A Few of My Favorite Cooks

The lovely stained glass sits in my window, and I love the way it washes me in color when I stand by it with sun rays streaming in. Color can be quite soothing.

I love to cook, bake, and create in my kitchen. By the same token, I love the foods coming from the kitchens of family and friends, so I thought I’d dedicate this post to the many creative cooks in my life. I’ll begin with my mother. She is 90 years old, and goes to the kitchen to cook everyday, three times a day. My siblings and I want her to slow down by emphasizing that we do not want her to put on the full-blown meals, as is in her nature. Here are her beautiful hands. She was a nurse for five decades. She retired at 80.

She does cook for her husband and herself daily, which is great for cognitive support. Growing up, I remember her greatest meals were those with fresh ingredients. Our hometown has a vegetable and beef farm by day and a drive-in theater by night. In the summer, Mom would go out to the “truck farm” and get beef to roast and fresh cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes. She’d bake the roast until it browned evenly with the crispy ends. She sliced the cucumbers and onions, and marinated them in vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper, a simple marinade. She’d slice the large beefsteak tomatoes and laid them out on a plate for serving. So the menu consisted of roast been, cucumbers and onions in a simple vinaigrette, and sliced tomatoes. We ate the tomatoes sprinkled with salt. Dessert was cantaloupe or watermelon; when they were in season. Dad would bring home sugar beets that had fallen off the railroad car, and he would bake those for a sweet fall or winter dessert. The sweetness of a baked sugar beet is just like having pie! Here are some sugar beets I grew a few summers ago. Beets were a source of sugar to a long time until a Cuban embargo focused the sugar power in the fields of Hawai’i’s cane fields. Seriously, if you ever grow these, they make a wonderful dessert roasted. Back to my story…

We visited my hometown about four weeks ago. Mother made this lovely cake for my sister’s dinner (distant) gathering. I marvel at Mother’s persistence in creating something beautiful and tasty for her family. Here is her strawberry angel food cake.

Now, you should know that my list of favored cooks is quite extensive, and I will miss someone, I’m sure. Our son, Stevie, and late daughter, Riki, have cooked or baked some most memorable meals. Of course, I’ve written about Stevie’s meat pies and his fabulous bread. Riki made killer chicken and noodles, complete with homemade noodles. She baked fabulous bread, too. Sadly, we lost Riki nearly five years ago, but her memory continues to bless us.

My friend, Kathy, makes this wonderful appetizer, called, French Quarter Dip. It possesses the most wonderful combination of sweet and savory for a cracker.

Here’s Kathy’s recipe:

French Quarter Cheese Dip

Kathy Sexson

8 oz cream cheese

1 Tbs grated onion

1 garlic clove, minced

¼ c. packed dark brown sugar

¼ c. butter (1/2 stick)

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

½ tsp. prepared mustard

1 c. chopped pecans

combine cream cheese, onion and garlic, mix well shape into 6” mound on serving place. Chill, covered, til set.

Combine brown sugar, butter, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and pecans in sauce pan. Cook till butter melts, stir. Uncover cheese mound, pour pecan mixture over top. Chill covered till ready to serve. Serve with crackers.

Kathy’s Low Country Boil leaves memories, too. I remember the first time we witnessed and participated in the dinner. I wondered about plates. Kathy said, “no” it’s served on the table with paper.” Then, I remembered the wonderful crayfish boils that I had had in New Orleans, so it did not seem odd at all.

