my brain is broken 🤯 (a free💫post)
A summer writing class! are you the writer we should welcome in? I've got rare openings in my workshop... ++ a wonderful dessert from Mexico City
hey-ho!
I think my brain has broken. Current events, elder care/strife, too much responsibility… plus, it’s one of those times when everything in the house is giving up! The washing machine, the stereo system, dead branches in the GIANT walnut tree out front. So costly. All I want to do is lie down and eat pudding (more on that down below!).
Last week I dragged my sorry ass to a wonderful knitting store, arriving just ten minutes before they closed.
“Please, help me!”
I rattled off my minimal knitting credentials, told them I wanted to make a cotton blanket, something just hard enough that doesn’t require much counting because of the above problem with my brain. I want to meditate with something soft in my hands in front to the TV (more on that in a minute!) I’m sure I was the last thing the two women wanted to deal with late on a Friday. But let me tell you, they jumped to my aid. Knitters, like birders, are mostly kind and patient people. One sought a pattern for me, the other showed me gorgeous yarns, the colors so vivid I just wanted to burrow deep into the inventory. Fifteen minutes and two hundred dollars later (I know… it’s not a cheap habit!) I clutched a bag of possibility and calm to my chest.
Regarding knitting in front of the TV, I know I’ll be watching HACKS, because it’s funny and smart. We just powered through THE PITT, which was not funny but gave me some perspective on my own current rough patch… spend a few episodes in the ED, with it’s drownings, chest compressions, drug ODs, shootings, bleeding out, sepsis, and mayhem… you leave feeling pretty good about your life! Also tuning into YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, because Jon Hamm is delivering right now! Did you see this SNL skit? Or this one? Also really looking forward to watching Conan receive the Mark Twain Award.
Is there a show we’re missing? Please do tell!
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read:
I mentioned this book to you last week and let me tell you, as I trundle along, I’m becoming a huge fan. It’s fascinating.
WHAT YOUR BODY KNOWS ABOUT HAPPINESS, How to Use Your Body to Change Your Mind, by Janice Kaplan, is teaching me so much about how our body responses actually dictate emotion. Did you know that if you’re cradling a warm beverage in your hand you will feel softer toward the world? Something about the neurons in your hands responding to the warmth makes you a little more tender. So, maybe ditch the cold brew for a hot cuppa! Also, you’ve heard of those rage rooms? People pay big money to don googles and smash appliances to supposedly vent anger? Well, it doesn’t work. Revving up your heart rate, developing a bit of sweat as you smash a microwave oven actually incites more anger. Your body says, “What the hell is going on here?” and tells the brain to get angrier. You don’t leave feeling relieved, just more riled up. It would be far better to count to 50 or go birding to release the anger. And finally, there is virtue in botox! When we freeze the frowning muscles in our faces, we short circuit the feedback loop which tells our brains that we’re upset. Hence botox has become a treatment for mild depression.
The book is terrific! Highly recommend.
I’m also listening to ANIMAL INSTINCT, by Amy Shearn. I kind of love (?) it… about a single woman, mom of young kids, trying to reinvigorate her life and identity post divorce… sounds like my jam. I have one problem, there’s a lot of sex with strangers, which, great! Let’s reclaim our sex lives! But the sex (so far) isn’t very sexy. Is it me? Is it the book? Is it the narrator? Stay tuned, I’ll let you know.
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write:
I’m teaching a class with my smart and wonderful friend, Heather Aimee O’Neill, and you should sign up ASAP! We make a great teaching team… and, you’ll get to know Heather before her new novel, THE IRISH GOODBYE, makes a splash in September!
The Very Best Summer School Writing Class: for fiction and memoir
We meet on zoom. Five Tuesdays from 7/15 - 8/12 from 4-6pm PDT/7-9pm EDT
The class includes a combination of coaching strategies, nuts and bolts craft talks, and discussions. We will include sample readings, prompts, and time to share work.
Strategies for facing a blank page and celebrating our strengths.
Character/Dialogue: how to make your characters come to life on the page and write believable and snappy dialogue!
Plot: how to make our narrative move along with increasing tension and propulsion.
Exposition vs Dramatization: We will take a deep dive into scene writing in this session, as well as discuss how to make our exposition zing!
Self-coaching methods/How to maintain momentum and confidence.
Opportunity for further one-on-one coaching/editing
Small group/cap at 12
Cost: 525.00 w/a 50.00 early bird discount for those who register and pay by 20 May
…
This is incredibly rare… but, I have 2 openings in my Tuesday morning writing workshop!! This is an amazing group of writers with incredible skills as readers and writers. Are you the lucky person to join our ranks? Please message me if you’re interested. We meet over zoom from 9:30 - 11:30a PDT. You will have the opportunity to share work 1x per month. You will definitely make wonderful new writer friends and find that your writing chops strengthen! Reach out if you are interested.
eat:
I’ve been dreaming of this cheese flan ever since I tasted it at Contramar, in Mexico City. Wobbly and lush-in-your-mouth, imagine a flan and a cheesecake had a love child! This is it. I combed recipe after recipe and every single one called for sweetened condensed milk, which in my mind is equivalent to crack cocaine.
When I was growing up, my mother had a roommate, Judy, who was quite militant with her DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET cookbook, which was so far ahead of its time! Sugar was banned, carob replaced chocolate, alfalfa sprouts took up residence on the windowsill, and we ate something called tempeh, which to me was basically the equivalent of eating liver.
Sweetened condensed milk was poison!
But the stomach wants what the stomach wants. I bought the sweetened condensed milk, I made the cheese flan and I never looked back! You should make it too. (Mine had a little crack…didn’t mar the flavor!)
Flan de Queso
1 c sugar
2½ c whole milk
¼ t cinnamon
1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
5 large eggs
1 t vanilla extract
½ t Morton kosher salt
Place a rack in the middle of the oven, preheat to 350 degrees. Set a 9” round baking dish inside a roasting pan or high-sided skillet. Bring 1 cup sugar and ⅓ cup water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally (do not stir). Cook until caramel is dark amber, 5-6 minutes. It may take longer than you expect. Keep swirling and cooking until the caramel is the color of your dreams! Carefully pour into baking pan and let cool until set, about 10 minutes.
Heat whole milk and ¼ tsp. cinnamon in a small saucepan over medium until steaming… not simmering! Steaming! (Watch carefully so that it does not boil over.)
Process sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese, (room temperature), vanilla extract, and salt in a food processor until smooth, about 1 min. Add the eggs and process until fully incorporated, about 1 min. Add warm milk and pulse to combine. My food processor is too small so I added only a bit of milk, poured some of the liquid into a bowl and add then added the rest of the milk. Once it was all in the bowl, I gave it a few stirs for good measure.
Pour custard through a fine mesh sieve into baking pan on top of caramel. I had a lot extra and so I poured that into 3 ramekins and placed them in another baking dish. Pour hot water into roasting pan or skillet to come ¾" up outside of baking pan. Bake until flan is just set in the center but still a little wobbly when you jiggle it, 40-50 minutes. My oven seemed off and so I had to bake for nearly 70 minutes. Just keep checking and jiggling. Remove baking pan from larger pan and transfer to a wire rack. Let flan cool in baking pan for 30 minutes.
Just before serving, run a small knife around the edge of the pan, set a plat on top of the baking pan, invert onto the plate! Enjoy!!
Stanley’s spring look:
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