July 09, 2007

Blackberries at Night - Part I

Blackberry_illus_2

Blackberries at Night

When the orange lightning bugs

flickered strangely in the nightthe boys would run out

and pick hidden blackberries.

   Ï

One would carry the yellow bowl,

one picked them off the bush,

another watched his brothers

and considered the moments.

   Ï

He waited for something

to crack the silence,

to scatter their voices

in the sky forever.

-Donald Illich excerpted from Alimentum

Jul 9, 2007 9:24:00 PM | Writing

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Blackberries at Night- Part II Food memories have been sneaking up on me lately. I don't know if it's melancholy, home sickness or most likely the coming together of a myriad of food memories but blackberries are on my mind. It could be that I am now able to sit in my itty bitty backyard in my new deck chair enjoying the summer air. All those summertime childhood memories of blackberries, bats and fireflies. I grew up on a bumpy back road that followed a few of the bends of the Charles River outside of Boston. During those long summer nights we would pass the time my sister, brother and the other neighborhood kids could be found picking and in quick form, eating blackberries by day; catching the lightening bugs in the early evening and then chasing bats by night. Now I sit in my backyard with a martini glass in my hand. Those summers were different, full, luxurious and relished. I needed to get closer to that time. So on this one Marin night feeling food nostalgic I started the evening with a cocktail concoction featuring blackberries and then moved on to a dinner of lobster ravioli which was in need of a sauce. After some rummaging in the IBK* which produced some butter, a generous pinch of brown sugar, vinegar and a handful of blackberries all in a saucepan for a few minutes producing a reduction sauce, and a topping of a few toasted crushed hazelnuts. To those of you who may think...

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what happens to the hole when the donut is gone?

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