LifeCuisine

Serving Hunger at the Holidays: Food Banks Need Donations

I had intended on doing a cheery post about Christmas but was stopped in my tracks by this article in The Washington Post:  Cupboards are Bare at Food Banks.

Hunger relief is an issue I care deeply about and have written about in the past, and as I read this story, I knew I needed to get the word out that there's a crisis going on at food banks across the country and help is desperately needed.

Right now, food banks and hunger relief charities are experiencing record-setting shortages of food due to farmers selling more food products overseas, better inventory and shipping procedures at grocery stores (less dented cans), fewer corporate donations and less government assistance paired with a big jump in the numbers of working families needing food. The Capital Food Bank, a Washington, DC organization distributing nearly 20 million pounds of food annually, has seen a 37 percent increase over last year in demand for emergency food assistance with their warehouses containing less than half of last year's inventory of food. Ross Fraser, spokesman for Second Harvest, the nation's largest national hunger relief charity, said in the Post article that in their food banks across the country, 'Our inventories are depleted as never before. Our food banks keep calling here saying,' "My God, you've got to help us. We desperately need help."'

At this time of year, when so many of us are fortunate enough to be looking forward to sitting down and sharing a warm meal with family and friends, I urge you to remember those who are struggling just to survive and give what you can to help make a difference to a lot of hungry people.

Second Harvest: http://www.secondharvest.org  Also has a locator page to help you find the food bank closest to you:  http://www.secondharvest.org/zip_code.jsp

Capital Area Food Bank: http://www.capitalareafoodbank.org.

Share Our Strength: http://www.strength.org/

Emergency Communities:  http://www.emergencycommunities.org  Provides food assistance to New Orleans residents affected by Hurricane Katrina

Easy Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Thanksgiving is coming up this week -- our ultimate side dish holiday here in the United States. That golden-brown bird resting on a big platter might be the centerpiece for most people, but for me, I come to Thanksgiving dinner for the side dishes: cranberry sauce, potatoes, stuffing, salads, rolls, casseroles --- just keep 'em coming!

Thanksgiving also means balancing saying hello to relatives coming through the door as you're trying to frantically stir a steaming pot of gravy with one hand, while trying to pull out a hot pan of rolls with the other. So with that in mind, I went through my recipe file and found three of my favorite side dish recipes that are perfect for time-crunched Thanksgiving cooks everywhere. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Scalloped Corn Casserole (serves 6-8)

1 16 oz. can creamed corn

1 8 oz. can corn niblets (undrained)

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all of the ingredients together. Pour into a greased 9-inch square casserole dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until the center no longer jiggles when the dish is shaken.

Green Beans with Lemon and Toasted Pecans (serves 6)

1 pound of green beans, ends trimmed

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup pecan pieces

Bring a large saucepan of water fitted with a steamer insert to a boil. Add the green beans and steam until just tender (you don't want to fully cook the beans), about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat.

In a large skillet over low heat, melt the butter. Add the lemon zest and juice and the green beans and toss gently. Transfer the beans to a serving bowl and sprinkle with the pecans. Serve immediately.

Warm Spinach Salad with Apples, Bacon and Cranberries (serves 6)

1 cup diced Red Delicious or Fuji apple (about 1 medium-sized apple)

3/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries, chopped

1 (10 ounce) package fresh baby spinach

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons cranberry juice

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream

4 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl, toss well. Combine vinegar, sugar, cranberry juice, mustard, salt, and pepper in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Drizzle warm dressing over spinach mixture and toss well. Sprinkle with bacon and serve.

Ladies Who Launch

Over the last three months, I've become involved with a fantastic network of women entrepreneurs called Ladies Who Launch, a community of women of all ages and professions, coming together in order to "incubate" a new business idea or cherished dream, expand their network of friends or figure out the next step to take in their lives.

I started in September with my incubator group of fabulous chicas -- Angela, Carol, Karen, Checka, Antoinette, Celia, Evelyn and Kaushika -- and for eight weeks we'd meet every Tuesday night and talk over business ideas, dreams, fears and everything else under the sun, supported by our marvelous facilitator and coach, Nicolette Pizzitola. As Nicolette would often tell us, "Create the community you want to be in" and so we did, calling and e-mailing each other at all hours with supportive words, brainstorming ideas and offers of help on sticky business questions. For someone like me who loves to help others but when it comes to my stuff, it's "Help? I don't need no stinkin' help", actually asking a group of women for a referral pushed my comfort zone zone nicely. Within minutes of posting my e-mail to the group asking for the name of a trademark lawyer and a web site designer, suggestions came flying in from everyone and not only did I get some great referrals and advice, but a valuable lesson as well that ordering a hefty slice of help when we need it can be the best piece of advice of all.

