Davey Eyre for breakfast (no, I'm not a cannibal stranded in the Alps)

I still follow the dietary precepts of....choose one:

- the orthodox Jews
- Seventh Day Adventists
- the Islamic diet

It is He Who produceth gardens, with trellises and without, and dates, and tilth with produce of all kinds, and olives and pomegranates, similar (in kind) and different (in variety): eat of their fruit in their season, but render the dues that are proper on the day that the harvest is gathered. But waste not by excess: for Allah loveth not the wasters. (Qur'an 6:141)

- dietary laws set down by dietician Mary Ann Moylen of the Willow Grove PA Giant Supermarket.

Like the Adventists, who have long lifespans, I eschew drugs such as caffeine and alcohol, but I am not a strict lacto-ovo vegetarian as they recommend. I like a little fish and fowl on the side.

Incidentally, the founder of Kellogg's cereal was a prominent member of the church. Additionally, the SDA vegetarian diet recommends some legumes, nuts, and low-fat diary products in moderation. Examples of recommended dairy products would be milk, yogurt, light cheeses, with eggs used sparingly.

Batter for Davey Eyre pancakes
Well,I could not do my usual threesome for breakfast - eggs, toast, and fruit - cuz I'd run out of bread. So I called up Helene and asked for the recipe of Davey Eyre Pancakes. She guided me to an Internet source of the recipe, which I copied down on my notepad, which you can see in the photo. The tiny oblong item is a clove of nutmeg. Note nutmeg grater and lemon squeezer. Great tools.

The 'must-know' about this recipe is you pour the batter into a skillet on the stove and then transfer it into a hot oven.

Davey Eyre pancake ready to eat. Rob, when you're in the neighborhood, call me and I'll make us one. Bring Martino too.

I'm gonna print the recipe w/o looking at it just to see how my memory is doing at my advancing age. I say advancing cuz I keep getting older second by second.

DAVID EYRE PANCAKES

Serves two. Preheat oven to 425.

Put the following into a medium-sized bowl and stir as you go along:

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I used water)
1/2 cup flour
juice of half lemon
2 T sugar (I used maple syrup)
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg

On the stove, get a skillet ready. You'll transfer the batter into skillet and put in oven.

Melt 4 T butter

Add liquid ingredients and stir gently.

Pop in oven for 20 minutes or till set.

Dive in! This was unimaginably delicious. Hmmm, maybe you'll get lucky and I'll invite YOU over for brunch.

Wait a minute, I've got more to say.

Something about the night, this night, is incredibly beautiful. I peeked out my bedroom drapes and took another look at the illuminated night. Moon is rising behind the house. See, when I was in sciatica pain I could not appreciate a thing and that included beauty, one of my greatest loves. Just the beauty of a dark night with Charley's trees silhouetted against the full sky and the icy snow gleaming throughout it all.

I was sorry there was not a god to thank. I had such a close relationship with him before I gave him up. I think I needed him when I had manic depression so clung onto him for strength. Now I only have deadly kidney disease so don't need him anymore. Gee, I hope I don't seem manipulative.

Glad I got that out.

Finished my Lillian story today and read it to her husband who said it was beautiful. I'd made three mistakes which I corrected. You're the one, I said, who I most wanted to please. Will email it to him after publication.

Two women in particular I wanted to quote about Lillian's warm loving personality but neither were available so I got around it by calling someone else. Went over to the library and took a few photos. Here they are:

The reason I got too much blacktop and not enuf library is b/c there is no mechanism on the camera to VIEW what you're taking when you're in bright light. A defect which Canon must correct.

Upper Moreland Public Library. To get around the glare, I went into the Township building directly across the parking lot and shot the library thru a window. I had to go out and move my car cuz it was blocking the library. You can see the tail end of it, the landmark Cadillac fin.

YA section. That means Young Adult. Wish there were time enuf to read some of these but I've already got Maurice by E M Forster out of the libe, along with The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott.

Don't you just love Bulletin Boards? A New Directions pamphlet is hanging on the wall.

Totally new Children's Room.

Just for kids.

The library values its staff. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort the patrons.

Stress test | Happiness is a new phone | Catting a kitten

Just got home from the last chapter of a wild goose chase to find a phone to replace my broken one. So many phones bought, so many returned. But now tonite I've got the perfect phone, an A T and T from Target. Home phones are becoming obsolete. Mine has just what I like: the ability to go outside while talking on the phone, wearing headphones, and clip my bushes or do a little shoveling.

