Happy Birthday, Baby!!

Tomorrow is the day that I most looked forward to as a child, but least look forward to as an adult.  I think the tides turned once I hit 40, although it got more dire at 45.  Yes, it is my 49th birthday and it stings just to type it.  If I were an optimist, I would say 49 years young or 49 years well lived or this is just the beginning.  But I am not.  In fact, in the past few months I have seen great amounts of aging occurring in and on my  body.  It is like time lapsed photography....I can see it happening daily, but am at a loss to be able to do anything about it.  Is it the effects of our beloved earth's  gravity or loss of estrogen?  Who knows.  I have a beautiful friend, who believes that wrinkles tell the journey of a life well lived, but I see them as a haphazard series of roads leading to the other side....  I am starting to have an impressive collection of under eye creams that promise to lessen the appearance of fine lines.  I have creams that are supposed to lighten the dark rivulets that inhabit the space just underneath my eyes.  I have cream blush and brush on blush and lip gloss with just a hint of color. I recently purchased an under eye pencil of all things, that is blue and is supposed to hide the black nature of the eye circles.  I am supposed to paint it on with a brush and then cover it with under eye concealer (that I also have to paint with a brush).  The lady at the store tried this combo out on me and my son swore the circles looked...well...more like they belonged.  I can't seem to make it work.  I look more like a highlighted raccoon.

Why so vain...I think we all are to some extent, even the most enlightened buddhists.  Our society places a lot of value on fit, tight bods with smooth faces, smooth hair (god forbid frizz) and rosy colored cheeks.  Don't forget about the white teeth!  We all buy into it in some form. Just wait till you hit 49! There is a big industry out there catering to desperadoes like myself.  I have to say that  it is especially surprising to me that I am all caught up in a frenzy over my aging face and droopy breasts.  I always said it wouldn't matter.  I even told my kids that beauty comes from within, but as it creeps up on me I feel like I am running from my age as it comes right at me with increasing speed.  With that in mind, there ARE some things I can control as the rest of me runs amuck and I take comfort in that.  I can still exercise with passion and I do!  I can eat well and healthfully and I do.  I can be mindful of the choices I make and try to do what is best for me and be kind to others. I can love well.   I can win  trivia games with  categories like favorite t.v. shows of the 60's and so on....but mostly I can keep a sense of humor about this aging body and mind, act as a wise, spirited elder and enjoy the journey as I move into the next phase of life.  Sure....No young guys are going to turn their heads as I pass by and I will never be asked to show my I.D. again, but I carry a diverse, fantastic past within and hopefully that shines through.  If not, I can always try another cream...

I promised some brain food recipes, but instead here are some ideas for the makings of a brain feast fest: blueberries, acai, walnuts and almonds, salmon, chocolate, green tea, coffee, olive oil, olives, flaxseed, tomato, turmeric. Eat some or all of these each week and see how fast you can do math in your head!

Here is a recipe for a couple of seasonal local foods.  Local onions are in at the Davis Food Coop and so are Satsumas and they are on sale.  Of course, this is the time for greens and they are so beautifully displayed in all of their glory at our local Farmer's Market and Coop.  Next blog, I hope to write about olive oil and its "gotta have it" qualities.

Spinach or Dino kale with Nuts (pine, walnuts or chopped almonds) and Currants

This is a made up recipe....but it is really yummy

Ingredients:

Bunch of kale or good quantity of spinach (local)

Olive oil for sauteing 

Fresh, local onions (red) sliced thinly

Nuts of your choice, roasted chop walnuts or almonds into large chunks

currants

Olive oil for drizzling

salt and pepper

Directions:

Wash and prepare greens

Slice onions

Heat olive oil in skillet, saute onions until soft

Add greens and saute...be sure not to overcook...greens still should have their chi, life force, shimmer

Add nuts, currants, salt and pepper

Drizzle with delicious olive oil

This goes well with any main dish.... have some Satumas for dessert and enjoy....