As I was writing this post, I received an e-mail from Evelyn about her latest jewelry show (Evelyn's Peru-inspired jewelery designs are drop dead gorgeous. Check out her website at http://www.ebrooksdesigns.com/ and an e-mail from Kaushika announcing the latest buzz about her deliciously unique Catalyst Tea Enchancers http://www.catalysttea.com/. From the connections that she made through Ladies Who Launch, Kaushika's teas are now being featured at the Pomegranate Grill and she has a great shot at having her teas being sold in the spa store at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the number #1 world-wide ranked hotel in Washington, DC.

So if you're looking to kickstart your next big idea or just want to make some new fabulous friends, sign up today to become a member of Ladies Who Launch -- it'll be one of the best things you'll ever do for yourself!

Halloween Pumpkin and Chocolate Chip Bread

Hurrah! The pumpkin patch is back. One of my favorite times of the year is when the Methodist church in our neighborhood unloads a moving van size load of pumpkins onto the church's front lawn, and up springs their annual fund-raising pumpkin patch. Neighbors bring their kids down to see the lawn and go home with red wagons and strollers showing off their favorite pumpkin.

The church also holds a bake sale at the pumpkin patch and here's a recipe for a pumpkin bread perfect for Halloween bake sales or just to munch on a crisp fall day with a glass full of cold apple cider. This bread freezes well but I dare you not to eat it all. It's that good!

Halloween Pumpkin and Chocolate Chip Bread

(makes two 8-inch loaves)

2 3/4 cups of sugar

3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 tsps. salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup of water

2 large eggs, beaten

12 ozs. semisweet chocolate chips (I used Nestle's Toll House)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two 8" x 4" loaf pans. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, spices, flour, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, combine the oil, water, eggs and pumpkin puree. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and combine thoroughly using a spoon or spatula. Add the chocolate chips and stir again to combine.

Divide the batter equally among the two loaf pans. Bake for at least one hour depending on your oven. The top of the loaves should spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle should come out clean. (** It took my oven 75 minutes to bake both loaves but my oven tends to be on the slower side.)

Which Calendar Would Madonna Choose?

I was in Barnes & Noble the other day, and while moseying over to the checkout counter after buying a hang-in-there card for my sister who recently said a hasty "buh bye" to a job with so much back-stabbing, that you would of thought that it was a reality show, I saw that the 2008 calendars have arrived.

In my previous 9-5 office life, seeing a display rack bulging with new calendars meant one thing -- okay, two things: That this year was racing by and I still had about 54 things I had conveniently neglected to accomplish and that many lunch hours would be needed to figure out what next year's office wall calendar should be.

Seriously. I would spend an inordinate amount of time slowly rotating display racks as I pondered which calendar would send just the right not too boring but still office-acceptable message to my boss and workers as to who I was -- at least for the next year. For several years I had a "I work hard but I'm also a cool world traveler" personna with 12 months of the hills and dales of Tuscany and calendars featuring arty shots of the Eiffel Tower and glittering temples in Indonesia. When my husband and I tackled our backyard landscaping project, up went Gardens of the World, sending a message to the office that I loved watching things grow and mulching, I guess. Another year I decided to make a statement about my love of retro tv shows so I thumbtacked up an I Love Lucy calendar. Many a day that year I would wearily look up from my desk, and smile over at the wall where Lucy was frantically cramming chocolates into her mouth, hat and blouse as she toiled on the Kramers Kandy Kitchen assembly line. One time during my Lucy year, I had to interview an executive for a high-powered position and I was his last interview of the day. This poor guy had spent hours running a gauntlet of interviews with senior executives, conducted in offices hung with the usual close-to-power photos of Washington, DC. He came to my office door looking tired, but when he saw my Lucy calendar he brightened right up and confessed that he liked Lucy too. He may have been just trying to win me over but I still counted this as personal triumph and PS: he got the job.

