Tomato Onion Zucchini Dhal

For easy prep try a mise en place approach:

While the peas are cooking, chop the vegetables putting the onions and green pepper in one dish, the zucchini in a second dish, the garlic and ginger in a third dish and then measure out the spices into two little dishes (mustard seed in one, garam masala and turmeric in a second) – it goes together really fast and easy...and the aroma and flavors are amazing. See notes for creative ways of using this dish.

Ingredients

The Boiled PeasThe Boiled Peas
8 oz. yellow split peas (available in bulk at PCC and health food markets. don't use green split peas)8 oz. yellow split peas (available in bulk at PCC and health food markets. don't use green split peas)
1 - 14 oz. can chicken stock with half a can or more of water. (You can use vegetable stock or just water for a vegan dish.)1 - 14 oz. can chicken stock with half a can or more of water. (You can use vegetable stock or just water for a vegan dish.)
1 small or 1/2 med. onion, coarsely chopped1 small or ½ med. onion, coarsely chopped
Salt to season the simmering split peasSalt to season the simmering split peas
 
The VegetablesThe Vegetables
2 tablespoons olive oil2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds (available in bulk at PCC)1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds (available in bulk at PCC)
1 inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and grated or chopped fine (I most often use a heaping Tablespoon of pre-grated from a jar avail in produce sections.)1 inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and grated or chopped fine (I most often use a heaping Tablespoon of pre-grated from a jar avail in produce sections.)
2 large cloves garlic, crushed (I most often use a heaping Tablespoon of precrushed or chopped.)2 large cloves garlic, crushed (I most often use a heaping Tablespoon of precrushed or chopped.)
1 large sweet onion, coarsely chopped1 large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
1 green pepper, chopped in 1” chunks1 green pepper, chopped in 1” chunks
1 teaspoon turmeric (available in bulk at PCC)1 teaspoon turmeric (available in bulk at PCC)
2 teaspoons garam masala (my favorite blend is from PCC or outside Northwest most supermarkets and bulk spice places.2 teaspoons garam masala (my favorite blend is from PCC or outside Northwest most supermarkets and bulk spice places.
2 small (6”) zucchini, scrape the skin a bit leaving some green and slice into 1/4” thick rounds2 small (6”) zucchini, scrape the skin a bit leaving some green and slice into ¼” thick rounds
1 – 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes. (I like petite diced)1 - 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes. (I like petite diced)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoon water2 Tablespoon water
Salt and some pepper to taste (I use about 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt.)Salt and some pepper to taste (I use about 1-½ teaspoons of salt.)

Steps

• Coarsely chop the onions and separate• Coarsely chop the onions and separate
• Wash the split peas and place them in a saucepan with the stock, the half chopped onion and some salt. Cover, bring to boil, then simmer for about 25 minutes until the peas are soft but still whole, adding water as needed . If a lot of liquid left, drain some of it and set the peas aside. (FOR INSTANT POT - 1 1/2 cups of liquid with peas and set on manual for 4 minutes followed by a quick release.) When ready to add, fold broth and all into vegetables• Wash the split peas and place them in a saucepan with the stock, the half chopped onion and some salt. Cover, bring to boil, then simmer for about 25 minutes until the peas are soft but still whole, adding water as needed . If a lot of liquid left, drain some of it and set the peas aside. (FOR INSTANT POT - 1 ½ cups of liquid with peas and set on manual for 4 minutes followed by a quick release.) When ready to add, fold broth and all into vegetables
• While peas are cooking, chop the green pepper and add to you already chopped onion, slice the zucchini, If using fresh garlic and ginger, crush the garlic and peel and grate or finely chop the ginger. (I use prepared available in produce sections.) Put the garlic and ginger in a small bowl and set aside.• While peas are cooking, chop the green pepper and add to you already chopped onion, slice the zucchini, If using fresh garlic and ginger, crush the garlic and peel and grate or finely chop the ginger. (I use prepared available in produce sections.) Put the garlic and ginger in a small bowl and set aside.
• Heat the oil in a Dutch oven (I use an electric frying pan) add mustard seeds, cover and fry very briefly around 30 seconds, until they start popping (don’t let them burn). FOR INSTANT POT you can use high saute for cooking the vegetables.• Heat the oil in a Dutch oven (I use an electric frying pan) add mustard seeds, cover and fry very briefly around 30 seconds, until they start popping (don’t let them burn). FOR INSTANT POT you can use high saute for cooking the vegetables.
• Quickly add the whole chopped onion and green pepper, as they cook add the ginger and garlic and fry gently stirring periodically until vegetables soften.• Quickly add the whole chopped onion and green pepper, as they cook add the ginger and garlic and fry gently stirring periodically until vegetables soften.
• Stir in the turmeric and garam masala, blending well and cook for 1 minute, then add the zucchini, tomatoes, lemon juice, water and salt and pepper.. Stir vegetables together then cover and simmer until zucchini has softened.• Stir in the turmeric and garam masala, blending well and cook for 1 minute, then add the zucchini, tomatoes, lemon juice, water and salt and pepper.. Stir vegetables together then cover and simmer until zucchini has softened.
• Turn off heat and carefully spoon in, then fold the split peas into the vegetables.• Turn off heat and carefully spoon in, then fold the split peas into the vegetables.

