Walnut and White Bean Paté

Though this month hasn't lead itself to a lot of super creative cooking what with all the writing madly for NaNoWriMo, we did manage to have a pretty tasty and new to us recipe come up this week.  It was inspired by a recipe that was in the October Vegetarian Times Magazine.  We tweaked it for our own purposes and made some scrumptious sandwiches with thinly sliced cucumbers that I plan on making again and again - they were delicious!  I could see where this Paté could be used in quite a few ways including a variety of tea sandwiches, with crackers and thin sliced fruit for a sweeter bite or maybe olives or capers for a tangy savory taste.  You could switch out the rosemary for another fresh herb, add garlic or caramelized onions, maybe paprika or cayenne - the possibilities are endless!

Walnut and White Bean Paté


1 cup walnuts, toasted in the oven at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes then let cool
1 1/2 cup cooked white beans (I used navy this time), rinsed and drained
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
fresh rosemary to taste (about a Tablespoon), very finely chopped
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon alder smoked salt, ground fine with a mortar and pestle


Throw everything into a food processor until well blended and smooth.

Gratitude

An old man began to plant fruit trees on his land one day.
A young man came by and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Planting fruit trees," the old man replied.
"But you won't live to harvest and eat of their fruit," the young man exclaimed.
But the old man answered, "The fruit that I have eaten and enjoyed in my lifetime has been from trees that were planted by people who lived before me.  So I will show my gratitude of them and the trees they planted by planting these young trees for the people who come after me."

~Irish Proverb

And the Craziness Continues

Well I survived day two of my NaNoWriMo adventure with 4437 words so far.  The story continues to reveal itself, which is good, since all I had to begin with was a brief dream.  I'm working in the fantasy genre for this project and it looks like I've got a pretty kick ass female protagonist to work with.  I think she's going to have a lot of fun and probably get herself into a bit of trouble if I'm reading her right.  I made myself stop around 7pm because my brain was starting to feel like mush.  I did manage to overcome one of my greatest downfalls in novel writing though.  Usually when I work on a novel and I don't have a name of character or a good name for a place I go into research mode and drop the actual writing and that never ends well.  I forced myself to put blank lines in where a yet to know name would go and just kept on writing.  Oh boy but did my perfectionist detail oriented side not care for that!  But the point is to keep writing, even if it is messy and there's not a solid name to be had.  So deal with it, perfectionist side!

I'm beginning to wonder if there is something in the air, because I had another dream last night, or rather this morning (once my brain finally let me go to sleep), that was a bit on the unusual side even for me.  See, I'm a science fiction fan all out and I love the Stargate series.  But as much as I love it and as fascinating as Todd the Wraith is as a character I doubt I would pursue him as a lover.  Yep, I dreamed that Todd the Wraith was my lover.  For those of you reading this that are not familiar with Stargate Atlantis, where this character comes from, let me fill you in.  The Wraith are a species of aliens that evolved as a combination of a large parasitic bug and a human.  Well that's the simple way of putting it.  These guys are an advanced species with incredible technology woven into an organic hive like organism that makes up their space ships.  They were the demise of several other advanced groups and continued to rule over their galaxy bring fear and terror everywhere they go.  For they feed on humans, or rather their life force, enabling them to live indefinitely if not blown or chopped to bit.  A variation of vampire concept, really, just no blood sucking.  Now among this group of Aliens one became a bit of an ally to the people from earth that had come to their galaxy, and he was  named Todd by one of the main characters, John Shephard (who, by the way would make a far more reasonable love interest).   But I guess my psyche likes to be a little different, because it picked Todd to be my lover in last nights dream.  Oh, maybe I should show a few pictures of Todd to emphasize the bizarreness of the dream.

Image Source

Image Source

Image Source

Well, I guess he could sort of be considered cute in that last picture, at least for a Wraith.  When I shared the dream with Mark he laughed and suggested that my next novel might be a little Stargate fan fiction of a rather unusual sort!  Yep, I can see it now:  Stargate Atlantis:  Wraith Lover  Oy.

Here's hoping I get some decent sleep tonight sans weird dreams!

Do I Win the Crazy Person Award?

I woke up yesterday morning with no intention to write a novel.  In fact I had stopped thinking about writing novels a while back, or rather had given up on the idea after finding myself quite a ways in more than once and then having something happen that left me derailed or distracted or whatever.  Of course that didn't keep me from thinking that the dream I had from that night would make a good concept for a novel.  But that was all it really was - a thought.

Then it's late afternoon and I wander over to a blog I regularly read and they have this little announcement about their participating in something called NaNoWriMo where you commit to trying to write a novel in one month - the month of November.  And I thought, good for them and moved along.

But the rest of the day I just couldn't shake that nagging feeling of a story wanting to get out.  The dream kept popping into my mind and I kept trying to ignore it.  Eventually I found myself looking up this NaNoWriMo thing  to learn a little more.  Curiosity satisfied I moved on into my evening and attempted to go about my normal night.  But just at bed time I finally gave in.  I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep if I didn't at least write the idea from the dream down.  I brought the computer to bed with me and next thing I know I've written a variation of one of the scenes from my dream and it is after midnight and I've written over 1400 words.

I should have been satisfied and able to just set the computer aside and go to sleep, but instead I found myself signing up to participate in the NaNoWriMo event and now I'm all official (officially crazy that is).  I've committed to try and write 50,000 words in one month.  With a story I only have the faintest idea about, from a dream, none the less.

So I have to ask, Do I?  Do I win the crazy person award?

Practicing Peace