This is my most important tool, along with my laptop.

My morning began with the final pre-op test for my kidney transplant on April 2. Went down to the former Rolling Hill Hospital, now known as Moss Rehab, your leader in treating spinal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, stroke rehab. Very friendly staff. I gave the greeter all my leftover valentine goodies from the party.

I had a pharmacologic stress test which measures how well my heart works. It's a long drawn-out process that measures the heart...

- at rest with no food in my belly, lying under a nuclear machine
- after lunch when I was given an injection of a vein-dilating substance
- an EKG
- at rest with the medicine in my veins

Bob and Paul worked in the nuclear medicine department and were superb. Bob installed an intravenous tube in my arm. Unlike me, my veins are very shy and often fail to open up for company. But Bob finally got one.

I was in the EKG room when his buddy Paul came in to inject me with chemicals that cause a very unpleasant reaction in half the patients. I knew better than to think I was exempt. All symptoms were unpleasant but definitely tolerable. First I felt short of breath. Then I felt a rush in my head and slight headache centered in my forehead.

The three-person team stood around me: the EKG technician whose name was something like Jardina, she was half-Cuban and half-Jamaican and was absolutely wonderful; then Paul from nuclear medicine, and Dr Singer, cardiologist.

I asked why an MD needed to be there and Jardina said, Whenever we stress the heart we want a physician to be present.

Oh.

Singer said my heart looked good. I asked him a couple Qs like, any good new heart innovations lately?

Too many to mention, he said.

Dyou exercise I asked him?

He used to jog but only walks now.

Yeah, I said, Park far away and walk.

I was there from 7:30 in the morning to 1 pm. When I was resting up around 12:30 I said to personality-plus Bob, I've got big plans for today but I feel like crap.

He waved his hands in the air. You'll be fine, he said. Doesn't last long.

The man was right! By the time I drove home I was my old self again, diving into Peggie's cheesecake, followed by a repentant stalk of celery, while I got to work on mailing out one of my memoir pieces to a place called Ducts.org to see if they'll publish me. The piece is about my six-month search to buy my first - and only house - on the upward slope of Cowbell Lane - with a dash of romance in it.

I'm pretty sure Ducts rejected it after I wrote it in '04 but they've got a new editor so we'll see.

When naptime came a'calling it was only 4 pm, but I was ready to sleep.

I went next door to sleep with my nap partner Scotty who said he'd be up shortly. I forget what he was doing....possibly lifting weights. The two of us have this insane need to know every move the other makes. Like, what were you doing outside, Scott? Were you replenishing the birdbath? Or feeding the compost heap?

Wonder why this is.

So, I fell asleep after putting on the movie I've been trying to watch for several days now, A Passage to India, David Lean's last film, one he made after a hiatus of 14 years. Beautiful film but I keep replaying passages, which I did again, then promptly fell asleep.

I slept on and off for two hours, completing the film, and completing a very interesting dream.

I'm lying flat under the nuclear medicine machine which somehow reads isotopes from my heart which are illuminated by the solution they put in my veins. I'm very relaxed and looking down at my body, which, as was the case this morning, was under a white blanket.

Suddenly, Bob exclaims with happiness, You're catting a kitten.

Sure enough, when I looked down, a rather large baby kitten emerged from my body.

It was most satisfying. And needed no analysis or explanation.



Happy Valentine's Day, Gracie! Maybe your bubby will be around awhile.

Roasted chicken & rice stuffing for a crowd

This chicken is so tender and juicy that even if you prefer dark meat, you're sure to like every part of this chicken.

Buy a good oven roaster. I buy my healthily-grown young chickens from Giant.

Remove giblet package from cavity and set aside. Thoroughly wash chicken and clean out cavity. Cut away any large flaps of fat near cavity.

Set chicken aside while you prepare stuffing.

Since I'd had regular bread stuffing for T'giving, I thought I'd try something new: rice stuffing.

Prepare 1 cup RAW rice, either white or brown, according to pkg directions.

Saute these tasty flavorful ingredients (use what you have in your fridge)

half onion chopped
two stalks celery chopped
half green pepper chopped
half carrot grated
2 large mushrooms chopped

Optional: Take pack of giblets and boil them till done in several cups boiling water. You'll use this as a flavorful stock for the extra stuffing that won't fit in the bird.