But now that I'm no longer at an office and on my Madonna-like Reinvent Yourself life tour, I looked at this rack of 2008 calendars with a new eye. I skipped over the lovely but safe Marc Chagall, the Georgia O'Keefee blossoms and said no way to the Rivers of America. But which calendar was the new me? Am I an action figure like Spiderman or a woman on the move on a Harley? Or should I nurture the outrageous streak in me and put on my home office wall something bizarre like this calendar of blow-dried and hair-sprayed chckens or how about something spiritual like this one on Chakras?

Nothing seemed quite right and as I walked away towards the checkout counter, I noticed a pile of calendars I hadn't seen before. On the very top of the stack was a plain white one whose cover had a simply drawn red flower bearing a caption: Dwell in Possibility

Possibilities...That's me.

The Kindness of Strangers

I'm a big fan of NBC's Mike Leonard and his funny and often touching features he does on the Today show about everyday life and some of the characters he's met along the way.

I saw this Mike Leonard video a few days ago, and in this simple story about an engagement ring, he touches on a great life lesson about finding the work we love to do. That the path to finding our calling is not always an immediate "ah ha!" but instead, may take us time and down some dead-end roads. And at the exact moment when we're at our breaking point or down to our last dime, more often than not, just the right person we need to help us will unexpectedly show up into our lives.

The kindness of strangers

Fall's Arrival

Unofficially for many of us, fall started the day right after Labor Day. But at 5:51am (EST) yesterday, fall officially began. With the tick of the clock, summer's over, and we can look forward to cooler days, falling leaves and fat orange pumpkins guarding our neighbors' front stoops.

Fall also signals that we're out of time when it comes to finishing our summer to do lists. You started out in June with the best of intentions to finally read some of the books piled up on your nightstand, go to the gym three times a week and sign up for a class in exotic Indonesian cooking. But beaches, barbecues and lazing in your backyard beckoned, and so instead of doing our to do's, we just kicked back and enjoyed doing nothing. Sounds like a worthy goal to me and anyway...there's always next summer!

Here's an article I found in The Wall Street Journal featuring some famous people and how they did on their summer goals list.

Southern Baked Chicken and Fruit Pizza

Over the summer, my travels took me to Big Sur, California and Cape May, Jersey and in each town,  I picked up a new cookbook as a souvenir of a wonderful time. The first recipe posted below -- Southern Baked Chicken -- comes from the Esalen Cookbook: Healthy and Organic Recipes from Big Sur, a cookbook brimming with such gorgeous photos of food and heart-warming stories about each recipe, you'll want to keep this book right on your coffee table.

You never know when or where you're going to buy your next great cookbook and I found Cape May Cooks: Recipes from New Jersey's Restaurant Capital while siting on a ferry that goes between Cape May and Lewes, Delaware. The book features over 100 recipes from some of the finest restaurants and bed and breakfasts in Victorian Cape May. My second posted recipe of Fruit Pizza is from one of Cape May's most beautiful historic inns--The Mainstay Inn.

Southern Baked Chicken

(from Esalen Cookbook: Healthy and Organic Recipes from Big Sur)
(serves 4)

This is a healthy way to have crisp, crunchy chicken without the extra fat from frying.

1 whole chicken - cut up into 8-9 pieces (usually available at most grocery stores)

1 cup almonds, finely ground                                             
1 cup cashews, finely ground
3 cups of Rice Krispies, finely ground
1 cup finely grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese

2 tablespoons of Cajun Spice Blend*** (could also use Emeril's Essence spice blend found in many stores)
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
2 teaspoons of dried thyme
1 tablespoon of dried basil
1/4 tsp of fennel seed
1 tablespoon of paprika
1 tablespoon of ground sage
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 tablespoon butter

*** Cajun Spice Blend
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

(Note: The easiest way to grind the nuts and Rice Krispies is with an electric seed or coffee grinder.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Blend the nuts, Rice Krispies, cheese and all the spices together until they are well mixed. Melt the butter. Using a pastry brush or spoon, cover each chicken piece with the melted butter. Roll each chicken piece into the breading mix, making sure all sides of each piece are covered with breading mix. Place each piece on a large baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes.

My Summer Vacation or When One Door Closes...

You ever have one of those weeks? I did back in June. I started out on a Monday morning with a teeth-gritting two-hour subway delay. On Wednesday I got braces clamped onto my lower teeth and on Friday, was told by my day job boss that not only was he "downsizing" me out of my job, but my talented design staff would be shown the exit door as well.

