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Health knowledge made personal
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Health knowledge made personal
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Last Sunday I got a chance to cook with a woman I have known for years.
We have many aspects of our lives in common, but haven't had a chance before to just hang out and have fun. We share a common bond with our twins. Mine are 10 year old girls, hers are 20 month old boys, but she also has the most adorable 4 1/2 year old girl and a lovely and poised 7 year old girl. We both work hard to educate the public about healthy food, locally grown and organic preferably. After all, what you eat is truly your first medicine. So both of us teach classes, blog and Facebook. I'm the only one Twitttering right now, but somehow I think she will be soon too. So when she called to ask if I could come over and cook, I jumped at the chance. When you are a busy doctor, mom, wife, girl scout leader, GIG board member and such, you just don't get many chances to just cook. Especially since I started writing this blog, cooking has become a bit of a chore as well. Well, maybe not a chore, but a task, a different way of cooking. I have to admit I don't typically measure ingredients as I cook. I go by feel, by eye, by texture. I choose flours spontaneously- trying different combinations to see what feels right. Adding a spice when I get the idea that it will make a recipe sing. Tweaking the moisture by adding just a bit more or less to the right consistency. Jotting down notes on large sticky pads attached to the fridge, occasionally loosing one. But when I am in that state, I rarely end up with a recipe that I can post. After all, can you tell me how to talk about the texture of a bread dough? Using words like- soft and resilient work or maybe "the way a baby's bottom feels" but for lots of folks, they need finite measurements. After all, lots of people just don't have a nearby baby to use to compare. And it is a rare gluten-free bread that has that consistency anyway. But cooking withAli of Whole Life Nutritionwas fun! We managed to get a time and a date together but didn't truly plan out what we were making. After all, with 6 kids between the two of us, and both hubbies out of town, who can plan? We each went to the grocery store and grocery shopped, then I brought all of mine to her house. My daughters just love her daughters and her little twin boys became the dolls for all 4. Since my girls were happy to supervise the littler ones, Ali and I managed to have a bit of time to just cook and chat. I can't remember the last time I shared a kitchen with a friend. After all, most of my cooking time is quick meals for that night or production cooking on weekends to make the busy week easier. My husband and I do get to cook together but we have very different styles so most of the time, one of us takes the kitchen and the other is doing house chores and projects. But I love cooking in a crowd! Way back in 1994-95 I worked for an organization in New York City calledGod's Love We Deliver. We would crank up the music and dance as we prepared food. And believe me those guys could really dance. We all went out a couple of times toWebster Halland theLimelight (now know as the Avalon), their moves put me to shame. But nobody expects a Jersey girl to have moves anyway. We fed people who were homebound with AIDS. The kitchen was staffed with volunteers and overseen by a paid staff of 10. We served 2000 meals a day when I left in 1995. I wonder how many meals now? Looking at their website, it looks like a lot more. They just served their 10,000,000 meal! But now they feed folks with cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's too. I supervised the Friday night shift and the Sunday morning shift while I completed my undergraduate studies atCity Collegein preparation for medical school. I started there as a volunteer after my first husband died, and I was laid off by Macy's and gradually moved into a chef position. So I am used to lots of people in a kitchen, used to lots of teaching just how to do something. Have you ever broken down whole rounds of beef for stew? Best of all, it seemed like my crew got to do just that almost every week. One large problem I faced as a manager was explaining to vegetarians that the task for the night was creating stew beef for 1000 meals. But it was fun, lots of fun, because we all shared a common vision and lots of laughter. And Sunday, Ali and I did the same. We laughed, compared recipes, talked about life, kids, husbands and their travels. We contemplated the seasons, wiped sticky hands and chins, watched the kids on the trampoline and baked. Actually, Ali baked. She made breads - rice almond with a tender crumb and crust. Whole grain sunflower seed bread with a touch of molasses. Millet, brown rice and tapioca starch biscuits! so tender and crunchy all at the same time She pulled out jams she had just put up; spiced peach jam with sugar and blueberry honey We spread them liberally on the breads . That is why the sticky faces. She had a hubbard squash in the oven when we got there that she turned into 2 pots of soup. Smooth hubbard squash soup with tomatoes and potato hubbard chowder with salmon. I made my sourdough bread. But I had just fed the starter so the bread took forever to rise. I ended up baking it on Monday. And tamales, stuffed with cabbage, poblano peppers and tomatillos. The act of making tamales is one of dedication. First you make the filling, then soak the wrappers, then create the masa dough. And then the fun begins, smearing each corn husk with the masa, adding a spoonful of filling. Folding and wrapping to keep it all together, layering in a steamer for at least an hour. So wonderful a contrast, the soft masa and the slightly resilient greens. mild and tart. Together with a bowl of soup and some biscuits, perfect. I'm sorry I don't have pictures. Neither one of us pulled out a camera, we just enjoyed each other, the children and a perfect afternoon cooking in the kitchen So join me in asking Ali topleasepublish her baking book. I would love to have those recipes to make again. And watching her cook, by adding a bit of this and a bit of that, means that I could really use her recipe. in writing. Gluten-free, organic, GF recipes, recipes
celiac, children, diet, bellingham, naturopathic, gluten
enteropathy, gluten intolerance, Whole foods, non-celiac gluten enteropathy  |
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