Crowded With Incident
Dear friends,
I just read a review that described its subject as "densely populated and crowded with incident," and I look at fall 2025 and just want to say: buddy, same. I'm in the middle of novella revisions, and my next three projects are lined up after that, to say nothing of social/family/fun stuff. I know I keep saying things like this, but also it keeps being like this.
This month's new story does not feature characters based on either my grandma or my aunt Ellen, but it came about because I was thinking about them together. Considering that they're on different sides of my family (Grandma was my mormor, Aunt Ellen was my dad's aunt), I have an astonishing number of really good pictures of them hanging out together and/or in each other's houses when I was little. And it made me think about how rarely you see fantasy characters with in-laws. Fantasy characters with more than one side of the family. Charlie Bucket of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has four grandparents, but three of them don't really get to be strong, specific characters. So I started thinking about Little Red Riding Hood's other grandmother, and the result was this story published by Kaleidotrope, What a Big Heart You Have. I hope you enjoy it. I like to think they would have.
I've been working all year on a vertigo arts project, and various pieces of it are nearly ready for prime time. The first thing I get to share with you is that I'm running a writing workshop for people affected by vertigo (directly or indirectly) to process feelings and experiences through writing. I'll be taking people through different prompts and writing exercises, with an opportunity but no obligation to share work with the group. If there's demand for more of these workshops, we'll offer more, either in person or on Zoom. We're starting out with Zoom, though. It takes place SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, at 11:00 a.m. Central Standard Time (5 p.m. GMT). This workshop is free to attend, with funding provided by the Impact and Innovation Fund of the University of St Andrews, Scotland--but we do ask that you register in advance! For more questions or to register, please email ar220@st-andrews.ac.uk . (You can also contact me with questions, but we want registration to go through the project coordinator.
I know that most of you who read this newsletter probably don't have vertigo--I hope not! It's no fun!--but if you could forward this information on to anyone you know who does suffer from this type of balance disorder, I would really appreciate it.
I spent the beginning of October on a family trip up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to visit the youngest member of my immediate family at college. It was a great time--seriously do the tour of the Quincy Copper Mine if you're up near Houghton. It was wonderful. I also have never not enjoyed Lake Superior. Lake Superior and I are tight. But mostly it was wonderful to spend time together as a family and cook huge meals for the family and the delightful new college friends. (The kids are so much better than all right, pals.) There was a dining room large enough to seat all 14 family and friends at once, with lots of laughs and a lot to think about.
One of the big hits was my gluten-free cheese rolls. If you have anyone in your life who needs gluten-free baking, do not sleep on these. The people with celiac were over the moon about them--and the people who can eat gluten any other day of the week still really enjoyed them. I'm thinking about what variation I'd like to do for Thanksgiving, and I wanted you to have the option too--or, y'know, any other day, if you're not in a region that has Thanksgiving coming up. Any day of the week. Enjoy.
Best,
Marissa
GF Cheesy Rolls
You can do these in advance and freeze them--just give them extra time to thaw. We drove them across the north in a cooler bag and stuck them in the oven almost as soon as we got to the cabin. Perfect.
Rolls:
4 1/2 c gluten-free bread flour--I'm sorry, but it has to be gf BREAD flour, such as the King Arthur blend. A general 1-to-1 gf flour will not work. I usually try to make gf recipes without specialty ingredients (such as my gf brownies, where there's cocoa powder where the flour usually goes), but this time you really can't manage it without the gf bread flour
1 t sugar
A scant tablespoon of instant yeast (1 packet if you buy it in packets)
2 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 1/4 c. warm water
1 c. warm milk
2 large eggs (you'll want these room temp too, for those of us in a region where you need to refrigerate eggs)
6 T melted butter, cooled a bit but still liquid
Filling:
8 T melted butter
4-10 cloves roasted garlic
1/2 c chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Topping:
1/2 - 2 c. cheese(s) of your choice--whatever taste you like to melt on top of things--I used mozzarella and Asiago here, but it's really up to you how cheesy you like things and what kind of cheese
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, and baking powder. Slowly add the water, milk, eggs, and butter. Mix for 3 minutes at medium speed. This will not look like bread dough, it will look like cookie dough. Just go with it. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to make the dough easier to roll.
Mash together the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.
Grease the bottom of a 9"x13" baking pan. Roll out the dough into a square, turning up the edges of the square a tiny bit. (You will soon see why.) Spread or sprinkle the garlic/tomato mixture and pour/brush the butter on. You can put more cheese here if you want, I'm not the boss of you. Roll the square up into a log and pinch the edges together. Using a large knife (or a pizza cutter, if you prefer), cut the log into a dozen pieces, each with a spiral of tomato/garlic goodness. Arrange in the baking pan. This will look just like a pan full of cinnamon rolls except instead of cinnamon you have the savory filling (and the dough is less sweet).
Let that rise for about an hour. Sprinkle it with cheese. Bake 30-35 minutes in a 350 F oven, until the rolls are browned and the cheese well melted.
If you don't like sun-dried tomatoes, I bet this would be good with pesto, or really any other savory filling you might enjoy. Pesto is next on my list to try.