A Recipe For Disaster

On January 31^st my mother June Rosenberg passed away. Since in many ways she is still with me, I’ve written this letter to her.

Dear Mom,

It’s been almost a year since you died. At first I was relieved for you that you no longer had to live through the process of losing your memory and I didn’t have to witness it. It was so painful.

Since that initial reaction has worn off, I’m remembering all the times before that and I miss you more. Especially toward the end of this election campaign, there were times when I wanted to call you so we could commiserate. Of course, I couldn’t so I’d thank God that you didn’t live to see it. That’s been my biggest comfort every day since November 8^th.

Something happened this week though that I wished I could call you about. We would have had a good laugh together. Can you imagine – my blog has been hacked by Russian hackers. Don’t ask what that means but they’re spying on me and they have messed up the blog so that people can’t read it. Don’t worry that I’ve flipped out. I know it’s them because in the statistics, I see the largest number of my readers are in Russia. Besides that, I keep getting anonymous comments that don’t make any sense. Sometimes they’re just a bunch of numbers and I’ve had to send them to spam. Don’t ask. Who do they think I am - Hillary Clinton?

So I’m thinking of sending them a comment in reply. Let me know what you think.

Dear Russian Hackers,

I don’t know why you’re bothering to hack my blog, but I kind of feel sorry for you because you’ve wasted a whole lot of your time. You’re not going to find out anything from me that you couldn’t find out by reading the newspapers. I’m just a private American citizen exercising my freedom of speech while I still have it. The events I write about are all public knowledge that I’m merely expressing my opinion about.

It reminds me of two funny FBI stories. One was an old friend of mine was a member of the Communist Party. The FBI sent an agent to spy on him. They spent so much time together that they got to be friends. When the FBI agent’s dog ran away, my friend helped him find his dog.

During the Vietnam War, my friends and I went to an anti-war march. We met a man who was wearing a “May 2^nd Movement” campaign button. I asked him what that was and he told us. About a year later, one of my friends told me that he read a story about an FBI agent spending six months with the May 2^nd Movement and finding out everything we did in our ten-minute conversation. I guess bureaucracies have something in common all over the world.

I’m willing to let bygones be bygones if you’d just say you’re sorry and unjumble my blog. While you’re at it, could you do me a favor? My aunt was a great cook and she made fabulous beef Stragonoff. I lost the recipe so could you send one to me? If you tell me your real name, I’ll mention it in my blog.

And that’s another thing: Just a friendly tip: You’d probably do better if you used an American name on your comments and improved your English grammar. Just saying.

Happy New Year. May 2017 be a more peaceful one for all of us.

A Recipe From My Mother

Sunday, January 31^st my mother June Rosenberg died at the age of 94 from heart disease, old age, and I suspect the fear of having to move to a nursing home.  

My mother was always a political-social activist. She and my father Jack Rosenberg were involved in our New York suburb in founding a human rights committee to advocate for fair housing and racial integration. They were also active in Sane [the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy]. During the War in Vietnam, they were active in the protests against American involvement in it.

In my mother’s honor, I am re-printing the first post that I wrote on this blog. My mother loved it and encouraged me to keep writing. Once again, Thanks, Mom.

Honoring An Old Recipe For Social Change In America

While helping my mother to ready her apartment for sale, I saw a glint of a relic. “No!” I moaned. “Not that!”

Underneath the rubble of a half used bottle of vinegar, a quarter of a bottle of cooking oil, and various partially used spices on their way to 1-800-GOT JUNK were the vestiges of an old friend. Courageously, I dived into the rubble to rescue The Peace de Resistance, a cook book published by The Women’s Strike for Peace in the late 1960’s. Its cover was torn off and missing. Its pages were crinkled and stained, but it was still salvageable.

Feeling like I had just saved a long lost friend from an earthquake, I sat down to read it. It evoked nostalgia for a time lost when those of us who felt strongly mobilized for a greater good – to end the war in Vietnam. The recipes were ones we don’t often use now, but I relish the sentiment.

The introduction to the book recalls a time when women were just beginning to have an impact on the greater world:

            “…  We tried every which way to bring peace to our land. We protested; we marched; we wrote letters; we leafleted; we vigiled; we counseled on the Draft. We tried everything but inviting the President to dinner and cooking a meal out of the first Peace de Resistance cookbook…We’re impatient with the hash that has been made of things. We’re determined, by every means possible…..to stir things up, to stew about what matters, to go on serving Peace.

The recipes, basic well-balanced meals, reveal an understanding that the women of that era had of an often forgotten truth: You can’t do it all, at least not all at once. There isn’t time to change the world and cook a gourmet meal every night as well. Most of the recipes have a really short preparation time.

In the spirit of Peace de Resistance, I will try a different recipe from the book each week. If any of you have recipes to contribute, feel free to send them in. The one requirement is that the preparation time can be no more than 15 minutes. In the year ahead – It’s now 5771 on the Jewish calendar, I challenge myself and all of you to spend less time in the kitchen and more time making the world a better place. After all, hash is still being made of lots of things.

In the spirit of Peace de Resistance, I tried a recipe that isn’t in the book but should be. It’s my mother June Rosenberg’s recipe for quiche. At age 88, she wrote and circulated petitions in her retirement home to get the health care bill passed. Thanks, Mom.

                                               

Quiche – preparation time 15 minutes tops

   Ingredients    

One ready made frozen pie crust

One heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise

½ cup of milk

Tablespoon of flour

2 eggs

4 ounces of combined Swiss cheese and cheddar cheese diced

salt, pepper, and garlic to taste

1 6 oz. Can of tuna or cut veggies or slice of ham or whatever you feel like adding

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

      2) Beat the eggs

3) Dice the cheese – or cheat and buy it already shredded

4)      Mix all the ingredients (except for the piecrust and the tuna or whatever) in a mixing bowling

5)      Put the added ingredients that you choose on the bottom of the pie crust

6)      Pour in the rest of the ingredients into the pie crust

7)      Bake for about 40 minutes or until a knife inserted comes up clean.

