My Mother's Day Wish List

I began this blog last Fall by paying tribute to all the mothers including my own who participated in Women’s Strike for Peace. I did this by sharing their recipes from Peace de Resistance that were quick to prepare allowing them time to work for peace and social change. This Mothers Day, in their honor, I’m sharing my Mother’s Day wish list that I'm sending to President Obama.       

Dear Mr. President,

1. The world is definitely a better place without Osama Bin Laden in it. Now that he’s dead and Al- Qaeda is weakened, I hope that you will bring a swift end to the War in Afghanistan. It has lasted 10 years already and as guests in their country, we long ago wore out our welcome. I'm not naive enough to believe that Al-Qaeda is no longer a threat. Rather, I believe they are everywhere and this war can best be fought by the CIA and FBI, not by destroying the Middle East one country at a time. The best Mothers’ Day present we could give the mothers of our soldiers in Afghanistan would be to get them home safely in one piece.

2. As talks continue in Congress about balancing the budget, cutting the expense for the War in Afghanistan would be a good place to start. An estimated 14 million children in the United States are living in poverty and the money could be better spent on education and jobs programs. America's top 1% of the population now own 50% of the wealth and this should not be.

3. Shortly after you were elected, I attended a conference on the Convention of the Rights of the Child. At that time, the United States and Sudan were the only countries in the world that had failed to ratify it. As we finished lunch, the chairman of the conference announced that Sudan had agreed to ratify it leaving the USA alone as the only country to fail to do so. As an American citizen, I felt ashamed and humiliated. I know that there are a host of other issues that demand your attention, but what can be more important on Mothers Day than insuring the security and rights of the world’s children. My third wish is for the USA to ratify this treaty.

I have many more wishes, but even a genie only grants three and it has been unfair of us to expect you to wave a magic wand over all the complex problems that beset our nation. I feel these three wishes would be a good starting point.

Thank you and may you and your family enjoy a blessed Mothers’ Day.

Sincerely,

Lisa Sachs   

Well that's my letter. Have a blessed Mothers' Day everyone. I'd share a recipe for the day, but I think it's someone else's turn to cook. It's our turn to kick back.

To link to other Mothers' Day thoughts, you can check out http://www.therolesofwriting.blogspot.com/.

I Missed the Boat So I'm Taking A Micro-vacation

Everyone has heard of micro-loans. Sometimes I take a micro-vacation and I’m taking one tonight from cooking dinner. One of my favorite micro-vacations is meeting a friend of mine who lives in the exurbs for lunch, usually downtown. Sometimes we meet at the Walnut Room and at other times, we’ve met at the Art Institute. We enjoy a few hours together of chatting and catching up on news in a very relaxed atmosphere.     

The reason for this micro-vacation is that according to the May, 2011 issue of Money Magazine, I have missed the boat in a couple of ways. For instance, I could have gone to the Maldives for three days and stayed at a luxury resort and spa for only $1,185 by booking on jetsetter.com. Thus, I would have saved almost $500 by not booking on the hotel’s website for $1,680.

In addition to that, it’s often said that “a diamond is a girl’s best friend.” Elizabeth Taylor’s estate is selling a 33-karat diamond that she bought in 1968 for $305,000. They are estimating that it will sell for $10 to 15 million at auction. I should be going to the estate sale to make some great investments, but I’m not. C’est la vie. There go some more missed opportunities.

As a result, I’m taking my micro-staycation/vacation by not cooking dinner tonight. Many Americans are doing the same. I’ve planned the micro-vacation well by cooking extra before and freezing it. I have numerous plastic freezer containers. No, I do not buy expensive Tupperware. Many are containers from sherbet or other frozen products while others I bought while on sale. They aren’t a pretty matched set but they serve a dual purpose. Besides being good for freezing food, my grandchildren enjoy making towers out of them when they come to visit. Give them a wooden spoon and they can make great noise on them, too.

                                   

Tonight we’re having sweet potato tagine with lemon couscous. (See the previous entry “Ensnared On the Internet, I Find Tagine” 12/16/10). We’ll also have Mediterranean chicken breasts. It is my own recipe, from a mélange of sources. Both dishes are great reheated.

