Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
salmon soup
salmon and shitake soup
for grey days on the west coast
ingredients:
one red onion
2 carrots
some stalks of celery
10 shitake mushrooms
1 lb of deboned salmon filet
2 cups cooked brown rice
boullion cubes, soy sauce or veggie stock for soup base
spices as desired
instructions:
- first of all, go for a long walk by the sea until you are cold and in need of warming. go by yourself and think about someone you haven’t seen for awhile.
- come home, and light a fire in the woodstove or fireplace, hang your wool sweater up to dry by the fire and then get your ingredients together for cooking
- start by sauteing the onion in olive oil until it is soft and translucent and your kitchen smells like cooking is taking place. if you want, add some cloves of crushed garlic and stir those in too
- add the sliced shitake mushrooms and stir them around a bit in the oil to release their flavour – put a bit of soy sauce over them and make them sing in the fashion of a chinese cook
- add about 7 cups of water and bouillon cubes and or 7 cups of veggie stock – if you have planned your life around eating well, you should have some homemade stock in the freezer
- throw in the sliced carrot and celery – make sure they are organic and you can leave the skins on the carrots
- put on a low, rolling boil until the veggies are getting towards done
- throw in the diced salmon filet, skin and all (make sure the bones are out first) – chinook or sockeye are the best because they have the strongest fish taste, make sure the pieces aren’t too small so you miss them when eating the soup
- when the salmon is cooked, add the brown rice and heat through – simmer the pot on a low heat for awhile so the flavours can marry
- soy sauce to taste
you can also add garlic, dill, oregano, bay leaf, celery seed, ginger, white wine, and/or barley (instead of rice) – i have made this soup all manner of ways. it is best if the salmon is of a piece given to you by a friend so you can think about that person as you are warming yourself up with the finished soup – this is nourishing for the body and the heart. on the west coast there are many fishermen (and women) – these are good people to befriend, and i am lucky to have a couple in the circle of my aquaintances (even luckier that one of these people regularly bestows me with gifts of salmon).
a bibliography anew
it has been a few months since i published the last biblio of my recent life, and since i do read a fair amount, the books to be shared have increased in number and i am pressed to spit out at least a short descriptor of each. looking at the books in the to-read pile growing in a stack beside my bed, or those shelved along the living room wall – it is clear there is no one theme or subject that occupies my literary imagination, but over time there are groups of subject-interest that emerge as life unfolds, making for a library both diverse and practical in addition to being reflective of the person i have become.
Beyond Remembering – Al Purdy
the collected works of Al Purdy – a legendary canadian poet who died in 2002 – i haven’t actually read this whole book yet. Purdy is my favourite canadian poet, and his works are redolent of the land, culture and politics of bc and the north particularly (although he was born in ontario, he spent much of his life in the west). two of his works that have moved me particularly are “say the names” and “trees at the arctic circle” – which are evocative of the land-base from which they rose. there are also several poems in this collection about purdy’s time in cuba in the early 60s, his chance meeting with che guevara and reflections on hearing castro speak. purdy drank and travelled and chain-smoked – and wrote poetry that reflected travels both sublime and ludicrous. if you like poetry and haven’t read purdy – this is the best collection of his works to date. (by the way – chapters carries almost no canadian poets – i had to go to people’s co-op books to find this in the city)
standing by
new desktop picture – cedar and creek
i am blogging in the break between frenetic activity and the possibility of more activity not yet confirmed.
today was supposed to be the first general strike day of federal workplaces across the country, a date that i and other co-ordinators have been working feverishly toward – talking to people, getting their picketing materials out to them, and just generally *organizing*. i worked out of the union office for two weeks and just came back to work this week to find a mountain of my “real” job waiting for me, but i haven’t touched it much because i have been beseiged by union-related phone calls leading up to the anticipated day.
but yesterday we got a reprieve as the employer (Treasury Board) has called our negotiating teams (for all TB, Parks and CRA employees – 120,000 people in Canada) back to the table and said they have a “revised mandate” – which essentially means they will offer us more money. our guys are flying back out there today and bargaining is to resume tomorrow and go through the weekend. if it doesn’t go in our favour we will be walking picket lines next week – but i am hopeful that the minority government has enough fear in them about the majority of federal employees refusing to work that they will be motivated to settle.
i stayed in town last night at any rate and had drinks with the girls (and a coupla boys) – am a little burnt out and not very eloquent this morning.
wise teeth, dumb machines
so, my dentist says – like mount saint helen’s – my wisdom teeth are erupting… (okay – well he didn’t say “like mt st helen’s” – but he did say erupting)… seems like fortuitous timing really with the volcanic events and all going on. comparing my x-ray with the picture on this website, i have “messial impaction”
in any case, that’s what the pain is – infection under the gum of the newly emergent tooth. i am now on antibiotics and will soon schedule surgery to have my bottom two wisdom teeth removed. according to many websites, the removal of wisdom teeth (even impacted ones like mine) is unecessary and they should be treated only if they require it (say, for cavities, or to be straightened if they are growing into the side of your other teeth). but there are other websites that say all impacted teeth should be removed or they may cause bone degeneration in the jaw.
i suspect the former is likely more accurate than the latter as we have had these “extra” teeth for millenia before modern dentistry and got along just fine with them until about 60 years ago – but on the other hand, having sporadic pain and having to take cycles of antibiotics to fight infections isn’t particularly glamorous – so it’s off the oral surgeon i go (as soon as this strike is over).
in better news, i found out today my other laptop (the one i thought was going to be junked) is fixed and ready to pick up. turns out it was the logic board (i knew it!) and they replaced it for free under the logic board replacement program. now i have two laptops – but really that one i’m getting back has a ton of little problems (doesn’t clasp shut, speakers are shot, cd player doesn’t work etc. etc.) – so i’m not sorry i bought new one even though it wasn’t in my budget right at the moment. i think i will use the old one for data back-up instead. the best news really is that i get all my data back….
ahhh – sweet data….
the caren range
as the day dims outside, the greyish dusk that fills my living room is like smoke – i have to turn on the lights to assure myself it is only a trick of shadows and nothing more. this is something i have forgotten while living in the city, how nuanced natural light can be when there are no artifical bulbs cluttering the nightscape. when darkness comes and i turn the lights on in my living room, i can see the wide pool of daytime they cast over my front yard and, loathe to disturb the beings out there with this need, there are urges to burn candles instead. how much space does one being need to take up? i know that this being already takes up too much.
one of the oldest forests in north america exists here on the sunshine coast – with yellow cedars reported to be as old as 1800-2000 years. they have found the oldest known tree to have existed in canada by counting the rings on trees already felled by industry. they speculate that possibly an older tree than that still stands in that small grove now protected from the fellerbunchers and self-involved businessmen – but this has not been proven. it is like a hope that slips from the imaginations of conservationists – we have not destroyed all the elders yet, we have not yet killed all tumbling endlessly down steep slopes and into the faraway sea.
Red Cedar 
