Excuses, Excuses

Well folks, I'm still feeling pretty sick. I think in the interests of resting up, and being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (English idiom!) for Monday, we'll skip the blog post for this week. You can catch up, if you are behind on posts, and of course, you're always welcome to write anything you want just for the fun of it, but there won't be an assigned post for points this week. Have fun and see you Monday.

Lungs of a Sparrow, Heart of a Lion

In 2001 I visited the Grand Canyon in Arizona with my friend Steve from Ireland. The Grand Canyon is one of those places you've heard so much about and seen so many pictures of beforehand, you can't help but wonder if it can possibly live up to expectations. The amazing thing is, it does. It's just so incredible.

We wanted to go as far down into the canyon as we could. I had heard of people riding mules down and was interested in trying that. It turns out, however, that it costs $500 (per person) to ride a mule to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Steve said at that price we might as well buy our own mules. So we decided to walk. It was February, so there was still a bit of snow at the top, but as we hiked down the temperature rose enough to take off our coats. The canyon is two miles deep. We hiked about halfway down, where there is large plateau, and stopped for our picnic lunch.

We saw deer which let us get so close we could have touched them. We also saw a coyote at very close range. He stood completely still and stared at us for over a minute. It was thrilling, and also just slightly frightening. We figured that perhaps since the canyon has been protected for so long, the animals there have never experienced hunters, so they don't have a fear of humans as predators.

At this level, unlike at the top, you can look down and see the Colorado River, the force of which has carved out the canyon over so many millenia.

We were having such a good time on the plateau, we didn't really consider the time. By the time we started the climb back up, it was already mid-afternoon. Let me just say, climbing up was very hard! The path was quite steep and rough. Going down had been pleasantly challenging, but getting up was murder. We began to worry we wouldn't make it up before dark. This was actually quite a frightening thought, because the path was pretty narrow and still had snow and ice on it at the upper levels. If you slipped, well, there was only one place to go really...So naturally, we tried to push ourselves up as hard as we could.

I say "we," but really I was the one having the most trouble. Steve was doing alright, but I could hardly catch my breath (as you can see)! I have mild asthma, nothing that bothers me much normally, but my poor little lungs weren't up to this. I kept having to stop and breathe, then make myself get up and try again. I really wasn't sure at times I would make it. I thought I might pass out or something. But I just made myself keep moving. Steve was very encouraging.

In the end, we made it to the top just as the sun was disappearing over the opposite edge of the canyon. A triumph of will-power for sure! "You have the lungs of a sparrow, but the heart of lion," said Steve.

1/19/08 Blog Topic for P1 Reading and Writing:
Tell us about a memorable trip you have taken, or a time when you managed to do something difficult which you didn't think you'd be able to do.
Note: Let's just make Tuesday the regular due date for your blog posts, since I don't seem to be able to get mine up before Saturday!

"Get That Inta Ya!" (As They Say in Ireland)

Okay, by popular request, a food blog for this week. It sounds like we have quite a few cooks in our class, so this should be good. Some of you were asking about Irish food the other day. Ireland isn't exactly known for its cuisine, unlike some of your countries. Meals there tend to be pretty straight-forward "meat-potato-veg" affairs. In fact, a friend of mine who grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Dublin told me once that he had never had a dinner that didn't include potatos until he tried spaghetti at age twenty-one.

I worked in supported-living housing for homeless men for a few years when I was over there. Most of the men I worked with were in their 50s and 60s and had come from very traditional, farming-type backgrounds. Part of my job was cooking dinner for them. They were naturally suspicious of any experimentation. "You're learning the fine art of Irish boiling" my friend said. Any spice more exotic than salt or pepper was suspect. The same with any vegetable aside from carrots, cabbage, parsnips, peas, beans, or turnips--in other words, any vegetable that didn't traditionally grow in Ireland. Once I tried to serve broccoli for a change and one of the men said, "I'm not eating those wee little trees!"

So anyway, the Irish recipe I'm going to share with you is typically simple and potato-based, but actually very delicious. It's one thing I picked up over there that I still cook all time, and it always makes me feel a bit homesick for Ireland. Lochlan likes it too. It's very good, filling comfort food for winter days like these. I learned to make it as "boxty," but I've also heard it called "colcannon."

Irish Boxty

Ingredients
Potatos (about 2 for each person you are feeding)
Cabbage, chopped (preferably savoy cabbage, a dark-green, leafy variety)
Milk
Butter
One small onion, finely chopped
Salt and Pepper

Clean the potatos and cut in half or thirds. Put them in a large pot and just cover them with water. Bring the water to a boil and cook for 5 min. Then put the chopped cabbage in the pot on top of the potatos, cover with the lid, and cook for another 15 minutes or so. (You can use as much cabbage as you like; I think about 1/3 of the volume of potatos works well). Remove the pot from the heat. The cabbage and potatos should be tender. Scoop the cabbage out and set it aside. Drain the potatos and mash them, adding milk and butter to taste as you go. They should end up smooth and creamy and rich. Then drain the cabbage, squeezing it to remove extra water, and mix it into the mashed potatos. Next add the chopped onions. Again, you decide how much you want depending on the volume of boxty. Then add salt and pepper to taste, and you are ready to eat!

2/12/08 Blog Topic for P1 Reading and Writing
(Notice I'm giving you until Tuesday. I thought it was only fair because I was so late getting this up!)
Share a favorite recipe with the rest of us. Tell us where you learned it and how you feel about it. If you are one of our chefs, then do your stuff. If not, just tell us something simple like how to make a sandwich you like. Or just write about food in general: what you like, what you hate, what you eat at home, what you eat here, etc.