The Fierce Poseidon You Will Never Encounter

/ Leave a Comment

It’s Ann here today. Andy is over in OurLittleCorner sounding a Siren alert.

Note: he would have made it home in 3 years – not 10 – if he hadn’t shacked up with Calypso!

Have you seen Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey yet – or do you intend to pass on the 173-minute film? I’ve opted to just go back and read one of my favorite poems, the Greek poet C.P. Cavafy’s “Ithaca,” which is about our life’s journey being more important than getting to the final destination. Here’s part of what the poem has to say to Odysseus – and us – about meeting bad things in life:

When you start on your journey to Ithaca,
then pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
Do not fear the Lestrygonians
and the Cyclopes and the angry Poseidon.
You will never meet such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your body and your spirit.
You will never meet the Lestrygonians,
the Cyclopes and the fierce Poseidon,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not raise them up before you.

Fierce Poseidon – as a cartoon character (2013 CE)
Lestrygonians – as a restored Roman fresco (60-40BCE)
Cyclops – as a stone mask (1st Century CE)
Matt Damon – as Odysseus (2026 CE)

Even more interesting than my re-reading of “Ithaca” was my discovery of another of Cavafy’s poems which I want to share. It’s entitled “Waiting for the Barbarians” and was written in 1898, 13 years before he wrote “Ithaca.” To get you in the mood to read the whole poem, I suggest you start with this video. It’s Taylor Mac reading the poem’s last few stanzas – and it’s both creepy and wonderful. Mac, who uses the gender pronoun “judy,” is a theater artist who grew up in Stockton, CA, won a MacArthur “Genius Grant,” and was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Waiting for the Barbarians

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are due here today.

Why isn’t anything going on in the senate?
Why are the senators sitting there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today.
What’s the point of senators making laws now?
Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.

Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting enthroned at the city’s main gate,
in state, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor’s waiting to receive their leader.
He’s even got a scroll to give him,
loaded with titles, with imposing names.

Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.

Why don’t our distinguished orators turn up as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and they’re bored by rhetoric and public speaking.

Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
(How serious people’s faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven’t come.
And some of our men just in from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.

Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?
Those people were a kind of solution.

And now back to The Odyssey.

I think a creative cruise line should offer a foodie’s cruise, which would attempt to follow the path of Odysseus (guesstimated to be around 1178 BCE) as he struggled to get back to Ithaca from Troy and the Trojan War. Can you imagine the delicious food we’d all enjoy as we dined throughout that region in 2026 CE? Moreover – by following Cavafy’s “Ithaca”advice – we wouldn’t have to worry about the giant Lestrygonians eating us or Circe turning us into swine, or about getting too high with the Lotus-eaters. Plus, the wives wouldn’t have any concern that Calypso might seduce the hubbies and entice them to move in with her for the next 7 years!

I especially love that cat!

If the idea of fixing a slightly-challenging Greek recipe (Spanakopita – or Spinach Pie) scares you, just be sure that your thoughts “remain lofty.” “Don’t fear phyllo,” you might say. But rest assured: if the fear of phyllo becomes overwhelming, just make Fasolakia Giaxni (fresh green beans and fresh tomatoes – stewed together) instead. Easy peasy. Both recipes follow.

Spanakopita - Greek Spinach Pie

Adapted fromTheMediterraneanDish.com

For the Spinach and Feta Filling

  • 16 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
  • 2 bunches flat-leaf parsley, stems trimmed, finely chopped
  • 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 10.5 oz  feta cheese, crumbled
  • 2 tsp dried dill weed
  • Freshly-ground black pepper

For the Crust

  • 1 16 oz package phyllo dough, thawed
  • about 1 c olive oil, more if needed

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Before you begin mixing the filling, be sure the spinach is very well drained, and squeeze out any excess liquid by hand.

To make the filling: In a mixing bowl, add the spinach and the remaining filling ingredients. Stir until all is well-combined.

Unroll the phyllo sheets and place them between two slightly damp kitchen cloths.

Prepare a 9 1/2″ X 13″ baking dish. Brush the bottom and sides of the dish with olive oil.

