The Writing Game - It's HERE!

Okay, folks... we're going live...

So to see my story, Kate and Jake, as well as the stories of all the Writing Game players, please go here, or follow the Mr. Linky links below:

What's Cooking Wednesday: Eggplant Lentil Stew with charred onions and yogurt over Cashew Cinnamon Couscous

For this week's What's Cooking Wednesday, I am offering my submission for Jenn the Leftover Queen's monthly Royal Food Joust. The Food Joust consists of using three ingredients and posting your new recipe on the Royal Food Joust Forum by the first of the next month. So, for February 1st, our ingredients were eggplant, lentils and cinnamon. Yum! Anyone who still wants to join, just click on the forum link.

Eggplant Lentil Stew with Charred Onions and Yogurt Served over Cinnamon Cashew Couscous



Ingredients



1 eggplant, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup lentils
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 small cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 medium onions, quartered and drizzled with
1 tsp olive oil

6 – 12 TBS lowfat, plain yogurt

Fat: 3.7g
Carbohydrates: 17g
Calories:114
Protein: 5.25



1. Peel and cube eggplant. Put in collander. Sprinkle with salt. Leave for 15 minutes.

2. While eggplant is standing, rinse and sort 1/2 cup of lentils. Precook lentils in four cups of water for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, drain out the water. The lentils will not be cooked yet. In the meantime, chop the garlic and open the cans of tomatoes.

3. After 15 minutes, rinse the eggplant and pat dry.



4. Add 1 TBS olive oil to saute pan. Heat to medium. Drop in garlic and cook 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add eggplant, and cook for five minutes. Add tomatoes and lentils, cumin and cayenne and cook for 15 - 20 minutes, covered, until lentils are soft.

5. While lentil/eggplant mixture is cooking, heat up a grill pan to smoking. (Or use an outdoor grill). Cut onion into quarters, and drizzle 1 tsp olive oil over onions. Cook on the grill pan until all edges are well charred. Remove from pan and set aside.



6. To serve, pile couscous on plate (use Cashew Cinnamon Couscous recipe below), ladle 1/6 of the stew on top, sprinkle 1/4 of charred onions on top of the stew, and drizzle 1 - 2 tablespoons of stirred, lowfat plain yogurt over all. Serve with more yogurt on the side.

Serves 6.

Cashew-Cinnamon Couscous

Ingredients

1 cup dry, whole wheat couscous
2/3 cup low sodium organic chicken broth
1/3 cup lite coconut milk
1/2 TBS butter
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
2 TBS cashews, chopped and toasted

1. Bring chicken broth, coconut milk, butter, cinnamon and raisins to a boil.

2. Stir in couscous, remove from heat. Let stand five minutes.

3. While couscous is standing, toast chopped cashews.

4. After the five minutes, fluff couscous and stir in the cashews.

Nutritional Info
Fat: 3.2g
Carbohydrates: 27.1g
Calories:155.2
Protein: 5.0g


Serves 6.

As always, nutrition information supplied by the recipe calculator at sparkrecipes.com. And please go to Shan's place for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

The Writing Game - It's Coming in TWO DAYS!

There's nothing much to say here today. But in two days 17 intrepid explorers of the pen (okay, let's face it - the keyboard) will be joining forces to create the extravaganza that is:



So on Thursday, January 31st, please come celebrate with us by reading our final efforts! To find the stories, you can do one of three things:

1. Visit any of the blogs listed below (I'll be posting both my story and Darcy's story).
2. Jump to their blogs through a Mr. Linky, which I (hope) will be posted here.
3. Go to our brand new site, which will be revealed on the 31st!

Brillig
Alex Elliott of Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting
Cable Girl
Capitol Lady
Darcy
Gunfighter
Jenn
Mariposa
Michelle of Bleeding Espresso
Moi
NYC/Caribbean Ragazza
Luisa of Novembrance
Soccer Mom in Denial
Thalia's Child
Veriano
Wholly Burble

So get ready to rock and read! A fine time will be had by all!

Music Monday - "So Happy Together" The Turtles

For other tales of musical adventure, please visit Soccer Mom in Denial.

On a cool August night in 1969, I lay under my scratchy camp sheets and blanket and snuggled in, waiting for the magic to begin.

