June 2007 Archives

Inspired by Rob's family tradition of having pizza on Sunday nights and the artisan pizzas of nearby Nantucket Baking Co., Rob and I have decided to go above and beyond frozen pizza to craft our own works of edible art on Sunday evenings. Before describing the two we've made so far, I should mention our Nantucket favorites. Kissing Da Silva has a curry creme sauce with green peppers, chicken, onions, mozzarella and red grapes. The Cultured Brute, Rob's favorite hands-down, has spinach, gorgonzola, mozarella, artichoke hearts and bacon. Our first creation began with word that there was a baker at the farmer's market a couple of blocks from our house who had amazing pizza crusts for $3. They are, indeed amazing. Here are the ingredients from our first pizza a couple of weeks ago:

• Bova Bakery Italian Herb crust
• Red sauce
• Artichoke hearts
• Pickled Garlic that a friend brought back for us from Gilroy, CA, garlic capital of the world
• Monterrey Jack cheese
• Red currants

You can see the Nantucket influence, although we don't usually eat meat at home, so our pizzas will primarily be vegetarian delights. For the one we made tonight, we had access to much more produce from the farmer's market, as well as our CSA share, which started last week. This one included:

• Bova Bakery Green Pepper/Tomato/Onion Focaccio
• Garlic butter bechamel sauce (recipe below)
• Farmer's market green pepper, asparagus and yellow squash sauteed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• Fresh tomatoes
• Dill cheese from the farmer's market
• Scallions and spinach from our CSA share

We'll have to work on names that are half as creative as Nantucket. Here is a photo of the latest creation:

About once a week or so, I send an e-mail to a list of people who have expressed interest at some point in writing for catapult magazine, the online publication for which I'm the editor. The e-mails let people on the list know what our upcoming topics and deadlines are. Also, I send out at least one e-mail per issue with questions related to the issue topic. The following questions went out for the upcoming issue, "[Deleted for Inappropriate Subject Matter]":

• What subjects were taboo in your family as you were growing up? How did these taboos affect you? Do you now avoid those topics yourself, have a strong desire to talk about them or something in between?
• When have you felt 'censored', either by yourself or by others?
• The description for this issue references the 'girl crush'. What is your experience with this subject? Or if you're male, is there such a thing as a 'man crush'? Should we be talking about these issues and if so, how? What would be the benefit?
• When is it appropriate NOT to talk about something? When do we talk too much?
• How should parents decide what their kids are ready to see, hear and discuss? Should kids be 'sheltered'?
• How do we set our own boundaries for what we are able to see, hear and discuss?
• How does the church (universal and/or particular) hurt itself and its members by staying away from certain subjects?
• When have you experienced comfort, revelation, etc. because someone (or a community) was willing to talk about something you'd been keeping to yourself?
• How does the issue of 'inappropriate subject matter' relate to art? For example, what is the line between pornography and erotica? The line between horror and 'torture porn'?

If you have any ideas you'd like to contribute to this issue, let me know. The deadline is Monday, June 11 and the issue will go up on Friday, June 15. Since this topic could delve into potentially very sensitive subject matter, please let me know if it would be helpful for you to publish something anonymously. I'm looking for both personal stories and cultural analysis for this issue. I'm going to try to post calls for articles on our blog more regularly, but if you'd like to join the writer's e-mail list, you can do so here.