Zucchini And Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Looking for a way to cut calories, fat and carbs, and still have a delicious healthy lunch?  I just created the perfect sandwich.  By replacing zucchini patties with bread, you eliminate carbs.  By using lite cheese, you reduce the fat.  Here's what I came up with for lunch.

                     Zucchini Patties Filled With Melted Cheese

1 small zucchini, grated
1 T. parmesean cheese
1 T. corn starch
1/2 egg beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
1 oz lite cheddar or any regular cheese, grated

Combine everything but the cheese in a bowl and mix well.  Spray a pan with any nonstick product, and heat.  Add two large dollops of the zucchini mixture, and shape into a rectangle.  This will be the "bread" for your sandwich.  Cook until nice and brown, then flip, and continue cooking.  In the last minute or so, add the grated cheese to the top of one zucchini patty, then put the other patty on top.  You now have your sandwich.  Let it cook for another minute or so, to allow the cheese to melt.  Voila.  You have a grilled cheese sandwich without all the fat and carbs.  Perfect for Weight Watchers or anyone looking to maintain a healthy diet.  Enjoy.

Black History Month: Ella Baker

Since it's Black History Month, I thought I'd blog about one of the very important women in African American history, but unknown to most people.  Ella Baker was a fighter for the social equality of African Americans, always pushing the agenda of the civil right rights movement forward.  "This may only be a dream of mine, but I think it can be made real," was one of her famous sayings.

Ella Baker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1903.  She grew up listening to stories about her grandmother's experiences as a former slave.  These stories about how slaves rebelled against their owners laid the foundation for Baker's desire to be an activist.

After graduating from college, Baker moved to New York City, where she worked for the American West Indian News and the Negro National News.  She dedicated her free time to actively protesting against social injustice.  In 1940 Baker began working with local chapers of the NAACP, where she served as field secretary for 15 years.  In 1955, influenced by the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Baker established In Friendship, an organization that raised funds to fight Jim Crow laws.  Two years later, she moved to Atlanta to help Martin Luther King, Jr. organize SCLC.

Ella Baker remained an activist, fighting for social and political justice in the US and around the world, until her death in 1986.

The Exciting Life of Caresse Crosby

Caresse Crosby, born in 1892 as Mary Phelps Jacob in NewYork, was a woman ahead of her times.  She was an inventor, author, journalist and poet.  She spent most of her career engaged in the literary arts, but she also helped change fashion and free women from confining corsets by getting the first patent for the modern brassiere.

Caresse Crosby came up with the idea for the bra in 1913, got the patent, then later sold the patent for $1500.00.

Caresse was married several times, and in 1921 she married Harry Crosby and they soon moved to Paris.  It was here, as an ex pat, that Caresse and Harry Crosby immersed themselves in the city's social happenings and began to travel in literary circles.  As part of her new literary persona, she became Caresse.   She was formerly known as Polly.  Caresse  published several books, some of her own writing, some published by other writers, including James Joyce and Archibald MacLeish.  The partnership between Caresse and Harry crumbled after he and his mistress committed suicide in 1929.

Caresse continued on as an editor and publisher, putting out collections of her late husband's work and letters, as well as material by Ezra Pound.  In the 1930's, Caresse Crosby returned to the United States.  She married Selbert Young in 1937, but this marriage was short lived.  In 1953 she published her memoir, a story of her fascinating life, called Passionate Years.  Later she moved to Rome, established an informal artistic colony at her castle home.  What a fascinating life she lived.<>

 

Rose Zar Was An Inspiration

There are so many inspirational women that we hear about, but one you might not have heard of is Rose Zar.  She was a Polish Jew who survived the Nazi invasion of Poland, by hiding in plain sight.  Prior to the war she earned her teaching certificate and was also a nurse, but was forced to find menial jobs, like scrubbing kitchens, peeling potatoes, and cooking in the kitchen of the local SS headquarters in Krakow.  Her father's advice to her had been to hide in plain sight.  That's exactly what she did.

To keep out of trouble, Rose learned to laugh at anti-semitic jokes that were told in the kitchen.  She also learned to speak perfect German.  So when she was called to the commanders headquarters (she thought they had discovered she was Jewish) and the wife of the commander took a liking to her, she was hired to work in their home for the remainder of the war.  Rose said, "You have to hide in the mouth of the wolf, under the officials nose, and watch that they don't devour you.

She worked as Fraulein Wanda in the home of an SS officer for the final years of the war.  After that, she came to America, and in 1983 wrote her memoir, "In the mouth of the wolf."  This inspirational woman saved her own life, and the lives of dozens of Jewish orphans.  She died recently in the U.S., where she lived after WW11.

