I’m so far behind on my blog posts but thought I could write this one before I head off meandering again. (Plus I’m still finalizing my poetry manuscript.)
ActorFilip Berg from Trouble. Image courtesy of Netflix.
My first recommendation is the movie Trouble. This Swedish action comedy is a remake of a 1988 movie by the same name. An electronics salesman and handyman innocently gets caught up in a home invasion and murder. What follows is a farcical romp involving corrupt police and relationship drama. The movie is streaming on Netflix with English voiceovers. I thoroughly enjoyed it and laughed a lot!
Red slipper replicas that were in the Judy Garland museum when we visited in 2021.
The second is Ruby Red Handed. It’s a tongue-in-cheek documentary about the case of the missing ruby red slippers that Dorothy (Judy Garland) wore in The Wizard of Oz. This theft happened a few hours’ drive from where I live. Russ and I visited the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, after the theft happened, so that’s why the movie intrigued us. (See my post about our museum visit.)
Solving the crime took years and the help of the FBI. It involved clueless criminals (who thought the shoes contained real rubies) and buried treasure. Spoiler alert: the show has a happy ending, but if you’ve been paying attention to the news, you know that already. It’s available for free on Hulu and was produced by a Minnesota-based company. You’ll get the inside scoop on all the juicy details of the crime.
With all the noise in the blogosphere, no one’s probably noticed that I’ve been quieter than usual lately. That’s because I’m working on another book manuscript. This time it’s poetry. I’ve had poems published here and there but never a book of my own. So, I decided to compile my life’s work of poems—yet another good retirement project.
I finished the manuscript last week and sent it off to a local publisher. I decided to choose this publisher because they exist solely to help poets in our area with projects like this, the turn-around is quick, I’ll get to keep the profits, and have control over the final manuscript.
Two days later, I received a “yes”! Now I’m working on fine-tuning the manuscript and getting marketing blurbs ready. Here’s what I have so far:
High Fire Danger: Poems of Love and Nature
Me years ago on a firefighting assignment in Yosemite. I’m smiling behind my bandana.
In High Fire Danger, Marie Zhuikov meditates on the transformative power of love and the magic and menace of nature. Written over the past thirty-eight years, Zhuikov’s enchanting poems offer unique insights and cutting humor. They take readers from her home in Minnesota to far-flung locales across the Great Lakes, Canada, Scotland, the Caribbean, and even to another planet. These accessible poems are filled with the heat and longing of romantic love, but also a deep love for family, community, and nature. They’ll scorch your soul like wildfire.
In a few months, I hope to have this book out into the world! For info about my other fiction and nonfiction books, please visit my book page.
A rare show lit up the sky above our cabin last night. Russ and I meandered down roads in the dark, feeling our way by the gravel crunching under our shoes. We made it to a bog that has a good view north.
As the aurora silently danced above in curtains of reds and greens, lightning bugs danced closer to the ground, their feeble white lights the last of summer.
If you’d like to see my photo page with lots of other images (organized by topic: water/wood/stone/sky/travel and lighthouses) please visit my photography page and choose a topic: https://mariezwrites.com/photography/.
Wild rice, the kind of rice native to the Great Lakes and other parts of North America, is not only delicious in soups and other dishes, it makes a great and healthy snack.
A few years ago, I was gifted a copy of The Good Berry Cookbook by Tashia Hart. The author is a member of the Red Lake Anishinaabe (northern Minnesota) and she’s a culinary ethnobotanist, artist, photographer, writer, and cook. The book is more than a cookbook. It’s everything you ever wanted to know about wild rice.
A wild rice triple chocolate donut. Doesn’t it look tasty?
I’ve made several recipes from the book, notably, one for wild rice chocolate donuts (Triple Chocolate Donuts). As someone who’s always on the lookout for alternatives to wheat and corn, I was attracted by this recipe. They turned out looking great but were a bit gritty. Maybe I didn’t grind the rice into flour as fine as I should have. Since then, I’ve found other wheat- and corn-free recipes I like better.
This weekend, I went to a Harvest Festival in Duluth, which features produce from local farmers and artisans. One booth offered puffed wild rice in several flavors (for instance, cheese pizza!) I tried a sample of salted rice puffs. They were very good. Done this way, the wild rice tastes almost like popcorn, but with a richer, nuttier flavor. I would have bought some, but the vendor used popcorn salt, which usually contains cornstarch, so I passed.
Seeing the puffed wild rice reminded me that the Good Berry cookbook had a recipe for it, so when I returned home, I made some. It requires wild rice that has been picked and parched in a traditional manner. This makes it a lighter color (dull brown) versus the paddy-grown wild rice, which is dark and shiny.
All you do is heat a few inches of oil (I used canola) in a pan at a high temperature. I used setting 7 out of 9 on my stovetop. Wait until the oil is good and hot, then place a small amount of wild rice in a sieve (2-3 tablespoons) and lower it into the oil. It should puff up quickly if the oil is hot enough. Then spread the rice on a plate lined with paper towels to drain. I seasoned mine with sea salt (which usually contains no cornstarch).
If you’ve ever had puffed wheat cereal, you’ll recognize puffed wild rice, although the rice kernels are smaller and skinnier. It tasted great!
Marie tries her hand at harvesting wild rice, St. Louis River, MN.
Russ has developed the habit of eating popcorn in the evenings, which is sort of torture for me because I can’t have it. (Do you think he’s doing this on purpose??) Now, I have an alternative.
Tashia also offers a recipe for wild rice chocolates. Basically, you take the puffed wild rice and pour melted chocolate chips over them. I have some leftover puffed wild rice. That’s next on my list!
For a story about my “immersive” experience harvesting wild rice, visit this link.
Update: 9/10/25
I made the puffed wild rice chocolates. Very good! The recipe calls for making them in a flat sheet, but I chose to clump them instead. They taste rather like a Nestle crunch bar.
Marie's Meanderings 