two spirits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpKaP6-1Bus

All of the Tetris pieces are falling into place as the semester heads into April.  In between fascinating and anxious discussions with various students and colleagues today (one long discussion regarding tradition with the roommate of the young woman who was crowned Miss Hozhoni on Saturday night at the pow-wow; another long discussion regarding pageants for Native American women with the Lakota student who was first runner-up) I managed to glance at Facebook and post a link to the "Two Spirits" film about Fred Martinez.  I declined to be a 'friend' with someone I knew since I was a little kid but whose status or wall or whatever you call it was so full of things like Fox News and Sarah Palin and Stop Health Reform links that it gave me the willies.  You can't go home again, and I don't want to.www.twospirits.org

My dad and Sarah The Cat

Not clear, but it's the best I can do...

first day of spring: CCF & LEF

People don't know this, but I am a slug related to a bunch of non-slugs.  While these two were riding their bike the first day of spring, I was napping, reading about Zuni, napping some more, and then finally got motivated to get into the hot tub with BD.  While there, we looked around at the glaciers melting, the birds flying in, and the buds all over the aspen trees.  A giant nest of some sort fell out of a willow tree during the winter mayhem.  Stellers' jays are hanging out, but don't know if that was their nursery.

do i stay or do i go?

'Been a rough couple of weeks, where decisions, actions, and dwindling resources to support the decisions and actions create an untenable mix.  In the meantime, the local paper published my op-ed piece (machu picchu meets John Dewey), Silvia asked for a letter to help her get a job at Butler, and KLC wondered what people like her (like me, like most of us) wear to a "black tie" event in Philadelphia (machu picchu meets vietnamese manicurists?)  Yesterday's words: pashmina and cardamom.  And English custard.  If things get better at work, perhaps I will feel free to resign.  If things get better at work, maybe I'll want to stay on several more years.  Should I cool it or should I blow?

blogging ambiguity

My friends don't much like reading the blog.  I find this fascinating and reassuring in some way.  I think it's because they know as well as I that I'm not putting "out there" a lot of what I'd actually like to say.  A big part of the discomfort, if you ask me, is audience.  Just who is the audience, and do I write the same for my multiple audiences?  What would a blog have to look like that my family, students, friends (and strangers) would equally find of interest?  (And should I write only in English?)  You know what is the only common point of convergence?  RECIPES.  That's really about the only discursive realm that I feel comfortable posting publicly (and all of those have been "boosted" from other written sources).  Logs, by nature, are private, are they not?  In putting a few of the Alberto Salazar photos on the side bar I saw a way that I might be able to create a research-focused web log to which primarily I would have access and that might help me put into order what is now a buried mess.  I told one of my friends this morning who expressed her less than enthusiastic reaction to my blog that I react similarly to getting "holiday letters" from people, those "written-to-one-and-all" summaries of a year's familial activities.  As I told her, as much as I love (and even look forward to) receiving these from most people and seeing the photos now almost always included, receiving one from a good friend throws me for a loop.  To whom exactly is she writing (and she's usually a she, although I will forever miss the ones from Larry Crosby)?  Where's the special voice to which I believe I can lay claim?  Is this belief false?  Where do I stand in the queue?  Have we replaced/reduced/condensed the women's "kin work" associated with holiday cards and gifts with the generic holiday letter and these blog things?

RECIPE: Eggplant parmigiana

I had a cold eggplant-zucchini wrap sitting along in the Colorado Room of the Union Building waiting for the third presidential candidate come to speak to faculty.  The candidate is an anthropologist, an academic career not looked upon favorably by other faculty due to a couple of past presidents with that same PhD.  I say the more salient characteristic is the gender, but who knows.  Having been on presidential search committees more than once, I can only say that I have terrible judgment such that the best thing anyone can do who wants to know my opinion is to learn it, then go the other way.  What stuck with me the most about today's experience was the eggplant, which reminded me that I had two in the vegetable drawer that I needed to turn into parmigiana.  I found a recipe I'd seen on the food network based on a Bobby Flay throwdown that seemed to conform to all of BD's requirements for the perfect E.P.:  peeled eggplant sliced paper thin, very little cheese, and lots of marinara.  So we did it, and it turned out:

EGGPLANT PARMESAN

Pantry and fridge items to get out:  3-4 GARLIC CLOVES; 2 28-cans CRUSHED TOMATOES with BASIL (or plain); OREGANO (if you like it); TOMATO PASTE (the tube kind works well); BREAD CRUMBS (couple of cups); 4 EGGS; 1 BALL OF MOZZARELLA (more if you like it cheesy; we don't); PARMEGIANO-REGGIANO or ROMANO cheese; 2 EGGPLANTS; EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL; HEAVY FRYING PANS (or deep fryer); TRAY with paper towels to put fried eggplant; MANDOLINE or some other way to slice eggplant really thin.

First, the marinara....
--  saute 3 chopped garlic cloves with 2 Tbsp olive oil and a couple of Tbsp of tomato paste.
-- Add 2 big cans of crushed tomatoes of some kind. 
-- Add oregano, salt, pepper to taste.
-- Let it simmer...

Put the oven at 350 degrees.  Get out a rectangular baking pan of some kind.

Heat oil in a pan or two--350 is optimal but olive oil likes to smoke up---

SKIN the eggplant

DIP eggplant slices in 4 beaten eggs

DIP again in bread crumbs mixed with some grated parmesan or romano cheese

SAUTE in olive oil until golden brown; set aside on towels

ASSEMBLE
-- layers of sauce
-- layers of eggplant
-- layers of cheese (mozzarella + parmesan or romano)

End with sauce and parmesan or romano on top.

BAKE 25-30 minutes.