Food for Thought

Older Age, I decided, is a gift. I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be.

Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body: the crepey neck, the wrinkly eyes, and the sagging (ever stretching )butt. And often I am a bit sad by that old person that lives in my mirror, but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my adventurous life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating a cookie, or for not making my bed (although I always do!), or for buying silly things, that I have no idea where they are today, but I had to have. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy if I want, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 70 & 80s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over my too large body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set . They, too, will get older.

I know I am sometimes forgetful (just ask my daughter). But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things. Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when you lose a beloved pet? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong. So, to answer your question, I like being older. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it) Live Large, Laugh Often.

Contemporary Cooking Class is Over

Darn. I really got into the daily buffet. Now I'll have to bring food in or buy it. I love free healthy foods. I ate some really good stuff over the past 3 weeks. So much so that I believe I will change my eating habits. I have already. Grains are really filling and with all the nutrition from all the vegetables, soups, and fruits I find that I'm not so hungry later.

Today was my Final presentation of my macrobiotic diet menu. I had to develop a menu that stayed within guidelines of 1200 calories (all 4 dishes combined) and 1000 mg of sodium, and then limited fats, cholesterol, proteins etc. I did it and it was really good.

For the starter I made Miso Soup with snow peas, shitake mushrooms, scallions and sweet corn from the cob instead of tofu.

Then I prepared a Fish in a 5 spice rub topped with chopped tomato, onion, garlic, diced jalapeno and caper topping on a bed of fresh Heirloom tomatoes. Very tasty!

Next was a Roasted Poblano Chile stuffed with spanish rice and sweet corn topped with Monterey Jack cheese and baked in the oven then served on top of a Creamy Lemon Sauce made from raw cashews (soaked overnight in water), a couple tsp of Miso and 1/2 cup of lemon juice. I added two packets of Stevia all natural sweetener and it was perfect.

Dessert was a Rice Pudding with fresh pears in lemon juice baked with nutmeg and cinnamon. It was very nice.

I added my special touch of a couple of Baby Eggplant Penguins. The eyes are Black Beluga Lentil. I loved them! So cute.

Now I have a WHOLE week off for Spring Break. I'm so ready for that. I get to sleep in for 9 whole days. Heaven.

Apply Defibulator, STAT!!!

Do You Know Where You're Children Are? This is where mine was on Easter Sunday. OMG!

This is what happened to me when I found out!!! This stunt cost me a ton in AGE LINES!! A Dios Mio....

More Farmer's Market Pictures

I'm a bit challenged in trying to add more than one picture to my posts. Everyone else makes it look super easy but I don't have that button on my laptop. I bought the handicapped version I guess.

Anyvay, (like my new accent?) Here are dem photos.

Wednesday = Farmer's Market

I love Wednesday. I get to roam around all the fresh flowers, foods, and fish and take in the sunshine, blue skies and the beautiful City Hall building in the background.

I do my Hunt and Gather, Touch and Smell, and wish I had more than a little single electric burner at my place to cook with.

Today I bought Baby Bok Choy, tangerines, Asian Pears, a cucumber and some bright red radishes and green onions.

The weather was perfect for an afternoon stroll. I'm even getting adjusted to the kooks in the Tenderloin District on my way home. There are more and more vendors as spring brings all the fresh grown goodies up for grabs. My Contemporary Foods class is having a good effect on my eating preferences now. I am eating way less meats and much more veggies and grains.

We ate some more good stuff in class today like cauliflower and minestrone soups, a chicken dish with red and yellow bell peppers, orzo pasta with kale, spicy tomato salsa and avocado with crisp corn tortilla's, boiled tempeh with green onions in vegetable stock with some soy sauce, fresh assorted cookies, a really delicious healthy pizza simply made with tomato sauce, cheese and an herbed dough crust, some chicken kabobs, and deep fried veggies in a batter served with a yummy spicy ponzu like sauce.

There were other things but I forgot. So much food. We all cook together, eat together and discuss the shortcomings of a certain classmate who gets on ALL our nerves! She's not a regular with our class but someone who has to make up this class b/c she probably failed it last time. She can't help but get on your nerves in a very special way, real quick. Most of us are just trying to avoid her in case we lose it and do that silly high school thing and deck her.

She keeps that "badatuide" up, she may be the next item on our buffet. Watch your back girlfriend! The injuns are getting restless.

IRISH I was out having fun.....

Happy St. Paddies, to the Laddies and Lassies

Hope you're all having (some) fun

Here I sit on my big faddie assie

Just wishin y'all a ton (of fun)

If that ain't enough, to keep you enchanted

Then goodnight and I'll have another ... I'm SO done with Irish Limericks! Whatever.

All You Can Eat!

I so love this class! (Contemporary Cuisine) since every day is ended with a huge buffet of all the foods we all made. Salads, soups, main dishes, grains, beans, and even desserts. We never leave THIS class hungry!

I have really changed my mind regarding grains and legumes. I'll be incorporating more of them into my diet now. They are really good and lots of ways to cook them to a tasty flavor.

We even made whole wheat doughnuts that, believe it or not, were GOOD. We dipped them in maple syrup for the glaze.

My favorite beverage's are my own creation of fresh blackberries, orange juice and black tea served as an Iced Tea. Really refreshing. Then there's Phil's Barley Lemon Water. I can't believe how much I liked that one. Both are perfect for summer.

