Pie Recipe and Honesty

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. Something about school starting and trying to remain calm has prevented me from posting, as though writing a blog entry takes hours or something. One of my goals for the semester is to try not to get obsessed with what I "don't have time" to do. When things get busy with "work"-- in this case school-- I tend to start neglecting things like keeping in touch with people I love and reading and writing for pleasure, and that's not a good life.

Anyway, thanks for your comments on the housewife entry. As requested, here's the recipe for spinach and red pepper pie:

1/2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup dry bread crumbs

1 tbsp olive oil

1 red pepper, cut into thin slices

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 med. yellow squash, quartered vertically and thinly sliced

1 10 oz. package frozen spinach, thawed and drained

3 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/4 tsp salt

black pepper

1 and 1/2 cups cheese (cheddar, swiss, or your favorite)

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the red pepper and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a minute, then add the squash. Cook until the squash is tender, about 10 minutes. Add the spinach and cook for another minute to let any water evaporate. Remove from heat and let cool.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Slather the butter on a pie place to coat it, then sprinkle on the bread crumbs and spread them over the butter by shaking the pie plate. This is the "crust." Put that aside and beat the eggs in a large bowl.

Stir the milk, salt, pepper, and cooled veggies into the eggs. Spoon half of the mixture into the pie plate, then sprinkle on half the cheese. Spoon the other half of the mixture on the cheese, then sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.

Bake about 30-35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the pie cool about 10-15 minutes before cutting into it.

This is delicious and goes well with mashed potatoes. It's from a great cookbook called Vegetarian Classics by Jeanne Lemlin.

So that's that.

On another topic, I wanted to write about honesty. Is anyone ever temped to lie or stretch the truth in their blogs? What about not telling the whole truth? It's be interested to know how others approach telling the "true story" of their lives to an on-line audience.

Why? Well, it's not because my blog is a bunch of lies. Actually I have an easy time with honesty on my blog. The question stems from my attempts to write poetry. In my first meeting with a professor last week, I turned in a poem, and the prof said he thought the poem did not tell the whole story, that it left something out, something important. My professor last spring said the same thing about two of my poems. And it's true.

I am not leaving stuff out on purpose, but I realized that in an attempt not to be "confessional" or "sentimental," I've been sort of tempering my writing, tying to say things in a kind of slanted, muted way. I seem to be afraid of telling personal details, which is interesting because I never used to be afraid of writing personal stuff. I also seem to be afraid of telling too much about myself in workshop, which is interesting also. I am realizing I have made up a "teacher/MFA student" self that I want to keep watch on. I am kind of worried about what people will think if I write about certain subjects.

It's odd to realize this, because like I said, it's not on purpose, not a conscious decision. In fact, realizing that I have "safe" material has made me spend the last week writing very long poems full of confession and sentiment. So we'll see how next week goes.

How do all you bloggers share so much with the world? Is it ever scary?