Eating with Maya

Well the moment has almost come - I shall be spending a week cooking and eating with Ms Maya (well working from her cookbook Pita sent me) for an entire week - and all of this starts next Saturday.

After playing with menus over and and over, I think I have finally decided on a plan.

Saturday: Braised Short Ribs of Beef with Twice Baked Potatoes

Sunday: Fried Chicken, Cold Potato Salad and Bob's Boston Baked Beans

Monday: Chakchouka (a Moroccan stew)

Tuesday: Onion Tart with Ashford Salad 96

Wednesday: Smothered Pork Chops with Braised Cabbage and Ginger

Thursday: Veal Medallions with Petit Pois, Minnesota Wild Rice

Friday: Smothered Chicken with Buttermilk Biscuits and Haricots Verts

Now I know that is more meat than I would eat in a month of Sundays, and I can't see a whole lotta diet versions there but I don't care - I am going to live wild for a week lol. And I will have enough leftover recipes to do it again another time (it is a VERY good book) - and enough leftovers in the freezer to see me through Christmas :-)

Recipes and photos will be taken in due course..... and bookings are being accepted if anyone wants to join me :-)

A Tough Week and Things I Have Learned

I have just been through the worst pain week in my life and have come out of it knowing a few things.

1)  My internet friends are real friends and I miss them - especially when I can't contact them properly to explain why I wasn't around. I need to come up with a plan for that - maybe I do need a laptop.

2)  I am overall a positive person - even though I seriously considered calling an ambulance a few times this week (I am not sure the pain should have gone on for so long or the ataxia been as it was) and I was going mad through lack of sleep and pain off the Richter scale - I looked after myself and nurtured myself the best I could ( I read a million books that are favorites from long ago). I knew it would end and appreciated all the help that was offered. And I was complimented on being patient and kind when someone else was discussing their circumstances, been though they thought my situation was worse (I NEVER get into competitions about that). That isn't to say I was a martyr - way from it, but I kept trying to focus on the "later" more than "now".

3) I have an entire week of blogs which I will now need to type out and edit for relevancy

4) Whatever it is "this too shall pass"  and as Ms Maya says "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude" :-)

5) I never want to go though that particular form of hell again lol

Photo: "week two" by Ronaa

I've Learned ....

Sometimes someone does something so wonderful for you, so generous that you can't help but cry. I have been waiting for a mystery package from pita and it arrived this morning. When I originally posted that the package was on its way I speculated it could be anything between a postcard or a million dollars - I was wrong it was a treasure far greater.

Pita had been to see Maya Angelou and sent me one of her books, the newspaper coverage and a letter describing the evening. Oh I was so happy and humbled I cried. I turned the pages of the book which is a combination of memories and recipes and I exclaimed over every page - and I laughed - and cried some more (sometimes it is advantageous to live by yourself).

The talk in Kentucky was on how your actions (the good and the bad) affect others and I say here and now pita that this act speaks volumes - loudly.

How do you thank someone for something so very very precious? For something that changes you the second you see it - and it will carry you for years to come?

I am not sure ...but when I find a way I will be sure to let pita know.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel" Maya Angelou

Don't Do It

Don't live in some mean little tunnel because of someone else's ignorance. Don't do that to yourself.

Maya Angelou

Art: "free" by 741mimo

Thought For The Day

Be the rainbow in someone else's cloud.

Maya Angelou

Photo: "RAINBOW" by melloncolliebaby

A Conceit by Dr Maya Angelou

Give me your hand

Make room for me

to lead and follow

you

beyond this rage of poetry.

Let others have

the privacy of

touching words

and love of loss

of love.

For me

Give me your hand.

The Wisdom Spreads

I was just trawling through the Farmville forum (before I get to the assignment) when I noticed the signature on the above post. They have pinched mine lol (well apart from the last phrase). The wisdom of Ms Maya was obviously too hard to ignore .... but I already knew that :-)

Maya Saya

We all have the power to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.

Maya Angelou

Art: Butterfly Wings by Anthony Ross (I don't have an address for a home page)

Ms Maya Says

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
enough money within her control to move out and rent a place of her own, even if she never wants to or needs to...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
something perfect to wear if the employer, or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a youth she's content to leave behind....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to retelling it in her old age....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .....
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who lets her cry...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, and a recipe for a meal, that will make her guests feel honored...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a feeling of control over her destiny...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to quit a job, break up with a lover, and confront a friend without; ruining the friendship....
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW....
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves, the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that her childhood may not have been perfect...but it's over...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she would and wouldn't do for love or more...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to live alone... even if she doesn't like it...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW.. .
whom she can trust, whom she can't, and why she shouldn't take it personally...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
where to go... be it to her best friend's kitchen table.. or a charming Inn in the woods... when her soul needs soothing...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
What she can and can't accomplish in a day... a month...and a year...

With many thanks to Miss Weasley :-)

Art: "Texas Star Belly Dancer" by Melia Dawn Newman

Maya Says

Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style.

Maya Angelou

Art: "Butterfly Tree" by franzi

Maya Says

At 80, Maya Angelou says her "knees are not all that swift and my lungs need some extra help but other than that, my desire to learn and to share, that has not abated."

Ah yes, it is all in the attitude :-)

From CNN

Maya Speaks Again

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou

Maya Says

Do the best you can with what you've got. When you know better, do better.

Maya Angelou

Photo "Best Friends by sigpras

Alone

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Maya Angelou

Art: "Alone" by tipiijo

Equality

You declare you see me dimly
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.
You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.

You announce my ways are wanton,
that I fly from man to man,
but if I'm just a shadow to you,
could you ever understand ?

We have lived a painful history,
we know the shameful past,
but I keep on marching forward,
and you keep on coming last.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.

Take the blinders from your vision,
take the padding from your ears,
and confess you've heard me crying,
and admit you've seen my tears.

Hear the tempo so compelling,
hear the blood throb in my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.

Maya Angelou

Art: "Black" by corazondieuridice

When You Come

When you come to me, unbidden,
Beckoning me
To long-ago rooms,
Where memories lie.

Offering me, as to a child, an attic,
Gatherings of days too few.
Baubles of stolen kisses.
Trinkets of borrowed loves.
Trunks of secret words,

I CRY.

Maya Angelou

Art: "Tears" by deyn

More Maya

Okay I know I have done my quote for the day (and by sheer coincidence it was featuring the fabulous Maya) but I have just checked my Google homepage and Maya is the featured "Literary Quote" there too - and I am not going to let the opportunity pass to share a double dose of the good Doctor with us today lol

Some critics will write: 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

Maya Angelou

Photo by John Loengard

Maya Says ...

Life loves the liver of it.

Maya Angelou

Maya Says ...

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

Maya Angelou

Art: "Enchantment" by Solveig Larson

Maya Says ...

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Maya Angelou

Art: "Life Wide Open" by Paulette Insall