Moments to Remember with My Dad

My Dad died yesterday.  As I sat with him during these past months and especially during the last three weeks, I remembered so many special moments.  Here are a few, in no particular order:

My Dad was a Methodist minister.  One of my favorite times was at the end of services when I could go to join him as he greeted parishioners leaving the service.  I was so proud of him in his clerical collar and black robe.  He was very handsome with beautiful, black wavy hair, and he was so warm and friendly and caring with his parishioners as he spoke with them.

Bible stories were our bedtime reading when I was little.  My favorite book was The Golden Book of the Bible.  It was the pictures I loved best...dramatic and colorful.  My Dad would read to me from The Golden Book or tell me stories in his own words.  One day he gave me his pulpit Bible.  I used to sit on the screened front porch of our Medford, Massachusetts parsonage and read through the pages.  I still have that pulpit Bible here on my shelves, along with the hundreds of other books about religion and the many Bibles that I accumulated during my own studies, inspired by my Dad and these moments we shared.

My Dad was from Arkansas, and he was proud of the skills he learned in the Boy Scouts.  He loved to camp, and we camped a lot as I was growing up.  Some of my favorite pictures are from a summer camping trip in the Adirondack Mountains.  We set up and slept in those old, heavy canvas tents.  We dug trenches around the tents and cooked over open fires or Coleman stoves.  We hiked and fished. Fishing was probably my favorite time on these trips because I would often go out alone with him. We would sit together for many hours in a rowboat on an open lake or in reeds closer to shore.  I was always filled with the beauty of these quiet moments alone with him and am still filled with joy when I think about these moments today.

My Dad was one of the most kind and humble people I have ever known.  One of his  favorite biblical verses was from Micah: "What does The Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your G-d..."

Something happened during one of my Dad's visits to my West Rogers Park home that was forever after the quintessential image of my Dad for me: I had two beagles, Bree and Samantha.  Samantha liked to sit in the wing chair in my living room sometimes.  While my Dad was visiting, he sat down in that chair at one point and opened a book and started to read.  Samantha came over and sat quietly on the floor in front of him, looking at him.  After a couple of minutes, he glanced up and saw Samantha.  He barely hesitated before he said, "Oh, excuse me, Samantha.  Did I take your chair?"  He moved to the couch, and Samantha jumped up onto the chair.  He was a kind and humble man, and he loved animals.

Three years ago after I lost my beloved beagles, I got a new little Havanese puppy, Rafi.  When I visited my Dad the week before I got my puppy, I told him I was getting Rafi and that I would bring him to visit the next week.  I called my Dad on the way to visit him the next week to remind him I was coming.  Although he was already well into his dementia and his memories were very attenuated and unreliable -- and I'm not certain he even remembered that I was coming -- when I said I was bringing "a friend," he said, "Oh, your puppy!"  He remembered, and Rafi and my Dad formed a close bond over the next three and a half years of weekly visits.  Rafi always got excited when I got home from the Cafe early and got his travel bag out . . . and my Dad always got a great big smile when he saw Rafi coming.  When my Dad entered into his last weeks, Rafi recognized the change and became very subdued.  Since my Dad was then bedridden, Rafi took to climbing out of his bag to curl up by my Dad's feet.  The night before my Dad died, Rafi was in just that spot, and I took a picture.

Along with his humility, my Dad had a pretty strong stubborn streak.  My brother can make us all laugh until we cry telling stories about where that stubborn streak sometimes took him (and us).  Rafting trips without a guide that resulted in upended rafts, sailing with an insistence on using nautical language that no one understood that resulted in family members landing in the "drink" when the boom swung around . . . or stalls in the middle of the lake.  Losing a fully loaded trailer along the road, insisting that it was indeed still attached to the car as the other occupants of the car watched it drift backward while the car continued to charge forward.

