour cream,
Like Coltrane’s album
It’s A LOVE SUPREME.

Feel a bit crummy?
Life’s not going well?
Then try Santa Fe Chili
Made by Isabel.

**************************************

Charles: Somehow I lucked out and have a friend named Isabel Garcia who cooks for me. She became a vegan a few years ago and cooks the most nourishing, delicious meals you can imagine. Every meal she makes is a favorite of mine, but her Santa Fe Chili rocks my planet. It’s a perfect meal for lunch or dinner; make a side salad, pour yourself a cold beverage and enjoy! By the way, this poem is totally autobiographical because if I’m feeling low (or not) and have this meal, I’m dancing around like Bill Cosby in “The Cosby Show.”

Take that, Jello pudding!

Santa Fe Black Bean Chili

What you’ll need:

Blender
2 large stew pots
Medium bowl

Ingredients:

-3 cups dried black beans (a 1-lb. bag yields about 2+ cups dried beans — so you’ll need a 2-lb. bag) to produce 9 cups soaked/cooked black beans (or simply use six 15-oz cans, NOT DRAINED)
-1-1/2 inch piece dried brown chipotle (dried jalapeño chiles), soaked in 1/2 cup hot water (use more or less chipotle for desired spiciness)
– 2 teaspoons olive oil
-2 cups diced yellow onion (about 2 onions)
-4 garlic cloves, finely minced
-15-oz can stewed tomatoes, pureed (NOT DRAINED)
-2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
-1 tablespoon molasses
-1 aji dulce pepper (any color), seeded, pureed (use more or less for desired spiciness)
-15-oz can crushed tomatoes
-1 teaspoon cumin
-1 teaspoon ground coriander
-1-1/2 teaspoon paprika
-1/2 teaspoon turmeric
-1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
-1 teaspoon veggie base
-2 teaspoons salt
-Pepper to taste

Optional:

-Cooked brown rice
-Chopped green onions
-Vegan sour cream
-Sliced green or black olives

Directions:

1. Soak 3 cups of examined, sorted and rinsed black beans in a pot with 9 cups of water for 8 hours, covered.

After the overnight soak, drain the beans and discard the water.

Put the cleaned black beans back in the pot.

Add 9 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of olive oil to the beans, stir gently.

Bring the beans to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer with lid tilted, checking for tenderness after 90 minutes. If required, cook for additional 30 minutes.

Once desired tenderness is reached, remove from heat, keep the lid on and set aside.

1 a. If serving with brown rice, begin cooking it now before you continue with the recipe.

1 b. If using canned black beans, DO NOT DRAIN! In step #8, simply measure 1 cup of canned beans.

In step #9, add 1 cup of water to the pot along with the remaining cans of beans.

2. Heat ½ cup of water (I use a ceramic cup and heat water in the microwave for 30-45 seconds). Cut piece of dried brown chipotle and place it in the hot water to soak. Set aside for at least 10 minutes.

3. While the chipotle soaks, mince the garlic and finely dice the onions.

4. Heat oil in a separate large stew pot.

5. Add minced garlic and diced onions to heated oil, stirring often. Turn heat down to allow to soften but not to brown.

6. Meanwhile, puree in a blender, the stewed tomatoes, cilantro, aji dulce and molasses. Pour into the blender the soaked chipotle along with the ½ cup of water in which it has been soaking. Puree until completely smooth with no visible chunks.

7. Pour the blender contents into the pot and stir, mixing the softened onions and garlic well. Raise heat slightly.

8. Measure 1 cup of the cooked black beans into a separate bowl, using a ladle to ensure enough of the black beans liquid is collected. Mash the beans well to create a thick paste and then mix the mashed beans into the pot.

9. Pour the remaining cooked beans (and its liquid) into the pot and stir.

10. Add the remaining ingredients – crushed tomatoes, cumin, ground coriander, paprika, turmeric, fresh lime juice, veggie base and salt and stir well.

11. Cover pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

12. After 20 minutes, remove from heat and stir. Cover and set aside for additional 10 minutes.

13. Serve with rice or any combination of optional ingredients.

*Please see more tips and recipes at IsaVegan.com.

***********************************************

Charles Waters has performed professionally in theatres across the country since 1997. He also dedicated 3 years of service to Poetry Alive!, a performance and teaching theatre troupe that reaches an estimated 600,000 students nationwide each year and where he performed in 38 of the 50 states.

His poems will appear in the upcoming anthologies AMAZING PLACES edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOK OF ANIMAL POETRY edited by J. Patrick Lewis (Children’s Poet Laureate of the United States), THE ARROW FINDS ITS MARK: FOUND POEMS edited by Georgia Heard and AND THE CROWD GOES WILD: A GLOBAL GATHERING OF SPORTS POEMS edited by Carol-Ann Hoyte and Heidi Bee Roemer.