 Preparation time 12 minutes. I put in broccoli and mushrooms this time. It was delicious.

To learn more about me, visit my blog http://www.listeningtomytravels.blogspot.com or read my book “Breaking the Fall” available on Kindle and as a paperback on Amazon.

Wishing Us All A Happy New Year In A More Peaceful, Less Violent World

A belated Happy New Year to all of you! 2015 was a year of violence in the United States and France and a year with a refugee crisis not experienced since World War II. I, for one, was only too happy to kiss 2015 good-bye.

I hope that 2016 is a happier, healthier, more peaceful world for all of us sharing Mother Earth. After all, it's the only planet that we have. I hope you try new, delicious recipes if that's your choice or you enjoy getting take-outs from the restaurants you love. I ended this recipe blog when I ran out of recipes to share. Nevertheless, I still love to cook and feel blessed to live in Chicago where I meet people from all over the world who have shared recipes from their home countries with me.

In other news, after a long absence from blogging, I started a new blog which you can visit at http://www.listeningtomytravels.blogspot.com. I hope you'll visit me there. I look forward to sharing what I've learned from people on my travels both near and far.

After much effort, I have published my book Breaking the Fall. It is available on Amazon as a paperback and as a Kindle. The link for it is http://www.amazon.com/dp/151720755x. It's also available on Nook and Smashwords.

I hope that you'll all take a look at it so that I can share the stories I've listened to from those walking in our midst whose stories have been invisible. They need to be heard. 

So Again. Happy New Year. May you enjoy great food, great travels, and the opportunities to make this world a better place.                                                                                          

Starting Anew

I enjoyed writing Recipes for a Better World until I ran out of recipes. At the end of December, 2013, I decided it was time to put the cookbooks away for a while.

It has taken me a while to decide how I wanted to proceed. Perhaps it was good to take a break from blogging so I am glad that that's how it worked out. Now I've started a new blog. If you want to find me, you can look for me at http://listeningtomytravels.blogspot.com. 

I look forward to talking to you there in the months ahead.

Buying For the Good of America

On Black Friday, watching the Today Show in our hotel room, we viewed people wrestling each other to the ground for the chance to get a bargain. My husband and I, smug in our lack of participation in this frenzy, watched the images in disbelief. But are these alpha shoppers the real Patriots?

According to Robert Reich’s documentary, Inequality for All, consumer spending is 70% of the American economy, the backbone of our wealth as a nation. The middle class is shrinking, threatening the wealth of the USA. His thesis is that without a large middle class that can afford to buy goods and services, our whole economy is threatened. In very succinct, understandable explanations, using cartoons, graphs, and interviews with average people, Reich illustrates how dangerous a situation our economy is in. In 2007, the 1% (those earning at least $380,000 per year) had the highest percentage of American wealth since 1928. Nevertheless, the Republican Party wants to cut $40 billion from the SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) budget threatening many working poor with malnutrition or even starvation. While some unstoppable forces such as globalization and technology have spurred the rise of the ultra-rich, our social policies have also played a huge part. Since Robert Reich explains this all much more articulately than I can, I urge everyone to see this documentary. For those who have avoided it for fear that a documentary about economics would put them to sleep, let me say that I was pleasantly surprised how entertaining it was.

I watched Inequality for All at the Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois. After it was over, people were asked to sign up to participate in a group to work towards some of the goals Robert Reich articulated. For those readers living in or near Evanston, there will be a follow up meeting on Saturday, December 7^th at 2:00 at the Lake Street Church at 607 Lake Street, Evanston to discuss where we go from here. Everyone is welcome. Maybe they can start a movement.

In the meantime, I should go out and shop. If only I wanted to buy something and didn’t hate shopping as much as I did. In the name of restoring America’s wealth, I wish all of you a happy and healthy shopping season. Don’t fight anyone over the bargains though. I’m sure there’s plenty for everyone. Happy Holidays! 

Back At the Walnut Room

I’m on the El on my way to my semi-annual micro-vacation at the Walnut Room. Why is the train going so slowly today? At each stop, I glance at my watch hoping that I’ll be on time. Finally, the train arrives at Lake Street. I elbow my way out of the train and go through the Pedway and up to the seventh floor of Macy’s (formerly Marshal Fields) anticipating a relaxing lunch with my friend from the western exurbs.

Fortunately, it’s early enough in the holiday season that we can be seated without a reservation or having to wait on long lines. Coming here is always a vacation. We can sit in the paneled room overlooking the Chicago Loop as we talk of all things important and trivial, personal and professional without being rushed out.

Although it’s before Thanksgiving, the Christmas tree is decorated and all the other seasonal decorations are on display. As we bite into our salads, the fairy godmother stops at our table. “Do you beautiful ladies want to make a wish?”

“Yes, I do,” says my friend. Closing her eyes, she wishes for things unknown.

Next it’s my turn. There’s only one wish per customer. What will I wish for? My family is healthy and I don’t need any more material things. Do I wish for world peace? The success of the Affordable Health Care website? Peace in the Middle East? There are so many things to wish for in our imperfect world that it’s difficult to make a choice. The pressure is on. The fairy godmother has a lot of other tables to visit. I settle for economic justice and prosperity for the 99% and wish the Fairy Godmother a Merry Christmas.

Our squash soup and salads eaten, we talk about how the year has treated us. While the salads are good, they aren’t outstanding. Nevertheless, the ambiance is delicious, proving once again the
importance of eating in a warm, conducive atmosphere. Good conversation always adds to the flavor of the meal. We wish each other a Happy Thanksgiving and continue on our day.

