My Friend Oprah

Rejoice!

2009-12-13T22:06:00.003-05:00

I've long appreciated Christine Kane and benefited from the insights I’ve gleaned from her blog. One of my favorite of her suggestions is that people skip New Year’s resolutions and instead pick a word that will guide them throughout the year.

I’ve accepted her challenge to choose a word to inspire me through the year for the last several years. For 2008 it was courage, and this year it was rejoice.

I knew, of course, what “rejoice” meant. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to look it up in the dictionary anyway. There I learned that rejoice means to “feel great joy” and “be glad” and “take delight” and “celebrate in some event” and “cause great joy to.” I decided to explore each of these meanings over the year by committing to write a blog post about it here each Sunday.

I am happy to report that I wrote every week over the whole year except for two. (For the missing two posts it was not that I found myself with too little to rejoice in, but too much! There simply wasn’t time.) I went back and looked at some of my “rejoice” posts, and it was truly delightful to realize that I had captured so many joyful moments over the year.

I’ve always appreciated as much about my life as I possibly could. But here’s the thing: Choosing this word seemed to call me to play a bigger game. It was as if it said “Oh, you think your life’s so great? Well, much of it (genetics, culture, socio-economic status) was determined for you. What are you going to do to make it truly great?”

Appreciating my life created contrast, too. I saw so many women having a hard time appreciating their lives. I wanted to help them see how amazing their lives were, how amazing they were. And for those who couldn’t find anything to appreciate about the life they were currently living, I wanted them to realize they had the ability to create the exact life they wanted.

I was inspired to carve out something of my very own, something I had never done before, something risky. I decided to start a business and 6 months ago I launched my life coaching practice, Midwife for Your Life.

A year ago I would have claimed that I didn’t have an entrepreneurial bone in my body. And I wouldn’t have imagined that I had the ability to do it. It has certainly been the greatest self-imposed challenge of my life.

All I can say is I have indeed learned that it is easy to rejoice when everything is going my way, but not so when problems arise no matter how hard I work, when clients are not banging down my door, and even worse, don’t seem to appreciate me and the service I offer.

I have learned that I would rather show up and play bigger, even when it feels uncomfortable (and let me tell you, it’s so much more comfortable to sit in my lovely home with my sweet family and count my blessings).

I have learned that I can do things imperfectly and still accomplish a lot, and even better, derive great joy from it - much more than I ever would have if I had decided to value comfort over a dream.

I have learned that I would rather stretch and grow as I reach for the dream. I want to live each day doing the “hard” thing, testing my mettle and knowing the world benefited from it. And that has been the source of much rejoicing.

So, dear reader, if you have followed my posts this year, you have seen that I have come here less and less. In the last couple of months I have just managed to get in my "rejoice" posts. With this post, I'm not sure when or if I will continue to blog here. You see, as I wrote last week, I have a new blog, and I just don't think I will have the time and energy to post here, there and my weekly eZine.
I appreciate SO much that you have come to this blog and I really do hope you will "follow" me (just click on the link above!) to my new blog! Happy Holidays and take wonderful care!

New Blog!

2009-12-06T18:16:00.002-05:00

Hello Friends!

For anyone who has continued to check back with this oft-neglected blog, I am thrilled to announce that I will launch the Midwife for Your Life Blog tomorrow, Monday 12/7!

And if you have been a follower of this blog, you know that the thing that has kept me coming back is my intention to write weekly about what I am finding to rejoice in - you see, "rejoice" was me Word of the Year for 2009.

Next week I will be publishing a post about what that word has meant for me over the last 12 months and then that will probably be the end of this sweet little blog. I know I won't be able to manage *two* blogs at the same time.

So, again, I hope you will meet me here!

And I suppose it goes without saying that this week I am rejoicing in my new blog!

A Very Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-29T15:16:00.003-05:00

We had many happy days over the Thanksgiving holidays. Here are just a few pictures to tell the story.

This week I'm rejoicing in joyful connection with my family!

Celebrating Non-Belly Button Family

2009-11-15T11:30:00.004-05:00

Last night we had our 6th Annual Alternative Thanksgiving Celebration! It's a way to celebrate with our non-belly button family and it was delightful as always. MFK Fisher once wrote "There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk." and that could be the anthem for this party.

This week I'm rejoicing in my lovely community!

A Very Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:04:00.003-05:00

I only have a moment but I'm determined to get in my "rejoice" post on time! It seems that I have so much to rejoice about I don't have time to document it all! So I will mostly let the pictures tell the story.

If you look closely you'll see bats that were cut out of black construction paper in an attempt to make the porch "more spookier." I think with the black cobwebs, black bats, and scary pumpkin we did a good job! All in all it was a spooktacular day! And I am rejoicing in all of it!

Far Niente

2009-10-25T16:40:00.003-05:00

I think I wrote about the Italian notion of "sweet doing nothing" earlier this year, but I really can't remember the last time we had a day with nothing planned in it. We are taking care of a neighbor's dog, so some walks are mandatory, but it is also a pleasure. I loved looking up and seeing that the sky was the most beautiful blue and the leaves, resplendent with autumn colors, were a gorgeous contrast. Today I am rejoicing in far niente!

The Other Gold

2009-10-18T07:38:00.006-05:00

A long time ago I used to sing “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.” in rounds with my Girl Scout troupe and it really stuck with me.
This week my “gold” friend of 30+ years drove many miles to see me and celebrate my birthday. (A true BFF!) Neither of us had a camera to document the event, so I dug up an old photo from over 25 years ago, when we were 15.

My friend gave me a card and wrote how remarkable our friendship is for its ability to bring out the best in each other. It seems that we have always been able to see each other’s truest, wisest selves. That kind of friendship is a true gift.

A Very Happy Birthday!

2009-10-11T19:38:00.005-05:00

I turned 40 on Monday the 5th but I have a custom of celebrating my birthday for as many days as I've been on the planet. It started last Friday October 2nd, so I have 31 more days to go. I've already had such a blast. But the highlight so far was my son singing me the Happy Birthday song.

This week I'm rejoicing in many wonderful days of joyful celebration!

Unstoppable Power

2009-10-05T21:18:00.006-05:00

Another rejoice post in a day late! But I have a really good reason - I spent the weekend at Christine Kane's "Unstoppable Power of Intention" Retreat. Christine has become an amazing mentor to me and my business.

I liken Christine to a speedboat that pulls me along on my skis - I am amazed by how much distance I have covered in such a short time. I appreciate the inspiration, guidance and support I have received from her so much.

This week I'm rejoicing in feeling unstoppable (and a great mentor).

Look Closely: Pictures from a Beach Week

2009-09-26T15:11:00.017-05:00

My husband upload the pictures for my blog yesterday so I could post it today while I'm working in the hospital. I think it's funny that I want to document a beach trip and I only have one picture that shows a scene of sand and surf! (Look closely or you may miss it!)

Friends took more pictures from the actual beach and promise to send them to me, and as soon as I get them, I'll post them here!

Do you remember pics of my son and his best friend from last year's California trip? Well, this year they came to our coast to be with us!

Our friends' 7 year-old daughter is amazing. She has many gifts - one of them is rolling with the energy of 2 very spirited 4 year-old boys!

There was so much love in the house!

My friend and I are planning to collaborate on a blog for Midwife for Your Life. She is an amazing mama and writer. I am SO excited!

One day we had a super-groovy afternoon dance party!

Okay, I don't want you to miss it! Here is the one pic that actually documents we were at the beach! (Not sure why it is turned sideways (like the other one above) and I'll try to fix it when I get home tomorrow.)

My husband is helping our son fly a kite by himself for the first time. Beach pleasures don't get much better!

Love, love, love my girls!

This week I'm rejoicing in the memories of a lovely week with family and friends (at the beach)!

My Article in Verve!

2009-09-21T09:14:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the first Sunday since the beginning of the year that I missed a "What I'm rejoicing in this week" post.

You see, "rejoice" is my word-of-the-year and I wanted to document it by coming here weekly. It seems that I had a little too much to rejoice about yesterday to write about it!

We just got back from a glorious week at the beach with family and friends (photos to come soon!), I just hosted my first wildly successful Women's Wisdom Mastermind Group, and my "American Midwife in Mexico" article came out in Verve magazine!

You can read the article here.

So, again, this week I'm rejoicing in...too much rejoicing! (If there is such a thing as too much rejoicing!)

War Buddies

2009-09-13T11:23:00.005-05:00

One of my coaching clients is haunted by the memory of a former partner. She wonders how she allowed such a “bad” relationship to go on for so long. Of course she did the best she could with the awareness she had at the time. But now she has 20/20 hindsight.

We’ve all been in her shoes. We wish we could’ve been more conscious, more able to act on the signs that things were not going well, and avoided the “bad” thing that happened. But when we focus on the past, we ignore the clarity that is available to us right now, and the insight that can help guide us to an even better place.

That shift in focus from the past to the present to the future takes some effort. Blaming the other person is much easier, of course. And we can also pretend that we were duped or unconscious the whole time. But we are much more likely to find peace—as well as some benefit from the experience—if we withhold this kind of judgment.

So if you’re looking back on a bad experience or relationship and blaming yourself or someone else, try this instead. Rather than looking at the person with whom you had the conflict as the enemy, try to look at him as an old war buddy. You shared a tough time, but you got through it. You did your best under hazardous conditions, and now you can recount your “war stories” without any remorse that things should have been different. Just accept that they happened and simply move on.

Do you feel some resistance to letting this person — a partner, friend, family member, or even a past you — off so easily? Then perhaps consider that when you choose to forgive someone whose behavior hurt you, you do yourself a huge favor. Someone once said that holding on to resentment is like eating rat poison and hoping the rat will die. You could release the hurt, anger and sense of betrayal not because the person “deserves” it, but because you will feel better when you do. If forgiveness is out of reach right now, then just don’t think about it. Refuse to think or talk about what happened until you can look at the topic with some equanimity. The less you return to the painful memories, the sooner that time will come.

I’m not saying you should condone the behavior that hurt you. And I’m certainly not saying you should jump back in the foxhole with your old war buddy. I’m just saying that when you can accept what happened—which means, more than anything else, that you understand that what happened truly did happen in a past you can’t change—then you’ll start to move on. And where are you going? You are moving forward on the path in front of you, right here, right now. Just start moving. And forget about figuring out what happened in the past “so as not to repeat it.” You don’t even have to feel like you “learned a lesson” or you got a “gift” from a relationship, or even any new skills or tools. You just have to start paying attention right now.

But how can you be sure that history won’t repeat itself? Again, the answer is simple, and lays the past to rest by keeping you in the present. Just learn to notice when things are out of balance in your life. And how will you know? There's a built in signal that will always let you know when things are out of balance. It's called stress. You want to take your awareness of the stressful feeling and try to find the stressful thought that is creating it. From there try to identify a thought that feels better. It may take some practice, but you will get better at it.

And when you consistently engage in the practice of identifying your stressful, negative thoughts and find alternative, better-feeling thoughts research shows that you are creating new neural pathways that will lead to long lasting benefits, like decreased anxiety and depression, and increased satisfaction and happiness. Bottom line: you will change, and as a consequence your world will change for the better, too.

Not everyone gets to make a new world. But people who want to put their past behind them have a golden opportunity to do so. And that is a gift. You can thank your old war buddy for it the next time you see him.

This week I'm rejoicing in the launch of my new eZine, Special Delivery! Sign up for your FREE weekly subscription – delivered straight to your email inbox every Tuesday!

Your Einstein Time

2009-09-05T14:46:00.003-05:00

One of my coaching clients wrote to me this week about the issue she finds most challenging in her life. She is the mother of a 2 year-old spirited child and the effort of meeting his needs, her husband’s, her own and those of the household often leaves her exhausted. She asked for some suggestions to address her situation.

She is a devoted mother and experiences great joy in caring for her son. The thing is, she also wants to carve out more time for herself and other pursuits, particularly meaningful and lucrative work. I think there are many mamas who are in the same boat. I know I was. Fortunately I successfully navigated those choppy waters and found my way to my own Lake Placid. From my current vantage point, I can happily offer suggestions.

But first a little backstory: When my son, Finn, was 7 months old I was at the end of my rope. I was juggling work as a nurse-midwife, the needs of my still-nursing-through-the-night child (who, in fact, would never sleep unless he was literally attached), and all the other aspects of my full life. I felt like I was not even on the list.

I knew this couldn’t go on. So I set the intention of finding someone to help me and my husband care for our child, believing that would help me get my needs met. I wanted to find that proverbial “village” that would help me raise our child, and I was especially interested in someone who could care for him and love him like a grandmother. We found exactly what we were looking for—more on that in a minute—and I know I became happier and more productive as a result.

So my suggestion to my client (based on what had worked for me) was to find someone who can help care for her child for a couple of hours most days of the week. This someone could be a student who comes after school or even a neighbor. Will this cost money? Probably. But even when money was tight in our household, we never questioned the value of paying someone to care for Finn so that we were able to get a break from his care and attend to our own needs. In fact, we sometimes skimped in other areas (beans and rice, anyone?) so that we had the money to pay for childcare. And that is what I suggested to my client, and would recommend to anyone in the same situation.

Even if you are not doing "work for money" during this time, this will be your creative time, your “Einstein time.” I call it “Einstein time” because Albert Einstein appreciated the value of “soft” thinking. He would, of course, spend hours poring over calculations and theorizing over problems. But he would also sometimes set aside the problem and redirect his attention to something enjoyable and relaxing. He found that during these pleasurable pursuits his unconscious mind would go on thinking about the challenge and surprise him with a breakthrough insight or innovation at the time when he least expected it.

So in the case of my client, who wants to have work that is fulfilling and lucrative in addition to being a mama, I suggested that she start by carving out time for herself to do that work (even though she doesn’t have it yet).But even having this free time only leaves my client’s problems half-solved. Fortunately, though, we can turn to Einstein again for advice on how to make it the rest of the way.

So how can she find lucrative work that she can fit in around all the other demands on her time? Well, as Einstein once said, You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.” I always act from the belief that everyone can get their needs met if they allow themselves to be open to novel ways of thinking. If, even after you’ve set aside not-thinking-about-the-problem-la-la-la-la time, your unconscious mind seems to be moving at a glacial pace to solve it, there is another route you can take: simply asking a variety of other people for ideas allows myriad solutions to present themselves quite easily.

This is actually how my husband and I found our childcare provider. Shortly after I set the intention to find the best one I could, my husband and I were sitting in a local bakery. I saw a woman filling out a job application, so I turned to my husband and said, "She obviously wants a job. Maybe she could take care of Finn. Do you think it would be strange if I went up to her and asked her if she could help us?" My husband said, "Yes it would be strange, but I’m sure you’ll do it anyway." I did and - four years later - she has been Finn's beloved "abuela" (Spanish for grandmother) ever since.

You see, like Einstein, you are looking for “different thinking” that will help solve your problem. And researchers at the University of Zurich have developed a technique that will help you structure the process of turning to others for advice when you’re stumped by a challenge. They call this technique “the idea basket,” and it can be a powerful way to solve your problems. Here’s what you do: Imagine that there is a basket in front of you and that you are going to fill it with suggestions from your friends, family members, even acquaintances - basically anyone with whom you could possibly strike up a conversation.

Begin by making a list of the situations, circumstances and triggers which are challenging you at the moment. Then ask as many people as you can to come up with for ways to respond. Try to get ideas from people in as many different social groups as possible. Ask your favorite co-worker, but also approach your hair stylist, your child’s soccer coach, your 20-year-old babysitter—even complete strangers at your local bakery!

This week I'm rejoicing in novel solutions to sticky issues - and everyone getting their needs met!

Be a Brain Scientist

2009-08-30T11:38:00.001-05:00

“To think is to practice brain chemistry.” - Deepak Chopra

Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, I’m no brain scientist…”? Quite recently I had lunch with a friend while he was on a break from work. When he ordered a beer I raised my eyebrows in mock astonishment. He replied “It’s not like I’m performing brain surgery later.”

But we are all brain scientists. Our thoughts really do affect our brain chemistry. And we can be like surgeons in our ability to carefully excise negative thoughts from our gray matter.

Our patterns of thought are simply habits, but they are grounded in rich neural circuitry. Like deer in the woods, our thoughts form paths that will most likely be retread unless we consciously set out to find a new way. The first step to that new way is to be aware that thoughts can either be unconscious or conscious.

Fortunately, the unconscious variety is actually very short-lived. You experience these when you have an emotional reaction to a trigger in your environment. For example: you’re walking on a road and come upon a rattling snake. When you see and hear the snake, a circuit in your brain trips to tell you the environment isn’t safe. For a short time hormones, or chemical messengers, flood your body and you are in “fight or flight” mode. You stifle a scream and run in the opposite direction.

Brain research has shown that the time from the trigger through the hormone’s release and complete dissolution in your bloodstream is only 90 seconds. If you are still anxious and uncomfortable after that brief period, it is because you are continuing to tell the story of the snake in your path—even though it is far away and not able to harm you.

When you continue to think of the snake you are “hooking” back into the fear-based circuitry, even though your environment is now safe. It is important to pay close attention to how much time we spend hooked into the circuitry of negative emotions. Getting caught up in these loops for long periods of time can cause us to get stuck in a groove like a warped 45, and they can lead to feelings of depression and powerlessness.

The challenge, then, is not to get hooked. The challenge is to choose to think other thoughts, thoughts that feel better, like, “I’m glad I was paying attention and avoided upsetting that snake.”

To take another example, let’s say I am thinking about my 4-year-old son, Finn. Thinking about him is a specific circuit in my brain. Each thought I think about him can either trigger me to feel very strong positive or negative emotions.

In my brain, thoughts of Finn and the emotional circuitry of joy are intimately linked. Usually, I smile just thinking of him. Right now as I’m writing this and thinking of him I’m reminded of a song he has been singing lately, the Beatles’ “Good Day Sunshine.” But Finn sings it “Good Day, Some Time.” It cracks me up every time.

But there are also other occasions when I am likely to feel bad when I think of him. Just tonight we went into an office supply store so that I could buy a phone, and he picked up a big package of chalk and asked to buy it. I said no and reminded him that he already had a big bucket of chalk at home. He again asserted his desire for the chalk, and I again declined to buy it. He burst into tears and was inconsolable for a few minutes.

When I think of that exchange I feel bad. I wish he hadn’t wanted the chalk. I wish I had been able to negotiate his request better and been able to mitigate the tears. I wish I had been less tired after a day of caring for him and his needs. I know that I could have been more patient and handled the situation better and the fact that I didn’t is the source of negative emotion.

So now I have a choice: focus on his happy song or his frustrated tears. In the moment of thinking either thought, and tripping its underlying emotional and physiological circuitry, my mouth will either lift in a smile or purse in a frown. Those strong thoughts and feelings have the potential to jump instantly into my mind. But I always have the power to consciously choose which emotional and physiological loops I want to hook into.

Realizing that you can be aware of your neural circuitry and choose whether or not to engage it is a powerful tool. If you are triggered, learning to give yourself 90 seconds to breathe through the release and dissolution of the negative chemical messengers, and then learning to choose a different, better-feeling thought will help you go a long way on your path to happiness.

This week I'm rejoicing in my child's happy song.

A Boy and His Uncle

2009-08-23T11:54:00.005-05:00

My younger (by 12 years) brother spent a day with us last week and it was so much fun. He lives in NYC so we don't get to see him as much as we'd like, but it is always great when we do. He has always been wonderful with G. But there has been an interesting development since we last saw him in June: G got a hand-me-down video game system from his older cousins. (A Game Boy, I think. I really don't know.) I never played home video games as a kid (I did enjoy the occasional trip to the arcade for a game of Pac Man, but that was the extent of it.), and so I have no idea how to help my young son with his new interest. His dad tries his best, but he's not much help either.

So it was with great joy that G discovered that his uncle not only knew how to play the game (Super Mario? Again, I'm not sure.), but he was a skilled teacher as well. I wasn't thrilled that the game came to the dinner table (that's them asking for one more minute in the pic below), but their enthusiasm was contagious (and they did put it away after a minute) and truly delightful.