After veggies are cooked, combine with rice in a large bowl. Add seasoning. You can use already prepared 'poultry seasoning' or fresh herbs such as a packet of fresh poultry seasoning I found at the Giant containing:

sage, tarragon, and thyme
fresh parsley

Use of fresh herbs brings a delightful piquant flavor to the stuffing.

Now you're ready to stuff the bird.

Place bird on large platter. Thoroughly salt it, which leads to a crispy crust. Add pepper and/or paprika if desired.

Stuff the cavity with as much of the rice mixture as will fit in. Do not overload.

If you have twine or string, you may wish to truss the bird. Tie the top wings onto the bird with one piece of string, and truss the legs with another piece which will keep the stuffing from spilling out the end.

If you have leftover stuffing, put it in a baking pan, a glass Pyrex is fine, and pour the liquid broth on top. You'll bake this extra stuffing for 20 minutes.

TO BAKE THE BIRD

Put in an oiled roasting pan and cover with a lid or foil.

Set oven to 375 and bake for about 90 minutes. Be sure it's thoroughly done when you remove from oven, no pink! The pop-up thermometer may not be a true measure of doneness. Take a peek inside the thigh.

Carve the bird and set slices on a platter.

Dive in.

Won't you B my Valentine?

Apparently they will. They did. They came. I cleaned. I cooked. I vac'd. I dusted the wood between the railings. I cleaned up the mouse turds. I drank loads of water. I sent a condolence card.

Condolence card. I keep a copy of all the letters I write but since this one was hand-wrin, I photograffed it instead.

Peggie the Clotheshorse.

Peggie the sink cleaner. She brought her famous cheesecake to the party. Extra-creamy, topped with cinnamon. Since I ate Gerri's pound cake for breakfast, I'll have the cheesecake for lunch.

Nick Breslin, our Monday and Wednesday phone greeter, who brought scrumptious stuffed mushrooms. Nick is a deck-builder. I asked him to look at my kitchen window, the same one Peggie's standing in front of. I want to enlarge the window so I look out at the backyard w/o standing on a chair. He said he could do it. Nick is the father of 8, grandfather of 21, and a new great-granddad of "a biracial child." Welcome to America, Nickie!

Here's Gerri, pound-cake maker, and husband Jay. Boy I sure wish I could've heard Jay and Scott talk about working at SEPTA. "We're of the same mind," said Scott. A poorly run outfit. No one knows except the employees.

A couple things I noticed about Elena. She moves really fast. If anything needs to be done, she's at it in a flash. I guess she tired out her boyfriend Noam, who's in the middle, and of course there's Mike who's famous in our crowd for organizing....Bill's Hikes. Ooops, Mike's hikes. We reminisced how much fun we had last week at the art museum.

Here's Tracey the birthday girl. 35 years old. I wish I were the kind of person who floats a sign saying Happy B'day Tracey, but I haven't learned how to do dat yet, so I put up a sign on the front door, handprinted in red.

Sarah's behind her. A great quality about Sarah is her straightforwardness. No beating around the bush.

Veyonna is an imposing-looking statuesque young woman. I wanted get a great shot of her. Maybe next time. Sarah, in the background, is in her class at Montco. They study together at Barnes and Noble: medical records. Gerri takes the same class at Manor Jr College, where Barry Cohen teaches English.

Ah, here's Barry now, with wife Claudia Beechman. I kept staring at Barry's face and thinking how interesting it was. Altho when I sat next to Claudia I thought the same. I guess I'm just really interested in faces. Everyone's except my own. I'm trying to love my wrinkles and falling eyelids.

Everybody loves Fontaine! Earth mother to us all. She did the honors of carving my roasted chicken w/stuffing which turned out to be dee-licious!

Claudia Beechman, Le Chanteuse. See what I mean about her face? Tres plein de charactre.

Joann and Ellen discuss weighty world matters in the kitchen. Ellen had just seen the Mamet play Race which she said was overrated. Joann had frustratingly navigated the backroads to my house and found it with no help from the GPS or me! BTW, Mamet was in my class at Goddard College.

Here's cat-lover Claire who made me feel great when she said she liked my shrimp salad.

Claudia said she wants a new Facebook photo so I was trying to accommodate her. Not with this photo, you're not, Ruthie.