Notes

As a main dish, serve over Basmati rice. As a nice addition, Trader Joes has a frozen garlic Naan bread for toasting . This dish freezes well, so consider doubling and sharing with friends or freezing in small freezer zipping bags. It makes a very flavorful addition to soups. Or, for an easy and impressive casserole, layer it with polenta (you can use slices of a premade polenta roll) and grated cheddar cheese. 

 Chicken Tinga

 

I made this

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Servings: Makes a large amount can cut in half or freeze

Servings: Makes a large amount can cut in half or freeze

Ingredients

5 cups shredded chicken (about a 3 1/2 lb. chicken)5 cups shredded chicken (about a 3 ½ lb. chicken)
Recipe for Instant Pot:subheading: Recipe for Instant Pot:
Instant Pot Rotissiere ChickenInstant Pot Rotissiere Chicken
 
3 Tbsp. safflower or corn oil3 Tbsp. safflower or corn oil
1/2 white onion, slivered½ white onion, slivered
2 garlic cloves, chopped2 garlic cloves, chopped
8 Roma tomatoes or 2 lbs. rinsed8 Roma tomatoes or 2 lbs. rinsed
2 tomatillo, or 1/2 lb. husked and rinsed2 tomatillo, or ½ lb. husked and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano½ teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme¼ teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 teas. sea or kosher salt or to taste1 ½ teas. sea or kosher salt or to taste
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper or more to taste¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper or more to taste
2 Tablespoons sauce from chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (optional)2 Tablespoons sauce from chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (optional)
(I used about 1 Tablespoon and a half and could have used more)(I used about 1 Tablespoon and a half and could have used more)
1 whole Chipotle chile in adobo sauce, (optional) I didn't use but may consider next time.1 whole Chipotle chile in adobo sauce, (optional) I didn't use but may consider next time.
 
To serveTo serve
Corn tostadas (sold flat and crisp in bags)Corn tostadas (sold flat and crisp in bags)
Refried beansRefried beans
Shredded iceberg letucceShredded iceberg letucce
Queso Fresco or Cotija crumbledQueso Fresco or Cotija crumbled
Mexican avocado slicesMexican avocado slices