Shrimp Boil AKA Low-country boil

From Kathy Sexson

16 c. water

¼ c old bay seasoning or crab boil seasoning w/ quartered lemons (I use latter)

2-3 tsp ground red pepper

2 lb. cooked smoked sausage, (I grill it first), cut in 1 ½” chunks

2 lb. tiny new potatoes, halved if large

10 small onions, peeled, about 3 lbs. ( I use the little bitty ones that come dozen or so to mesh bag)

5 ears fresh corn, shucked and broken into halves or thirds

2 lbs. fresh or frozen large shrimp, in shells

¼ c butter, melted (optional)

Optional ingredients:

¼ c snipped fresh herbs, such as thyme, oregano, and or basil (optional – I don‘t bother with this)

Cocktail sauce – you can use little bowls for this or just pour on table J

Bottled hot pepper sauce

in large pot combine water, seasoning, and ground red pepper. Cover and bring to boil. Once boiling, add sausage, potatoes, onions and corn. Return to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add shrimp. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes or until shrimp turns opaque. Remove from heat, let stand 5 minutes.
Carefully (duh) drain in large colander. Dump on da table. No forks or plates allowed! If desired, combine melted butter and herbs and drizzle over food. Serve with cocktail sauce and hot pepper sauce, and drawn butter (add few drops of olive oil to butter to keep from solidifying.) makes 10 servings.

Note – this recipe forgives easily, so be creative. If you like one thing more than another (i.e. shrimp or sausage) add more.

You can serve on table on newspaper, but I prefer to get one of those, large, WATERPROOF picnic table cloths for a buck.

Here, we are pictured with the blues band, The Nighthawks, from Washington D. C. They were in town to give a concert at the zoo. Good times!

My Friend, Mary L.’s Quick Pie From Scratch!

After finishing a lovely meal on a cozy winter evening, one of our friends said, “I wish we had a pie!” Luckily, our dear friend, Mary Lake, was at table, too. She’s one of the best pie-makers in the world! Mary and I bet, those around the table, that we could produce a pie from scratch in 30 minutes. The race was on! The stopwatch began counting the time. Mary got busy making her famous oil crust, and I set to getting the apples ready. Fortunately, I had several quart jars of canned apples from the previous summer’s windfall of crispy, sweet apples. I dumped a quart of apples in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of quick tapioca, cinnamon, 3 tablespoons sugar, and a pat of butter. Here’s Mary’s crust recipe:

2 cups of all-purpose flour

Dash of salt mixed in flour – put flour/salt mixture in a bowl.

½ cup of vegetable oil (Mary likes corn oil for its nutty flavor. I use sunflower oil.)

5 tablespoons buttermilk (Make some with milk and vinegar if you have no buttermilk on hand)

1 glass pie plate. It must be a clear, oven-proof pie plate.

With a fork, emulsify the oil and buttermilk until well blended.

Add to flour mixture

Stir with a fork until all flour is well-moistened

Divide, and put half of the dough on a square sheet of parchment paper. Shape into a round, flat disc without handling the dough too much. Place another square sheet of parchment, and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Once the dough is the size of your glass pie place. Shape to the pie plate. Repeat for the top crust. Once the top crust is rolled out, place the fruit in the pie plate with the bottom crust. Settle the fruit in to the crust, and then place the top crust. Shape the edges of the pie crust, cut air vents with scissors, and sprinkle crust with cinnamon sugar.

Place your pie in the microwave oven for 12 to13 minutes. Meanwhile pre-heat your conventional oven to 400°. After the time sounds for the microwave, remove the pie from the microwave, and place it into your conventional oven for 12-13 minutes, or until the crust is browned.

Mary and I put our apple pie on the table in 35 minutes. The microwave oven gets the fruit cooking and thickened. This shortens the time in the conventional oven, and prevents burned edges. Starting the pie in the microwave only works for fruit pies. Do not try with custard pies.

Here is a picture of a mince pie with the oil crust. You can see that the crust if tender and flaky. The cinnamon sugar mixture gives the crust a beautiful glow.

I knew if I began to write about my favorite cooks, I would leave someone out of my story, but let us say that other writing will be devoted, further, to more of my favorite cooks. I will leave you, now, with one of my favorite breakfasts: Egg taco with Dalgona coffee.

The egg taco is a small 1-egg omelet with green chilies. I fry/warm it in a small cast iron skillet, 6.5 inches (16.51 cm), which is the perfect size for one corn tortilla. Use a little bit of butter so that the skillet does not stick. Cook one side of the egg, and lay the tortilla to begin to warm. Flip to cook the other side of the omelette. All this works best with a small lid to steam the egg.

