Friday, July 14, 2006
Little Girl
Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as I stand inside the rain
Everybody knows
That baby's got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls.
She takes just like a woman
She makes love just like a woman
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.
-Bob Dylan - Just Like a Woman
I sometimes really think that Bob says it best.
I went to see Hayley tonight for a mere five minutes on my way to see my grandmother. I was actually wearing a jacket with a red hood, and it was getting dark. I put some raspberry lime sorbet that I made yesterday in her freezer, and some fresh raspberries that I had picked this morning in her fridge. I lent her a stack of books that I didn't have time to talk up to her. One of them was a pretty excellent, if somewhat shabbily written lesbian detective novel that I had just finished.
She had just woken up and she was all sleepy and warm in a fuzzy green sweater. I told her she felt warm and she said she was actually cold and had her heater going in her room. I said that it was chilly because of the rain. All this was in whispers, because I didn't want to wake her up abruptly. I put my arms around her and kissed her neck and she felt so absolutely small and fragile against me. She's only 5'1" (although you'd better believe she'll claim she's 5'2") and since she only ever really gets it together to eat one meal a day on her crazy schedule she's skinnier than I've ever seen her, and she was tiny to begin with.
Her North Korean Orphan diet bothers me somewhat because it's just not healthy, and whenever I can I make her dinner or tell her to make herself a sandwich. But...I have to admit against all my intellectual impulses that she looks even hotter when she's skinny because it brings out all her curves. Shoot me, I am such a terrible feminist.
Anyway, it was a sad moment. I love this girl so very, very much and I want so much for her to be happy and healthy and safe.
I don't know if sorbet and berries and books are helping, but maybe they're a start.
Without further ado,
Nome's Raspberry Lime Sorbet
Ingredients:
-6 fresh limes
-2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
-2 cups white sugar
To do:
1) Zest the limes, taking only the green part, and please don't cut your fingers to shit doing it like I did. My hands look like I just got into a fight with a very angry street cat.
2) Put the lime zest and the sugar in a pan and add a cup or so of boiling water.
3) Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
4) Let the budding syrup sit and think about what it's done for about a half hour.
5) Strain lime zest from syrup, and discard. Or if you're really fancy, save it for a garnish.
6) Add raspberries to the pan over medium-high heat until they reach a boil.
7) Stir berries vigorously until they've broken up (and hopefully until they've moved on).
8) Place mixture in fridge (or in the freezer if you're in a hurry and want to finish the thing after watching Mean Girls)
9) Juice the limes, preferably in a juicer, but maybe by hand if your post-hippie parents don't own such silly-but-useful appliances.
10) Add lime juice to raspberry mixture, and stir.
11) Place this concoction in either an ice cream maker which is suitably cold and actually works, or in the freezer and stir every hour or so until you achieve something close to a Rob Feenie-like consistency. Or if you're like me, settle for something close and curse Rob Feenie for being such a fucking smartass.
12) Bring home on the ferry and share with grandmother, aunt, parents, brother, and girlfriend, to taste.
Enjoy.
-N