While I’m at it, I want to share a favorite quick recipes for salads. It takes a few minutes to prepare, leaving time left over to perfect the world.  Remember - ambience is half the battle.

                                                     Easy One-Week Salad

Lettuce
Cucumbers cut into pieces
Green peppers cut into pieces
Tomatoes cut into small wedges
Any other salad vegetables you like
Cut enough salad vegetables to last a week. Put aside in a plastic container in the refrigerator.

To individualize the salads, here are two of my favorites:

Greek Salad

Take enough salad vegetables for one meal. Add Kalamata olives and feta cheese. Cut in some pieces of Bermuda onion. A couple of anchovies (optional) chopped up add flavor. For dressing, add olive oil, lemon juice, and oregano

Black Bean and Cheese Salad

Take enough basic salad for one dinner. Add cilantro leaves, green olives, black beans drained of most of the liquid, and cheddar cheese diced into small pieces. For dressing, add lime juice and olive oil.

Good with wine, good bread, and whatever else you’re serving. Bon appetit!

 

 

Some Great Holiday Gift Suggestions

Just in time! I’m so glad. The Chicago Tribune’s Sunday November 10th edition has a special section on watches, the perfect gift. “The price is right,” it says. Did you know that for a mere $442,000, you can get a Breguet Classique Double Tourbillion? If you don’t think it’s to your gift receiver’s liking, the Girard-Perregaux Three Bridge Tourbillon is only $211,500. It’s a consolation prize I’m sure. The one of a kind Patek Philippe sells for $3,985,067.

For a real bargain, the Ball Watch Trainmaster Doctor’s Chronograph in platinum is only $399,500. Seiko has a limited edition for only $3,400.

You’re all set. With all these choices, you can buy watches for everyone on your gift list. You’re shopping stress is obliterated. With all the websites, you can buy them on-line and save yourself a trip to the store.

With the money you’ve saved from all these bargains, you may want to make some donations to the homeless and those on the brink of homelessness. After all, most of the organizations aiding the homeless are tax exempt and you can get a deduction on your taxes if you donate to them. There are many organizations that are short of funds, but the good news is that the incomes of the 2% are back where they should be. In fact, the disparity between the top 10% and everyone else is at its highest since the 1920’s.

Let’s celebrate! Yesterday I tried another recipe for Cornish hens. It was very festive. The preparation time was only about 10 minutes and it serves four.

                                                Orange Sherry Cornish Hen

2 Cornish hens
½ onion cut into wedges
4 tsps orange marmalade
¼ cup sherry
1 Tbs minced garlic
Rosemary, ground ginger, paprika

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Clean the hens and place them in a baking dish breast side up. Place an onion wedge in the cavity of each hen.

Mix all the remaining ingredients together in a cup. Pour half the mixture over the hens. Pour half of the remaining mixture into the cavity of the hens.

Place in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes. After that, pour the rest of the mixture over the hens and bake for another 15 minutes.

Now serve. Good with brown rice mixed with sautéed mushrooms and onions and a green vegetable. Bon Appetit!

Will This Shutdown Stay Unbroken?

I certainly hope not. My memories of working for the New York City Department of Social Services in the 1970’s may provide some clues.

As an investigator in Spanish Harlem, I’d knock on recipients’ doors. “I’m from the New York City Department of Social Services, Bureau of Public Assistance.” (‘Welfare Dept’, we were told, had negative connotations).

“Say what?”

“I’m from the New York City Department of Social Services, Bureau of Public Assistance.”

“Say what?”

“I’m from the Welfare Department.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you say so?”

I’d hear the deadbolt lock open. Then the metal police bar would be removed. Next came the other two locks. Lastly a door would crack open and a brown or black face would warily poke her head out and welcome me in.

Months later, I was transferred to Queens where I worked in a neighborhood that was predominantly white of various ethnic origins. I’d knock on the door with the same introduction. Someone on the other side of the door would eventually stage whisper, “Go around the back. I don’t want my neighbors to know I’m on Welfare.”

Little did it matter that many of her neighbors were also receiving help since they were too ashamed too talk to each other to know that. As I’d be warily let into the home, the person would often say, “We’re not like the others. We’re getting this help because we really need it.”

Who was I to judge? As Bob Dylan so eloquently sang, They’re only pawns in the game. Ten years year later, Reagan exploited that indoctrination with talk of welfare queens and images of underclass people- usually black-in various squalid situations. Those images are haunting us still. The fact that 83% of SNAP [formerly known as Food Stamps] recipients are full-time low-wage workers or that the majority of people receiving TANF [formerly known as Welfare] are white often doesn't enter the public consciousness.

In our still racially divided society, I suspect that the Tea Party exploits these haunting images as they rail against government money being spent for health care or basic necessities to aid low-income people in our country. Their hope is that if people perceive of the majority receiving aid as the Other, they won’t have empathy enough to support the programs.

Hopefully, this strategy is not going to work this time. Too many white people have been uninsured due to pre-existing conditions and/or not having jobs that provide health insurance and/or not being able to afford the premiums of private policies. This time the majority isn’t going to buy it. That’s why Pres. Obama was re-elected and why the Affordable Health Care Act aka Obamacare is here to stay. Get used to it, Tea Party. They'll probably accuse me of playing the race card as they do whenever people try to deal with the knotty subjects of race and class.

Stay healthy everybody until our government comes to its senses. I’m counting on the good sense of the centrist majority to prevail.

Shut the Government Down? They Don't Know Beans (Another Recipe)

They’ve done it - descended to such a low level of selfishness that they have shut the government down rather than allow the Affordable Health Care Act ( aka Obamacare) to proceed. The Tea Party representatives are telling us that this is a dangerous law. Regardless of what they think of the law, it’s been the law since 2009 and was ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in 2012.