Steps

Prepare chicken in the instant Pot:subheading: Prepare chicken in the instant Pot:
Instant Pot Rotissiere ChickenInstant Pot Rotissiere Chicken
Place tomatoes and tomatillos in a medium saucepan, cover with water. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes or until tomatoes and tomatillos are soft, thoroughly cooked and mushy but not falling apart.Place tomatoes and tomatillos in a medium saucepan, cover with water. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes or until tomatoes and tomatillos are soft, thoroughly cooked and mushy but not falling apart.
Remove tomatoes and tomatillos with a slotted spoon and place them in the jar of a blender or food processor and process until smooth.Remove tomatoes and tomatillos with a slotted spoon and place them in the jar of a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
Heat the oil in a large and deep pan over medium heat, once it is hot but not smoking, stir in the onion and cook until soft and translucent for about 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until the onion and garlic mixture becomes fragrant and lightly browned, about 1 minuteHeat the oil in a large and deep pan over medium heat, once it is hot but not smoking, stir in the onion and cook until soft and translucent for about 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until the onion and garlic mixture becomes fragrant and lightly browned, about 1 minute
Pour the tomato/tomatillo sauce on top and add the oregano, marjoram, thyme, salt, black pepper and the chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (if you want more heat add an entire chipotle chile in adobo sauce). Let it simmer stirring now and then until it seasons and deepens to a deep red color, about 10 to 12 minutes. You may want to partially cover the pan as the sauce will want to jump out onto your burners.Pour the tomato/tomatillo sauce on top and add the oregano, marjoram, thyme, salt, black pepper and the chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (if you want more heat add an entire chipotle chile in adobo sauce). Let it simmer stirring now and then until it seasons and deepens to a deep red color, about 10 to 12 minutes. You may want to partially cover the pan as the sauce will want to jump out onto your burners.
Add the shredded chicken and combine it with the sauce. Let it cook occasionally stirring until the chicken has absorbed almost all of the juices and the mixture is moist but not juicy.Add the shredded chicken and combine it with the sauce. Let it cook occasionally stirring until the chicken has absorbed almost all of the juices and the mixture is moist but not juicy.

Notes

To assemble toastadas To assemble toastadas
Spread refried beans on a tostada, add the chicken tinga mixture, top with shredded letuce avocado slices, crumbled cheese and if you want some cream too. You my also serve with salsa verde on the side. 

 WANDERING...

Parking on Capitol Hill’s 15^th street, I put a generous amount of time on the meter. My appointment took only twenty minutes so I decided to wander the little neighborhood shops. I drive through the area almost weekly and have never paid much attention to the small establishments there. I’m not really a “shopper” as a result of living in a small space and not needing more ‘stuff’. I, also, don’t eat out a lot

 

There was the small Indian restaurant, The Spice Walla, that I actually had visited once before. I'd been drawn by their soft serve ice cream which they feature in monthly-changing unique flavors such as pistachio cardamom. They have limited, interesting and evolving menu items in a space with few tables. It’s more of a specialty take-out place, a place to savor Indian street food. If you’re in Seattle and like Indian dishes, I actually subscribe to their online mailings to see what dishes are featured monthly (and the deliciously changing flavors of ice cream).

 Across the street I wandered into a book shop, Ada's Technical Books and Cafe. I don't know where the 'technical' came from, it's a coffee house/lunch place/bookstore with a very inviting ambiance. I perused the cooking section that favored whole and healthy food cooking. There was The Moosewood Cookbook, a classic from the trend-initiating vegetarian restaurant founded in 1973 in Ithica, New York. It was a cookbook that had been around when I was experimenting with a more whole foods focused diet in my college days. There I was, transported back to another time, interesting what odd and sundry shop-perusing can do. In another area one of the books they were featuring was, In the Name of Women's Rights The Rise in Femlnationalism.  I was impressed, a shop featuring a book on an area of my interest, a more serious take on Feminist thought. I plan to revisit this place and linger longer enjoying coffee or lunch there some day.

My next stop was the Rainbow Natural Remedies store. A good-sized store focused on traditional herbal and modern naturopathic medicines, homeopathy, herbs, tinctures, vitamins, etc. I wandered around enjoying the familiar, but rarely experienced, aroma of that type of establishment from candles or incense burning. The olfactory sense, your nose, is the strongest memory trigger, and in this store I was transported back to college days and my more holistic food etc. era. The very early Puget Sound Consumer Coop I visited when first in Seattle had a "natural food store aroma" that transported me, as well… There I was, once again in the small, rustic shop called, The Good Food Store, that I frequented when finishing college while living alone in a trailer after an early divorce. I took whole food classes, and even carried with me one recipe that I learned then, enjoyed to this day, a split pea soup with pearled barley....I left the Rainbow Natural Remedies store with some incense sticks, pleased to be reminded that I enjoy creating a sensory dimension to my living space.

