/Wild Rice/

Toothsome & chewy & colorful & paired with salmon.

The store I work at stocks the most delicious wild-caught Atlantic salmon.

It’s a gorgeous coral color, and flaky and buttery once cooked.

I decided to make it a meal this week and pair the salmon with

a wild rice blend (cooked with onions and peppers),

roasted garlic broccoli,

crunchy, crispy chickpeas,

and a drizzle of herb and arugula-infused lemon juice.

Everything was baked in the oven (no stovetop required)!

To infuse the lemon juice, I put it in a bowl with arugula, fresh herbs, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and I blended it with an immersion blender. Then, I strained out the solids.

Yummyyyyy

I was so pleased with how this easy and fiberful dinner came out,

and so was my family.

The chickpeas added texture, the broccoli added freshness, the wild rice blend was a perfect al dente, the salmon was (of course) flaky and golden brown, and the lemon juice was bright and zesty!!

On that note…

We have so many amazing products at the store.

Here’s a butt-shaped heirloom tomato we found:

On that note…

Subscribe now

/Wild Blueberry/

The blueberry’s younger, more flavorful cousin.

I’m very particular when it comes to produce.

Could you tell?

This includes every kind of produce.

I need the correct onions when making a chicken dinner,

the perfect scallions for topping my ramen,

and the right type of fruit when baking.

(What determines “correct”, “perfect”, and “right” produce? A few things, such as the season it is and the flavor profiles of particular variations of the same vegetable. Usually, though, it’s determined by how I feel in the moment.)

Recently,

after scoping out the aisles for minutes on end

looking for frozen wild Maine blueberries,

I couldn’t find ANYYYYY.

I couldn’t wait another moment or go to another store.

I needed blueberries!

I promised Zoila that I’d make her blueberry muffins for her birthday…

a birthday that was the next morning.

Unfortunately, I had to settle for normal frozen blueberries.

Even so,

even though I panicked about the perfection and size of my blueberries,

the muffins turned out

incredible.

I used tangy yogurt to moisten the super-thick batter

and left a space in between each muffin in the tin. This, combined with the utilization of both baking powder and baking soda, allowed the muffins to rise tall and develop super beautiful domed tops.

Before mixing the blueberries into the batter, I tossed them in a bowl of flour until lightly coated. This trick prevented the blueberries from sinking,

and you can do this with any add-ins for your batter-based recipes (e.g., chocolate chips or nuts).

The final fancy touch was the lemon sugar,

which I made by mixing lemon zest and sugar and by allowing the lemon oils to seep into the sugar. I sprinkled the sugar over each muffin prior to baking. The sugar gets all crackly and gives the end product a crusty shine.

All these steps led to some of the moistest, most golden-brown muffins I’ve ever made!

I suggest making blueberry muffins,

and I also suggest eating blueberry muffins on your birthday.

Zoila knows what’s up.

You know who also knows what’s up?

My Aunt Beth

who I had the pleasure of baking another cooked-fruit dessert with

when I was in Nashville a couple weeks ago.

She asked me if I wanted to make a pineapple upside-down cake with fresh cherries…

OF COURSE!!!!!

So we did.

Look how gorgeous!!!

On that note,

If you’re not a fan of cooked fruit (some people aren’t! I’ve met a few! they don’t eat pie! boo hoo!), I also recently made an UNcooked fruit-flavored cake.

It was for Dalton’s birthday, so of course it had to include some sort of tea.

I made a jasmine and white tea flavored cake with

jasmine and white tea-infused simple syrup,

a creamy jasmine and white tea-infused filling,

jasmine and white tea swiss meringue buttercream,

and white peaches.

White peaches were definitely the move here. I prefer yellow peaches in general, but a ripe white peach has the crunchiness and a lighter flavor that pairs well with white tea.

I’ve done so much baking and cooking lately,

but, of course, I’m still on my poetry journey

and I haven’t shared any of that yet.

On that note…

/Wilderness/

Poetry Camp with the Poetry Society of New York.

We wrote.

We read.

We laughed.

We hammocked.

Bugs ate us.

We ate lentils

and cabbage.

The lake was big and the pond was small, and all the water from the taps was potable!

I learned, I fell and bruised my knee, I made new friends,

and I slept next to sheep.

My tent

was next

to sheep

and alpacas.

I rewilded.

We all did.

The theme of this year’s Poetry Camp was “Rewilding”.

As the PSNY interns wrote in their fantabulous anthology On Entanglement - A Rewilding Anthology, “Rewilding is about how we are choosing to live in a time consumed by the storm of violence and dystopia that have insidiously rendered land, language, and imagination infertile. Rewilding is return, despite. When a poem rewilds, it pushes against its limits; despite disaster, it warms and fills readers with hope. It’s not just writing about the world or the land but writing out our own humanity as part of the land.”

We entangled our minds through poetry and sharing.

We entangled our words through collaboration and acceptance.

We entangled with the land.

Oh, we entangled with the land.

We developed and flourished.

Little pieces of pollen, grass, and tree bark finally back home,

greeting each other on the breeze along the way.

I hardly have any of my pictures (because I decided to take all my photos on a disposable camera and it will take 2-3 weeks to come back),

but I’m sharing what I have now

so that you can catch a fleeting glimpse

of what we were

for five days in the woods.

Thank you to the effervescent multitasking extraordinaire that is Tova Greene for putting everything together.

Thank you to Fi, Emi, Erika, Sarah, Bero, Dylan, Venus, and Meredith for curating the words and strategies that sparked creative generation (and for tirelessly cooking and chopping and cooking and stirring and cooking and driving and… and…).

Thank you to Jackie Braje, Stephanie Berger, and Chen Chen for your headliner seminars and readings that were so steeped in inspiration, humor, and authenticity.

Thank you to the Outlier Inn and Josh for providing the nature!!

Thank you to my 50+ fellow PoCampers for being so passionately yourselves and so deeply kind. I love poets.

I’ll post the disposable pictures when I get them back.

On that note… go outside.

/Parting Words/

A song on repeat:

A snack I’m liking lately:

Shortbread cookies

A drink I’m liking lately:

Iced chai w/ oat milk

A random thing I enjoy:

HAMMOCKS!

A thing I’m reading or watching:

Big Brother… obviously. Also, Glandscapes by Mickie Kennedy.

Clothing I find fun:

Long socks when the mosquitos start biting.

With love and appreciation,

Annabelle