During several of our travels, we have met Canadians and talked with them about their health care system. Canadians from British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario have told us that they are very satisfied with their health care, thank you very much. While the specter of Canadian health care and health care rationing was dangled before us Americans, these Canadians assured us that they received all the care they needed. Mary and Edgar (not their real names) were both over 80 years old and had just had hip and knee replacement surgeries respectively. When I asked Mary if they had any trouble getting the surgery, she said, “No, we just showed them our cards and walked right into the hospital.”

My husband and I lived in Israel in the early 1970’s. Forty years ago, Israel was still a new country striving to establish itself. Nevertheless, they managed to have a national health care system that provided basic care to all of its citizens. Those who were more affluent could purchase private insurance if they wanted to do so. Everyone else was able to access the basics. Sometimes it involved waiting to see a specialist but that’s certainly preferable to having a large portion of the population uninsured.

It’s impossible for me to understand why some people are so adamant insisting that the government not provide basic food and health care to their neighbors in need. If a selfish refusal to pay higher taxes isn’t the motive, I’d like to know what it is. A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times reported that the upper 1% of our population has the largest percentage of wealth – 23% - since the 1920’s. It certainly sounds like selfishness to me.

In the meantime, many of our neighbors have become food insecure and unable to access health care. Many don’t have a bean. Since beans are an inexpensive form of protein, I’ll provide my recipe for 5-Minute Bean Salad. It takes about five minutes to make and serves four to eight people depending on whether it’s a main dish or a side salad.

                                                              Five-Minute Bean Salad

One 14.5 oz can of black beans drained

One 14.5 oz can of garbanzo beans drained
2 tomatoes chopped
½ green pepper chopped
green olives
cilantro leaves
feta cheese (optional)

olive oil, lemon juice, oregano for the dressing

Put the first seven ingredients in a bowl and mix them up.

Sprinkle the dressing ingredients over the top.

Refrigerate until cold.

Serve

It’s good with pita and hummus.

 

 

 

Fifty Years After Birmingham Sunday, Where Are We?

A day after the 50^th anniversary of Birmingham Sunday, an article in the September 16^th issue of the New York Times caught my eye. A white middle class family (consisting of a mom, a dad, and the requisite two children) living in a gated community in South Africa spent a month in a shantytown to better understand the mentality of those living in it. (See the article  in the NewYorkTimes/ September16,2013/ “Trading Privilege for Privation, Family Hits a Nation’s Nerve”).

The article paints a stark contrast between the few haves and many have-nots in South Africa. The family was able to learn much about what the people in the shantytown have to deal with and they forged some interesting relationships. Whenever people can understand each other across ethnic and class lines, it's a positive development.

It reminded me of two books written in the United States. One was Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, a memoir from the early 1960’s about his experience becoming black temporarily with the use of dyes and other such help so that he could know how it felt to be a member of a discriminated against minority group. The other was Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. In this book, Ms. Ehrenreich goes undercover as a minimum wage worker to see what it’s like to manage on $7 per hour jobs. Can we ever know what it feels like to be a member of the other group? Do the differences go beyond skin color to the point that we can’t comprehend? To Barbara Ehrenreich’s credit, she understood that because she could always return to her bank account, car, and other class privileges, she couldn’t know. Therefore, she only investigated the practical problems of securing housing and other resources on a very limited income.

As difficult and tragic as the problems were that gave rise to the Civil Rights Movement, many issues were resolved thanks to the bravery of the people who challenged the then status quo. As arduous as that was to achieve, sometimes it feels as though we only fixed the easy problems. As Dr. King said at the end of his life, it costs the government nothing to integrate a lunch counter. He went on to challenge us to do a lot more to eradicate poverty. Soon after he challenged the economics of class and race, he was assassinated. While it has never been proven in a court of law, I will always believe that his assassination was neither a coincidence nor the work of one madman working on his own.

Now we are left with the intractable problems. The unemployment rate of blacks is three times that of whites. Their rate of people living in poverty is higher as well. How do we eradicate the class differences that have become so solidified in the past 20 years? For example, a person’s income of origin is more a predictor of ability to complete a four-year college degree than any other factor. Is it more important to work on understanding one another or on changing the conditions causing our class lines to solidify? It feels to me that the issue of class is still the pink elephant in the room in any discussion of race. Where do we go from here?       

 

 

Why Invade Syria? Some Of Us Want to Know

Like many of you, I am quite upset about the USA’s impending invasion of Syria. Hoping that it will be stopped before it starts, I am sending the following letter to President Obama: 

Dear President Obama;

All right, so you made a mistake. Everyone does sometimes. Using the use of chemical weapons as a red line to get Assad to stop killing his own people was not a good idea. You thought that being threatened by the United States of America would be sufficient to make him stop killing Syrian civilians. This was a major tactical error on your part. Anyone who has already ordered the killing of as many people as he has will care little about the USA killing a few more. You were on the right track before when you hesitated to get us embroiled in another war in the Middle East. No good guys could be identified and as far as I know, they still haven't. We didn’t stop the genocide in Rwanda or Biafra. There are numerous oppressive governments around the world in which we don’t intervene. Why Syria? I can’t believe that you really think that any good could come from such an attack other than your saving face for having made the crossing the red line statement.

As much as your red line statement was a mistake, I have to congratulate you for asking Congress to authorize an attack. It’s a great way to save face without getting anyone killed. I hope and pray that behind the scenes, you’re begging all those Senators and Congressmen to “just say NO.” As an Illinois resident in the Ninth Congressional District, I have e-mailed Senators Durbin and Kirk and Congresswoman Schakowsky beseeching them to deny you this authorization. If Assad is toppled, we aren’t even sure that a decent government will emerge. Once again, you were right before. This is clearly a time to let bad enough alone and I am hoping against hope that Congress pulls you back from this brink.

