Beautiful Contradiction #2: The Plastic Vortex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yiPZNsW8fI
This video describes the efforts of graduate students at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution in defining the problem of the accumulation plastics in the North Pacific Ocean Gire. It begins, "A thousand miles from land, the Pacific Ocean is striking in its beauty; rich, deep blue waters, calm seas and serene stillness." The beauty of the ocean has been meaningful to me from the time I can remember. Growing up in a small town on the Northern Coast of California the ocean offered many benefits: a gorgeous view to the west, a moderate climate, an opportunity to play in the toe-numbing surf, a financial resource for my stepfather and others who made their living as fisherman, and a place many of us went to catch our evening meal of crab, salmon or abalone. That beauty is now being challenged by a throw-away mentality that has led to the accumulation of plastics and other rubbish in our landfills and now in the oceans. We need to make better choices as consumers, or risk the health of our oceans' ecosystems. Even from a very selfish perspective, we need to look out for ourselves. As higher-order consumers, we will be the ones at greatest risk of accumulating all of these chemicals into our bodies. What choice will we make? There seems to be only one good one.
Beautiful Contradiction #2; the Plastic Vortex (painting above) was inspired by this tragedy. Thank you to those from Scripps for doing the work to accurately define the problem! Now that we know better, maybe we'll do better.

Beautiful Contradictions

Very excited to be done with a series of paintings that I started a few months ago. The theme of the paintings is "contradictions." There is so much tension when two opposing forces collide. And with that collision comes a spark. An energy that can inspire action if the observer so chooses. The series is called Beautiful Contradictions.

Beautiful Contradiction #1; When the Levee Burst: The first of the series was inspired by the breach of the levees in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. The storm itself was a natural occurrence. We think of weather as unavoidable, in the natural plan, divinely ordered, although it is becoming harder to argue that human interference with weather patterns is not a factor. Issues of global warming aside, the true tragedy, in this case, occurred in that New Orleans was unprepared to weather the storm. The breach of the levees was inarguably avoidable. Did so many people need to have endured pain and even death? One can't help but think how much suffering could have been avoided had a different series of decisions been made regarding resource allocation for the levee system. I refer specifically to the fortification of the levee system surrounding the 9th Ward. Nothing captures that tension more than the moment that the levee burst. Inspired by that moment, will our policy makers make different decisions in the future? And even in the face of such tragedy, there are countless stories of the people of Louisiana and surrounding areas helping those in need. Herein lies the beauty; that even in the face of human failure, many people acted in love toward their fellow human beings.

Beautiful Contradiction #1; When the Levee Burst is my imagination of what that moment entailed.

Yummy Bayou Pasta

The focus of this entry is food, AGAIN! Although my brilliant plan to split the meal-cooking responsibilities has been less than embraced by the rest of the family, there are occasions when the responsibility is shared and both the process and product are extremely enjoyable. Tonight I made Emeril Lagasse's Bayou Chicken Pasta, and I fully intended to do so alone.
It is a fantastic recipe that I've made before. I go straight by the book, except I replace the cream with 1/2 and 1/2 and use both chicken and shrimp. A few crawfish tossed in would be great too. I'll try that next time!
This time, as I began browning the butter and chopping the onions and garlic, the pasta pot boiling away, both of my boys smelled the aroma, walked into the kitchen and uttered these words, "We want to cook with you, Momma." Music to my ears. Simply made me smile. So, Zackary's contribution was the parsley and Ky's was the green onion. Derrick provided some guidance regarding avoiding the sharp, serrated edge of the steak knives they used to do their dicing. Gever Tulley, author of 50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do, would have been awfully proud.

Pause for a moment while I admire the capability of my children...and my husband. Wow! Very appreciative.

What a fun, collaborative process. And the product wasn't too shabby either. Yum! Now...what's for dessert?

New Energy Policy Needed

Over the last several weeks I've been thinking about making some changes to my much-to-busy life. Minor speed bumps on the road of life have kept me away from the blog (among them a toe surgery, car wreck and thousands of dollars in unexpected medical bills). Just the disasters I needed to drive some change. These disasters are nowhere near what others have experienced lately.