(On the subject of whole foods and other times, and before my shop wandering that day, I was chatting over coffee with a new gal at the Wallingford Senior Center where I exercise and lead a writing class. The subject of food came up and she mentioned having bought the Moosewood Cookbook ‘back in the day’. (Wow, serendipity, twice in one day.) I laughed, “that was the era of another whole foods classic,” I said, “Diet for a Small Planet”. Our food-focused talking led us to the classic Greek dish, Spanakopita. We both lovingly wrestle with the Philo dough and make those spinach/onion/Feta cheese-filled treats. My ethnic food experimenting, though, is a whole other subject to share about someday.)

Next, I stopped at the Red Balloon Store which features an eclectic mix of odd and interesting things. They actually stock a long-time favorite using and gifting item of mine, The Unbelievable Bubble Book and wand. It's a fun gift for adults or kids that lets you make huge, walk-inside sized, bubbles. They also had a complete inventory of Jelly Belly brand jelly beans. Wow, I love the Buttered Popcorn flavor and you can buy each flavor separately there. Treating myself to a large handful, I munched as I passed another small bookstore and consignment shop both, alas, not open on Monday’s. I’ll make it a point to stop back.

It was good for my psyche and my senses to wander those shops that day. If you’re up on 15th, in another part of Seattle or, in an area in your town that you’ve been whizzing by unaware of its unique small shops, I encourage you to treat yourself to some wandering one day, it’s amazing what gems they may hold and the memories to which they may return you.

Helping People Understand and Savoring Sunsets

It’s a sunny Sunday here on Lake Union in Seattle. A float plane is motoring by, heading for the top of the lake to take off; otherwise the lake is deserted but beautiful. Capitol Hill and Fremont look the same from my vantage point but I know that life amidst the dwellings and businesses there is different.

Speaking of how life is changing, are you paying attention to your local area Facebook pages? Some of you may not care about or be a part of social media, which I totally respect. I have been very limited in putting anything on a Facebook page I created a very long time ago. Facebook, Oh and a long forgotten Pinterest page I created (I wanted to share about my new hobby, at the time, of Indian cuisine), are the only social media presences I have. I do daily visit the neighborhood Facebook page, if there are ways we can help and if we are inclined to do so, locally might be the way to start.

I noticed on there that a “socially active” store down the street announced that they have face mask kits available free for those who sew. I may go down and pick one up as sewing is something I can, and enjoy doing. Maybe it will get me over my wimpyness about tackling my stateroom curtains, lol. I guess I’m encouraging, do what you feel comfortable doing, but do what you can.

On a serious note, this is Washington State and we aren’t formally shut down. I noticed a discussion of concern on the neighborhood Facebook page about a bonfire gathering of about 40 people noticed in a local area park. It brought to mind something our Governor said in some comments recently. I was prompted to post this on our local area Facebook page:

It's being said that some younger people are having a harder time taking the social distancing seriously and continuing to gather and ignore suggestions for helping stem the tide of this virus. Washington's governor made a comment in response to someone not knowing how to get across the seriousness of social distancing to a younger person who was basically saying "What price am I going to pay". His suggested answer was, "Possibly killing your grandparents."

It’s hard; some of us are older and have dealt with some of the harder more existential conundrums life faces us with. Hank and I always offered NeuroTherapy Training (the mental training approach we developed) free to those we could see with AIDS and cancer. It’s about using your mind to help the body and of critical importance it was about using the mind to manage fear. The hardest thing was seeing 20-year-olds with AIDS who had not had time to find their own pathways yet for helping them face the shunning of others out of fear and their own terrible fears of impending death. That is an existential crisis, facing the ultimate in fear with no tools or help in doing so.

I can’t imagine being in high school or college right now, for me it was a time of proms and sporting events and parties, for falling in love and looking forward to an exciting future. Young people don’t want to think about or have to respond to the dire issues of life. But, in this situation we have hope for it passing and life returning to normal. We all have to do what we can to help.

