Writers who’ve most influenced the way I wish I could write or the stories I’d like to tell:

1. Madeline L’Engle (storytelling)
2. Kurt Vonnegut (humor, opinion-fiction)
3. Richard Powers (intelligent depth)
4. Jose Saramago (simple depth)
5. Ernest Hemingway (succinctness)
6. Edgar Allen Poe (drama, rhyme)
7. Emily Dickinson (beauty, rhyme)
8. Shel Silverstein (cleverness)
9. Roald Dahl (humor, appropriateness)
10. Mark Twain (narrative)
11. Umberto Eco (depth of character)
12. David Mitchell (plot, voice)
13. Kazuo Ishiguro (tone, quiet)
14. John Steinbeck (character, voice)
15. Samuel Beckett (humor, drama)

Honorable mentions: Charles Dickens, Dr. Seuss, George Orwell, T.S. Eliot, Daniel Quinn, Neil Stephenson, Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Langston Hughes, Richard Bach, William Faulkner, Margaret Atwood, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alice Walker …
You’ll notice a heavy emphasis on children’s writers (and in fact, I’m not a fan of L’Engle’s books for adults at all), (with the obvious exceptions) on simple, dramatic writing with powerful characters, and on humor. None of which I do well, but which I would love to be able to achieve.

Only a few authors I love are translated from languages other than English. Most of these writers haven’t written anything I’ve hated, with the exception of a bit of Quinn’s work (he’s a heavy-handed philosopher in his worst fiction, and an excellent blender of the two at his worst), the adult L’Engle novels (and her overtly religious writings), “The Red Pony” (Steinbeck) and some of the more tedious passages of the longer works of some of the male writers here. Of course, there’s plenty I haven’t read, so that all gets a pass, too.

Oddly missing is much of a science fiction presence (and I read a lot of sci-fi); no nonfiction (if these writers have nonfiction in their canon, and many do, I’m not referring to it); little poetry or play/screenwriting (I was even iffy on Shakespeare, not because he’s a hack but because I don’t want to *be* him). I enjoy all of the above, but that’s just  not the writer I want to be. Oh, and no philosophy or motivational writing — I like philosophy in theory, but in practice, reading a whole book about it is enough to bore me to tears — or to sleep, as the case may be.

I’m also somewhat sad that there aren’t more women, but frankly if I added them I’d be lying. It’s not that I don’t frequently read and enjoy the works of female writers, it’s just that they don’t tend to stick.

Who are some of your favorites who I should try? Haven’t read one of these writers and want a recommendation?

Pad Thai's new pad.

He’s a very active little betta, and we’ve named him Pad Thai, just Thai for short. I’ve promised to get rid of the hokey background on his 2.5 gallon home sometime soon, but for now, I’m trying to get him to learn his name. I’ll let you know how that one goes.

My desk is his home ... and Henry the cat's new favorite hangout. I'm blogging from the living room.

Our cats are interested in his fishy-smelling food, but we’re not sure how they’ll react to him once they figure out he’s food, too. Luckily his aquarium has a pretty secure lid on it.

Moving on …

Vegetarian gourmetish: Pizza with mozzarella, feta, tomatoes, apples and spinach.

Last night, we were getting hungry and it was getting late, and I was sent by a still-working Bill on a frozen pizza run. I made the near-fatal mistake of a right turn instead of a left, and ended up at Central Market, aka food lovers’ haven, instead of our normal (and constantly under renovation) H-E-B grocery. I started putting things in my basket the second I walked in and saw that blackberries were on sale, and by the time I got to the checkout, I had the makings of something far more interesting (and far more expensive) than a 99-cent Totino’s ever thought about being.

And 25 minutes after I got home, we sat down to what he called “one of the best meals you’ve made in a looooooong time.” (I think his short-term belly memory had already forgotten about the “world’s fluffiest banana-pecan pancakes” from the weekend before, but I let it slide because it was a nice thing to say.) It was just pizza and salad, but it was terrific.

Extreme(ly decadent) pizza closeup!