                                                Mediterranean Chicken Breasts (This recipe serves 6 to 8 people)

3 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

½ cup breadcrumbs

two Tbsp olive oil

1 cup red wine

1 medium sized yellow onion sliced thin

2 Tbsp minced garlic

paprika, minced parsley, garlic powder and cumin to taste

a teaspoon of capers

1. Mix the breadcrumbs with the seasoning. Roll the chicken breasts in the breadcrumb mixture.
2. Heat the olive oil in large frying pan. Saute the chicken breasts quickly on both sides. Take them out of the pan and pat with paper towels to take out the residual oil.
3. Saute the onion. Leave in the pan and turn the burner to a medium heat. Add the red wine. Replace the chicken breasts in the pan and cook covered on medium heat for about 45 minutes.

 

           

             

Celebrating Passover, Freedom, Matzoh Ball Soup, and More

We’re in the midst of celebrating Passover. For all of us celebrating, it is a commemoration of the Jews’ redemption from slavery as they fled Egypt and crossed the Red Sea. As we read the Haggadah retelling the story each year, we are reminded to continue to work for justice in our own time. Now when so much still needs to be done, this holiday comes at a most opportune moment.

For many of us, Passover also evokes memories of foods. We all eat matzohs and some other foods that go with them. Maybe they should all be quick foods like my other recipes. After all, the ancient Jews didn’t have time to wait for the bread to rise and probably didn’t have time to do much elaborate cooking either. They were too busy getting through the desert.

The majority of American Jews have Eastern European origins so our food memories are similar – matzoh ball soup, matzoh farfel stuffing, baked chicken, gefilte fish. Each year we look forward to eating them, but by the time the fifth or sixth of the eight days rolls around, a lot of us have had enough of them.

There must be something else to eat, we think, and actually there is. There are Jews from many corners of the world and they don’t all eat matzoh ball soup. I’m reminded of my East Indian neighbor in Israel who was so surprised to meet me. “You’re from America and you’re Jewish? Really?” You could have knocked her over with a feather she was so surprised to meet me. 

At this point of Passover, I like to get out the Sephardic (Jews from Spain and other Mediterranean countries)recipes and make something else. One of my favorites is feta cheese and spinach frittata. I got this recipe from my mother’s friend whose husband’s family came from Turkey. Preparation time is about 10 minutes. It is good for 4 to 8 people depending on whether you’re using it as a main dish or side dish.

                                            

                                                 Spinach and Feta Cheese Frittata

3 matzohs rinsed in cold water and crumbled

4 eggs

1 box frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained

8 ounces of feta cheese crumbled

salt, pepper, and oregano to taste

matzoh meal

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grease the bottom of a casserole dish and sprinkle with matzoh meal.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl and then pour into the casserole dish.
4. Bake for 40 minutes.

Happy Passover or Easter whichever you’re celebrating. We like this recipe so much that we often eat it even when it’s not Passover. It goes good with a salad or just some sliced tomatoes and olives.

Why Didn't I Fast? - Now I Have To Feel Guilty

 Moveon, Mark Bittman in his March 30^th New York Times column, and even my mother asked me to fast, but I didn't. It's hard to blog about food and fast at the same time. Now the returns are in and I have to feel guilty. The budget has been passed and I don't like it. Besides the Medicaid cuts and other cuts to programs serving poor people, now Washington D.C. is barred from using even local funds for abortions. We've come one step further toward making abortion a class privilege. Those who have private insurance or can pay out of pocket can still have one. I should have fasted, but I felt it would have been an invisible protest and only I would suffer. Why couldn't we have held some more visible protest?

At any rate, we have come even further toward being an unequal society, changing places with Argentina in income inequity. According to Mark Bittman in his March 30 column in the New York Times, the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all American households combined. The tax rates of the wealthy have fallen by half in the last 20 years. Most people I know who use Food Stamps run out of food by the middle of the month. They supplement their Food Stamps by going to food pantries and soup kitchens. As a result, the food pantries and soup kitchens are overstretched more than ever and continue to need our donations and volunteer participation.

Many people are stretched and are trying to find ways to cut back on their food budgets. I've found that cooking vegetarian once or twice a week is a way to do that. This is one of my inexpensive recipes for a vegetable casserole. Preparation time is 15 to 20 minutes and it feeds four.

                                                Vegetable Casserole

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 eggplant sliced

2 zucchinis sliced

1 medium yellow onion sliced

a handful of mushrooms sliced

whatever other vegetables you have in the house sliced

about ¼ pound grated parmesan or Swiss cheese

¼ cup seasoned breadcrumbs

oregano, garlic, and basil to taste

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Steam the sliced eggplant for about 10 minutes until soft.

