Volume 1.10 4 June 2011
“Old Things New”
A Tasty Variation on Literature, Photography, Food and Music
“Breaking Thru,” Denny Marshall
Letter from the Editor
Slice It Up
Dear friends, 2
Letter from the Editor
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“Aubergine Knight” (Sean Robinson)
4 Breaking Thru (Denny Marhsall) 5
“Life Is A Proctology Exam” (Robert Laughlin)
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“My Body Hair Is Turning Gray” (Robert Laughlin)
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Kevin Rabas’ Spider Face: A Review (Stephen Krauska)
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Peanut Butter Blondies: A Recipe (Joe Krauska)
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About our Authors & Artists
If you’re a long-time Cannoli Pie reader, you may have sensed something familiar about this month’s cover (and if you’re a newcomer, welcome! Be sure to check out our archives stat). The featured artist, Denny Marshall, has appeared in one of our previous issues, and we happily welcome him back this Saturday. Cannoli Pie and life in general seem to focus on the rebirth of old traditions lately. A familiar heat wave has begun to invade, but this co-editor, normally happy as a desert lizzard this time of year, finds herself adjusting slowly to June and July away from home. Joe has baked up a classic summertime treat this month, but first took time to introduce it to a pudgy-handed Blondie novice (see page 9). And Mr. Marshall, while staying true to his previously-established style, has submitted work to us that displays a refreshing array of color and texture. This month, pour yourself a glass of lemonade (maybe with a little vodka and basil, if it’s after 5:00) and look back at your year. What’s different about this summer? What’s the same as those past? Take some time to sit outside. Enjoy the balmy weather. You may not be a fifth-grader on a three-month-long vacation anymore, but summer is still everyone’s playtime. And even if you’re working every day, or every night, or on all of your weekends, find a moment to give yourself a break. Be a little kid for a while, and let those childhood traditions—letting popsicle juice drip down your chin, riding your bike instead of getting a ride—make a reappearance. All the best, Claire Suellentrop Design & Copy Editor, Cannoli Pie Magazine
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Aubergine Knight
Breaking Thru
Poetry by Sean Robinson
Artwork by Denny Marshall
There are dragons to slay and you are in the kitchen armed with skillet and fork and mis-matched cutlery. There is a wild look about you fey fire springing from your heels clicking staccato on the floor as you dance from cupboard to cutting board cradling grated parmesan like lady’s favor. You wield a knife second handed and craft medallions of fruit the color of a two-day bruise. I love you a little bit for it. And I am sorry for my mismatched plates and mixing bowls. They do no justice as you mix egg and dollar-store garlic into gastronomic alchemy. Butter deadly thick like poison. The taste of home wafting through my rented house. Pots simmer war-paint red heart’s blood deep Waiting to bind perfection in aluminum pans. The art of your craft like dance, like war like poetry.
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Life Is A Proctology Exam
My Body Hair Is Turning Gray
Poetry by Robert Laughlin
Poetry by Robert Laughlin
It never fails. The man about to probe your entrails will always have the thickest fingers and the sharpest nails.
My body hair is turning gray, My scalp and jaw still flaming red. I’m not the first man who can say I’m old in the body but young in the head.
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Kevin Rabas’s Spider Face Review by Stephen Krauska I have a hard time admitting that Spider Face is a collection of prose rather than poetry. Kevin Rabas has been blurring that line for some time now. As the title track of his second poetry collection, Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano (Woodley Press 2009) reveals, Rabas is deft at the double-dip of forms. The poem is well timed and well tuned; narrowing on the specifics that must not be missed and glossing the boring parts to create a piece that is part story, part motion. Readers will find more of the same in Spider Face. The collection leans most strongly on flash fiction. Entire stories are not much longer than the above paragraph nor do they need to be. Rabas carefully steers the reader in and out of scenes as needed, pricking the senses in precise order, much like the healer in “At the Reiki Session”: Sarah held my head between her hands. My body moved, led by her hands, her fingers. Like a sunflower blossom turning to the light, like a puppet whose strings are worked fluidly […] After wards, I sat on her couch, my glasses off from our reiki session, there in only my boxers eating soup from a clay bowl. It was potato and carrot soup seasoned with cayenne pepper. Simple and warm. Rabas is doing for short fiction what William Carlos Williams did for poetry. From the warning shot fired from a bow in “Sam and the Car Thief” the flirtation of Dan and Tara in “Pacing” and the AIDS test in “In the Clinic” Rabas maintains impeccable precision in his language Heavily doused with coming-of-age stories, it is hard to talk about Spider Face without also giving nods to 7
Bukowski and Hemmingway who both seem to have lent their uniqe advice to Rabas. For his very musically styled pieces like “Chalk on the Walk” and “Spider Face,” it is impossible to ignore Kerouac and Ginsburg. On the whole, this collection is a superbly human creation. It encapsulates the human experiences on all levels. Sex, of course, is Spider Face’s tour de force but true to Rabas is used only pointedly and eloquently as becoming perhaps of poetry as opposed to pop fiction. Particularly evocative of Rabas’s style as well is his use of the signs of the times. He draws on AIDS and the discrepancies during the late 80’s between “yuppies” and youth in outbursts that serve as time capsules of the decade. Read first with a few glasses of wine, then twice over a pot of tea, Kevin Rabas’s Spider Face is an easily read, deeply felt exploration and enjoyment of life.