Tart-Sweet Pizza:

• Fresh, premade pizza crust (This is the one area I think I fell short, but CM’s crusts are fluffy, ultra-fresh and lightly seasoned with garlic and rosemary, so this was no Boboli)
• Olive oil
• Whole-milk mozzarella
• Bulgarian sheep’s milk feta (sooooo good)
• Yellow grape tomatoes (‘sunbursts’)
• Gala apple
• Orange blossom honey
• Spinach leaves
• Freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush top and bottom of crust with olive oil.
2. Shred mozzarella and sprinkle on pizza. Crumble a small amount of feta and sprinkle on top.
3. Bake on top rack of oven for 5 minutes.
4. While baking, quarter tomatoes and slice apple verrrrry thinly. You’ll only need about 1/3 to 1/4 of the apple. Toss with a squirt of honey to gently coat.
5. Remove pizza from oven and top with tomatoes, apple slices and spinach leaves, and grind pepper over to taste. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and/or a very small amount of honey, if desired.
6. Return to oven for another 5-6 minutes or until crust is golden brown and spinach starts to wilt. While that’s baking, make your salad.

Spinach salad with seasonal fruit and orange blossom honey vinaigrette.

Savory Fruit Salad

Tweak quantities as desired, of course. This was good split between 2 people as a side salad.

• 2 loose cups spinach leaves
• Blackberries, halved or whole, about 8
• Thinly sliced apple (1/3-1/2 of apple)
• 2 Tbsp. diced pecans
• 2 Tbsp. dried cranberries
• Halved yellow tomatoes. about 8
• Pinch of crumbled feta on top
• Dressing: 2 parts olive oil to one part each balsamic vinegar and orange blossom honey, plus salt and pepper.

The odd couple: Blackberries and feta. They work great together.

We made sangria two ways recently. The first was according to a recipe I can’t seem to track down now, but with our own twist.

My big ol' hands slicing lemons for our first attempt at sangria.

We used:

• 1 bottle of a citrusy Pinot grigio (we used La Villa, which was very tasty at under $10)
• 1/2 box of peach ‘nectar’ (aka really sweet peach juice, also available in cans)
• 2 peaches, sliced
• 1/4 cup lemon juice plus 1 sliced lemon
• 1/2 pint raspberries
• 1/2 of a large mango, sliced
• About half a cup of torn up fresh Thai basil, plus a sprig to garnish
• A few spoonfuls of sugar

To make the sangria, we cooked down half the peach nectar, the lemon juice, the basil and the sugar until it’d boiled a bit and the basil leaves were fully bruised, then we strained the mixture into a pitcher filled with the wine, the sliced fruit and the remainder of the peach nectar. Then we chilled it for a few hours while we went to the movies for “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” (mini-review: ker-pow blast of fun).

It turned out quite sweet, too sweet for most of the guests at the Labor Day happy hour we brought it to. Once I started garnishing glasses with a squeeze of lime and a wedge, it was more tolerable. It mellowed out with time and 2 days later it was at its peak. Still, I’d recommend using half the juice and cutting out most or all of the sugar.

My second-favorite thing about sangria is looking at it.

I was left to my own devices last week and came up with a recipe for a much more tart version of the sangria using things we already had around the house. My only disappointment was using Alice White Pinot grigio, which is not so good even amongst under-$10 bottles, and not skinning my apples, which added a touch of unwelcome bitterness. Anyway, here’s how that one went:

• 1 bottle Pinot grigio
• 1/3 box peach nectar
• Juice of 1 1/2 sweet lemons, plus 1 1/2 lemons, sliced
• 1 peach, sliced
• 1 apple, sliced (I used a Gala) and peeled
• 1/2 mango, sliced
• 2 Tbsp. ginger, peeled and sliced into thin pieces
• Sugar to taste
• Segment of seeded pepper of your choice (I used a 2-inch piece of Hatch chili)

Cook the ginger in the peach nectar and lemon juice, adding sugar as desired. Strain the liquid into a pitcher containing wine and sliced fruits. I added the pepper to give it a little kick. I’ll warn you to take out the pepper after you’ve let it refrigerate for a few hours so it doesn’t overwhelm the other flavor. I’d imagine the ginger flavor is enough spiciness for most people.

Now that it’s getting a little cooler out (ha! It’s only 89 degrees today.), I’m looking forward to trying some red wine-based sangrias.

Football season for me means lots of work to do. But for someone else in our household, it’s a lot of fun. Trying to get in the spirit of things, I made him a halftime treat during last week’s Cowboys game. I grilled some of this new Morningstar fake chicken patty thing and toasted some bread in lieu of hamburgers on buns, but the fan favorite was my oven fries.