If by some chance, however, Congress finally gets its act together and does something you purportedly want and votes yes, it will be a tragedy for the Middle East. Nevertheless, in that worst-case scenario, there is a lesson to be learned. Congress responds well to reverse psychology. This strategy can be employed during the year to pass something positive. Raising the debt ceiling and getting a farm bill that includes a decent amount of appropriations for Food Stamps comes immediately to mind.

In closing, Mr. President, I have always been one of your staunchest supporters and I’m still rooting

for you. I’ve supported you ever since as a state senator, you announced that you opposed the USA invading Iraq. I cheered when you welcomed the troops home after you brought our involvement in that disaster to an end.  I am really disappointed that you are doing a 180 -degree turn by planning this invasion of Syria now. I trust that you will find a way to cancel your plans.

Good luck in your efforts to keep America safe and make the world a better, more peaceful place.

Sincerely,

Lisa Sachs

PS. If you really feel the need to have this invasion, shouldn’t there be an element of surprise? At this point, all Assad has to do to find out what you have in mind is to read the New York Times.

 

 

Presto! A Language Disappears, Recipes for Revival

Every day another language disappears from our world as its last speakers pass away. I received a rude awakening to that fact last week in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Previously, I was unaware of this beautiful, historic town in southwest Wisconsin. It was originally settled in the 1840’s by miners from Cornwall, England who had been displaced when many tin mines closed. Some of them immigrated to Wisconsin to work in the lead mines. Many of the original limestone houses in Mineral Point have been preserved and maintained; it has become a center for local artists.                

In a bookstore, I found several Cornish language textbooks. When I asked the proprietor about them, she said, “We are not English. We are Celtic like the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and people from Brittany, France, and Galicia, Spain.” Her anger pulsated with her response. Clearly, she sought justice for the English submerging of her culture.

Since that trip, I’ve tried to find information about Cornwall and its history and culture. As a sign of how merged into the general English culture it is, very little information is available about it other than it had a Celtic background. Cornwall occupies one county in Southwest England; its current population is about 500,000. While it used to be a center for mining, its main industry now is tourism. It boasts beautiful coastal areas, beaches, and the least cold climate in England. I apologize for being ignorant of its history.

Are the differences between the Cornish and English minor? Did the Cornish have a culture that was buried by the dominant culture around them? I suppose many smaller groups, as they strive to maintain their cultural heritages, are debating similar questions. The larger question is how to maintain one’s culture without becoming tribal to the point of warring with neighbors over surmountable differences.

The last Cornish speaker passed away in 1914. Nevertheless, in the last 15 years, people there have been reviving it. Once again, the Cornish language is taught in several of their elementary schools. High school students from Mineral Point have a yearly visitor exchange with their counterparts in Cornwall. There are now an estimated 300 Cornish speakers.

The European Union is aiding the revival by designating the Cornish pastie a heritage food. It can now only be made and sold legally in Cornwall. It has to be shaped like a ‘D’ and its opening has to be on the side. So much for living and letting live.

For fear of violating any laws, I won’t give you a recipe for the pastie. It looks too complicated to make anyway. There have been no restrictions placed on Cornish hens, however, so here’s a recipe for Cornish game hens. Preparation time 15 minutes. It serves two.

                                                  Herb Roasted Cornish Game Hens

1 large Cornish hen
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp coarse black pepper
1 tsp minced rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1 shallot roughly chopped
1 carrot chopped into pieces
1 celery stalk chopped
juice of ½ lemon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rinse the hen. Season with salt and pepper inside and out.
Stuff the cavity with the spices.
Place some of each of the veggies in the cavity. Place the rest of the veggies on the bottom of the pan.
Place the hen on top of the veggies.
Squeeze lemon juice over the hen and in the cavity.
Cook for about 45 minutes.

 

Reading Don Quixote in Modern America

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating the book that was written 400 years ago and is held to be the first modern novel ever written on a one to five-star criterion seems plain silly. I'm giving it five stars to satisfy the computer program but it seems irrelevant to this classic. Now we can move on.

Mind-traveling across four centuries to understand the characters of another time and world was difficult. I read "Don Quixote" in episodic form and now that I have finally finished it, I feel as if I've accomplished something. Did I like it? That's a difficult question to answer. Don Quixote was unlike anything else I've ever read. Unlike modern books that have a definite plot with a beginning, middle, and a denouement leading to the end, it lacked those elements. It read as a series of adventures, treatises on the place of fiction in society, and commentaries on the nature of art in general.

For those who have seen the musical "Man of La Mancha" and are expecting to read a similar story, the book is nothing like it. One thing that I found very interesting was the attitude that people had about madness at that time. Most people whom Don Quixote encountered were well aware of his madness. Some were sympathetic and wanted to take care of him. Others mocked him behind his back which for large parts of the book I found so annoying I almost stopped reading it. Many people were enfuriated by him. In large part, nothing has changed in the popular perception of mental illness in four centuries.

Would I recommend that others read it? If you want to challenge yourselves or increase your knowledge about the history of literature, I definitely would. I read the Edith Grossman translation copywright 2003. She did a superb job of making the language accessible and readable. If you plan to read "Don Quixote" in English, I definitely recommend this translationl.

View all my reviews

A Great Recipe in the Immigration Debate

In California one morning, everyone wakes up to a startling discovery: All the Mexicans (one third of California’s population) have disappeared. In this movie, A Day Without A Mexican, directed by Sergio Arau and starring Yareli Arezmendi and John Getz, the people are at a loss when they realize that no one is left to do the work. With ironic humor, A Day Without A Mexican explores the real life perplexities of the immigration issue and gives us food for thought about what societal needs the immigration population is filling in American society. I won’t say any more about the movie for fear of being a spoiler, but I recommend that people view it on DVD.