The coffee, all the rage these days, is simple. Use 1 teaspoon instant coffee, 1 teaspoon coconut sugar, and 1 tablespoon water, 1 tablespoon milk. Whip into a froth. Pour over 1/2 cup milk (on ice or steamed milk). Pictured here, I have used steamed milk. Yummy, and it’s low calorie.

Thank you for reading!

Happy Accidents…in the Kitchen

My featured image proves that there are happy accidents in the kitchen. It’s cheese with a dollop of my APOS jam, i.e. Apricot-pineapple-orange-saffron jam. While one may want to consume a bite of this with a cracker, I found it wonder to take a small serving and eating it with a small spoon. Think – small spoon with which one might eat caviar. Also, it’s great on a nut cracker, which does not overwhelm the delicate flavor of the cheese and the jam.

How did I make the cheese? That’s the happy accident! Backstory: I drink lactose-free milk. I have a favorite brand, but I was at a different grocery store a few weeks ago, and I bought the “store brand” of lactose-free milk. An ingredient added to lactose-free (lactose is milk sugar) milk is lactase, an enzyme that helps us to digest milk sugar. Cells in the walls of the small intestine produce lactase.

Well, I was heating up the milk on the stove for coffee. It separated, just like when you put a rennet tablet in milk you’ve heated to 118 degrees fahrenheit (47.7779 C) for cheese. Noticing that curds had separated from the whey, I poured it all in a cheese bag. After squeezing more whey out of it, I had a creamy, solid ball of cheese. The natural sugars in milk rendered a slightly sweet cheese. I added salt to the forming curds to give it some body. Voilà, c’est fromage!

Always looking for yummy happy hour appetizers, I purchased another of the “store brand” of the lactose-free milk, this time from a different store. I heated it to about 120 degrees F. (48.8889 C), and this time, the curds that separated from the whey were smaller. Well, I thought a nice dessert cheese would be nice, so I added a small box of lemon flavored gelatin and 6 strands of the wonderful saffron! I rubbed the lovely orange-red (crimson?) stigma and styles in my hand to release the aroma and flavors. After I spend a few minutes deeply inhaling the perfume of the saffron, I mixed the gelatin and the saffron gently so as not to disturbed the developing curds too much.

I let the mixture gather, drain, and form in the cheese cloth for about 8 hours. The result was the most scrumptious, creamy cheese you could imagine. Quite incredible considering that I did not age it in a dark room surrounded by little pine wood cases (I’m thinking of one of my favorite cheeses, brie!). It turned out to be a great appetizer with a small glass of sweet vermouth. Or it could be a small dessert with a small glass of port.

Notice the color imparted by the lemon-flavored gelatin and the orange-red streaks from the saffron. I’ve used the lemon-saffron combination for Thanksgiving “jello” salad last fall. Right now, I am thinking about other flavors. I wonder how blueberry would taste. I mean, it’s best not to expect, like, Stilton, which goes great with blueberry. It may be worth a try.

Actually, I found the best cheese cloths are handi -wipes. I think handi-wipes are a cloth-paper hybrid. They’re great for a semi-disposable dish cloth that dries easily to cut down on bacterial build-up in the kitchen. I use those freshly from the bag – never used.

Now, this is not a happy accident, but my friend, Mirta, asked if I knew how to make lavender honey. I had some locally-sourced honey, which carries the local pollen, which helps us to build up immunities to those pollens as allergens. Also, I had some locally sourced lavender from a friend. I heated the honey, which was starting to crystalize, just enough to make the crystals melt. Then I crushed the lavender buds to add them to the honey. I used about two cups of honey and 1/8 of a cup crushed lavender bud and one drop of lavender essential oil, for good measure. The result was delicious! It’s great on toast, with peanut butter on bread, and in teas.

The immersion blender helped to whip the honey into a creamy substance while it assured that no lavender buds would get stuck in your throat.