To assemble the spanakopita: Line the baking dish with two sheets of phyllo, letting them cover the sides of the dish. Brush with olive oil. Add two more sheets in the same manner, and brush them with olive oil. Repeat until two-thirds of the phyllo is used up.

Now, evenly spread the spinach and feta filling over the phyllo crust. Top with two more sheets, and brush with olive oil.

Continue to layer the phyllo sheets, two-at-a-time, brushing with olive oil, until you have used up all the sheets. Brush the very top layer with olive oil, and sprinkle with just a few drops of water.

Fold the flaps or excess from the sides, you can crumble them a little. Brush the folded sides well with olive oil. Cut Spanakopita ONLY PART-WAY through into squares, or leave the cutting to later.

Bake in the 325 degrees F heated-oven for 1 hour, or until the phyllo crust is crisp and golden brown. Remove from the oven. Finish cutting into squares and serve.

Recipe brought to you by BigLittleMeals.com and Andy and Ann.

Fasolakia Giaxni – Greek Stewed Green Beans

Fasolakia Giaxni - Greek Stewed Green Beans

The perfect August recipe – when your garden’s green beans and tomatoes are ready! If you want, add some diced potatoes at the same time you add the beans.

  • 1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans
  • 1/3 c olive oil
  • 1 c of chopped onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 lbs of tomatoes, grated (I needed about 7 small tomatoes)
  • 1/3 c chopped parsley
  • pinch of sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and sauté until tender. Stir in the garlic and cook for another 15 seconds or so. Then add the grated tomatoes and a pinch of sugar, the salt and pepper, and bring to the boil.

Turn the heat down and let the mixture simmer for a few minutes. Then add the green beans and mix, so that the green beans are coated with the olive oil and the tomatoes. Turn the heat down, cover with the lid and simmer for around 20-30 minutes, until the beans are very soft and most the juices have evaporated. During cooking, if the pan appears to be getting dry add a little bit of hot water. When the beans are very well cooked and very tender (you’re not looking for crisp-tender!) , stir in the parsley, add salt to taste.

Serve warm or at room temperature with feta cheese, warm crusty bread, and Kalamata olives on the side.

Recipe brought to you by BigLittleMeals.com and Andy and Ann.

Hunger Game: Confessions of a Post-Meal Snacker

/ 2 Comments

It’s Andy here today. Ann is over in OurLittleCorner trying to get a head (so to speak).

Ann and I have been publishing BigLittleMeals for almost 10 years, so you’d think that by now I would have figured out why I’m so obsessed with the likes of Trader Joe’s “Slightly Coated Dark Chocolate Almonds” and Fiorello’s Stracciatella Gelato.

The objects of my obsession.
(Note: we at BigLittleMeals receive no compensation for mentioning specific products in our blog — much to our disappointment).

Unless we’re entertaining guests, Ann and I almost never officially have dessert after our dinner. But unofficially it’s a different story for me. While cleaning up the kitchen after our evening meals (you may recall from previous blogs that I’m the cleanup guru in our household) my mind will inevitably wander to our fridge’s freezer drawer and before I know it I’ll find myself snagging spoonfuls of Fiorello’s Stracciatella Gelato straight from the carton. Or alternatively, the bag of Trader Joe’s “Slightly Coated Dark Chocolate Almonds” that’s innocently sitting in the pantry will become irresistible, luring me to pop a handful (or two, or three) into my mouth. I think I suffer from Post-Meal Snacking Disorder.

Maybe a bit too close to home? (from Pickles by Brian Crane)

So what’s up with this compulsive post-meal snacking behavior? Am I suffering from some sort of psychological disorder? Is it a manifestation of some repressed food-related trauma that’s been bottled up in me since my childhood? Do I need psychotherapy?

These questions were on my mind when I spotted a recent article in the Guardian with the byline “What really controls our appetite?” After reading the article I realized that understanding my post-meal compulsive snacking behavior (or whatever it is that I suffer from) is much more complicated than I had thought.

