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2 pounds and 2 weeks ’til reunion!

Here comes the sun! Several kinds of sunflowers beginning to bloom with red and white okra at their knees.

I wonder if any other of my classmates has to buy a new fence charger before our 50th reunion in 2.5 weeks. When I went out to put on fly masks this morning, we had a free range quarterhorse, and it will not do if any of our three amigos range onto N. Meadow Rd. while we’re in Pennsylvania.

I wonder a lot of things.  This is kinda like a mega-blind date with 100 or so people I knew a lifetime ago. Who will have grown into really interesting adults? Who will have worked really, really hard at staying the same people they were at 17 and 18? Who’s died? Who’s better than ever? (Is that possible?) Can I have a real conversation with anyone (remember, we’ll be only 90 miles from Penn State)?

Will the guys who called me Baby Huey in 9th and 10th grades repeat it, still thinking it’s so funny? How will I handle it if they do, understanding, of course, that they can only hurt the 14- and 15-year-old in me, not the 67-year-old who’s a year younger than they are, who still has her hair, who shared a Plaza Hotel bathroom with Harrison Ford and who’s within 2 pounds of her 24 years ago wedding weight!

Like so many high schoolers — maybe most — I felt I fit in nowhere (except on a stage so I was always singing somewhere). I didn’t date; I didn’t go to a prom or any of the near-constant dances, all of which required not just a date but a boyfriend. (I am so, so happy that seems to have changed, and many, if not most, of my young friends at church went to their proms this year in flocks of friends.)

I was smart, and the ’50s and ’60s were not a time for girls/women to be bright.   Boys had to do better and be taller, be the ones to talk about themselves on dates (for those who dated).  I had some kind friends, male and female, and it’s for them I’m going back.

Because why? Because I’m curious. Because I want to know that our small group is happy (although I think “happy” is a meaningless construct), healthy and still interested in our world, still taking classes or lessons, still riding our bikes, in good relationships with our spouses, our children and/or  grands if we have them, not complaining about our joints, still laughing, still kind. I want to be with people who share some of my same memories, people who remember me at 16. I want to be inspired and to inspire.

And if I were honest, I’d admit I’d like to see some people really miserable. Proof that karma’s a bitch and all that.

I want to re-visit my younger self, wear that ugly 1962 senior picture on my ID badge and make peace with her. Applaud her and tell her she did the best she could with what she had. Tell her I understand how very difficult it was to be her 50 years ago and if anybody calls her Baby Huey, cold-cock ‘em with my newly tanned and muscled arm.

**********

In the meantime, nourishing that kick-ass body, I made this salad last night with leftover corn frozen on July 4 and with the last of our 2011 green beans. Corn had been cooked on the cob and beans, blanched when frozen so I did no further cooking.  Both need at least a 2-minute blanching.

This recipe ran in EatingWell magazine in 1995 and The Essential EatingWell Cookbook (2004) as well. I don’t think the amount or proportion of beans and corn matters much — I used roughly half and half which is more corn than recipe calls for.  But it’s just like any salad — your creation. We enjoyed it with tilapia fillets baked in cumin-, cilantro- and jalapeno-laced tortilla chips.

Green bean salad with corn, basil and black olives (see caption)

2 pounds green beans, trimmed

3 ears corn, husked, blanched and cut from cob

1/2 small red bell pepper, finely chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped (I used scallions)

2/3 cup black olives, halved and pitted (wish I’d had)

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

Hot sauce, such as Tabasco, to taste

Salt and freshly ground papper, to taste

Leftovers make a perfect summer lunch with slices of ripe avocado.

Combine bell pepper, onion, olives, basil, oil, vinegar, lemon juice and garlic in appropriately sized bowl. Toss to mix well. Season with hot sauce, salt and pepper. Toss in corn and beans. Cover and refrigerate to let flavors blend. With proportions given, makes 6 to 8 servings.

 

 

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Salad, Simple foods, Summer salads, Uncategorized, vegetables, Weight loss, Why overweight?

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Joy in the garden

Twenty-four pounds gone — halfway to my wedding weight of 1984 — and my success to this point and forward depends so much on what we pull from the garden and from the piles of local produce at the farmers’ markets. This week it was the last of our spring broccoli and our entire kohlrabi crop.

The broccoli we ate  Saturday night with another luscious batch of shrimp risotto. I soaked the florets in lightly salted water long enough to discourage any animal life that had hitchhiked in from the garden, then drained and stir-fried it in olive oil. Heaven already but paradise with the addition of one of the McCormick Grill Mates, in this case, Roasted Garlic and Herb.