Yep. Definitely a week I'll always remember.

I was given a good severance payment in return for vacating my office, so instead of heading directly to the nearest Kinkos to print out my resume, I ended up being my own fairy godmother and granted myself a wish I had desired ever since I had stuffed myself into my first pair of sensible work pumps and pantyhose: take at least one month off from work.

So after tying up the loose ends of my old job and attending a series of well-meaning but painfully awkward, "We're sure going to miss you" luncheons, starting on the 1st of July, I basically licked my wounds. I journaled; meditated; watched I Love Lucy reruns (Lucy and Ethel didn't have paid day jobs either); underlined dozens of passages in Tama Kieves' inspiring book about career change, "This Time I Dance"; visited my parents, and got hooked on swimming laps at the community pool. And when panic and guilt at no longer having a regular job made me freeze up into a miserable ball of fear, I would take a few deep breaths and remember the top 10 things I hated about my old worklife (two hour staff meetings and constantly beeping e-mail alerts made the list) to get me going again.

Ater a few more weeks, I got together with some of my former design staff for much needed margaritas, and after trading "So what have you been doing since the lay off?" stories, helped them put together their resumes. Another day I woke up, put on my best shorts and flip flops, stashed my digital camera in my back pocket and played DC tourist. I went to museums I never would have time for back back in my old chained-to-a-computer worklife. At the National Gallery of Art, I basked in paintings by Monet and Degas that I had only seen in the pages of my 7th grade French textbook, took photos of an interesting tile wall near the water gardens at the U.S. Botanic Gardens, and then treated myself to a lunch of perfectly grilled, cedar plank salmon at the excellent Mitsitam Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian. Life felt really good.

In the middle of August, I headed out to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California to attend Rick Jarow's Anti-Career Workshop: Doing the Work You Love. I had found the workshop by accident two days after I had been laid off, and I figured my stumbling upon it was a sign:  If ever there was someone who needed to figure out how to create a self-sustaining career doing the work that you love, that person was me.

The workshop, held in this huge, carpeted domed tent overlooking the Pacific Ocean, was exceptional and just what I had hoped for and needed. Rick and his amazing assistant, Athena Katsaros, combined practical career planning advice with meditative and written exercises that gave me the space to let go of my old day job work identity and focus on the next steps to take to finally build a coaching business. I also can't say enough about the mealtime and late-night talks that I had with my fellow workshop classmates: 34 individuals who came from all around the world and from every walk of life to try to figure out the next steps in their own work and personal lives. As someone who tends to "live in her head," I was reminded by what I learned from talking to my classmates that when you're going through a big transition in your life, remember you're not alone. Your misery has lots of company so don't be afraid to reach out and talk to others.

So now it's September and I'm back to work. Not at a busy downtown office but in a home office with my dog snoring softly in the next room. It all feels very strange and in my weaker moments, I'll admit to thinking wouldn't it be easier to just go out and get another publications job. But despite these doubts and fears, I'm even more curious to see with the ending of my old job, what's behind this new door for me.

Dave and Jane and the Chippy Van

While we were in Antigua, Pat and I stayed at a resort that offered the popular AI (all-inclusive) meal plan - breakfast, lunch, tea-time, dinner and all drinks for one inclusive fee -- but we opted out, having decided that we wanted to actually get out and see the island and contribute to the local economy by trying some local restaurants.

One of our favorite discoveries was Dave Sullivan and Jane Seagull's Chippy Antigua van, parked on the side of a long gravel and dirt road down in scenic Dickenson Bay. Having grown up as a kid eating fish and chips on summer vacations in Canada, I couldn't wait to try Dave and Jane's version. Their fish and chips were as good as my childhood memories! The lightly battered pollack, perfectly moist on the inside, was covered with a golden-crunchy batter outside. With a sprinkle of vinegar and a dash of salt, I was in heaven. They also offer other traditional English favorites such as mushy peas and meat pies, as well as lobster bites, scampi, sausages and Indian curries.

As we dug into our fish and chips, we talked to Dave and Jane about their life and what brought them to Antigua. We learned that back in the 1990s, Dave had been building a hotel for six years over on Antigua's neighboring island of Barbuda when the island was hit by the devasting Hurricane Luis. "It was like an atomic bomb went off, " he wryly said. His hotel, only three weeks away from completion, was completely destroyed and from that disaster, Chippy Antigua was born.