Illustration from the Guardian (Article by Joel Snape – 4/21/2026)

To start with, scientists pretty much agree that our appetite (or why we eat) is heavily influenced by the convergence of three separate neurological activities taking place in different parts of our brain — hunger, feelings of fullness, and reward. In the following box I’ve summarized (and certainly oversimplified) how these components work :

The Three Components of Appetite


1. Hunger: regulated by the hypothalmus part of the brain which is located behind the bridge of the nose. It watches our blood sugar levels and for the hormones leptin and ghrelin (whatever they are). When it detects an “energy deficit” it produces the “feeling” of hunger.

2. Fullness: a product of the hindbrain, located where the skull and neck meet. It monitors the stomach and signals to us the sensation of being full whenever the stomach stretches.

3. Reward: generated by a network of neurons somewhere higher up in the brain and driven by dopamine and its “search for pleasurable activities.“

This got me wondering how these three interrelated components of appetite may help explain my unofficial post-dinner snacking obsession. First off, I’d have to rule out hunger as a culprit. Ann and I prepare nutritiously-balanced meals, making it highly unlikely that following a meal the energy-deficit-warning light in my hypothalmus would start flashing . Also, because we don’t skimp on serving sizes (and I’m not a stranger to seconds) the hindbrain would have no choice other than to broadcast a “full” signal.

This leaves us with reward. Could that be the villain? The answer is probably — but it’s complicated.

Neuroscientists have found that just the smell or sight of particular foods can temporarily increase dopamine signaling (i.e. reward) and activate the brain’s “appetite circuitry,” creating what’s called “hedonic” hunger, which can override the brain’s conclusion that we have no practical need to eat.

And complicating things even further, not everyone experiences appetite the same. In fact, more than a thousand genes have been identified that in one way or another can influence appetite and our propensity to experience “hedonic” hunger episodes. [Editor’s note: If interested in more technical detail see the NIH publication “Unraveling the brain regulation of appetite: lessons from genetics.”]

Is there any hope for those of us caught in the “hedonic” hunger trap? Timothy Frie, a well-known nutritional neuroscientist, seems to think so. He urges us to develop what he calls “food-mind fluency” which he defines as “the ability to recognise what is driving the urge to eat in that moment and respond with awareness and conscious intention.” I’m not sure what all that means, but it seems worth a try.

So… the next time I’m cleaning the kitchen I’m going to pull out the freezer drawer and focus on that carton of Fiorello’s Stracciatella Gelato with all of the “awareness and conscious attention” I can muster. Even so, I suspect that my brain’s “dopamine signaling” will have the last word and I’ll snag a few more spoonfuls — at least I hope so.

From Calvin and Hobbes comic strip by Bill Watterson

So I say to all of my fellow post-dinner kitchen-cleaning snackers, Bon appétit.

Trash Talk

/ 2 Comments

It’s Ann here today. Andy is over in OurLittleCorner psychoanalyzing cats.

It was Andy who suggested the perfect title, “Trash Talk,” for today’s blog. I had considered “I Can’t Wait to Be an Old Lady.” Or maybe “It’s Salubrious” or “Unexploded Ordnance.” My suggestions are all quotes from the recent NYTimes article that inspired this blog. It’s an article about a group of women in Massachusetts who call themselves “Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage.” Since 2018 this group of about 30 women has retrieved 6000 pounds of trash from ponds in Cape Cod. Members have to be at least 64 years old, able to swim half a mile in under 30 minutes, and “free dive” to eight feet. I’m impressed!

Susan Baur, 86, is a retired psychologist and founder of the Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage

I think we older women – and men- can totally appreciate and take to heart this excerpt from the article about Ms Baur: “And, as leader, she’s had to squelch her proclivity to get anxious and complain about physical discomforts, she said. ‘Now it’s like suck it up, because they are watching,’ Ms. Baur said. ‘I’m going to show them that being old is OK.‘”

And this is possibly the highlight: “Ms. Baur said that the husbands of at least two members had thanked her. Diving for trash offers great stress relief and tends to have a salubrious effect on the mood back home. ‘You don’t really want to live with unexploded ordnance, if you know what I mean,’ Ms. Baur said .”

The OLAUG are getting trash out of their environment, one dive at a time!