At this point, the House of Representatives, in their usual modus operandi, is stalling on the immigration reform bill passed by the Senate. As the Nativists rear their ugly heads once again, let’s remember that except for those 5.2 million identified as Native Americans who still survive here, we’re all immigrants or their descendants. I’m glad that my great-grandparents left Russia over 100 years ago before our current laws were in effect.

And speaking again of food for thought, I continue to enjoy the plethora of foreign restaurants within a half hour ride of my house. I am also enjoying the various ingredients that are available for cooking that growing up I never even heard of. This week I tried another recipe from the ELL Parent Center’s cookbook, A Taste of Niles Township: Recipes from our Global Village. To order a copy, go to www.ellparentcenter.org.

Aloo Chaat came without identification, but I’m guessing that it’s from Southeast Asia. I found tamarind paste at a grocery store in the Asian Indian neighborhood on Devon Avenue in Rogers Park, Chicago. Aloo Chaat is good as a main vegetarian dish or as a side dish with fish or chicken. Preparation time is 20 minutes.

 

                                                Aloo Chaat

½ cups chick peas, drained

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar
½ tsp mild chili powder
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves
a pinch of salt
½ Tbsp tamarind paste
6 Tbsps water
coriander
chopped onion
Tomato julienne or pomegranate seeds (Lacking either, I used grape tomatoes.)

Boil the water in a pot. Add the potato and cook until a bit soft but not mushy. Remove potatoes from the heat, drain, and set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, mix the water and tamarind paste. Add chili powder, sugar, coriander, and salt. Pour the mixture over the chick peas. Combine the potatoes, onions, and cilantro. Mix them and add salt to taste. Mix with the chick pea mixture. Add the tomatoes. Serve.   

 

 

A Missing ATM Card, Another Jean Valjean Moment

She first noticed that her ATM card was missing when she saw an item on her bank statement for a $6 purchase at the Punjab Convenience Mart, a store she’d never even seen much less shopped at. A quick look in her purse revealed that her wallet was missing. Days later, $200 more of purchases that she had never made appeared on her statement. Then she received the wallet in the mail in an unmarked envelope. Everything was returned except for the ATM card and whatever cash had been in her wallet. The identity of the thief will never be known.

In related/unrelated news, the workers from the East Coast to the Midwest at McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and about two dozen other fast food restaurants, organized by the Service Employees International Union, have been holding one-day strikes to demand a living wage of $15 per hour. Presently, the median wage for a fast food worker is $9.05 per hour. Many earn as little as $7.40 per hour and must choose between paying the rent or eating. While $15 an hour may be arguable, surely a wealthy company like McDonald’s can afford to do better for its workers. In 2001, in Nickled And Dimed,On Not Getting By In America, Barbara Ehrenreich describes in a very eloquent way the plight of low wage workers in America. The theme of the book is that it is impossible to live on a minimum wage job without government assistance in the form of subsidized housing, Food Stamps, and/or medical care. Years later, this situation has become, if anything, more acute.

During this summer, the House and Senate continue to stall on passing a bill that would continue the SNAP (Food Stamp) program. The House’s version would eliminate five million people from the rolls. As it is, countless people in America are increasingly turning to private charities to supplement their food supply taxing these charities' abilities to address the growing need. The House bill threatens to make this situation much worse.

To return to the stolen ATM Card: who but a desperate person who couldn’t feed his or her family would steal an ATM Card to buy $6 worth of merchandise at a convenience mart? Was it for a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk? Will more incidents such as this occur in the future? An elderly woman loses an ATM card and with it, her feeling of security. A person in desperate straits loses her ability to feed herself. The Tea Party and other Conservatives clamor for social programs to be gutted. Until they are stopped, we all lose.

Some Great New Recipes Fuel the Immigration Debate

Growing up in the 1950’s in New York, foreign food meant Cantonese, Italian, and occasionally, French or maybe Greek. There weren’t many new immigrants arriving in the USA at that time. Even though we loved to sample new foods, that was all that was available. We looked forward to having it when we did. Later on in the '60's, fulaffel came to New York and so did different Chinese cuisines. The Cubans opened some restaurants, also. Nevertheless, the choices lacked the diversity we have today.

Now living right outside of Chicago, I'm within a half hour ride from restaurants serving every cuisine imaginable from Afghani to Vietnamese. I have to say that it’s a lot more interesting and delicious this way. The influx of peoples to Chicago has made my cooking a lot more varied, also since I’ve learned new ways of cooking from people that we've met  and gotten to know. It' added a richness to our lives that I cherish. 

In Niles Township, Illinois, the participants and volunteers (of which I am one) at the English Language Learners Parent Center got together and contributed recipes from their home countries to make a cookbook. A lot of them look interesting and tasty while others sound really delectable. If you want to buy a copy of A Taste of Niles Township: Recipes from our Global Village, their website is www.ellparentcenter.org.

This week I was excited to try Kuwaiti Curried Chicken. Years ago, I never even knew where Kuwait was on the globe let alone someone who could give me one of their recipes. Although I don’t know what the real thing tastes like, my attempt came out very good. Not finding one of the ingredients (dry limes), I substituted fresh limes. I also did some short cuts.

Preparation time: 30 minutes. It serves six.

 

                                                            Kuwaiti Curried Chicken

About three pounds of skinned, boneless chicken breasts

Salt

1 and 3/4 tsp baharat (allspice) I spent a lot of time searching for baharat until I went into a Middle Eastern store and was told that baharat is allspice. “Oh,” I said. “Why didn’t you say so?”

turmeric, coriander to taste
a dash of curry powder
plain breadcrumbs

2 large onions chopped

1 tsp fresh ginger grated
1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 cup tomato sauce

¼ cup olive oil
2 limes cut in pieces
cinammon
1 cup frozen okra

Sprinkle the chicken with salt. Let stand.