I think my favorite memory along these lines, though, is from the time he took me water skiing on Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma.  My sisters and brother were in the (borrowed) motorboat with him, and I was behind the boat on skiis.  My Dad was fully dressed in a suit, and his pockets were filled with his pipe and tobacco pouches and pipe paraphernalia.  At one point, the rope got tangled in the motor, and while I dog paddled, he leaned over to untangle the rope.  Unfortunately he leaned too far, and whoops . . . tumbled right into the water.  His jacket, still on, floated up around him, and the pipe and tobacco and other odds and ends floated away from him across the water.  My brother and sister and I were trying to remember if that was the same trip when he was straddling between the boat and the pier while my mom was guiding the boat gently out into the lake -- and the keys dropped into the water.  What do they call those splits? Chinese?

My Dad was brilliant, an academic, and he had a varied and fascinating career.  He was Arkansas state typing champion, he was a Naval Academy tumbler, he completed a degree in engineering and was a champion -- if unorthodox -- do-it-yourselfer in our home.  He could build cabinetry, handle plumbing and electrical work and paper walls.  He was incredible with math and science, as are my two sons, and he spent many frustrating hours with me when I was in high school.  I missed that gene.

My Dad completed his seminary training at Boston University and his doctorate at Northwestern University, a doctorate that started out in political science, passed through Garrett Evangelical and ended up in education.  He was for many years the Midwest Director for a Carnegie Foundation sponsored organization called the Church Peace Union, later renamed The Council on Religion and International Affairs (CRIA).  When I was in junior high and high school I attended many seminars with him on ethics and foreign policy that featured high level government officials and clergy of all faiths.  I have a picture of him at a dinner with Eleanor Roosevelt.

At a later time, his Evanston offices were bombed by members of the John Birch Society, and he was verbally attacked by leftists when he organized seminars.  I well remember an occasion when I was in college in the early 70s when we had a party in our home during an Israeli-Arab seminar he had arranged at Northwestern University.  In the Middle East, Arabs and Israelis were at war, but in our home, they enjoyed drinks and hors d'oeuvres.  My mom recalls sitting next to King Hussein at a dinner hosted at the University during the same conference.  We also had the Thai crown prince for drinks and hors d'oeuvres one summer in our backyard . . . and I believe in the same summer, we hosted the Northwestern University cherubs.  I can't quite remember how or why that happened, but it was fun.

One of my most proud moments came when I was working on my own doctorate and gave an academic presentation to the Catholic Student Union at the University of Illinois.  My Dad happened to be in town. He read my presentation beforehand and made a few helpful suggestions.  He didn't say so then, but he confided later that he had doubts whether I would be able to carry it off because it was somewhat esoteric, complex material, and I was no public speaker.  After the presentation, which was well-received and was the one and only time he ever heard me teach or speak, he told me how proud he was of me, and I thought I would burst!

After my Dad completed his doctorate and moved on from CRIA, he was assistant superintendent at New Trier High School for a time during the late 60s, a time when schools were volatile places to be.  He always seemed to find those hot spots, as he did in the last position he held during his career as the Director of the Navajo Education and Scholarship Foundation in Window Rock, Arizona.  Newspaper reports from Arizona at that time indicate a great deal of political turmoil in the Navajo nation.  Nonetheless, he succeeded in getting a Community Hall built for the Navajos, for which he was honored at a sing.  Tomorrow I will hang the plaque commemorating that event on the wall in my Cafe.

My Dad was not a cold academic.  He was a very emotional man.  One of my most powerful memories is when I was in high school, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  We left school early, and I walked to downtown Evanston to catch a bus home as I usually did.  On this occasion, I was crying.  I bumped into my Dad coming down the street, openly weeping.  We hugged and walked the two miles home together.

My Dad's emotional nature -- and impulsivity -- could and did cause considerable difficulty in his life . . . and considerable difficulty in ours, even while these characteristics also made him very loveable. Invariably he would announce that we were leaving for Fort Smith, Arkansas (from Evanston, Illinois) in one hour, and we should pack. This never happened during spring break, always before or after.  He sometimes lived his life that way, so stability wasn't always the most prominent feature of the way we grew up.

My Dad followed his pastoral impulses and heartfelt emotions even when he was in the nursing home suffering from and living with others who were suffering from dementia. One day when I came, an agitated woman was roaming the halls crying out repeatedly, "Where am I? Where am I going? I don't know where I am going!" She was inconsolable, and no one was able to calm her. My Dad stopped and put his hand on her arm, looked right into her eyes and said, "I don't know where we're going either, but I know they will tell us soon. Don't worry -- you will be ok." And she was.