I have more creations from my kitchen, but I will share those later.

Thank you for reading.

The Meaning of Safety in Common Spaces

I work at a university as a teacher of intercultural learning and development. That means I work with students to learn about their own cultures so that they are better prepared to understand other cultures. You see, we want to graduate students who are globally marketable and are able to think past their own identities.

I have developed many workshops over the years to address such learning outcomes. One of the developmental workshops/classes is called Safe Zone. It was developed by Anthropologist, Dr. Susan Allen, among others, originally to address sexual minorities, and then began to include intersectional identities deemed, “Not in the mainstream.” That was back in the 1970s, and we continue this important work of building allies today.

With the recent focus on inequities across all social constructs, there remains a focus to help institutions build community, foster a sense of belonging for all, and address emotional well-being. As I continue to say, it’s a life-long journey. When one asks me, “How long with this take?” My favorite answer is, “A life time.”

I have a class called, History of Exclusion, Implicit Bias, Aggression, and Language. I present this here as a way for us to think about the environments that we build in order to exclude, which is the opposite of building community. Here is a quick primer:

Justification:

As with any intercultural learning processes, all students , no matter who you are, must understand and internalize the benefits of being globally aware, confident and competent. This learning is not a “check box,” nor is it a “once and done” process.

The goal is for a us to move toward “allyship,” with historically excluded groups with “Authentic Allyship.” For example:

“Performance Allyship,” i.e. extrinsically motivated and tends not to be sustainable. Rather is tends to be “a means to an end.”
“Authentic Allyship,” intrinsically motivated and tends to promote positive and sustainable change in systemic exclusion.

If we are asking ourselves and teaching our children to function in a global society, we must model that same “self and other” awareness. Here’s a way to begin:

Learn about your own identity and the characteristics that make up your culture.
Learn about the identities of others and what about those identities that make up their cultures.
Internalize how this understanding contributes to cohesion and the equitable representation of multiple identities in the class (room), in community, and in societal settings.

Intended Outcomes: Participants in this practice internalize their personal journey in Authentic Allyship with persons who identify with populations not part of a dominant. Practitioners of allyship understand how their own stories influence how they view the “other.” Practitioners of allyship find common ground to learn the stories of “others” and build relationships. Ultimately, practitioners of allyship advance the concepts of “Community, Belonging, and Emotional Well-being” for all.

As you look for readings, look for key words in the following topics.

Topics Covered:

History of the exclusionary acts that contribute to racism and other “-ism” constructs
Understanding Implicit biases and its effects in building relationships
Understanding different types of aggressions: how do they affect the relationship between the aggressor and their “targets,” including:
- Micro-invalidations
- Micro-insults
- Micro-assaults
Understanding the language that further “minoritizes” and separates one group from another.

Again, we promote: “Community, Belonging, and Emotional Well-being”

This is what I want for us:

Thank you for reading.

Emotional Pain in Crises and Self-Care

One would have to live under a rock in order not to acknowledge the global pain and suffering at the moment. Since early March we hear the daily COVID-19 reports from countless sources. Some we believe and send us into the realms of disbelief.

My featured image, this week, shows the baby bunny, a kit, living in my backyard. His favorite nourishment appears to be crisp, dandelion greens and dandelion stalks. Since both our dogs died last year, I am delighted that this little creature stays in our yard. Watching him (I really cannot identify his gender) gorge himself on clover and dandelions while viewing the world around him, reminds me to engage in a quiet pace, enjoy my surroundings, eat my food contemplatively (Okay, I’m anthropomorphizing said bunny!), and be aware of my surroundings with its joys and its, possible, dangers. Good advice from the bunny, considering world events of late.

