Blog 11

Just For Her (Mom's Pie)
 

My mother recalls the weekend I came home after making “the pie” (egg custard). She smiled as she spoke of my excitement. She said “You just wanted to cook. You used up all my flour and sugar and had no idea what you were doing but you were happy so I let you mess up my stuff.” I do not know what she was remembering but I knew I was a baker when I had come home that weekend from my aunt’s house. My first three attempts to recreate my masterpiece were not so fortunate as she adamantly laughed and remembered but I did finally figure it out. I thought to myself that maybe my motivation was not the same so I changed my focus. My mom loved coconut so I figured if I made a coconut custard pie she would like it more so than the other.

She recalled me coming home from school on afternoon begging to go to the store to get stuff for “her pie” which was supposed to compel her to give me money to buy the ingredients. I always thought I was slick. I tried to entice her by appealing to her appetite. She went along and allowed me to go to the store. Of course the corner store did not have any of the ingredients I needed so I needed to go to the big supermarket which I was accustomed to doing as the only man in the house. So off to the market I went.

She was upset when I returned from the supermarket as she said I went overboard. I bought the bare essentials: regular crust, deep dish crust, premade roll-out crust, sweetened coconut, coconut milk, eggs, sugar and both lemon and vanilla flavorings. I needed everything to make this pie a success, no matter how many times I needed to try. This time I secretly called my aunt to get her help.

My mom said that I kept insisting that she stay in her room because she made me nervous while I was trying to cook even though she never once came in the kitchen. She said she heard pots banging and water splashing. She yelled occasionally due to the noise I was making but I tuned her out. I began with a huge silver bowl that I believed belonged to my grandmother. The bowl was massive. It was one of those things when you move out on your own and you take everything from your parent’s house. I took out the wire whisk, the measuring cups, measuring spoons and ladle. For the pie, I took out the brown eggs that cost extra money (I just thought the brown eggs were fancy), Carnation Evaporated Milk, Domino Granulated Sugar, Spice Classics Lemon & Vanilla Flavoring and Cinnamon and Nutmeg. I pre-measured all of my ingredients and had them set aside waiting to be mixed. My mom remembers me fighting my two younger sisters because they kept coming in the kitchen and they were “disrupting me” and making me “lose my concentration”. I got in more trouble that afternoon trying to cook than I did on any other given day but I was focused.

I mixed everything just as I remembered my aunt doing the weekend before. I was so focused on me that I had almost forgotten the coconut. I did all the tasting before I added that. Everything was mixed and now ready to bake. I wanted to be sure that it was good so against my better judgment, I tasted the batter with the coconut in it and it actually wasn’t bad. It was then that I discovered I liked coconut flavor but not the coconut texture. Now it was time to bake. I placed the empty pie shells in the preheated oven at 325 degrees and began to slowly ladle the mixture into the crusts until they were filled to the brim. I closed the oven door and then the waiting game started.

My mom said after about three hours I called her to help me put the pie in the refrigerator so it could cool off quicker so she could eat it. She said after she did that, I immediately told her to “please get out my kitchen!” She had no idea why I still needed privacy and she told me I better leave her alone because I had my time in there but I kept on pushing until she finally gave up and retreated to her room.

She said after about an hour she got up to use the restroom when she began to smell something sweet. After leaving the restroom she remembers asking what were we doing and I said yelled out nothing. She said it was way too quiet so she came into the dining room and saw my sisters sitting on the floor, eating and watching television. When she came into the kitchen, her pie was cooled, sitting atop the countertop and I was eating pie. She asked where the other pie came from and I told her it was my egg custard pie (I secretly made my pie which I planned to do all along).

She asked how were we all eating pie and she had to wait for hers to cool off and I replied, “I knew my pie was gonna be good hot but that nasty coconut needs time.” She remembered slicing her pie, tasting it and saying “My baby did well!”  I did not even notice her eating her pie because I was too busy eating mine. She said the pie was good and suggested I take some to my grandmother who lived a block over from us.

My mom ate two slices and wrapped up three slices for me to take down the street to my grandmother. I was so happy and proud of my pies. As I prepared to leave the house she recalled saying within herself that her baby was going to cook because she had never seen my face light up so, inspired in such a way as never before.

Blog 10

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments
is an online journal publishing site created in 1997 that combines the art of writing with natural and artificial environments to create something that brings an awareness to environment, whether the integration is among the built or natural.  

The site reads, “It is not definitely about urban form, nor solely about natural landscapes. It is not precisely about human culture, nor necessarily about ecology. It is, rather, a celebration of the symbiosis between the built and natural environments where it exists, and an examination and discourse where it does not.” Terrain.org celebrates Mother Nature in a unique way.

Terrain.org takes pride in its work and contributors by only accepting the highest quality work from a diverse group to ensure they have a diverse audience.

About their pieces, the sites reads, “The works may be idealistic, technical, historical, philosophical, and more. Above all, they focus on the environments around us — the built and natural environments — that both affect and are affected by the human species.”