He was always enthusiastic about wherever he was and would take us around to examine every detail as if he were a tour guide. In his enthusiasm, he always impressed upon us the amazing nature of being alive and being human . . . whether by taking us out in the middle of the night to witness the flight of Sputnick overhead or the northern lights . . . or visiting one of the early McDonald's. Everything was a remarkable achievement, an extraodinary sight or an amazing discovery, no matter how high or how lowly, and everything was worth exploring, experiencing and commenting on.

One of the most wonderful experiences I had with my Dad was yesterday, while my brother and sister and I sat with his body after he died. So many people from the nursing home stopped in or called to tell us how much they loved my Dad, how he was so kind and never complained and how much they enjoyed caring for him.

These last weeks my Dad was in a very Zen space.  He was neither rushing toward death nor struggling to remain in life.  He was exactly where he was and was content there.  I imagine that now that he has moved on to his next destination, he is eagerly exploring and preparing to give the rest of us an enthusiastic tour.

I loved my Dad so much, and I will miss him terribly.  Although I have had some pretty difficult patches in my own life, the shimmering, beautiful, joyful moments always predominate -- and always will -- because of the ways my Dad taught me to see.

When I converted to Judaism many years ago, my Dad said to me that he probably would have made a better Jew than a Christian.  These words from the Jewish memorial prayer, El Malei Rachamim, feel so right for me to say for him now:  yitzror bitzror hachayim et nishmato, "May his soul be bound up in the bundle of life."  Dad, you lived fully, and you lived well, and I know you will continue to live. I will always be grateful that I was blessed with "the best Dad in the world."



Real Foodies: Session III

This week with Real Foodies was less information intense and more oriented toward checking in with participants on their experiences with a one-week de-tox.

Most participants had some difficulty for one reason or another excluding all required elements from their diet during the week, and several who did exclude most or all of the items commented about experiencing cravings.  I attempted to engage in the de-tox myself but also had limited success.  I was not properly prepared for moments of hunger and experienced cravings because the foods on which I normally rely for satiety and which I consider good foods were not part of the program.

My evaluation of this short experiment is that while a de-tox is definitely a worthwhile project as the first step in an effort to determine specific food items that may be interfering with one's health and/or ability to lose weight, it can also be a detriment as one attempts to forge a lifelong plan for a healthy, sustainable eating style.

I shared with the group an earlier experience I had with a partial "elimination diet" in which I found no reaction to wheat but did discover that dairy products caused some congestion, which cleared quickly when I refrained from eating them.  Yoghurt and Labne (fermented milk products) do not seem to have the same effect on me. For those who are interested in experimenting more with a detox or an elimination diet, I suggest Dr. Michael Hyman's book, UltraSimple Diet, or several books, including a recipe book, available on Amazon .com with a search on "elimination diet."   

We considered briefly one of the primary potential allergens and inflammatory agents which is generating a lot of discussion right now: wheat.  I shared material from Dr. William Davis, cardiologist, who wrote the book Wheat Belly, in which he cites modern wheat as the cause of many of our modern diseases of aging beginning with diabetes.  We did not take time to review arguments against Dr. Davis' presentation, but I promised to include one in these notes: Analysis of Wheat Belly Hypothesis.  My conclusion: my goal with our group is to find a sustainable healthy eating style. From my perspective, it doesn't make sense to exclude whole grain bread from our diet unless there is a demonstrable reaction to wheat or other grains. This can be determined by using the elimination diet technique. I prefer a diet with fewer exclusions and a focus on real food.

Additional resources on the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load requested by participants are available via links from my website: www.expresslyleslie.com/resources.  Among other things, we can see in this list that while whole grain breads may be as high as white bread in the Index, they are lower in glycemic load due to their fiber.  Similarly the carrot soup we enjoyed -- carrots are high in the Index but have a low glycemic load due to their fiber.