My goal, here, does not center on my judgement of the current world and U.S. events. I assure you, I have the full range of emotions around the effect of COVID-19 and senseless killings. You don’t need to read those. Rather, I hope to offer comments regarding self care and how we may focus on ourselves in a healthful way. I’m sure you’ve read lots of information on mindfulness. Here, I offer another resource. A couple of friends wrote an Extension publication called, Everyday Mindfulness. It comes complete with the “Fact Sheet,” which the actual publication, and with a leader’s guide, in case you want to teach it. If you want more information on how to gain free access to the publication, just let me know in a comment.

First, let us look at what mindfulness can be:

» Living in the present moment/awareness of the present moment — paying close attention to thoughts, physical sensations, and our surroundings (Like the bunny in my backyard!).
» Observing personal experiences of mindfulness, being completely focused on a project
reading a book, doing a hobby, or playing a sport. This heightened awareness is mindfulness.
» Taking a few deep breaths — becoming fully aware of the present moment.
» Having nonjudgmental awareness in which each thought, feeling, and sensation is acknowledged and accepted in their present state. This steady and non-reactive attention usually differs from the way we routinely operate in the world.
» Paying attention, precisely, to the present moment without judgment

Sometimes, delighting in the little things can help us to be more focused, though we can benefit from setting aside specific time for expressing anger and other emotions. When we “schedule” such time for judgement, anger, sadness, and guilt, we can focus our energies for the difficult times. The next step would be to schedule time for joy, celebration, and the plan-of-action for addressing the events that bring on anger, sadness, guilt, and judgement. When we call ourselves to action, we address the helplessness that often accompanies injustices and inequities.

This photo is meant to help us imagine a peaceful scene to promote mindfulness. It’s three of my four grandchildren enjoying Canada geese swimming while an elder feeds them.

Back to mindfulness. We follow seven principles. They take practice, but it’s worth the effort in your journey toward self-care:

Non-judging: Be a neutral observer to each experience.
Patience: Allow each experience to emerge at its own pace.
Beginner’s mind: Avoid bringing in what you know to the current moment and try
experiencing it as if it is the first time.
Trust: Believe in your intuition and your ability to see things in a new way.
Non-striving: Avoid the need for winning or losing or striving for a purpose — it is about “being” and “non-doing.”
Acceptance: See things as they are in the present moment.
Letting go: Take the time to detach from your usual feelings and thoughts.

You may ask, “How can we do this when the world is hurting and in crisis? My answer: We can better serve others and be the best for the world once we have addressed our own physical and emotional needs.” It is not selfish. It is good practice.

I snapped this shot on one of my walks not far from my house. In a world of pain, suffering, and ugliness, somedays, I have to focus on beauty. Thank you for reading.

Our Granddaughter, a Wonderfully, Gifted Soul!

When one thinks of an 11 year old female, one, often, does not think, “old soul.” I find myself thinking that often, especially when she requested a weekend with “Grandma and Grandpa.” “Can we have a, sort of, special Thanksgiving dinner with just the three of us?” Of course I answered, “yes.” It was the following that surprised me. I suppose I was thinking a traditional U. S. American Thanksgiving meal with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and pumpkin pie! So, I asked “Sammy” about her preferred menu. “Let’s have grilled beef steak, fried potatoes and asparagus. Also, I want root beer floats for dessert!” That’s easy!

We just had one full Saturday with her, so we wanted to make it special. We began the day with her requested breakfast of Honey Combs breakfast cereal. I checked the ingredients. Because of the name of the cereal, the consumer is led to believe that it has honey. The product lists its ingredients as: corn flour, sugar, whole grain oat flour, modified cornstarch, corn syrup, honey, salt, turmeric (color), wheat starch. We were feeling indulgent, so we allowed her to have this allegedly healthy breakfast food.

After breakfast, we made our way to thrift stores (her old soul showing) and the mall (her pre-teen soul showing). We followed that with lunch at an Asian themed fast food place having to do with a panda. We knew we’d have a healthful dinner, so we moved forward. Here she is by a colorful mural on a wall downtown. Getting both her face and that of the mural’s subject meant that I had to sacrifice a close-up.

She actually tired of the activity, so we went home for a relatively quiet afternoon to prepare for our feast.

