Granola Bars!

I got this recipe from Clean Eating - a really cool, inexpensive, non-time consuming cooking magazine. I didn't follow the recipe exactly (instead of using the specific berries they mention, I just bought a cheaper Berry Medley at Trader Joe's). I also lined the pan with wax paper so that I could just lift it out when it was done baking and I'm almost positive that made life so much easier.

So, recipe!

Makes probably about 40 granola bites
Takes about 20 minutes to throw together, 10 to 15 minutes to cut
Bake time is 25 to 30 minutes

Ingredients:
Wax paper or cooking spray for the pan
4 cups old fashioned oatmeal (aka not instant)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg plus 3 egg whites
1 cup unsweetened applesauce (I didn't have this, so I cut up a couple of apples and cooked them in a pan like for an apple pie, then mushed them like mashed potatoes...I have a lot of free time....)
3 tbs honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots
1/3 cup dried blueberries
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup unsalted slivered almonds (I used pecans from our freezer)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a roughly 11 x 8 inch baking dish, press in the wax paper (you should still have extra sticking up to grab a hold of later) or grease the pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together oats, flour and cinnamon. The better it's stirred together now, the easier this is later - you don't want chunks of flour in your granola bars.

Yummmm! Mix those cinnamon, oats and flour! 

In a medium bowl, whisk egg and egg whites. Add applesauce, honey and vanilla until smooth. 

Whisk together egg, egg whites, applesauce, honey and vanilla.

Side note, I didn't have applesauce, so I cut and peeled two apples
and cooked them a la apple pie, then mushed like mashed potatoes.

Stir this into the flour/oat/cinnamon mixture and mix it really, really well (see don't want any flour chunks.) Finally, add the measurements above, or the entire package of Berry Medley. (I originally used the measurements given, but had so little left in the package, I went ahead and dumped it all in.) Mix that well.

Next, dump all of that into the pan and press out with your fingers. Sprinkle the almonds/whatever you have on hand on top. Then, I used a second sheet of wax paper on top to really press it down firmly and get it pretty flat. Peel back that top layer of waxed paper, and it's ready to go in the oven!

Bake it for 25 - 30 minutes, until a toothpick/butter knife comes out clean (like when you bake a cake.) Mine ended up having to cook for the full 30 minutes, but it's always good to check because you would't want dry, crumbly granola bars.

Finally, when it's completely cool, lift the wax paper out of the pan. Rather than peeling it off right away, I went ahead and cut the granola bars into strips, then slowly worked them off the wax paper. I ended up making smaller squares because I was worried a whole bar would be too much weight and they'd end up breaking while you ate them. So, I made them smaller et voila! Granola bites! 

I was a little skeptical at first (they tasted a lot like flour/oatmeal the first day) but once they set overnight, I thought they tasted much better.

Hope you enjoy the recipe!!

Prompt Poem

Yesterday, I provided a link to an article on Mental Floss of the 25 happiest words in English with the idea of using any of those words as a way to get around blank page syndrom and I have to say, I really enjoyed where this exercise took me. 

Discovery is one of the foundations of poetry I love most. There is something magical and thrilling when poetry sidles up and makes us fall in love with even one of the millions of tiny observations that make up our existence. And that, my friends, is what this exercise helps us do. It trains us to write 'blind' with no overarching concept we need to get across. 

When I'm not writing with an end result in mind, I'm not constricted by "That line doesn't get at what I want to say" or the dreaded "What do I even have to write about!?!" quandary because you're writing to write rather than to reproduce an experience or emotion. However, that does not mean your poem shouldn't have a reason for being or that poems based in memory, experience and emotion aren't vitally important - some of my own best poems fall in these categories - but it is nice to break free from 'supposed to' for awhile. 

***

Revisions

Forests are opening 

Pines are opening

Pines uncurl their needles again and again, 
spring sky hazy with green


This morning, the spring sky is hazy with green,
buds sticky with being born, leaves uncurling -
a tide

This morning, the spring sky is hazy with green,
buds sticky with being born, leaves a tide
uncurling against birch, maple, oak, pine.

Here, the spring sky is hazy with green,
buds sticky with being born, leaves a tide
uncurling against birch, maple and oak.

Dearest one, nothing is easy these days, 


Here, my slice of spring sky
is hazy with green, leaves
a tide uncurling against birch
and pine. Rest easier, dearest
one, silky wind ruffles tassels 
of corn

Final

Dear John,

Dorothy May Bradford 

c. 1597 - 1620

Here, my slice of spring sky

is hazy with green; leaves

a tide uncurling against birch

and pine. Rest easier, dearest

one, gentle winds will carry

you across the water soon.