He performs his one man show POETRY TIME WITH UNCLE CHARLES to elementary and middle school audiences.

Please check out his website at www.charleswaters.net and his YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCharlesWaters

**************************************************

Previously: Menu/Giveaway/Door Prizes, April Pulley Sayre, Mary Quattlebaum, Helen Frost, Linda Ashman, Gail Gerwin, Martha Calderaro, Kathi Appelt, Robyn Hood Black.

————————————————————–

robyn hood black, leader of the pack

April 11, 2012August 17, 2017 ~ jama ~ 65 Comments

#8 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

*Robyn with her office cat, May, who’s helping her celebrate the arrival of her contributor copies of THE ARROW FINDS ITS MARK (Roaring Brook, 2012).*

Awrrrroooooo!

Children’s poet and author Robyn Hood Black is here! She’s one of several newish online friends I’ve met through Poetry Friday, and I have so enjoyed visiting her blog Read, Write, Howl every week to see just what this multi-talented, animal-loving gal is up to.

Will she post an original haiku or a piece of her beautiful artwork? Will she share pictures of the wolves she cavorts with as a volunteer for a nearby wildlife preserve, or maybe poetry and drawings created by some of the many children she’s met through school visits and community presentations? No matter what she does, Robyn’s passion always shines through.

Like the best of potluck guests, Robyn’s brought along both grog and grub — a previously unpublished, bewitchingly amusing, finely tuned recipe poem, and a batch of her newly renamed Oatmeal Bars (I am understandably highly partial to these). She also created a gorgeous relief print to go with her poem. Lots to savor here, so don your black bibs and enjoy every delectable word and crumb!

Robin: My brother Mike and I used to transform our circa-1970 ranch house into a haunted house each Halloween — we charged admission and everything. We had a spooky secret passage in a tunnel under his built-in bed, bowls of peeled grape eyeballs on the bathroom counter, headless people sitting at the dining room table — the whole nine yards. I was usually a black cat or something, but Mike, who grew up to be an engineer, was a haunted house himself one year. Very impressive.

The idea for this poem came to me one day earlier this year when I was out walking the dog — a crow was cawing above us, and I just started thinking of tangible and intangible things — in black and white — that might go into a “spooky brew.”

Continue reading →

kathi appelt: a sweet memory

April 10, 2012September 8, 2017 ~ jama ~ 65 Comments

#9 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

Poetry is the home for all my yearnings
each poem a separate room
where wandering words
find a cool bed, a bowl of soup

where names of trees and cities
and people I know who want to know
knock on doors, ring bells,
invite me in for coffee and a rhyme

~ from “Homeroom” by Kathi Appelt (Poems from Homeroom: A Writer’s Place to Start, Henry Holt, 2002).

I’m thrilled and honored to welcome multiple award-winning poet and author Kathi Appelt to our Potluck today. As you can see by the opening stanzas of “Homeroom,” Kathi is a poet after my own heart.

A good poem makes us feel as though we’ve come home — to our own doubts, sorrows, joys, fears, wonder, gratitude. There is nothing quite like a room of carefully arranged words that invites you in for a quick visit, only to inhabit your soul forever.

I love the poem Kathi’s brought today, not only because it’s about pie — but because of its transcendent beauty. It speaks of that quiet inner space where love, memory, and longing converge. How would you build a room strong yet gentle enough to hold a fleeting moment in time? This poem is a flutter in the heart, a sweet reflection hovering in our imaginations.

Kathi: I adored my husband’s grandmother, Emma. She was a wonderful cook, and her pecan pies were a staple of our holidays. Right after we were married, she wrote down her recipe for me, and I’ve had it ever since. Several years after she passed away, at the age of 96, I found myself baking her pies for Thanksgiving. Seeing her handwriting, with the faded ink, made me want to “toast” her in the best way I knew — with a poem.

Pecan Pie

Emma was my grandmother too,
tied through wedding vows to
her youngest grandson my one true love.
On her back porch, she held my
hands and sang ancient
nursery rhymes in German, her very
first tongue. The songs, her soft,
steady voice, called up hummingbirds
hovering just above
pots of lantana and marigolds.
Now what’s left is a scrap of paper,
the whispy blue ink
turned brown, her recipe
for pecan pie. Each time I fold in
the butter, chop the
pecans, measure the light brown
sugar, same shade as the ink,
she holds my hands,
hums an old tune about the
little girl down the lane. My kitchen heats up.

Next thing I know, there are hummingbirds.
A slice of pie, a cup of coffee,
a language I don’t know, but still it comes
to me. We hover there,
our tiny wings, our rapid hearts,
our solitary belief in sugar and pecans.

