Poetry Performance and Bonus Review

Hi everyone! A beautiful day to all.

First, a quick announcement. This week, on Thursday evening, there's going to be a great Poetry show in Anchorage as part of the Spenard Jazz Festival. And I'm going to be participating! You can see my name in tiny print down toward the bottom left.

I'll be reading four of my poems. There are going to be seventeen poets, plus dancers and musicians, so I get the opportunity to be one among many and I'm looking forward to being inspired! It's at the Hugi Lewis Studio on Northern Lights, on the west side of town. I've never been there before. It will be an honor to perform side by side with the winners of the recent statewide poetry competition and others. And this will be just the day before the Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference starts. Rita Dove is coming to Homer! I'm so excited. Just wanted to share--if you're in Anchorage, come on over on Thursday night.

My giveaway ends tomorrow. Today, I have a bonus review to share. As I mentioned in my review of Must Have Been Something I Ate, the author talks about 'new' superfoods and supplements. I was curious about sacha inchi seeds, which she mentions a lot as a great omega 3 source, and Vega were kind enough to send me a few samples of the Saviseeds that she often uses in recipes.

I was a little surprised to see that they are lightly toasted, but some research showed that that is the traditional way that they have always been prepared in Peru, where they originate.

Since they are omega-3-rich seeds, I was expecting them to be tiny and mucilaginous, like chia and flax. Wrong! They are about the size of a small peanut, and taste remarkably similar to peanuts too.

I used my sample of 'oh natural' flavor (lightly sea salted) to make the pesto linguini recipe from the book. It was enough for a half-recipe.

 She suggests pairing the pesto with zucchini linguini, cooked pasta or quinoa, or kelp noodles. I like this kind of flexibility, and I chose instead to make a carrot-jicama 'slaw as the base, with some green beans and corn kernels.

The pesto consists of basil, sacha inchi seeds (salted and lightly toasted), hemp seeds, olive oil, salt. I was surprised that there was no lemon in the recipe, but tried it that way and it was good. I didn't have enough basil, so I used a little fresh parsley and oregano too.

The carrots and jicama were so beautiful that I was loath to spread a green sauce all over them...

 ...but they looked beautiful that way too, garnished with a sliced tomato and some flowers from our chives that successfully wintered over.

I found the added salt too much, given that the seeds were already salted, but the people I served it to liked it a lot (I tend to prefer less salt than most). I enjoyed the creaminess and crunch that the Saviseeds provided and am really intrigued by the peanutty quality of their flavor. A high omega-3 peanut?

Have you tried sacha inchi seeds?