A GOOD EGG

"...the world breaks us all. Afterward, some are stronger at the broken places." - earnest hemingway

eggs

transformation

regeneration

24 days

24 frames

state of being

yoko kanayama

photographer

BAG OF TRICKS

images via defgrip

Sometimes when you haven't done something in awhile, you fear you've forgotten how. But that's never the case, is it? Maybe all you need to know is tucked away in some little crevice of your heart, soul, or mind. And just when you need it most, it bursts out to take you by surprise. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but maybe that's because the bag of tricks you already own needs to see the light of new day.

KICKIN' IT OLD SCHOOL

When I was a kid we used to ride our bikes to the local convenient mart. We always reached for the Hostess Fruit Pies, especially the cherry flavored ones. They were readily available, cheap, and portable. Lately I've started noticing them everywhere I go. Even tonight at the grocery store my eyes were drawn to their colorful packaging. I don't think I'd have the guts to eat one of those now it's so processed. So here's a homemade version for you to try.

Cherry Turnovers

1 recipe basic flaky pastry dough, for 2 crust 9-inch pie (see recipe below)

Cherry Filling, cooled (see recipe below)

1/3 large egg white, slightly beaten

Optional glaze: 1 large egg, lightly beaten & approx. 2 tsp sugar

1. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces. Between 2 sheets of plastic roll out each piece of dough about 1/8-inch thick and large enough to cut out 6-inch circle. Brush the egg white onto 1/2 of circle leaving a 1-inch border. Spoon about 2 tbsp of cherry filling on to the brushed section. Turn over other half-section of the dough covering the filling, so that the edges are flush. You are creating a half-moon shape. With your fingers, firmly press the 1-inch border to seal it. Fold the edges up over itself, pressing again to seal it.
2. Transfer the turnover onto a foil-lined sheet. Repeat with the remaining turnovers.
3. Refrigerate turnovers for 1 hour or freeze for at least 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 400°F for at least 20 minutes before baking. Set the oven rack at the lowest position and place a large baking sheet on it before preheating.
5. Unwrap the turnovers, and space them evenly on the foil-lined sheet. If desired, brush them lightly with the egg glaze and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Use a small sharp knife to cut 3 steam vents through the dough into the top of each turnover.
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the filling is bubbling thickly out of the vents and the pastry is golden. Remove the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes. Best eaten warm.

Cherry Filling

2 1/2 cups cherries

2/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp + 2 1/4 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp almond extract or 1 tsp Kirsch

1. In medium bowl whisk together the sugar and salt.
2. Add the fruit and lemon juice, and using a rubber spatula, toss together gently to coat the fruit. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes.
3. Transfer the berries and their juices to a saucepan. Stir the lemon zest and cornstarch into the fruit until the cornstarch is dissolved and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring gently. Allow to boil for 30 seconds to a minute until the juices become clear and very thick.
4. Gently stir in the Kirsch or extract. Empty the mixture into a bowl and allow it to cool completely, without stirring.

*Note: If this is too much work, you can make pre-made cherry pie filling.

Basic Flaky Pastry Dough For A Two-crust 9-Inch Pie

2 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon pastry flour or 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

14 tablespoon cold, unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon salt

optional: 1/4 tsp baking powder (if not using, double the salt)

5 to 7 tablespoons ice water

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1. Divide the butter into two parts, about two thirds to one third (9 tbsp and 5 tbsp).
2. Cut the butter into 3/4-inch cubes. Wrap each portion of butter with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the larger amount and freeze the smaller for at least 30 minutes.
3. Place the flour, salt, and optional baking powder in a zip-lock freezer bag and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
4. Place the flour mixture in a bowl. Cut in the larger amount of the butter with a pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Cut in the remaining frozen butter cubes until the size of peas.
5. Add the vinegar to the mixture and ice water one tablespoon at a time until you can pinch together a small amount of the mixture and it holds together. Divide the mixture in half, spooning each half into a plastic bag. Holding both ends of the bag, knead the dough once or twice from the outside of the bag until dough holds together in one piece and feels slightly stretchy when pulled.
6. Wrap the two portions of dough in plastic wrap, flatten into discs and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

recipe slightly modified from daisylanecakes

THE WRITINGS ON THE WALL

by robert indiana

"Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else." - ivern ball

via loveffiti

ph: s. winesett

ph: juan cordosa

ph: maggie lochtenberg

via futurowoman

MAKING WHOOPIE

Whoopie Pies are a New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition. They're one of Maine's best known and most loved comfort foods, although not technically a pie. A whoopie pie is like a sandwich but made with two soft cake-like cookies with a fluffy, sweet white filling in the middle. According to food historians, Amish women would bake these (known as hucklebucks at the time) and put them in farmers' lunchboxes. When farmers found these treats with their lunch, they would shout "Whoopie!"

Whoopie Pie

for cookies:

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

5 tbsp of cocoa

2 cups sifted flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Cream together the shortening and sugar. Add the beaten egg yolks.
3. Sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine milk and vanilla.
4. Alternately add dry ingredients and milk mixture to shortening/sugar mixture. Mix well.
5. Drop the batter in equal spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet, leaving room for them to spread. Bake for 7-10 minutes, or until the center of the cookies spring back with lightly pressed.
6. Remove to wire racks to cool.
7. When completely cool, mix filling (recipe below), and spread half the cakes with the filling. Put them together like a sandwich.

