Archive for the ‘Maryjo “Mj” Morgan, Writer’ Category

Honored to Share

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

Corn Recipe Entry

When I entered the Corn Roast Festival Recipe Contest, I did it to share a family recipe.

One of the best flavor mixes I’ve ever tasted is a dish my first mother-in-law Carolyn Davis Morgan taught me ages ago.

When she told me she was making Fried Corn, I was a bit less than enthusiastic. First of all, I could not imagine how anyone could fry corn.  Secondly, why would you add calories to an already starchy food?

Maryjo Costanzo Morgan shares Fried Corn recipe taught to her by Carolyn Davis Morgan

Carolyn Davis Morgan's recipe for Fried Corn garners Mj a trophy

Why?  Because it is absolutely delicious!

Here’s the recipe – if I’d thought ahead, I would have more carefully named it “Nanny’s Fried Corn” to honor Carolyn Morgan … she gave me so much more than this recipe!

“Nanny’s” Fried Corn

4-7 slices thick cut bacon
6-8 ears of ripe corn, shucked (you can use frozen corn, cooked, in a pinch)
sugar
salt, pepper to taste.

Cut raw corn from cob.

Brown bacon. Drain. Dice into ¼” pieces. Set aside.

Carefully pour remaining bacon grease into a suitable glass container and set aside.

Put corn in the same pan the bacon was cooked in. Sprinkle with sugar – about 1 tablespoon per 3 ears of corn, more or less, and cook corn on medium-low heat to carmelize the sugar and corn, about 10 minutes. Stir often so it won’t scorch.

Add bacon pieces. Salt and pepper to taste.

Note: Some corn is naturally sweeter than other corn, so reduce the sugar to ½ T. if you know a batch of corn is especially sweet.
I am deeply grateful to have had a person so generous, kind, and thoughtful as Carolyn Davis Morgan in my life.

The Reporter-Herald posted winners in today’s paper.

Posted in Corn Recipe, Fun, Gratitude, Loveland, Maryjo "Mj" Morgan, Writer | 4 Comments »

All things? Really?

Monday, July 26th, 2010

“You must have the capacity to endure all things.”

My meditation prompt this morning seemed a bit large to wrap my consciousness around.

It is so easy to endure joy – such as the excitement I felt at the Colorado Women of Influence Women of Vision Gala last Wednesday night. I saw Heather Janssen honored as mother, publisher, woman. I saw Heidi Olinger honored for building a business model that creates self-awareness and self-esteem in young girls and tweens. I saw Temple Grandin honored for inspiring us to greater heights as human beings in our treatment of animals … and one another.

It is so easy to rethink those moments and smile to myself, happy for them.

Ah, but to endure sorrow, that is another matter.

To hear my Friend say she has stage 3 cancer and see her go through surgery, tests, chemo and radiation. To hear my Friend say she has discovered a lump and see her go through a surgery, checking lymph nodes, chemo and radiation. To hear my Friend’s 4 year-old daughter has died, knowing the heart-rending ache she and her husband must now bear.

These pains are much more difficult to shoulder. Endure? How? I know hearts are breaking all around me – how do I face this carnage?

I force myself to breathe in-2-3-4. And then to breathe out-2-3-4, just as I learned in childbirth classes a lifetime ago. Slow down my breathing. Slow down my tears. Slow down the wild beating of my heart.

Do I have the capacity to endure all things?  Really?

I must. How else can I help those dear friends, than to continue to accomplish the day to day tasks required of me? Of what good is it to collapse now?

No, I must accept what cannot be changed and go forward.  Be at the ready in case I may be of any small assistance.

Nothing says this will be easy or without doubt.

But one step at a time … forward I go.

I write to honor sweet little girl Samantha Schichtel.

Posted in Heather Schichtel, Writer, Life Event, Maryjo "Mj" Morgan, Writer | 8 Comments »

Olive and My Book Club

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Belonging to a Book Club can sometimes be a challenge. Take for instance this month. Our January selection was “Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout © 2008 Random House.

Olive Kitterage by Elizabeth Strout, 2009 Pulitzer for Fiction

No wonder Olive Kitterage nabbed a Pulitzer!

Before Christmas I went to the Loveland Library but their copy was already gone; I didn’t have any road trips planned, no Denver outings, so a book on tape wouldn’t work this month. Next I checked the Poudre Library District online and all of their 4 copies were out.

Finally I chose Prospector (inter-library loan) and hoped for the best. After all, I was early and most people have time off work over the holidays. Surely they must read then?

When the calendar announced our Book Club meeting last Tuesday I was still bookless. Since I did have a business meeting that would make me late for the Book Club discussion, I opted out with regrets.

The book arrived Wednesday. Go figure.

But since “Olive” had traveled all the way from Greeley, and inter-library loans are usually short with no renewals, I dug right in.

It jazzes me to experience a story unfolding – I simply love it when I have no idea what a book or movie is about.  It’s hard in this age of information to maintain such an innocence, but when it does happen, I am enthralled.

Kitterage and Pulitzer vaguely connected, but I did not know anything about the story.   I purposely did not look at the back-of-the-book blurbs. Did not read online reviews. Nothing.

Reading a book this way is truly like taking the author’s hand and allowing myself to be led around unfamiliar territory.  This book is unfamiliar … in style and content. Olive Kitteridge is odd, quirky and thoroughly engaging.

Thanks to the savvy readers in my Book Club for yet again launching me on a worthwhile journey.

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Posted in Book, Maryjo "Mj" Morgan, Writer | 3 Comments »

A new calendar … brings another 365 dilemmas

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

This year I received an interesting gift for a writer: Book Lover’s Calendar for 2010. It pleased me and challenged me, just as it did last year when I received the 2009 version. A colleague told me calendars like this make her nervous.

I pondered this at length, and decided the calendar seemed to be a treasure trove waiting for me to dig in. It didn’t make me nervous, it exhilarated me! Great books, recommended by the calendar which met the “365 Days of Good Authors, Good Books, & Good Reading” criteria as touted on the calendar’s cover.

Each day presents one book by Title with Author, Publisher, and Date. There is a short synopsis that strives to spotlight each tome in such a way, it makes you want to run out and buy it, devour it in one gulp.  Burp.

I suppose each author pumps the air with a triumphant fist when notified her or his book has been chosen for the next year’s “Book Lover’s Calendar.” Out of the hundreds of thousands of books published each year, for one day of the year all eyes [albeit only calendar users] would turn to her or his book. Gravy, advertising at its finest.

What I did not expect was my reaction to the calendar by, say mid-March. Let’s take the Ides as an example. I laughed to see “Caesar: Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy” taking up the 3/15/09 page. Equally amusing was the pairing of April Fools’ Day and the dark comedy with frightening undertones by Michael Crichton, “Next.”

But, as the year progressed, I felt more and more like a slacker. Too lazy to keep up with the calendar of great reading suggestions, I fell hopelessly behind early in January and never gained a foothold.

This year I’m doing much better. How do I manage to read a book a day?

I don’t.  Moreover, I give my self permission to choose from a tiny sprinkling of the diverse advertisements numbingly numbering 365. Nervous? Nah. No way. I am taking this daily billboard of books less to heart. It is much easier this way, and I have not the indigestion of gobbling  a book a day.  Burp.

Today’s suggestion “How To Be Alone” was penned by my old “The Corrections” buddy Jonathan Franzen. Maybe I’ll get around to it before the 2011 edition of the Book Lover’s Calendar challenges me all over again.

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