Robin and I cooked lunch for our church congregation yesterday. The soup we made turned out pretty well, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you, given it’s the time of the year for pumpkins. It’s adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks, The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Molly Katzen.

This recipe is easiest with canned pumpkin, but you could also cook and prepare it yourself. It makes 4-6 servings.

• 3 cups of cooked and pureed pumpkin, or 2 15 oz. cans
  (sweet potatoes or another winter squash would also work)
• 2-3 cups of water (depending upon how thick you like your soup)
• a splash of olive oil
• 2 cups of red onion, minced (other kinds are okay too)
• 1-2 large bell peppers, minced
• 2-4 large cloves of garlic, minced
• salt to taste
• 1-2 Tbs. of chile powder
• 2-3 Tbs. of fresh lime juice
• black pepper to taste

1. Add the pumpkin/squash and water to a soup pot, stir until the the consistency is uniform, and put on med/low heat. Continue to stir often as this heats up.

2. Warm up a skillet on medium heat, add oil, onions, and peppers. Saute until just tender (~5 min.), then add the garlic, salt, and chile powder. Continue cooking until the vegetables are soft and well done (~10 min).

3.  Add the vegetables and lime juice to the pumpkin. Stir well, and simmer for at least 10 more minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. It’s best to let the soup simmer, covered, for up to a couple hours to mingle the flavors, but you can also eat it right away. You may need to add a little bit more water if you let it simmer.

4. Yummy!

Grant :: Oct.29.2007 :: church, life update, recipes :: No Comments »

I’ve been continuing to work through the images I took this summer. Here are more from Desolation Wilderness. These are the first in a series of about 10 pictures of grass using a reversed 50mm lens for macro focusing. Click on the pictures to view larger versions.

Grant :: Oct.12.2007 :: photographs :: No Comments »

As Robin alluded to on her blog, I’m doing a full-time year-long Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) residency this year. It’s a rather intense way to fulfill my field education requirement for seminary, but it’s also makes room for deep learning about my personal pastoral ministry and presence.

CPE is a nationally accredited program. Each unit lasts about 3 months, so I’ll be doing 4 units over the course of a whole year. It’s both scary and a wonderful growing opportunity because a lot of the curriculum involves giving and receiving direct and honest feedback about my personal presence and interpersonal relating. In other words, my fellow residents and the supervisor(s) are up front with what they think about me and the work I’m doing, and I’m expected to do the same for them. Ever wanted to know deep down what other people really think of you and notice about you? This is the place to learn.

If the advantage of being a resident is the learning opportunity, the disadvantage is they work you to near death for a pretty meager stipend. I’m really just happy to be getting paid, but at the end of 60-80 hour week (plus commuting back and forth to SF every day), I’m just plain tired. It’s a quick way to learn how to prioritize what renews and energizes me.

The hospital I’m working at is St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco. It’s interesting for a couple of reasons. First, although it’s part of Catholic Healthcare West, it’s historically a community hospital that was later adopted into the Catholic healthcare system, so it has a mixed history. Second, it’s smack in between the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich in San Francisco (the Tenderloin and Knob Hill). Chinatown is right next door too. The hospital’s patient population approximately reflects these populations pretty evenly. For doing chaplaincy work, I don’t think there could be a more dynamic place.

Grant :: Oct.08.2007 :: CPE, life update :: 3 Comments »

The first folder of pictures I’ve been processing are the pictures from a backpacking trip in Desolation Wilderness. Here’s one of the Pyramid Peak range, taken around sunrise, a panoramic digitally stitched from three separate pictures (click on the image for a larger view):

Grant :: Sep.23.2007 :: panoramas, photographs :: No Comments »

Well, after several weeks, I this blog finally has a new look and a new home. For now, grantkinney.com will host just this blog. Over the next year, I hope to develop the website to hold both portfolios of my projects and insights into what I’ve learned about photography and the creative process.

I can’t promise I’ll be updating frequently, since I’ve started a very emotionally intense full-time+ residency doing hospital chaplaincy work in San Francisco (more on this in another post). But I will at least be posting some photographs fairly often, as I spend my early mornings before work processing the several thousand pictures I took this past summer.

For those who are interested in blogging themselves and would like to know some details, this website uses Hostican for web hosting, Wordpress for the blogging software and interface, and the Just Simple Wordpress theme with a significantly modified CSS stylesheet.

Grant :: Sep.22.2007 :: blog :: No Comments »

A few weeks ago I preached at worship in my church community, the First Congregational Church of Oakland. Just in case you want to listen, you can hear the streaming version here. You can also download the mp3 here.

First Congo Oakland is a radically different church than you’ve probably experienced before. Think progressive theology meeting radical welcome and charismatic worship. If you’re ever in Oakland on Sunday morning, I hope you’ll stop by and visit.

Grant :: Aug.24.2007 :: church :: 1 Comment »

Seattle was great. I spent as much time as I could taking busses out to different neighborhoods, walking around downtown, and visiting art galleries and museums. There was a particularly nice selection of photography at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, and it was free admission thanks to the Boeing Corporation. The first night we had dinner with Robin’s friend from high school who she looked up on Facebook. On day two, I contacted a photographer, Doug Plummer, whose blog I’ve read for the past year or so. He graciously took the time to have lunch with me and I absorbed all the advice I could over a plate of Pad Thai.

After Robin’s conference, we rented a car and drove out around the Olympic Peninsula where we spent a couple nights camping. The Hoh Rain Forest was amazing (this area has the only temperate rain forest in North America), and I always enjoy a drive up the Pacific Coast. If I were to do it all again, I’d love to stay longer; it was our first time in Washington and the Seattle area. Pictures will be coming over the next few weeks.

I’ve put up some of the pictures from our Desolation Wilderness backpacking trip in July. You can see them here.

There’s nothing like sledding in July!
(Thanks to Webb, who’s Therm-a-rest pad suffered at least one puncture on this afternoon.)

And finally, a note: this blog will be moving to my own website in the near future. The content will shift to mostly photography information, but I’ll be sure to also include the occasional update about what’s going on with me. I’m beginning the process of coming out with my identity as a fine art photographer–a plan that is somewhat open ended, but looks to yield some exciting possibilities.

Grant :: Aug.19.2007 :: life update, travel :: 1 Comment »

A couple weeks ago, I was out with some friends hoping to test blending/layering multiple exposures for long exposure night photography. We drove up to Tilden Regional Park hoping for a good view at Inspiration Point, but it was cold, windy, and very foggy. Not such good weather for star trails.We decided to head down to Lake Merritt instead and ended up doing some urban night photography. What a surprise! Some of the images turned out very well.

You can also see Robin’s and Jane’s photos from the same evening.

I’m off to Seattle for a week; hopefully there will be much time for shooting! It will be our last trip away for the summer (the last trip for quite awhile for me, since I’ll be working all the way through August and into September next year).

Grant :: Aug.07.2007 :: Oakland, night :: No Comments »

Grant :: Aug.06.2007 :: lighting :: No Comments »

Grant :: Jul.19.2007 :: Bay Area, art :: No Comments »