Connecting With Japan in Christ Church, New Zealand

If I were a religious fundamentalist, I’d say that God was punishing the world for being greedy. Since I’m not, I’ll question whether climate change is playing a role in the seeming proliferation of natural disasters. Since I’m not a scientist, I’ll have to leave that to the scientists. In the meantime, while the horrors of Japan’s earthquake, tsunami, and possible nuclear meltdown dominate our thoughts, I’ll reflect on the self-guided peace and justice walk that we took in Christ Church, New Zealand. Who would ever think on that pleasant summer day that the two countries would share similar horrors in such a short span of time.

On that day, we looked at the peace symbols which had connected the two countries. The World Peace Bell Association in Tokyo gifted this peace bell to New Zealand in 2005.

This plaque remembering the bombing victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki sits under a purple plum tree inscribed in English, Maori, and Japanese.

Also inscribed in English, Maori, and Japanese are the words “May Peace Prevail On Earth” on the Peace Pole given to New Zealand by the Japanese members of the Society of Prayer for World Peace.

 All these events have really reminded me of how much we all over the world are all connected. As we pray for the Japanese people, let us try to figure out what we need to do to avert a nuclear disaster and other disasters in the future.

While I think about these events, I again retreat into cooking. The New Zealanders are great cooks so I bought a New Zealand cookbook while I was there. They, too, have their quicky cookbooks. This recipe is from their 20-minute cookbook 100 Favorite 20 Minute Dishes by Simon and Alison Holst. This time I tried their recipe for Grilled Chicken on Lemony Orzo. My adaptation feeds four. It took me somewhat longer than 20 minutes, probably because I was getting used to the recipe and their metric measurements.

                                                Grilled Chicken on Lemony Orzo

1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast cut in pieces

1 lemon zested and juiced

2 tbsp minced garlic

½ tsp minced chili powder

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup orzo

2 ½ cups boiling water

2 tsp chicken broth

2 zucchini diced

½ red bell pepper diced

10-20 kalamata olives (optional)

feta cheese to taste (optional)

1. Marinate the chicken with half of the lemon zest, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, garlic, parsley, chili powder, and one tablespoon of olive oil. Set aside.
2. Heat the second tablespoon of olive oil in a large, lidded pan. Add the onion and sauté until soft. Stir in the orzo and remaining lemon zest. Then add the boiling water and instant stock. Cover and simmer for about 8 minutes.
3. While the orzo is cooking, quickly grill the chicken 4 to 5 minutes on each side.
4. Stir the vegetables, olives, and any remaining lemon juice into the orzo mixture. Cover and simmer for 2-3 minutes longer. Then remove from the heat and stir in the feta cheese.
5. Pile the orzo mixture onto serving plates and top with the chicken. It’s good with a simple green salad or tomato salad.

Walking for Peace and Justice in Christ Church, New Zealand

We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to travel.  We’re luckier than the vast majority of people and I don’t take that lightly. This year, we went to New Zealand and had a fantastic trip. The country has an incredible amount of scenic beauty and the people that we met along the way were very kind. The atmosphere there of tolerance was reminiscent of how it was in America before everything became so polarized here.

Even our timing was fortuitous. We spent four days in Christ Church and left there about a week before their horrendous earthquake. Mother Nature can really wreak destruction when she decides to do so. People there were still traumatized by the September 2010 earthquake, but they had made much progress in re-building. The only evidence of that earthquake that we saw were scaffoldings on buildings being repaired. We expected to see much worse. Discussion had gotten underway on how to re-build in a sustainable way and they had an exhibit at their city Art Gallery on city planning complete with discussions and dialogues open to the public.

One of the many charms of the city was how compact it was and how easy it was to walk to everything in the central area. The visitors’ center suggested a walking tour of all the sites for peace and justice within the city. One of those was the Kate Sheppard Memorial and since it's women's history month, it feels fitting that we were there. For those who don’t know – and prior to our trip, I didn’t – in 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote. This was 26 years ahead of the USA.

