This was a week of weddings and birthdays, polished off with the finale of the NAMI walk which is probably the best NAMI event in this country, because in New Orleans, there is no walking, there is only second lining. We marched to the Rebirth Brass Band around Audubon park with a miniature army of moody-faced dogs like Charlotte here.
Thank you to all who donated to this cause which is so very important to me and the work I have chosen to do with my life. This year Tulane’s team raised more than it ever has before, nearly double at that! NAMI offers day programs and support groups for persons and families touched by mental illness. We are tragically under-resourced in New Orleans, a city perma-stressed with violence, poverty, post-trauma from hurricanes, anticipatory trauma for hurricanes yet to come. There can be no end to the efforts in the name of mental and spiritual health here. March on. Cook too. For example, this fabulous gluten-free crepe.
Socca
Adapted from Fromartz’s In Search of the Perfect Loaf
160 g chickpea flour
40 g fine cornmeal flour
430 g water
3 g salt
¾ tsp cumin
4 TB extra virgin olive oil
Mix together all of the ingredients with 3 TB olive oil. Let sit for at least two hours (overnight best). Then heat up a cast iron pan skillet until it is hot hot hot, add 1 TB olive oil and pour enough batter on to coat the circle.
Cook maybe 2 minutes, flip like a crepe, and when both sides are done, serve right away.
I loved mine with Pam’s Pepper Jam!! Oooh ooh ooh.
Happy birthday, David!
Haiku #289 October 16th
Rare millennial
who dares not to speak like a
damn Kardashian.
Haiku #290 October 17th
Sometimes I regret
choosing a profession which
requires such thinking.
Haiku #291 October 18th
Sunday pajamas
and wrinkled sheets resting in
a puddle of brain.
Haiku #292 October 19th
Avenue pub, with
balcony seats under dark
umbrellas, not dry.
Haiku #293 October 20th
I am a weather
vane for the discomfort of
others, daily storms.
Haiku #294 October 21st
Coffee darker than
the morning sky into which
it was ground and born.
Haiku #295 October 22nd
To grow is to lose
things: your false self, defenses,
soul-smothering weeds.
Haiku #296 October 23rd
When I get where I’m
going, where we all go, a
Grand Rounds it shall be.
Haiku #297 October 24th
We don’t walk. Here we
march, stomp, second line, pussy
foot for our causes.
I’m so glad you could participate in fundraising efforts for NAMI, and in fine New Orleans style no less! 🙂 Haiku #295 captures a lot of the themes of the many beautiful conversations I had with a few SPU friends who were in Minneapolis this past weekend – aaahhh, the joys of getting older, and at least a bit wiser! 🙂