Your Shirt is in the Refrigerator

Hey mom...where is my homework..it's in the oven!  Have  you ever heard yourself saying anything like this?  These exact words have escaped from my fried brain in the past week.  Who knows why my brain makes me do and say what is does, but I get by.  I drive around town without getting lost, make tea without burning the house down and remember to feed my kids, mostly.  I do worry about memory lapses, which stresses me out and makes me forget things and starts the cycle again.  I am told that the aging process increases the brain's need for exercise.  Without it, I may end up calling my kids Spot and Fuzzy instead of their given names.  While surfing the internet, I found a "brain site" called Luminosity that promises to increase brain power.  It is like a gym for your brain and has been endorsed by Stanford and some other really important places.  The best part is you only need to practice 15 minutes per day vs. the 30 minutes per day my physical body needs to prevent it from imploding.  Although I have been very resistant to playing computer games,  I decided to sign up for a trial period to see what it was like.  The wizards at Luminosity have come up with a series of games with names like, Monster Patch, Word Bubbles and Bird Migration which are supposed to excite neuronal connections (kind of like the neural net in Star Trek)  hence increasing my processing speed, memory etc.  When I started the program, I felt like a preschooler learning to write her name for the first time.  I was very slow and deliberate with my mouse.  After a while, I began getting the hang of it and found myself having fun.  I mastered some of the beginning levels and moved on to more advanced games.  I even ventured off the website and found other games on the internet (very dangerous for an addict).  My favorite game at the moment is called, Pipes and I could spend the entire day playing it while ignoring my parental duties.  Poor kids!   It is quite addicting because they give me points towards my IQ every time I complete a puzzle and take points away if I fail the quest.  It has me hooked as I try to get more points.

Have I noticed a difference in the past week?  I think so or at least I have convinced myself that something has shifted.  I have observed that I am solving the puzzles faster each time and that must be good.  I will be a believer if I can have a conversation without senior moments and can remember items on my shopping list.  At the very least I might refrain from telling my kids that their shirts are in the refrigerator.

This recipe is for pan seared, wild salmon which is high in omega 3 fatty acids and is good for the brain  (and other things).

Ingredients:
Piece of wild salmon or char
olive oil
sesame oil
sea salt

Directions:
Coat both sides of salmon with olive oil
Heat a cast iron skillet until very hot
Place salmon skin side down on hot skillet
Drizzle a small amount of sesame oil on salmon and add pepper
Cover until just done

Add salt and pepper as needed and serve with a nice local green like kale or bok choi!
pepper

Pan seared salmon

In the Mood

The last couple of days have actually felt like winter, "California style" anyway, with day long fog and chilly air.  Now some would say that this weather is for wimps and we even joke that it feels like spring in New Hampshire.  I used to live there and let me tell you that winter is no tea party.  It is frigid!  So cold, in fact, that the hairs inside of your nose freeze and when you breathe, your nostrils stick together.  One winter, we (my patient husband and I) lived on a pond in a rented cabin type house.  We had an incredible view and a lovely fall until winter struck hard.  It was an exceptional winter as temperatures for the month of January never exceeded 0 degrees F, and our water lines froze.  I was camping in Death Valley by myself (had enough of the cold), but my poor husband had to drink pond water for a while.  Our driveway was on an incline and the entire piece of paving froze, leaving us stranded.  Our other car was buried under so much snow that we couldn't find it until April of that year.  My husband needed to work, so we hired a tow truck to come pull us out and it got stuck in the driveway.  They had to call another tow truck to pull them out.  It was like comedy...if you weren't the one with frozen nose hairs and a class waiting for you.

JUST FOR KICKS: My husband thought that it was not only romantic, but downright fun to do donuts on the frozen pond (more like a lake) behind our house and took me out for a spin.  I remember freaking out totally as the car spun out of control on the ice...not sure if I should get into crash position or beat my husband with my frozen glove.  We ended up  moving to another more insulated place for the remainder of the winter, but I made a promise that I would not spend another one in New England.  And I have not!

These days call for soup and delicious bread, hot baths and hot beverages.  I made a soup the other night with coconut milk and beautiful, sunny yellow split peas.  I am including the recipe here to brighten up even the foggiest of days.

Adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetable Soup cookbook

2 cups yellow split peas (soaked for at least 1 hour)

bunch cilantro

onion 

garlic

3 whole cloves

2 bay leaves

1-2 t turmeric

1-2 t curry powder

ginger

1 t coriander ground

red pepper flakes or ground red pepper

coconut milk 1 cup

juice of 1-3 limes

wilted spinach, kale or chard

rice to go in soup

yogurt topping with cumin seed

Rinse peas and put in soup pot w cloves and 2 quarts water and bring to boil.  Meanwhile saute onion, garlic cilantro stems and spices in fry pan.  After a few minutes, add 1/3 cup of the pea soup water to veggies and let cook 10 minutes. Add veggie mix to pea soup and cook until peas are done.  I add more spices to soup while it is cooking and you will need to figure out how much as the original recipe is definitely not enough....I put a lot in as I like a lot of flavor. 

Now cook a pot of rice!  Stir some cumin seeds and red pepper into plain yogurt

When peas are soft,  remove cloves and bay leaves, puree soup and veggies and add coconut milk.  Squeeze the fresh lime juice into the soup, add some cilantro leaves

Saute or wilt spinach or kale

Ladle soup into bowls, add rice and greens and top with yogurt

This is another one of those soul enhancing soups.  You feel cheery and warm eating it.  

Happy Winter (even if it is in California)!