Cooking with Chef Michelle Bernstein

First off I’d like everyone to know I will be participating in NaPoWriMo once again next month. However my in-laws will be in town this weekend to celebrate Gretchen’s 21st birthday so the first few prompts may be late.

All this month I was writing my #haikuchallenge pieces about cerebral palsy. I managed it every day through Friday March 25 – National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day. But this past weekend I was busy enjoying an online cooking experience with Chef Michelle Bernstein offered by Cocina Corona. It was a fun experience and we made some excellent food, but it was draining. I’m glad it was Saturday so Shawn was here to help with all the prep work and cooking. It even wore him out as he took a nap afterwards before sitting down to enjoy the feast.

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First photo is the glass of sangria with the queso dip prep behind the computer. Second photo is Shawn starting on the chicken thighs. The third photo is the queso dip we doubled the chorizo since we bought a package that was 9 oz and I didn’t have anything else planned for chorizo so we cooked it all and added it. Everyone enjoyed it and I was pleasantly surprised it reheated well the next day too. Shawn with his sangria watching over the tomatoes and peppers sauteing. The chicken is finished and ready to serve. They had a plating comparison, but for obvious reasons my plating has never been artistic. Thankfully my children don’t care how their food is presented. Now that they’ve started cooking and see how difficult plating can be, we joke about it. But none of us are overly concerned about presentation as long as the food tastes great. Chef Bernstein and the moderator check out one of the participant’s plate presentation. Selfie after all the hard work. Last but not least serving the chocolate pudding. Yeah we were worn out and not everything was cleaned up yet.

So Sunday was recuperation day. I did get to the clean up too, and we had great leftovers for lunch. Then today I used the #HaikuChallenge word to talk about my fun weekend.

Pudding skin debate
The piece de resistance
Love it or hate it

Okay growing up my mom did not cover pudding while it set. As we were making the pudding Saturday night Chef Bernstein told us to cover it with parchment paper before putting it in the fridge. I was not a fan of pudding skin growing up, so I had no problem letting my sisters grab pudding first. They took the skin and I had the good pudding. As Shawn was covering the pudding, I laughed and told him, You know that’s going to prevent a pudding skin? Thankfully he still covered it. He never told me which way he fell on the pudding skin debate.

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Herstory – Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month

This March I have decided to try to focus on cerebral palsy for the #haikuchallenge word on Twitter. So far I’ve been able to – granted they are not the greatest poems but they’ve all used the daily @baffled word and the correct syllable count.

Learning how to walk
Life with cerebral palsy
Limbs bend awkwardly

March photo contest
Cerebral palsy spotlight
Thank you for voting

Hollywood Star

Make a difference
This month brings awareness to
Cerebral palsy

March – official month
Focus on brain injuries
Cerebral palsy

Those are the four thus far. And yes, I snuck in my photo for the cerebral palsy alliance research foundation contest. Any long time readers will recognize it is the photo of me I used for the silver birch press Same Name series.

Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month

Mind over matter
The body is feeble, but
I have strength of will

Good afternoon and welcome to a whole year of isolation aka March again – Women’s herstory month and cerebral palsy awareness month. Last Friday Gretchen and I walked over to Kohl’s to do some shopping. It has been over a year since I’ve walked any sort of distance (the reason why I got winded on the little hike Shawn and I took when camping) and believe it or not it’s been close to three years since I did any clothes shopping. Other than that, this past year has been the same old routine for me. I did submit a few haiku to the Arizona Matsuri haiku contest. The 2021 ebook should be out soon. And I have been keeping up with the haiku challenge on twitter; I only missed a couple days in February and March.

Shawn has artwork up in the Erotic Show at the Alwun house. Today is the last day of the exhibit. I went to the poetry festivus back in February. Then we celebrated Shawn’s birthday the last weekend in February; one more year until the big 5 0!

In the aftermath
of erotic poetry
blush tingles your cheeks

Half a century
is sneaking up, already
Forty nine years old

Still sitting at home
Outside socialization
Effectively blocked

House never empty
Reflect on lost solitude
Block off alone time

At the beginning of this screwed up year I wrote about my same old routine, after all I don’t get out of the house much and not being able to go out was not all that different for me. I actually posted on Facebook one year ago today that I had to watch episode seven of Star Trek Picard for the fourth time before watching the new episode just released. Everyone was home and had to catch up on the series; it was a big sacrifice on my part. 😉 But as the month wore on, I realized I had no alone time. A year later it’s not so bad; Robin is up in Oregon and Shawn has been out of the house working so it’s now just me and Gretchen; and she has been pretty occupied with online classes. Especially since ASU took away spring break.

This has been my year of isolation. How has everyone else faired?

Without Solitude

Good morning readers! Today is National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day. I hope my family and friends are turning the internet green as everyone should be sheltering in place. Since I’ve already shared my green shirt and poem for today, I thought I’d share a few other poems I’ve been writing for the #haikuchallenge on Twitter. I know I said my routine is unaffected staying at home; but that was before Shawn’s job went on staggered days to limit the number of employees at work.  He makes medical equipment so it is an essential business but they’ve moved everyone to a four day work week.  Shawn has been home the past three days and I miss my solitude.

