For those of you who don’t know, Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. It always takes place in November. The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November, about 1,666 a day. I first learned about Nanowrimo two years ago when an Engl. 1101 student named Sarah asked me if I was doing it. I’d never heard about it or noticed it. I guess, as a poet, I sometimes block out that strange fiction animal. Sarah had been involved with Nanowrimo throughout high school, thanks to an inspirational teacher, and I really appreciate that she made the effort of trying to inspire me. That semester, I “didn’t have the time,” with the chaos of finishing up my first MFA semester, as well as dealing with the unexpected news of Uncle TJ’s death.

I’ve never written a novel. During my time at NAU, I planned, outlined, and began a campus novel. This is a project that I hope to continue at some point, perhaps when we return to Asheville and I am able to spend some time around the campus that inspired my story.

This month seems like the perfect month to try Nanowrimo for the first time. I’ll NEVER “have the time” to try something like this, especially in November. I can’t make excuses, despite that pile of comparison/contrast essays that need to be graded, the jobs that need to be applied for, the house that needs cleaning, the poems that need submitting, the packing up of stuff that will be soon moved to a new location, the planning of a first pescetarian Thanksgiving, the making and buying of Christmas gifts, etc, etc, etc. Everything always gets done. This will be the ultimate exercise in time management.

Nanowrimo says to start from scratch. So I will. I’m not worried about those supposedly important writing devices like plot or setting or dialogue. I’m just going to make sure to write every day. I can always rearrange or revise later. And on top of that, I hope to post regular progress on here. I want this to work out. I want to make it through the 30 days of writing, not just for me as a wannabe fiction writer, but for me as a person and a poet. Wish me luck.

Myth

by Natasha Tretheway

I was asleep while you were dying.
It’s as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow
I make between my slumber and my waking,

the Erebus I keep you in, still trying
not to let go. You’ll be dead again tomorrow,
but in dreams you live. So I try taking

you back into morning. Sleep-heavy, turning,
my eyes open, I find you do not follow.
Again and again, this constant forsaking.

Again and again, this constant forsaking:
my eyes open, I find you do not follow.
You back into morning, sleep-heavy, turning.

But in dreams you live. So I try taking,
not to let go. You’ll be dead again tomorrow.
The Erebus I keep you in–still, trying–

I make between my slumber and my waking.
It’s as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow.
I was asleep while you were dying.

This is almost identical to the autumn peach pancakes I made last week—except for the pumpkin, of course. Derrick says these are his favorite of the pancakes I’ve made so far.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup Smart Balance milk
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Smart Balance Butter, melted, plus more for serving
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ can pumpkin (Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and vanilla. Preheat a nonstick griddle over medium heat.

Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry. Switch to spoon. Stir in the melted butter. The batter should be thick and smooth. Stir in pumpkin.

Spoon the batter onto the griddle 1/4 cup at a time. Cook the pancakes until set and thoroughly bubbly, about 3 minutes. Flip them with a spatula and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes more. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

I’ve been making pancakes every other weekend, and I think they’re worth the time and effort of making them from scratch compared to using a mix. The taste difference is huge. This recipe has become my baseline for almost all of the fruity pancakes I’ve been experimenting with.

I created this recipe this morning, and it had nice flavors. I had a few left over, so we’ll see how well they reheat for breakfast tomorrow.

Autumn Peach Pancakes

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup Smart Balance milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Smart Balance Butter, melted, plus more for serving
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup frozen peaches, thawed.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and vanilla. Preheat a nonstick griddle over medium heat.

Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir in the melted butter. The batter should be thick and smooth. Fold in the peaches.

Spoon the batter onto the griddle 1/4 cup at a time. Cook the pancakes until set and thoroughly bubbly, about 3 minutes. Flip them with a spatula and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes more. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

This would probably taste even better with real chocolate pieces blended in. But we didn’t have real chocolate, so this is what we came up with.

Strawberry Chocolate Smoothie

3 ice cubes
1 cup whole frozen strawberries
1 cup milk
Generous squirt of chocolate syrup
Smaller squirt of chocolate syrup.

Put top four ingredients in blender, and blend. Pour into giant coffee mugs with either Santa Claus or Black Cat on the outside. Squirt a little extra chocolate syrup on top. Enjoy!

Makes 2 servings.

This will be a short entry, as I have a migraine and need to get my head/shaky hands taken care of before I can grade (hopefully soon!) But I wanted to type this up while my tuna melt eating experience was fresh.

I don’t particularly like tuna. I can’t really pinpoint my canned tuna eating experiences. I’ve wanted to like it for a long time, but it never seems to work out. Last year, a “tuna helper” fettuccini alfredo mix was so fishy and funky that it made me sick. But I had a coupon for a can of the Starkist Autentico series, and I decided that I would eat tuna this week. I picked out the “Chunk Light Tuna in Oil and Vegetables”, thinking it seemed pretty safe and neutral, then Emily posted this entry over at The Sexy Divorcee Cooks For One. It was magically perfect timing! I followed Emily’s cooking instructions exactly, so I won’t copy those again here.

Though it says the tuna can has three servings, I felt like I needed to use half the can to cover the sandwich. Because the tuna was already oily and vegetabley, I didn’t feel like I needed to add much mayo (Smart Balance) and mustard (Dijon). I went pretty light on both, actually. The mixture didn’t become overly white with mayonnaise overload (like my first salmon salad I made on Monday) and stayed pretty pink. I used Smart Balance butter to coat the pan. I used sharp cheddar cheese on honey wheat bread. It took about 20 minutes to make.

I thought that the tuna melt would be….well, meltier, but the cheese seems to lock everything together so the sandwich doesn’t explode while eating it. I kept a fork on hand to scoop up two bites which squirted out the side. The tuna flavor was much more mild than any of the other times I’ve tried eating it. I don’t know if this is because of the bread, cheese, vegetables or something about the Autentico sub-brand compared to regular StarKist I’ve tried.

This seems like a pretty cost-efficient meal, especially with the built in vegetables. Since I saved the other half in the fridge, I’ll get a second tuna melt out of it to eat for lunch tomorrow or Friday!

I eliminated beef from my diet about two years ago, as an easy diet modification to eliminate a possible contributor to my cholesterol levels and weight gain. I switched to turkey or sausage for these kinds of recipes which normally rely on beef. In the past two years, I also began to increase my fish consumption, which I’d never eaten in college or Flagstaff (where there just wasn’t any fish around except for at Red Lobster).

A couple weeks ago, I made some chicken fingers just because we happened to have some in the freezer. It’s an old favorite recipe for the “Ultimate Chicken Fingers”, which uses a batter of Bisquik and Parmasan to add flavor to the chicken. This used to be a staple in our cooking. But once the chicken fingers made their way onto my plate, I just couldn’t stomach it, and I realized that I don’t even like chicken anymore. Chicken has gradually made its way out of my diet over the last few years, and I hadn’t even noticed.

So I got to thinking, what meat am I really eating? I don’t eat beef. I don’t eat chicken. We’ve only bought ground turkey once in the past month for a spaghetti meat sauce, but I ate many of my spaghetti bowls without the meat sauce, simply with butter and parmesan. I enjoy pork, bratwursts and ribs, but I haven’t opted for these meals as regularly now as I used to either. My taste buds and stomach have changed. What does this leave me with? Fish and veggies.

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