I wish I could join their group. I’m certainly old enough – but I can’t swim; I obviously don’t dive, and I don’t live near Cape Cod. Clearly, I need to find something equally challenging here in the Sonoma area. After reading the article, I know that my group would need to have three important goals: (1) to bring older women together; (2) to physically strengthen these older women; (3) to help the environment. That’s a pretty perfect list and one to work on!

This un-landscaped, very-noticeable strip just as you drive into the town of Sonoma has been bugging me for years. I think I need a group of Old Ladies to tackle that gardening project. We’ll haul in bags of amendment, plant 1,2, and 5-gallon drought-tolerant, native shrubs to attract pollinators, master the use of a (small) tractor, bake in the Sonoma sun, bond with each other… and leave exhausted, a little sun-burned, and filthy…but it will be the “best feeling,” as one of the OLAUGs said. Plus, we’ll routinely pick up any trash that annoying passersby may toss into it. And we might share a bottle or two of Sonoma wine while we chat – after finishing the labor-intensive work.

I love, love, love this quote from Suleika Jaouad (Jon Batiste’s wife): “There are versions of ourselves we only meet by doing things we aren’t sure we can do. Not the prepared version. Not the fearless version. The one who pushes the heavy wheelbarrow. Pulls the stubborn root. Waters at dawn and dusk. Tends to what needs tending. The one who figures it out as she goes. Who dreams of a garden not as it is, but as it will be someday.“

A look at “trash fish” is the perfect finale for this trash-focused blog and also for my recipe. Mind you, “trash fish” is a frowned-upon expression. Read this great article from Nature Conservancy if you want to know more. And this article entitled “Trash Fish Tuesday” – with the photos below- has even more to say about the “PR” problem that these fish have.

Photos from TheMeateater.com

It’s almost impossible to find “rough” or trash fish being sold in markets. And Andy didn’t offer to go fishing to help me out here. So I decided to use catfish, even though my ideal catfish is farmed in the U.S., not the gafftopsail or hardhead catfish that are wild and bottom-feeders. But our lovely Oliver’s market in Santa Rosa didn’t have catfish on my shopping day, so we ended up with basa from Vietnam. Though basa are catfish, in 2003 Congress passed a law preventing imported catfish from being called “catfish.” Hence, the term “basa”…or sometimes “swai.” Even with the tariffs that have been applied, I was shocked at how inexpensive the basa was. It’s also low in calories and carbohydrates, yet high in protein.

Mississippi State U did a small study in which researchers did a blind taste test and found that the taste of basa from Vietnam was preferred 3 to 1 over U.S.- raised catfish. Andy and I did our own little home study, and Andy was quite fond of the very-mild basa, while I will never give up my preference for U.S. catfish (once you’ve cut out the too-fishy-flavored red streak down the middle).

According to The Marine Conservation Society, you should know that with “Basa…sustainability varies. It is a whitefish that is farmed in ponds in South East Asia. The Best Choice’s are basa that has been certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), GLOBALG.A.P., or Global Seafood Alliance Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP).”

If you want to bring together a group of Old Ladies to fish for U.S. catfish, here’s a site with suggested guides.

Lightly-spiced Catfish recipe – using basa fillets

Lightly-spiced Catfish

You can use basa instead of catfish, but check to see if it’s certified by ASC, GLOBALG.A.P, or BAP. Recipe adapted from LanasCooking.com.

  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
  • 1 1/2 tsp Diamond kosher salt
  • 3/4 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp dried basil
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • about 1 1/2 lbs catfish fillets 
  • 2 T melted butter
  • 2 T lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the parsley, salt, paprika, thyme, oregano, basil and pepper in a small bowl.

Place the fillets on a baking pan that has been coated with non-stick cooking spray.

Sprinkle the spice-herb mixture over both sides of catfish fillets.

Add the melted butter, lemon juice and garlic powder to a small bowl. Mix well to combine.

Drizzle the butter-lemon-garlic mixture over the fillets.

Bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes or until the fish flakes easily.

The cooking time for baked catfish depends on the thickness of the fillets. A general guideline is 15-20 minutes; however, thinner fillets will cook in about 12 minutes.

Recipe brought to you by BigLittleMeals.com and Andy and Ann.

Scroll to Top