Here I am at the memorial of New Zealand’s Susan B. Anthony – or in order to avoid being ethnocentric- I can say that Susan B. Anthony was the American Kate Sheppard. New Zealanders are very proud of this piece of their history and many buildings are named after her.

Next time I'll show some of the other peace and justice symbols that we visited and share some New Zealand recipes. They too have their 20 minute cookbooks.

Here Comes the Bogeyman - Canadian Healthcare

We’d been travelling for a few weeks. My plan had been to blog on my trip, but lo and behold, my laptop crashed and thus, I am first able now at home to tell you about my travels. I could talk about the sad state of customer service in American corporations, but that’s not what I want to discuss.

I want to talk about one of the great things about traveling - the chance meetings with people from other countries. On this last trip, we met people from Manitoba, Canada. The discussion inevitably got around to health care. When I told them about how our private insurance and co-pays work, the reaction was, “That would really cut down on my 92 year old aunt’s doctor visits if she had to pay for them. Now she goes to the doctor just to socialize. If she had to pay, she'd go a lot less.”

I asked them if health care for older adults was being rationed. “I could go to the doctor 10 times a week if I felt like it. How fast you get specialists depends mostly on how diligent your primary care doctor is in doing the paperwork.”

That sounds a lot like HMO’s to me except that doctors instead of insurance agents make the decisions.

Last year we met a couple in their ‘80’s from Ontario. He had just had two knee replacements and she had recently had a hip replacement. “Do you have difficulty waiting for surgery as a senior citizen? Is elective surgery rationed?” I asked.

“No, we just showed them our health care cards and walked right into the hospital,” she answered.

In the debate over health care which was often characterized by lies and half-truths at best, the specter of horrible Canadian health care was often flashed before our eyes as a horror. Canadian healthcare. We should be so lucky.

In honor of these discussions, I thought I’d share some Canadian recipes. There weren’t any that I could think of so I was going to say, "Go enjoy some Canadian fast food." That seemed too easy, however. Instead I looked up some Canadian recipes and here’s one of their easy ones (prep time 10 minutes) for broiled salmon. It’s even healthy. If we eat like this, maybe we can all avoid some doctor appointments in the first place.

                                                Canadian Broiled Salmon

1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets

Lemon pepper to taste

Garlic powder

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup water

¼ cup vegetable oil

1. Season salmon with lemon pepper, garlic powder, and salt.
2. In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, water, and vegetable oil until sugar is dissolved. Place the fish in a large re-sealable plastic bag with the soy sauce mixture and turn to coat. Refrigerate for two hours.
3. Broil salmon 6 to 8 minutes on each side.

A Novel Approach to Racism

         On cold winter days, it’s great to stay in, read, and cook so I finished reading the novel Parting of the Waters by Kim McLaren. After reading it, I felt as though the waters had indeed opened up and swallowed its readers whole. This story of the relationship between two Philadelphia journalists, Porter Stockman, a white man, and Lenora Page, an African-American woman, is fraught with suspense. Throughout the story, the reader is on pins and needles wondering if they will be able to get past their individual world views to forge a relationship or if the prison of their racial upbringings will render it impossible. Since you may decide to read the book, I won’t spoil it by telling you the end.

What surprised me the most about this book, which was published in 2001, are the racial hatreds voiced by many of the characters. I grew up in an the ‘50’s and ‘60’s when most people had little exposure to people ethnically different from themselves. Many people I knew were quite prejudiced. When I moved to Chicago in the mid seventies, I was aghast at the racial divide here. Although it seems to have gotten less severe in the last 20 years,  racism is still a major problem. I thought I had heard feelings about all the prevailing stereotypes but Kim McClaren’s characters say some things I have to admit that I never heard before, proving again that one is never beyond learning something new.

