The other day, I was trying to make a really big decision (which I will post about later, undoubtedly), and I was looking through old journals.  I wanted to transport myself back to the person I was last year; seven years ago, and remember what my struggles were, what my priorities were, what my world felt like.

I’ve found over the years, you see, that the answers to a lot of the questions I have right now are in the past; that I seem to grapple with the same things over and over again in different contexts, learning different things along the way.  I know now better, and try to tap into some of the wisdom I had gained and then forgotten so that I can finally move forward with new thoughts and new actions rather than back into the same old patterns.

It’s funny though, how some of life’s bigger questions stay with you.  Like, what am I here to do?  Who are my people?  What should my life be?  

It’s almost as if those big questions are really our answers, that in fact our purpose is to just keep asking those same questions, and those same questions will guide our lives forever.

**that was a little too meta wasn’t it?  I love using the word meta.  It’s so trendy.  Or at least, it is in my world.

What I really meant to say with all that is that while I was looking through my old journals, I found a poem that I wrote while sitting in a little cafe in Da Lat, Vietnam.  Yeah, there’s my confession:  sometimes I write poetry.  Shhhh.  It’s kind of scary sharing poetry, ’cause it’s all abstract and a little geeky and very show-up-at-a-naked-party-and-n0-one-else-is-naked sparse and revealing.  Even if it’s just about a guy smoking a cigarette.

So I’ll couch it with a recipe I made up for a roasted red pepper walnut dip that’s good on everything including:  pita, carrots, baguette and fingers.

And if you kind of like this poetry-food blog thing, you should check out Lan’s blog More Stomach, because she is totally mastering the art.

…

grind/click

the lighter touches his cigarette

I hear

inhale

muted crackle of burning paper

I cannot see him 

I don’t look up from my book

I sense him

inhale     exhale

skin against fabric

slouch

creak of vinyl bench

beer lifted, sipped, set down.

The woman who owns this cloudy cafe meows at the ceiling and softly hums.

I look over at him

pretend to look out the window

he pushes his cigarette into the ashtray

and leaves.

Roasted Red Pepper Walnut Dip

2013-07-19 08:40:37

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Ingredients

1. 3 roasted red peppers
2. 1 cup walnuts, toasted
3. 3 cloves garlic, roasted
4. 1/2 cup chickpeas
5. salt to taste

Instructions

1. Do you know how to roast peppers and garlic and other assorted vegetables?
2. It's a life skill, people!
3. Oven: 400F. Red peppers quartered and de-seeded, garlic cloves separated from the bulb but still in the skin. Throw 'em in a baking dish and really really splash 'em in olive oil. Like, the olive oil should pool in the upturned red peppers.
4. Roast until the skin on the peppers begins to blacken and blister, and the garlic is soft.
5. Remove the skin from the garlic. Removing the skin from the peppers is optional in this recipe. I often find it too finicky so I don't bother.
6. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth.
7. Enjoy!

By Jessie Harrold

Purple House Café https://www.purplehousecafe.com/