Gluten-Free, Citrus, Delicious…This Takes the Cake!

I’m back, after a busy Mother’s Day and a hectic last week.

In fact, last week, having found it necessary to bake a gluten-free cake, I made this Gluten-Free Citrus and Olive Oil Cake from the Baking Beauties.com. Now, most of the gluten-free cakes I’ve made have ended up flat and dry, due to a depressing lack of apparent deliciousness in the recipe.

But this one…

…it was delicious! Even if you’re not going on a gluten-free diet, this cake is superb. The olive oil makes no impact on the flavor, in case you were wondering; it only makes it as moist as such fluffiness can be without being raw. Granted, it takes a little more time than a rational person would think to spend for dessert (Unless you’re crazy, two hours is not too long for dessert. Jello takes four), but it is worth it for the feathery light moistness of citrus-y heaven. Heaven. And with white chocolate ganache drizzled down the sides, how can you go wrong? (If you don’t like citrus fruit or white chocolate or are allergic to one or both. If you are, I’m sorry)

Okay, that’s enough ranting about yummy cakes for now. You’ll have to take my word for it as you prepare to shove it in the oven.

–Aidyl

Ps: Longer posts may or may not be coming soon, depending on my time. This summer looks to be a busy one.

NaPoWriMo 2013: Day 29

First off the bat: April has been a very busy month for me this year, so I’m sorry I haven’t been able to keep as up-to-date as I would have wished this NaPoWriMo.  14 poems (before today) isn’t the best number from the years previous, but the fact that counts is that I haven’t let a whole week go by without actually sharing a poem with you.

So here’s a poem:

Magnolia

 ”Magnolia” reads the paint can label,

and the driplet of paint upon the lid

is white with a yellow blush,

creamy calmness and serenity

mixed with a short hint of life

and warmth.

Not the crisp blue-white

of a fresh piece of paper

or new-fallen snow,

but the color of pale butter,

creamy buttermilk,

or ivory.

Clean and warm

like just-washed sheets that still smell

like that Febreze detergent

that your husband insists

is the allergen that causes his snoring.

White,

but not a cold white,

nor the greenish-yellow color

of sea foam;

it’s more like the color

of lovingly grown cotton

under a warm summer sun,

the kind of sun that almost forms glass

when its shafts pierce clouds or that falls between the leaves,

the book kind or the tree kind,

take your pick.

“Magnolia,” I read

from the paint can label,

and look at the fresh-painted wall with a smile.

 My family room has been in the process of getting a new coat of paint. The previous owners of the house I live in painted nearly every wall this…mustard green, I suppose you’d call it, a color that reminds you of pistachios, mustard, and being ill. This color was more of a gold in the family room, but in the now-painted living room, dining room, and kitchen, as well as in the yet-to-be painted stairwell, office, and master bedroom…there was too much. The dark color, combined with low ceilings and dark hardwood floors, was annoying.

And now “Magnolia” has begun falling over many of the walls. It’s a lovely off-color white, white but not stark, and not quite enough yellow to make it actually yellow. The transformation is obvious, as if someone had kept one light on in each room. Now the sunshine actually has an effect. My living room, which has the most “Magnolia” in it, used to be listed in my mind as a naturally dark room. There were three lamps in it but none really had enough effect. Until the paint. And it’s bright!

Color has a HUGE effect on emotion as well as light. As I just stated, the green color reminded me of illness, but not all greens. Spring green, for example, is fresh and light. Blue is cool or cold, if it’s the wrong shade. Red, mixed with dark brown like our dining room, is warm and cozy. The NaPoWriMo website shared a prompt on writing a poem about color. You now write a poem about color–how does it make you feel? Is there a particular shade or tint of purple that you just love? Or is there a certain hue of red that you can’t stand? What do the words for a color make you think of? What color do you think would be amazing in a room? If you have one you can think of, mentally paint a room and place yourself in it. How does it make you feel? Use any or all of the questions to help you start writing, but whatever you choose to do, use color as your inspiration. The word color (does it make you think of crayons and a color wheel like me?), the words for different colors (Chartreuse, vermilion, sapphirine, lilac, mahogany, navy, lemon, etc), or the emotion of different colors.

I’d love to see what you come up with!

–Aidyl

NaPoWriMo 2013: Day 23

Birdsong Ritual

I hear the birds singing gaily

as they flit and they fly about.

I hear the birds. Singing gaily

dawn to dusk, melodies sailing.

I hear the birds singing. Gaily

praising the day. So many that

I hear! The birds singing gaily.

as they flit and they fly about.

 The poem I wrote above is a triolet, composed of eight lines with eight-syllables each. As you can see, a few of the lines are the same; namely the first, third, fifth, and seventh, then it’s the second and last. The rhyme scheme is very tight, too. I’ll show it:

A 

B

a

A

a

b

A

B

The bold capital letters are the lines that are alike, and the lowercase letters show which lines rhyme with which. Very interesting, eh? Why don’t you give it a shot? If you think you’ll be confused, copy the rhyme scheme above onto your page and fill in the lines. You might find it easy to copy the similar lines before you start so you know where you have to put what new lines. (I didn’t end up doing that, but I wish I had)

There’s one week left to NaPoWriMo!

–Aidyl

NaPoWriMo: Day 22

Honestly Fortune Cookies

I think you should make

a living wrapping fortunes in cookies.

The kind that

everyone likes to eat.

The kind that tells you that

“You will soon be generously rewarded

for your honesty,”

and that give you lucky numbers

7, 25, and 88,

which make gamblers and lottery players

go out and spend monstrous monies

without realizing that

their honesty

is a thing spoken of

only in the most obscure scripts

and fables.