         After reading Parting of the Waters, I wondered: Do people really think these things about each other? If they do, America has an even longer way to go to achieve unity than I had thought. It makes Barak Obama’s election seem like a miracle. I hope as the year goes forward, I will hear about more efforts to work on this issue.

         Meanwhile, in this spirit, I felt the need to cook and make something that could bring people together so I did. Here is a Spanish recipe for turkey meatballs. Everyone should like it. The prep time is 20 minutes and it serves four. It’s good served over orzos or couscous. I got the recipe from the Chicago Tribune about two years ago and it’s become one of my good easy recipes.

                                 Smoked Paprika Turkey Meatballs

         1 pound dark turkey meat

         1 egg

         ¼ red onion, chopped very fine

         ¼ cup dry breadcrumbs

         ½ tsp salt

         ½ tsp sweet or spicy smoked Spanish paprika

         garlic powder to taste

         6 sprigs parsley

         1 tablespoon olive oil

         4 heaping tablespoons tomato sauce

         1 cup dry red wine

1.      Mix the turkey, egg, onion, salt, paprika, and parsley together in a medium bowl. Form the mixture into 2-inch balls.

2.      Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook meatballs turning on all sides until they’re brown, about 8 minutes.

3.      Add the tomato sauce, wine, and garlic. Spoon the liquid over the meatballs. Reduce heat to simmer and cover. Cook for 20 minutes.

          

Learning An Important Truth As I Celebrate Martin Luther King Day

As I wait for the journalism student from Northwestern University to interview me as a member of the Community Of One http://www.acommunityofone.org/ I am realizing something: I am a historic relic. Yes, at the age of 62, I am part of what's becoming a vanishing breed, one who can remember firsthand participating in the Civil Rights Movement.

Growing up in Valley Stream, New York City, I attended high school in a hotbed of defacto segregation. Because of segregated housing, only two African-American students attended my high school. My parents were part of a group that founded a fair housing committee in our suburb. I was part of the high school youth group and spent a lot of time advocating for equal rights on Long Island. We were never subjected to the dogs or the hoses or any of the violence of the South, but we faced some ostracism for our activities. I haven't been back on Long Island in many years so I don't know what Valley Stream is like now. I hope it's different than when I was growing up there.

I was fortunate to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak in person several times at rallies at Madison Square Garden and at the Island Garden. His speeches were an inspiration to all of us Black and White, young and old. I'm sure that they were a formative part of my coming of age. As I marched with the Community Of One in Evanston, Illinois, I remembered many marches that we were in to support the Civil Rights Movement in the south and to support people in nearby Malverne who were demanding bussing for integrated schools in their school district. For me, the march through Evanston was a fitting re-enactmant as we remembered how so much changed for the better within a few years in large part because of Dr. King's leadership. The Chinese have a curse: May you live in interesting times. Looking back, I feel that it was a blessing.

I feel fortunate now to live in Evanston where I could be part of the committee of the Community Of One planning this year's MLK events. We still have a way to go, but at least we're working on it. I took some pictures of the Evanston events which was a first for me technophobic as I am. I share them with you now. I think these pictures speak for themselves.

After This Tragedy, What Is Left To Say?

            After watching President Obama address the crowd at the University of Arizona, I am at a loss. What is there to say after the President has so eloquently spoken? I feel that anything I could say would sound trivial.

            I could say that guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Nevertheless, if  Loughner hadn’t had such easy access to guns and ammunition, he would have had to use a knife, his fists, or another less lethal weapon and the six victims may have been beaten up but would still be alive. Now isn’t the time to say it, so I won’t. Maybe we can think about it next week or next month as we try to make our country live up to its better self.

