Of Healthcare vs. Sickcare

Feeling Dippy

Tomorrow the entire family comes and goes with mismatched schedules leaving me to figure out a meal that can be eaten whenever a family member has time.

Pita Triangles grilled with Olive Oil and Kosher Salt
Leftover Polenta Crostini
Spinach Spread
Hummus
Thin Cucumber Slices

Diced Tomatoes 

Fresh Herb Leaves

Raw Veggies for dipping

Mugs of Leftover Navy Bean Soup
Fresh Apples and Oranges
Biscotti for Dessert

Sounds like a plan.


Today I whirred up the Hummus and the Spinach Spread.

Hummus - so fresh compared to store bought

Click on recipe to enlarge it, for easier reading.

Fresh spinach - it took only about 15 relaxed minutes to de-stem the spinach

Creamy Spinach Spread full of Flavor

Click on recipe to enlarge it, for easier reading.

Fresh food, new flavors, quick meals. I'm eager to see how my family responds to tomorrow's food.

Pecan-Almond Biscotti

Hibernation consumes January for me. Every year. The weather presses itself down on me like a heavy quilt and I slow to a sloth's pace.

But February brings subtle changes like longer days, a bit of blue sky, sunshine on my face for a moment or two. A mental thawing. Energy begins to buzz in my spirit.

I begin to want to cook.

This fact thrills my family. Cookbooks come out, glossy photos of foods never tried inspire, delight, and prompt.

Today there was enough buzzed-up energy for actual creation.

It started with a batch of yogurt, and a kettle of applesauce, then slid over to a modified Shepherd's Pie sided with Maple Nutmeg Acorn/Butternut Squash Puree. Full Steam Ahead! Perusing the books led to a menu on our refrigerator that sports things like homemade Hummus, and Spinach Dip, Basil Orzo and Shallots, Navy Bean Soup, Zucchini Chicken Kabobs, Polenta Crostini. Nothing fancy, nothing big. Just happy flavors.

Impatient to get started, this evening I stirred, rolled, sliced, and baked Pecan-Almond Biscotti. These cookies are easier to make than one might imagine, offering heavenly aroma during the entire process, plus they make an impressive dessert or snack. One daughter wants to dip the tips of some of them in melted chocolate. We'll do that tomorrow. Other daughter plans a hot cocoa and biscotti reward for the end of her busy day. Coffee tantalizes husband. I look forward to dipping my Italian cookie in chai tea.

Biscotti. Versatile, crunchy, flavorful, long-lasting (they actually get better after a few days) and, because of their hard texture, enjoyment lingers. Crunch. Crunch. Dip. Crunch.

Italian music plays between my ears tonight!

Universe of Peace

Susie, Caroline, Cassie prepare family meal

"For me, the family is sacred. A strong family provides the mutual love, commitment, and honesty that allow us to grow up true to ourselves and to our fellow human beings. As a mother and as a citizen of the world, I am concerned that the collapse of this social nucleus is forcing us to become anxious, fearful, and uncertain about the future.

 "...I want you to remember that the kitchen, its environment and its ritual, is where the whole family is united. The traditional components include a father, mother, children, even grandparents. Today some families are defined differently, but no matter its makeup, the ritual of the table is a family's strongest bond. For me, it's an irrepressible joy to think of how many secrets and doubts, how many resentments, disappointments, and negative thoughts, can find a peaceful solution at the table. Confessions, debates, advice, and resolution of the mini-tragedies that crop up in our daily lives all find their way to the table. It's a small universe of peace, the clearest proof of the ties of affection and love that exists in our little community." ~~ Sophia Loren, from her 1998 cookbook, Sophia Loren's Recipes & Memories

    Interesting that this excerpt from Sophia's book dates to 1998, fifteen years ago. Since that time, the family unit has continued to decline, finding itself on a dangerous precipice overlooking complete breakdown.  While I don't fully understand the problem, confidence that the family unit with its age-old rituals seems, still, to be a healthy, solid solution. 

     Experience raising four independent, energetic children with my husband confirms to me that hearty meals together around our table have certainly created a special space - what Sophia refers to as a 'universe of peace' - where thoughts freed and shared often lead to solutions and sympathy. Also, hilarity - for ours is a robust, noisy dining experience - strokes hearts, releases tension, and gives energy for whatever lies after the meal is cleared away.

Caroline and Cassie sweetly, patiently wait.

     "Cooking is an act of love, a gift, a way of sharing with others the little secrets - piccolo segreti - that are simmering on burners," writes Miss Loren.

     Cooking, sharing meals in a safe environment, honoring each individual who sits shoulder to shoulder with us, this is powerful magic, not to be undervalued but held up as a pillar of strength for a people who cherish freedom, who understand familial bonds to be roots that hold us upright and steady, who realize every day that relationships appreciated and conscientiously tended bring far more satisfaction that any other undertaking the world has to offer. 

     Just beneath God and a rich spiritual life, family is everything.