On a brighter note…

A long-time friend and photographer, Bill Hawkins, was at the Everett, WA marina the other evening at sunset and captured this scene:

I thank Bill for sharing, visually, the peacefulness of a quiet evening at sunset…beautiful sunsets are elements of life that “fuel our souls”. I have seen spectacular sunsets over the City of Seattle and Space Needle out my back door. I’m thinking of some of the people who will receive this…one enjoys them out an apartment window looking over Puget Sound...another I’m sure has enjoyed many from his fishing boat in Alaska…another while taking hikes among the hills above Issaquah…another while walking her beloved dog on beaches in the area…several on my list have enjoyed them while onboard boats in Puget Sound and beyond. From wherever you enjoy your sunsets, it’s days like these we need the beauty they provide and the peacefulness they stimulate.

Warm Tortellini and Roasted Vegetable Salad, Further Tales of Our Lives with Food and Crisis’ And Learning To ‘Live with the Sucker”.

Some of you might enjoy listening today, rather than reading, especially my essay at the end. If you would, I have attached a downloadable audio link to my thoughts for you today.

I have today’s press conference on in the background as I write this, this subject is something we really don’t want to hear about but that know we must. Unfortunately the feeling I’m getting from the screen, as I half listen while typing this, is anger and tension and defensiveness. We need to take in information from people who, well let’s say, seem to have a hard time with empathy and people skills. We need, though, to reduce any negative emotions kicked up from all the information coming at us.

I’ve been reminding, are you turning to things that focus your mind, and reduce your stress as you go through your days? When we worked for years helping folks face life-threatening illnesses, for the first time in most of their lives they were facing something frightening that they couldn’t “resolve” or “immediately find an answer to” they had to, as we would say, learn to ‘Live with the Sucker”.

We are all facing problems and concerns that cannot be resolved at the moment. How we respond to them is the key. People are contacting me and I have started to do some sessions with people online, but whether you formally practice mental training or do some of the other things that help our bodies and minds…do something to distract your mind, to stimulate that creative right hemisphere, don’t let your brain obsess continuously. My Dad would be out preparing his garden.

This brings me back to salads and kale and fennel and their roles in our lives. Bell peppers, kale, fennel, red onion, spinach tortellini and basil are the main ingredients in a recipe that appeared on my screen this morning. Some of you have taste buds that perked up at the thought of that vegetable mix; others of you are squinting at the screen worried that I might be moving over to the ‘kale crowd’ and wondering where I’m going with this. For those of you salivating, I’ll put the recipe up at the end but several things came to mind as I saw that recipe headline. I grew up with a Dad and a Grandfather who kept huge gardens. They grew up in times and places where keeping a garden was critical for subsistence (and they went through times of national crisis. I wonder how many of you have heard of the Victory Gardens of World War II?) After those times passed, lucky for me, keeping a garden seemed to be long enjoyed habits in their lives. It seemed to be how my dad would relax returning home daily from his job as an electrician. It is something he would be turning to in times like these.  

In all their years with dirt, I’m pretty sure that neither my Dad or Grandfather had encountered kale or fennel. And, pasta with spinach inside of it! That was probably not imaginable in most American homes of the 1940’s, 1950’s and even 1960’s (I never heard about it, we were a long way from Italy). When I read the term “Vegetable Salad” it reminded me of a tale my Dad told me about his mother and which I wrote about in an essay I’ll offer below.

So, as we move forward, drink lots of water (I’m finally responding to that easy and good advice to keep my body well hydrated, come on you guys, we gotta help our bodies out in any way we can.) Find ways of distracting your minds, practice formal mind or body training you have learned or learn new ways. Seattle’s YMCA is offering free exercise classes online for everyone here is a link www.ymca360.org.

I’ll continue to be in touch with my observations and suggestions. And continuing the vegetable theme that ran through my thoughts for you today here is my essay that I titled, Raised Green.

