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Love and poetry

Ying — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:00:23 +0000

This week, two of my dearest friends got married. When Sarah and Steve asked me to read a poem at their ceremony, I was thrilled to be part of their wedding – as well as by the discovery of a new-to-me poem: Frank O’Hara’s “Having a Coke with You”.

Here’s O’Hara reading it:

This is the full text of the poem, at the Poetry Foundation archive.

And here’s the abbreviated version my husband & I joked about improvising, in the event that I lost my specially marked-up reading-aloud version (the one with S – L – O – W ! scrawled at the top of the page):

Having a Coke with You

(with apologies to Frank O’Hara)

is more fun than going on a bender with a Eurail Pass.

Art is all right.

But not as all right as you.

Congratulations, Sarah and Steve. I love you – and your taste in poetry.

Pure frivolity

Ying — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:51:28 +0000

Well, hello! I’m planning a fun new giveaway for next week that will involve Questions and Prizes. I’m also writing like fury (The Agency 3: The Traitor and the Tunnel), which means that this week instead of a thoughtful, long-cogitated, carefully written short essay in response to an FAQ, I’m bringing you a list of some of my favourite sites. Yes, this is a cheat – and a frivolous one, at that.

This is how I fritter away time on the internet at the moment:
India Knight’s Posterous: lovely, lovely things, curated for you by the Sunday Times journalist.
Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century: um, self-explanatory. But curiously addictive.
The Catastrophizer: my friend Sarah Sweet, on a soapbox.
Making it Lovely: again, self-explanatory. It helps if you like pink, brown, and hand-crafted things.
The Beat that My Heart Skipped: terrific name, and new to me. We shall see how we get on.

You’ll notice a preponderance of design stuff, and nothing at all book-related. I’ll compile a list of great writing and publishing blogs another day. In the meantime, I hope I’ve persuaded you to part happily with another precious quarter-hour you’ll never get back. Hah!

V is for… vegan?

Ying — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:16:03 +0000

The following post has nothing at all to do with Victorian London, Mary Quinn, detective fiction, or, indeed, books. Instead, it’s a recipe for Lian. These muffins are dairy- and egg-free, but moist and fluffy and delicious nonetheless.

A prefatory note: this is a North American recipe in which ingredients are measured pseudo-scientifically in cups. By volume, a cup is 250ml/8oz. A cup of flour weighs about 140g/5oz; a cup of sugar about 225g/8oz. Thanks, Fannie Farmer.

Vegan Carrot Muffins (makes 18)

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
half a nutmeg, grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup loosely packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons flax seeds, ground and mixed with a generous ½ cup water; let stand until it thickens to texture of beaten eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup vegetable oil
4-5 cups add-ins: finely grated carrots, pineapple, apples, coconut, raisins, nuts or whatever else you fancy

Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and flax seed mixture until creamy. Add vanilla and vegetable oil. Mix together wet and dry ingredients. Add carrots, etc.

Smooth batter into pans. Bake for 12-14 minutes for mini-muffins, 18-20 minutes for regular-size muffins, and about an hour for a large loaf pan.

Next week, we’ll get bookish again and take a look at German cover art.