A Fall Festival Food

for my friends i finally was able to make supper this semester, i cooked soup in a pumpkin ...

cut the top off the pumpkin and clean the guts out...cut up about half a loaf of french bread and a little block of gruyere cheese into smallish cubes...place in the pumpkin along with a sprinkle of salt and some tarragon and garlic, probably about a teaspoon respectively... add a couple chunks of butter... pour about half to three-quarters cup chicken stock over the stuff already in the pumpkin... fill the pumpkin to about an inch bellow the opening with a combination of milk and half and half... put the cut-off top back on... bake at 400 for about two hours, give or take, (i wasn't paying really close attention to the exact time, but it was probably about that) on a cookie sheet of baking dish (with some sort of sides to prevent dripping, i used a 9x13 cake pan)... make sure you don't let the bottom of the pumpkin burn... stir it a couple of times while baking... take the pumpkin out of the oven stir it really well, make sure to scrape the sides a bit so that you get some chunks of the pumpkin mixed in... don't scrape to deep or your serving dish/pumpkin will get a very messy hole in the side or bottom... put the top of the pumpkin back on till you serve it, the pumpkin will provide some insulation, but serve it within about half an hour to forty-five minutes... the amounts of the ingredients will vary according to the size of the pumpkin...

dante

i have been working a lot with dante for my mideival lit class and it made me think of this song. dante was very clear on what was meant by his allegory, he wrote tons of letters to make sure no one missed the point, but the spirit of the song is a wonderful representation of the universal emotion, once you push the intellect and the allegory out of the way...


Dante's Prayer

When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone

I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and the fire

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Though we share this humble path, alone
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars

Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Please remember me

~ Loreena McKennitt

alive

so life has been crazy, busy at school, busy at work, and well then there is the whole wedding planning thing, which i should be busier at... so not much time on the net lately... really this is just a quick up date to let you all know that i am still alive and stressed out. =) i will try to post something a bit more substantial this weekend .....