One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.


--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Salted Caramel Lava Cake, where have you been all my life?

Ingredients

4 oz of semi-sweet baking chocolate squares [113 grams]

4 oz of butter [1 stick or 113 grams]

1/3 cup of sugar or icing sugar 

2  large eggs

1/3 cup A P flour [All purpose white flour]

Some butter for greasing 4 ramekins

6-8 caramel squares

a little rock salt/sea salt

100% cocoa powder for dusting ramekins, optional

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425 deg [218 deg celsius]

Butter the ramekins. Dust with cocoa powder[optional]

Cut each caramel square into a few smaller pieces and press some salt onto them and set aside. If you leave them whole they might not melt all the way through.

Microwave the chocolate squares and butter for one minute in a large bowl. The chocolate will not have completely melted at this point. Whisk till the chocolate and butter combine.

Add the sugar and mix it in.

Whisk in the eggs and incorporate.

Stir in the flour. Work the flour in gently to combine. 

Divide batter among the 4 ramekins.

Gently push the salted caramel bits into the batter covering them.

Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake between 10-14 minutes. The cake is ready when it has a domed appearance, the center is a little moist and the edges of the cake, dry and firm.                                                                                                                                                                                                       Remove from the oven, insert a knife and go around the cake, invert onto serving plates, garnish wth salt and serve.                                                                                                

Notes

• This is a very forgiving recipe and you can’t go wrong with this cake. Please do keep this in your repetoire. For very little time and effort you get outstanding results each and every time.
• You can make the batter ahead of time and refrigerate it. I’ve baked it after 3 three days. Not necessary to get to room temperature, just leave it out for a little while. You can even put it in a prepared ramekin, refrigerate and bake directly after you have set it out for a little bit.
• You can freeze the batter. Thaw and bake. You can also freeze in prepared ramekins, then thaw and bake, though the cake didn’t rise as much.            
• You can spike it with liquor.                                                                          
• If you have left the cake in the oven for a bit too long, it might not have a runny center but the inside will still be moist and fudgy and still yummy.
• The same recipe bakes equally well in a mini muffin pan. I set the temperature to 350 degrees [180degrees celcius] and baked for 10-12 minutes.                           
• For a chocolate lava cake, just omit the caramel squares.             

[vegetarianirvana]

Lichtenstein's Landscapes in the Chinese Style

Roy Lichtenstein, Landscape with Scholar's Rock, 1997

Roy Lichtenstein, Landscape with Boat, 1996

On view through April 7 at Gagosian 24th Street.
[Gagosian Gallery]

"I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try." --Roger Ebert

Amen.

"Things to worry about": A list from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his daughter, Scottie (1933)

[Lists of Note]

Things to worry about:
Worry about courage 

Worry about cleanliness 

Worry about efficiency 

Worry about horsemanship 

Things not to worry about: 
Don’t worry about popular opinion 

Don’t worry about dolls 

Don’t worry about the past 

Don’t worry about the future 

Don’t worry about growing up 

Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you 

Don’t worry about triumph 

Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault 

Don’t worry about mosquitoes 

Don’t worry about flies 

Don’t worry about insects in general 

Don’t worry about parents 

Don’t worry about boys 

Don’t worry about disappointments 

Don’t worry about pleasures 

Don’t worry about satisfactions 

Things to think about: 
What am I really aiming at?  

How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:
(a) Scholarship 

(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them? 

(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?  

With dearest love,
Daddy

"Weather Vain": How to dress the part where ever you're spending the weekend!

Boston, Massachusetts

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Portland, Maine

from Of a Kind

e.e. cummings' it may not always be so

it may not always be so; and i say
that if your lips, which i have loved, should touch
another's, and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart, as mine in time not far away;
if on another's face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know, or such
great writhing words as, uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;


if this should be, i say if this should be-
you of my heart, send me a little word;
that i may go unto him, and take his hands,
saying, Accept all happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face, and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands.