Sensing the Moment and Other Cheesy Ponderings

*Breathing a sigh of relief.* I've always been a big sigher. It's how I let go of tension. Ah, to exist as a breath. So brief and loaded with meaning. There are so many beautiful things given in this life, here's a list of recently pondered beauties returned as a tribute:

Sleepless  >  The Decembrists

Salty garbanzo beans

Crunchy leaves

Bags of apples

Old and broken cuckoo clocks

Dying light

Twilight walks

Golden retrievers

Sisters

Brokenness

Halloween

He Doesn't Know Why  >  Fleet Foxes

The entire Dark Was the Night album

Irish music at the Dubliner

I'm glad to savor the few quiet moments I can steal. I love our new neighborhood, which the rich people let Megan and I pretend to belong to. After going on an evening walk at 5 p.m. (almost dusk at that time), I made another of Mark Bittman's low-maintenance salads and fixed this antique cuckoo clock. The clock once belonged to my grandfather. I "borrowed" it from my parents because it was sitting in their basement collecting sawdust from my dad's woodworking and hung it on the wall in my old apartment. I walked away after hanging it, and the clock almost immediately crashed to the ground. I finally got around to gluing it back together last night. Here's hoping it's not a valuable handcrafted clock made by a German-Jewish clockmaker just before the onset of World War II ... knowing my luck.

Tomato and Garbanzo Bean Salad: tweaked from Mark Bittman's 101 Simple Summer Salads

2 tomatoes
1 garlic clove
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans
3 cups water
2 green onions
lemon juice
cumin
parsely

I roasted the tomatoes because they're not ripe at all right now. To quick-roast, preheat the oven to 400. Cut tomatoes in quarters and arrange on a baking sheet with the unpeeled garlic clove. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for one hour to allow some of the water to evaporate and the juices to concentrate the flavor.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, bring the water (salted) and drained garbanzo beans to a boil. Reduce to simmer and boil until barbanzo beans are cooked through--should take 10 to 15 minutes, but do a taste test. Drain the beans. In the skillet saute the green onions with olive oil. Toss in the garbanzo beans and tomatoes and garlic. Smash the tomatoes and garlic so the juices spread all over the salad. Remove to a serving bowl and season with lemon juice, cumin and parsely.