I always worry how 20 people can fit inside my house but you know what? They figure it out. Linda, on the left, read one of her poems to us. This very clever woman had one of her poems printed on a magnet. When I came into the kitchen this morning, there twas hanging on my fridge door! Light and Dark Paths.


Claudia sang from the Jacques Brel songbook, one of thousands of songs written by the Belgian composer. Her teleprompter was my laptop.

May all your wishes come true, Trace!

Barry Cohen's onion tart was a big hit with our valentines.

Hey is it time for Peggie's cheesecake yet?

It's so much fun being a grown-up

That's what I said to myself when walking into my house. You can do so many things w/o asking Harold or Bernice.

But you have to keep your eyes and ears open about what's happening in the real world. Today is the live broadcast of Nixon in China from the Met in New York. Sarah bought us two tickets, behind a pillar, so I've gotta think about going down. My friend Jenofsky told me there's a bus that goes to Port Authority from 30th Street Station downtown.

Travel travel travel.



John Adams, the composer and conductor of today's opera, was just interviewed after the first act. NIC was his first opera. The idea of the opera was suggested to him and after initially rejecting the idea, he thought, Why not? A historic moment and terrific characters, all of whom he makes come alive. Adams was only 40 when he wrote the music back in 1987.

The opera is also playing in theatres around us. I suppose it's liking watching a football game on TV rathan in the excitement of the arena.

I can get pretty excited in my living room.

When I told my mom I was making a whole chicken, she was surprised, telling me she always buys the parts. But you know what? I am really excited to make my very first whole chicken in many years. I consulted both Judy Diaz and the Internet for ideas, then came up with my own Ruth Deming chicken.

As I was cleaning it out in the sink, and you can't help but notice it used to be alive, with its two legs rather like our own, as I was cleaning out the cavity, I thought, This is what it's like to be a surgeon.



Has anyone ever transplanted their own kidney? They do lots of emergency surgery in cowboy movies or war movies but I think a kidney transplant is a little bit over the top.

Thanks, Judy, for suggesting I add mushrooms to the stuffing.

Madame Mao would interrupt a cultural performance if it didn't adhere to cultural dogma.

Hurray for Cairo! You did it! The people rule. (We hope.)

Forgive these enthusiastic outbursts. Even my mother was happy for the Egyptians.



Noam and Elena came over this morning to hang up some pictures of mine cuz I cannot stand bare walls. Nature abhors a vacuum, as Noam said. If only your dad were alive, I said. His dad died several years ago after deteriorating quickly from Parkinson's. I told Noam I absolutely believe in taking your life if there is absolutely no hope. I'm a member of Compassionate Choices.
A Strawberry for Grace.

A Busy Day Doing Nothing

The last thing this girl should be doing is blogging. Gotta get ready for my Valentine's Day Party tomorrow.

Wouldn't you know it? My phone went dead yesterday. Here's a photo to remember it by.

With great difficulty I assembled my new phone last nite, purchased at my alltime worst store, Wal*Mart. I hate the way it smells, I hate the long cavernous building of nothing but things things things. The service is terrible, nonexistent even tho they weren't crowded.

I daresay it'll be some time before I learn how to use this phone. Too many buttons.

I have 2 phone lines at home. I called my home phone from the New Directions line in the basement. It's not listed under New Directions, a business, but listed in MY name b/c it's cheaper. Simon figgered that out for me. Remember he's the first guy I'm gonna see in the Afterlife.

When it rang this morning, I jumped. It was Scott. "If you are very quiet, you can take a picture of the deer," he said. "They're lying down in my backyard."

Doubleclick on image to see two deer, Dear.

Doubleclick to find them.

I went wild today sending out Valentine cards. Hand-delivered two to catty-corner Kiernans. They have two little boys. I also gave them a bottle of wine w/a note belatedly thanking Patrick for shoveling me out during the blizzard.

Bought these $30 shoes at Walmart, Dr Scholl's gel-pack. Walked to Patrick's in them, wore them while typing. They kill my feet. Don't tell me I've gotta go back to my worst store again.

Note the handpainted wipe-your-feet on this mat when you enter my house.

Knees of the blogger.

This young deer greeted me when I came home from Walmart.

A Few Words About Frank Gehry

Maniacally, I check out videos at the Abington Free Library, five at a time, the max. Imagine my surprise when I found an 84-minute film Sketches of Frank Gehry by his good friend director Sidney Pollack (1934-2008).

