(Conda's note: this is a story and recipe from my cookbook The Mall Fairies Sweet Tooth Cookbook. It's about the pixies that are introduced in the second in my Mall Fairies' trilogy, The Mall Fairies: War. Enjoy meeting Flit and the rest of the pixies!)

FLIT AND THE PUMPKIN BREAD AND BARS AND...

"What, in the Big Digger's name, are we going to do with an entire pumpkin?" Cheer, the leader of the pixie clan glared at Flit. Cheer sat straight on her rock—okay, throne, as she insisted it be called—and leaned forward.

Flit fingered the hem of her mouse skin cloak. She'd thought that Cheer would be pleased with what Flit and her friends had managed to find tucked away in a human's garden and haul home. There were times when she hated her part time job of scavenger—Dumpster diver--provider of foodstuffs for the pixie clan. She gestured at the human's fist-sized pumpkin. "It's a tiny pumpkin."

"For human's maybe, not for five-inch-tall pixies. For pixies, it's big enough for all of us to live on for a week."

Flit nodded. "Exactly."

Cheer slumped on her rock. "My fault for sending a healer out instead of a hunter."

"Pumpkin is very good for you," Flit the healer said.

Cheer sighed. "Right, but I'm sending all the complaints your way."

… Three days later …

"Roast pumpkin, pumpkin soup, cold pumpkin soup—no more!" Digger, Flit's best friend, stood in front of a large group of angry pixies confronting Flit.

"But—" Flit looked over at the pile of cooked pumpkin, the rather large pile of remaining cooked pumpkin.

Digger saw her looking. "Yeah, I hate to waste food too, especially food I helped you drag home and then cook, but we're making an exception this time." The other pixies nodded in agreement.

"But—" Flit cast her gaze around as she tried to think of a way to use up the pumpkin—her gaze fell on the stack of honeycomb freshly stolen from a hive. Aha.

"What if we had it for dessert instead?" Flit asked.

"Dessert?"

"You know, make up some pumpkin bread or bars with acorn flour and the honey—"

"Yeah, yeah, that sounds—delicious," Digger said. The other pixies nodded again.

"And it's healthy too," Flit had to add.

PUMPKIN BARS
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves (can be omitted, but why?)
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 and 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large can (15oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

Sift dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, salt & soda) and set aside. In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients, gradually. Mix well.

Spread batter in a greased 15x10x1 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.

For a richer dessert, frost with one of Grandma MacDougall's frostings (recipes follows Molasses Cake recipe in The Mall Fairies Sweet Tooth Cookbook).

Conda grew up in the ski resort of Sun Valley, Idaho, in her folk’s funky art gallery. She’s traveled the world and her own tiny office, writing all the while. She delights in writing her popular tween fantasy Mall Fairies series and getting fairy Swoop, pixie Flit, and their human companion, Grace, into magical and fantastical trouble. The inspiration for her Mall Fairies came from the sparrows living in the shopping mall Towne Square Mall in Boise, Idaho. Next up, trouble with trolls in the last of the trilogy: The Mall Fairies: Destiny.

For more about Conda visit:

Blog: http://condascreativecenter.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/conda.v.douglas

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/condadouglas/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Conda_V


Conda, thanks so much for coming by today. I can't wait to read The Mall Fairies series! I'm SUPER excited to try out the Pumpkin Bars recipe…yum!
 

            

I’ve never had the chance to sit down and have a coffee with James Joyce. He’s always busy. He sits in the same spot on the terrace of Caffe Uliks, day after day. You’d think I’d be able to snag a moment, right? Well, most of the time, he’s surrounded by people. ­­ Photo crazed tourists, maybe a local or two. Sometimes a pleasant-looking person who sits and reads the newspaper. How come they get to hang with James Joyce? <Big sigh.> 

I frequently feel like a lurker when it comes to James Joyce. Not a lurker as in a pimple, but more like a stalker-ish person. I admit it…I am on a mission. I want to park my butt in the seat next to him. Maybe take a couple of goofy selfies together. (Me and James Joyce, woohoo! A Facebook post, of course.) I definitely want to order a macchiato and bask in the glory of sitting next to this amazing writer.

BUT… the seat is NEVER empty. So, do I lurk around the corner and make a mad dash at the right moment? Do I start taking photos with reckless abandon? I always just end up glaring at the person sitting next to him and then walking on, hoping that I’ll get a chance another day.

The James Joyce I’m talking about isn’t actually the REAL James Joyce. It’s the life-size bronze statue of the famous Irish writer who lived in the Istrian coastal city of Pula, Croatia. The statue is seated on the terrace of Caffe Uliks (named after Joyce’s novel Ulysses), in Pula’s Portorata Square. From the café, you can see the Roman Arch of the Sergii. This is just one of the slew of fabulous ancient Roman monuments that can be found in Pula.

Arena Amphitheater:

Triumphal Arch of the Sergii:

Temple of Augustus:

James Joyce didn’t really want to come to Pula. He was born in Dublin in 1882. He tried to publish an early version of his novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, but it was rejected. Joyce decided to get work through the Berlitz Language School. There weren’t any openings in Zurich or Trieste, but finally a position opened up in Pula. Joyce then moved to Pula with his girlfriend and future wife, Nora.

Joyce taught English to Austro-Hungarian officers from Pula’s naval base. The language school was in a yellow building just a hop, skip, and a jump away from where his statue now sits at the café. Joyce was only in Pula for a short time, from October 1904 to March 1905. He was never particularly happy during this time. He made friends with many of his students and talked to them frequently about his writing, which he considered his real work.

Even though Pula may not have been his favorite place, Joyce did a lot of writing there. He spent time revising Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and worked on perfecting his stream-of-consciousness technique. This writing technique can be described as a way of thinking out loud, perhaps involving a jumble of thoughts or emotions passing through a character’s mind. It’s sort of like having a conversation with yourself. 

Here is an example of stream-of-consciousness from Joyce’s Ulysses, a novel which is considered a literary masterpiece:

Coffined thoughts around me, in mummycases, embalmed in spice of words. Thoth, god of libraries, a birdgod, moonycrowned. And I heard the voice of that Egyptian highpriest. In painted chambers loaded with tilebooks. They are still. Once quick in the brains of men. Still: but an itch of death is in them, to tell me in my ear a maudlin tale, urge me to wreak their will.

After Joyce left Pula, he went on to write Ulysses, Dubliners (a collection of short stories), and Finnegan’s Wake. James Joyce is considered to be one of the most revered writers of the 20th century.

In the yellow building that used to be the language school, there is a plaque that says: “In 1904-05 James Joyce, the famous Irish author, taught English in the building.” I wonder if he sat in a cafe near this spot—perhaps looking out at the Arch of the Sergii—and imagined all that he would someday accomplish? Maybe this summer, when I visit Pula again, I’ll finally get a chance to have that coffee and ask him!

Important Note: My mom took all the photos of James Joyce in this post. Yes, she got to have some hang out time. I'm so jealous!