And, amazingly, the game was even put away for classic old-school boy fun - toy soldiers!

All in all it was a fabulous visit. This week I'm rejoicing in the wonderful bond between my boy and his uncle.

Full Sun Farm 15th Week!

2009-08-21T10:46:00.006-05:00

What's in the Box:
Green or Red Leaf Lettuce
Carrots
Summer Squash
Red Sweet Peppers
Green Beans
Edamame Soybeans
Watermelon
Onions
Garlic

I would never suggest that you do anything with the watermelon other than open it and eat it (although chunks of watermelon with feta and kalamata olives and a light drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar is divine). That done, if you have the time and curiosity, I suggest that you use the rind as well. This recipe for pickled watermelon rind is originally from the magazine Bon Apétit.

* 1 4-pound piece watermelon, quartered
* 8 cups water
* 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons coarse salt

* 2 cups sugar
* 1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar
* 8 whole cloves
* 8 whole black peppercorns
* 2 cinnamon sticks
* 1/2 teaspoon pickling spice
* 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Cut watermelon pulp from rind, leaving thin layer of pink on rind. Cut green outer skin from rind; discard. Cut enough rind into 1 x 1/2-inch pieces to measure 4 cups. Combine 8 cups water and 2 tablespoons salt in large pot; bring to boil. Add rind pieces and boil until tender, about 5 minutes. Strain. Transfer rinds to large metal bowl. Combine remaining 2 teaspoons salt, sugar and next 7 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Pour over watermelon rinds in bowl. Place plate atop rinds to keep rinds submerged in pickling liquid. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight. Strain liquid from rinds into saucepan; bring to boil. Pour over rinds. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Repeat straining and boiling of liquid and pour over rinds 1 more time. (Can be made 2 weeks ahead. Chill in covered jars.)

The small bush you see is edamame--green soybeans--and this is the first year we have received them from the farm. I'm delighted to see them so close to their original form. A simple way to prepare them is to remove the pods from the stems and boil them for about 20 minutes. Season with salt and lemon juice, and when they are cool eat the beans directly from the pod. They are also good marinated in soy sauce.

Don't Worry. I Got This.

2009-08-16T09:55:00.002-05:00

Last week I wrote about the power of your story in anticipation of meeting 12 women for The Power of Your Story event I was hosting. All of the women were truly amazing and I would love to write about each one of them. Today, with her permission, I will tell the story of one of them.

Patricia Alcivar is the most inspiring women I’ve ever met – and I’ve known a lot of inspiring women. She is an incest survivor and left her family to live on the streets of NYC when she was 15 years old. She developed a friendship with a trainer who became the first person to believe in her and her talents and taught her to box.

She worked hard and eventually made it to the first ever Women's National Amateur Boxing Championship. She says, “I had just come from a recent loss at the NYC Golden Gloves when I really should have won. It was a complete robbery, but my trainer taught me the valuable lesson of never ever giving up no matter what. We trained harder and went to the Nationals and fought each of the 3 opponents with skill and determination to get me into the finals.”

For the final championship match she was paired against Leona Brown (better known as “Little Tyson” for her sheer ruthlessness), who had just won every one of her previous matches in this competition with a knockout. Patricia’s friends could barely hide their concern for her safety and doubt for her ability to win.

At the weigh-in her opponent “talked trash” about her and even shoved her, but Patricia remained calm. As her friends complained and criticized the other player’s behavior, Patricia felt calm and centered. She didn’t know where her clarity came from, but she told her friends with utmost confidence, “Don’t worry. I got this.”

And she did. She handily beat “Little Tyson” with her skill, talent and extraordinary determination. That performance led her to be the first woman in history to be voted athlete of the year by the USOC (United States Olympic Committee). Patricia is currently training as a professional for the world championship title. My money is definitely on her to win it.

Patricia’s story is a profound testament to what can be achieved when you realize that negative events and circumstances don’t define you, but you define you. You always have the ability to choose your response in any situation.

But what if you don’t feel you have Patricia’s level of determination to achieve your goals and dreams? What can you do to develop the ability to choose your response and define your story for yourself?

The answer is simple, though it can be tough to put it into practice. You can become aware of your inner voice.

When you heed your inner voice (or what some call a “gut feeling”), you strengthen your intuition – your best guide to creating a life you love. And when you honor your intuition, your awareness will change in a myriad of amazing and unexpected ways

If you listen to it, your intuition will first make you aware of an astonishing number of so-called coincidences. Things will start to “fit” in ways you never dreamed they could. Soon these coincidences will seem less like coincidences and more like signposts—turning points in the road to a desired destination, whether or not you know what that destination is. And then, after a while, you will experience life as a constantly unfolding miracle in which everything you need is ready at hand right when you need it—and sometimes even before you know you did.

That’s not to say that you’ll enjoy everything that happens, just that as time goes by the challenges and crises of your life will come to seem like the necessary training for the challenges you must confront on the way to your best life.

There are two main reasons for this. The first is that, if you give your challenges the proper attention, they can help you focus on what you do want. Three months after my son was born I felt I needed to return to work. My work as a midwife required that I spend 24-hours shifts in the hospital and I didn’t want to be separated from my nursing infant for such extended periods of time. When I thought the financial necessity of returning to work required an unwanted separation from my child, I felt awful – I knew I didn’t want that.

The realization of what I didn’t want helped me form the desire for what I did want: I decided I would work in the hospital and bring my son with me. At the time it was absolutely unprecedented for a mother to bring her baby to work, and I had to work hard to convince the administration of its feasibility, but I did it and my child (and my husband who cared for him while I was seeing patients) came to work with me for over a year and a half. And I have to say that it wasn’t easy to juggle caring for my own child and caring for my patients, but it was worth it. Just like drawing something by drawing the space around it, you can find out your best life by paying close attention to your feelings—especially the ones you don’t want, or don’t feel you have a right to listen to—as you observe the life you have.

More importantly, though, your intuition can find in the challenges of your life all the evidence you need that you’re ready for something greater. As I wrote in my Providence Moves article, almost 10 years ago I knew I wanted more from my life but it took a little while before I figured out that it was living and working in remote Mexican villages. Did this seem impossible for a while? Yes. Was I scared to commit to that path? Absolutely. But as I looked at a life that was otherwise satisfactory I felt such a strong sense something was missing that I saw how much greater the life I really wanted was, and that if I chose, I could make it happen.

It may take some time before you hear it, too, but when you finally get the big thing your inner voice is trying to tell you, you will also hear it say, “Don’t worry. I got this.” It may be too small for you to hear it easily. It may be crowded out by all the other messages competing for your attention. But you can become aware of it. And using its wisdom is a great way to create your own powerful story.

But what do you do about those competing messages? What can you do to meet the challenges with openness for what they have to teach you about your life and what you most want? As I said, it takes some practice. But practicing your intuition is a lot more straightforward than you might think.

Try this exercise: take five minutes today (and every day from now on) and find a comfortable, quiet place to sit and think.

During this time think about what has happened in the day that most challenged you and ask, “What was that supposed to teach me? Can I find what was good and necessary about it?”

Then allow your intuition, your quiet inner voice, to offer the answer. When the 5 minutes is up, write your thoughts down. If you do this every day you will be astounded by how many people and situations show up in order to give you answers. More and more you will hear your inner voice saying, “Don’t worry. I got this.”

P.S. If you want to see phenomenal pictures of Patricia, Google her or go to Facebook and ask to be her "friend" - she's super friendly and I know she would love to know that you enjoyed hearing some of her story. (If you haven't already, "friend" me, too!)

Full Sun Farm Week 14!

2009-08-12T06:57:00.004-05:00

What's in our Box:

Lettuce Mix
Arugula
Swiss Chard
Green Beans or Romano (Italian Flat) Beans
Carrots
Potatoes
Basil
Parsley
Blueberries (Back again?! Hooray!)

Notes Inspired from the Farm:

I love that I can offer a potato soup that highlights the pungent flavor of fresh parsley. (Using it only as a garnish seems like a waste to me.) Make the soup in the morning and then chill in the fridge and it is a delightful, cooling summer supper. This recipe is adapted from the Deborah Madison's wonderful Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. (The original recipe calls for parsley root - a kind of parsley that forms a white, carrot-shaped root below ground - in addition to fresh parsley, but it's not available at this time of year, so I use carrots instead.)

1 1/2 lbs potatoes
2 carrots
1 1/2 tbsp butter or olive oil
6 shallots or 1 onion, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups chopped parsley
salt and freshly milled pepper
6 cups water or vegetable stock
1/3 cup cream (or additional water)

Quarter the potatoes lengthwise and thinly slice. Grate the carrots. Melt the butter in a soup pot and add the potatoes, carrots, onion, and bay leaves. Cook over medium heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Raise the heat, add the wine, and let it reduce until syrupy. Add 1 1/2 cups of the parsley, 1 1/2 tsp salt, and the water, bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the potatoes have broken apart, about 30 minutes. Stir in the cream and remaining parsley and heat through. Taste for salt and season with pepper. Remove the bay leaves and serve.

Enjoy!

The Power of Your Story

2009-08-09T18:32:00.004-05:00

Today I met 12 other amazing women at an event I hosted this afternoon to have a conversation about this very topic. I wish all of my friends could have joined us! That’s why I want to share this article with you. I hope we can continue today’s conversation here!

Many people go through life creating by default; they just aren’t clear about what they really want. They become hung up on how much is going wrong in their life or in the world. And once that happens, they start to tell a story—they construct a narrative around the grim details that have captured their attention. “People ask too much of me.” “My house is a mess.” “I don’t have enough money to do what I really want.” We’ve all heard these tales, and what’s worse, we’ve all told them. It’s really easy to let those thoughts weigh us down and sap our creative energy.

So how do you say “Cut!”? How do you stop telling the bad stories and start telling the good ones? To begin, you need to understand that events are not part of a narrative, that they simply happen. When you see that all events are neutral, you then recognize that the stories you see behind them are your stories—good, bad or indifferent. If you can reserve judgment, you give yourself a chance to let events unfold.

Once you do that, you can move on to create another story, one that feels better, one with a chance at a happy ending. That choice may seem to be a stretch sometimes, but like any exercise, it will become easier with time. Soon it becomes second nature to reflect on what you’re perceiving, see the tragedy you’ve started composing in your head, and then move on to craft that better-feeling story. The peace that comes with that choice is its own reward. But it gets even better: in time, your new story will have a ripple effect, creating positive results that will astound you.

Research shows that when you consistently engage in the practice of identifying your stressful, negative thoughts and find alternative and better-feeling thoughts you are creating new neural pathways that will lead to long-lasting benefits – decreased anxiety and depression and increased ability to find creative solutions, and ultimately satisfaction and happiness.

Of course, it’s not realistic to think that you can go immediately from a bad-feeling thought to a happy place. More than anything, you’re looking for a feeling of relief from where you were a moment ago. Feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, or depressed by what is happening in your life right now is only a problem if you can’t think of what it is you want to be different. Still not sure? Let me walk you through an example from my own life.

Quite recently, an administrator in my hospital announced that at best, everyone in the hospital would receive a minimal raise this year. Even if we did everything right, all we could hope for was 2.5%, when exemplary employees would normally get 5%. After I heard this, I had some pretty stressful thoughts – among them were fears that the hospital was going to lay off employees—and that I could be among them! I also told myself that I had been counting on a raise, and everyone needs at least a 3% increase in salary every year to just meet the rising cost of living.

After a few minutes of those thoughts (a few very painful minutes), I realized that I was telling a story. I then challenged myself to find an alternative, better-feeling story; here is what I came up with:

“I don’t know that the hospital will need to lay off employees. In fact, I know they recently hired new employees. They are probably cutting back on raises so they don’t have to lay off people, or cut salaries (and I know many businesses are doing both).”

“I am grateful for my job and will keep appreciating all of the good things that I enjoy about it. If I need more money this year, I can always find other ways to make it or I will find ways to spend less. I trust that I always have whatever I need.”

I felt so much better after this internal self-talk. It made me feel powerful and abundant at the same time. And the facts hadn’t changed: all I had done was realize that the facts were neutral, that they included a few things I had chosen not to see, that I was telling a story I didn’t like—and that I had the power to tell a different one.

How about you? Have you ever been aware of a negative thought and tried to “talk” yourself to a better-feeling place? If not, are you willing to try now?

This week I'm rejoicing in meeting 12 amazing women to share our powerful stories - and that I always have the ability to tell the better-feeling story!

Full Sun Farm 13th Week!

2009-08-08T17:06:00.004-05:00

What's in the Box:
Red or Green Leaf Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Green Beans
Carrots
Corn
Cherry Tomatoes
Onions
Garlic

We still had a pound of green beans left from last week. Coupled with the pound we got this week I knew I needed to get serious about preparing them.

Hence the roasted green bean salad we're having for dinner tonight! The beans and garlic are roasting as I write this and quite a heady smell is coming from the kitchen!

This recipe, by the way, is another favorite from The New Vegetarian Epicure.

2 lbs green beans
1 head garlic
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 large red tomatoes
balsamic vinegar to taste
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

Wash and trim the green beans, and separate and peel the cloves of garlic. Reserve one small clove of garlic and toss the remaining garlic and the beans in a bowl with half the olive oil, salt to taste, and a few grinds of black pepper. Spread them evenly over two baking sheets and roast them in an oven pre-heated to 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. Stir and turn the beans at least once during the course of roasting. The roasting time will vary with the size of the beans--they are done when they have a somewhat wrinkled and blistered look, with light-brown spots here and there. A marvelous toasty fragrance will alert you.

While the beans are roasting, peel the tomatoes and chop them, keeping all the juice. Mince the reserved clove of garlic, combine the tomatoes, their juice, the garlic, the remaining olive oil, some balsamic vinegar, a little salt and pepper, and the chopped basil. Crush everything together a bit to blend the flavors. When the beans are ready, transfer them to a big, shallow bowl and pour the tomato dressing over them. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

I need to get back to the kitchen to make the dressing. I hope you are enjoying the local flavors in your area. I'd love to hear what you're eating!

"I'm not Shaq" - And Some Other Thoughts on Creating Peace

2009-08-02T15:07:00.005-05:00

One of my coaching clients is struggling because she feels angry and resentful about a perceived injustice. Her tribunal of friends all agree: she was wronged. When in the midst of a conflict it can be challenging but helpful to ask yourself this question: Do I want to be right or do I want to be happy?

When you want to be happy, or at least peaceful, you don’t have to wait for the transgressor to “get it” and make amends. You can simply choose to be happy, or at least peaceful. To illustrate this point I’d like you to consider Shaquille O’Neal.

A lot of suffering comes from the thought that reality should be different than it is. We think people shouldn’t act the way they are acting - they should act in a manner that is pleasing to us. And very often we have the tribunal agreeing with us.

So that’s the first reason to allow Shaq into your consciousness. Because you have in him a highly-trained athlete—a champion at his sport—who sometimes messes up. That’s right: Shaq is going to win some games and he is going to lose some games, no matter how much his fans want him to win all the time. No matter how much his fans think he should win all the time.

Now look at the people in your life. None of us is paid millions of dollars and ensured the cheers of the masses as a reward for making others in our lives happy. Nobody gets a championship ring for being selfless; nobody gets a college scholarship for conflict resolution. Truth be told, we probably don’t even give others in our lives a lot of positive reinforcement for making us happy.

Shaq loses the occasional game, and there’s nothing his fans can do about it. The people in our lives can make us unhappy. And once again, there’s not a lot we can do to change them. People are going to be who they are. But in any conflict, you can do something about the other person—you. You can do a lot about how you perceive the situation.

Enter Shaq, again. Because if you have been hurt or frustrated by someone’s behavior, you might want to try practicing non-attachment, otherwise known as the art of not taking things personally. If someone has hurt or frustrated me it’s because I (at least at one time) cared about how the person behaved. And I’ve learned to take the heat out of a conflict by playing with the idea that it has nothing to do with me. That it involves someone else, someone as unlike me as possible. Someone like a certain 7-foot tall champion basketball player.

Try it: when faced with conflict or criticism, receive the other person’s words or actions as if they were directed at Shaq. Because if a stranger called you and said, “Hey Shaq, you lost that game last night! You are a LOSER!” you would find the exchange odd, but I’m guessing you wouldn’t take it personally. You would say, “Um, I’m not Shaq.” and end the conversation. Declining to react negatively can really be that simple—though it does take some practice – and helps create peace.

And finally, one of the hardest things about rolling with conflict is dealing with our own failure, our own culpability. And that’s where another champion basketball player comes in. Michael Jordan once said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve failed over and over again in my life.” Somehow we don’t usually connect failure with Michael Jordan and yet he also said that failing helped him succeed. And it’s true for all of us. There is not one of us who is perfect and above reproach - we all fail over and over again. And we all have the same opportunity to learn from our failures, get back in the game and have some fun.

This week I'm rejoicing in...Facebook! I'm having so much fun over there. If you haven't already, I wish you would join me. If you were over there you'd see a really cool picture of Shaq along with this article. (I couldn't figure out how to put it up here.)

If you follow my blog, you've probably noticed that the frequency of posts has diminished. I am spending more time over at my Facebook page. I really enjoy posting daily messages that are grounded in positive psychology and they often lead to fun discussions. So if you'd like to join me, just go to Facebook and search for me, Stacey Curnow. Hope to see you there!

Full Sun Farm 12th Week!

2009-07-29T18:59:00.002-05:00

It's high summer and we've got a box from our CSA to prove it! Other interests - mainly summer fun - have left me with little time for the computer and blogging, but I love the bounty we get from our CSA so much that I feel compelled to share it here! I hope you are enjoying wonderful seasonal and local fare, too!

What's in the Box:

Red and Green Leaf Lettuce
Summer Squash
Carrots
Green Peppers
Eggplant
Green Beans
Red and Heirloom Tomatoes
Potatoes
Basil

Notes from the farm:

The green peppers in your box would turn red if left on the plant, but in this climate they often succumb to disease before they fully mature. As such, it is rare that we have enough red peppers for the CSA. I like to eat the green peppers cooked and stuffed, as in this recipe from Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone:

2 bell peppers, halved lengthwise
2 tbsp butter
1 bunch scallions, including the greens, thinly sliced
2-1/2 to 3 cups corn kernels
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
4-5 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, or 1 cup grated cheddar or monterey jack
2 tbsp finely sliced basil leaves
2/3 cup fresh bread crumbs
salt and freshly milled pepper
paprika

Preheat the oven to 375. Lightly butter a baking dish just large enough to hold the peppers. If the peppers won't stand upright, slice them lengthwise in half, leaving the stem end intact. Steam them for 5 minutes and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the scallions, corn, and tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes over medium heat. Turn off the heat and stir in the cheese, basil, and half the bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper. Fill the peppers and top with remaining bread crumbs. Set them in the prepared dish, add a few tablespoons water to the dish, cover, and bake until the corn is hot and the peppers are cooked, about 25 minutes. Uncover and brown the tops under the broiler. Dust with paprika and serve.

And here's a lovely idea for an eggplant pancake - one of our farmers adapted the recipe from Almost Vegetarian:

1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp yogurt
1/2 pound eggplant, roasted, peeled and chopped
2 scallions, sliced
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

To roast the eggplant, pierce several times with the tines of a fork and place them on a tray under the broiler. Broil until the skin buckles, 4 to 6 minutes. Carefully turn them over and broil another 3 to 5 minutes. When they have cooled, strip the skin, chop the pulp and transfer to a mixing bowl.

In another large bowl, whisk together the egg, flour, and yogurt until smooth. Stir in the eggplant, scallions, and sesame seeds until well blended. Heat a nonstick griddle over medium heat. When hot, add the eggplant batter 1/4 cup at a time. Cook until bubbles form on the surface and the bottom has browned, about 7 minutes. Turn over and cook to brown the other side. Serve warm.