As the earthquake and tsunami in Japan threatened nuclear reactors and caused us to reexamine energy policy on a broad scale, I am wondering about my own use of “energy.” Beyond the crafty mantra to, “Reduce, reuse, recycle!” that my family consistently tries to implement better than we already do, I’m now trying to take a more deeply analytical approach to my own energy use. One sign that I’m not using energy efficiently is that I come home from work every day completely exhausted. Another is that I have so much to do that I completely neglect some obligations and the things I remember to do are not done as well as they should be. Like many of my friends, I am a woman who wears too many hats. I am spread too thin, trying to do too much. I use my energy very inefficiently. I find that I don’t do any of these things justice; they are deprived of the energy they deserve, despite my best intentions. And I am left feeling guilty about it.
For someone committed to wearing my hats well, this is an extremely uncomfortable position in which to find myself. The solution: to give up some of my hats. Take them off so that someone better suited might pick them up to wear them wonderfully herself. Ironically, there is a sense of guilt in making this choice. If I give up a commitment (or two or three), does it mean that I don’t care? Someone looking in from the outside will certainly think that’s true and judge me accordingly. Before I give something up do I need to have someone else in mind to assume responsibility for the hat I’m taking off? Or if I let go, will God take care of those things that I am not able to? And if I let go of something that I’m not meant to let go of will I cause myself or others to suffer? All of these what-ifs are leading me to believe that I need to should approach this decision carefully and prayerfully. Things need to be let go of…it’s just a matter of what and when. When I let go, I need to trust that things will be taken care of by a power much greater than me. If I choose those things that use my energy most efficiently, I trust that in the grand scheme of things, I will be leaving things open for others to use their energy the way they were meant to as well.
How did I get myself in this overextended mess in the first place? I might be trying to make up for those I saw fail to live up to commitment that I thought they should have upheld. But that is really not my judgment to make, is it? But I can make some decisions to use my energy wisely today. Right now. So I will.

A Saucy Week

Last week we were hit by a few unplanned events: there was an ice storm on Monday,

the dog ate Zackary's winter coat, and we found out that the surgery I need on my toe is going to cost us $500 out-of-pocket. Although the ice storm was a nice opportunity to stay home with the family, the torn up coat and the extra medical expenses hit my spirit and the family budget pretty hard. Needless to say, the grocery budget for the week was basically zero. Our meal plan for the week needed to be planned around food we already had available in the house. I came up with the idea to use "sauces" enhance things that we had on hand. Monday night we had Thai food: chicken satay with peanut sauce (chicken breast was in the freezer and peanut butter was in the pantry). I made a purple cabbage and carrot slaw as a side dish. Both were from a cooks.com recipe. They turned out delicious.


On Tuesday we ate homemade mac and cheese (with a bechamel sauce from the Joy of Cooking) with leftover slaw, on Wednesday I opened a bottle of barbecue sauce and poured it over some frozen meatballs. I mashed up some potatoes as a side dish and my meat-and-potatoes man was very happy. His dish this week was chicken nuggets and baked french fries. I contributed the honey-mustard sauce.

This week I had surgery on my toe, so our meal plan was non-existent. We're blessed to have eaten anything at all. Because our budget is shot, we did stick to home-cooked food again, and got very creative with the contents of our fridge and pantry. This week I also had a little time to reflect on my thoughts and attitudes about the previous week's saucy menu. The idea for saucy week came from a need. We didn't have the luxury to go out a buy to satisfy our meal plan. Our plan had to fit with what we had already been provided; made me reflect on what my high-school Italian teacher once said about Italian cuisine. She said that Italian food didn't contain many sauces and spices because there was never any historical need to cover up poor-quality ingredients. Although this viewpoint is a testimony to status of Italian food and reflective of the status of Italian society (both of which I adore), my guess is that it is an overgeneralization (albeit a positive one) that overlooks some important nuances. Not all Italians were wealthy enough to eat good food and not all non-Italians ate food that was low quality.
There were wealthy people who had more access to resources and poor people who had access to fewer resources. It would likely have been the wealthy that had access to herbs and spices imported from Asia. I mean, entire continents were "discovered" in the pursuit of a quicker path to the spices of India. Furthermore, even those with less access to varieties of food and spice would have wanted to make the best of it. They would have wanted to add sauce and spice to their lives. Inspired by the idea that we did not have as much as usual, we did our best with what we had. We weren't trying to cover up poor quality. Instead we were "doing our best with that God gave us."