Until then, all my love.

***

As I pointed out above, I was surprised by where I ended up at the end of this exercise. I had no intention of writing a letter, let alone one based on historical events. Though I think this poem stands on it's own, I feel like it has more impact if you know the lives behind it. 

I've recently finished reading Nathaniel Philbreck's Mayflower and found the individual histories fascinating. William (author Of Plymouth Plantation) and Dorothy Bradford set out onboard the Mayflower with a 121 other passengers. Their three year old son, John, was left behind in the care of his grandparents in Amsterdam, meant to come over on a later trip once the pilgrims were established in the New World. Tragically, Dorothy died shortly after arriving and never reunited with her son. 

This small piece of history stuck with me, and in this case, I don't think I could have done it justice (if I even have here in the brief poem above) if I set out specifically to write their story. In all, I was able to use four of the twenty five words and used 'forests' as a springboard to 'birch and pine'. Most likely, I will return to it at a later date and make further revisions.

I hope it was helpful to hear one writer's process and I wish you the best of luck in your own poetry!

Prompt!

I hate prompts with a passion. I feel like they're stifling; a giant pillow smothering any nascent urge I had to write in the first place. BUT this is not your normal college prompt. There is no due date, no one telling you to use at least three words on the list and make it five lines long. This post is just to get the gears turning, keyboard typing, or pen moving. 

I love reading Mental Floss and recently stumbled across a list - 25 of the Happiest Words in English. My first thought was, wow, what a cool idea. My second was that this would be a great list to pluck words for a poem. 

I would suggest you pick a few and see where it leads. This prompt is meant to get around the whole 'blank page' syndrom - anyone can write a line using Saturday, cherry, or forests. Just take a leap, grab a word and start writing - you can always revise (my favorite part about writing) and decide, you know what, using forests sucks here. But, at least you started writing. So go on, don't be shy - write a few down, throw them around on the page. I'll post my effort later this afternoon! 

• easier
• interesting
• honest
• forests
• Saturday
• dinner
• comfortable
• gently
• fresh
• pal
• warmth
• rest
• welcome
• dearest
• useful
• cherry
• safe 
• better
• piano
• silk
• relief
• rhyme
• hi 
• agree
• water

Delicious Spinach and Pesto Grilled Cheese

I am an unabashed fan of 'fancy' grilled cheese. Tonight, my newest creation -  thin slices of extra sharp cheddar cheese, a tiny daub of brown mustard, finely chopped spinach and garlic mixed with pesto between two slices of bread. Yum. Rereading, I recognize that this may strike you as a skeptical list of ingredients, but let me assure you, the result is almost perfection.

Ingredients:
-1 cup fresh spinach leaves
- about 4 tbs pesto (I used Trader Joe's fresh stuff in the plastic tub, not the jar)
- 2 or 3 cloves of chopped garlic (more or less depending on your taste)
- spicy brown mustard
- 4 slices of whole wheat bread
- olive oil or butter to grease the pan

While listening to Poetry Off the Shelf this evening, (a podcast episode devoted to Edna St. Vincent Millay), I chopped the spinach and garlic and mixed it thoroughly with the pesto. Next, I sliced more than enough cheese for two sandwiches and decided to taste test. After munching, I spread a thick layer of the pesto mixture on one slice of bread, mustard on the other and added the cheese. Once the frying pan heats, I add a tiny splash of olive oil and roll it around the pan to give it an even coat, then add the sandwich, cheese side down so that it melts properly. While Sandwich #1 is cooking, prepare Sandwich #2.

We ate them with some leftover potato soup from last night, but I imagine these would be delicious for lunch. You could also add ingredients like apple slices, bacon, ham etc or substitute the sharp cheddar for another type of cheese like Brie, blue cheese or goat cheese. The possibilities are mouthwateringly endless for us cheese fanatics.

What are your additions?

Reciting in the Kitchen

This is the beginning of a blog on poetry and the kitchen - a place where poets can swap poems, recipes and revisions; a place of writing prompts and delicious bread. I hope to create a small, online community devoted to workshopping each others poetry and incorporating poetry into our daily lives.

If you would like to contact me with suggestions for posts, prompts or just to discuss poetry, you can either post a comment below or reach me at poetryspoon at gmail dot com. 

"Oh the busy city under the grass. / The Dark it will make of our bone-white bones." 

- Ellen Doré Watson, This Sharpening