JGray-Wilson

[jgraywilson]

"The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature."

Joseph Campbell

[jgraywilson]

My husband and I have been in a “long distance” relationship for a decade. We fell in love with our work before we fell in love with each other, and our work just happened to be happening on opposite coast lines! But, this stage of our adventure is coming to a close. (We’re gonna try out ‘stable’ for a while as we settle into the beautiful city of San Francisco.) And as it does- I realize that a part of me will miss the romance of our traveling affair. There’s something uniquely sexy about missing your lover, packing for an impromptu rendezvous, and sitting alone in airport terminals while you contemplate a future with the one you’re bound to see. So, here’s to the souls that take jet-plane adventures, the lovers who wander bravely away from their loves, and the hearts that return home with gladness…

  “You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.”

(–Jamie Tworkowski)

“So," the woman asks, digging through her purse and emerging with a pair of foam earplugs, "how did you two meet?" They exchange a quick glance. "Believe it or not," Oliver says, "it was in an airport." "Oh how wonderful!" she exclaims, looking positively delighted. "And how did it happen?" "Well" he begins, sitting up a bit taller, "I was being quite gallant, actually, and offered to help her with her suitcase. And then we started talking and one thing lead to another..." Hadley grins "And he's been carrying my suitcase ever since." "It's what a true gentlemen would do," Oliver says with an exaggerated modesty. "Especially the really gallant ones.”

(–Jennifer Smith, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight)

  “At best, I consider flying an unavoidable necessity- a time to resurrect forgotten prayers and contemplate the end of all joy in a twisted howling heap of machinery; at worst, I rank it right up there with psychotic episodes and torture at the hands of malevolent strangers.”

-T.C. Boyle, If the River was Whiskey

  “Oh, kiss me and smile for me Tell me that you'll wait for me Hold me like you'll never let me go 'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane Don't know when I'll be back again Oh babe, I hate to go”

-John Denver

[jgraywilson]

“Pie may just be the Madonna-whore of the dessert world.” -Pascale Le Draoulec, American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America's Back Roads

Pie Crust Ingredients

2 and 1/4 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup butter, cold and hard

4-7 tablespoons ice water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg (for glaze) 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)

  Pie Crust Preparation

Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut the butter into general 2-inch cubes on a cutting board, add the butter cubes to the bowl and toss them to coat in the dry ingredients (this helps protect them from the warm air- you want cold butter!) and use a dough scraper/food processor to chop the butter cubes into smaller bits that are roughly pea-sized. Begin adding the tablespoons of ice water while stirring gently. (Grab a handful of the mixture and squeeze. If it sticks together when you let go, it’s ready. If it completely crumbles apart, it needs more water.) Roll it out into a 1 cm thick circle onto a well-floured surface. Place it in the pie pan (well-greased depending upon surface), trim excess crust, and cut out designs with a cookie cutter to place around the edge of the crust (optional… I LOVE BRAIDS!). Secure the decorations by putting a spot (about 1/4 teaspoon) of melted butter on the back of the decorative dough piece and pressing down gently when placing it on the crust's edge. Cover and place the crust shell in the refrigerator until use. (Glaze with egg wash when ready to bake, once the filling has been added.)

[jgraywilson]

“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

-Rumi