What Matters Most

2009-07-26T08:36:00.006-05:00

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least. Goethe

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

This principle was named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. But enough people have observed this principle at work in other areas that it’s worth considering its application to our lives in general.

I’ve seen this in my garden, for example: 20% of my tomato plants are producing 80% of my fruit. It used to confuse me how one plant would be heavy with fruit while the others produced so little, but the Pareto Principle helps me understand it.

In his book The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss explains how his business took off when he started applying the Pareto Principle. He looked over his balance sheets and saw that 80% of his sales came from 20% of his products. He also noticed that just a small percentage of problem clients were taking up the majority of his time.

Drawing on these insights, he refocused his energy on his most successful products. And—in one of the most memorable stories from the book—he “fired” his three most problematic clients, informing them that they could either order via fax—the most hassle-free method of ordering he had—or they could look elsewhere for his product. As a result, he cut his workload significantly while doubling the volume of his sales.

What I took away from Ferriss’ exploration of the principle was its dual nature. Based on his experiences—and on my own—you have a choice: you can exert your energy in the direction that brings you the greatest rewards—often seemingly without any great effort on your part—or you can direct your energy where getting even the smallest amount of return seems like an uphill climb.

I shared this principle recently with one of my coaching clients. She is a brilliant entrepreneur and yet she often feels overwhelmed and frustrated. She has been spending the bulk of her time satisfying other people in ways that have little or nothing to do with what brings her satisfaction.

She still has something to show for her time and energy—her colleagues love her, and her clients see her as a sort of superhero fighting for their success—but these were not the rewards she was looking for when she started her business.

On the other hand, she could see areas where she did want to direct her energy. She engaged volunteers to write newsletters and keep up with other social media. She hired an assistant to take care of aspects of the business that did not require her immediate attention, like responding to emails.

Delegating her responsibilities frees up time to do what she’s really good at – providing services and developing new ideas - while still allowing her to do other things she loves – like preparing and enjoying meals with her partner, taking walks with her dogs and meeting friends for bike rides. And she is happier than she ever thought possible.

Most folks would agree that the majority of their time is not spent on their priorities or the aspects of their lives they find most gratifying, and that’s why they can benefit from this principle.

To apply the Pareto principle to your life you only have to do one thing – focus your attention on what matters most, the things you do well and what makes you happy.

This week I'm rejoicing in local food - simple preparations of seasonal fare are always delicious and free up time to go for more walks in the evening (with a stop at the playground) and spot the last of the fireflies.

What about you? What do you enjoy most and how will you give it more attention?

Full Sun Farm 11th Week

2009-07-22T13:08:00.003-05:00

What's in the Box
Lettuce Mix
Chioggia Beets
Corn
Red and Heirloom Tomatoes
Onions
Garlic

Corn! Glorious Corn! Like the beloved tomatoe, we only eat corn when it is fresh in season - which seems like a precious few weeks.

It's been a year since we last had any but as soon as my 4 year-old son saw the corn on his plate he asked "Where are the green things to hold it?" I had forgotten them - the little holders that are screwed into the cobs before cooking (we prefer the quick boiling method listed below) and are immediately cool enough to touch - but he hadn't!

They were easy enough to put in even when the corn was hot and G quickly ate his one ear and asked - and finished - another. I will to remember to buy even more corn next week - what we get with our farm share is clearly not enough!

Notes from the farm:

The corn and tomatoes make this an appropriate mid-summer box. Because both are absolutely fresh at this time of year, it is likely that we will all want to take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy corn as corn and tomato as tomato, and to subject both to minimal preparation and minimal mingling with other flavors.

For simple corn on the cob, bring a large pot of water to a boil. While it's heating, pull the husks off the corn, rub off the silk, and cut off any blemished tips. When the water comes to a boil, drop in the ears and cook for 2 minuets. (Don't salt the water--it only toughens the corn.) Pull out the ears with tongs, set them on a towel to drain briefly, then pile on a platter. Serve with salt, fresh-ground pepper, and butter.

The tomatoes are easily prepared with a balsamic vinegar glaze: Core the tomatoes, then cut them into wedges about 1 1/2 inches across at the widest point. In a skillet large enough to hold the tomatoes in a single layer, heat 2 tbsp of butter until it foams. Add the tomatoes and saute over high heat, turning them over several times, until their color begins to dull, about 3 minutes. Add 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 1 finely diced shallot or small onion and shake the pan back and forth until the vinegar has reduced, leaving a dark, thick sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

If you are interested in combining the two a little more elaborately, try this recipe for corn with cumin, chile, and tomato. (Like the above preparations, this recipe is from Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone.)

6 ears corn, kernels and scrapings removed separately
1 garlic clove
1 tsp ground toasted cumin seeds
salt and freshly milled pepper
2 tbsp corn oil or butter
1 onion, finely diced
1 long green chile, roasted and diced
1 large ripe tomato, seeded and diced
1 tbsp chopped cilantro, parsley, or dill

In a blender, puree 1 cup of the corn kernels with 1 cup water for 3 minutes. Strain, pushing out as much liquid as you can. Meanwhile, pound the garlic, cumin, 1/4 tsp salt, and a little pepper in a mortar until smooth. Heat the oil in a wide skillet with the onion, pounded garlic, and chile. Saute over medium-high heat for 4 minutes. Stir in the remaining corn kernels, scrapings, and pureed corn (corn milk). Lower the heat, cover the pan, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tomato at the end and cook until warmed through. Taste for salt, stir in the parsley, and serve.

Envy Is

2009-07-19T07:43:00.006-05:00

A child can always teach an adult 3 things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires. Paulo Coelho

This article is inspired by a comment a reader left after my post last week.

Colleen was at a workshop where the instructor was preparing to leave for a week-long trip to Italy. Someone else in the class said, “You are so spoiled to get to go there.” And Colleen replied, "No. She is not spoiled: she is creating and living her dream - manifesting it."

If you’re like me you probably heard some envy behind the “spoiled” remark. I interpreted it to mean that this classmate wished she could be on her way to a really cool trip to Italy.

I mean, who wouldn’t?

Of course, I know that “envy” has a negative connotation. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, we could learn to embrace envy – to pay attention to it as a strong signal from our deepest selves. Envy is simply desire clouded by the belief that we can’t have what we want.

But we can have it. If we think of envy as a gift we haven’t opened yet, we can learn to open it and see the thing we really want.

Back in February 2001, I wrote in my journal that I envied someone with whom I worked. She had spent years of her life working as a medical missionary in Haiti and I envied the circumstances that seemed to make the travel and service possible for her.

At the time I thought that a medical mission would be impossible for me because it would be irresponsible to leave my good job– with no guarantee that another job would be waiting for me when I got back – to do volunteer work in another country.

But then I had an epiphany: The envy I felt for my colleague helped me focus my desire on living and working abroad. I decided to commit to my dream, and as you know from my last article, providence moved and supported me every step of the way.

What I learned is that envy is a form of ignorance. It comes from an ignorance of ourselves and our ability to achieve any outcome we want if we just set our minds to it. Envy reveals something that we don’t know about ourselves and need to know in order to achieve our own perfect happiness.

At its heart, envy is desire – a sign pointing in the direction of our dreams, a sign we need to pay attention to on our journey. It may not always point us in the direction of Italy, but it always directs us toward any great big dream that we think is unattainable, but really isn’t.

When I wrote Colleen back and asked if she thought there was an element of envy in the statement “You’re so spoiled…” she agreed. She also added that there was no malice in the statement, just wistfulness. And I believe the sense of wistfulness – really, powerlessness – associated with our desires is another misunderstanding.

Envy is a form of power. I want us to see envy as a manifestation of our desire - of wanting something - and associate that feeling with power. Rather than feel wistful about what you want, get excited. Be like the child and demand with all your might that which you desire.

This week I'm rejoicing in the delicious anticipation I feel when I know there is something I want. Want to know the current object of my desire? My husband calls it Prius Envy.

Full Sun Farm 10th Week

2009-07-15T16:14:00.004-05:00

What's in the Box
Green Leaf Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Summer Squash
Cucumber
Eggplant
Potatoes
Heirloom Tomatoes
Basil
Parsley

It seems that all CSA members got different varieties of the heirloom tomatoes - we got Aunt Ruby's Green and a Striped German. Yum!

I also couldn't resist getting myself that gorgeous bouquet of sun and wildflowers. They make me smile every time I look at them.

If you follow my menu plans you know I love frittatas. They are made quickly and easily and use up the abundance of eggs from our chickens. This recipe for trouchia (chard and onion frittata) is from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone, one of my favorites.

The trick is to cook everything slowly so that the onions become carmelized and sweet and the flavors deepen.

3 tbsp olive oil
1 large red or white onion, quartered and thinly sliced crosswise
1 bunch chard, leaves only, chopped
salt and pepper
1 garlic clove
6 to 8 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp chopped basil
2 tbsp chopped thyme
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese
2 tbsp grated Parmesan

Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a 10-inch skillet, add the onion, and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until completely soft but not colored, about 15 minutes. Add the chard and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until all the moisture has cooked off and the chard is tender, about 15 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, mash the garlic in a mortar with a few pinches of salt, then stir it into the eggs along with the herbs. Combine the chard mixture with the eggs and stir in the Gruyere and half the Parmesan.

Preheat the broiler. Heat the remaining oil in the skillet and, when it's hot, add the eggs. Give a stir and keep the heat at medium-high for about a minute, then turn it to low. Cook until the eggs are set but still a little moist on top, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the remaining Parmesan and broil until browned. Serve trouchia in the pan or slide it onto a serving dish and cut it in wedges.

What's Cooking 7.12-7.18

2009-07-14T09:55:00.011-05:00

This is a very full week, so I am getting our weekly menu out a little late. My parents actually came by on Sunday and brought a chicken and other food for us and that helped us postpone a trip to the store until today. Their thoughtfulness was especially appreciated because I worked full days in clinic on Monday and Tuesday. My husband filled in the rest of the gaps with one shopping trip (with our 4 year-old no less! he's my hero!) at our pricey whole foods store for a total of $49.22.

Monday:
Curried Split Peas
Brown Rice
Sweet Potatoes
Green Salad

Tuesday:
Green Chili
Brown Rice
Green Salad

Wednesday:Late Night at the Pool!
Grilled Bratwursts
Whole Wheat Buns
Coleslaw
Watermelon

Thursday:
African Groundnut Stew
Whole Wheat Couscous

Friday:
Pizza with homemade dough and sauce
Pepperoni and Roasted Peppers
Green Salad

Saturday:
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Sausage
Grapefruit

Sunday:
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos
Green Salad
Chips, Salsa and Guacamole

Providence Moves

2009-07-12T15:24:00.002-05:00

I just found out on Friday that Verve - a fabulous local magazine - wants to publish an article about the time I lived and worked in Mexico with Doctors Without Borders in 2002. A full version of this article will be published in an upcoming issue, but I hope you will read this abridged version and see how my committing to a decision 7 years ago opened the door to the life I love!

When I started working as a midwife 11 years ago I joined a wonderful private practice. I worked in a clinic 5 days a week and was on call for births 7-8 days of the month. I’ve always loved helping women achieve the birth of their dreams.

After almost 4 years at this practice, however, I found myself wanting more. I found that I enjoyed interacting most with the few Latina women who came to a public health clinic I staffed one morning a week.

I realized that I wanted to be fluent in Spanish to better serve Latina women. I also wanted part-time work that would give me the opportunity to do what I loved and fulfill my dream of becoming a mother.

I didn’t know there was a job that would fulfill my desires, but I felt compelled to lay the groundwork for finding it, inspired in part by this quote from Scottish mountaineer WH Murray: The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision.

And sure enough, as I took my first step, providence moved. Thinking that I needed to improve my Spanish and better understand Latino culture, I applied to Doctors Without Borders and within a month was offered an interview in their New York office. As it happened I was going to be in New York anyway to run in the NYC Marathon and could easily set up a time to talk with the director of the organization.

During my interview, however, I learned they had no positions for midwives in Latin America. I explained I wasn’t interested in any other placement. So the director said she would keep my application, but didn’t think there would ever be a desirable position for me.

I continued to think of other ways I could meet my goals and trusted something would come to me. Less than two months later the phone rang, and it was Doctors Without Borders telling me that they were starting a new maternal health project in Mexico—and that the director of the project wanted me to join the medical team!

People thought I was crazy to leave my life in the States for a volunteer position in a remote Mexican village. But I knew, like Murray, that I had created this opportunity by committing to my dream and I was not going to be dissuaded.

So I went and I had an amazing experience – you’ll have to read the upcoming article in Verve for more details of that trip!

What I want to share here is that when I got back to the States I quickly found a job - not just any job, but the job that I had hoped would come my way.

And I still am at that same job today and it is wonderful—I work in a public health practice that serves a large volume of Latina women, using my fluency in Spanish and my knowledge of Latino culture I gleaned through my work with Doctors Without Borders. What’s more, it is part-time, and the salary matches the salary of the full-time job I had left to go to Mexico.

My time in Mexico changed my life in other, more profound ways. What I appreciated most about Mexican culture is how they value family and community, and I have taken great pleasure in fostering the same values. I know that my life, and the lives of those around me have been enriched because of this appreciation.

In the end, my time in Mexico opened a window on life in a dramatically different culture and a setting. It also opened the door to a new life for me here at home.

This week I'm rejoicing in the amazing alchemy that occurs when you decide to create a life you love.

Full Sun Farm 9th Week!

2009-07-08T21:19:00.003-05:00

What's in the Box:
Red or Green Leaf Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Beets, topped
Summer Squash
Green Onions
Garlic
Cherry Tomatoes

The picture really doesn't do justice to the tomatoes - the first pint from the farm! - they are gorgeous and absolutely delicious. Our Sungold cherry tomatoes from our own vines are also ripe - the ones G calls "chocolate 'matos" because they are so sweet. He pulls them down and eats them by the handful and I think he has eaten more than his dad and I combined! He is really taking after me here: Tomatoes are truly my favorite seasonal offering - I gorge myself on them during the summer and shun them for the rest of the year.

Beets were the most abundant offering from the farm this week so it seems fitting to offer a recipe for Beet Risotto. It is from Almost Vegetarian and described as "brilliant in color with a sweet burst of beet in every bite." I think it will make a perfect lunch on Saturday!

2 medium beets, topped
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp orange zest
1 cup arborio rice
2 tbsp raspberry or lemon vinegar
pinch of sugar
1 tbsp sour cream or yogurt cheese

1. Put beets and bay leaf in a saucepan and add 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, over medium heat, until the beets are cooked through, about 40 minutes.

2. Remove the beets with a slotted spoon, then strain the cooking water and discard the bay leaf. Pour the cooking water back into the saucepan. Slip the skins off the beets.

3. Chop 1 of the beets and set aside. In a food processor puree the other beet and stir into the strained broth. Cover the broth and keep it at a gentle simmer over low heat.
(The portion of the recipe above--the beet broth--can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator, and used as a base for things other than the risotto that follows.)

4. In another large, heavy saucepan, melt the butter. Add the onion and orange zest, and saute over medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent, about 7 minutes. Add the chopped beet, and stir well. Add the rice and stir until it is well coated with the seasonings and is glistening, about 2 minutes.

5. Add the vinegar and stir until it evaporates, about 2 minutes.

6. Using a ladle, add about 1 cup hot broth. Stir constantly over medium heat until the broth has been absorbed. Add another ladleful of broth and keep stirring until it has been absorbed.

7. Continue the process, adding broth 1/2 cup at a time and stirring in this way until the kernels are plump and no longer chalk white in the center. This should take 25-30 minutes altogether. the rice is almost done when the kernels are still separate but starting to bind, and there are pools of broth on the surface. It is done when the liquid had been absorbed, and the kernels are bound in what looks like very ricey, yet somewhat creamy, rice pudding.

8. When the risotto is done, stir in the sugar, cream or yogurt cheese, and stir well to blend. Serve at once.

Enjoy!

What's Cooking 7.6-7.12

2009-07-06T20:34:00.002-05:00

I managed to make it to Amazing Savings for the bulk of my shopping and stocked up on organic cereal, vegetables and cheese. I spent $60.46. Then I went to our pricey whole foods store to complete my list. There I spent $23.26. For a grand total this week of $83.72. Nice.

Summer squash, carrots, onions and swiss chard are still plentiful from our CSA share, so if any recipe calls for mixed veg or greens you know what I'll be adding to the dish!

Monday:
Guadalajaran Swiss Chard Quesadillas
Chips and Salsa

Tuesday:
Ratatouille
Whole Wheat Pasta

Wednesday:Late Night at the Pool!
Grilled Portobello Pizzas

Thursday:
Leftovers

Friday:
Pizza with homemade crust and sauce
Roasted Peppers and Pepperoni
Green Salad

Saturday:
Mixed Vegetable Kootu
Brown Rice

Sunday:
Spinach Feta and Tomato Quiche
Green Salad

Lessons of the Albatross

2009-07-05T09:12:00.013-05:00

Last week a friend and I were talking about some challenges in his life and I remembered a line from a poem by Robert Bly:

The albatross that lands on the mast began flying a thousand years ago.

A long time ago, back when we were pure positive energy, we didn’t doubt for a minute that manifesting would be pretty cool. But when we arrive in our physical forms and challenges pop up, we forget that every experience is an opportunity to discover what we really want and to become our best selves.

We don’t need circumstances to be pleasing, or for others to make things easier for us, or to give us praise, or even acknowledgement. It’s wonderful to get those things - but not at all necessary.

What’s necessary is to know that we’ve got everything we need inside us for a great journey. By the fact of our existence we are worthy of love and all good things. We already are love and all good things.

It’s funny, I think my albatross metaphor distracted him, because, as it turns out, he is quite a bird lover and has a bit of an issue with the albatross.

“Wait a second,” he said, “The albatross? That’s like a dodo bird. And it symbolizes adversity.” Moments after we hung up I received an email from him, citing a Wikipedia entry:

An albatross is a central emblem in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is from the poem that the usage of albatross as a metaphor is derived; someone with a burden or obstacle is said to have 'an albatross around their neck', the punishment given in the poem to the mariner who killed the albatross.

So he didn’t like the metaphor, but after learning more about the albatross, I think it is very apt.

First of all, going back to the poem, the sailor was punished because he had destroyed something that was considered sacred. When we forget or are unable to see that we have come to this planet to accomplish something special, it is a similar waste.

We are here to do good work and do it well. Experiencing joy is the greatest measure of our success. And when we focus on what is not going well, it’s like we are hanging the albatross around our necks.

On the other hand, live albatrosses are symbols of effortlessness. And here again, I think the metaphor is apt. Also from Wikipedia:

Albatrosses are amongst the largest of flying birds, and the great albatrosses (genus Diomedea) have the largest wingspans of any extant birds…They are highly efficient in the air, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring to cover great distances with little exertion.

Knowing some of the cool attributes of albatrosses, who wouldn't love them? And you know what's also cool? Covering great distances with little exertion is what my coaching practice is all about!

I hope you will visit my website and discover more: I offer a free E-Book about the benefits of humor, lots of inspiring articles and science-based coaching programs - all intended to help you create a life you love!

This week I'm rejoicing in the lessons of the albatross!

Happy 4th!

2009-07-04T21:44:00.003-05:00

We just got back from a spectacular show of fireworks. It was the first we've ever shared with G. He loved it! We also lighted some sparklers and I think he enjoyed them as much as our town's grand display. I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th!

Keeping Fridays Fabulous

2009-07-03T13:06:00.004-05:00

We're keeping Fridays fabulous around here! This week we hosted G's best friend, B, and her two sisters. After creating giant chalk drawings on our back porch (you can see some of the blue chalk ended up on G's cheek in the 2nd picture), I asked if the kids would like to help me in the kitchen.

I had a couple of bananas that were going south so I thought muffins were in order and tonight we're having a picnic and "Shakespearience" (a collection of scenes from Shakepeare's plays) at a park so I wanted to make brownies, too.