It was Sunny's turn to "tuck us in". It was only her turn every four nights, because, well, there were four counselors, and while two stayed behind each night and watched us, only one was "in charge". It was a weird collection of counselors that summer. During my first summer at Camp Hillcroft all my counselors had been golden. I can truly say I loved each and every one of them. They got me, with all my weird idiosyncrasies, and it was the first time in my eight years that I'd felt like I truly belonged anywhere. When my parents asked if I wanted to return for a second summer, I jumped at the opportunity like a lonely puppy greets a playmate.

This summer, camp was still wonderful. Most of the same kids had returned. I liked my bunkmates. I liked the boys in the "house" that was part of our unit - I liked all my nine-year-old peers, in fact. Another bonus was that my friend Martha had joined me at camp, and even though we were on opposite sides of the cabin, it was still fun having her there.

But our counselors were kind of... different. For one thing, we had a conservative Southern Belle. In retrospect, I feel awfully sorry for her. Hillcroft was a hippy camp, and I can only imagine what life was like for her there. I feel sorry for her even though she forced me to eat liver, creamed corn and beets one night, which I promptly vomited all over the mess hall table. It was my worst humiliation in the five years I spent at that camp, and the fact that despite this, I still feel sorry for her might give you an idea just what a fish out of water she was. To make matters worse, she was engaged to a soldier who was over in 'Nam. These were the days when "if you're not against the War, you're for it," and I'm sure that her military ties isolated her further. I've blocked out her name. I may feel sorry for her, but 39 years later, I still don't like her.

Okay, enough about Southern Belle. Of the other three, one was a tiny, athletic woman who didn't seem to like kids that much (and she was a camp counselor, why?), and the other was a protegee of our graphic arts counselor, so we never saw her except every fourth night. She was nice, but I often felt she was more involved with the images she played with during the day. Then there was Sunny.

Sunny was a hippy chick. Her name suited her well, and she had long, swinging, light brown hair, freckles, and an infectious smile. She was one of the music staff, and she played a mean guitar. She also had a boyfriend at whatever university she went to during the school year, and she loved to tell us stories about him as we fell to sleep. These stories were often accompanied by her wonderful singing and guitar playing. "So Happy Together" was apparently their song, and I can't listen to it without remembering wonderful times in those long ago days.

The clip below is a gem - true sixties and true Turtles. Enjoy!

Oh! And one last musical note. If you want something to get your whole body moving, go to Betsy's place and listen to Shantel. She got me hooked, and I've been grooving all day!

THE TURTLES - Happy Together (1967)

Singular Saturday: How I Feel about Getting Through the Past Few Days

RELIEVED




Join Jenn in Holland for other singularly wordy individuals...

Downs and Ups

Downs - this has been a very disappointing week in the sense that we've had to bury the idea of a long-planned trip. And one reason its down is the U.S. dollar is so. very. down. I'll do more on this in another post. It also explains my less-than-diligent posting this week.

Ups! Many ups in the world of blogging! And warmth and kindness from blog friends really cheered me up as we were going through some rather hard patches on the trip planning front:

First off, sweet Allison, of Soccer Mom in Denial, gave me this very special award:



She was handed this award (which she very much deserves) for making a difference every, single day. (Which she does).

I would like to pass this award on to Anno, who's written a very courageous five-part piece over the past month. It has to do with the foibles of youth, and mistakes that she made long, long ago and has tried to explain through this amazing, beautifully written story. For her courage and honesty, both through her story and through the way she lives her life every day, I'd like to present Anno with this award.

I was extremely rich in friendship that day, because I received this




from Alex Elliot, which I pass on to these wonderful bloggers, in no particular order, just because I have to send a big, old Mwah! your way: , Jenn, Anno, Leslie, Blooming Idiot, Betsy, Goofball, Wholly Burble, Jan, Mariposa, Cable Girl, Carol, Luisa, Alex, and Painted Maypole. And I'm probably forgetting a slew of others, darn it!


and this lovely




from Mariposa.

I don't want to cheapen the award, or the lovely thought from Mariposa, but this one I must pass on to ALL my regular readers, along with all those (check 'em out under the blogroll!) whose blogs I visit daily. You all really DO make my day!