In a small mixing bowl, mix the baharat (allspice), turmeric, coriander, and curry powder with the bread crumbs. Dip chicken pieces in water then lightly coat with the breadcrumb mixture.

Sauté in the olive oil and remove from the pan.

Next cook the onions, garlic, and ginger in the olive oil until transparent. Add the cinammon. After five minutes, add tomato sauce, water, and limes. Bring to a high simmer. Add the chicken pieces and the okra. Reduce heat to low and cook in pot for about an hour.

It’s good served with white rice and salad.

 

I invite any Congressperson even thinking of voting against the Immigration bill to take a culinary tour of the North Side of Chicago with me. I’m sure he or she would change his (or her) vote. Bon appetit!

 

 

NO PLACE AT THE TABLE FOR 17,000,000 AMERICAN CHILDREN

Why am I angry? It’s because we finally saw “A Place At the Table” on DVD. I’ll leave its artistic merits to the film critics while I discuss the message that film makers Lori Silverbush and Kristi Jacobson are conveying in this documentary. It chronicles the rise of hunger in America which has grown exponentially since the 1980’s. At present, approximately 50 million people including 17 million children are food insecure i.e. they don’t know where their next meal is coming from and many a night they go to bed hungry. The consequences of malnutrition for growing children were well enumerated in the film as well as the effects on our future as a nation having a large portion of our population malnourished. The movie has just become even more relevant since the House voted on a Farm Bill that eliminates funding for SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamps).

Hunger was addressed and largely conquered in the 1970’s with the initiation of several government programs including Food Stamps (now called SNAP), WIC¸ and free lunch and breakfast in the schools for children from low income families. Since then, these programs have received less and less funding making government programs woefully inadequate. Currently, most Food Stamp allotments provide $3.00 per day per person for food. (I want to remind everyone that people cannot use Food Stamps for soap, toothpaste, clothes detergent, or other nonfood items that people often buy at super markets.) Although I do several economy measures – buying sale items, cutting and using coupons, making a list, cooking vegetarian a couple of nights a week, I would find it impossible to eat on $3.00 per day and I challenge anyone reading this post to try it. If you can, please send in your menus. I’d love to know how it’s done. When I worked as a social worker, most of my clients who received Food Stamps ran out of their monthly allotment in two weeks.

Silverbush’es and Jacobson’s premise is that because of  America’s dwindling social safety net, the job of feeding those who don't have adequate funds to feed themselves has been left to private charities. Many organizations are doing admirable, laudatory jobs. The number of organizations has grown by leaps and bounds to try to meet the need of the hungry, many of whom are employed at low-wage jobs. Nevertheless, it isn’t possible for private charities to meet these needs entirely. This task should return to the purview of the government. As one volunteer in the film said, “Would the Pentagon be left to private charity? Where are our priorities?”

The message of “A Place At the Table” was stressed to me as I volunteered at the monthly Produce Mobile, a joint project of the Greater Chicago Food Depository and  Interfaith Action of Evanston. Evanston was designated as a community with 15% of its population food insecure and the produce mobile began here in February. The few times I have helped I have been amazed how many people are in such dire need of food that they will stand for hours in all kinds of weather to receive a supply of free fruits and vegetables. Many people have come to volunteer and it is an ideal example of private citizens aiding their neighbors but it doesn't solve the whole problem. Maybe it’s time for the Pentagon to hold a bake sale.  

Great job again Interfaith Action/ Greater Chicago Food Depository volunteers. It's great to see so many people making an effort to fill the gaps that our safety net leaves. But is this the whole answer? I certainly don't think so. It's time for us to decide what kind of society we want to be.

   

Happy Fourth of July! A Recipe from a Nonbaker

Since the Fourth falls on a Thursday this year, many people are getting Friday off of work giving them a four day weekend. Hooray! Despite -or maybe because of -our high unemployment rate, those still employed are working too many hours and are under incredible degrees of pressure. A four day weekend is certainly called for.

Now that I've been retired, I have practice enjoying leisure. For those constantly at work, it's difficult to change gears. But anyway I've been vegging out watching House Hunters and House Hunters International on HGTV and I recommend it to anyone who doesn't know how else to relax. I especially enjoy the International episodes because they show shots of streets and other scenes as people house hunt in locales I'll probably never visit.

Three questions press on my mind from these shows and I hope someone out there can answer them. Number 1: Why do people love granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances so much that they turn down perfectly nice houses and apartments simply because they don't have these items? I've never had either of them so I don't know what I'm missing or even what they look like up close and personal. Number 2: What do people do in their bathrooms other than the usual that they need so much space in them? I must be missing something. Number 3: Why do people want open floor plans so that they can entertain and cook at the same time? Do they start cooking when their guests arrive? I always thought that was extremely rude. So you tell me.

While about 1% of our population finds itself homeless on any given night in America, others can afford to be as finnicky as Morris the cat. Does it have metal faucets and gold doorknobs? A deal breaker. Popcorn ceilings? Forget it. A ceiling fan in the bedroom? Don't even think about it. Good luck to them and may we eventually celebrate a Fourth in which nobody is homeless.

In the meantime, here's my nonbake recipe for American Flag cake. It doesn't get easier than this.

                                                    American Flag Cake

one pound cake sliced ( Make it easy by buying one)
blueberries
strawberries sliced
coolwhip

Place the slices of cake on a platter. Cover with cool whip. Place alternating rows of blueberries and strawberries to represent the American Flag. Voila!
 

TIME TRAVEL IN MY OWN BACKYARD

The Amish Acres brochure was so enticing. “Escape to Amish Acres in Nappanee, Indiana and share the heritage of these intriguing people in quiet celebration. Time stopped over a century ago and preserves in the Amish a way of life nearly forgotten in today’s fast paced world…”  

I was intrigued. How do people survive in 2013 without electricity, cars, a high school education? No television, smart phones, or internet (except at the inn built expressly for English [nonAmish] visitors). No Twitter or texting.

