Culinary Creativity

Lately I've been lamenting my blocked creativity. But I woke up in the night last night and had a thought - hey! I've been cooking up a storm. During the last few days, those who have been celebrating with me have been treated to many fine things:

Chicken enchiladas
Pasilla peppers stuffed with quinoa, mushrooms, and goat cheese
Deviled crab
Creme brulee
Fruit compote of persimmons, pomegranates, blueberries, and cherries
Cream cheese balls rolled in crushed wasabi peas
Huevos rancheros
Giant salads
Chicken soups
....... and much more!

I'm getting on a roll with southwestern food. I'm seriously loving everything with peppers, chipotle, corn, beans. In the winter time, those flavors hit the spot for me. So I thought I'd give a report today, creativity is flowing but just in a different channel!

Goodwill, peace on earth.

Today is Christmas, 2006. We had our big family celebration early this year (Friday) so that my son and his wife could be with her family this weekend. Having the extended family together was really joyful and sweet. There was a baby, and news of another one. There were tears and laughter. There was delicious food, and abundant left-overs. I am so blessed!

Here's wishing all of you, wherever you are in the world, in your life, in your heart, some true joy in your holidays, however you honor (or ignore) them! How we touch and connect with each other is really what matters most, and what can heal our world and our spirits!

-------------------------------
Praise wet snow
falling early
Praise the shadow
my neighbor's chimney casts on the tile roof
even this gray October day that should, they say,
have been golden.
Praise
the invisible sun burning beyond
the white cold sky, giving us
light and the chimney's shadow.
Praise
god or the gods, the unknown,
that which imagined us, which stays
our hand,
our murderous hand,
and gives us
still,
in the shadow of death,
our daily life,
and the dream still
of goodwill, of peace on earth.
Praise
flow and change, night and
the pulse of day.
Denise Levertov

Blogger Blockage

Yes, it's been nearly 6 weeks since I've posted. I got to a creative impasse, a ravine too wide to jump across. There have been many false starts, but nothing came of them. I began to mistrust my own voice, to have doubts about saying anything worth saying. I suffered from blogger envy, comparing myself unfavorably with other, better, more profound or poetic or artistic or meaningful or politically savvy bloggers. It began to spread, so that I also had trouble reading other blogs, even though there are many that I love. It spilled over into my other creative activities. I haven't made a drawing or a painting, written anything, or even painted my own toenails. I've been stuck inside my head, churning around in a wallow of doubt and stagnation. Today I say ENOUGH already! It's time to get over it, and just be who I am again, and have that be enough.

Poetry always has been important to me. A friend sent this little jewel a few days ago - I think it says it all:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

-Leonard Cohen