Of course, these kids don't need any reason other than to eat some delicious treats and they seemed to enjoy the process of making them as much as eating them!

We barely got the batter in the pans after everyone submitted it to tasting for quality control!

12 mini-muffins and half a pan of brownies were gobbled up in less time than it took to make them (and much less time than it took to clean up after)! It was a very sweet morning in every way.

Full Sun Farm 8th Week!

2009-07-01T20:25:00.002-05:00

What's in the Box:

Red Leaf Lettuce

Green Leaf Lettuce

Green Kale

Swiss Chard

Carrots

Cucumbers

Leeks

Parsley

Red Pontiac Potatoes

Notes from the Farm:

The potatoes in this week's box are the first we have dug this year. At this point in the season they are technically "new" potatoes, a designation that refers to potatoes of any variety that are harvested young.

At this stage of their life cycle they haven't fully converted their sugar into starch, and one result of this is a thin, underdeveloped skin. Because the skin sloughs easily, we haven't washed the potatoes before putting them in the box; be gentle when you scrub them and they'll hold up fine.

Because they hold their shape after being cooked and cut, new potatoes are said to be particularly suited for potato salad, and are also excellent boiled or pan-roasted.

During the hotter months of the season Swiss chard will be the staple green. Kale and collards don't tolerate the heat; we're harvesting the last of their spring planting now, and we've sown the fall plantings of each, but chard will continue to be planted and harvested throughout the summer months.

The tender greens and crisp, celery-like stalks can be prepared separately or together. Farmer John's Cookbook describes this as the classic Mediterranean preparation of Swiss chard:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup thinly sliced onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 bunch Swiss chard, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup raisins

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

salt

pepper

1. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 15 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more.

2. Add the chard in batches, adding more as each batch wilts (the only water you will need is the water clinging to the leaves from rinsing), and keep the pan covered between batches. When all the chard is added and the leaves are wilted, stir in the raisins, pine nuts, lemon juice, and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

What's Cooking 6.29-7.5

2009-06-29T16:55:00.004-05:00

I only had time for one trip to our whole foods shop and the total was $78.89. When I got home from the store my husband and son were playing soccer in the street. My son ran up to the car to see the groceries in the trunk. My husband asked if he was going to come back to play soccer and my son said, "First I have to sit on the watermelon!" (A reference to last week's shopping trip!)

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday:
Spicy Sausage and Beet Green Ragout (I'll use beets greens, instead of the turnip greens called for in the recipe.)
Polenta
Green Salad

Tuesday: (I'm in the hospital for my 24-hour shift.)
Leftovers

Wednesday: Late Night at the Pool!
Hickory Nut Gap Farm Grilled Bratwurst
Homemade Whole Wheat Buns
Homemade Cole Slaw

Thursday:
Spicy Hummus
Grilled Pita
Greek Salad

Friday:
Pizza with homemade crust and sauce
Pepperoni and Peppers
Spinach Salad

Saturday:
Miso-Sesame Noodle Salad
with Red Pepper, Shiitake Mushrooms and Peas

Sunday:
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Bacon
Grapefruit

Continuous Small Treats

2009-06-28T07:26:00.012-05:00

One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats. Iris Murdoch

A few months ago my friend Angela (who writes the wonderful blog My Year Without Spending) shared the above quote and it's one of my favorites. I try to go through my days living its truth, but sometimes life is so full of other things that I have to make plans for such treats.

So far this summer our days have been replete with many quotidian joys: fresh-cut grass, line- dried sheets (which of the two offers the most quintessential smell of summer?), Coronas with lime wedges, pulp fiction (the rest of the year is reserved for Edith Wharton, Ian McEwan and Haruki Murakami, but summer is all about Janet Evanovich), thunderstorms, dining al fresco with food I harvested from our very own garden, all local fruit - and that's just naming a few.

I'm not planning any of them and still they show up with magical effortlessness.

Last night after dinner we played soccer in the street, made ice cream cones and ate them while we took a walk in our neighborhood - which turned into a game of tag and a dance with fireflies. The walk (and sticky fingers, chins and legs from melted ice cream!) led to a bath - which turned into a tickle fest and ended with reading one of our favorite books, Blueberries for Sal.

(Even though we've gotten blueberries from our CSA, the berries from our bushes are still a little green. Every morning we check on them hoping to get a handful before the birds gobble them up.)

This morning we shared our sweet Sunday custom of baking homemade cinnamon buns and eating them on our back deck.

Then we played on the swing set, made castles in the sandbox and traced a friendly cat (who has been visiting us a lot lately) back to his home.

I'll finish this up and then we head to the pool...

This week I'm rejoicing head-over-heels in the continuous small treats of summer.

What are your favorite summer pleasures? Please let me know in the comments section below!

PS: My e-book Rx: Humor! is now available as an immediate download from my website! You can read the latest research related to humor (as well as some of my favorite jokes) and watch a fabulously funny comedy bit (my husband added the hyperlinks) all within minutes! (You don't have to leave any contact information to download it, but I'd love to hear your feedback if you'd like to share!)

Full Sun Farm 7th Week!

2009-06-27T15:10:00.003-05:00

I was in Hickory on Wednesday, so my husband was in charge of the pickup from the Farmer's Market this week. Alas, he forgot, but our wonderful farmers said we could pick up again on Saturday.

My husband more than made up for the oversight by bringing home a gorgeous bouquet of mammoth sunflowers from another local farm. I put them on the table where I am writing now and I'm completely captivated by their beauty.

What's in the box:

Lettuce Mix

Green Kale
Red Beets
Carrots
Summer Squash
Onions
Cabbage
Basil

Blueberries

Based on the today's bounty I am inspired to make a pasta primavera with local chevre for our dinner tonight. I hope you are enjoying something local, fresh and delicious, too!

If you've got an over-abundance of squash, do plan on making the "squash-amole" recipe listed below. We learned of it several years ago from our farmers and it's a real favorite in our home when served with salty tortilla chips, beer and lime wedges. Buen Provecho!

Notes from the farm:
As anyone who has grown summer squash knows, the plants are large and productive. This often leads to an excess of the fruit during summertime, and at some point you may find yourself wondering what to do with all of it. We recommend the following recipe for now or for later in the season when summer squash is no longer a novelty.

Like many of the recipes I include, this one is from Vegetables From Amaranth To Zucchini. Any kind of summer squash can be used, which makes this squash-based "guacamole" especially useful.

3 lbs summer squash of any size or shape

1/2 head of fairly large garlic cloves

1 large onion

1 tsp kosher salt

2 tbsp corn oil

1/2 cup basil or mint leaves

1/2 cup parsley

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream (this can be replaced with 1/4 cup olive oil drizzled slowly into the food processor)

salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375. Clean squash and halve lengthwise, then cut so they are all the size of the smallest squash. Spread cut side down in a single layer in an oiled roasting pan.

2. Separate but do not peel garlic and lay among squash. Quarter and peel onion and add to the pan. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with oil.

3. Bake until squashes are soft, 1 to 1.5 hours. Baste several times with cooking juices and remove from oven.

4. When garlic is cool, remove skins. Place basil and parsley in a food processor. Add warm vegetables and garlic and blend to a smooth puree, scraping sides as needed. With motor running, add lemon juice, then slowly drizzle in cream or olive oil. Add salt and pepper and more lemon juice as needed. Chill to serve.

Clouds Bring Sunshine and Laughter

2009-06-26T12:43:00.007-05:00

Today G's best friend came over to play. They had a blast and filled up the morning by constructing castles with new "moon sand", painting, eating snacks and playing in the yard.

After a couple of hours they were covered with paint, sand, crumbs and other assorted debris. I debated hosing them off or putting them in the bath. I asked which they would prefer.

They chose the bath option. Hosing them off might have been easier and as fun, but it wouldn't have produced the bubbles that became the highlight of the morning.

They spent at least an hour in the tub happily splashing, swimming and covering themselves with bubbles. At one point B said to G, "You look like a cloud!" and that's when I ran to get my camera.

What's Cooking 6.22-6.28

2009-06-22T06:59:00.001-05:00

Last week our family shared preparation for all the evening meals and it was so fun. And I made my mom breakfast and lunch every day so she decided I was exempt from any evening clean-up!

I hadn't thought to broker that deal when I made sure that she was getting food throughout the day (she is likely to forget to eat because she gets so involved with everything that is going on), but it was great for me!

So when I went to our pricey whole foods store today, I felt like I had not shopped in ages! (Happily, other family members did the food shopping for our vacation.)

And I was so happy to see the high quality local and organic foods! (There were none at the reportedly scary Food City in New Tazwell, TN.) Even though I bought large amounts of green and black tea, the grand total was only $80.13. Hooray!

Some of the food got cut off from the photo because my son decided to put down his tools, sit on the watermelon and smile for the camera. I think the loss is worth it. :)

This week it is back to to my own kitchen and although I will miss the bustle of the communal kitchen, I still will be preparing food in great quantity.

In preparation for working in the hospital from Tuesday morning through Thursday afternoon I will double the recipes for the burritos and stew so there will be ample leftovers for the rest of the week.

These recipes are two of our favorites so we will enjoy eating them twice in one week. And knowing that we will eat well in a busy week is a great thing.

Monday:
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos
Green Salad
Chips and Salsa

Tuesday:
Leftovers

Wednesday:
Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew with Couscous

Thursday:
Leftovers

Friday:
Pizza with homemade crust and sauce
Pepperoni and Roasted Peppers
Green Salad

Saturday:
Grilled Salmon Packets
with Spinach and Couscous

Sunday:
Swiss Chard Frittata (the recipe calls for frozen spinach but I use a bunch of fresh chard)
Grapefruit

My First E-Book! And It's Free for YOU!

2009-06-21T15:34:00.007-05:00

There has never been any better advice than Joseph Campbells, “Follow your bliss.”

My coaching practice, Midwife for Your Life, is all about how we can learn to cultivate joy so that we can live happier and healthier lives. I decided to offer a free E-Book on this very topic as an introduction to what my practice has to offer.

And here's the introduction to my book - Rx Humor! Midwife for Your Life's Prescription for Health and Happiness

I work as a certified nurse-midwife and a life coach. As a nurse-midwife I work in a public health system that serves women who otherwise would not receive care. They often have very few resources available to them.

What I have seen from working with them, as well as my private coaching clients, is that encouraging one’s sense of humor confers huge benefits and – even better - doesn’t cost a thing.

Scientific research shows that happiness is linked to emotional resilience – the ability to keep afloat in even the most challenging circumstances –and improved health outcomes.

Interestingly, you can be happy or cheerful and not find humor or laugh a lot, but research also shows that satisfaction with one’s life increases exponentially with the ability to be laugh.
So this book is all about harnessing humor to live your very best life.

You see, humor is the ability to shift perspective away from the conventional view of a concept and that’s why it’s exactly the ability you want to hone when you want to improve your life.

Researchers at the University of Zurich found that one benefit of cheerfulness is a psychic robustness that emotionally buffers people against crises and enables them to see silver linings in major disappointments such as the loss of a job or a chronic illness.

So let’s make sure that we are focusing as much as we can on the things that are pleasing to us, the things that delight us and the things that make us laugh so hard our stomach cramps.

And when you get my book, as a special bonus, I include a link to what I think is the funniest video clip ever! I crack up just thinking about it!

So if you'd like to receive a copy of my book, please go to my website and download it!

This week I'm rejoicing in so many things - my sweet family after a lovely week spent together at a beautiful lake house, my husband, who on Father's Day and every day, is celebrated as the very best father I could ever imagine for my son, and laughter. All of them elevate my life to great heights! I am a very lucky woman.

Full Sun Farm 6th Week!

2009-06-20T15:16:00.005-05:00

We were still out of town for the pick-up on Wednesday, but the good folks at Full Sun Farm held our box till I could pick it up this morning from the thriving North Asheville Market - quite a treat on this lovely, mild summer morning.

Here's what we got:

Lettuce Mix

Green Kale

Swiss Chard

Broccoli

Cucumbers

Summer Squash

Fennel

Parsley

Blueberries

Notes from the Farm (and a recipe!)

Broccoli is essentially a bouquet of flowers on one thick stem. Each of the small buds in a head of broccoli is a tiny undeveloped flower that would bloom yellow if left in the field. This is the part of the plant most of us gravitate toward, but don't overlook the stalk and any leaves--they're as fully edible as the florets, and possibly more nutritious. Enjoy the whole plant with a delicious asian-style dressing:

Broccoli

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

3 tbsp peanut oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1/2 tsp hot chili oil (optional)

Separate florets from the stalk and break into smaller florets. Cut the stalk into 1-inch lengths and then into matchstick-size strips. Place broccoli (stalk and florets) in steamer basket and cover; steam over boiling water for 5 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl and stir until combined. Pour the dressing over the broccoli and mix well.

Also: Think of fennel as an herb and vegetable in one package. Use the leafy fronds as an herb in salads or anything that can use the anise flavor it imparts. Chop their thin stalks just above the bulb--the bulb itself can be grilled or roasted, and it can be eaten raw. Try it in a salad, or brush raw slices with olive oil and lemon juice, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve.

Small But Powerful

2009-06-14T15:39:00.007-05:00

I have a small but powerful family. I didn’t grow up with a large extended family. My mom was an only child and my father only has one brother and he and his family always lived on the other side of the country and we almost never saw them.

As I grew up my family consisted of my two parents and my older-by-17-months brother. When I was 12, my parents had another son. We have always been a close knit family and we have always enjoyed each others' company immensely.

About 10 years ago I had the good fortune to spend time with a friend whom I hadn’t seen for almost 15 years. One of the questions he asked while catching up was whether my family and I still played games together.

It seems that one of his strongest memories of me was that I was always playing games with my family -– Pinocle, Spades, Scrabble, Monopoly, Parcheesi – we played them all, all the time. I laughed and said, yes indeed, we still loved to play games together.

My parents only live 40 minutes away, so weekly Scrabble games are still the norm, but I only get to spend time with my brothers a handful of times a year.

Holidays are generally spent together, but time seems to speed up with all the festivities and we usually only get in one game of cards and a board game at best.

One week every summer, though, we converge on a house by the water (ocean or lake) and the games begin in earnest.

As I write this, everyone is playing poker, even the children. (And my 7-year-old nephew is winning!)

We only just arrived on Friday night, but already time has altered and we are adapting to the new, slower rhythms of sleeping late, going to the water, making and eating meals together, and, of course, playing games.

I’m sure I will have more pictures to share next week – I only thought to pull out the camera this afternoon, but these photos provide a happy testament to a wonderful, happy family.

This week I am rejoicing in my small, but powerful family.

Full Sun Farm 5th Week!

2009-06-10T07:47:00.002-05:00

Another very leafy week on the farm! Check out the gorgeous kale in the back! And then the big surprise: squash! It's early for squash in these parts - the farmers worked hard to get it in the ground so we could enjoy a splash of color with all the green.

Here's the breakdown of the Box:

Red Leaf Lettuce
Green Leaf Lettuce
Green Kale
Collards
Red Beets
Summer Squash, 1 lb.
Onions, 2 lbs.
Garlic Scapes

My farmers once again shared some fascinating information about about one of my favorite vegetables - beets! I was slow to love beets but now I love, love, love them - but only in roasted form. I had no idea that they are actually related to swiss chard, but they are grown with emphasis on the the bulbous root that forms below ground, whereas chard has been cultivated to forgo formation of such a root in favor of the greens.

I also love the greens and I prepare them like any other cooking green or I add them to my morning juice.

A very simple and lovely way to eat both of them is from Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini:

1 or 2 bunches beets, with greens
1 tsp anise or fennel seeds
1 tbsp butter
lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375. Trim greens from beets and set aside; place each beet on a square of foil large enough to enclose it, and season with anise or fennel. Crimp each package tightly shut. Set beets in roasting pan and bake until tender (40-60 minutes; test by piercing with knife tip). Meanwhile, rinse greens and steam over boiling water, about 5 minutes. Remove beets from oven; keep them wrapped and pinch them back and forth to remove skin. Halve the skinned beets, and heat in pan with butter. Toss steamed greens in lemon juice and arrange in a ring on serving dish with beets nested in the center.

I hope you enjoy it!

What's Cooking 6.8-6-11

2009-06-07T17:46:00.006-05:00

This is going to be a short week because on Friday we leave for a lovely lake vacation with my family! Hooray! Everyday last week my son asked if we are going to the "fishing place" and now he understands that it is only a few days away!

Again, only time for one shopping trip this week. We spent $63.97 at Earth Fare.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday: (I work in clinic so I made this dish Sunday so it would be easy to heat up.)
Southwestern Shredded Potato Crust Quiche
Green Salad

Tuesday: (I'm in the hospital for a 24-hour shift.)
Monastery Style Lentils
Corn Scones
(I also made this Sunday - I included this recipe in a past menu. It's a great way to incorporate tons of greens.)

Wednesday: (Late night at the pool!)
Chopped Black Bean and Avocado Salad
Tortilla Chips and Salsa
Watermelon

Thursday:
Pizza with homemade whole wheat crust and sauce
Pepperoni and Roasted Peppers
Green Salad

I'm planning to make quite a few tasty meals for my family, but I don't have time to post them now. I'll try to post them when I have a moment after a swim in the lake!

No Such Thing As Bad Weather, Part 2

2009-06-07T07:42:00.013-05:00

When I wrote a post on this subject over a year ago, I was talking literally about what folks call bad weather.

When I hear people talking about the “current economic climate” like it’s bad weather I want to share one of my favorite life lessons that I learned from my sweet friend and Zen master, my dog Zoe, who died last year.

From Zoe I learned that there is no such thing as bad weather. Just inappropriate clothing.

If you are “experiencing some weather," remember: you can put on more appropriate attire simply by changing your thoughts.

I told my husband about the idea for this post and he looked at me skeptically and said that he didn't think the weather analogy was apt considering when weather is bad you can always go inside your house. But in the current economy people are losing their homes and have nowhere to go.

Let me be clear: Yes, challenging events will happen to everyone. And when they happen to others I have enormous compassion for their suffering.

When they happen to me, I want to focus as quickly as I can on the things that are going well in my life. I want to create more positive things. (For scientific evidence that backs up my approach to happiness you can read another recent post.)

So, to return to my (I think, very apt) analogy: the fastest and simplest way to change the weather is to create conditions that are favorable: Do something fun.

For me, one of the fastest ways to feel better is to listen to positive, uplifting songs. If they have a driving bass line, all the better.

One of my favorite songs is Mary J. Blige’s Just Fine and here are some of the lyrics:

Having a real good time, I'm not complaining
And I'ma still wear a smile if it's raining
I gotta enjoy myself regardless
I appreciate life, I'm so glad that it's mine.

This week I'm rejoicing in my ability to enjoy myself regardless. I'm rejoicing in my ability to appreciate life. I am so glad that it's mine.

And if you'd like to create the conditions for your own happiness, please consider my one-month E-Seminar.

You receive daily emails from me for a month: They include extensive lessons, tools and tips developed from the latest research in positive psychology. You are encouraged to submit your work from the exercises and you receive personal and in-depth feedback and support.

I had a blast developing it and it will be so much fun to share it with you!

Full Sun Farm 4th Week!

2009-06-03T16:37:00.005-05:00

Even though the farmers have been challenged by the rainiest May on record, we keep getting amazing boxes! Here's what we got this week. (I also stopped by the Spinning Spider Creamery booth. They are a local goat dairy farm and their Rosemary Fig Chevre is incredible. At $8 for 8 ounces, it's a very special treat.)

Spring lettuce mix
Green Leaf Lettuce

Green Kale

Swiss Chard

Chioggia Beets

Kohlrabi

Bok Choy

Peas

Parsely

Garlic Scapes

Have you tried crispy kale yet? If not and you know any kale-skeptics (Angela!), make this tonight! And make it with good-quality salt and you will have found a new obsession.