I Just Discovered Cava

Cava opened in Encinitas a few weeks ago, and I just discovered that it's something great.  It was started by three Greek childhood friends in Maryland, and by the end of 2018 had expanded to 75 fast casual restaurants.  Their dips and spreads (hummus, eggplant, tzidaki) can also be found in Whole Foods.  It's what I would call a Mediterranean Chipotle.

The price for a bowl, their most popular item, is about $10.  Start with a base of either lettuce(several different mixes) or grain(several kinds of rice and lentils), or half and half.  Then add three dips. Most are mild, like hummus, tzadiki and eggplant, but they have several spicy toppings if you so desire.  Then, choose your protein.  Chicken, lamb, beef meatballs, falafel, or roasted veggies, or half and half.  Then come the final toppings:  cucumbers, pickled onions, tomato and onion mix, couscous, quinoa and mint.  You can have as many of these toppings as you like.  Dressings are also availble, like yogurt dill and vinegrette, but are not really necessary.  Finally, a piece of pita is served with the bowl.  All this for $10, and it is really delicious.

Drinks include the standard sodas, lemonades and waters, but several additional options are available.  They have a beet drink (didn't try it) and a cucumber/mint drink that was delicious.

Cava is a really healthy, delicious choice for a casual lunch or dinner.  I can't wait to go again and try some other combinations.  They also have a daily soup.  The day I was there it was spicy tomato, too spicy for me.  Hope you give Cava a try.

Can Dogs Detect Cancer?

Absolutely, yes, dogs CAN detect cancer, all kinds of cancer.  Researchers have known this for years, but it is just recently that clinical trial have confirmed that dogs can sniff out cancer, with about 95% accuracy, about the same percentage of accuracy as traditional lab tests.

Dogs' powerful noses have 300 million sensors, compared with a human's measly 5 million. In addition, dogs have a second smelling device in the backs of their noses that we don't have, called Jacobson's organ.

That double smelling system allows trained dogs to detect cancer's unique odors, called volatile organic compounds.

It took humans thousands of years to figure this out. In 1989, doctors at King's College Hospital in London wrote in The Lancet about a woman whose dog persisted in smelling a particular mole on her leg. That mole turned out to be early-stage malignant melanoma.

Over the next 26 years, studies from France to California to Italy have concluded that dogs really can detect the smell of cancer

Before the use of dogs to detect cancer became recognized as a reality, untrained family pets were exhibiting strange behavior in family members who did not know they had cancer.  One dog kept smelling a mole on a woman's leg, which when tested, was cancerous.  Another dog kept jumping on a woman's breast, and sniffing.  It turned out she had breast cancer.  There were so many of these instances that researchers determined that dogs could detect cancer.  Any kind of cancer can be detected by a dog.  In addition, dogs can predict seizures in people.

What a great use for dogs in medicine.  Many pound dogs that have no future could trained to detect cancer in humans.  There's a new series on PBS, narrated by the star of Doc Martin, about dogs.  This, and many other interesting facts are discussed in the series.  I have yet to see it, but will look for it, as it sounds very interesting.  Man's best friend is much more than just a companion.  Now we know they can help detect medical disease.

Great Italian Food At Piatti La Jolla

We lived in Del Mar for many years, and one of our favorite Italian restaurants was Piatti, in La Jolla.  We would go for both lunch and dinner, and were never disappointed.  There's a big tree in the middle of the outdoor patio which makes Piatti a wonderful lunch spot during the warm weather.  We had not been to Piatti in years, since it's now about a  45 minute drive from our home, and unless you go on Saturday or Sunday, you face rush hour traffic.  Laura and Richard suggested we revisit Piatti on a Saturday night, and we were happy to do so.

I remembered  from the many times we had dined there that their dipping sauce was spectacular.  I was delighted when a big basket of warm bread and Piatti dipping sauce showed up at our table almost immediately after we got seated.  How much bread and sauce I cannot say, but I was  still tasting the effects of the heavily garlic dipping sauce the next day.  It was soooo good.  Piatti is known for their rotisserie chicken.  Richard ordered that.  He devoured the whole thing, including mashed potatoes and veggie.  Laura had a specialty of the night.  It was grilled swordfish with chopped veggies and garlic on top.  It was served with crispy roasted potatoes and veggies.  Ron ordered a simple salad, with butter lettuce, tomato, walnuts and apples, served with a gorgonzola dressing.   I ordered grilled polenta topped with marinara sauce, kale and parmesean.  Excellent.  Finally, Ron and I both ordered the beef carpaccio, served with arugula and parmesean cheese and lemon.  One of my favorite dishes, and Piatti does it very well.

The only negative thing I can say about Piatti is the noise level.  It is extremely noisy, and very hard to talk.  It is best to go early or late, or try the middle of the week.  It's packed on Saturday night.  I guess younger people like all the noise, but we don't.  My next trip there will be during the week.

