Second Breakfast

So when I started this blog, it was mostly as a way for me to write about the stuff that I read. I read a lot, and I take that reading seriously, and I wanted to give myself an opportunity to do a little critical writing along the way. I didn’t think that anyone would actually read it except my husband and maybe a few friends.

I hadn’t looked at my web site statistics in a long while (I always forget the URL and the password that I set), and took a look at last month’s report. I was shocked:

Monthly Statistics for October 2005
Total Hits               57259
Total Files 	          42517
Total Pages 	          16003
Total Visits 	          7328
Total KBytes 	          548938

So who is reading this stuff? I get few comments, so I’m curious who reads this blog. Let me know!

I have been slowly reading and collecting a variety of critical examinations of Tolkien’s writing and mythos. This compact volume by Patrick Curry is, I think, an excellent companion to the first piece of Tolkien criticism that I’ve read, “The Gospel According to Tolkien” by Ralph Wood. In Wood’s work he gave a detailed and convincing argument as to what Tolkien was really writing about, and in Curry’s work we are treated to a compelling examination of the value or uses to which LOTR and the other writings can be put. Or in other words, Wood tells us what Tolkien’s work is really about, and Curry tells us what Tolkien’s work is for.

Curry takes three basic and inter-related approaches to understanding the applicability of Tolkien’s work: first, as an antidote to the manifest failures of Modernity, second as a rekindler of the Christian spiritual imagination, and third as a manifesto of sorts for a new ecological ethos. I find all three arguments to be well-constructed and persuasive. Along the way Curry debunks much of the hostile poo-pooing, including charges of racism, classism, and even facism, that has been lobbed against Tolkien by many of his critics.

I find this passage, quoted from Randal Helms (“Tolkien’s World”, 1976) particularly compelling, as I think that it gets at the heart of what the LOTR experience has been for me since childhood, and why I continue to find it so compelling:

The poetry of the mythic imagination will not, for Tolkien, replace religion so much as make it possible, putting imaginatively starved modern man once again into awed and reverent contact with a living universe.

I still remember vividly the first moments I read The Hobbit. My uncle had given me the boxed set of LOTR and The Hobbit for my twelfth birthday, and since it was summer I was soon after sent to stay with my grandmother for a couple of weeks. Summers with my grandmother were always a time full of voracious reading and occasional trips to the rather smelly shores of Lake Erie. The quality of the light, the sound of the breeze in the trees of the silver maple in front of her house, the scratchy bedspread on her bed, and the smell of the paperback book in my hands are forever imprinted on my memory. I was fascinated by the maps at the front of the book, and the palpable sense of entering another world, one that perhaps I have never quite left.

I’m sure many boys and girls my age experienced something similar. The thing for me has been that that sense of wonder and fascination hasn’t ever quite left me, despite the sophisticated and academic adulthood that I’ve been inculturated into, one which tells me that “fairy stories are for children” and that “the novel is passé”. And as I have spiraled away from my “home” spiritual and religious traditions and have come back to them as an adult I have found that my love of mythic and fantastic literature and my desire for a passionate and authentic spiritual life arise from the same impulse and are, I think, directed towards the same source.

There’s nothing special or particularly fancy about these potatoes, except that lots of scalloped potato recpies I’ve found tend to be overly fussy and complicated. I’ve tried making various versions of this favorite (as well as ‘au gratin’) some lighter than others. This one worked well and was easy to do.

This has a fair amount of dairy in it, but I didn’t find it to be overly heavy. Not something you want every day, but a good cold-weather comforter. I’m going to start incorporating some vegan recipes into the mix here, so we’ll have some balance.

Items

• 3Lb russet baking potatoes, cleaned, peeled, and sliced thin, or 2 20oz. bags of “Simply Potatoes” homestyle sliced potatoes (they work just fine)
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin or diced (your call)
• 1 large clove garlic, minced or grated
• 2 TB butter
• 4 TB flour
• 1 cup milk (any kind)
• 1 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup Gruyere or Swiss Cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmaggiano-Reggiano cheese
• 1 Tbsp Salt and white pepper (or freshly ground black pepper) to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Locate a 9×13″ glass baking dish.
2. Mix milk, half and half, garlic, and flour in a medium, microwave-safe bowl until combined.
3. Heat the milk mixture in the microwave until hot but not boiling, probably 3 mins on high in a typical microwave.
4. Add the cheeses and butter to the milk mixture and stir until combined and the butter is melted.
5. Spray the baking dish with nonstick spray especially on the edges and corners.
6. Arrange half the potatoes in the bottom of the dish. Layer half the onion. Pour half the milk mixture on top. Repeat with the other half.
7. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400F for an hour. Uncover and bake another 15 mins until browned and the potatoes are tender.

Serves 6.