What a great film. I liked it even better the second time when I watched it on my laptop and could stop the action and really give a good stare at the screen....the fabulous buildings, the room where Gehry and his associates do their work, watching Gehry, b. 1929, progress from a mustachioed young man into the mature mellow person he is today at age 81.

A full profile of Gehry emerges. The man is not shy in talking about himself. His psychoanalyst the late Milton Wexler gives illuminating commentary about his patient. The late Wexler is best known as founder of the Hereditary Disease Foundation which cracked the genetic code of finding the gene for Huntington's disease. Wexler's wife Leonore died from the disease 10 years after diagnosis. Their two daughters had a 50-50 chance for inheriting the gene. Both are fine but chose not to have children.

What is your relationship, o reader, to buildings? Are you blase about them? Are you aware of them? For some reason I've always had a deep appreciation for enclosures, large and small, which house us, entertain us, inspire us, or make us miserable.

I am sitting here blogging in my living room, which I thoroughly made over in December. Vive la difference. It is a pleasure to work in here. Loads of light on this sunny day. Speakers flowing with classical music. (Finally sent in my check to WRTI, the classical/jazz station, carefully scribbling out my address on my check cuz I don't want any of their mail).

Let's visit Frank Gehry together. It was difficult for me to take the shots. They don't stay still for very long. But for you, Dear Reader, I would do anything. Actually, these blogs are really for me, to wile away my time when I'm 100 years old, or lying in bed after my kidney operation come April 1.

Oh no! How did Baby Grace get here? My son captioned the pic, "Please, sir, may I have more?" Shades of Dickens.

Frank Gehry, nee Ephraim Goldberg. His first wife wanted him to change his name due to discrimination against Jews. He admitted to therapist Milton Wexler "I was pussywhipped."

Gehry and director Pollack walk among Frank's creations. The Times had a photo essay of his new Manhattan skyscraper.



Couldn't get the Times photo onto this blog. It was far better than any others in the scale of the shot. The new tower, variously called the Beekman Tower, Spruce Project, Gehry tower, is 76 stories high and is the tallest residential bldg in Manhattan. It's nearing completion. Can't wait to get my invitation for the black-tie opening.

The late Philip Johnson gave a rousing endorsement to our Frankie. So did Julian Schnabel appearing in his white robe who called Gehry's work on the scale of that at Luxor.

Gehry himself talked about Chartres saying you gasp when you enter and wanna fall down on your knees.

Gehry works with models. He and his team are constantly building with models, then using various forms of paper to get that 'crumpled look' on his buildings. You either like it or you don't.

I must confess that when I went into his Weatherman Building on the campus of Case-Western Reserve in Cleveland, I felt like my head was scraping the ceiling. A very uncomfortable feeling.

Gehry's therapist Milton Wexler.

Wexler gave Gehry an ultimatum. Make up your mind about your wife. Either stay with her and give her your full commitment, or take steps to leave her. After the session, Gehry moved out of the house (they had one daughter) and moved into the Beverly Hills Wilshire. After that, his life took off and so did his work.

Sidney Pollack videotaped Frank Gehry. And I photographed snapshots from the documentary. I liked the look of my shapely water glass on my classy TV table I bought many years ago from a neighbor who just happened to have a problem buying everything in sight. She had manic depression.

A diehard hockey fan, Gehry, who was born in Canada, designed this professional hockey rink which Michael Eisner, former head of Disney, says is reminiscent of Canadian rinks with its wooden beams on top. Eisner described the outside as looking like a couple of gently sloping breasts.

Gehry's "Anaheim Ice" in California.

I love how Frank stands so tall in front of these guys.

His most famous building is The Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain. I'd give ANYTHING to see this except my new kidney.

"Snake" by Richard Serra fits perfectly into the high-ceiled Bilbao.

I liked this shot with the open door in the background. Note Sidney Pollack's camera. Frank, don't eat so much pasta.

Huge fish sculpture. He went thru a fish-making phase.

Frank and Berta Gehry. He didn't wanna remarry b/c of his bad first marriage. Berta did. Gehry and his therapist discussed it thoroughly and Gehry gave in. After that, his work took off like a thunderbolt. His volatile personality also tamed down.

Well, I guess I can return the DVD now to the library.