Let's Eat!

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 After learning my health and well-being were in serious jeopardy I was sufficiently motivated to take action. For most of my life I've grappled with weight and the problems, mental and physical, excess weigh bring. Now the reality was undeniable. What I ate and how much I ate had to be scrutinized and altered.
     The first action was to calculate my Basil Metabolic Rate.  Next I decided to track my caloric intake. The next hurdle scared me. It was time to befriend my stove.
       I am embarrassed to admit cooking intimidated me. It seemed to be something other people innately knew how to do.  I only knew how to eat...a lot. Being single, therefore not obligated to take anyone's tastes into account did not help matters.
        So I turned to books for help. What a delightful surprise to find cookbooks have a tremendous range and are far from boring. What a new world.

Great Starter for Single Beginning Cooks

      Alone in the Kitchen With An Eggplant edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler is a collection of various people's experience of eating alone.
       Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder, tells us that oatmeal for breakfast and a tomato sandwich with mustard for lunch proved very satisfying for days on end. Simply put Patchett writes, "It is a pleasure to not have to take anyone else's tastes in account..."

      Jeremy Jackson, former nominee for a James Beard Award, admits one of his favorite recipes is canned black beans. Jackson writes,"...to get dried beans tender you have to boil them for approximately six days. You know what I say to that? Give me the can opener." I tried his Black Beans for One recipe and found it easy and satisfying.
     Renowned cook Marcella Hazan first ate alone when she left home for the University of Ferrara. Hazan confesses she cringes at the thought of cooking when she is alone and the prospect sometimes makes her lose interest.
       The writer who resonated with me the most was Laura Dave who writes "cooking for yourself represents-that you matter, even when no one is watching."
         The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones  can help overcome the inertia of self-care. It was in this book I found what basic components make cooking easier.  
         When her husband died Jones felt she would never enjoy preparing a meal for herself and eating it alone. It was an unexpected surprise to find cooking was a way to honor the meals shared with her husband
           It was in this book I found what appliances, tools and ingredients  make  a good kitchen. True, some of the recipes were beyond my skill set but there were enough to keep me motivated.

Other handy resources include allrecipes.com, epicurean.com, cookinglight.com and Delish.com.

 I am now twenty pounds lighter with a well-stocked refrigerator and pantry. I’m more selective when I eat out which has increased my savings account.

So my friends let us not only eat but eat well.

     

Have you heard...?

       Whew it has been a long time and, except for the usual reasons, I have  no excuse for being away. How much laundry and cooking can account for avoidance and fear? Turns out a few months worth but enough of that. Let me tell you what I've heard.

       I love to read. LOVE IT!  I love to turn the pages and smell the paper books are printed on but recently I've become an audiophile. Audiobooks have awakened the theater of my mind. I'm also intrigued by the glamour and tragedy of actors and models which led to me Dropped Names by Frank Langella.
         Mr. Langella has had a long acting career (most recently Robot and Frank) although his name is not bandied about in the news. One of the pleasures of listening to his autobiography is to hear him tell it, something few authors can pull off. He has been around long enough to have met well-known actors and politicians. He has dined with the Kennedy's, went to the races with the Queen of England and dated Elizabeth Taylor. He talks quite openly about his crush on Raul Julia and, in his opinion, the good looks but not great talent of Paul Newman. He provides insights into the psyche of actors yet doesn't reveal much of himself. If you are at all curious about well known figures in show business this book is chock full of gossip,I mean anecdotes.
 



 Beauty Dis-rupted

After leaving home in her early teens Carre Otis became one of the most popular models in the '80's appearing in ads for Calvin Klein and Guess jeans.
The breadth of life experiences she survived with little or no guidance before she was 25 is remarkable. She traveled extensively, was addicted to heroin, was sexually violated and subjected to physical abuse most notably from Mickey Rourke. What makes her story a standout is the intrinsically spiritual aspect of her life course. Her survival as a model and maturation as a woman, wife and mother is astonishing. She even took on Oprah! It is a cautionary tale with a solid happy ending 

                 There are other audiobooks I'll talk about soon. Right now, you guessed it; time to cook and I have books about that too.

   

Heads in Beds

 If you have ever had a job under the category of customer service you will relish hearing from compadre Jacob Tomsky.
What so many fail to understand is most "customer service " employees want to do their job. Mr Tomsky makes clear providing service is not the same as being a servant and he does it with humor and grace.
 

Everyone, even businesses and organizations, has habits. Some are necessary to function properly and others we’d like to change.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg tells how habits develop and how others change and why. One of the thought provoking themes the book discusses is why some habitual behaviors are vilified while others prompt compassion.

Take for instance a man who habitually walked in his sleep and during one episode killed his wife. In another example a woman developed a gambling habit that cost her over $250,000. The murderer was found not guilty but the woman was persecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

It’s an intriguing read well worth the time.