You should make

fortune cookies,

but not

the kind that creep you out with

phrases like “I see you.”

and “I love you.”

You should make the kind of fortune cookies

that are beautiful and poetic,

the ones that

are of such quiet musings

about your admiration or

frank statements about the world

like “Dew turns plants green”

that people don’t understand

but assume have some deep meaning

and pretend to understand.

And you alone will know

how deep

the fortune cookies are

with their simple honesty

that rewards you with

a kiss of sugar.

NaPoWriMo 2013: Days 17 and 18

Swallow Haiku

Small swirling swallow

roller-coaster riding the

fragrant springtime wind.

-

I would be nauseous

if I rode the sky coaster

like the swallows do.

Spider

Araña spinning webs

that are dew-coated with night:

She has caught the moon.

Yesterday, April 17th, was National Haiku Day. And naturally, since haiku are my favorite metered poems to write, I just had to take up the opportunity for haiku. Sadly, it was not the most I’ve written in one day, but it was some to be proud of. What’s to be proud of about a haiku?

Seventeen syllables.

Simple moments.

Any language.

Any words.

Simple haiku.

Powerful haiku.

 That sounds almost like a poem in itself, or maybe a recipe for a poem…hey, I like that. “A recipe for a poem.” Maybe like this one…?

How to Cook a Haiku

Bring the following ingredients

to room temperature

before cooking:

a moment,

a simple observation,

a pack of every word that you know in all languages

preferably pre-coated with calmness,

and a seventeen-syllable mold.

Select words that suit the observation

and compliment the moment, as many

as will fit the mold

without cramping.

Stir vigorously until the words

are where you want them.

Let cook on a 360 degree

page

for ten to fifteen minutes,

stirring occasionally.

The haiku will be very delicate

but very powerful in image.

Serves

more than six billion people.

That’s fun.

–Aidyl

NaPoWriMo 2013: Day 15

Yes, this may not be the most consistent April that there has ever been, but it exists, and isn’t that enough?

Swallows

Riding up like the peak of a roller coaster

and folding wings while swooping,

spread, climb

fold, descend,

wheeling and curving in joy and life

of glory and ecstasy

and beautiful rhapsody

and delight that spring is here.

 In the town that I live, the arrival of the swallows is the signal that true spring has sprung. Their little muddy nests on the undersides of bridges and the eaves of houses are teeming with the activity of the constantly arriving and departing parents. If there’s time to study it during a rare, low flight, you can see the vivid colors. Most usually, though, all you can see are the dark wings and blotches of white. This makes them difficult to distinguish from swifts, which, although they have similar flight patters and shape, are very different birds. The easiest way to tell them apart is that swifts have longer wings. The swallows also have a particular dolphin-like whistling squeak as they soar free in the wind, a sound that suits their flight.

Watching these beautiful birds soar and climb makes me smile, no matter where or when I see them. They’re adorable, and can be counted upon to return annually to the same nests. I can recall seeing them for much of my childhood. Actually…here’s a prompt! Can you think of a bird, flower, insect, animal, or reptile that you see or saw often? Watch it or find a video online depicting it. Make connections between it, the season it’s seen the most, its environment, or any other connection that strikes you, happy or sad. Anything about any animal, whether you’ve seen it in real life or no, can be used under this prompt if you can’t think of anything. A poison dart frog? Fantastic. Comedic, thoughtful, melancholy…that’s up to you.

Happy Monday, if you can believe that such a thing is possible!

–Aidyl

NaPoWriMo 2013: Day 12

Sunshine Language

Drowsy dreamy sunshine sleepiness,

feeling the photons tingle across my exposed skin,

the light particles that have whizzed

across the galaxy.

Like a touch,

like speech,

from a being thousands of miles away,

in reverberating Morse-code

and a hum like a symphony

that is in a language I’m half a step from understanding.

The comprehension comes

when I stop trying to comprehend,

whence the tingle pierces

my skin

and enters my subconscious,

instilling me with pure meaning

like drowsing or divining.

A gentle warm electric blanket

made out of hot pins

that constantly rove over my body

and warm me inside and out.

It’s a comforting touch

because you can feel the presence

of a creature that,

although it is so far in your terms,

it is so close in its,

and you can feel that it is close,

like a warm embrace.

It doesn’t leave in a breeze,

but when you enter the shade

that code of a language

is blocked and you are left with a feeling of emptiness

as if your ears were chopped off or as if

you can’t see

anymore.

Cold and bare,

your skin  is no longer struck

by thousands of tiny particles

that were flung from the heart of a star

with the force of thousands of nuclear bombs.

And it felt so right,

that heat and warmth and contact,

but now it feels so wrong,

this vacancy,

this coldness.

But you have a sunburn,

so put on a little aloe

and SPF 50

before you go back outside

into those welcoming rays.

Whenever I’m sitting in the sun, like I was today, it feels like there’s a tingling across my skin. As I said in my poem, maybe it’s because tiny particles are being flung at me with the force of more nuclear bombs that you can shake a stick at (I love that expression, don’t you?), or perhaps it’s just me. I think its the former, though.

And that feeling of coldness, the lifting of a weight, like when a blanket is taken off you at four in the morning, it’s weird too, but also kind of nice. Especially if you were starting to get a sunburn. I mean, there’s only so long you can stay out in the sun without your skin becoming overcooked bacon. Ew, that’s not a very nice thought, even if you like bacon.

Don’t let your skin look like someone put too much Halloween makeup on it. (Hey, that sounds like a neat prompt…)

–Aidyl