Savor Sidewalk Poems and a Fudgy Torte

Last year I wrote a blog about a city project called St. Paul Sidewalk Poetry in St. Paul, Minnesota. The project began in 2008 with a poetry contest to find original poems by city residents to be etched in sidewalk concrete slabs. The first year they had over 2,000 submissions. This year's winners were recently published. I picked two of the winners to post since they were short poems. The photos I posted are from past years' winners. A project such as this seems like a creative and innovative way to inspire open air reading. I picked two poetic like sentences by one of the first artists in residence Marcus Young that I liked. These words were part of an introduction of a book called Sidewalk Poetry.

"Sidewalks are the blank pages of our city as a book." and "Beautiful poetry can be as present and plain as our sidewalks, as grass and sky.

Perhaps there are other cities who have started initiatives such as this project. Let me know if you have heard of any projects such as this one.

He's fat

My fault

No walks

youth submission Lillian Rupp

Four feet tall and poised,

glove on, front row, third baseline

Yearning for the foul.

by Michael Russelle

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Fudgy Cappuccino Torte

adapted from a past Bake -Off winner

Ingredients:

• Betty Crocker Brownie Supreme (with Hershey syrup packet)
• 1/4 cup coffee
• 2 TB. Kahlua
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 cup vanilla chips

Directions:

• Mix by hand till well blended
• Bake in a spring form pan for 30 minutes at 350
• Cool

Filling:

• In a saucepan melt 6 oz. chocolate chips with 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
• Add 2 beaten egg yolks
• Cook over low heat 3 minutes
• Add 2 TB Kahlua-mix well
• Refrigerate 30 minutes in a bowl
• Place chocolate mixture over cooled brownie mixture

Topping:

• Beat 1 small carton of whip cream-make sure beaters and bowl are chilled
• Beat in 1/3 cup powdered sugar and 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• Add 2 TB. Kahlua
• Spread on top of filling and refrigerate till serving

comment: I have used Amaretto instead of Kahlua for this recipe and works just as well