In conclusion, a diet of real foods, high in fiber and low in sugar with high quality protein and good fats (including saturated fats in moderation) is the best lifelong diet.  During our next session, we will spend some time label reading to sort out meaningful from meaningless information and we'll take a look at some non-extremist "rules" going forward.  Assignment: browse labels in your pantry - or the products you removed from your kitchens three weeks ago.

Our dinner included our usual salad of mixed greens, which participants dressed themselves at the table with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a squeeze of Fresh Lemon, Salt and Pepper.  Lemon lowers the Glycemic Index of any meal.  A good goal is to strive for an eating style which results in an average below 55 on the GI and below 10 on GL. 

We enjoyed Carrot Soup as our next course.  The main meal was Kidney Bean Jambalaya, an example of taking two basic ingredients (kidney beans and rice) which can be prepared at the beginning of the week and made into something different each evening of the week. For a video of seven different ways to prepare Kidney Beans and Rice, go to my youtube page, www.youtube.com/expresslyleslie.

   

Real Foodies: Session II

During the second session, we focused more attention on the issue of sugar in all its forms, but particularly fructose, and on the connection between sugar and metabolic syndrome.  I shared with the group Dr. Lustig's review of several popular diets, and we saw that the common denominator between all these programs is that they are high in fiber and low in sugar.  The most highly recommended program specifically avoided fructose.

These features of the most popular diets correlate well with my own experience.  Recent research on nutrition, particularly with regard to causes of the current obesity pandemic, provide the scientific and statistical foundation for what I intuited and found to be true over 40 years.

We talked about portion control.  I am somewhat on the fence about this issue.  I don't like to count calories.  Counting carbs is . . . well, it doesn't work for a vegan since a vegan diet is 100% carb.  I like to go by the quality and type of food.  In class, we have talked about the best plate for metabolic efficiency: 1/4 good quality protein, 1/4 higher starch, more calorie dense veggies and 1/2 (or unlimited) higher water content / low glycemic index veggies.  I recommend these ratios, as much as possible, for snacks as well.  Plates for meals can be 9" plates and plates for snacks 5" plates.  I think the plates are kind of self-limiting.  It's true, you can pile a lot of beans and rice onto a 9" plate -- but you can eat a lot more when your diet is very high in fiber and low in sugar, and you will probably feel satisfied more quickly.

Several current researchers and writers say eat only until you're satisfied, not full.  Some say eat 80% of what you want.  Here's what I say: if you are eating a very high fiber diet with plenty of good fats, you will find it very satisfying.  Just eat slowly enough that your satiety signals can reach your brain and register, and quit eating when you're satisfied.  You don't have to clean your plate! Don't ever starve yourself.  It sends the wrong signals to your brain and body, and in addition you have a tendency to eat more quickly.  I think over time, with correct eating, portions will take care of themselves.

For dinner we had Zucchini and Leek Soup with Fennel (a variation on the recipe provided for last week's soup), a salad of mixed greens with berries and walnuts dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, and Quinoa with Spicy Moroccan Chickpeas and Cauliflower.  Since it was Valentine's Day, we had a special Valentine's Day treat: Strawberries 'n' Cream (Labne):

I asked participants to continue to avoid food items we removed during the first week of our program, including all sugars and sugar alcohols, white flour, refined carbohydrates and all processed foods.  This week, in addition, I recommended a one week de-tox.  The de-tox is basically a shortened version of the elimination diet, used to find food allergies and sensitivities.  The recommended foods to remove are potential allergens and foods which may otherwise generate inflammation.  The foods to remove include: Citrus fruits and juices, Yeast including vinegar, Dairy products, Eggs, Gluten, Corn, Beef, Pork, Lamg, Nighshades, Peanuts, Refined oils and hydrogenated fats, Stimulants, All flour products, Processed foods or food additives, Fast food and Junk food.  Any foods that come in a box, package or can or are commercially prepared are likely to contain chemicals, preservatives and other unnatural ingredients and should be avoided.  These are instructions from Dr. Mark Hyman's program.  I am not including Nightshades in my own program but told participants they could make their own decision about that.

So what can we eat? Fish, especially those less likely to be laden with toxins and organic lean white meat (if you are not vegetarian), non-citrus fruits, fresh veggies, legumes, brown rice, quinoa, nuts and seeds, flaxseeds, lemons and clear broths.