While it’s steaming, heat the olive oil and sauté the mushrooms.

Place all the vegetables in a casserole dish.

Top with grated cheese, breadcrumbs, and seasoning.

Cook for about 45 minutes.

It’s good served with brown rice.

Fasting, Food Stamps, vegetable casserole recipe

On the Anniversary of MLK's Assassination, Questions Remain

Since visiting the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis last May, I’ve been nagged by unanswered questions surrounding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. I hoped that reading Hellhound On His Trail by Hampton Sides would answer them. Questions I was afraid to ask about Dr. King’s sex life for fear of getting too lengthy answers were answered ad nauseum. My question, however, remains unanswered: Who was behind the conspiracy to pay James Earl Ray to kill Dr. King? Sides is very dismissive of any conspiracy theories. He fully describes all the ways that James Earl Ray spent money traveling to Canada, England, Portugal, and back to England. He chronicles how Ray escaped from a maximun security Federal penitentiary without help [really?] and then lived in Mexico, California, and Alabama for months without any employment. He lived in cheap rooming houses, but he bought a Mustang and many weapons for cash, had plastic surgery, took dancing lessons, wore suits that he had laundered weekly, and spent who knows how much on prositutes' services. Someone had to have paid him a lot. Perhaps when FBI files are legally open, we'll find out.

On the anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, let’s remember that he was killed when he went to Memphis to support the sanitation workers’ union whose members were among the poorest workers in the USA. Some of them were paid so little that even working full-time, they were eligible for Public Aid. With workers’ rights being eroded all over the country and unions under attack, we’re again asked to defend workers’ rights. This week many events in support of working people are taking place. Many already took place on April 4th, but more are planned. You can look for one to attend near where you live at http://local.we-r-1.org/partners/moveon. In Chicago, there’s a rally at Daley Plaza on April 9^th at 1:00.

In honor, I should share a southern recipe, but all the ones I can think of are fried and unhealthy. Here is one for fish Vera Cruz that I got from my New Zealand cookbook instead. Well, it’s from pretty far south for me so should be okay. Cooking time and preparation combined were only 30 minutes. It feeds 3 to 4 people. You’ll have plenty of time left over to attend that workers’ rally if you make this.               

                                              FISH VERA CRUZ

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion sliced

2-3 cloves garlic crushed

2 dried chili peppers, deseeded and crushed (pick ones to your desired level of spiciness)

1 green pepper deseeded and sliced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp oregano

1 can whole tomatoes in juice

about 1 pound fish fillets (I used tilapia, but any plain white fish would be good)

1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves

1Tbsp lime juice

about ½ tsp salt

It’s good with rice. Cook it while you’re cooking the fish.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion softens.

Then add the chilies, green pepper and bay leaves.

Continue to cook until the onion is translucent. Add the cumin and oregano. Drain the tomatoes reserving the juice. Add to pan with half the juice.

Carefully stir in the fish and simmer gently for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat as soon as the fish are just cooked. Stir in the coriander leaves, lime, and salt.

  

 MLK assassination, workers’ rights, fish Vera Cruz recipe

 

Revisiting "Hawaii" and A Great Fish Recipe

 Fortunate to travel to New Zealand, I was interested to see how the Maoris, who comprise about 15% of the New Zealand population, are living today. While they suffered past injustices, they have revived as a community. We saw them participating in the Lake Taupo multi-cultural festival as seen here.

We visited the village of Whakarewarewa in which the Maoris still have an intact community. They have their own thermal pools and waters which they use communally for cooking and heating.

 The Maoris of New Zealand and the Polynesians or Native Hawaiians share the same origins. I was curious to refresh my memory of  Hawaiian history. I had read Hawaii by James Michener shortly after it was published in 1959. That was many moons ago and my reaction to re-reading it surprised me. I had the same feelings that I did when I recently watched I Love Lucy re-runs. Oh my God! That’s so sexist. The role and perception of women has changed so dramatically since Michener wrote Hawaii. When I read it the first time, I thought it was a very interesting fictionalized history. It still was. What surprised me on re-reading it was the depiction of the female characters. Except for three strong women characters, the females were almost invisible, existing only as wife, daughter, or prostitute.