RAISED GREEN

By Marilyn Michael

There is an area in India where, because of religious beliefs, many folks do not eat onions or garlic. Now, you’ll find me a most tolerant person of even the most odd-seeming religious convictions but – onions and garlic!? Since my husband and I are of the ‘live to eat’ rather than the ‘eat to live' crowd, I tried to imagine cuisine without onions and garlic.

Unbelievably, I survived the first twenty years of my life without garlic (I do believe I’ve made up for it since). With all the amazing fresh produce that emerged from my Dad’s huge and thriving yearly gardens and with the universal love of anything green and fresh, I don’t know how garlic slipped by them. I think they pretty much stuck to the vegetable array that had filled their plates in childhood. Thinking about that endless stream of green things to our table, though, they really did stick to the basics, onions, green and yellow, literally tons of potatoes, ears of corn, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, lettuce, cabbage (for vats of homemade sauerkraut) tomatoes, big, yellow Hubbard squashes (to be baked with butter and sugar), cucumbers and a few pumpkins for Halloween carving. There was that odd and wonderful asparagus patch my Dad tended lovingly and bunches of rhubarb on the side of the garage. Oh, and his huge and enviable raspberry patch with plants in it that were, he’d proudly explain, ‘75 years old’. How spoiled was I by all those readily munchable raspberries. And by the beautiful quart jars filled of peaches, apricots, and pears that lined our basement shelves each year. One day each year the whole family, grandparents, aunts and kids would trek to Wawawi, a sunnier place some twenty miles or so near a river to spend the day picking fruit for canning.

And, they’d bring home extra cucumbers from those picking trips because every year they would “put up” 60 quarts of dill pickles. Only after my cousin married a German fellow who introduced the “amazing” idea of hot peppers amidst the pickles was there a change from the established pattern. After that a certain number of quarts would get the peppers, for my Dad who quickly developed a taste for the peppery hotness. Hot peppers had certainly not been a part of those gardens or of the food they ate (wrong soil I now know - hot peppers had grown well in the soil of my husband’s folks in Nevada and, thus had been a part of what he had learned to love.)

I guess there wasn’t a lot of vegetable experimentation. No garlic appeared in our dishes. I never met a bell pepper until I was grown. An avocado was a foreign animal to them (an adventuresome Uncle would return once in a while and enjoy avocado with salt, I heard said. I vividly remember my mom commenting, “They taste like soap.” Though a vegetable lover and willing experimenter, it took me way into my twenties to develop a taste for avocado (in guacamole) and into my thirties to enjoy it straight on sandwiches. Yeah, I know it’s really a fruit but it seems awfully vegetably to me.

The tomatoes were eaten fresh, not “put up”. Dad ate the thick sweet slices with salt and pepper. Mom and I loved sugar on ours. In the summer, salads (something unfamiliar in their youths because of no refrigeration for mayonnaise) would appear. They were made with iceberg lettuce (a favorite to this day) and chunks of fresh tomato mixed with mayonnaise. On special occasions, a can of shrimp would be added. The concept of a salad appearing as part of what they ate stuck in my Dad’s memory. He told the tale of remembering his mother chatting with friends on the party line all agog over the new idea of a “vegetable salad”. He called them vegetable salads all his life.

Ah the vegetables of my youth all freshly picked and full of taste. And back to onions, my Dad loved those little green onions we now call scallions, on a little plate at dinner alongside those slices of white bread. He'd eat each one with a little salt. Funny, as so many other dishes were filled with onions, no one ate them straight except dad. I guess there were some chopped into those simple green salads sometimes.

Since learning to make Indian food, I’m amazed at how they’ve come to combine vegetables. I make a Dahl (a dish with lentils or dried peas). It’s a heavenly mixture of zucchini, onions, tomatoes and green peppers all swirled together with aromatic spices and at the end combined with yellow peas. My folks would not ever have imagined combining vegetables this way. The only combining they did was to dump carrots, potatoes and onions together into a beef stew. The only vegetable combining I truly remember was when the “new potatoes” were on, new potatoes and fresh peas swimming in a cream sauce with a pinch or two of sugar. It was yummy, but certainly not the serious vegetable combining of the Indian dahls. And, even though where I was raised (the wheat country of Eastern Washington) is now known as the “Pea and Lentil Capital of the World” no dried pea I ever knew existed outside split pea soup and I never munched on one lentil during my entire childhood.

