It's Poetic, Apologetic, and Roasted Carrots

Dear audience, so widely-read with an exquisite palate in verbiage,

As you know, it's been a wild ride the last few months.  I recently toured a full-rigged ship in the bay here in California and learned of a family that traveled on it for several months, migrating from England to New Zealand.  I was fascinated and duly impressed by the tiny berths, the micro-capsules of home and the misery they must have endured to achieve their goal successfully.  Their experience makes my trip look like a walk in the park!

This is the self-same ship as I toured!

Formerly called the Euterpe, now called the Star of India (see hand-written notation
on photo above), she is the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship on the water today.

But I found a few words in the diary of Mr. Stead Ellis, the good patriarch of this family, that seemed to sum of how I have felt over the last four months.  It was a dear pleasure to read the words as I felt such an affinity to them. 

Most of the passengers with their friends and a great quantity of luggage cumbered the decks and what with the seamen working at the ropes, people coming and going and one thing and another, it was a perfect pandemonium.  However all things come to an end in time and so it was with all the hurry and bustle of our embarkation, things after a while got quietly settled down and though we could not readily find anything we wanted, still we did somehow manage to find sufficient to make ourselves pretty comfortable. 

All of this travel has put me in the mood to write, as most things do.  Now as you know, my acquaintance with the world of poetry has been poorly cultivated, if it was ever planted to begin with; that never stops me, however, from imagining vainly that I can try my hand at it.  And so it is only fair to warn you in advance:

It's hardly a blessing when I wax poetic

To me poems mean just a lame sort of rhyming. 

My ditties are usually weak and pathetic

For I have no sense of timing.  

Storm's a-comin', 

Mrs H

twitter.com/_mrs_h

Roasted Carrots

Carrots were the only organic produce I could find in town here, so they have rapidly become rising stars in my kitchen.  This is a delicious variation on beta carotene.  How many carrots you use depends on how large they are, how much you like carrots, and if they are (as they were for us) a main course in your meal!) 

Carrots, 1 - 2 per person 

Freshly ground black pepper

Kosher or coarse sea salt

Olive oil

Optional: dill weed or fresh minced parsley, or your herb of choice

Wash carrots, peel if desired.  Halve or leave whole depending on diameter, and cut into 1 - 2" lengths.  Toss in olive oil and grind fresh pepper over, and sprinkle with salt to taste.  

Roast at 350 F for approximately 20 minutes, longer if the pieces are larger.  Toss with the freshly minced herbs if you like; serve hot. 

Hoorah for knives that match the carrots