Piatti is part of the Moana Hospitality Group, with restaurants all over the country, many different kinds of restaurants, but all innovative and upscale.  They also have a group of Piatti restaurants, mostly in California, but also one in Denver and a few in Texas.  Moana seems do a great job at producing consistently excellent food and service, and keeping the menu interesting and seasonal.

The Horses of Chinoteague

Back in the 1950's when I was a horse crazy, young girl, I read a book that I never forgot.  Misty of Chinoteague, written in 1947, quickly became a children's classic.  The horses that live on this island off Virginia are a tough breed.  They are long feral descendants of domesticated livestock.  They are stocky and have a long coat in the winter, to protect them from the harsh climate.

Recently, many horses from Chinoteague have died.  They have contracted a fungus like infection in their hoofs and legs, probably from stepping on contaminated wetlands.  The malady they have contracted is pythiosis, caused from stepping in water carrying fungus like organisms.  It is sometimes called swamp cancer.  If it is not caught early, they will die.  Pythiosis has been seen on the island before, but rarely.  It has also been seen in Florida, but it is becoming more common in higher latitudes.  The disease is potentially a serious threat to the 150 beloved ponies that run loose.

The horses of Chinoteague play a cultural and economic role in the area.   They have been there for centuries.  The horses run loose most of the year, but three times a year they are rounded up and receive veterinary care.  Once a year, they cross the island, with tens of thousands of onlookers. The crossing is viewed by many visitors, and contributes to the economics of the area.  Some of the horses are sold off each year to avoid overpopulation.  The 150 horses have over 4,000 acres on which to run free.  What a beautiful sight it must be to see these magnificent animals in the habitat they were made for, living as they were meant to, free.  I hope modern medicine can find a way to protect this herd from potential extinction.

Cindy Lobel, Urban Historian

Cindy R. Lobel was an urban historian who did research on the economic and social elements of life in  19th century New York through the lens of food and eating.  She was 48 years old.  Lobel was a professor at Lehman College.  When she earned he doctoral degree in history in 2003, she researched the subject of the culture of food and eating from an academic standpoint.

Her doctoral dissertation was entitled, "Urband Appetites:  Food and Culture in 19th Century New York."  She examined the way technology, consumerism, infrastructure, class, race, gender, public policy and the market influence what, where and how New Yorkers ate in 1800's.  Professor Lobel observed that women willing to eat in restaurants three steps down from the street were once considered "of ill repute."  Her book Urban Appetites earned several prizes for distinguished scholarship.

If you went to dinner with Cindy Lobel, your meal could quickly turn into a history lesson.  She could tell you about ice cream, when it was introduced to New York and how technology made it possible to get refrigerated food to people of different social and economic class.

When Cindy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, she maintained a blog chronicling the day-to-day indignities, agonies, optimisms and dark amusement of living with illness.  At the time of her  death, Professor Lobel was working on a book about the importance and prevalence of oysters in New York in the 1900's, with a focus on Thomas Downing, a well-to-do black man who was the city's leading purvey of oysters at that time.  Friends and colleagues are hoping to finish her book.

Black Face in America

We've heard a lot about Black Face recently, as the governor of Virginia has been accused of appearing in Black Face or a KKK outfit 35 years ago.  Most people feel he should resign because of this.  Is it enough to say that times were different and he was young?  I don't think so.  The history of Black Face is long, beginning in the mid 1800's, peaking in the early part of the 20th century in the form of minstrel shows, and continuing to this day.  For lots of information about Black Face, go to www.black-face.com.  That website will tell you all you need to know.

It's so hard to compare actions taken years ago and now.  The culture has changed.  In the early 20th century, actions that we now consider abhorrent were common place.  Shows like Amos and Andy would never be allowed to air today, yet in their time they were the most popular show on the air.  Language and behavior that was once acceptable, is not any longer.  Stereotypical portrayals of blacks that used to exist, are not acceptable.  NBC took one of its shows off the air because of the negative stereotypes it exhibited.  Characters like Uncle Tom and Zip Coon, Jim Crow, Jezebel and Pickanny were staples during the minstrel era and carried over into vaudeville, film and television.

Animators at Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, MGM, and many others produced thousands of cartoons that perpetuated the same old racist stereotypes.  Eventually the worst of the racist cartoons were removed from television or heavily edited, but many are available on the internet, if you know where to look.  These cartoons are shocking to 21st century audiences, but they illustrate how pervasive and institutionalized racism was in our culture (and still is) just a short time ago.

By the way, racism wasn't just reserved for the blacks, although that accounted for most of it.  Jews, Asians, Mexicans and Arabs were all shown as stereotypes.

