Re: Ivy's Garden of Wandering Thoughts: Time of the Eye
Explanation of The Time of the Eye
Several years ago, I came upon a story by the author Harlan Ellison(One of my favorite authors; I have a book of his that's 1247 pages thick full of the best of his short stories) that really just stuck with me. It's about a man who was in a war(the Vietnam, I think) and after he came home he was put in a mental institution for post traumatic stress disorder. There, he meets a blind woman who is model-esque beautiful and helps her sneak away from the orderlies who monitor her and they take a walk together. As she tells him a story about her life, he falls in love with her. I won't tell the end but will give the description in the book that adequately explains the meaning behind the story without giving too much away:
In "The Time of the Eye" (1959), this purity is twisted. What can be nobly sought and nobly motivated can also be misplaced, even caricatured. Love â so full of passion and driving obsession â can prevent us from identifying those other forms that passion and obsession can take, the drives that mimic love. This story of a man suddenly given purpose, protective, responding to forms, reminds us how these chameleon masks of love conceal all kinds of ugliness, fueled by loneliness, fed by need. When love ceases to be pure and noble, what does it do with all that passion and force? And what residue does it leave behind?
Re: It is the Time of the Eye: Adventures with Shrimp Pasta!
I cooked seafood for the second time! :-D The first time doesn't really count because it was premade, precooked, frozen coconut breaded shrimp that all I did was fry it(without thawing or anything) and the shrimp came out mushy and too greasy. XP
This time was at least halfway real! I got a bag of precooked, frozen shrimp from the store and thawed it. So, it's not technically raw seafood, but I wanted to start small and simple first. First of all, I love seafood and shellfish. Fishy fish are icky most of the time, but my favorites are shrimp, lobster, crab, octopus, mussels, scallops, and clams. It's always so expensive getting it from restaurants(most of the time if they offer it, seafood dishes are if not the most expensive then one of the most expensive things they offer) and I've always wanted to try cooking it at home but have been too scared that I wouldn't do it properly and end up making myself sick.
Well, now, I have finally done it!
Yield: Makes 3 to 4 servings
Ingredients
* 12 ounces dried penne pasta
* 1 pound frozen cooked shrimp (35 to 40 per lb.), thawed
* 1/2 cup prepared pesto
* 1/4 cup whipping cream
* 1/4 cup fat-skimmed chicken broth
* 3 tablespoons chopped drained oil-packed dried tomatoes
* Salt and pepper
Preparation
1. In a 4- to 6-quart pan over high heat, bring about 3 quarts water to a boil. Add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender to bite, 7 to 12 minutes. Drain and return to pan.
2. Add shrimp, pesto, cream, broth, and dried tomatoes to pasta; stir over medium heat until hot and evenly incorporated, 2 to 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour into serving dish or divide among individual bowls.
I couldn't find any oil-packed dried tomatoes(I'm not sure if they meant the tomatoes themselves were dried or for me to drain the oil and "dry" them, but whatever), so I used this:
Petite diced with garlic and olive oil.
Also, I had no clue what "pesto" was before this, but found out when I went to the store. I found it in the pasta sauce aisle. It came in a jar like this and was a dark, kind of olive green color.
I accidentally used 18 ounces of pasta instead of 12 and the sauce was very good but there wasn't enough to cover everything, so next time even if I used 12 ounces of pasta, I'd still up the other ingredients just a bit(I do not like my pasta dry and flavorless).
2 cups all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1-½ cups milk
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
â cup butter, melted
1 cup fresh blueberries
1) In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the eggs, milk, sour cream and butter. Stir into flour mixture just until moistened. Fold in blueberries.
2) Pour batter by ¼ cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubble form on top, cook until the second side is golden brown.
Yield: about 20 pancakes
Well, for one thing, I decided not to add the sour cream(hubby doesn't like it) but for another...I forgot the eggs. lol, they came out alright though, albeit a little crispy on one side, and they were absolutely yummy with buttered syrup.
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