Start working in the second quarter and they’ll be done in time to enjoy at halftime, and best of all they taste terrific and you don’t lose any to being burnt onto the baking sheet, as always seems to happen to me. This recipe is perfect for two hungry people who skipped breakfast.

Pardon the vomitous look of my dressed-up sandwich and gaze instead at the lovely potatoes.

Halftime Garlic Oven Fries

• Three medium red potatoes, washed
• Two cloves of garlic
• Vegetable oil
• Cornmeal
• Salt, pepper and cumin

1. Preheat oven to 400. Slice potatoes into even matchstick pieces — I used a mandoline, but my knife skillz are pretty inferior. Place in an ice bath as you slice them.
2. Press, crush or dice garlic into a tablespoon or so of olive oil.
3. Rinse potatoes and pat dry.
4. Toss in olive oil and garlic. Season with salt, pepper and cumin.
5. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal. Lay potatoes flat in a single layer on the sheet. Sprinkle very lightly with additional cornmeal.
6. Bake about 20 minutes, rotating and shaking the sheet halfway through to assure fries don’t stick.
7. They should be a light golden brown when ready.

Little hemispheres of brownie goodness

These are a bit too rich to be cookies, not quite a tray of hard-to-cut brownies. They’re basically a dark chocolate, caramel, walnut treat.

Brownie Bubbles

Makes about 16 cookies total.

• 5 Werther’s Originals or other hard caramels
• Splash of milk or milk alternative
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• Half bag dark chocolate chips (6 oz.)
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, optional
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Crushed walnuts or other nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Place candies in a microwave-safe dish. Cover with milk. Heat in microwave on low power until melted, stirring every 30 seconds.
3. Add condensed milk, chocolate chips and butter. Microwave 2 minutes on medium power.
4. Continue to microwave in 30-second increments until all ingredients are melted.
5. Stir in vanilla, cinnamon and flour.
6. Place on a greased baking sheet in large spoonfuls.
7. Press crushed walnuts on top of each bubble to flatten slightly.
8. Bake about 8 minutes, being sure to turn sheet at halfway point. They’ll continue to firm considerably after coming out of the oven and being placed on a cooling rack or paper towel.

So rich you'll probably only eat just one. Think we can call them 'diet dessert'?

Notes: Feel free to skip the caramels/first part of the recipe entirely, if you want something a little less sweet. Oh, and be SURE to rotate them halfway through or they’ll collapse on one side.

What else has been going on around here lately? Well, somebody conjured up a brand-new Blur scooter on our roof. ... Sorry, this photo just cracks me up. Plus you can see the Austin skyline from our rooftop!

1. You’re good at it.
2. You make money at it.
3. You do it regularly.
4. Your paintings are worth looking at.
5. You actually want to show others your paintings.
6. You have something to say, at all, and that it’s said through your paintings.

Well, I’m a bad to so-so painter who paints in the same way a little kid paints: Just for the heck of it, and maybe to have something to show mommy and daddy at the end of the day. It’s kinda fun, when I’m not suffering from massive artist’s block (aka 99% of the time). And it gives us something to put on our walls.

I received a large canvas for Hanukkah or Christmas or whatever we were calling the occasion a few years ago, and I’ve finally gotten around its massive intimidation factor and painted something on it. I won’t say it’s “art.” I won’t say I love it, but I am really happy that I had an image in my mind and it more or less got onto the canvas in the form I’d pictured.

That’s a tough one for me, considering my general lack of artistic prowess — I’ll have interesting pictures in my head all the time and no way to execute them. In this case, the image was all about color and texture, and precision without looking precise. I really just wanted something colorful to go in my living room, so it’s definitely in that category of paintings that I loathe in stores, the “this will go well with the couch” class rather than the “this is a fine work of art” class.

Click here for a slide show of (better) pictures of this painting.

I painted 3/4 of it with my fingers, 1/4 with a combination of fingers and a windshield squeegee/sponge tool, with a little help from a laser level, ruler and some masking tape. And I did it all in about 2 hours. And I got paint all over our kitchen, my hair and anywhere else there was room for unwelcomed paint. I’m glad I did it, not so glad our grout is blue-gray in patches now. (Psst, how do you get acrylic paint out of grout?)

