I’ve been making variations of this for over thirty years - since the time I lived in San Francisco and was eating fanatically well in order to nurture my first pregnancy.

Two cups of short-grain brown rice
Four cups of water
1 tablespoon salt

Heat the above ingredients until boiling, then stir once with a wooden spoon and cover. Turn the heat down very low. Continue to let this cook for twenty-five or thirty minutes then turn it off but keep it covered so it can steam. Don’t be tempted to look inside for at least ten or fifteen minutes.

While that’s cooking heat a bit of vegetable oil in a skillet and add spices. Typically I’ll add any spices I can find in my cupboard that look like they’ll fit. I smell them to decide if I want them. I always use salt and pepper.

Then chop some onion and garlic and toss that into the pan. Chop some fresh vegetables and toss them in too. I like to use carrots and celery, and whatever else I have on hand that looks good.

Keep stirring and warming these gently on a low to medium heat. If you get impatient like I usually do, add 1/4 cup water and cover the skillet to let the vegetables steam a while. Stir often.

When the vegetables are tender and the rice is cooked, serve by putting the rice on the plate, then veggies on top. If you like cheese, put grated cheddar or monterey jack on top.

This recipe feeds my soul.

Brown Rice Burritos

A way to use leftovers from the recipe above.

Warm up a big flour tortilla. If you have a gas stove just turn on the burner and toss the tortilla onto it… no pan needed. Wait until it wilts a bit then turn it over. Repeat until little air pockets start to rise inside the tortilla.

On the tortilla place some brown rice with your cooked veggies. Add spices, jalapenos, or whatever makes you happy, along with a lot of cheddar cheese. Then wrap it up.

Since I usually get cold rice leftovers out of the fridge I then put this burrito in the microwave and warm it up… or at least I would if it were not for the fact that my microwave broke and my dear boyfriend won’t agree to buying another one - he points out the certain dangers - so now I’m warming these in my cast iron skillet.

My favorite taco sauce is La Victoria Salsa Brava, HOT.

This makes a quick, easy but filling snack so I can get right back into my writing without losing my train of thought too much.

Today I’m thankful that we lived through the fires. Often when there are forest fires, people die. This time four people died locally, three of them related to the forest fire activity in town.

Probably in a bigger town we wouldn’t notice so much, but here people don’t die very often. If they do, their memorial notices end up taped to the post office door.

It started on Saturday when a local resident failed to negotiate a curve two miles east of here, and ended up dying in a roll-over accident. Her three passengers all survived. She was in her 70’s or 80’s.

Next there was a helicopter crash Monday morning. Really weird, in that this is the second year in a row we’ve had a fatal helicopter crash locally during a fire. Last year two fire fighters went down about ten miles southwest of here, right in the Klamath River near Independence Bridge. This year a single pilot died in a crash about twelve miles south near Norcross Campground, the northern gateway to the Marble Mountains. He was 61.

Stranger still, on Monday afternoon two out-of-town men employed locally as fire-camp cooks drowned in the Klamath River near a swimming hole I’ve been to dozens of times. Apparently they didn’t realize that we who live here swim in the creeks, not in the river - and especially not at the confluence of a creek with a river. A current pulled one of the men under, and another went in after him. Big mistake for both of them. They were both in their 30’s.

What a terrible loss of human life. My sympathies are with all the family members dealing with these tragic deaths.

. . .

Recently at MySpace a site change made it possible for me to put another one-liner at the top of the page. My page now says, “Linda is quite happy to be alive.” That just about sums it up for me. I use MySpace to keep in touch with my children, and to promote some of my online activities, including this blog.

. . .

I wasn’t feeling up to writing an article in Happy Camp News about the deaths that transpired, so I asked the woman I’m trying to sell the site to, to write it. She did an upstanding job of it: Tragedy In Happy Camp. I love her writing style.

. . .

Yesterday Bob and I went shopping in Southern Oregon. We had a great day. I bought some healing jewelry, a tie-dye t-shirt, and some exercise equipment. We ate at a Chinese restaurant in Grant’s Pass.

Friday, July 13 was my birthday. To celebrate, my boyfriend, Bob, and I went to the coast. It was great to get out of the Klamath River Valley for a few days. I had a great time, bought a bunch of stuff, won money at a casino that gave me play money for my birthday, and slept overnight in a motel.

When we returned on Saturday night at 11:30pm we were appalled to see a bright red mass of forest fire flames on the hill right next to the forested hill I live on. When we left on Friday, that wasn’t there. The lightning that started all the fires hit the Wednesday before. There are dozens of fires burning all through this forest, but this particular fire ignited two days later and came way too close to our little town of Happy Camp.

So my last few days have been occupied with packing for evacuation, storing valuables elsewhere, attending community fire information meetings, writing articles about the fires for Happy Camp News, being elated when it rained heavily on Tuesday night, and in general, feeling like I was misplaced.

Here’s something you never want to see happening less than a mile from your home. This is what it looked like last Tuesday. We had a lot of people praying for us and God sent rain on Tuesday night. Now there are only a few white wisps of smoke coming up in various places from the forest. I pray it doesn’t get this bad again before they get the entire fire under control. The fire is called the Little Grider Fire after Little Grider Creek, a creek that runs a mile southwest of here. The fire was between our town and the creek.

The map shows how close this fire got to my house.

I’ve been going to work every day. Yesterday at the pizza place where I work we were inundated by hungry fire fighters. I guess they had the day off because of the rain the night before. Guess what. Fire fighters like pizza. They kept us busy from noon to closing time, 9pm. Actually I heard that the night shift stayed open an extra hour to accommodate the famished. Seemed like almost everyone wanted their own personal sized mini pizzas, and we probably sold over a hundred, whereas we usually sell less than five of those in a day.

The good news is that the fire moved away from town and it looks like I won’t have to evacuate after all.

I’ll get back on my schedule again soon - I didn’t even have my computer in my home for a few days so I couldn’t do any blogging at all. For now I’ll file this with my thankfulness articles because I’m so grateful my house didn’t burn down.

Bob and I are heading out for our daily fire watch time. We go across the river every day to get a good look at fire suppression helicopters and to see where the smoke is coming from. See ya later!

[Update: since I wrote this I created a Squidoo lens on evacuation planning: Emergency Survival - Plan and Prepare NOW so if Something Terrible Happens, You'll Be Ready!.]

Vegan Visitor is a blog that invites you in with scrumptious recipes and colorful photography. The author starts her introduction by writing, “This is a guide to fill you, satisfy and demystify vegan cuisine.” Then she tells the story of her consternation at learning her fiancé’s parents, who were coming to dinner, were vegans. She had no idea what to serve them and had to research in cookbooks to figure out what to cook. That was a while back; now she’s a regular at vegan cooking and shares her recipes on her blog.

This blog is nominated for the Blogger’s Choice award. It would be nice to take time to vote for it while you’re checking it out.

One major thing I feel is missing from the blog is more description about the writer. I really prefer blogs where you can get to know the person who’s doing the writing. She’s got a great writing style, but there’s no name or picture to go with it. Still her personal stories are interesting and her talent for cooking is obvious. I recommend a look at her recipe blog, for anyone who enjoys vegan food.

Now I’ve got to hurry to get ready for work, and I’ll be out of town this evening and hopefully tomorrow. Today is my birthday and my boyfriend is taking me out on the town in the Eureka, California area. Have fun this Friday night.

Something sweet to drink on a hot day:

Combine a 12 ounce can of frozen orange juice, melted… with 2 quarts of 7up.

Add 1 pint of orange sherbet and 1 pint of vanilla ice cream on top, by spoonfuls.

Serves 12.