WhimsyLand

I was looking for the first Silver Palate cookbook, where I'm pretty sure the Black Bean Cassoulet first showed up.  I just know I had a copy of it with pages falling out and the spine in tatters, but I couldn't find it.  That was a really good excuse to run over to Borders and try to find it, and meanwhile stop by Brewing Market for The World's Best Latte.  I did due diligence first, however, and found the recipe all over the web, such as here and here. More's the pity, as I could have used a latte to get me through the afternoon, which was a wonderful Colorado winter respite, in the 50's and sunny.  I don't remember the original using red peppers, I thought that was my improvement, but maybe I'm mis-remembering.  What a concoction!  Imagine:  black beans, ham hocks, two kinds of sausage, dry sherry, brown sugar, fresh lemon juice, and all that wonderful other stuff I mentioned yesterday.  I've just got to make this tomorrow.  I bought some dried black beans, so I suppose I'll do them from scratch, though I've never personally noticed any difference using canned beans.

I finally got around to unpacking My Giant Suitcase which is a gargantuan blue monster that I bought because I was traveling a lot and got tired of checking two bags.  Of course, not 15 minutes after I bought it the airlines imposed a 50 pound limit on bags with a stiff penalty for going over.  This thing probably weighs in at 12 pounds empty, so that doesn't leave a lot of slack if I try to stuff my laptop and 10 paperbacks in it amongst a week's worth of clothes to wear.  For the trip to CA with Der it was pretty handy, though, and I had tossed the (then) recent Poetry issue, an APR and a Poets & Writers.  Between driving, the Family Gathering, a night at Casa Paulsen, and being near-comatose for the last part of the trip, I never got around to reading any of them.  You're going to get a really quick take on them, as I have to go soak some beans.  Poetry starts off with 4 poems by Stephen Edgar, of whom I've never heard but that's nothing new.  D. A. Powell has a couple of interesting poems.  Kay Ryan weighs in with three of her usual long skinny poems that seem more like aphorisms.  I liked Carol Frost's two works:  "Man of War" and "Argonaut's Vow".  Also, Rachel Webster's "La Porte".  There's a large Comment section, which is increasingly my favorite part.  Our Own Dear Ange Mlinko reviews Gulf Music by Pinsky and California Sorrow by Kinzie.  I haven't read them, but I will tonight, and I know, I should read everything before mentioning them at all, but who has the time for goodness sake?

The Poets & Writers has the attractive and surely talented Susan Choi on the cover, who apparently has written an article within called History in the Making.  Blogmate Reginald Shepherd, whom I actually seem to see everywhere nowadays, has an article on Poetry as a Way Out, which I did read and found poignant in its description of his life and how literature saved the day for him.  APR has Jane Miller on the cover and the ridiculously ubiquitous Clayton Eshleman inside with 20 Questions for Robert Kelly and Terrance Hayes with a new Mohawk or maybe it's an old Mohawk since I haven't seen him since seeing him read at the Chicago AWP. 

OK, that's my really pitiful report on journals and litmags that I will hopefully read tonight and tomorrow, unless I decide to read The Opal Deception, a kidlit novel starring Artemis Fowl, criminal boy genius and his giant guardian Butler and Holly of the LEPrecon and a cast of characters from the fairy world that resides just below ours underground. 

See you tomorrow, most likely.