My point that you definitely don’t need to be an artist, or worry about technique or deep messages, to create something that will brighten up your house, enliven your day and reawaken your inner child who liked getting a bit dirty and playing with color. Give it a try!

This week, I made tempeh and cabbage for a quick, packable lunch for work.

Tempeh, cabbage and the standard Jaime seasoning.

It’s supremely easy. I’ve posted my go-to tempeh recipe before. This just adds a very brief cabbage cooking to the end of that.

First, I generally cook tempeh according to this recipe, but in this case, I’ll modify it a bit.

Tempeh and Cabbage

For the tempeh:

• 1 block tempeh, cut into about 16-24 equal-size chunks.
• 2 Tbsp. butter or oil
• 1-2 cloves crushed garlic
• 1-2 tsp. cumin
• 2 tsp. sriracha sauce
• 2 tsp. tamari or soy sauce

For the cabbage:

• 2 cups shredded cabbage
• Dash of oil or pat of butter
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 2 tsp. sriracha
• 2 tsp. tamari or soy sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat a pan on medium-high heat, melting butter. Once hot, add the cubed tempeh and garlic. Add additional seasonings in the pan, to taste (I usually add the soy sauce about 5 minutes in), turning tempeh occasionally until medium brown.
2. Remove tempeh from the pan and set aside.
3. Don’t turn off the heat. Lower it slightly, and add just a touch of oil, so the pan is slick, then the garlic and about 2 cups of shredded cabbage.
4. When the cabbage begins to wilt, stir and season to taste.
5. Take it out when the cabbage is softened and has absorbed the soy sauce and spice, but be careful not to let it get mushy.

Start to finish, 15 minutes. Then out the door and on to work.

I have cooked this many times and can now safely say that omitting the mirin and half  to 2/3 of the butter from the standard recipe won’t hurt (and cutting back on fat and sugar is always good, right?). And adding sriracha sauce will only add to the deliciousness.

Ever the willing culinary experimenter (at least when it comes to all things vegetarian), I got online and started searching for an imitation recipe. For those of you who have tried to cut down on expenses and trips out, note that many home chefs have offered up online their imitations of hundreds of popular chain restaurant dishes. I knew I’d seen at least one Outback recipe before.

Well, I found quite a few versions of the sweet, dark “Bushman” bread, many calling for a load of food coloring and odd ingredients like cocoa powder to make their recipes match the mass-produced product’s distinctive chocolate-brown.

Fresh bread and fresh flowers

This recipe, from The Restaurant Recipes Book looked the most edible and interesting. Recipe is pasted from the site.

Outback Steakhouse Bushman Bread

Ingredients

• 2 packages (that’s 4 1/2 tsp.) dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup dark molasses
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cups rye flour
• 2 1/2 -3 cups bread flour

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Soften yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.
3. Stir in the sugar and let stand 6 minutes or until it’s bubbly.
4. In large mixing bowl combine the yeast/water combo above along with 1 cup warm water with molasses, salt, oil and rye flour.
5. Mix this until it makes a nice smooth batter.
6. Work in the bread flour until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. It should be very pliable and elastic.
7. Knead the dough for a few minutes and then let it rise in a greased bowl until it’s doubled.
8. Punch the dough down and shape into 2 large round loaves
9. Placed the loaves a few inches apart on a greased and cornmeal dusted cookie sheet. Sprinkle a bit of the cornmeal over the top of the loaves as well.
10. Let loaves rise in a warm place until doubled.
11. Bake loaves at 375 for about 30 minutes or until the crust makes hollow sound when tapped.

Just add butter.

We found that the main problem with this recipe was that it didn’t convey just how long the whole process took. Preheating your oven should be more like the 10th step — we waited around for half an hour, then went to lunch and shopping for phone cables, before the dough had doubled the first time, and we had to turn our oven off again when we got to the second rising period, which took at least 45 minutes.

Also, our cooking time was more like 50 minutes and it probably could have still used another few, but we were worried, as non-experts, that we might be overdoing it, so we took it out at that point.

But the loaves turn out huge, soft on the inside, and generally quite good. And the actual work part is easy. Plus, it was really cute to see a guy who’s never kneaded anything learn how to knead. He was so gentle with it!

As the Outback expert in the home, he was fully satisfied (though not convinced it’s the perfect imitation), but he suggested that next time, we divide it into four loaves, so we can have the authentic tiny ones the restaurant serves.