Thanksgiving, 2002
Copyright 2012 Kathi Appelt. All rights reserved.

*************************************

I can’t even imagine the fall holidays without baking one of Emma’s pecan pies. And whenever I bake one, I feel like Emma is right there in the room with me. It’s a sweet feeling, like I have an angel on my shoulder. I make these pies every year for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Southern Pecan Pie

1 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup butter (stick) melted
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 unbaked pie shell

Mix sugars and flour, beat in thoroughly, eggs, milk, vanilla, butter. Fold in nuts. Pour into pie shell. Bake 40 to 50 minutes in 350 degree oven.

****************************************

Kathi Appelt is the award-winning author of more than thirty books for children and young adults. Her picture book, MISS LADY BIRD’S WILDFLOWERS: HOW A FIRST LADY CHANGED AMERICA (HarperCollins, 2005) was given the “Growing Good Kids Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature.” In 2003 Appelt won the Irma and Simon Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature, given by the Bank Street College of Education, for her picture book BUBBA AND BEAU, BEST FRIENDS (Harcourt Brace, 2002). Her memoir, MY FATHER’S SUMMERS (Henry Holt, 2004) won the Paterson Prize for Young Adult Poetry.

Her first novel, THE UNDERNEATH, a haunting story of love and survival in the pine forests of East Texas, has been described by reviewers as a “classic.” It was named a National Book Award Finalist, a Newbery Honor Book, and most recently awarded the PEN USA Literature for Children Award.

Ms. Appelt was presented with the A.C. Greene Award by the Friends of Abilene Public Library, which named her a “Texas Distinguished Author.”

In addition to writing, Ms. Appelt is on the faculty in the Masters of Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Her newest book is KEEPER, published by Atheneum, 2010.

She and her husband Ken live in College Station, TX with four adorable cats, Django, Peach, Hoss and Jazz. They are the parents of two even more adorable sons, Jacob and Cooper, musicians who both play the double bass. For more information, check her website: www.kathiappelt.com.

******************************************

SURPRISE DOOR PRIZE!

Kathi has generously offered to send one lucky reader an autographed copy of her beautiful picture book, My Father’s House, illustrated by Raul Colon, published by Viking (2007).

For a chance to win, please leave a comment at this post no later than 12 noon (EDT) Saturday, April 14, 2012. Winner will be announced on Sunday, April 15th, along with the other door prize winners.

*****************************************

Previously: Menu/Giveaway/Door Prizes, April Pulley Sayre, Mary Quattlebaum, Helen Frost, Linda Ashman, Gail Gerwin, Martha Calderaro.

********************************************

This post has been linked to Beth Fish Read’s Weekend Cooking, where all are invited to share food related posts (fiction/nonfiction/cookbook/movie reviews, photos, musings, recipes, etc.).

———————————————————————-

martha calderaro’s special delivery

April 9, 2012September 8, 2017 ~ jama ~ 61 Comments

#7 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

Hey, Poetry Friends – You’ve got mail!

I’m pretty sure there’s nothing children’s writer Martha Calderaro would rather do for Poetry Month than visit your neighborhood to drop a freshly penned poem in each and every mailbox. Imagine finding a love sonnet, a bawdy limerick, an inspirational verse, a clever bit of wordplay or calming lyric nestled among the bills and bank statements!

Since this isn’t physically possible, lovely Martha is doing the next best thing: she’s written a poem especially for the Potluck, a humorous flight of fancy that doubles as a tribute to a vanishing breed of messengers.

*Daisy, Martha’s Muse: “Pat me. You know you want to.”*

She’s also brought along her adorable six-month-old Newfoundland pup, Daisy, who was there when inspiration struck for today’s poem. It sounds like in Martha’s neighborhood, dogs wax poetic rather than chase after the mailman. We’re doubly glad Martha’s here today, cause her special delivery also includes a yummy recipe straight from the Muffin Man. ☺

Continue reading →

sunday bunny: mary oliver from Evidence

April 8, 2012October 2, 2017 ~ jama ~ 11 Comments

*“Bordeaux” by Hillary Hulen (clown bunny, dyed mohair, white lace collar, bell buttons, pink rosebud accents, 1988)*

With Thanks to the Field Sparrow, Whose Voice Is So Delicate and Humble

I do not live happily or comfortably
with the cleverness of our times.
The talk is all about computers,
the news is all about bombs and blood.
This morning, in the fresh field,
I came upon a hidden nest.
It held four warm, speckled eggs.
I touched them.
Then went away softly,
having felt something more wonderful
than all the electricity of New York City.

~ Mary Oliver (Evidence, Beacon Press, 2009)