Crispy Kale

1 bunch kale, chopped, hard stems removed

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp. kosher salt or sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 and place a rack on the lowest shelf. Spread kale evenly on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and apple cider vinegar, toss to coat. Bake for 10 minutes, stir, and bake for 8-12 more minutes, until kale is browned and crispy to the touch. Remove from oven and sprinkle with salt.

What's Cooking 6.1-6.7

2009-05-31T15:50:00.005-05:00

Oops! I forgot to post our CSA share from my trip to the Farmers' Market last week. Again, it yielded abundant greens and delicious strawberries. No kohlrabi, but some tasty beets!

This week I kept the shopping to one market again. I wonder if I will ever make it to Amazing Savings again. The savings are pretty amazing, but my time is at such a premium that I just don't want to make the long drive there and back.

Our pricey whole foods market is only a 5 minute drive. I am so grateful for the proximity as well as the quality of the food that the cost is worth it. And for this week's groceries I only spent $68.81. Nice.

Again, I bought very little vegetable produce this week, just a few to add to my juices before I get back to the market again this Wednesday. (Still a thrill!)

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday:
Guadalajaran Swiss Chard Quesadillas (This recipe looks amazing - and we've got leftover tequila from the margarita party - I can't wait to try it!)
Green Salad

Tuesday:
Very Easy Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
Homemade Whole Wheat Buns
Sweet Potato Oven "Fries"
Green Salad

Wednesday:
Late Night at the pool again! Time to fire up the grill!
Chicken Sausages
Homemade Whole Wheat Buns
Grilled Veggies

Thursday:
Greek Lentil Salad
Homemade Whole Wheat Garlic Toast

Friday:
Pizza with homemade crust and sauce
Roasted Peppers and Pepperoni
Green Salad

Saturday:
Veggie Pan Bagnat
Potato Salad

Sunday:
Leftovers
or Breakfast for Dinner

Life Expands

2009-05-31T14:34:00.010-05:00

Life expands and contracts in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin

My life is feeling very expansive at the moment! I love that! I look back over the last month or so and I am extremely pleased by what I have accomplished. In just a little over 4 weeks I launched a new website and a business!

I've had the dream of doing both for a long time, but they stayed rather nebulous goals until I adopted a practice that I call the Weekly Manifesto. ("Manifest-o" - get it?)

Here's what it looks like: Every week I take out my notebook and record the answers to these 10 questions:

1. What have I accomplished this week? (I keep a gratitude journal and record my accomplishments nightly. I don't think I would be able to remember them all by the end of the week!)

2. What awakenings or breakthroughs have I had this week? What unexpected gifts did I receive? (Again, hopefully I have captured these in my daily journal.)

3. Is there anything I wanted to accomplish but didn’t? (When you get in the habit of this practice it will be easy to look back and see what you might have missed. If the action is still relevant, I put in in the list with my top priorities - #6.)

4. What challenges am I experiencing?

5. If I were coaching myself, what would I tell me about these challenges? (And then I always note an action to address the challenge in my top priorities for the next week.)

6. What are my top 3 priorities for the coming week? (At least one of these should come from my intentions, goals and dreams.)

7. If I could get nothing else done this week but ONE THING, what one thing would I choose to do? What one thing would make me most happy and proud? (I refer to #'s 6 and 7 consistently through the week to make sure I stay on focused and purposeful.)

8. How do I want to FEEL this week? Who do I want to BE?

9. What is (at least) one fun, joyous, delightful activity I can plan to do just for me?

10. Am I aware of any new, wonderful, creative, exciting ideas, dreams, goals, prospects that I want to add to my manifesto for future weeks?

I always do my manifesto on Sunday. But I've heard others like to do a weekly review like this on Friday. You will know what's best for you.

Here's an example of my manifesto in action:

On Sunday, April 19th I wrote for #3: I wish I saw more progress on my website.

When I wrote the statement I realized that I had been hoping that my husband would do it. He had agreed to do it the month before and yet not much was getting done. So I had been hoping for weeks.

I had put myself in a passive - and undesirable - position: I was relying on my husband to make this happen. And he's a busy guy with his own dreams to manifest. I realized that if I wanted this to get done, I would have to hire - and pay - professionals.

So then I knew that my #1 priority for the next week was going to be to find a company to design and build my website. (And then I broke it down in to daily actions: Talk to people I know who have a website - who did they work with? Call those sources, etc.)

And then at the end of the next week I was able to write "contracted with a website company" in my accomplishments! (Slab500 is fabulous by the way! I can't say enough good things about my experience working with them!)

So that is the Weekly Manifesto.

This week I am rejoicing in dreams made manifest.

By the way, have you seen my new website yet? Please do visit!

What awakenings, breakthroughs, or accomplishments have you had this week? Any unexpected gifts? Challenges? I'd love for you to share them - either here in the comments section or using the contact page at my website.

Margaritas with a Mission!

2009-05-29T22:08:00.008-05:00

If you follow my blog you know that I'm always looking for an excuse to have a party, and this time I had three.

First, we wanted to celebrate a great cause - Heifer International!

We asked our friends to bring a small donation (if they were so inclined) and we provided the margaritas, Mexican beer, tamales (chicken with chile, veggie, and one variety for the kiddos without chile), Mexican black beans and chips and salsa and two very delicious varieties of flan.

It was a fine feast and we raised over $150! And because Heifer is currently running a Matching Gift campaign, our little fiesta will mean more than $300 worth of farm animals to families in need.

(If you don't know about the great work Heifer does, you can read more here.)

We also celebrated the launch of my new coaching business: A Midwife for Your Life.

And, last, but not least, it's time to celebrate that summer is almost here!

It was a wonderful night to cap a wonderful day of another wonderful week. It just gets better and better!

Smiles Await You

2009-05-28T22:07:00.011-05:00

This painting is titled Smiles Await You When Rise. Isn't is beautiful? OK, so the painter, Daniel Nevins, is one of my dearest friends, but I loved his paintings before he became my friend, so I don't think I'm biased at all.

All of his paintings are magnificent. They are my spiritual food.

I asked Daniel for a print because it makes me think of how it can be in the world: You are loved and valued for who you really are. You get to make your life a masterpiece. Smiles await you when you rise.

I also asked Daniel for this print because I wanted it to be a testament to this time in my life when I am making a huge leap and imagining a giant cloud of gorgeous flowers to catch me.

For a while I've been hinting that I am up to something big - I alluded to breakthroughs and accomplishments and not having much time for this blog. And now I'm thrilled to reveal the reason: I'm launching a personal coaching business!

How did this happen? Well, let me take you back about 10 years ago when I was reading everything I could about Mt. Everest. W.H. Murray led early expeditions to that little mountain and wrote the following passage in his memoir, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951), and it has informed my life more than any other:

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.

For years now, I have been telling my family and friends that I am open to discovering a completely new path for my life. The only issue has been that I love my work as a midwife and it was hard to imagine being drawn away from it and toward something else. Nevertheless, I sensed that the time was coming for me to try something new, and I have been paying attention to the signals that the universe has been sending me.

And to be very clear: I am still very much devoted to providing health care to women. I will happily keep my "day" job while enjoying this work, too.

Over the past year, I have been getting some very strong signals. I noticed that friends were coming to me for advice—and that my advice and support actually seemed to help them feel better. I noticed, too, that after years of reading positive psychology, I had begun to synthesize what I had read into an approach that seemed both extremely satisfying for me and unique.

Finally, a few months ago, I put a name on the path that was opening before me, and decided that, I was interested in becoming a life coach. And then the strangest thing happened. I got on a plane in April . . . and ended up sitting next to a life coach! And in the course of that flight I made the connection between what I do now—serve women in childbirth—and what I want to do more — serve people hoping to make a shift in their lives.

Because childbirth, after all, is a series of transitions. There is actually a stage of labor that is called "transition"— the very last before the woman pushes the baby out. But of course good midwives know that good outcomes for mothers and families require supporting women through this major life change—addressing fears, calling out hidden strengths, and focusing the mother on the wonderful new world that awaits on the other side of this challenge.

And so, after years of waiting and months of listening, all the pieces fell into place: I wanted to become a midwife for people's lives, helping people who had identified a new path for themselves to create a meaningful, satisfying, and above all else, happy life.

I would be honored if you would visit my new website to learn more!

What's Cooking 5.25-5-31

2009-05-24T19:44:00.009-05:00

This is going to be a busy week for me (more on that later!) - so I'm keeping it simple with one shopping trip to one store and a simple menu plan.

I spent a whopping $98.89 at Earth Fare, our pricey whole foods store, and includes food and alcohol for our party this Friday.

Not all of the food made it to the picture, though, because my husband and son put the party food in the basement before I noticed and I wasn't going to bring it back up again.

"Keep It Simple" is my motto this week.

Here's What's Cooking:

Monday:
Memorial Day Parties
2 of Them!
The Joys of Summer Begin!

Tuesday:
I'll be at my mom's all day to declutter and organize her home. (Did you know this is one of my passions?)
I'm bringin' home some of mom's home cookin'.

Wednesday: (Market Day again!)
First Late Night at the Pool! And they have gas grills! It's gonna be smokin'hot!
Hickory Nut Gap Farm Bratwursts
Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls
Grilled Peppers and Onions
Green Salad

Thursday:
Whole Wheat Pizza (Homemade dough and sauce)
with Spinach and Pepperoni
Green Salad

Friday:
Margaritas with a Mission
We're hosting a party! (More about the mission later!)
Margaritas and Mexican beer
Tamales (Chicken with Green Salsa, Vegetarian, and some for the kiddos without chile)
Mexican Black Beans
Chips and Salsa

Saturday:
Leftovers

Sunday:
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Turkey Sausage
Grapefruit

Chicken Love

2009-05-24T11:58:00.000-05:00

I'm in the hospital today for a 24-hour call shift and it is busy, so I am going to leave you mostly with pictures that tell a wonderful story.

Here's what I have time to write: I love our chickens.

We live in a fairly urban area where you are more likely to hear the booming of a car's stereo, or the buzzing of a scooter, than something more bucolic, like the sounds of happy chickens.

Chickens are amazing! They magically convert veggie scraps to, wonder of all wonders, food! (And a *whole* lot of compost!)

Their excited clucking when I bring them treats will get me out of bed on even the coldest and rainiest mornings.

They practically crow when they lay eggs - you can hear them from a block away! - with what sounds like a combination of delight and surprise. And the other girls chime right in with what sounds like the most appreciative praise.

And I'm not the only one who loves our chickens:

I don't think these pictures really do our biddy beauties justice, because it was a little crazy in the hen house with all those little ones around. I feel lucky to have been able to capture just a bit of the sweet story.

This week I'm rejoicing in chicken love.

Food Waste for the Week

2009-05-22T19:37:00.002-05:00

I didn't manage to get in a post on our food waste last week. We had a portion of a green pepper go bad, but I didn't have time to document it. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

I am happy to report, though, that there is no waste this week!

And I'm even happier to report that the kohlrabi curse has been broken! I feel a bit like the fellow in Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham who grumpily maintained that he did not like green eggs and ham - only to learn on the last page that he did "SO like them" that he would eat them with a mouse, and he would eat them in a house...

Okay, so you know I have a 4-year-old son, right? This book gets a lot of play in our home.

But the point is we do SO like them! We cut up the greens and put them in with the kale for our spaghetti on Thursday and we've been eating the root portion, peeled and sliced or diced in our salads.

They do taste very much like the peeled stalk of broccoli, but a little sweeter - like a mix between broccoli stalk and jicama.

Try them! Try them! You will see!

Full Sun Farm 2nd Week!

2009-05-20T07:53:00.009-05:00

Here's what we got:

Lettuce, Green Leaf or Red Leaf
Spinach, 1/2 lb.
Sugar Snap Peas, 1 pint
Kohlrabi
Bok Choy
Red Russian Kale
Garlic Scapes
Strawberries, 1 pint

What? No Swiss Chard? We got a beautiful and tasty bunch of Rainbow Chard last week and I was really hoping to make Alice Waters' Gratin. Such are the vagaries of the farmers' market - what is plentiful one week is absent the next.

If you read my blog last year you know that kohlrabi was the bane of my market experience. We get it for many weeks at the beginning and end of the growing season - it seems you can always count on the dreaded kohlrabi!

So what is my problem with kohlrabi? It's so freaky looking!

Actually, I realize at the present moment it doesn't look so freaky, but the root portion is really tough and reminds me of an almost non-nutritive and practically inedible tuber found in Haiti that is mashed into a paste and forms a staple of the diet.

Now, I've never been to Haiti, but the stories I've heard obviously made quite an impression!

In the past, before the food waste challenge, I would chop it up and feed it to our chickens and they seemed happy enough.

This year, though, I'm determined to find out more about this odd root vegetable and ways to prepare it. To that end I finally asked my farmers about it and they, as always, were very helpful.

Here's what they had to say:

It is a Brassica, and is therefore related to broccoli and kale, both of which it slightly resembles.

Think of the greens as tender kale leaves, and prepare them as such. The bulb from which the leaves grow can be thought of as a swollen broccoli stem, but its taste is sweeter, and more refreshing. (My note: Huh! You don't say!)

If this is your first experience with kohlrabi, don't cook any until you have tried it raw; peel the bulb and cut it into sticks or coins for easy eating. If you're ready to cook, kohlrabi can be steamed whole or halved, and is also easy to dice and saute or stir-fry. To use the entire plant in one dish, try this easy recipe:

1 lb. kohlrabi, including greens
1/2 lb. onions, chopped small
olive oil
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel kohlrabi and cut into small chunks. Saute in oil with onion until onion is golden. Add kohlrabi greens, cut into ribbons, and continue cooking until wilted.

Meanwhile, grease a baking dish. Put cooked Kohlrabi mixture into dish, top with breadcrumbs and cheese and bake 10-15 minutes. If you want to incorporate more greens, dice the stems of this week's kale along with the kohlrabi, and cut the leaves into ribbons along with the kohlrabi greens.

I'll let you know how it turns out and if I've managed to shake the Kohlrabi Curse!

What's Cooking 5.18-5.24

2009-05-18T17:26:00.002-05:00

As you saw from my post last Wednesday, my trip to the Farmers' Market yielded abundant greens. I added greens to our salads, soups, sandwiches, eggs, stir-fry, and juice and they were delicious!

This week I spent $45.14 at Amazing Savings and $30.82 at Green Life for a grand total of $75.96.

I bought 3 dozen organic/free-range eggs because they were on an amazing sale (Buy 2 for $1.29 and get 1 free) and we depleted the supply of our home-grown eggs over the weekend. I plan to do a lot of baking in the next week to use up this surplus and my husband and son are very excited by the prospect.

As you can see I bought very little vegetable produce this week, just a few to add to my juices before I get back to the market again this Wednesday. (Can't wait!)

Here's what we're eating this week: (See a theme? Lots and Lots of Greens!)

Monday: (My mom sent us home from dinner at her house with leftover chicken and we will be using it up in this delicious recipe)
Green Chili
Brown Rice
Green Salad

Tuesday: (Back in the hospital for 24 hours)
Leftovers

Wednesday: (Market Day, Hooray!)
Tofu Stir-Fry
with lots of greens in the mix!
Brown Rice

Thursday:
Garlic and Oil Spaghetti with Greens
Green Salad

Friday:
Pizza (with homemade crust and sauce)
Spinach and Pepperoni
Green Salad

Saturday:
Very Easy Vegetarian Sloppy Joes (we didn't have these last week because of a visit with my family)
Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls
Sweet Potato "Fries"
Spinach Salad

Sunday:
Asparagus-Ricotta Frittata
Roasted Potatoes and Garlic
Spinach Salad

The Dolce Far Niente

2009-05-17T15:32:00.008-05:00

In Italian "dolce far niente" literally means "sweet doing nothing."

Isn't it delightful that a culture values pleasant relaxation in carefree idleness so much that they have a common expression for it?!

I try to make every Sunday a dolce-far-niente-kind-of-day, but the last few weeks have been quite full of activity. Full of wonderful doing, mind you, but doing none-the-less.

Today has been wonderfully unstructured. We didn't *have to* do anything or be anywhere.

We had friends over for a lovely brunch of local, free-range eggs and homemade cinnamon rolls. We took a walk in the rain. We played hide-and-seek. We read stories.

My husband and son are playing soccer in the rain at this very moment. I'm going to join them.

Today I'm rejoicing in the dolce far niente.

Your Most-Trusted Advisor

2009-05-14T14:20:00.003-05:00

At the end of Sue Ludwig’s insightful essay about how our bodies desire and seek balance she asked, “What does your body teach you about balance?”

I consider my body my most-trusted advisor. I think it assimilates information from the Universe that I can’t understand fully at first. You see, I know the Universe wants my best life, but sometimes I don’t heed its advice – sometimes I’m convinced I don’t even hear it.

It’s like Oprah says: Life sends you messages - first it will put a pebble in your path, then a rock, and then a brick wall. If I don’t hear the plink of the pebble, the rock shows up - usually as a bodily symptom. I pay attention because I really want to avoid hitting that brick wall.

My one quibble with Sue’s essay is when she states that our bodies don’t do drama. I’ve noticed that if I ignore its message, mine is quite capable of drama. In fact, I’ve seen my body produce some Oscar-worthy performances.

I work as a nurse-midwife in a hospital. I consult with physicians when I am caring for a woman who is considered high-risk and occasionally I don’t agree with the physician’s plan for managing a particular case.

One night I told a doctor that I was disinclined to follow his plan and he responded by saying, “That’s why I’m here, to tell you what to do.” Those weren’t his exact words, but you get the point.

I knew the doctor’s plan was not going to cause harm and I didn’t want further conflict, so I followed his orders. Within a few hours I lost my voice. My throat hurt and I couldn’t speak above a whisper.

As soon as I got home I looked up laryngitis in my well-worn copy of Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life. I believe the book provides clues to understanding the messages underlying an illness. If you decipher these messages and, more importantly, act on them by changing your thinking, you will improve your life.

For laryngitis she writes that the probable cause is “So mad you can’t speak. Fear of speaking up. Resentment of authority.” I was struck by the truth of this: I was mad. I had been afraid to speak up to the doctor. And I resented that he didn’t seem to value my expertise.

The new thought pattern she offers is “I am free to ask for what I want. It is safe to express myself. I am at peace.” I drank it up like a healing balm and got my voice back quickly after that.

The affirmation also helped me gain insight into the fact that I don’t need to compel the doctors to agree with me or even to see my side. All I can do is use my best judgment and present a plan of care.

For me, being at peace means that my worth is not predicated on others valuing me. I value me.

Since that epiphany I’ve had other differences of opinion with my physician colleagues but I haven’t had that sense that my value as a practitioner was diminished. And I’ve never lost my voice again.

You don’t need a copy of Louise Hay’s book (although I highly recommend it!) because all you really need to know is that if you ignore the wisdom available to you, your body can create a painful drama.

The Universe wants you to know that you are worthy of love and respect and you can have a life filled with health and happiness – you just have to listen.

Do you think there is anything your body is trying to tell you at this moment?

Full Sun Farm CSA First Week!

2009-05-13T08:12:00.008-05:00

When I wrote in Monday's post that I was hoping for greens from my first box from Full Sun Farm, I could not have anticipated this bounty:

Here's what we got:

Oak Leaf Lettuce, 1 head
Spinach, 1/2 lb.
Rainbow Chard, 1 bunch
Green Kale, 1 bunch
Green Onions, 1 bunch
Bok Choy
Strawberries, 1 pint
Cornmeal, 1 1/2 lbs.

Strawberries! Already?! How is it possible? I had to sit on my other hand while I was driving home so as not to eat the whole pint before my husband and son could have some.

This is the first year (this is my 4th year with this farm) that the farmers are offering cornmeal they milled themselves and I am altering my menu plan tonight to include this delicious recipe for cornbread.

