Dear Girls

This piece was created for a talent competition for high schools in Reykjavík, Iceland.




This piece was created for a talent competition for high schools in North Carolina, America.

Janet's Stovetop Mac and Cheese

INGREDIENTS

· 3 tablespoons butter

· 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

· 1 teaspoon salt (more to taste) and pepper (to taste)

· 4 cups milk

· 2 pinches nutmeg or cinnamon

· 1 bay leaf

· 3/4 pound small shell pasta or elbow macaroni

· 3 - 4 cups coarsely grated sharp yellow cheddar


DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium. Add flour and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is pale golden, about 3 minutes.

2. Whisking constantly, pour in 2 cups milk; add 2 more cups milk and whisk until smooth. Add salt, nutmeg, and bay leaf. Cook mixture, stirring constantly until just boiling, 6 to 7 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes. Set to lowest heat. Stir in cheese.

3. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until not quite al dente; drain thoroughly and return to pot. Reserve a cup of hot water to thin sauce as needed.

4. Remove sauce from heat and pour over pasta and stir to coat. Add hot pasta water as needed to reach the consistency you prefer. Cover pot and let set for a few minutes so the pasta can absorb the sauce and finish cooking (on low heat if needed). Add more salt and pepper to taste.

always served with peas in my house. also salmon, usually.
and sliced tomatoes, salted.
I have been known to use my immersion blender to remove lumps from my cheese sauce, occasionally. 

F.art

as seen in a Bartok Bela utca gallery window:

#Budapest

The Story of My Teeth

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli

Translated by Christina MacSweeney

Coffee House Press, 2015

"I read a story in the newspaper about a certain local writer who had had all his teeth replaced. This writer, apparently, was able to afford the new dentures and the expensive operation because he'd written a novel. A novel! I saw my future, crystal clear. If that writer had had his teeth fixed with a book, I could do it too. Or, even better, I could get someone to write one for me." p. 18

"The teeth are the true windows to the soul; they are the tabula rasa on which all our vices are inscribed." p. 50

"I am Gustavo Sanchez Sanchez, I said. I am the peerless Highway. And I am my teeth. They may seem to you to be yellowed and a little worse for wear, but I can assure you: these teeth once belonged to none other than Marilyn Monroe, and she needs no introduction. If you want them, you will have to take me along too." p. 62

     Ah! I see that you're going to be a good writer too.
     Why do you say that?
     Because when you smile, you don't show your teeth. Real writers never show their teeth. Charlatans, in contrast, flash that sinister crescent when they smile. Check it out. Find photos of all the writers you respect, and you'll see that their teeth remain a permanently occult mystery. I believe the only exception is the Argentinian Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis.
     Borges?
     The selfsame. Blind and Argentinian. But he doesn't count because he was blind, so he probably couldn't picture himself smiling--at least, not with the smile he had when he was blind, if you know what I mean." p.111

September 11, 2015 New York Times Sunday Book Review:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/books/review/the-story-of-my-teeth-by-valeria-luiselli.html?_r=0

Mary Oliver "Not Anyone Who Says"

NOT ANYONE WHO SAYS

Not anyone who says, “I’m going to be
  careful and smart in matters of love,”
who says, “I’m going to choose slowly,”
but only those lovers who didn’t choose at all
but were, as it were, chosen
by something invisible and powerful and uncontrollable
and beautiful and possibly even
unsuitable —
only those know what I’m talking about
in this talking about love.

Source: 
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/10/20/mary-oliver-felicity-love/