Miss my alone time
When we return to normal
Bask in the silence

Always home alone
I talk to myself often
Pastime will finish

It is fair to say
My same old routine suffers
From overcrowding

Here is a post I wrote a couple years ago about March being Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month. Today is also the one week mark until April 1st and napowrimo. I signed up to participate again this year and since there are no standardized tests to score, I should fare better on the daily prompts. Last year was the first time I did not write for all of them; it was a little disappointing.

One week ’til April
Keep up writing poetry
Whether fair or foul

 

Saturday Stuck at Home

John and Me – Casey Moore’s Tempe AZ

Rush Hour

Driving through Phoenix

in the HOV lane
enduring rush hour traffic

Idle conversation
reminiscing on our childhood
as we travel to Tempe

 

Hello all! Just a friendly reminder tomorrow is CP Awareness Day so wear your green again. Today is the day of the new AC install so we are stuck here until it’s finished. On Thursday my friend who has a home up in Sedona came down to Phoenix; he had to drop his dad off at the airport. While he was in town, he asked if we wanted to go out for dinner and drinks. In order for Shawn to tag along, John came over to the house and then we drove out to Tempe. It is easier for Shawn to drive to a restaurant close to work than it is for him to fight the rush hour traffic all the way back to the west valley. Otherwise Shawn would have had to leave work very early. Instead John and I got to drive through the mess of Phoenix traffic. Shawn picked the restaurant as I know nothing about restaurants out in the east valley. Casey Moore’s is an Irish Pub 😉 the food was great and it was a nice evening to sit outside and enjoy it while catching up. Though John was the other friend who visited in November when Rick and Charles were in town. It hasn’t been overly long since our last visit.

Well since I’m stuck at home anyway, I thought I’d update on the poetry front. NaPoWriMo is closing in – one week from tomorrow. I got my poster from poets.org so I think I’m ready. I made a couple submissions this week, but otherwise all I’ve heard is crickets. The NaHaiWriMo Facebook page shared a submission call by Jacquie Pearce. Since we traveled by train on our honeymoon, I’m working on an entry.

Jacquie Pearce’s Blog

 

Yes, I’m also working on other poetry forms today. I need to stretch my poetry muscle for NaPoWriMo – not sure if I’ll blog again before then, but I hope to see a lot of readers everyday in April.

Cerebral Palsy Awareness

emerald color
supports cerebral palsy
keep calm and stay strong

March is cerebral palsy awareness month and the 25th is CP awareness day. But you would never know I have not worn the Emerald Isle color in years. On St. Patrick’s Day I’ve been known to wear orange. 😉 I grew up Protestant and I enjoy poking fun at Shawn’s Catholic upbringing – not to mention his grandmother was Irish. How does a man with Irish roots spell his name Shawn and not Sean? That’s a funny story. His grandmother’s maiden name was Barry. When she was pregnant with Shawn’s dad, she wanted to name him Barry if he was a boy and Shawn for the middle name. Cele (Shawn’s grandmother) wasn’t sure about the Irish spelling for Sean. She asked her neighbor who was straight off a boat from Ireland. The neighbor told her, S-h-a-w-n. At least this is the story I’ve been told. I think the neighbor liked the anglicized spelling over the Irish.

Well I’ve known that green is the CP awareness color for a couple years now, but I haven’t gotten a green shirt until this year. It just came in the mail the other day. When I wear it, I’ll be sure to snap a photo. I have the SunDevils reward app from ASU. You can log on everyday and earn pitchforks. As the pitchforks accumulate, you can redeem them on ASU merchandise. I saw they had Pat’s Run t-shirts from a couple years ago in the reward store and they were green. It says, Live your dash. I like the message as dash doesn’t necessarily have to mean run. Just like Colleen’s Weekly Poetry Challenge – there are plenty of synonyms to pick. Okay but really for green there aren’t many I like probably another reason I don’t have much of it in my wardrobe.

#NaHaiWriMo – March On

My Buffalo Children’s Hospital Photo

Frail physique
mind like a steel trap
cerebral palsy

Hello and welcome to March – Women’s Herstory month and Cerebral Palsy Awareness month. Since I fall into both categories, this should be interesting. When I found out February was #NaHaiWriMo, I stumbled on the Facebook page; and they actually have daily prompts for haiku all year long. Finally figured out where and how to contribute my haiku. It is not one of the most user friendly pages I follow. But I saw today’s prompt was frail and thought it would make an excellent intro for #cerebralpalsyawarenessmonth

My Herstory – a long time ago in a city far, far away (40 years ago in Buffalo, NY), I was sent to the children’s hospital for physical therapy for my CP. According to my mother, the above photo was taken at the hospital as part of my patient record. I hate the picture, but it’s still here. The downfall of marrying your high school sweetheart; Shawn took a bunch of old pictures of me and made them into a collage for my high school graduation. It did offer inspiration for my Golden Pixie poem in the My Mane Memories series on Silver Birch Press.

Here are 31 Cerebral Palsy facts in an article written by Nicole Luongo