Filling:

1/2 cup shortening

2 cups confectioners sugar

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp Marshmallow Fluff

1. Beat the egg whites until stiff; set aside. Combine the other ingredients and beat very hard for several minutes on high speed. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

ANIMAL ATTRACTION

"The countenances of children, like those of animals, are masks, not faces, for they have not yet developed a significant profile of their own." - w.h. auden

images via ghostinsnow

THREE-RING CIRCUS

Back in the mid-19th century factories made it possible for crisp biscuits, or cookies, to be made into fancy shapes and became popular in Victorian England. Animal-shaped cookies were simply called "animals" and imported to America until bakers starting producing them domestically. It's believed that the popularity of P.T. Barnum's traveling circus contributed to the continued production and demand for animal-shaped cookies. When the National Biscuit Company (aka Nabisco) first introduced "animals" to the American public in 1902, their version was called "Barnum's Animals". The "crackers" were cookies formed in the shapes of various circus animals and packed in a box decorated like a circus train. They were originally marketed as a seasonal item for Christmas, the colorful box manufactured with its own string so that it could be hung as a tree ornament. It wasn't long before Animal Crackers became a part of the American scene. Nabisco produces about 7 million Animal Cracker cookies per day. That's a whole lotta animal fun.

Animal Cracker Pie

2 boxes animal crackers, crushed

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup chopped nuts

3 egg whites

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups whipped cream

25 more animal crackers for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Mix the crushed animal crackers with the baking powder and chopped nuts.
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and gradually add the sugar and vanilla.
4. Fold in the egg white mixture with the dry ingredients.
5. Pour mixture into a 9-inch pie pan. Bake for 30 minutes.
6. After the pie has cooled, top with whipped cream and decorate with animal crackers.

MEMORY BITES

ph: ralph crane

"When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory." - Marcel Proust The Remembrance of Things Past

The things we remember often reveal the essence of who we are, and the many facets of our own unique experiences. They are the many layers of our individuality, spun over a lifetime. One that evolves, and unfolds in an episodic fashion: childhood, adolescence, college years or early career, marriages, parenthood, senior and so forth. We collect a million different memories, each recollection a window to our past, a marker of some juncture in our lives. At each stage we develop passions, interests, and personal preferences that are specific to us, that help shape and mold us. In Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach writes, "Each life experience leaves a layer of memory like a deposit of sediment; things we've loved and moments of contentment we've cherished that when recalled, reveal glimmers of our true selves." And nothing quite evokes those memories like the smells, tastes, and textures of food. Throughout history food has marked every special occasion in our lives, from birthdays to weddings, and funerals. We use food to celebrate, to medicate, or to pass the time away. To be social, or anti-social, but whatever the case food is deeply interwoven with our memories. Edible morsels that act as catalysts in transporting us back to another time and place. The remembered association is an indelible trace to a time long since faded but not forgotten somewhere deep within your psyche. Often the emotions they piggyback on are as fresh as the day they happened despite the intervening years. I find it's not the big moments in our lives, but the small ones that shape who we are. Small details that are the tell-tale marks of a life in progress. They indicate so much more about the person you are than the superficial labels we wear for the outside world. They are in a sense the gestures that give cadence to our self-expressions.

Many foods make me nostalgic for childhood but there are times when an unexpected waft of something pleasant triggers a long buried memory that's both random and unexpected. One you didn't even know you had until you're reliving it like an old super 8 movie. An unexpected surprise that none the less delights you for however brief that moment. The smell of coffee on someone's breath always takes me back to when I was a little girl, and early morning kisses from my indulgent father before he left for work in his military uniform. The aroma of burnt sugar, sweet popcorn, or spicy rice cakes remind me of busy street markets, and a time when our family lived in Korea. Fried chicken and homemade biscuits bring to mind my grandmother, as does oranges and honey. Chitlins take be back to summer food festivals in the South with my childhood best friend in her family's roach coach. Pop Rocks of being a kid and sharing stories, big whoppers that we all believed more or less. These as with all my memories are unique to me, and therefore are the markers of my life. And still with every passing moment I'm collecting yet another memory, one that at some point in the future will be more satisfying than a shoebox filled with old photographs.

ph: leon levinstein

"The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order." - Eudora Welty

BERRIED TREASURE

The following dessert is a classic 1950's Jell-O Lemon Pie recipe sometimes called Berried Treasure Pie because of the fresh strawberries. I know for most of you strawberries are out of season so feel free to use whatever berries you have available.

Jell-O Lemon Pie (Berried Treasure)

1 package (8-oz) cream cheese, softened

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 prepared graham cracker pie crust

1 cup halved fresh strawberries

1 envelope Dream Whip* or 1 small Cool Whip

1 package (4 servings size) Jell-O Lemon Instant Pudding

1 cup milk

1. Beat cream cheese with sugar and 2 tablespoon milk in bowl until smooth.
2. Spread evenly in bottom of pie crust.
3. Arrange berries on mixture.
4. Prepare dream whip.
5. Prepare pudding mix with 1 cup milk as directed on package for pie, fold in 1 cup of Dream Whip.
6. Spoon into pie crust. Garnish with remaining Dream Whip and additional berries.

