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Garlic prawns and then apple lightning cake
Last night’s chow was garlic prawns with orzo, that clever little pasta that imitates rice, with a few zucchini slices and slivers of red pepper so I wouldn’t have to make vegetables.Followed by yet another variation on our dear friend the Lightning Cake, this time featuring a sliced apple topping, sprinkled with juice of half a lemon, about half a cup of brown sugar and a pinch of cinnamon (I’ve made it with blueberries and ginger as well – terrific). I ladled into the cake batter about half a cup of raisins – which had wallowed some weeks in leftover hooch – sherry? brandy? who knows – until plump. The result was gooey and crispy and perfect with Udder Guys Ice Cream (maple walnut this time). And it held up well overnight: a delicious breakfast.
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Malaspina and banana bread
It seems the Curse of Blogger is upon me once more: I’ve spent three days trying to post a few more snaps from Feast of Fields but Blogger leads me down the garden path and then just refuses to let it happen. And then I got to the end of today’s snappy, entertaining and endlessly erudite posting and Blogger quit on me again. Grrr. So I try once more, from memory.
I read last night at Malaspina College where I was delighted to see a number of my former classmates from Kate Braid’s form in poetry course in the audience. One of them, Gabriola Island’s own Audrey Keating, did a terrific opening reading, or more accurately recitation. Brave and well delivered.
I was also delighted to receive as part payment for my reading, a hand crafted banana bread from the organiser, the lovely and talented ev nittel. It was wrapped in brown paper and warm from the oven. It was crunchy on top and springy in the middle, laced with chocolate, pebbled with walnuts and scattered with caramelised and chocolate coated almonds. To die for. Or at least to drive to Nanaimo and give a reading for! I will see if I can pry the recipe from her, but I fear she simply has a flair for baking that might not be possible for most of us to duplicate.
In keeping with my latest time-wasting activity (and you need lots of these when you’re getting ready to go away for a year!), namely keeping track of which poems I read where, here’s the evening’s playlist:
White Dresses (from Hour of the Pearl, read in honour of the surprise appearance of my long ago pal and fellow boarding school survivor Pamela!)
Leaving the Refuge (from new manuscript)
Suitcase (from Cartography)
Vegetables
Journeys
Tales
The Thirteenth Fairy Bites Back
The Rhonda Poem, or the Madness of D
Vegetable Kingdom (one for the vegetarians, written at Wired a couple of years back)
Ghost in the Machine (new manuscript)
Hard Cold Realty
London Plane
Ache and Pain
Boston School of Cooking Cookbook (Old Habits / Crosswords)
Another Life to Live at the Edge of the Young and Restless Days of Our Lives (Creating the Country / Crosswords) -
Final feast photos
Wickaninnish Inn’s gorgeous tomatoes.
Wonderful Feys & Hobbs caterers came up with these clever sweetcorn soup shots with mushroom tuille.
Camille’s Restaurant presents venison carpaccio.. assembly line seldom looks like this!
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In her latest collection, Rhona McAdam navigates the dark places of human movement through the earth and the exquisite intricacies lingering in backyard gardens and farmlands populated by insects and pollinators, all the while returning to the body, to the tune of staccato beats and the newly discovered symmetries within the human heart.
“…A beautiful, filling collection, Larder is a set of poems to read at the change of the seasons, to appreciate alongside a good meal, and to remind yourself of the beauty in everything, even the things you may not appreciate before opening McAdam’s collection….”
Rhona McAdam is a writer, poet, editor, and Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a Master’s in Food Culture from Italy and a deep-rooted passion for ecology and urban agriculture. Her work spans corporate and technical writing to poetry and creative nonfiction, often exploring the vital links between what we eat and how we live. Based in Victoria, BC, and available via Zoom, Rhona is always open to new writing commissions, readings, or workshops on nutrition and the culinary arts.