Contemporary Foods Daily Buffet

I am so loving Contemporary Foods. Every day we all work in groups on recipes, cook and present to Chef, then we have to explain our recipe for the others and what we made. After all that, then we get to eat buffet style every day! YUMMY!!

I couldn't begin to remember all the good stuff I've eaten but one of my very favorites so far is the Red Lentil and Apricot Soup!! To. Die. For. So delicious. I'm too tired to do the recipe now but I can do it at another time.

Tomorrow I have to cook Vegan Recipes. I'm making Indonesian Tempeh Pancakes with an orange glaze. Eh. I may try to do something else too. Like brown rice with sweet corn. Just cuz it sounds nice. I'm not really too warm to vegan.

But I AM eating way better than in Baking and Pastry!

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, its off to work we go...

This was no Disney Fantasy, this was hard reality. I volunteered to help prep a dinner at the Italian Atheletic Club in North Beach this past Thursday. I need to start volunteering for things like this to build my resume throughout this next year.

You can see from Lil' Miss Happy Face that the whole experience was nothing but fun. We prepped, served, waited and cleaned up for a 320 person dinner. We started at 12:45 pm and ended at 10:15pm. I had risen that morning at 5:15am to head to class. By the time I was home, showered and in bed it was 11:30pm and I had to rise again at 5:15 to head to my last class of Baking and Pastry to take my finals.

I'm slightly recovered today. My feet don't hurt quite so much now (they only bark when I walk) and my arms and legs have feeling again.

What the %$*! was I thinking you may ask. Well, I thought it was going to be a short gig of 5-6 hours and that we'd do no serving or cleanup. Turns out that didn't happen and no one knew it until we got there. Like they say "Poo Happens" (I have a problem saying Shit online). So, we just end up grinning and bearing it.

I have learned one thing from this event. Never volunteer for a job the night before your Final. Lesson Learned.

Oddly enough, I had explicitly asked the "Chef" before volunteering whether we'd have to serve or clean-up and he said No. The Club is handling that. So that's why I volunteered. Eh, who knew?!

If I was one of the 7 dwarves, just call me Grumpy!

Rounding Out My Last Week

I'm soooo glad to be leaving Baking and Pasty this Friday. I have gained 5 extra (possibly more) pounds since starting it 2.5 weeks ago. This is depressing.

Yesterday I started my morning plating my Ice Cream, which by definition, means that I have to do a lot of tasting before and after. I have to make sure it's good enough then the Chef makes you taste along with him while he explains stuff. I put my Ice Cream in a martini glass (I'd rather had that instead!) and drizzled chocolate in a swirl along the inside of it. I also made designs with raspberry and strawberry coulis (a liquid of the fruit) on the Ice Cream. Then I topped it with a hardened chocolate curly-cue thingy I made the day before.

I do feel that it presented well and tasted good (real good). I got all my points. I just don't like the idea of eating Ice Cream and chocolate at 8am! I couldn't just toss the nice pretty thing in the compost garbage, and it wasn't looking like I'd be eating anything else for breakfast so I did the only thing I could.

I just can't seem to eat right at school. How ironic is that?! I have no time for breakfast so I eat a banana (I don't like bananas but they "carry well") on the way to the shuttle. I also carry a Box O' Raisins and a bag of almonds with me as "just in case" emergency food. If I'm lucky I have time to grab some tea before class begins, otherwise I'm stuck with water. We HAVE to eat whatever we are working on for flavor, taste, seasonings, etc. It doesn't sound like a lot of food but somehow, its 5 extra pounds of it.

Maybe its the sugar. I NEVER eat things with lots of sugar. I hardly ever eat ice cream, cut out cookies, no more doughnuts, or even chocolate. So in Baking and Pastry its tons of the demon sugar, mounds of chocolate, ice cream and now this week - Breads! This is my real weakness!!

I made a Kalamata Olive, rosemary flavored olive oil Foccacia bread, and another Foccacia with a garlic, red pepper flake olive oil blend and sprinkled lightly with sea salt. OMG! When that puppy comes out of the oven I'm ALL over it. It WAS GOOD. Yet I know it has tons of olive oil. I made it. I know that! But I still ate a nice size square of it.

I'm just going to have to lay on the other side of the bed at night to even out the mattress. Hopefully I won't roll into the hole from my fat ass on the left side. Blow up a balloon, put a photo of my face on it and run. I may just burst!

Photo from Bent Objects.com (a great site)

San Fran Crab Festival!

It was a beautiful day, lots of people eating crab dishes made by several upscale restaurants and hotels, music, sunshine and CRAB. I loved it. I volunteered and was assigned to assist Scala'a Bistro. We made a chiffonade romaine with frisee salad topped with a champagne vinegarette and topped with a couple blood oranges on one side and cara cara oranges on the opposite side of the salad. Then we added a healthy portion of fresh dungeness crab and drizzled a sorrel aioli sauce on the top! We were the first booth that was OUT of our dish before the others, so I got to mingle, eat other foods and listen to great music by a Band called Diegos Umbrella. (they have a My Space account at that name). They were a mix of Brasil, Gypsy and Polka! It was fun.

I added a photo that the pastry chef made from bread signifiying the Crab. I took one home I thought they were so clever and artistic. I also got a "free lunch" card from the Sous Chef that enables me and a friend to dine for free at the restaurant. Its a great place. http://www.scalasbistro.com/

I'm going to have to remember to take my "real" camera since I'm not able to make my cell phone pictures bigger! Darn it!

My first Volunteer outing as a Chef in Training! Yea Me!!