1/2 cup rye flour (whole wheat flour is okay too)

1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk (or regular milk, or yogurt)
3 tbsp vegetable oil or butter, melted
1/2 cup molasses
2 whole eggs or 3 egg whites
3/4 cup raisins, chopped dates, or currants

Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour a bread pan. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl; whisk the wet ingredients in a second bowl. Pour wet ingredients into the dry and stir quickly to combine. Stir in the fruits. Transfer to the prepared bread pan and bake for 45 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes in pan before turning out onto a rack or serving.

I am in heaven! I'd love to hear that you are also enjoying some SOLE (sustainable, organic, local and ethical) food! Please share what you have in your CSA box or what you're hoping to find at your local farmers' market this week!

This post is also my contribution to Fight Back Fridays found at the wonderful Food Renegade.

What's Cooking 5.11-5.17

2009-05-10T20:20:00.008-05:00

Our first week in the CSA starts this week (I am SO excited!) so I will probably change up my vegetable side dishes/salads by the end of the week. Judging by what our farm (special shout out to the wonderful folks of Full Sun Farm!) offered at the Farmers' Market on Saturday I think we can count on baby bok choy, kale, green leaf lettuce and radishes. I'll let you know on Wednesday how it turns out!

I bought 2 bunches of kale when I was there because I know we always use it up - usually in my morning vegetable/fruit juice. And I bought 7 tomato and 4 lettuce starter plants. I may be forgetting something but the total came to $20 even.

At Amazing Savings I bought 4 cucumber seedlings ($1.49) and the bulk of our groceries for $48.46. At Green Life, another of our pricey whole food shops, I bought 4 basil starter plants ($2.99) and 6 other items for $17.14.

Including the trip to the Farmers' Market, my grand total for the week is $85.60. I think that is great considering the total includes a bunch of plants that will be providing us with the most sustainable, organic, local and ethically produced (if you don't mind a little child labor) vegetables that can be found in these parts. :)

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday:
Curried Vegetable Saute
Brown Rice

Tuesday: (I'm back in the hospital for a 24-hour shift.)
Leftovers

Wednesday:
Grilled Tofu Steaks with Veggie Kabobs
Brown Rice

Thursday:
Banana and Black Bean Empanadas
Stir-fried Spinach and Garlic

Friday:
Pizza with homemade crust and sauce
Roasted Peppers and Pepperoni
Green Salad

Saturday:
Very Easy Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
Homemade Whole Wheat Buns
Sweet Potato Oven "Fries"
Green Salad

Sunday:
Broccoli-Potato Strata
Spinach Salad

A Very Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T18:23:00.006-05:00

Even before I became a mother, Mother's Day has meant something important to me: Time to plant my vegetable garden!

Conventional wisdom in the mountains of Western North Carolina is that a hard frost could happen up to this very day, and I have learned the hard way (snow and ice in late April wrecking havoc on my tender blueberry blossoms!) to respect this wisdom.

Yesterday my son and I went to the Farmers' Market to buy seedlings for our garden. Of course I wanted tomatoes galore and we chose many new-to-us varieties based mainly on their delightful names - Mountain Magic (a red slicer, known to be disease-resistant and prolific), Sungold (our one repeat because we all love them so much - they are small and golden and so sweet my son calls them "chocolate 'matoes"), Taxi (bright yellow), Orange Glow (also promising to be hearty and productive and don't they sound like they will be a lovely color?), and Green Zebra (bright green and striped).

We also got some lettuce seedlings and lots of marigolds. I'm hoping to find more greens (spinach, kale and chard) and cucumber starts at the market this Wednesday, but if I can't, I can still start from seed and be all set. (Did you catch that: I'll be at the market this Wednesday to pick up our first CSA box! Hooray!)

This morning my son got decked out in his gardener's garb and we made quick work of the planting.

It is such a happy thing to see all the little plants in their new home.

This week I am rejoicing in being a mama: nurturing young life is a profound joy.

Food Waste for the Week

2009-05-08T18:26:00.003-05:00

This was another challenging week: my husband was gone for a couple of days to attend a funeral (for his 95+ year-old grandmother - so it was a lovely celebration of a wonderful life) and came home with a stomach flu. That meant he wasn't able to help as much with left-overs at the beginning of the week.

Fortunately he recovered fully and set about helping me eliminate food waste. Today we both finished off less-than-exciting split pea dahl and brown rice for lunch.

But that still left some food that even I was unwilling to eat: 3 whole wheat pancakes (requested for lunch by our son on his birthday) and a small portion of the oven "fries" from dinner on Wednesday night.

He promised to eat the pancakes for dessert tonight and plans to make a Spanish-style torta (an omelet with potatoes) for breakfast tomorrow.

So if you look up the word "trooper" in the dictionary you should see a picture of my husband.

The Birth Necklace

2009-05-05T08:48:00.001-05:00

My son was born 4 years ago today. Before he was born most of my dearest friends were able to gather for my Blessingway - a ceremony to celebrate and honor my becoming a mother.

I treasured having so many amazing and wonderful women with me that day, all of them mothers or beloved aunties.

One of my favorite parts of the gathering was the assembly of my birth necklace. All of my friends chose beads that symbolized their hopes for me. We strung the beads together to form a beautiful necklace and testament to our friendship.

In this picture one of my friends shows me the bead she chose and explains its meaning.

And here I am wearing the completed necklace.

I put the necklace on as soon as I realized I was in labor. I wore it during the entire labor and through the birth of my son. I felt the connection to all those amazing women and I know it nurtured and sustained me through the most challenging and joyous time of my life.

I now keep the necklace in a place of honor in my room where I see it often. I always wear it during the celebration of my son's birth.

We all have such full lives now: Even if we don't get to see each other as much as I'd like, I am immensely grateful that I still share an incredible bond with the women who blessed my way to motherhood.

My friend who is featured in the first picture is in the one below, too. She came to my son's party on Saturday with her son - the child I caught in my hands as her midwife 10 years ago.

What's Cooking 5.4-5.10

2009-05-04T08:01:00.001-05:00

Crunchy Chicken's Sustainable Food Challenge is officially over but I found it easy to stick to its principles again this week. I was a bit short on time so I only went to our pricey whole foods market and I may have forgotten something in my haste (but I don't think so). I spent a total of $74.18.

Here's what were eating this week:

Monday:
Middle Eastern Lentil-Bulgur Loaf
Green Salad

Tuesday: Cinco de Mayo Fiesta con las Chicas!

My girlfriends are coming over. (It's kind of a celebration of my son's birth - you gotta celebrate the mama, too! - and an excuse to drink some of the leftover Mexican beer from my son's birthday party Saturday.) My husband will take our son out for a boys' night in honor of his birthday - the restaurant and movie of his choice. (We will also take him for a picnic lunch at a park with a lake and sandy beach - he's been asking to make sand castles at the beach for a while.)

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos
Green Salad
Chips, Salsa and Guacamole
Beer with Lime

Wednesday:
Grilled Portobello Po' Boys
Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls
Oven "Fries"
Green Salad

Thursday:
Bow-tie Pasta
with Broccoli, Garbanzo Beans and Kalamata Olives

Friday:
Pizza (with homemade dough and sauce)
Roasted Peppers and Pepperoni
Spinach Salad

Saturday:
Curried Lentil Soup
Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls
Spinach Salad

Sunday:
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Turkey Sausages
Grapefruit

First Olympiad Birthday Party!

2009-05-03T11:09:00.009-05:00

Ah, four years! Stellar athletes spend 4 years to become an Olympian and my son spent the last 4 years to become...himself. And he is quite stellar in his own right.

Yesterday we celebrated his birthday and it was a glorious event. My son was born on May 5th - Cinco de Mayo - so we always have a Mexican-themed fiesta the first Saturday of the month of May.

Every year it rains. I remember this upset me quite a bit for his first birthday party.

Around the time of his second birthday I learned of the Law of Attraction and used the "energy flows where attention goes" principle to my advantage for his second birthday party. I looked for what I wanted to see (happy children) and not what I didn't.

Last year it rained in the morning but then cleared and was sunny and beautiful by the time his third birthday party started in the late afternoon.

This year it rained all day, but it didn't phase me a bit. I *knew* it was going to be a great day with a wonderful party and it was!

I have lots of pictures to tell the story (and more should be coming in a few days from my dad's and sister-in-law's cameras):

Me and my little Olympian:

Me and my mom.
Me and my dad.

Every morning I ask my son if he remembers any of his dreams. For quite a while he has been saying, "I dream that Grammy and Papa give me the big Optimus Prime Transformer." (Thank you, YouTube!) Well, that long-awaited day finally arrived!
Thank you, Grammy and Papa, for making a little boy's dream come true! (And p.s., this morning he said, "I dream that Grammy and Papa give me the Bulkhead Transformer.")

Luckily we have a large wrap-around covered porch so we put all the tables and chairs for dining on one side and created a kids' play area on the other side. My sister-in-law is a genius and created a game that everyone loved: She cut a swim noodle into 5 pieces to create bats, blew up a balloon and let the kids at it. Such a cool (and thrifty!) idea and the kids LOVED it.

The kids - especially mine - REALLY loved this game!

Even when the balloon popped (look in upper-right corner) he was delighted. (And luckily, Aunt B. had a whole bag of them so we got right back to playing again.)

It was so wonderful to have Doug's sister and her family with us!

And then - the Taqueria Truck arrived! Folks place their order for exactly what they want and go back as much as they want. The food is incredible. My dad got pictures (and I hope to post them as soon as he sends them) of me with the owner, Wily, inside the truck - with a kitchen - it is so amazing! I want it in my driveway every weekend!

This is what I love to see at my parties - people who are happy and sated.

We have so many wonderful friends of all ages. Here we are with our next-door neighbor who just celebrated her 14th birthday. I asked her dad if he thought 4 or 14 year-olds were more challenging and he joked that they just keep turning up the heat in the pot, but you don't even notice.

Here's my tip for a kids' party on a rainy day: buy bright yellow balloons - instant sunshine!

Remember Olga of Olga's Desserts?

Here's the cake she made for the party!

It was the largest cake she had ever made and she was worried. She needn't have - it was SO delicious! Everyone LOVED it!

It's not a real fiesta until you get a piece of that pinata!

Everyone had such a wonderful time. It was so fabulous. I've already received emails from folks saying they are counting down the days till the next fiesta and I'm with them.

Some others may need a little more time to recover. After everyone left, and I cleaned up, I went to check on my boys. I found this picture :
This week I am rejoicing in my son and our family and friends that love and celebrate him!

All About A Boy

2009-04-26T16:56:00.007-05:00

I had an *amazing* week filled with breakthroughs and accomplishments and I look forward to sharing them here in the not-so-distant future.

Today was a gorgeous, sunny day made all the more perfect by how it was spent: the morning was filled with playing with my son, eating homemade cinnamon buns on the porch and tending my garden and this afternoon we had a lovely visit with my parents.

I'm looking ahead to another full week - working a clinic day and a 24-hour shift in the hospital and preparing for my son's birthday party on Saturday. With all that will be happening, I am setting the intention that I am peaceful and centered.

I want more than anything to be present, to *be* with my son this week - the week we begin to celebrate his birth. (If you know me, you know I think one day is not enough to celebrate a birth - even a week is pushing it.)

So, in honor of him, I am going to keep this short, and I probably will not post for the rest of the week. I will have a lot to share next week.

This week I am rejoicing in my boy. This picture tells so much about him: We only had 3 juice boxes left and he insisted on giving them to his friends. He also helped pick the flowers for the table and put them in a sippy cup as a vase. He was dismayed later to find that they were left behind after their visit: He had intended them as a gift.

What's Cooking 4.27-5.3

2009-04-25T16:02:00.007-05:00

Before I run my usual post I have to share the most exciting news!

Yesterday I acquired my first two gallons of raw milk!!! I have been searching for a local source for *months* and I finally found it in my backyard!

The milk actually comes from South Carolina (it is illegal to sell raw milk in North Carolina), but there is a local woman who drives south every two weeks, procures the milk and then sells it here.

This woman lives 2 blocks away from me - next door to a friend of mine! But I found out about her from another woman who babysits for another friend - that's a pretty circuitous path, don't you think?

Now that I finally found this source I will get two gallon of luscious *real* milk every two weeks. The cost is $8/gallon which is comparable to the price or organic milk in our local stores and, to my mind, cheap at twice that price.

I love that I am supporting healthy, pasture-raised cows to do what they do naturally. If your wondering what the big deal is about raw milk (like my husband), you must read the whole fascinating story here.

Now to run the numbers: Keeping with the challenge to buy local and/or organic food on a budget I spent $32.58 at Amazing Savings and $34.07 at Green Life. The cost of food this week included $16 for milk and $66.65 for food, for a grand total of $82.65.

I also spent $26.23 on these non-food items:
$6.99 for 12 rolls of environmentally-friendly TP, $7.49 for Emergen-C (My husband swears this stuff keeps him cold-free. He wasn't thrilled with the pink lemonade flavor - he prefers tangerine - but it usually costs over $12 for the 36 packets so he was pleased over-all.), and $11.75 for 1/2 pound of organic loose-leaf green tea (my husband's one spend-thrift vice: massive consumption of quality tea).

This week marks the end of the month's challenge to buy sustainable food on a budget and I am thrilled to report that my monthly food costs came in at $310.08 - almost $10 under the goal of $320 I set for the month. Yay!

I feel confident that I can keep up with this challenge, especially since my CSA share will start up in May. I already paid into it so I should save at least $20 on my weekly produce costs and I hope to use those savings to buy some local meat from pasture-raised animals.

The pool we belong to has grills for our use and after a late-afternoon swim, the bratwursts from Hickory Nut Gap Farm are insanely good and make up the perfect meal with homemade rolls and coleslaw (made with homemade mayo, of course).

Here's what were eating this week:

Monday:
Black Bean Chilaquiles
Green Salad

Tuesday: (I'm in the hospital for my 24-hour call shift.)
Leftovers

Wednesday:
Whole Wheat Penne
with Ricotta, Broccoli and Kale (see recipe posted below)

Thursday:
African Groundnut Stew
Whole Wheat Couscous
Green Salad

Friday:
Homemade Pizza
with Roasted Peppers and Pepperoni
Spinach Salad

Saturday:
The Taqueria Truck Comes to Our Home!
(My Son's 4th Birthday Party! More about that later!)

Sunday:
Curried Split Peas
Brown Rice
Sweet Potatoes

Whole Wheat Penne with Ricotta, Broccoli and Kale
Serves 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

2 1/2 cups dry whole wheat penne
2 cups broccoli florets
2 cups coarsely chopped kale
1 14 1/2-ounce can fire-roasted, diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup part-skim ricotta
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup julienned fresh basil leaves
Salt to taste
Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese

1. Bring at least 6 cups water to boil in a large pot. Add salt to season. Add pasta and cook according to package directions, adding broccoli and kale during the last 3 minutes of cooking.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, ricotta, oil, vinegar, and garlic; mix well.

3. Drain pasta and cooked vegetables; add to bowl and toss well.

4. Transfer to four plates and top with basil and Parmesan. Add salt to taste.

Food Waste for the Week

2009-04-24T14:41:00.004-05:00

No food waste again this week! But I *almost* wasted a cup of whipping cream. My mom gave me a pint because she realized she wouldn't use it.

(I don't think I'm the only one who has food pressed into my hands because the assumption is that *I* won't waste it. I'm always glad that folks want to avoid waste, but putting the food in my hands does make avoiding waste more challenging.)

I used it for coffee for guests at Olga's dessert party and a sauce for butternut ravioli and that used up about a cup, but it has since languished in the fridge.

Last night I poured it in a measuring cup to take a picture for this post, but it poured smoothly and smelled fresh. So I asked my husband if he would eat a pumpkin pie if I made it with the questionable cream and his was an enthusiastic yes. (I have a can of the pumpkin puree that has been gathering dust since Thanksgiving which has also been weighing on my conscience.)

Once again I am grateful to this challenge for compelling me to come up with ways to avoid waste. In the past I would have thought nothing of throwing the cream away. Now we can anticipate (I hope) a delicious pie after dinner tonight.

Celebrating Thrift, Fashion and Fun!

2009-04-23T13:35:00.004-05:00

I made a friend through the blog-o-sphere who may, in fact, be my separated-at-birth twin. What else to make of someone with whom I share so many interests? I mean, she listed "studies on happiness" as one of her passions on the profile page of her blog!

Angela's blog mostly documents her experience as she makes her way through a year without spending money on anything new and it is fantastic. She created a series called "Thrifty Threads" to highlight the fact that you can still have fun with fashion and look great without spending a lot of money. I saw her first post and knew I wanted to participate and in today's post you can find my submission.

The post tells most of the story, but I thought of some things to add: I bought that jacket from Enchanted Forrest, Asheville's finest consignment shop, in the fall of 2007 and when cold weather hits I wear it all the time - it's cost-per-wear is in the pennies.

Also, in exchange for helping my mom clean and organize her closets she always lets me take items she no longer wants and they go to this shop. Every time I go in there I have money waiting for me from those sales and I take it and put it in my "fun money jar" or I apply it to a purchase within the store - a win/win for everyone! And that, of course, makes me very happy.

A Five-to-One Ratio (At Least)

2009-04-19T14:48:00.007-05:00

On Friday I got the May issue of The Sun, my favorite literary magazine. I always look forward to reading it - besides the excellent writing, it is published in Chapel Hill, where I met and fell in love with my husband, and he worked for it for a while, too, so it will always be dear to me. Even when I cut out every other "expendable" item from our spending, the Sun subscription stays.

This month the interview is with Barbara Fredrickson, a psychologist who works at UNC-Chapel Hill and studies my favorite field, positive psychology. Her newest book is titled Positivity and discusses the findings of her research that show that there is a mathematical formula by which success (in terms of production in a business sense, or feeling happy in a more personal sense) can be predicted by the number of positive events to negative ones. The "tipping point" where good things start to happen occurs at a ratio of three to one.

I think this finding can tell us a lot about life - how to perceive it and how to live it with great satisfaction. She states, "If we're aware of the tipping point ratio, it could make a big difference in how we choose to live our lives." There are always going to be negative events in our lives, and we may not be able to *do* anything about them. But we always have the ability to increase the positive events in our lives by focusing our attention on what makes us feel good.

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 11th anniversary, but we didn't celebrate it in the way we had planned (brunch at our favorite outdoor cafe) because he was held up at the annual Democratic county convention. When he called with the news that he wouldn't make our date I was upset. After about 90 seconds of feeling angry and resentful, I realized that I had a choice: I could continue to feel bad, bemoaning the fact that I couldn't do the thing I wanted to do, or I could think of something else I'd like to do.

Besides spending time with my husband I was looking forward to ordering my favorite sandwich from this particular cafe - a BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato) - so when I went to the market I got the ingredients to make my own. (It was delicious!) I also was looking forward to spending time outside on a beautiful day with a dear friend. So I called another dear friend and we took a walk in a gorgeous neighborhood I didn't know existed - after living in my town for 11 years, I felt like I was walking in a quaint, foreign village where every street is tree-lined and bursting with flowers.

When my husband got home we enjoyed a lovely meal on our back porch with our son. Young son ate a few bites and then spent the rest of our meal showing us all his new "tricks" he has developed on his play set. It turned out to be a perfect celebration of our anniversary - with dinner and a show!

I don't have a recent picture of us all together, but I dug up this one from last Fall. To me it is a wonderful testament to our marriage - one filled with so much positivity I think it is off the charts. (The title for this post is from Dr. Fredrickson's finding that solid marriages share at least a five-to-one ratio of positive to negative emotions.)

This week I'm rejoicing in my wonderful husband and the flourishing marriage and family we have created.

What's Cooking 4.20-4.26

2009-04-18T18:26:00.010-05:00

I work on Monday for the next two weeks, so Saturday is the best day for me to get in this post, and may continue to if I end up frequenting the Farmer's Market on Saturday. My son and I went yesterday and had a blast. There was live music - a trio playing banjo, fiddle and guitar - that my son just loved and made him dance his own little gig that was so infectious in its joy that I had to join along.

