I was standing in the elevator holding a bag of groceries, my laptop slung over one shoulder. The paper bag was cutting into my hand, and the laptop was pulling at the skin on my neck, so I was glad to feel the upward motion did not stop at the first floor like it usually does between the hours of 4 and 6. A moment later, I felt the elevator shake and the doors slide open.
Floor 3? Nobody ever goes up from floor 3 in our building. I looked from the lit number, to the elevator entrance and saw that it was our neighbor Jerald.
Jerald and Melissa moved here from New York, which is the first thing that I liked about them. Melissa is an actress and a voice coach. Beautiful sounds often emerge from their apartment, and the air fills with the potent emotion of the opera singer. I try to return the gift with the smells of garlic simmering and bread baking. I imagine that together we are contributing to some invisible canvas of culture. Jerald is a PhD who has written books about recovering from divorce. He has a program called "smooth divorce recovery" (www.smoothdivorcerecovery.com).
He is a friendly and genuine fellow, with a trimmed beard and a kind smile. It is always a joy to run into him.
"Hello, what are you doing on the third floor?" I asked.
I can be so nosey sometimes.
He chuckled, "Does it look like I am just wandering around? I started a divorce recovery support group in the building. I am trying to get resource known among the recently single community. We have a pretty big group some weeks."
I wondered if some of the recently single in his divorce recovery group ever couple up.
"What are you up to these days?" He asked.
To many people, this question is more of a formality than an invitation to present a monologue. They reply with a polite sentence or two, something that they think the listener might find interesting and then leave it at that. Perhaps they use the opportunity to talk about someone else in their lives, but not me.
I prefer to take my listeners hostage. Sometimes I hear myself speaking, and wonder how Christina can stand to listen to me over and over again.
"..and I have another blog going..." I say, after having told Jerald about my research, my masters project, my teaching assistantship, my job for the farmers market, and my taxes. "Oh really?" he said "What's the address?"
I heard somewhere recently that one of the top CEOs of some corporation said that his number one tip for success was 'be less interesting, and more interested'. In Jerald, I witnessed direct evidence of the power of this statement. His interest in me has caused me to feel a strange alliance with him. Curious.
Suddenly there was a thundering blast, followed my the faint sound of laughter. I looked over Jeralds shoulder and saw a woman carrying a large piece of wood. Opposite her were two men shuffling backwards. It was Christina, Gerry, and Everett, and they were cheerfully clamoring down the hallway with our new dining room table. Every once in awhile Gerry would shuffle sideways causing a horrible crashing sound.
Jerald chuckled politely when he did this. I used the opportunity to say a little something more about myself. "My inlaws are moving in to the building, they are bringing me a dining room table! I am so excited I can hardly stand it."
Thus begins the new, civilized chapter of dinner at home: 'dinner at the dinner table'.
Pizza pocket dough
1 cup water (lukewarm)
2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp brown sugar
Pour yeast into the water. Explain how yeast are single celled organisms who breath in oxygen and burp out carbon dioxide, just like humans. If you have a child, have them “feed” the dissolved yeast some brown sugar.
In a separate bowl, mix together:
2 tsp salt
2 ½ cups flour (unbleached white or a mixture of unbleached white and whole wheat)
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Add the liquid to the flour and bring together with a spatula. The dough should be sticky. Turn it out onto a floured surface and sprinkle with
½ cup unbleached white flour
Split the dough into sections and give a little to everyone to help with the kneading. After about 10 min of hard labor, coat the dough with olive oil and cover. Allow it to rise 1 hour.
Filling
2 cups part skim ricotta
1 egg
1 cup mozzarella
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
Mix together the above ingredients. In a frying pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and add ½ diced yellow onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic (in that order). Add a pinch of salt, which will help the onions to brown. Now add vegetables (Swiss chard, spinach, tomato, mushrooms, zucchini, whatever suits your fancy!) and cook until just tender. I cooked swiss chard and mushrooms for this filling (pictured on the side). Remove from heat and add to the cheese mixture.
Assemble the pizza pockets by rolling out small sections of dough, filling one half with the cheese mixture, folding the dough over and sealing it shut with your fingers. Coat the bottom of the hot pockets with cornmeal to prevent from sticking to the pan. Brush with
Egg wash:
1 egg
2 tsp water
Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 min. Serve with tomato sauce (Serves 4-6)
Tomato sauce
Heat 1/2 Tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp salt in a sauce pan. Add 1 diced yellow onion and 2 cloves garlic. Add 1 large can diced tomatoes, or tomato sauce. Add fresh chopped basil and fresh ground pepper to taste.
Christina's vote: "Heartwarming"
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