vol. 37: the unmeaning of silently falling snow

e.e. cummings, wallace stevens, seedy breakfast cake & immunity bombs

Beautiful  

is the  
unmea  
ning  
of(sil  

ently)fal  

ling(e  
ver  
yw  
here)s  

now 
- e.e. cummings

Travel days suit me for newsletter-writing. This afternoon, my friend/piano-duo partner Alex and I fly to Toronto for our Wirth Vocal Prize recital. I love our program and its outbursts of joy (works by Messiaen, Rachmaninoff), intricate stories (Schubert, Rachmaninoff), and moments of meditation (Dvorak, Matthias Pintscher). Included are two settings of e.e. cummings by Pintscher (above), which I’m enjoying more and more as I delve into cummings’ poetry & Pintscher’s clear enjoyment of it.

I love the visual way in which cummings plays with text; using brackets and the splitting up of words to obscure meaning, the same way snow mutes and blankets the earth. Much has been said about the Haiku and Japanese-influenced sensibilities of cummings’ works. Somehow with foregoing regular punctuation and capitalizations, he further manages to mute the text. Alex and I will be interspersing these poems within works by Schubert about snow (or snowdrop flowers…). Walking home last night through fresh powder, I noted once again how quiet the city becomes during a snowfall. I hope Toronto is as quietly blanketed as Montreal. ❄️

a recent morning spent working on some hand-transposition of one of the e.e. cummings settings (& the sweater I’m knitting in progress…)

Alex modelling the bow-hair he’ll play inside the piano for those same pieces….

The cummings reminds me of another Japanese-influenced, snow-evoking poem: Wallace Stevens’ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Years ago, a man selling coffee at a farmers’ market in Haliburton, Ontario would recite this poem to me and my friends as we’d stop by for coffee in biodegradable cups stirred with long pieces of uncooked pasta on our rehearsal breaks.

Haliburton, ON in 2020, which feels like a lifetime ago.

I
Among twenty snowy mountains,   
The only moving thing   
Was the eye of the blackbird.   
…
V
I do not know which to prefer,   
The beauty of inflections   
Or the beauty of innuendoes,   
The blackbird whistling   
Or just after.   

- Wallace Stevens

I’m writing this as I finish a bowl of oatmeal and Chemex-prepared coffee at my kitchen table in Montreal. On that note, avid readers (you know who you are) of this newsletter have requested I continue with my previously established tradition of including breakfast recipes. So! Here we go…

My partner gave me the glorious gift of a cast-iron Kaiserschmarrn pan (with a printed recipe rolled up with a ribbon like a scroll) over the holidays in honour of my favourite Viennese treat. BUT, as I haven’t had the chance to make it yet, I’ll include that recipe in a later post for full transparency.

Warmer days eating Kaiserschmarrn in Vienna at Café Landtmann this summer.

In honour of Dry(ish…) January, I’ve been trying to drink more teas in the evening, as well as to fend off colds and flus. Last year, I filled my freezer with these Immunity Bombs from Eden Eats, a Toronto-native/NYC-based food blogger/recipe-developer I enjoy:

edeneats

A post shared by @edeneats

Directions:

Using a food processor or blender, blend 5 lemons (seeds removed), 4 pieces of ginger, 4 pieces of fresh turmeric, and 1 cup of water. Place the mixture in ice cube trays and freeze overnight. Once ready, place in a cup of boiling water (I like to add Manuka honey and a bit of black pepper to activate the turmeric) for a delicious, immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory hot winter drink.

I also recently made Alison Roman’s Seedy Breakfast Cake from her cookbook Sweet Enough (highly recommend), which I’ve made a few times when I’m in need of a not-too-sweet but delicious pick-me-up to enjoy with morning or afternoon coffee (or tea). Since I always have extra bananas in my freezer, each time I’ve made it I’ve added two bananas (optional in the recipe) and reduce the sugar a bit. This time I also subbed in a quarter cup of buckwheat flour alongside the all-purpose for extra nuttiness (and fibre). I usually cut the cake into pieces once it’s made and freeze half of it, since it takes me a while to go through these things (& I like a freezer stocked with treats!).

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper

2. Whisk together 1.5 cups all purpose flour, 2-3 tablespoons poppyseeds, 2-3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, 2 tablespoons flaxseeds (optional), 1 tablespoon baking powder, 2 teaspoons fennel seeds (optional… I’ve never had them but would love to try sometime!), and 1 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal brand)

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together ½ cup granulated white sugar, ¼ cup light brown sugar, 1 cup Greek yogurt (of sour cream or crème fraiche - I used sour cream this time as I had some lying around my fridge), 2 large eggs, ½ cup neutral oil, and 1-2 ripe bananas (optional, I didn’t use)

4. Gently mix the flour mixture into your wet ingredients until smooth with no lumps, but be careful not to overmix

5. Transfer batter to your loaf pan and sprinkle with more poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and granulated white sugar

6. Bake for 1 hour 5 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes, longer if you’ve added a banana.