While waiting for our order, I noticed a small cookbook offered for sale: The Cool Caribbean Cookery Book, and as I thumbed through the pages, exclaimed to Jane over the book's imaginative illustrations. Jane, herself an artist, told me they had been done by local artist Gilly Gobinet, and that we really shouldn't miss seeing more of her work at the Woods Gallery, off Friars Hill Road. We followed Jane's advice and went home with not only that cookbook, but a small painting of Gobinet's as well which I've hung in my home office. It's a great reminder of a lovely evening of good food and conversation with Dave and Jane at their Chippy Antigua Van.

When you think of the Caribbean one of the fruits you might invision would be bananas, and here's my now, favorite banana bread recipe of all time. This is the moistest banana bread I've ever eaten and it comes courtesy of Gilly Gobinet's The Cool Caribbean Cookery Book and the Ballahoo Restaurant in St. Kitts. Thanks to Gilly for letting me reproduce this recipe for my readers!(**I've tweaked the original recipe slightly due to the size of bananas usually found in US grocery stores.)

Ballahoo Banana Bread

(serves 6)

6 oz. unsalted butter

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

8 oz. flour

12 oz. sugar

3 eggs

4 very ripe bananas

raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift flour, salt and baking soda together. Set aside. Beat butter and sugar together. Mash bananas and add to butter mixture. Add eggs to mixture. Gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture until completely mixed together.

Grease a 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan or two 5 3/4" x 3 1/4" mini loaf pans and fill with mixture.

Bake for about 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of pan comes out clean.

Vacation Souvenirs

The luggage is back up in the attic, the last sandy bathing suit has been washed and put away in the drawer and my nose is pressed to my computer screen as I stare at the videos and stills that I took only a few weeks ago. Pat and I recently got back from a wonderfully memorable 10th wedding anniversary trip to Antigua, a British-flavored island down in the West Indies of the Caribbean. Talk about paradise! We would wake up in the morning to the sounds of chirping birds and surf, eat breakfast, and then wander down to the resort's soft-as-sugar beach that was right near an enormous infinity swimming pool. And if that wasn't decadent enough, as you lounged on the beach, resort staff would come around with silver trays of cool, perfumed towels, ice water and slices of perfectly ripe, fresh pineapple.

Here's a short video I shot of one of the resort's beaches:

But you know, as wonderful as all that pampering was, my favorite memories will still be the early mornings when I would get up and write in my journal, or the evenings that Pat and I would look up at the stars or sit and listen to the tree frogs singing up in the palm trees. The resort's satellite tv reception was on the blink, so our usual tv watching diet of the Today Show and evening news wasn't an option and after a day or so, we both found we didn't miss it. At all. We didn't even really listen to our iPods which normally are like musical life support systems for both of us. We kicked away our frantic normal pace of living and slid into a new rhythm that week:  slower, more conscious, and much more connected to each other and to ourselves.

As the week wound down, and we got closer to brutal re-entry back into routine, non-scented towel life, I decided that along with my souvenir photos and videos, I was really hungry to take home that incredible connected feeling I had experienced in myself during that week. I didn't want to get off the plane in DC and morph back into that time-crunched, tired, 24/7 multi-tasking creature I had been before our trip.

So I came up with this idea that I first called 20-20-20. For a week or so after we got home, in the morning I would get up an hour earlier, grab my journal and timer, and go outside to our gazebo to first sit quietly for 20 minutes, then write for another 20 minutes, and then, best of all, take 20 minutes to do whatever the heck I felt like doing --- read a chapter in a juicy novel, do some more writing, or even take a short nap -- just like you do when you're on a vacation.

I must admit that in the last week or so, getting up an hour earlier hasn't quite become quite the (um..) habit that I had hoped for and on some busy days it becomes more like 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there. But I've been pretty consistent on sneaking in some time every day and I can report a definite shift of more calmness and connectedness in myself and how I'm better able to react to all the ups and downs in what serves for life these days. It's serving me well as a way to slow down, for at least those 10-20 minutes, before shifting back into a higher gear to tackle the day.

So before you pack your suitcase to head out on your summer vacation, try a daily vacation of the homegrown variety by creating your own version of 20-20-20. It's amazing what just a few minutes of nourishing quiet time every day will do for you.

Now...If I could only get my hands on some of those towels.

Next post: Dave and Jane's Chippy Antigua van and a Caribbean salad for mango lovers everywhere.