There is not time in our few weeks together to do a complete elimination diet, but if participants try this limited de-tox for a week and discover something of interest for themselves, they may wish to pursue a project like this more fully at a later time.  In the meantime, we will begin to add foods back during the next two sessions so that by the end of our four sessions together, participants will have a good idea of how they can eat going forward to enjoy best health and find their correct natural weight.

Following is a recipe for Spicy Moroccan Chickpeas and Cauliflower, adapted from an internet recipe published by Emily Todd of Habitually Hungry:

1 lb. dried chickpeas, cooked
2 TB extra virgin olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, diced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground tumeric
3/4 tsp hot paprika
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 TB fresh ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 stalk celery, diced
3 cups cauliflower florets
12 plum tomatoes, petite diced
1/2 cup parsley leaves, chopped
1 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1.5 tsp salt

Add olive oil to a pot, and saute the diced onion, ginger and garlic.  Add the diced celery and saute a little longer. Add the diced tomatoes, lemon juice and all remaining seasonings and bring to a simmer.  Add cauliflower and simmer for a few minutes.  When cooking is complete, add chopped parsley and cilantro and cook very briefly.  I liked serving this as a stew topped with an ice cream scoop (one cup) of quinoa.

Tip: Prepare your seasonings before you begin cooking.  Simply measure them all out into a small bowl and set to the side until you are ready for them.  This seasoning mix is spicy and delightful! 

Real Foodies: Session I

During our first session, I reviewed the development of my own passion for healthy eating, beginning with an organic garden in the early 70s.  When I first began reading about health, shortly before the birth of my first son, my focus was on pesticides and food additives and the lack of fiber in our typical diet.  In the 90s, my attention turned to the glycemic index and eating in such a way as to keep blood sugar levels constant.  During the last two years, I have been most concerned with sugar and have conducted an extended experiment with myself.  Throughout my 40 year study of nutrition and health, my primary focus has been on real food.

Two recent authors discuss the disastrous negative consequences of a typical American diet, with a particular focus on the volume of sugar that comes to us via packaged and processed foods: Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Robert Lustig.  I'm still reading Dr. Lustig's book, Fat Chance, and it is a strong statement for reducing or eliminating sugar from our diet.  We reviewed some statistical information from both books.  Most striking is Dr. Lustig's statement that “In 2005 one study showed that despite the increased availability of medical care, our children will be the first generation of Americans who will die earlier than their forebears.”

For dinner, we enjoyed a green salad dressed with extra virgin olive oil and lemon, Square Tomato Soup, red lentil kefta and salad options (1/4 of our plate was good quality protein (the kefta), 1/4 of our plate was starchier veggies and 1/2 of our plate was high water content / low glycemic index veggies.  Recipes for the Red Lentil Kefta and Square Tomato Soup are provided below.

Red Lentil Kefta
4 Cups Lentils
8 Cups Water
2 Cups FINE bulgur

Cook lentils to just done, and stir in bulgur.

2 Lg Onions
5 TB Tomato Paste
4 tsp Salt
2 TB Cumin
2 TB Harif
Juice of 2 Lemons

Saute the onion, and make a paste by adding remaining ingredients.  Add to cooled lentils, and mix.

1 Bunch Parsley
6 Green Onions

Chop parsley and green onions finely.  Add most of the chopped greens to the mix keeping some out for garnish.

Form as required.

Square Tomato Soup
ExtraVirgin Olive Oil
5 LB Plum Tomatoes
1 Lg Spanish Onion
1.5 tsp Salt
.5 tsp Hot Paprika
Fresh Basil

Wash and cut tomatoes in half.  Peel and cut onion into 1-2" chunks.  Add extra virgin olive oil to the bottom of a 2 Gallon pot. Add onion and tomato to pot and saute briefly.  Add seasonings except the basil, and saute for a moment.  Bring contents of pot to a boil, and immediately reduce heat to low.  Let simmer until soft.  Add mixture in small batches to a blender or VitaMix.  Pour into serving or storage container, and adjust seasoning.  Add chopped fresh basil to the top.