Our favorite baker was there, too, and we shared a delicious banana chocolate chip muffin. (When asked late that night what his favorite part of the day was he cited the muffin. He's a foodie after my own heart for sure.) Our farmers only had plant starts - and I've learned from past years that we can still get a pretty mean frost before Mother's Day, so I'll hold off on planting my garden for a few more weeks.

So it was off to our regular grocery stores: I spent $38.05 at Amazing Savings on these items - the big score this week was Buy One, Get One Free on the Stonyfield Farms organic dark chocolate frozen yogurt - 2 containers for $1.49. And I got more of Barbara's organic kid's cereal because my kid loves it and at $1.25 (compared with over $4 usual retail) it's the one item I think is worth stockpiling.

and $49.50 at Earth Fare for these -

For a grand total of $87.10 - a little over my dream budget of $80 but I have been under the last two weeks so I think it will come out fine by the end of the month.

I continue to be impressed by the cost of organic/local produce - I scored a pound of organic butter at Amazing Savings last week and thought it was a good price at $2.50 (I paid $2 for a pound at Aldi), but hadn't priced organic butter in a long time and just tonight I noticed that a pound of organic butter at Earth Fare is $6.50!

I mentioned in an earlier post that Amazing Savings does not order/stock items, but simply acts as a clearing house for other stores who give up their goods once the expiration date hits or an item somehow loses its pristine sheen. (I bought a couple of cans of organic beans that were quite dented, but at 79 cents I snapped them up and they will make a nice quick lunch with greens sometime this week if we don't have leftovers.)

Here's the really big news from the shelves - I looked at the price of organic mayonnaise at Earth Fare. (I googled the price last week when I wrote about making my own and the price I hit was a little over $5.) The cost for 32 ounces of the stuff at Earth Fare? $10.65!!! At that price, I will continue to make our mayonnaise for the foreseeable future.

As I've said before, I want to keep our food costs low because it's such an obvious area where we can save money to free up funds for other things we'd like to do. (I started to look into rentals for a beach house in September and with the money we have been saving on groceries I think we will be able to rent a home on the beach for a week, not just a long weekend as I originally thought.)

I also want to make choices that support safe and humane practices in the production of our food. It has required some extra planning, creativity and flexibiliy, but so far I have created the conditions for us to have our sustainable cake (or vegan sanwich loaf, as the case may be) and eat it, too.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday:
Five Bean Casserole
Green Salad

Tuesday:
Potato, Spinach and Chickpea Curry
Brown Rice

Wednesday:
Whole Wheat Penne
with Beans and Greens

Thursday:
Stracciatella (Italian Egg Drop Soup)
Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls

Friday:
Pizza (with homemade crust and sauce)
Roasted Peppers and Onions
Spinach Salad

Saturday:
Black Bean Chili with Dark Ale
Corn Scones

Sunday:
Asparagus-Ricotta Frittata with Parmesan
Spinach Salad
Grapefruit

Food Waste for the Week

2009-04-17T16:05:00.003-05:00

No waste for this week. Hooray! After the not-so-stellar showing last week, I'm so glad to be home and on top of things again. Interestingly, we are quite low on leftovers and food overall since I adopted the new challenge of eating local and/or organic. I'm still a little afraid of the prices, so I've been buying less, but we are down to our last banana and our last bit of milk (bought last Saturday, but it seems a gallon will only get us to a week around here).

Next week I'll try buying a *little* more of the staples we like to have on hand and still hope to avoid food waste. Also, tomorrow is the first day of the local Farmer's Market and I am SO excited to see what's on offer. I think it may take a little while before I can work out my shopping trips now - I have adopted the routine of going on Mondays, but I may need to change it to Saturdays. These are nice problems to have. :)

Homemade Mayonnaise

2009-04-15T20:21:00.010-05:00

Last week at the Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays someone posted a recipe for homemade ketchup that inspired me to...*think* of making homemade ketchup. (The recipe looks a little too spice-intensive - I think my husband and I would love it, but the main consumer of ketchup in our house is our little one and I don't want to spend a lot of time and energy on a product that needs to be eaten within a week when no one in our family uses it that much.)

The post *did* inspire me to make homemade mayonnaise. I'm not the biggest fan, but my husband likes it and always includes it when making his sandwiches. We were coming to the end of our commercial supply and since I have taken a challenge to buy only local or organic food I was not looking forward to spending over $5 on a 16 ounce jar of the stuff. I made homemade mayonnaise for the first time last December to make the pimento cheese I served at my holiday party and it was fantastic and really very, very easy.

I modified a recipe from the lovely Sara Foster's Foster's Market Cookbook (her cafes are in Durham and Chapel Hill, NC and we go whenever we can) and here it is:

1 large egg
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups of canola or safflower oil

1. Place the egg, vinegar, and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse to blend. With the motor running, add the mustard and garlic.
2. Add the oil in a slow, steady stream down the feed tube, with the motor running, until the mixture becomes thick and is the consistency of mayonnaise.

You can add all kinds of other herbs to dress it up like fresh basil and parsley, but it has plenty of flavor as is. We made egg salad yesterday from fresh eggs from our chickens and it was dreamy, absolutely the best I'd ever had in my life.

This post will be my contribution to this week's Fight Back Friday.

What's Cooking 4.13-4.19

2009-04-13T18:47:00.004-05:00

I was up all last night attending births at the hospital so I barely made it to the shops for groceries before I *had* to get home and collapse into bed. I asked my husband to bring in the food from the car and take a picture of it before putting it away.

I really appreciate his help - I just think it's funny that he didn't take the items out of the bags as I do so you can really see the (to me beautiful) produce. Also missing from the picture is a gallon of organic milk I bought on Saturday - amazingly it was on sale (the "best by" date is today, but I know that it will be fine for another week) for only $2.50.

Last week was the first time in weeks I bought milk from pasture-raised cows and I couldn't bring myself to buy a whole gallon at the price (almost $8), but I learned that a half-gallon is simply not enough for our family. I am currently searching for a local source of raw milk, but it is a very underground operation (it's not legal to sell raw milk commercially in my state) and I'm not having the best luck. Until then I'll keep looking for the late Saturday-night sales of almost-expiration date organic milk.

I spent $36.61 at Amazing Savings for all organic produce and a box of organic kids' cereal and an almost-pound brick of cheddar cheese ($6) from local, pasture-raised cows. I bought the rest of our food from Earth Fare and spent $27.20, mostly on bulk locally-milled whole wheat flour and other grains and legumes.

The big experiment this week is that my husband will try to use some dry wheat gluten flour to make a vegan "loaf" to slice and use in sandwiches. If it is a success I'll post the recipe, if it isn't I hope the chickens will eat it. :)

With the addition of the milk purchase the grand total this week is $66.31. The Crunchy Chicken's (click on image above to learn more) sustainable food challenge is turning out to be quite a success!

Here is what we are eating this week:

Monday:
Pad Thai

Tuesday:
Butternut Squash Ravioli
Green Salad

Wednesday:
Lentil Curry
Brown Rice
Green Salad

Thursday:
Black Bean Enchiladas
Spinach Salad

Friday:
Pizza (homemade dough and sauce)
Roasted Peppers and Onions
Spinach Salad

Saturday:
Falafel
Homemade Pita Bread
Cucumber and Onion Salad

Sunday:
Whole Wheat Pancakes(we didn't have them last week - I forgot I was on call that day when I made the menu)
Bacon
Grapefruit

I Heart NY - expanded version

2009-04-10T21:34:00.007-05:00

This Sunday I'm at work in the hospital and I am anticipating attending the birth of twin boys!

That would be enough cause for rejoicing and my attention to the mama's labor will necessitate a short post today, but I would be remiss if I didn't take the time I have at the moment to post on my trip to NYC last week.

Before arriving in New York I came across an article reviewing "mom and pop" restaurants in lower Manhattan. They all sounded wonderful and my family was very gracious in allowing me to choose where we would eat each night.

We were at Elettaria the night documented in the pictures below, where the chef offers a sort of fusion of Indian and American dishes. The reviewer invited the highly esteemed Madhur Jaffrey to dine with him and noted that she is very critical of a Western chef misusing Indian spices and ingredients. At the end of their meal, however, she was clearly impressed by how the chef had mastered this sort of interplay and I concur.

All of the restaurants - Soto (think sushi tapas), Falai (think Italian artisan - all the pasta and bread are made in house) and Eletarria - were smallish and had open kitchens (you could see the chefs prepare your meals) and fabulous. I heartily recommend all of them and can't wait to get back.

I also read up on the New Yorker to be apprised of what was happening in the theatres and museums. We decided we really didn't have time to take in a show - the trip was intended as a time to connect with family and friends and not *do* too much (if you read my post on my last trip to NYC, you know I just like to *be* there), but we did manage to get to the Frick and the Met. We spent a couple of delightful hours at the Bonnard exhibit. He was an Impressionist and the works shown were from the two decades before his death in 1947.

This from the review in the New Yorker: "The light is Mediterranean squared. The hour is lunchtime forever. The visual experience can suggest a happy flaw in your eyesight: incandescent cataracts...Bonnards pictures stymie mental clarity as effectively as that postprandial extra glass of wine." For this art lover, foodie and oenophile (post-prandial means after eating, by the way, for you non-medical folks out there - I had to define it for my brother), it was the perfect trifecta.

I got some great pictures from Friday night and then somehow, inexplicably, I never picked up my camera again. We had so much to celebrate: my parents' 45th wedding anniversary, my brother's 28th birthday, and a reunion with one of our family's dearest friends. As you can see there was a lot of love!

With my brother:

Our friend specially ordered a cake and brought it to the restaurant. Happy Birthday!!!

Celebrating over 45 years of marriage (my parents on the right) and almost 40 years of friendship!

We love Elliot!

These pictures provide just a little glimpse of the trip that was the cause of much rejoicing!

Food Waste for the Week

2009-04-10T18:37:00.005-05:00

We have our first food waste to report since the beginning of this challenge. I went to New York for a long weekend and left my husband and son at home with a bunch of meals I had prepared in advance of the trip. My husband found that he was not able to keep up with all the food I had planned for them and the vegetable stew with brown rice was left behind. A few grapes and a small amount of pear jam I canned at home were also casualties this week. Fortunately, our chickens loved every bit of it and I think they wish we would waste more food.

As I've said before, avoiding food waste requires constant vigilance. We were not up to the challenge this week - but there is always the next!

What's Cooking 4.6-4.12

2009-04-07T13:30:00.006-05:00

As I wrote last week I am participating in the Crunchy Chicken's challenge to buy "sustainable" food on a budget. This is from her post:

I'd like to challenge us all to see if we can eat sustainably using the Food Stamp Allotment Program guidelines. It will take a lot of careful planning, but the end result is that we can save a lot of money on our food budget by trying to spend within this framework for a month.

Challenge Guidelines
So, here's the skinny. Based on the following allotment chart, you are to stick to the corresponding amount for food for the month of April. The challenge is that you must buy according to the following guidelines (from Locavores). Do not include non-food items or home grown items into your budget, but do include seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat. Make sure you include all the food costs from eating out, trips to coffee shops, etc.

These are fairly loose rules, but the goal is to buy sustainably grown food:

1. If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
2. If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
3. If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
4. If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Terroir: purchase foods famous for the region they are grown in.
5. Hit the farmers market before the supermarket.

Household Maximum Monthly Allotment Chart:
1 person - $176
2 people - $323
3 people - $463
4 people - $588
5 people - $698
6 people - $838
7 people - $926
8 people - $1,058
Each additional person - $132

The allotment allows for us to spend about $116 a week, since we are a family of 3. I asked my husband if he thought we should count our household as 2 1/2 since our child is only (almost) 4 and he said, "Are you kidding? This is the child who has created the meal between breakfast and lunch and dinner and bedtime."

If you follow this blog you know I'd like to keep our food budget to a weekly $80-100 *and* buy sustainable, preferably local and organic. Our CSA share doesn't start until mid-May but the farmers will start bringing whatever they have to market on April 18th. Until then I have to rely on Green Life, one of our whole foods markets, and yesterday all they had that was local and organic were sweet potatoes. Everything else I bought was organic.

Here's a picture of what I brought back:

I spent $65.09 with the bulk of the cost going toward milk from happy, pastured and hormone-free cows - $6.79 for a half-gallon of skim milk (when I used to pay $2.49 for a *gallon* at Aldi!) and $4.79 for a quart of buttermilk and $7.27 for a little less than a pound of cheese (which was on sale!).

So even though I was able to keep costs very low this week, this challenge will definitely require a lot more planning and creativity to keep us happily within our budget. To this end I will be making my first meal with a recipe for vegan "cheez" - the reviews were very favorable, so I am hopeful. We will also be making the vegan dad's recipe for sandwich "meat" because I will not be able to bring myself to buy organic deli meat at $12.99 a pound and my husband and child, who love sandwiches, are willing to make it the best of it.

Here's what we're eating this week.

Monday:
Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew (from freezer)
Couscous
Green Salad

Tuesday:
Macaroni and Cheez
Green Salad

Wednesday:
Monastery Style Lentils (recipe below)
Corn Scones

Thursday:
Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls
Sweet Potato Oven "Fries"

Friday:
Pizza (with homemade crust and sauce)
Pepperoni and Roasted Peppers and Onions
Spinach Salad

Saturday:
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos
Tortilla Chips
Guacamole

Sunday:
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Bacon
Grapefruit

If you go to my copy of Diet for a Small Planet by the wonderful Frances Moore Lappe (first published in 1971 and I got my copy used in the early 90's), it will automatically open to the page with this recipe. I have been able to make it for a long time now without even pulling the book off the shelf. I love that the recipe is so forgiving - you can add anything to it and it will be great. But if you want an unbelievably rich French Onion Soup-like taste, be sure to include the sherry and Swiss cheese.

Monastery Style Lentils
Serves 4-6
Take about 10 minutes to prep, 45-60 minutes on stove - until lentils are perfectly tender.

In a large pot saute 3-5 minutes:
1/4 cup olive oil (I use a lot less)
2 large onions, chopped
1 carrot, chopped

Add and saute 1 minute more:
1/2 tsp each dried thyme and marjoram leaves

Add:
3 cups stock or seasoned water
1 cup dry lentils, washed
salt to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I almost never add this, but add other dark, leafy greens instead)
1 lb. canned tomatoes

Cook in a covered pot until lentils are tender (45-60 minutes)
and add:
1/4 cup sherry

Have ready:
2/3 cup grated Swiss cheese

Top soup with 2 tbsp. of grated cheese in each serving bowl. Enjoy!

I Heart NY

2009-04-03T15:39:00.003-05:00

I'm in NYC celebrating my parents' 45th wedding anniversary - Hooray! We are having such a wonderful time.

However, there will be no food waste photo or discussion about food waste this week. I left my fridge in good shape, so hopefully there will not be much to report next week either. But it's very possible that I missed something. Again, it seems that avoiding food waste requires constant vigilence and that is not possible this week. So, stay tuned because it's quite likely I'll have some food waste to report next week.

Hopefully I will get a chance to post on Sunday because I am rejoicing like crazy - NYC is my favorite city on the planet.

Olga's Mexican Desserts

2009-03-30T18:43:00.011-05:00

This past Sunday I hosted an open house to give my friend Olga an opportunity to showcase her amazing repetoire of Mexican desserts. I have traveled extensively through Mexico and eaten a lot of Mexican desserts and hers are the finest I've ever had.

I've already placed an order for the tres leches cake for my son's birthday party in May (we'll probably forgo the pink frosting, but I can't say he minded it - he helped himself to two slices!) and I'm trying to plan some other occasion as soon as possible as an excuse to enjoy her perfect flan.

Below are just a few of her offerings and she will soon post a price list. If you'd like to have your own sublime experience and order something from her, just let me know.

The table wouldn't even hold all the desserts she made!

This cake was amazing - I had never had it before. She calls it a "cake flan" - there is chocolate cake on the bottom, a thick, rich chocolate flan and a carmel topping. This was the favorite of my friend's almost-fourteen-year old daughter and will be featured at her birthday party.

This is a peach and strawberry cheesecake - but it's lighter than our cheesecakes. Much lighter. My husband said it was more like a mousse and I think he's right.

Ah, and the tres leches cake. That means "3 milks" - evaporated, condensed and cream - and I've never met a citizen of the northern united states (Mexico and Canada have united states of america, too, you know) who have ever tried this cake and not been astounded by it. It is unlike any cake you get commercially in our 50 states - the moistness is astounding - and you simply must try it if you never have!

She made two flans. This was the mocha.

And this is the chocolate. I had never seen flan prepared in a cake shape and marveled that she could get the cake pans in a water bath. The flan had a lovely creamy, silky texture and was just perfect. (I have been known to make a seriously good flan myself, and these were better.)

And, finally, the Pina Colada cheesecake, that almost didn't fit on our table - coconut, pineapple and a texture that, again, was more like a mousse than our traditionally heavy cheesecakes. Again, you have to try them!

What's Cooking 3.30-4.5

2009-03-30T15:49:00.015-05:00

It's freezer week at our home! I mentioned in my Friday post that our freezer is packed with meals I've made over the last month and now it is time to enjoy them. I must say it was very nice to make very quick trips to two stores because I was running short on time this morning. I decided to forgo a trip to Amazing Savings for our pricey whole foods store because it would also help save time and I knew it wouldn't break the budget to buy all our produce (local and/or organic) and dairy (organic milk and sour cream) there.

I spent $32.96 in total this week - $30.86 at Earth Fare and $2.10 at Aldi for 2 jars of spaghetti sauce. I would not have gone to Aldi at all, but it's right by my bank, where I had to go anyway, and the sauce is quite good and a very good value.

My grand total for food this month was $239.73 - $80 under my goal of $320 a month - and that is after I decided to go back to all organic and local produce. I feel so confident about my ability to get in under budget that I plan to buy all organic and local - for everything - next month, taking up Crunchy Chicken's challenge to buy sustainable on a budget. More on that next week!

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday:
Curried Split Peas
Brown Rice

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Tuesday:Leftovers

Wednesday:

Slow Cooker Spinach Lasagna (from freezer)
Green Salad

Thursday:
Tunisian Vegetables (from freezer, but see recipe below)
Whole Wheat Couscous

Friday:
Pizza with homemade crust and sauce
Soy Sausage and Roasted Peppers and Onions
Spinach Salad

Saturday:
Ground Turkey Shepherd's Pie (from freezer)
Spinach Salad

Sunday:
Roasted Pumpkin Soup (from freezer)
Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls

Once again, from the fantastic Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, a lovely stew that makes an ideal quick meal that is flavorful, healthful and economical!

Tunisian Vegetable Stew
Total time: 30 minutes
Serves 4

1 1/2 cups thinly sliced onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups thinly sliced cabbage
dash of salt
1 large green pepper, cut into thin strips
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)
3 cups undrained canned tomatoes, chopped (28-ounce can)
1 1/2 cups drained cooked chick peas (16-ounce can)
1/3 cup currants or raisins
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt to taste
Grated Feta Cheese
Toasted slivered almonds (optional)

In a large skillet, saute the onions in the olive oil for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the cabbage, sprinkle with salt, and continue to saute for at least 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the bell pepper and spices to the skillet and saute for another minute or so. Stir in the tomatoes, chick peas, and currants or raisins, and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes, until the vegetables are just tender. Add the lemon juice and salt to taste.

Top with feta, and toasted almonds if you like. Serve on couscous or another grain of your choice.

In the Swing

2009-03-29T18:42:00.003-05:00

My parents wanted to buy my son an outdoor play set for his fourth birthday. We knew friends had acquired a nice one at Lowe's (a big box hardware store) and a few weeks ago we went to price one. The simplest "kit" (with a couple of swings, a tower thing and a slide) cost $1500 - and that's unassembled. To have it assembled by the good folks at Lowe's would cost over $2100. I saw those prices and walked promptly out of the store.