They're actually a lovely jeweled deep pink. Puree in a food processor for a smoother look.

Mashed beets

• 3 beets
• 1 medium potato
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. molasses
• 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
• Garlic, salt and pepper to taste

1. Put beets in a pot of water to boil. While they boil for 40 minutes to 1 hour, peel and quarter the potato. Add the potato the last 10-12 minutes of boiling time or until tender.
2. Peel beets (I submerge them in cold water to avoid scalding my hands) and chop into quarters or smaller.
3. Blend beets, potatoes, butter, molasses and yogurt. Season as desired.

It probably sounds strange to add cinnamon and garlic to the same dish. It is. I’d pick one or the other if I were you, but both are good, actually, even if you just end up doing it by accident.

The guy who doesn’t love beets in our house was even OK with these. I loved them.

Oh, we went to Arizona for a week:

This is Jerome, Ariz. We went to a lot of other places, too.

We didn’t eat any beets there.

This is a really big hole in the ground.

No beets there, either.

We ate at a cute cafe in Flagstaff.

We were beet red, however, after getting burned in the Grand Canyon.

Our intrepid rental bug navigated strange lands

All around Sedona, we saw lots of red rocks.

We weren't afraid to get a little out there.

On our way out of Sedona, we stopped at a place called the Red Planet Diner. Again, no beets. Just lots of alien kitsch.

But that was weeks ago. Now we’re back in Austin, with all the beets we can eat.

Today’s dish lifts heavily from the Whole Foods eggplant parm recipe, but with a few key twists.

Walnut- and Panko-Crusted Eggplant

• 1 large eggplant, peeled and cut into about 1/3 inch-thick slices
• Salt
• Olive oil.
• Panko or other breadcrumbs, about 1 1/2 cups
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 eggs
• 1 large (25-26 oz.) jar tomato sauce of your choice (or homemade, if you’re so inclined)
• 2/3 cup shredded mozzarella
• Pepper (be generous!)

1. Salt eggplant thoroughly, and let sit 15 minutes – 1 hour, until it’s sweating. This cuts the bitterness.
2. While sweating the eggplant, run garlic and walnuts in a food processor until thoroughly ground (about the same consistency as your crumbs). Combine with crumbs, salt and pepper.
3. Preheat oven to 375 with 2 baking sheets inside. When oven is hot, remove sheets and oil thoroughly so eggplant won’t stick.
4. Rinse salt from eggplant, if they’re heavily salted, and wipe eggplant slices dry.
5. Dip each slice in egg and drip so it’s not super eggy. Then dip in panko and nut mixture to coat.
6. Lay slices flat on baking sheets and bake 15 minutes. Then take them out, flip and bake another 10 minutes.
7. Raise oven temperature to 475.
8. Coat bottom of a baking dish with tomato sauce. Lay baked slices of eggplant in the sauce, layering if necessary, with tomato sauce between layers. Top  more sauce and the mozzarella and bake another 15 minutes.

Sorry, I don’t have any pictures of this dish. My camera’s batteries are charging. But trust me when I say it’s attractive and delicious!

The fella insisted that I take a picture of our meal. High praise, from him!

The quinoa got rave reviews from my fellow diner both on first try and leftover and mixed with the eggs.

Quick Quinoa Pilaf

• 1 cup mixed quinoa and lentils (I bought this premixed, it was about 90:10::quinoa:lentils, you could use plain quinoa and reduce the water and cooking time)
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 cup mixed frozen vegetables (I used peas and carrots)
• Olive oil
• Tamari (soy sauce), about 2 tsp.
• Garlic, cumin, basil, chili pepper, salt and pepper
• Mozzarella or other light cheese

1. Bring water, with a splash of olive oil, to a boil. Add quinoa-lentil blend. Cover and let simmer.
2. After about 20 minutes, add vegetables and seasonings to taste.  Cook about 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn’t stick to the pot.
3. Serve topped with a pinch of the cheese of your choice.

Reheats well!

Brunch served while you work!

Now it’s pouring rain and we’re making pressed grilled cheese sandwiches with 7-grain wheat bread, jalapeno havarti, roma tomatoes and (in his case) pastrami. Perfect rainy day food after all my groceries and library books got soaked en route to my car, including the stuff I bought for consumption while hanging out poolside on what started out as a bright, clear day.