Several pureed soups can be made this way using a variety of veggies.  Seasoning can be varied with garlic, ginger or other.

Assignment for Session II: Remove from your kitchen -- and do not eat -- any kind of sugar or sweetener, white flour, caffeine (except green tea), refined or processed foods, junk foods, alcohol, high fructose corn syrup, trans-fats.  These foods are addictive, and it is important to remove them from your surroundings for the duration of this program.  At our next session, we will begin a one week detox.

Weight Loss for Some Becomes Health Gain for All

I will start our next Real Foodies (Living Lighter and Healthier) series on Thursday, February 7.

We will meet four times: Feb. 7, 14, 21 and 28 from 6:00 - 7:30 PM. The fee for each session is $25, which includes the content of the session, resources and recipes distributed in class or via email, dinner, new friendships and hopefully fun.

Please plan to sign on for the entire series, although you may pay on a per session basis ($25) or for the entire series ($100). If you are required to miss a session, just let me know in advance so I won't set a place for you at the table. You need not pay for that session. If you would like to bring a guest to one or more sessions, please give me a heads-up and add $25 to your payment for that session. I will set another place.

The name Real Foodies indicates a broadening of our purpose: We are focused on how to eat for vibrant health. Weight loss follows for most people fairly naturally.

Eating joyfully is part of great health. It's hard to eat joyfully if you feel as though you are struggling to control yourself or are feeling deprived. We will focus on how to eat to eliminate cravings and feel satisfied based on body chemistry not will power.

Our four sessions are structured as follows:

Week I: BYOP - Build Your Own Palace: Prep for Week II
Week II: The Clean Plate Club - Detox
Week III: What's In, What's Out - Going Forward
Week IV: Your Life on a Plate - How to Eat What You Eat

At each of our four sessions, we will enjoy a delicious (and exemplary) meal together.  Recipes will be provided.

In order to reserve a place for you at our first session, I will need your payment, $25 for that session or $100 for the entire series. Please make your check payable to Expressly Leslie LLC, and drop off or mail to Expressly Leslie, 110 S. Johnson St., Woodstock, IL 60098.

During the series, I will refer to information from two recent books, and we will use some parts of the programs presented in those books: The UltraSimple Diet by Dr. Mark Hyman and Fat Chance by Dr. Robert Lustig. If you would like to have your own copy of either or both of these books, they will be available at Read Between the Lynes. Identify yourself as a participant in the Expressly Leslie Real Foodies Group, and you will receive a 20% discount.

Thank you for your interest, and please let me know of your commitment to the full four weeks via return email.

I hope to hear from all of you and see you at our first session, February 7.

Vegetating with Leslie: Zen and the Art of Peeling Potatoes

"Avoid food that makes health claims. Don't take the silence of the yams as a sign that they have nothing valuable to say about health." - Rule # 2 from Food Rules by Michael Pollan.

One food I have never much liked is Candied Yams.  It's hard to experience the glorious flavor and sweetness of the yam itself buried under those ubiquitous marshmallows.  Ah, here we are again . . . Real Food vs. Food Products.  I present to you the ingredient label on a bag of marshmallows:  corn syrup, sugar, modified corn starch, dextrose, water, gelatin, tetrasodium pyrophosphate (a thickener or emulsifier), artificial flavor and blue 1.  Hmmm.

It's hard to imagine opening a bottle of tetrasodium pyrophosphate to add to a dish I'm making.  And if our food had real flavor, we shouldn't have to add artificial flavor, right?

That doesn't mean I want to skip the yams or sweet potatoes.  Although not the same, yams and sweet potatoes are both satisfying, flavorful and versatile veggies with many health benefits.  Both are fiber rich and high in potassium, magnesium, phosphorous, selenium, zinc and copper.  Both low on the glycemic index, they don't cause spikes in blood sugar like so many other foods we eat. Unfortunately those marshmallows pretty much obliterate the benefit.

Sweet potatoes and yams may impart a somewhat different taste and texture to recipes.  Due to their nutritional differences, it's worthwhile experimenting with both.  Sweet potatoes are extremely high in Vitamin A, supplying eight times the daily requirement in one serving.  Yams have a better balance of essential fatty acids, heart healthy Vitamin B6 and C, but sweet potatoes have more calcium, iron, Vitamin E and protein.  In addition, sweet potatoes are loaded with anti-inflammatory compounds.