            In the meantime, I am grateful that Martin Luther King Day is coming this Monday. I can focus away from this tragedy and work on the events planned in Evanston, Illinois by the Community Of One for Monday, January 17^th. For more information on the event, visit our website at www.acommunityofone.org. During events throughout the day, all participants will be encouraged to sign a peace pledge. At our first event, a coffee at the First United Methodist Church, nonprofit organizations and local government agencies, will be on hand to recruit volunteers to help their fellow citizens in various projects  throughout the year. In light of all the tragedies of the past year, it is a small step but I think it will be a good step in the right direction. If you live nearby, I hope you come to one or more of the events.

            Another way for me to focus on something else is to cook. It felt appropriate for me to try another recipe from Peace de Resistance, the Women’s Strike for Peace Cookbook. their recipes are always quick and I wanted to be finished with dinner in time to watch the memorial. It also felt soothing to remember people who had worked hard for peace.

            I tried their recipe for Oven Fried Chicken. It serves four and the preparation time is 15 minutes.

                                                         Oven Fried Chicken

1 frying chicken disjointed

¼ cup margarine

½ cup dry white wine

½ teaspoon tarragon

½ teaspoon basil

Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chives to taste

Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Put chicken on a shallow baking dish skin side up. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, and chives. Melt margarine or butter in saucepan and add tarragon. Slowly add wine. Spoon a little of this mixture over the chicken every 15 minutes. Cook for about one hour.

Martin Luther King Day 2011 in Evanston, Illinois

 Tuesday evening was the last meeting of the Community Of One Evanston before the 2011 Martin Luther King Day observances on January 17th. I feel really fortunate to live here and be part of the committee of The Community of One www.acommunityofone.org that is planning the day’s activities. The group is comprised of faith organizations and Garrett Seminary. This year Y.O.U. (Youth Organizations Umbrella Inc) and the City of Evanston will also be participating. Check out our website to see all the planned activities.

 The day will begin with a coffee at 9:30 AM at the First United Methodist Church during which time nonprofit organizations will be at tables recruiting volunteers for the coming year. From there, the group will have a peace march at 10:30 AM to the Music Institute of Chicago where Y.O.U. has planned a program. Some of the marchers will leave from there at 11:30 and march to the Second Baptist Church for a convocation including a keynote address by Rabbi Andrea London of Congregation Beth Emet. The Y.O.U. has activities planned for the day. Those attending at Second Baptist may stay for a light reception and a seminar at 2:30 PM on diversity. The last activity will be a candlelight vigil at 4:30. 

With all the divisions that still exist in our society, I feel hope being part of a group that is honoring Dr. Martin Luther King’s memory by having a day calling for unity by promoting volunteerism and encouraging everyone present to sign a peace pledge. By the way, those attending are encouraged to bring nonperishable food items for a collection for Connections for the Homeless.

Coming home from this meeting late, there was little time to cook. Fortunately, my leftovers came to the rescue. For this occasion, I defrosted chicken breasts in soy sauce and peppers. As leftovers, the preparation time is one minute. Just defrost in the morning before work and then put in a pot on top of the stove and cook on a low to medium heat when you’re ready to eat.

Chicken Breasts with soy sauce, peppers, mushrooms, and onions

(Serves 6) Preparation time is about 25 minutes but freezes well. Make two or three times what you need and freeze the rest.

6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

¼ cup plain bread crumbs

3 tbsp olive oil

1 green pepper sliced

1 onion chopped

10 mushrooms sliced

2 tbsp minced garlic

ginger powder to taste

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup lemon juice

1. Roll the chicken breasts in bread crumbs
2. Heat a deep skillet on top of the stove. Add the olive oil. Saute the chicken breasts lightly for 3 minutes on each side.
3. Add minced garlic and vegetables to the skillet. Remove from pan and drain oil.
4. Turn down the heat and add soy sauce, lemon juice, and ginger powder
5. Put the chicken and vegetables back in the skillet and cook covered for about 45 minutes.

It’s good served with white rice.

For reheating, put in a pot and heat on low to medium heat on top of the stove. I called my husband when the meeting was over and told him to start reheating. When I got home, dinner was ready.