An Eventful Passage

The first three weeks I was away from writing this blog, it was mostly because I was pretty sick (taking two doses of antibiotics), then because I was busy preparing for a vacation and then because I was on a vacation for 10 days. That vacation in itself was something to write about because I went, with my husband, to Hawaii, for the first time ever. I would like to write about that in a separate post. We went to the Big Island and Kauai and ended up in some pretty remote, undeveloped spots. Let’s just say it was a healthy reminder of how small and human I am! It was wonderful, calming, even restful.

Coming back, my workload has increased dramatically from the summer. I would say I am in a test period (or at least, that is what it feels like); I had so much time this summer because my workload was not demanding and as a result, I was at peace, I had energy and I found inlets and outlets of ways to feed myself (physically, spiritually, mentally). I had been hoping that all those habits could find a foundation and keep growing through what I knew were going to be busy times. Why did I know they were going to be busy? Because I have been wanting to be involved in opportunities that use my talents for a while now. and if everything I was doing to ask for it was going to work, I was going to be getting busy. And the other area that got “busy” is social activities. For the last 3 years, we have stuck pretty close to our inner circles, not really spending money, time or energy on acquaintenances or even professional relationships. November is changing that too. So its a tricky tricky time. I have made very little time to cook, instead relying on my mom’s leftovers and who knows what. The challenge on all fronts is to keep asking the same questions. In the midst of the responsibilities I have taken on, what feeds me? What gives me energy versus what drains it? I am obviously on shaky ground, I find myself quite sick once again, my body begging for rest. I have allowed myself to indulge in some old stresses at work in hopes of working out good solutions for my client. that doesn’t feed me. i’m not sure what to do about it though.

the weekend after coming back from hawaii was great. we were so calm and so together and so happy to be home, it took us very little time to get settled back in the house. We had been moving around quite a bit on the vacation and so we had gotten very good at keeping track of our stuff. So getting it back in the house was a no brainer. The house was totally uncluttered and we spent the weekend reconnecting to our home, our TO-DOs did not seem like a brick wall we kept bumping our heads against, they just got done peacefully. gosh how i long for that. the following week at work was wonderful, some new highs.

but then, beginning Halloween, a nose dive. Complete drop down off the cliffs in terms of my personal energy levels. Life turned into a lot of running around. YUCK. Sleep deprivation began. i can’t figure out how or when to stop but its not working. its causing me to enjoy my time less on all fronts–social, otherwise. so, as laurel used to say to hardy, “this is another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!”

Some shining moments: World Series, GO PHILADELPHIA!!!!! I am so happy for that town. Another was Election Night. I have been on FB to share in the collective glory. We had a wonderful evening with friends. We were all beaming by the end. Instead of Yes we Can; Yes We Did. It feels wonderful to beat back the tide of executive secretship, beat back any more Dick Cheney time, to have someone as our leader who values education and achieves excellence. Personally for me, it hits very close to home that this leader was influenced by Saul Alinsky and the principles of community organizing, as I was in my life. Its kind of a wake up reminder actually. It was a beautiful night and my husband and I were able to go to the White House and participate in the spontaneous block party that erupted there. But the hard work begins now, bringing everyone to the table, whether they were for or against Obama to make sure they work constructively to bring this country back.

And now I get to the point of this post which I only have a couple more minutes to write. I am woefully late posting this since it was written in October. However, if there is one person who speaks for many of the principles on which this blog was conceived, it is Michael Pollan. I have mentioned him and at least one of this books previously on this blog. Pollan has written an open letter to the President-Elect. I am a big fan of his writing. Its not just what he writes about, its how he writes it. His writing is so clear and objective. Each sentence links to form garlanded paragraphs.  In this letter, he shows the President-Elect how health care costs, energy independence, and climate change are all linked to food policy. Its a marvelous piece and a must-read. Definitely gets to my issues with the supply chain of our food and the trade-offs we’ve endured in order to have our food produced from the industrialization process to keep it cheap.

By the way, if anyone wants to give their input or vision for the new administration, you can simply go to www.change.gov  Yes, we can.

Inspiration Zucchini

Its September, post-Labor Day. It is firmly black outside and its only a little after eight o’clock pm. Summer fading. Its been a fantastic summer and lately, I’ve been inspired by part of August’s bounty—the zucchini. In the past 2 weeks alone, I have learned that the zuke can become “pasta” and french fries (without frying)! How is that for diverse? Let me muster up some links.

The pasta recipe is from the NY Times. Its a recipe from Martha Rose Shulman (wanted to attribute this correctly). They cut the zucchini into pasta like ribbons and stir fry it quickly in olive oil. They call for it in a tomato sauce but I made mine without, and served with paramesan cheese sprinkled over it. They are most yummy just off the stove. You only have to be careful to not overcook as it quickly can become mush. See the recipe here.

Tonight I am trying a recipe that caught my eye in a magazine at a salon. I don’t remember the name of the magazine (Self?) but it had Jennifer Love Hewitt on the cover. (she’s engaged and happy apparently). Its a recipe that makes zucchini into french fries…that recipe calls for coating in buttermilk then dredging zuchinni sticks in a mixture of cornmeal, parmesan and salt. Then you bake the fries at 400 degrees until brown. This one on recipe bazaar however got great reviews. I would like to see an improvement over the white flour however. I’ll post how they turn out later tonight.

As this is a blog about keeping nutritional meals affordable, I want to briefly say a word about cost. One zuchinni–summer prices are anywhere from sixty nine cents to $1.29 a pound (the latter is pricy; ican get it for $0.99 a pound for mine, locally grown, at least in August or early September anyway)–easily fed double servings for 3 people each with a bit left over. The zuchinni pasta called for oil. I used about a tablespoon of grapeseed oil which comes out to about another ten to fifteen cents per tablespoon for the dish. At most, a tablespoon of fresh fulvi pecorino romano (from Wholefoods) which was roughly twenty two cents per tablespoon. So, at most, $1.85 for a side dish which fed 3 people at dinner, averaging out roughly about $0.31 per serving. so thirty-one cents of summer per serving! Nutritionally, i am sure you can substitute a fragrant herb with lemon juice for the cheese to make it less fatty.

Post-post note: the wonderful smell of baked parmesan lightly fills our home. The zuchinni fries were delicious. I did a hybrid of the recipes, using buttermilk to coat and white flour mixed with parmesan and salt for the crust. The fries really do come out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. A dash of cayenne pepper would have worked as well. There are many variations you can experiment with to boost the nutritional value. The variation I used did add fat in the form of cheese. But you don’t need to add it. Also, you can use peaked egg whites (like the linked recipe suggests) to coat the veggies and add protein. My mother suggested chickpea flour instead of white flour; this adds more protein. She will need to add spices like garam masala to help with the taste on this variation. Any approach like this removes the fat from the cheese and adds protein to boot. You can vary the spices. Next time, I will use a little less salt, and maybe a micro-grated herb like mint. Great snack!