Our interest piqued, we made the trip to Nappanee. Upon arrival, we were somewhat disappointed to learn that Amish Acres is more of a history museum than a place where Amish people actually live. The 80 acre farm had been owned and inhabited by Amish families but was sold several years ago to a company that left most of the buildings intact. Since we had already arrived, I revisited happy childhood memories of visits to Sturbridge Village (a Massachusetts model of a Colonial Village) and Mystic Seaport (a Connecticut replica of an old whaling village) determined to enjoy it. We learned much from their video about the Amish culture and history and from two horse and buggy tours around Amish Acres. The Threshers’ Dinner included in the visitors’ package was even tastier and more filling than advertised.

We were given a map of the general area and followed it to the Rentown General Store where our eyes feasted on all sorts of delicious baked goods, cheeses, preserves, and other country food. (Since we’ve come back, we’ve also been feasting on some great preserves, cheese, and pumpkin butter.) Several brochures advertised the Fifth Annual Rentown Garden Walk and Bake Sale which fortunately for us, was that very day. This annual fund raiser for their small community’s school was where we actually met with people in the Amish community. Besides the Store, the school and eight people's gardens were open for people to visit. As we went to the school and each house, people were very open in talking about their lives and welcomed us. As a result, we had some good conversations with them.

In the beautiful countryside, with families close knit and communicating, it seemed so idyllic that I was almost tempted to stay awhile. Even as I watched people unplugged seeming (they speak to each other in a Pennsylvania Deutsch dialect so I can’t say for sure) more attentive to one another, I knew I couldn’t last there without connection for more than a few days.

Even the Amish have not successfully separated themselves from the rest of the world entirely. While they fear their children will grow up and leave their community if exposed to the “English” world, some of the adults work in jobs nearby. Several of the men with whom we spoke work at RV factories. As charming as these people were, I wondered how their children will manage with eighth grade educations as all the unskilled jobs in our country disappear. Will they adapt and allow their children to finish high school? That’s a question they must be asking each other because the world is too interconnected for any group to be able to totally shut it out.

We were greeted at one of the gardens by a woman who invited us to try her pesto sauce on crackers. “What kind of things do you like to cook?” I asked her.

“Oh, everything. My kids really like pizza.”

So yes, even in Amish country, the world intrudes. I don’t think she’ll mind if I share her pesto sauce recipe. It was really great. She was very open in sharing it with me. As the world intrudes on the Amish, I hope that we can all get to know them.

                                                          Amish Pesto Sauce

2 cups fresh basil leaves chopped
1 cup raw cashews crushed
11/2 cups olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 cups grated Swiss cheese

Mix the ingredients together and chill.   

 

   

 

 

Don't Throw the Eggplant Out With the Bath Water

In Skokie right near the sculpture park is a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. Around the base are several of his quotes including “Poverty is the worst form of violence.”

I pondered that quote yesterday as I volunteered at the monthly produce truck in Evanston. This project, which is trying to alleviate some of poverty’s affects in the Evanston area, is a joint effort of the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) and Interfaith Action of Evanston (IAE). While the GCFD has had monthly produce trucks going to over 30 neighborhoods in the Chicago area for quite a while, the produce truck is relatively new to Evanston having begun on December 11^th . Although in the popular perception Evanston is an affluent area, it was identified as having a population that is 14% food insecure (don’t know if they’ll have access to their next meal).

On December 11, the first day of their food produce distribution, organizers for Interfaith Action of Evanston hoped that word had gotten out to at least 100 people. Despite the fact that it was the coldest day of the winter thus far, people lined up bright and early.  In all, 335 people came to get free vegetables and fruit for their families. Since then, the produce truck has run monthly addressing a growing need. This need will grow even faster if the agricultural bill passed by the Senate Agricultural Committee becomes law. This bill was much kinder than any that are being discussed in the House. It would cut $4.1 billion from the SNAP (Food Stamp) program. As it is, most Food Stamp recipients can only stretch their monthly food stamp allotment for two weeks. If someone has medical issues such as diabetes, this allotment may last for one week. That is why Matilde (not her real name) came to wait for the food truck at 7:00AM and stayed around for hours for the free produce. “I have diabetes,” she said. “I’m learning to eat healthy and I need these vegetables.” The produce trucks address a need, but why is private charity increasingly being called upon to address it? 

The vegetables that the Food Trucks bring are of high quality. Last time I volunteered, they brought eggplants. I was surprised that about 10% of the people didn’t take them because they didn’t know how to cook them. In hopes that won’t happen again, here are two easy eggplant recipes. Eggplant is a very versatile vegetable high in fiber, with some protein, and some vitamin A, B complex, and C.

Frequently asked question: Should I peel it? If you want to. If you don’t, cut it in slices or chunks and put salt on it.  Leave it in a colander for 20 minutes and then rinse. Or slice it and then steam it for 10 to 15 minutes first. Either way, it takes out the bitter taste of the skin.

Sauteed eggplant slices

1 eggplant sliced
1 egg
breadcrumbs
garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano to taste
olive oil
Mix the seasoning with the breadcrumbs. Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Dip the eggplant in the egg and then the breadcrumb mixture. Saute in the olive oil.

Eggplant Sauteed with tomato sauce and other vegetables
1 eggplant peeled and cut into chunks
1 chopped onion
1 clove of garlic minced
1 green pepper diced
a few Tbsp tomato sauce
oregano to taste
olive oil
Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the onion and garlic and let cook five minutes. Add the eggplant and other vegetables. Add the tomato sauce. Put heat down and simmer for 10 minutes.