Peanut Butter Blondies Recipe by Joe Krauska My busy schedule this past month prevented me from doing anything too exciting in the kitchen. Sure, I made my grandfather a birthday cake (angel food). He said, “From a box,” and I laughed at him. After I made these delicious blondies, I manage to make some onion rings with dinner from the vidalia onion I picked up. But I just never managed to do anything spectacular that I could share, so I decided upon my most requested baked item. I’ll take these peanut butter blondies with a glass of cold milk any day over an ice cream cake, or any other typical summer celebration dessert. There isn’t much to share about this recipe. I replaced some brown sugar with white, because I like a less dense bar. I simplified the serving by using parchment as a liner. I like to carefully temper the eggs a little before adding them to the sugar mixture, but it may not be necessary if you let the mixture cool enough. Just take a few whisks full of the sugar mixture one at a time and add to the lightly beaten eggs. Using kosher salt will give you little spots of strong salt flavor in the otherwise sweet blondies, but table salt will suffice if you prefer a more uniform finished product. It’s worth noting that the original recipe was made in a metal pan while mine was in glass. I doubt anyone who eats them will care which you choose.
Photo by Meghan Hageman
Peanut Butter Blondies Adapted from My Kitchen Addiction 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter 1 ½ cups light brown sugar ½ cup white sugar 1/2 cup natural peanut butter 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
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Peanut Butter Blondies cont’d A recipe adapted by Joe Krauska Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9-inch by 13inch pan with parchment paper and set aside. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, brown and white sugars, stirring until smooth (It will look like really wet sand). Remove from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter. Allow to cool while combining the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt – in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the sugar and peanut butter mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared dry ingredients, and stir to create a thick, smooth batter (make sure to get all the flour that hangs out at
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the bottom of the bowl). Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, spreading the batter evenly to the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with the milk chocolate chips, lightly pressing them into the batter. Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan. Cut into 1-2 inch squares and serve. Devour like a ferocious child.
Photos by Meghan Hageman & Joe Krauska
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Whodunit About our Authors & Artists
Sean Robinson holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Plymouth State University. Professionally, he works with at-risk teens in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Recreationally he tries to write the next great American novel. His work has appeared in Centripetal. Denny Marshall lives in Nebraska and has NOT been published in hundreds of magazines. Since the end of the world is in 2012 and that seems to be the talk on many online sites, he would like to say hello to all the readers and contributors now.
Stephen Krauska is Cannoli Pie’s other Co-Editor. He is a Kansas expatriate living in New York. He pontificates at http://unronic.blogpsot.com. He is Assistant Editor of The College of Staten Island’s Caesura, swears oaths by The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and is a fan of Scotch. © 2011 All content is copyright Cannoli Pie Magazine or the respective owners. Cannoli Pie retains first electronic serial rights to all work.
Robert Laughlin lives in Chico, California. Two of his short stories are Million Writers Award Notable Stories, and his novel, Vow of Silence, was favorably reviewed by Publishers Weekly. His website is at www.pw.org/content/robert_laughlin. Joe Krauska is a family man and engineer. He cares for a lovely wife and daughter who look a lot alike. Joe is a devotee of wholesome cooking. He abhors both artificial ingredients and those he did not buy with a coupon. Claire Suellentrop is one of Cannoli Pie’s Co-Editors and works as a radio personality for 89.5fm WSOU. She spends most of her time listening to music very loudly, reviewing said music and critiquing grammar. We would be lost without her.
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4 June 2011, Volume 1.10 http://cannolipie.com