I tried to keep the above in its historical perspective as I reread Hawaii. It was interesting to learn that before the missionaries and other white settlers arrived on the Hawaiian islands, the Native Hawaiian population was about 400,000. As a result of exposure to Caucasian illnesses and other destructive influences, by the end of the 1800’s, there were only about 30,000 Native Hawaiians left. Another blight on American history.

According to the 2010 United States census figures, there are now 1,360,301 people living in Hawaii of which only 10% (136,000) self-identify as native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders.

In honor of the two island places one nation, one state, I give you this fish recipe from the New Zealand 20 minute cookbook 100 Favourite 20 Minute Dishes by Simon and Alison Holst. This recipe serves 2. (I tried to translate the metric system into the English system but they are approximations.)

                                                Sweet Chili Salmon on Sesame Noodles

About 2/3 pound (300 grams) salmon fillets

¼ cup sweet chili sauce

3-4 Tbsp chopped coriander leaves

1 Tbsp lime or lemon juice

1 Tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

½ pound (200 grams) noodles (Asian egg noodles, soba noodles, vermicelli, etc.)

10-15 cm telegraph cucumber (I didn’t know what this was so I guessed. You could use a bit of cucumber deseeded, julienned)

about 1/5 pound (100 grams) white radish julienned

1 Tbsp canola oil

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp grated ginger

1 Tbsp roasted sesame seeds

Put the salmon in pieces in a plastic bag with the first five ingredients on the list. See that it’s coated. Let it stand.

Meanwhile, boil a pot of water to cook the noodles. While the noodles cook, prepare the vegetables. When the noodles are cooked, drain them and rinse briefly. Return the noodles to the pot and mix in the rest of the ingredients and toss.

Broil the fish.

Serve fish on top of noodles.

New Zealand, Hawaii, a great salmon recipe

                                               

Celebrating the Affordable Health Care Act First Anniversary

To celebrate the year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, there was a rally today in downtown Chicago in support of it. I wanted to go to it, but it’s cold –30 degrees- and snow is predicted. I was afraid that I’d get sick. A typical Chicago spring day. Instead, I am here at home writing letters to the editor in support and saying yay! After a hundred years, the USA has joined the rest of the world in trying to guarantee health care for all its citizens. It was about time!

With all the moaning and groaning, the sky hasn’t fallen on the insurance companies. (Personally, I don’t think it would have been a bad thing if it did.) Many of the major provisions won’t take effect until 2014 but some have already begun:

1. Children can no longer be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
2. Young adults can stay on their parents’ insurance until they are 26. I can remember when my kids graduated from college and were dropped by our insurance company like rocks. It’s too late to help us, but at least some other parents can sleep easy.
3. Insurance companies are now not allowed to drop people from coverage if they get sick and need medical care.
4. For those with pre-existing conditions, state health exchanges have been set up for people to access until 2014.

Those are just the main points. Starting in 2014, there will be expanded Medicaid Coverage and for those adults with pre-existing conditions, Insurance Companies won’t be allowed to drop them from coverage. Until then, just stay healthy. The state insurance exchanges are less expensive than before but still somewhat costly. So for insurance, just cross your fingers and keep exercising.

Try eating healthy, too. Here’s another New Zealand recipe. The people there seem to be very aware and involved in physical fitness. (They also have national health insurance.) Their cuisine is delicious. I asked a New Zealander to describe their cuisine and she said, “It’s nouvelle French but using a lot of Pacific herbs and fruits. There’s also some Asian and Mediterranean influences.”

It’s the churkendoose [from an old children’s record by Burl Ives- I think- about a creature that was part chicken, turkey, duck and goose, the prettiest animal in the barnyard] of cuisines. What could be bad?

This is a recipe for Orange and Currant Couscous. It went well with the broiled fish that we were eating and only took about 10 minutes to prepare. This amount will be good for 4 people.

                                                Orange and Currant Couscous

Grated rind and juice of 2 oranges

2 cups of water

½ teaspoon of salt

½ cup of currants

1 cup couscous

1/3 tbsp sweet chili sauce

¼ cup parsley

1/3 tsp of fresh ground pepper

½ tbsp of fresh grated ginger root

Place orange juice and rind and salt in pan.

Pour in water and bring to a boil.

Pour in couscous.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients and take off the heat. Let stand for five minutes.