*Dream Whip is a whipped, non-dairy topping for desserts that is made at home from a white powder. You empty the powder into a bowl, add 1/2 cup of cold milk, and 1/2 tsp vanilla, and beat it with an electric mixer for approximately 4 minutes. Each envelope makes 2 cups in volume.

KAWA=FLOW

photography by

yamamoto masao

the world where we are

the world where we go

the rupture

between us in the present

those that went before us

or that come next

FANFARE

image via JiuHuKia's flickr

"Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by. The past increases, the future recedes. Possibilities decreasing, regret mounting." - haruki murakami

The passing of time is like one full cycle of a spinning fan, each blade staggering to catch up to the next moment. Its soothing blow a forgotten caress whispering across hot skin, circulating and whipping up a tempest of fading memories. A rush of regrets caught, and recycled in a pocket of stale air. Events stirred and ruffled, flapping like insistent markers from the past. We are but Rip Van Winkles waking from a strange dream, or the old man that sits quietly at his window watching a world that’s slowly forgotten him. If only we could make it last forever, but not frozen and staring back at us with dead eyes. Hold it back, slow it down and meet it somewhere in the middle. Drag out the days and nights, and stretch it out like sugar taffy, or thick dripping molasses. Lingering sticky, but sweet. If only we could pilfer from the attics of our memories, forgotten relics roused from sleep to remind us of loves lost, and found, in the crinkled folds of our minds. Swipe away the cobwebs, shake out the lingering dust, and discard the mothballs that are but stale remnants of lives squandered. Or a ruffled feather floating in the last strains of a lingering note. A whisper of silk waiting to exhale; a whistle of steam piercing the stillness and vibrating against the underside of our skins. A lost sigh, a puff of smoke, waiting to be swallowed whole. A cold draft that leaves you shivering in the hothouse of forgotten yesterdays. How we hasten to follow a fading trail left by a flurry of dust, smudged and ruined by time. The pesky flies of time, they are but wings fluttering madly at my ear. For every one I swat away, two come to take its place. Shoo, fly, shoo.

SHOO FLY, SHOO

Shoofly pie is a fluffy molasses pie considered traditional fare of the Pennsylvania Dutch. It closely resembles a sort of treacle tart, made with molasses, and topped with a sugar, flour, and butter crumble. It's more like a coffee cake, only with a gooey molasses bottom. The "hybrid cake within a pie shell" may have gotten its name because the sweet, sticky pools of molasses that formed on the surface of the pies as they were cooling attracted flies that needed to be "shooed" away. There are two variations of the pie, "wet bottom" with a soft filling and crumb topping or "dry bottom" where the crumb topping is mixed into the filling. The latter version is commonly served for breakfast. Shoo-fly Pie is also closely related to Chess Pie, and Montgomery Pie minus the lemon juice and buttermilk.

Shoo-fly Pie

1 cup flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

4 tbsp butter

1 cup molasses

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup boiling water

1 egg, beaten

1 9-inch pie crust (*see recipe for Simple Pie Crust)

*Note: Choose a deep dish 9-inch pie pan or two 8-inch shallower ones. If you choose the latter, double the pie crust recipe.

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Mix flour and brown sugar together in a bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the pieces are very small. Split the mixture in half, setting one half aside for crumbs.
3. Pour the molasses onto one half of the crumb mixture. Mix the baking soda into the boiling water. It should fizz dramatically. Pour the newly fizzy water into the molasses mixture, then add the beaten egg.
4. Pour into unbaked 9-inch pie shell and top with remaining crumb mixture. A deep dish pan works well here because there is a good bit of filling. Two 8-inch pans can also work, in which case double the pie crust recipe. Do not fill the crusts more than two-thirds full. The pie will rise.
5. Bake for 10 minutes in 375° F oven, then reduce heat to 350°F and bake an additional 35-45 minutes, or until pie is dark brown and set. If you would like the pie to be a bit wet, take it out of the oven when it still jiggles a little. If you would like the pie to be moist but less of a sticky mess, allow it to set. If you opted for two shallower pies, reduce cooking time by 10 minutes or so. When cut into, the bottom may be "wet." This is okay, as it's called a "wet bottom shoo-fly pie."

Simple Pie Crust

1 cup flour

1/3 cup butter or shortening, cut into small pieces

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp ice-cold water, more or less

1. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the butter or shortening, and with two knives or a pastry cutter, cut in the fat until flour resembles coarse meal. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time until dough starts to clump together but is not too wet. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling out.
2. Using a rolling pin, start from the center and use short strokes to roll out the dough until you have a 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick round disc slightly bigger than your pie pan. Gently drape it over the pie pan, then trim the edges so that the dough doesn't extend over the rim. Crimp the edges, or just pinch the cracks together to make it uniform.