Ah, see where onions and garlic can lead one? I certainly thank my folks for my love of vegetables. I wish I could share with them some things I’ve learned and amaze them with my vegetable repertoire. I think they’d have loved, or at least tried, anything done with vegetables as long as avocados weren’t in the mix. And, if dad had his garden today, I’ll bet I could convince him to plant some garlic.

Here’s the promised link to that salad: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/warm-tortellini-and-roasted-vegetable-salad-3364638

It's An Adventure Facing The Unknown - More Ideas For Healthier Coping

Adventure, that is a good word. There have been a lot of adventurers throughout history and many of the adventures upon which they embarked involved facing the unknown and experiencing fear. Currently we are facing the unknown and many are experiencing fear. Even though we didn't choose this adventure we need to tackle it like we have the other adventures of our lives. Prepare ourselves with knowledge, keep ourselves in the best shape we can for it, stay focused to not let our brains and bodies be hijacked with fear.

The messages about the world's current situation are getting scarier for many. Our lives are being disrupted in way's we've never experienced.

When we talk to people, the conversations so often turn to "the situation" how our country is handling it, how it is impacting our lives.

When we make decisions about where we might go or what we might do, we first think of "the situation".

Some people are facing the scariest decisions of their lives. When I was caring for my husband he often needed to go to Urgent Care, numerous times to the hospital and required a care center 3 times with infections. There are folks right now worrying about the possibility of having to make what they fear might be life and death decisions for someone they love and are caring for.

I just learned of someone whose cat is ill and there is nothing that can be done. This person's heightened emotion over that is accelerating the cocktail of emotions, like fear, that are already flowing. There are uncertainties - triggers for our fears coming from so many directions.

OK, WHAT CAN WE DO

I’m going to focus on the importance of caring for ourselves. We can get the information we need, do what we can to respond to it and then try to focus our minds away from obsessing. We can work to follow the wisdom of philosophers of the ages...live in the moment.

 It is a time to quiet our minds. I've been teaching a mental training approach for years and I use it every day. I will keep encouraging - do you meditate, practice self hypnosis, do tai chi, yoga or practice something else that focuses your mind? Do your practice daily. If you know how, but haven't, when you find your minds and bodies overwhelmed or crawling toward that state - STOP - turn, at least for a little bit, toward those practices. Quiet the overwhelmed left hemisphere, the thinking center of your brain; don't let it hijack your body.

If you have not learned formal skills for quieting your mind, look on You Tube, look in your library of books, I'll bet you've been "meaning to" learn some sort of mental/physical discipline. Now's the time to give it a shot, your brain and body need it.

Do you like to run?  That can be a form of meditation. If you regularly went to the gym and now cannot, find a way to exercise at home (don't we all have hidden, somewhere in a box, an old Jane Fonda exercise video? :- ) somewhere in all the streaming we do these days there is an exercise program, find it.)  Hey, remember the Wii device craze, if you have one get it out- there are all kinds of diversions available. Even if you weren't a regular gym goer, when you're feeling overwhelmed jump around your living room a bit, go for it. Family members might think you're nuts but I bet it makes them smile - and they need that. Here's an idea, do you or you and your partner like to dance? Put on some music, the music and the movement will put your brains in a different place.

If reading is an escape (and yes our brains need escape time now), pick an engaging book and immerse your mind in it. You non-readers grab a cookbook, yes a cookbook. My husband was dyslexic and didn't read for fun but he used to love browsing cookbooks. They offer great ideas and lots of interesting trivia. Plus, browsing through a cookbook might give you inspiration to throw something together and throwing it together will distract your mind further. And, those of you who have an Instant Pot and still haven't used it (I know you're out there) now's the time. I mean, really, your fear of the Instant Pot has been put in perspective.

To get ourselves rationally through these irrational times, we've got to get a little disciplined here, not in a "will power" sort of way but in a "take care of our brains and bodies" sort of way.

Caring about all of you,

Marilyn