When I started writing this blog, the point I wanted to make was that our culture and language has changed regarding race.  What was acceptable in 1950 is not acceptable now.  Personally, I've never found it acceptable to make fun of or ridicule anyone for the way they look, talk, or where they come from.  We are much more in tune with people that are different than us today.  Thank goodness.

Character counts.  Whether you're 25 or 50, disparaging others is unacceptable, and if you're a public figure, it should not be tolerated.

How To Spend A Rainy Day

We've had more than our usual number of rainy days this year, and a number of people I know have had enough.  In a normal year, we get four or five days a year that actually require you to stay indoors.  This year, we've had four or five days in a row, and we Southern Californians, who spend so much time outdoors, don't know what to do.  Well, I've got some suggestions:

1.  Binge watch your favorite Netflix or Amazon shows.
2.  Read a book
3.  Do a puzzle.  Once you get started, you could spend hours on a puzzle.
4.  Clean your desk, closet or dresser.  You'll feel great when you're done.
5.  Clean your kitchen pantry or tackle the refrigerator and freezer.
6.  Turn on some music, make a nice cup of hot chocolate or cider, and just relax.
7.  Take a bath, give yourself a manicure, pamper yourself.
8.  Call (not text or e-mail) some people you've been meaning to contact.
9.  Take a long nap
10.  Cook.  I love to make soup on a rainy day (from scratch)and have some for a couple of days.
11.  Be happy you don't live in Chicago or Minnesota and stop complaining about a few days of rain.  We've got the greatest climate in the country, so just enjoy a few days of rain, and think about how beautiful our gardens will look in the spring.

Dog owners, sorry, but your four legged ones will have to stay in for a few days.  I hate that part of the rain, but it's a small price to pay, considering the benefits of rain.

The weather temperatures in the U.S. this year have been extreme.  We had very hot weather in the summer, and now, very cold weather in the winter.  The cold is so extreme, my friends in Chicago that have lived there for 75 years have never seen anything like it.  -50 degrees means school, shopping and outdoor activities come to a halt.  I'd heard about the polar vortex, but didn't really know what it was, so I found out some information on weather.gov.  The following information is direct from their website,

What is the Polar Vortex?

Cold Resources

The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth’s poles. It ALWAYS exists near the poles, but weakens in summer and strengthens in winter. The term "vortex" refers to the counter-clockwise flow of air that helps keep the colder air near the Poles. Many times during winter in the northern hemisphere, the polar vortex will expand, sending cold air southward with the jet stream (see graphic above). This occurs fairly regularly during wintertime and is often associated with large outbreaks of Arctic air in the United States. The one that occurred January 2014 is similar to many other cold outbreaks that have occurred in the past, including several notable colder outbreaks in 1977, 1982, 1985 and 1989.
There are several things the polar vortex is NOT. Polar vortexes are not something new. The term “polar vortex” has only recently been popularized, bringing attention to a weather feature that has always been present. It is also not a feature that exists at the Earth’s surface. Weather forecasters examine the polar vortex by looking at conditions tens of thousands of feet up in the atmosphere; however, when we feel extremely cold air from the Arctic regions at Earth’s surface, it is sometimes associated with the polar vortex. This is not confined to the United States. Portions of Europe and Asia also experience cold surges connected to the polar vortex. By itself, the only danger to humans is the magnitude of how cold temperatures will get when the polar vortex expands, sending Arctic air southward into areas that are not typically that cold.

The Amazing Career of Don Shirley

After seeing the movie The Green Book, I felt I wanted to know more about this incredible man, Don Shirley.  Born in Florida to Jamaican parents, Don started playing piano at age 2.  His talent was recognized early, and he was invited to study at the Leningrad Conservatory.  He went on to become one of the great pianists of his time.  The fact that he was black limited his opportunities.  There were no black classical pianists at this time, the 1950's and 1960's, so he turned to pop and jazz.  He performed many times with The Boston Pops, and toured the country for many years.

In the 1960's he accepted invitations to tour the deep south.  Although he could have stayed in the north and made more money, he wanted to try to change the attitudes of whites who attended his concerts.  Whether or not he did is unknown.

The movie about his life and his relationship with his driver/bodyguard Tony Lip Vallelonga is called The Green Book.  This book was what blacks traveling in the south used to let them know where they could sleep and eat.  It was hard for me to believe that in 1962 the division between black and white in south was so deep.  Don Shirley stayed in a dumpy hotel, while his bodyguard Tony, stayed in a nice hotel a few blocks away.

Don and Tony traveled through the south together in 1962, and formed a bond that lasted the rest of their lives.  They both died in 2013.  In addition to his extraordinary ability as a pianist, Don Shirley spoke 9 languages fluently and was a painter.  As different as Don and Tony were in just about everything, they respected one another.  That's really what most people want from others, respect.