This is our first time growing and eating kohlrabi, the German turnip. I’ve seen it described as a cabbage cultivar having the taste and texture of broccoli stems, but the funny, bulbous stem that looks like the spaceship toy in “Toy Story” is sweeter than that would have you believe.

Pull it before it’s more than 3 inches in diameter, peel it and cut into matchsticks for a crudite tray or simmer with similarly-sized carrot sticks in chicken broth for about 6 to 8 minutes, drain and lightly sauce with bits of butter, honey, parsley, lemon juice and zest. Sprinkle with black pepper and watch your husband have a second helping of something he’d just pooh-poohed as an accompaniment to frozen pizza and tossed salad.

Vegetables have to play a huge part in any successful and healthy weight loss program. If you don’t like them, you just don’t know how to use or cook them yet. Truth is, once you start with fresh-from-the-garden produce, you’re more than halfway there. If you aren’t growing your own, find a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription program or start shopping your local markets. Vegetables properly prepared make a brilliant presentation, fill you up, taste great and, best of all, have lots and lots of nutrients without mega calories. So get growing!

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Strawberries, sweet strawberries

Mike and Trudy Howard haven’t yet put up the strawberry signs along US 901, but I called yesterday and they’d picked a few gallons, still only $8 each. So spring begins, truly, madly, deeply. I ate three of the fist-sized berries on the drive home and added a cup of scarlet slices to last night’s supper salad. Fewer than 100 calories, lots of fiber and Vitamin C.

Almost more importantly, something to think about besides the bag of roasted peanuts tucked in the back of the pantry.  Keep moving, keep doing something else (you can’t eat ice cream, or even peanuts, in the shower), drink more water (10 glasses yesterday), go to bed and make it through another night without binging or even overeating. And, yet, the scale’s stuck at the same weight again this morning. Sigh.

Think about cooking something with the berries that’s not pie — even though last spring I finally made a perfectly non-runny strawberry pie (the secret is a bit of strawberry gelatin). This lovely, complex sauce with the distinct flavors of three fruits is a good and much easier substitute.

You’ll need two cups of capped, sliced berries, 3 good-sized stalks of ripe, red rhubarb, trimmed and diced, and 4 or 5 Golden Delicious apples, peeled and cut into nearly transparent slices.

Put into a saucepan with just a smidgen of water. Start with 1/4 cup, add more if you need it as fruits simmer over medium-low heat for about 30 minutes. Stir now and then to make sure it’s not scorching and when fruits begin to “dissolve,” mash to consistency you prefer. I added 1/3 cup sugar and stirred to dissolve, but as berries sweeten, you might use only 1/4 cup or none at all.

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Shape-shifting

I’ve got rid of 22 pounds in the last six months. That’s not fast — it’s not even the 1 pound per week that I’ve given livestrong.com as my goal. But those six months have included Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter so I feel OK. OK but odd. Part of me’s gone. Again.

If you’ve struggled with keeping your weight at a healthy level for years and years (six and a half decades in my case), you know all about losing it, gaining it, losing it, etc. And when you’re a different shape/size, are you a different person?

If you answer that question with a ‘yes,’ do you think too much or too little weight (your appearance) affects the person you are? This is very thin ice here because we’re skating perilously close to the belief that thin people are somehow better than fat people.

I’m more inclined to think — rather than the idea that the smaller I get, the “better” I am — that I’m at last brave enough to push the little girl off my lap (that’s where I accumulate blubber). The little girl who protects me from emotional hurt and whom I acquired in an abusive upbringing. And throughout my life, I’ve mostly kept her there to protect me from everything anxiety-producing. Which means I’ve fed her in times of stress (read: pretty much always).

So here’s a recipe for the grownup in all of us, but our 12-, 10- and 7-year-old grandchildren also scarfed down these balsamic-glazed fresh carrots at Easter dinner and our 42-year-old daughter kept repeating, “These carrots are awesome!” You can oven-roast your carrots or, following Kraft food & family magazine’s directions, cut 10 full-size carrots into lengthwise quarters and cook  strips in gently boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain carrots, reserve and add to same saucepan, 1/4 cup light balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 tablespoon butter (or Move Over Butter, a buttermilk-based light spread that cooks fairly well). Bring your sauce to a sizzle, add tender-crunch carrots to the sauce and warm through. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon fresh parsley.  Serves 4 or 2 really hungry bunnies. You can double recipe or use  a 1-pound bag of baby-cut carrots for the 10 whole carrots, but I frequently find the wee ones tougher.

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