The site further boasts, “Terrain.org strives to be both a resource and a pleasure, a compass and a shelter. Technical and journalistic works contained in the Nonfiction, Unsprawl, Reviews, Interview, and perhaps even Editorials sections are aimed at professionals and other interested individuals and groups. These contributions can help communities develop and redevelop in a more sustainable manner. Literary and artistic works contained in the Poetry, Nonfiction, Fiction, Editorials, ARTerrain, and To Know a Place sections allow the reader to relax and enjoy the pieces for what they are. All work contained within Terrain.org is, we hope, accessible to all interested audiences. While a case study may help a community planner in his or her job, it may also inform a banker, inspire a student, and educate a mechanic. While a poem may give joy to a teacher, it may also provide a brief sojourn for a scientist, give cause to reflect for a developer, and give hope to a housewife (or househusband). We are also seeking videos, and hope to build out that new genre over the upcoming issues.”

The artistic works accepted and displayed by Terrain.org challenges its audience as well as writers to examine the physicality of our world and its influences on one another: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The voice and tone follows that of its creator so it ranges from humor, entertainment, social awareness and etcetera. Most pieces vary in length depending upon subject matter.

Terrain.org has something for everyone in every discipline of writing. The audience is wide, from technical and professional to generalist, and average more than 500,000 visits per year.

Whatever your niche may be, they have a place for you. Some categories include but are not limited to:

Columns

Poetry

Nonfiction

Fiction

Interviews

Reviews + Reads

Within all of these listed categories, Terrain.org still challenges its writers to master the physical world surrounding us as they display their crafts to inspire, illuminate, interest and inform.

For the Nonfiction category, there is a variance in voice and tone from the writers. Some write with a wholehearted love for the environment, such as Bromancing The Gar by Mark Spitzer: http://terrain.org/2013/nonfiction/bromancing-the-gar/ while others speak of personal remembrances and stories, such as I Have Lived My Whole Life on this Boat (Kerala Backwaters) by Marco Wilkinson http://terrain.org/2013/nonfiction/i-have-lived-my-whole-life-on-this-boat-kerala-backwaters/ and Google-Mapping a Syrian Childhood by Beth Baker: http://terrain.org/2013/nonfiction/google-mapping-a-syrian-childhood/. There are some stories that even try to bring an awareness to environmental issues like, The Future of Fire by Vanessa Gregory: http://terrain.org/2013/nonfiction/the-future-of-fire/. Whatever your area of expertise and passion is, there is a place for it at Terrain.org.

Terrain.org encourages participation and feedback on any issue or subject. It is the winner of several awards and good work highlights.

“Not only was Terrain.org the first online journal to explore the nexus between the built and natural environments from both literary and technical perspectives — we published our first issue in 1998 — we also strive to be the most dynamic online literary journals. The awards and good words we receive tell us we’re moving in the right direction. We hope you agree — so let us know.”

Blog 11

As a third year English major, I am always fascinated when I read literary pieces by an author and am totally taken in by them. I am of the mind that when you allot time or energy for something as fundamental as reading, it should be enjoyed and leave you with either a sense of inspiration or creativity to master your own literary voice. The worst thing in the world is to be exasperated by something you devoted your time to reading because it is just utterly awful. 

In any event, after having to brave through many nights of inhumane and intolerable reading assignments, all unsolicited if I may add, I have learned to fully appreciate a phenomenal read or at least phenomenal to my standards. Michael Kimmelman’s, Just a Quick Bite With Leonardo was just what I needed. It was a fifteen minute break I needed from homework, in light of the fact that reading one of his articles was homework. That is what reading should be, refreshing. 

Let’s just take away the fact that I am completely enamored with Italy and focus on the read. I talk about fifteen minutes because Kimmelman spoke of one of his recent trips to Santa Maria delle Grazie Church in Milan, Italy. Amongst many of his excursions if I imagine correctly, he visits this church to again gaze upon Leonardo da Vinci’s, Last Supper painting for the equally allotted fifteen minutes that each group of tourists or admirers have to view the artwork. Besides speaking of the experience, he questions whether the fifteen minutes is enough to fully grasp the fullness of the painting. While I am no art historian, I am however an English major and can speak from that perspective. 

As I read the article, I jumped ahead a little to see where it was going. Once I understood what he was posing to me, I started again from the beginning and deliberately took fifteen minutes to complete the reading. Within fifteen minutes, not only did I travel to the church where he was, I also stood in the crowd and took a glimpse of da Vinci’s masterpiece. In fifteen minutes, I went to Italy, viewed artwork and came back home to write about it. This is what writing and literature is supposed to do for the readers. I had a very clear perspective on his views as well as his experience and it took all of fifteen minutes, the same amount of time the viewers had to look upon the painting, form an opinion about it and move on. 

This was an intentional read, again because I have a fascination about Italy though I have never been there. I didn’t imagine that choosing this article would turn out as interesting as I found it to be. I have never heard of or read anything by Kimmelman before this and I can honestly say that I am now a fan. That has nothing to do with his writing of Italy but everything to do with my relating and being able to comprehend his thoughts without needing a dictionary and a professor standing by.  He painted a picture that I understood. With all of the unbearable reading that I must complete, this was noteworthy because of its relativity. So to answer his question which basically asked was fifteen minutes enough time to fully appreciate and form an opinion of the painting, I will respond and say that fifteen minutes in time is all we need. His article proved it.