I thought we would happily make do with our neighborhood playground, but then I realized that we had quite a few neighbors who had play sets and children who had grown up and perhaps no longer fancied so much time on the swings.

I called the neighbor with whom I am closest and asked if we could buy their play set. She immediately said they would love it if we just *take it* because it had been years since their children used it and they would like to plant some fruit trees in its place.

She refused payment but I managed to talk her into a gift card for our local whole foods grocery store as a token of our gratitude. And another friend broke down the set and put it up in our backyard for a very reasonable sum.

So instead of paying a small fortune to the big box store who cuts down trees in China for their play sets, we were able to give an 8-year-old play set a new life with a very grateful child *and* support our local economy with my parents' gift.

We have played on that set every day over the last week and we've already hosted lots of other children to share the wonderful gift. Below are pictures of G (aka Spiderman) and two of his favorite playmates - of whom he commonly asks, "Are they my sisters or my girlfriends?" I suppose we still have plenty of time to figure that out.

This week I'm rejoicing in the simple pleasures of a swing set.

Food Waste for the Week

2009-03-27T18:34:00.003-05:00

No waste again this week. I'm definitely getting the hang of the challenge of preventing food waste and so is my husband. Today is the day when the least appetizing of our leftovers remain to be eaten and my wonderful husband, again, managed to eat the very-least appetizing before I got home for lunch. He said he had to use a lot of fresh Parmesan to make them palatable and I appreciate his willingness and his resourcefulness.

I might decide to build in two leftovers nights - one at the beginning of the week (Tuesday) and one at the end (Saturday) because we still have a surplus even when we eat leftovers every day for lunch. Our freezer is now full of leftovers - from weeks ago - and I will plan to defrost them for some evening meals next week.

I also have an elderly neighbor who I occasionally give a portion of our meals and I will ask her if she'd like to be a regular recipient and that would also be a viable solution to the overflow.

Overall, I remain very pleased with this challenge.

Creating an Edible Front Yard

2009-03-26T15:00:00.015-05:00

I stumbled onto a new favorite blog, The Food Renegade, and in the interest of joining Kristen M's Friday blog carnival I am inspired to write a little more about how we created our edible front yard.

When we moved into our home 11 years ago the front yard was lush with grass. It looked fine, but I quickly came to resent it because the act of mowing the steep hills was more than a little life threatening.

Here's a picture of it from back in the day:

Our back yard is tree-filled and shady and I dreamed for years of transforming the front into an edible garden but felt overwhelmed by the time, cost and energy that such a project would entail. Finally, in the spring of 2007, we had an economic windfall and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it: hire folks to help me plan and create an edible garden.

Fortunately, my child's labor was free but I paid almost $1500 for other labor and materials.

The raised bed is essential because the soil was in very poor condition and required quite a bit of amendment to support the 8 blueberry bushes and strawberry plants. Those plants, along with the other herbs I planted - rosemary, lavender, sage, thyme and marjoram - are now thriving.

Here is a picture of what the garden looks like today:

You can click on the picture for a larger view: off to the left is a large rosemary plant and the rest of the plants in front of the raised bed are mostly flowering plants. The bottom row has the blueberry bushes and strawberry plants.

Here is a close-up picture of a blueberry bush with sweet little buds:

And here is a close-up of the raised bed garden.

This is what it looked like last year in early summer:

We get loads of tomatoes and cucumbers by training them up the trellises. And we get glorious greens from the rest of the available plot:

Here my son proudly displayed a lovely cucumber before it was unceremoniously plucked off the vine and crunched in his mouth.

We have enjoyed our garden so much. It is definitely worth every bit of effort: I love to look at it year round and the benefits are too many to count. To me the greatest benefit is that my son knows where real food comes from.

What's Cooking 3.23-3.29

2009-03-23T14:15:00.005-05:00

It was a great shopping day - I bought only local or organic produce and came way under my *dream* budget of $80! I spent $31.31 at Amazing Savings on the produce and $25.94 at Aldi, for a grand total of $58.38. I had to plan our menus carefully to use up lentils, brown rice, and other grains we already have in the pantry and that helped keep the cost low. Knowing that we are eating well and cheaply based on choices that rely on sustainable farming practices is just fantastic.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday:
Kusherie (Egyptian Lentils)
Green Salad

Tuesday:
Leftovers

Wednesday:
Fusilli, Swiss Chard and Garbanzo Beans (recipe below)
Green Salad

Thursday:
Potato Leek Soup with Pesto (using pesto stored in my freezer from my garden last summer)
Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls

Friday:
Pizza with homemade sauce and dough
Roasted Onions and Peppers
Spinach Salad

Saturday:
Sweet Potato Quesadillas (recipe provided last week, but we didn't have them because my parents surprised us with a visit and treated us to dinner)
Steamed Broccoli

Sunday:
Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew
Couscous
Spinach Salad

Fusilli with Swiss Chard and Garbanzo Beans (and optional bacon)
I have some bacon in the fridge so I will cook a few slices to flavor the dish, but I don't miss the flavor if it's not on hand.

Total time: 25 minutes
Serves 4

12 oz. whole wheat fusilli or rotini pasta
1 bunch Swiss Chard (1 lb.), tough ends trimmed
1 slice bacon, cut into 1/2 inch wide strips (or 2 Tbsp. of olive oil if not using bacon)
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed (I usually add more)
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 cups of cooked garbanzo beans/chick peas (I prepare mine from dried or use 1 15 oz. can)
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Grated Parmesan cheese if using bacon (optional, but very tasty)
Crumbled Feta cheese if not using bacon (again, optional but very tasty)

1. Heat large covered pot of water to boiling on high. Add salt and pasta and cook as label directs.
2. Meanwhile, cut ribs and stems from Swiss chard leaves. Cut ribs and stems into 1-inch pieces; cut leaves into 2-inch pieces. Rinse Swiss chard in large bowl of cold water;swish to remove any dirt. Transfer chard to colander. Do not spin dry.
3. In 12-inch nonstick skillet, cook bacon on medium-high until browned, stirring occasionally. With slotted spoon, transfer bacon to tea towel to drain. Reduce heat to medium. To bacon fat in skillet (or a couple of tablespoons of olive oil) add garlic and crushed red pepper; cook 30 seconds stirring constantly. Add Swiss chard, beans, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cover and cook 2 minutes or until chard begins to wilt. Uncover and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes longer or until stems are tender-crisp.
4. Drain pasta, reserving 1/4 cup cooking water. Return pasta to pot. Stir in Swiss chard mixture and lemon juice until combined. If mixture seems dry, add reserved cooking water. Top with optional Parmesan or Feta cheese.

Recipe adapted from Good Housekeeping magazine.

Girls' Night

2009-03-22T10:57:00.006-05:00

I've mentioned before how dear my girlfriends are to me and I treasure our time together. Before my son was born I hosted regular girls' nights at my home. Since his arrival, time with my friends is at such a premium that I've chosen to gather them regardless of how their chromosomes align.

Last night was supposed to be a co-ed affair, but then one of the xy's couldn't make it and my husband, realizing he was going to be in the minority, graciously accepted an invitation to my parents' home. My boys were treated like kings and my girlfriends and I got to be queens.

Here we are holding court.

Of course, it wouldn't be an evening with my girls if things didn't get a little silly.

And then, to my great delight, we got a little jiggy with it.

We had so much fun we're already planning our next two nights out: to a karoke bar (one of our friends is like a human juke box and I'm anxious to see her in a more fitting milieu) and Pigeon Forge. I've never been to Dollywood but one of my friends says that once you go you will feel unbelievably skinny and attractive.

This week, once again, I'm rejoicing in my girlfriends.

Food Waste for the Week

2009-03-20T19:08:00.002-05:00

No waste again this week. I think I'm getting the hang of this. I froze a large portion of the chili earlier this week and thus prevented the dreaded leftover fatigue of past weeks.

I love how this challenge has changed my habits: I wasn't so keen on menu planning in the past and I would buy items that looked good, that I thought I could pull into a meal, but often did not, creating waste.

I also had no compunction when it came to throwing out a less-than-prime piece of fruit - I could easily justify it by saying that the chickens would eat it. But this week I saw a soft spot on a grapefruit and instead of throwing it out (our chickens have never loved citrus anyway), I simply cut out the spot and we enjoyed it with dinner.

And finally, it has compelled me to stick to my menu plan. My husband and I were both tired last night and in the past I would have opted for take-out burritos or something. But I knew I had some chard that was going south and if I didn't use it quickly, it would go to waste. So I fixed the meal - in less time than it would have taken to get take-out - and I felt bolstered, by the good meal and the virtue of not wasting food or money, too.

Passing on the Gift

2009-03-17T05:44:00.003-05:00

I’ve written earlier about how my husband and I know we are wealthy: we spend less than we make and we try to be good stewards of our resources. We are grateful for our good fortune and we're happy to share it with others.

Physician-philosopher-humanitarian Albert Schweitzer once said, “The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

Last month I promised to write about my favorite charity for the March blog carnival at APLS (Affluent People Living Sustainably). I had forgotten about this commitment until last week when I gathered up our tax documents, which include records of our charitable donations – most notably to my favorite organization, Heifer International.

Heifer mainly assists communities across the globe through training and gifts of livestock. A family will be given a goat or a cow, for example, and the support they need to raise the animal successfully.

The animal provides milk that benefits the family’s diet directly and is also sold at market for other goods and services. The money made from the sales often makes it possible for the children to get schooling that would otherwise be too costly.

Another unique aspect of Heifer International is "passing on the gift," which is a great approach to ending poverty and establishing sustainability for many generations. Everyone who receives a gift from Heifer – be it a cow or a goat, a hive of bees, tree saplings or veterinary skills – signs a contract, agreeing to pass on what they have been given, like their animals' offspring, to someone else in need.

Heifer reports that their families expand their service beyond the three years Heifer works with them. The communities often establish micro-credit, dairy and grain cooperatives, make sure every child is educated, bring women into leadership roles, establish partnerships, and continuously find ways to insure prosperity.

In the thank you letter I receive from Heifer for my donation, they write, “Every gift you give helps create permanent solutions to poverty and hunger for children and families around the world.” That says it all.

If you’d like to find out more and donate, please go to Heifer International's website.

What's Cooking 3.16-3.22

2009-03-16T13:46:00.008-05:00

It was an interesting shopping day: I've decided I will only buy organic or local (and hopefully both) produce when I can. I used to shop only at one or the other of our expensive whole foods markets, Earth Fare or Green Life, and only bought organic and locally produced food and spent between $150-300 a week.

I wanted to decrease our food budget in order to meet some other savings goals and went to discount grocery stores to do that. I succeeded at slashing our food costs, but I didn't feel *that* great about it. I just can't jibe the savings with my values. The practices of factory farms are not sustainable and I know the "savings" come with a cost to the environment that I am not willing to pay.

Luckily, we have a discount grocery store, Amazing Savings, that sells organic and locally produced food for 50-75% less than the other markets, but it is across town and much less convenient to get to, and their stock is often quite random. It can be frustrating to drive all the way out there and find they don't have organic spinach (like today) or some other item I was hoping to buy.

But I decided I will roll with the challenges and make the best of it,

I spent $60.90 at Amazing Savings for almost all our produce (sans the spinach), ground turkey (for my omnivorous friends who are coming to our home for a party this Saturday night), eggs and milk (all organic and locally produced). They also had a good price on automatic dish detergent (2.99 for 75 ounces), but there was only one box (you often get the feeling that some of their stuff has just fallen off a truck), so I won't count on that deal again. I spent $12.48 at Earth Fare for bulk bulghur, couscous, peanut butter and grapes (all organic). And then $17.46 at Aldi for other staples like butter and cans of beans (I forgot to soak beans last night for tonight's chili). All for a grand total of $90.84.

I am surprised that I just went a little over $10 for my *dream* budget of $80 a week for food - and that includes all organic produce, dairy, and meat for a party this week! Since I spent less than $60 last week, I think I can still come in under $320 for this month if I am careful. That makes me very happy.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday:
Red, Gold, Black and Green Chili
Corn Scones

Tuesday: I'm in the hospital for my 24-hour shift and we've found that leftovers work great on this day.

Wednesday:
Sweet Potato Quesadillas (recipe below)
Roasted Broccoli and Garlic

Thursday:
West African Groundnut Stew
Whole Wheat Couscous

Friday:
Pizza with homemade crust and sauce
topped with Roasted Broccoli, Peppers and Onions
Spinach Salad

Saturday: Games Night with Friends!
Ground Turkey Shepherd's Pie (This is a very kid-friendly recipe that I will jazz up with Southwestern chili spices.)
Green Salad

Sunday:
Spicy Bell Pepper Frittata
Spinach Salad
Homemade Whole Wheat Rolls

A couple of the meals this week come from the Moosewood Restaurant website. I decided since I'm promoting the restaurant in this manner, I can take the liberty of publishing one of the recipes from their Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home cookbook, one of my favorites. We have prepared this dish countless times over the last 16 years and we never tire of it.

Sweet Potato Quesadillas
Take about 20 minutes to make
Serves 4

1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion (1 medium)
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I always use less)
4 cups grated peeled sweet potato (about 3 medium potatoes)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
generous pinch of cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

8 tortillas (8- to 10-inch), preferably whole wheat
your favorite salsa
sour cream

Saute the onions and garlic in the oil until the onions are translucent. Add the grated sweet potatoes, oregano, chili powder, cumin, cayenne and cook, covered, for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. When the sweet potato is tender, add salt and pepper to taste and remove the filling from the heat. Spread one-eighth of the filling and 2 tablespoons of the cheese on each tortilla. Fold the plain half of the tortilla over the filling. Cook the filled tortillas in the heated skillet (as many as you can fit in your pan) and cook each side for 2 or 3 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the filling is hot. Add more oil to the skillet if necessary, and cook the remaining quesadillas. (Keep the cooked quesadillas in the oven while you cook the remaining batches.)

Serve topped with the salsa and sour cream.

Choosing Peace

2009-03-15T15:30:00.005-05:00

At some point I'm going to have to change my profile and let newcomers know that there is a point to the rather eclectic offerings contained within my blog: they offer insights into what makes me happy. On Sundays I try to comment on something for which I am particularly grateful, something upon which I can rejoice (my "word for the year").

I had another week full of quotidian joys. I even managed to squeeze in 3 birthday celebrations (in the same day!) with dear friends. It's easy to feel happy when all the good stuff is happening. It takes some effort to feel happy when what you are faced with something that is not so pleasant.

This week I had a pretty challenging phone conversation with my father. He wants his grandson vaccinated. My husband and I decided not to vaccinate for many reasons and after sharing the evidence upon which we based our decision, my father still believes that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.

It became obvious rather quickly in our discussion that I was not going to convince him that I was "right", nor was he going to convince me that I was "wrong". He was frustrated and angry. I was upset, too. I got off the phone and wondered how we were going to feel better if we were not going to be able to agree.

Oncologist Bernie Siegel wrote in his wonderful book, Love, Medicine and Miracles, that in any difficult situation - especially one in which people hold widely divergent beliefs - one can always choose peace or conflict. (I read this book almost 20 years ago, but I always remembered it because he told the story of sharing this point with family and in response to the question, "Do you want peace or do you want conflict?" his young daughter immediately responded, "I want pizza!")

So I reminded myself that my dad was expressing concern for my son's well being. I don't have to agree with him on the vaccination issue to appreciate his concern.

Shortly after our phone conversation I told my dad that I am very grateful that he shares my desire that my son be healthy. And somehow just sharing my gratitude made the situation better.

This week I'm rejoicing in choosing peace over conflict.

Food Waste for the Week

2009-03-13T15:38:00.002-05:00

Another good week in our household: no waste! We almost had an issue with a huge batch of lasagna, but luckily a friend came over for lunch yesterday and seemed happy enough to help us with the leftovers. I need to make a practice of setting aside and freezing a few servings when I double a recipe. I want there to be leftovers - but not *so much* so that we will find them unappetizing by the end of the week. Better to freeze some of it and then reheat another week, when we need something in a pinch.

What's Cooking 3.9-3.15

2009-03-09T13:39:00.006-05:00

Today I spent $8.21 at Earth Fare, our whole foods market, because I needed to get thyme (they have a nice selection of bulk herbs and they cost far less and use less packaging than buying the bottles of spices somewhere else) and they had a sale on organic apples (.87/lb) and bananas (.59/lb) and vegetable broth. (I really should make my own broth, but considering I make almost all of our food from scratch, I give myself a break with broth. But I am currently making a note to save veggie scraps over the next week to attempt homemade.)

I spent $13.28 at Sav-Mor, a local discount grocery store. They have carts at the front with seriously marked-down items. I usually don't stop to look because they are often filled with stuff we don't eat, but today I was happily surprised to see that they were selling boxes of (12) organic ice cream cones for .49! These same boxes cost almost $5 at Earth Fare and my son loves to offer ice cream cones to his friends when they visit (and rarely asks for one for himself alone) and just yesterday a friend was over and there was only one cone left and he said, "Olive can have the cone, Mommy. I'll have ice cream in a bowl." So I would pay full price to support that kind of generosity, but as luck would have it, I think it is being rewarded another way. There are some grocery items that Aldi doesn't carry, like whole wheat pasta, eggplants and ricotta cheese, so I picked those up, too.

Then for the bulk of my shopping I spent $35.52 at Aldi. My grand total was $57.01. Still more than $20 under what I thought would be the impossible goal of $80. I really considered buying some items - like chicken tenderloins that were on sale at Sav-Mor for $1.87/lb - but I just couldn't. We still have some chicken (not much, but enough for one meal) in our freezer and since I can see that I can consistently spend under $80 a week for food (even when I stocked up on staples like flour and sugar this week), I don't think I have to watch sales on meat, especially since we rarely eat it.

At this rate I feel that I can buy more of our vegetables from local and organic sources and not break the budget - especially since our farmer's markets should be opening soon. And, of course, my weekly CSA share will start in May. Hooray for Spring!

Monday:
Slow Cooker Spinach Lasagna
Green Salad

Tuesday:
I'm back in the hospital for my 24-hour shift and there will be plenty of leftovers from the lasagna to cover us for today.

Wednesday:
Black Bean Tacos with Roasted Peppers and Onions
Crudites (raw broccoli, cherry tomatoes and carrots)
with Homemade Ranch Dressing Dipping Sauce

Thursday:
Tangy Twice-Baked Potatoes
Spinach Salad (with slices of hard-boiled eggs to boost the protein content of the meal)

Friday:
Pizza with homemade sauce and crust
Roasted Peppers and Pepperoni
Spinach Salad

Saturday:
Roasted Pumpkin Soup
Homemade Croutons

Sunday:
Ratatouille (classic French stew with eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers)
Creamy Polenta

Including Moderation

2009-03-08T10:54:00.010-05:00

One of my favorite sayings is "Everything in moderation - including moderation." I *usually* practice thrift and enjoy simple pleasures. But sometimes - especially around birthdays - I like to go over the top a bit.

This week I'm rejoicing in excess.

It was D's birthday on Tuesday: It all started with a simple - almost frugal - banana cake.

Then on Wednesday my parents took us to dinner at D's choice of restaurants - an adorable French bistro. I got a peek at the bill for the evening's revelry and it exceed what I spent on food for my family last month. Sacre Bleu! C'est magnifique!

And then Friday night we had a party with D's friends - and another cake, of course.

And what a cake it was! Our friend couldn't be bothered with a fork and opted to inhale it. (She made me promise I wouldn't post this picture on Facebook. I've kept to the letter of the law, if not the spirit. :)

My parents were back this evening to look after the kids so the adults could have a little more ribald (and I mean ribald!) fun, but after several hours they had to go home and G got to indulge in his favorite past-time - telling jokes, of course!

As you can see, he had the crowd in stitches. I think he's going to be responsible for the return of vaudeville.

It's a good thing we have a couple of months before our next birthday extravaganza - G's 4th! - and the Taqueria truck rolls into our driveway once again. I think we will have recovered by then.