I'll Call It a Success

FOOD: I'll call this week's meal plan a success. All of the menus were cooked, one way or another. Two turned out excellent while one was at least edible. We cooked the beef tips on Wednesday, lasagna on Thursday and tuna noodles on Friday.

The beef tips were just okay. Nowhere near as soft and moist as Derrick's mom's. I used eye of round roast and took a shortcut and used the crock pot to cook them. Maybe it dried them out? I don't know. Next time I might try a different cut of meat.





The lasagna was really true to my mom's recipe. Besides the noodles and sauce the only other ingredients we added were mozzarella, tomato sauce, mushrooms, frozen spinach and cottage cheese. Ky had fun cutting and cooking the mushrooms, laying the layers of noodle in the pan and sprinkling cheese. It's been very fun for me to continue to pay attention to each of my sons' cooking "zone of proximal development." I continue to give them as much responsibility as they can handle and as much as they are willing to assume, while attempting to stay safe around all the sharp and hot things in the kitchen. A challenge but we're really loving it. And the products have been enjoyable too!




And finally, the tuna noodles. I have to admit. Tuna noodle night when I was growing up was not one of my favorites. A little fishy, a little gushy. Definitely something I remember as a go-to, momma-cooked dish, but not the most appealing thing to a kid. So I tried to jazz it up a little. I got the pan nice and hot and browned the mushrooms to make them really caramelized and sweet. Then I added some flour and half and half to make a really creamy sauce. Then in went the tuna; two kinds: chunk light and albacore. Toward the end I added a pinch of cayenne pepper and sliced up two green onions and added them at the last minute. The cayenne added a little kick of heat and the green onions brightened up the flavor. The overall flavor profile was creamy and sweet with a hint of spice. Broccoli with a little lemon balanced the sweetness of the noodles. Very good! Better than I remember as a kid.




Added bonus: Derrick loved the tuna noodles and even ate the "green stuff" on the side!

Very nervous about how our lovely plan will carry over into the weeks ahead. Very busy at work. Hope the plan continues to work for us as our lives get busier.

Momma-Cooked Meals!

FOOD: This week we have a plan that everybody in the family is really excited about. Our new theme for this week is "Momma-Cooked meals!" NOT that I will cook all the meals. Inspired by thoughts of our moms, Derrick and I picked some meals that each of us remembers loving OUR mothers to cook for us. We came upon this idea inspired by a couple of occurrences over the past week: 1. the holidays always remind me of my mom. This year we ate dinner at Derrick's mom's house so we all got to enjoy an actual momma-cooked meal! But for me, the holidays are always bittersweet in that enjoy them so much and always miss my mom a lot too. Food is one way that her memory can be kept alive. Not just during the holidays. 2. I got a really, really bad chest cold. Somehow, after the boys recovered from their quick bout with the flu (or some such?) I got a week-long chest cold that had me feeling miserable. You know the NyQuil commercial...nighttime sniffling, sneezing, coughing...all that...I had it. And I'll admit, I'm a terrible sick person. When I'm sick, the only thing that could possibly make me feel better is my mommy. And since she's been gone for twelve years, I'm just out of luck. But a Momma-Cooked meal...that just might make everybody feel good. Including me.
Okay, so I jumped the gun and helped Zack to cook the first meal of the week on Sunday. And it was so good. Clam chowder. Reminded me a lot of my mom's recipe but with a bit of a Cap'n Flint's attitude. (For those of you who don't know, "Flint's" is the absolute best seafood dive on the planet. On North Harbor Drive in Fort Bragg, California. They serve fresh, mostly deep-fried seafood dishes with excellent tartar sauce for dipping and sides of french fries and coleslaw. Besides my mom's food, nothing makes me homesick like the thought of Flint's prawn's 'n' chips! Yum!)
For our chowder, we basically followed the Joy of Cooking recipe with a few minor changes: We used a very light brown roux to begin the dish to thicken the broth, boiled the potatoes in clam juice and mashed a few of them after they were cooked to thicken the broth a little more, and added a couple cups of frozen corn for color and texture and a bit of sweetness.
I was disappointed that I forgot to buy oyster crackers to sprinkle on top :( but we had bread and butter instead and it was a tasty alternative.

So the rest of the week's menus are: my mom's vegetarian lasagna and tuna casserole and Derrick's mom's beef tips. Ky wants to cook the lasagna tomorrow. Can't wait. I WON'T forget to bring home a loaf of sourdough tomorrow for garlic bread!