I make a Sweet Potato Soup that is deliriously simple and amazingly delicious.  Without an ounce of dairy, it's oh so creamy.  A visiting vegan tasted it and determined she couldn't have it because it was loaded with cream.  I assured her it wasn't . . . but there you go.  That's the amazing thing about Real Food.  Its qualities may surprise you with great taste -- unlike tetrasodium pyrophosphate, which I doubt would surprise anyone.

Besides, unlike tetrasodium pyrophosphate, sweet potatoes and yams are good for "vegetating."

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes. - Alan Watts

Sweet Potato Soup
6 Sweet Potatoes (about 5 lb.), peeled and chunked
2 Large Spanish Onions, chunked
Fresh Ginger Root (peeled slices, enough to make 2 well-rounded TB if minced)
1.5-2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Hot Paprika
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Quarts Water

Directions
Peel and chunk sweet potatoes and onion.  Peel and slice ginger root.  Add 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil to soup pot.  Add onion, ginger root and potatoes along with seasonings.  Add water barely to cover, approximately two quarts.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer until potatoes are soft.  Puree in batches in VitaMix or conventional blender.  Adjust thickness with more water if desired.  Adjust seasoning.

Healthy, happy eating.

Vegetating with Leslie: Salad for Breakfast

"The breakfast of champions is not cereal, it's the opposition" ...Nick Seitz

Finding a breakfast cereal without sugar can be challenging.  Finding one that doesn't taste like sawdust even more so.  I propose a solution to this problem: an Israeli-style breakfast.

I visited Israel for the first time 37 years ago in 1976.  Israel is one of those places that floods one's mind and senses with thoughts and images.  It resonates with the voices of its history and culture, voices which have become part of so many of us through biblical literature although we may have never been to Israel.

One of the most memorable experiences I had on that first visit was totally unanticipated: an Israeli breakfast.  Originally a very simple meal, Israeli breakfasts have become famous.  Many contemporary restaurants specialize in elaborate versions of it.

Israeli breakfasts originated with the halutzim (early pioneers).  Quickly prepared from local ingredients, the meal featured a salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onion and perhaps avocado, dressed with olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice.  Other typical components of the meal were soft cheeses, hard boiled eggs, pickles, olives and bread.  Beans in the form of hummus (a chickpea "dip") or ful (fava beans) might also be part of the meal.  Ful is the breakfast food of choice in Egypt and is served up with lemon, chopped garlic, onions and olive oil.

When I returned home from that first trip, I began to make a simple version of the Israeli breakfast every morning.  Although my knife skills are unfortunate, I became proficient in the small dice typical of an Israeli or Jerusalem salad.  We sometimes enjoyed dicing contests to see who could make the salad most quickly and with the most precision.

I love making Israeli Salad.  Because of its precision (some would call it tedious), it requires focus, especially if you don't have great knife skills.  For me, it's "vegetative," that is, a meditative exercise involving beautiful vegetables:

Israeli Salad
(Serves four along with other breakfast items)
6 ripe but firm plum tomatoes
2-3 pickling cucumbers or 3-4 Persian cucumbers*
2 green onions
1-2 red bell peppers
1 ripe but firm avocado
Cilantro (opt.)
Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of one lemon
Salt and pepper

*Pickling cucumbers are preferable because of their finer grain and because they require no deseeding.  Persian cucumbers are even better where available.

Directions
Although not necessary if the salad is eaten immediately, deseeding the tomatoes extends the time the salad will last without drowning in its own juices. Cut all the veggies into a uniform 1/4" - 1/2" dice.  Chop the onions and cilantro.  Add extra virgin olive oil, the juice of a lemon and salt and pepper to taste.

For a demo of the dice, see the video my son created of himself preparing Israeli/Jerusalem Salad in my cafe (mandolin optional - I do it by hand): Israeli / Jerusalem Salad  (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bzEcBa9bzu0)

Healthy, happy eating.