Menu:

Grilled Rib-eye Steaks

Fried potatoes (we mixed bintje and red gold potatoes, thinly sliced)

Buttered asparagus

Sparkling apple juice (instead of wine since the guest of honor is 11 years old)

Root Beer Floats

Grandpas purchased the steaks at a specialty meat shop. He patted them dry and applied salt and pepper before landing them on the grill.

I sliced the potatoes (with skins) thinly and allowed them to sit in very hot water for 10 minutes. I patted the tubers dry before adding them to hot sunflower oil. Salt and pepper were applied along with a lid in order for the potatoes to steam for five to eight minutes. I removed the lid after eight minutes to allow the potatoes to brown. Once the potatoes began to brown, I added two pats of butter, which aided further in the even browning. By the way, I fried the potatoes in a carbon steel wok, which aids in easy stirring.

The asparagus were simply steamed with added butter and salt toward the end of cooking time.

Here we are:

Here’s the happy menu planner, ready to tear into her special meal.

Now, the root beer float has been a topic of discussion and debate. Do you add the ice cream first or the root beer? When you put the ice cream in the glass first, adding the root beer causes a great foaming! Grandpa insisted that we pour the root beer in the tall glasses, first! Then we added the ice cream. It worked! No foaming! Let me know your thoughts on this. No matter, they were wonderfully creamy and delicious with the soda’s hint of allspice, ginger, sarsaparilla, dandelion root, and vanilla bean. It foamed, but the foam never ran over the sides of the glass. A great treat!

By the way, the lovely dandelion, the featured image, was taken by Sammy while playing on her uncle’s farm. She has a great eye for taking pictures.

Thank you for reading.

My Teaching Philosophy

Okay, so I’m not in a formal classroom anymore. However, I do have a teaching philosophy through which I see an educational setting.

I think that every day humans seek to achieve personal, tribal, familial, institutional, and community well-being. Actions may differ from place to place because of varying cultural patterns, environmental conditions, geographical locations, political capital, natural capital, cultural capital, social capital, and other resources that affect human lives. The teacher, be it formal or informal, affects the lives of his or her students’ thinking by leading them toward seeing the world through unbiased lenses, and to see each human being for what he or she contributes to the fabric of humanity.

A passionate teacher does everything in her or her power to build learners. How can we make our classrooms a level playing field so that each learner engages within his or her own abilities. Does that means that we have to employ a variety of methods that speak to varying types of learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Do teachers have this luxury, or is their day proscribed for them? I would like to see feedback for this notion.

Though the classroom, naturally, employs a variety of textbooks, I believe that students learn from encouraged self-discovery so that they see themselves in the contexts of educational settings, the family, the social arena, in cultural arenas, the workplace, the community, national arena, and the world. These contexts help the students to visualize how cultures, ideals, and preferences are built.

Other concepts and questions:

I love geography, because it employs geographic inquiry, which helps students understand local to global issues in physical and human systems. This inquiry also helps students to ask questions about the past, understand present issues affecting community, and to envision a future that includes individuals and families who are emotionally, socially, healthfully, financially, and civically-minded.

Other elemental themes in teaching could include meta-cognition tools that encourage students to understand their own thought processes that shape personal, cultural, and world thought.

Spatial orientation and thinking encourages students to think about environments, where they live, work, and play (habitats), and the world in spatial terms. Spatial thinking gives students a sense of place in history, presently, and the future. How do we go beyond thinking to describing our “spaces”, relationships of objects to one another, and going from the large (macro) to the small (micro)? A possible question: Beyond thinking, can you describe your “spaces” using direction, employing mental maps, describing scale (size), and other relational vocabulary?

Places and Regions: Does where you live affect how you interact with your environment? Does where you live affect your way-of-knowing? Does where you live influence your health? Does where you live influence your economic well-being? Can people have different points-of-view living in the same community, region, or family? Do your places/regions change? How does that affect you?

Not sure if I’m repeating myself, but I love education, and I hope that each students walks away better for it.

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