Friends From High School

Wow, I guess I thought I didn't have any old friends but this weekend, two of my pals from ninth grade stayed with me and we reconnected. The years can change a lot in a person's life. I was completely delighted to find that Tracy and Toni had lived full and exciting lives. I did feel a connection to both of them. It's strange but even though millions of years have passed, I still felt like we were united.

Sure, I was worried. Especially when Toni mentioned that she could sleep in her van with her rescue dog. I pictured a yellow VW van complete with painted pot leaves and purple peace signs with smoke billowing out the windows (you can guess what kind of smoke). I pictured her leveling the van on my hilly rain slicked street with my neighbors cautiously peering out. When she pulled up in a soccer mom van, I really had to laugh at myself.

Tracy was always very outgoing and sweet-natured. When I picked her up at the airport, she launched into talking, but then she always did that. I remember I used to love to listen to her. Even though we were the same age, she always seemed so wise. It turns out that we were all from dysfunctional families and we needed something extra, some place to call home, someone to help and heal our hearts. I think we found some of that in each other.

Tracy became a real estate agent. Toni became a massage therapist. I became a stay at home mom.

Toni had the greatest memory for the details of all the adventures that we had. Tracy and I pretty much forgot everything. Like much of my childhood, that year with Tracy and Toni was a blur. Did my missing chunks of memory stem from the amount of drinking that I did or is it just the passage of time. Maybe it stems from not wanting to remember how lonely I felt as a child. I do recall laughing with Tracy and Toni back then and that it felt good to be with them. I can hang onto those chunks and let the other ones slip away because I've already come to peace with my childhood. It feels good to remember laughter and connection and it sure felt good to reconnect with two wonderful women who probably helped save my life.

Cheers to you Tracy and Toni. And, there was something about the chicken arm? But, I completely forgot what it was. Oh well, cheers to you and the chicken arm, what ever that may mean.

Store Bought Asian Sauce

That's what they must have used the first time I tried Vietnamese food when I lived in San Francisco. My husband's co-worker, who is from Texas, raved about this little hole-in-the-wall place and he made us eat there. It was torture from the very first bite. I wanted to dump my pho on his head. Never one to completely give up on a cuisine, I then tried a flashy, up and coming, much lauded Vietnamese restaurant and still wasn't impressed. In fact, I was really disappointed because I can make this stuff at home with store bought Asian sauce.

For years, I'd been wary of Vietnamese food. It wasn't until yesterday that my palate and mind were completely changed. It feels like a new space has opened up, a space where there's room to keep trying new things, to keep enjoying and loving life, to keep living. Yes, good cuisines can do that to me.

I think I owe my thanks to Anthony Bordain. I've seen pretty much all of his shows. I love No Reservations. I love it because Anthony likes excellent food done in unpretentious ways. I love it because I get inspired by his adventures. I love it because I can see myself eating and experiencing what he experiences. Anthony loves Vietnamese food; he's been there several times in No Reservations. And I think he actually lived there. His love of Vietnamese food kept popping up in my mind over the years. The saying, "if he likes it, then maybe I might like it" lingered in my thoughts.

My husband and I love this restaurant called Portage here in Seattle. It's all fresh Northwest cuisine. In fact, the chef/owner, who is of Vietnamese descent, lives right near some good friends of ours. And, that's how we found out about his new restaurant called June. The food at June is fantastic because Chef Vuong has created the menu and the space. His menu is Northwest inspired French, it's all flavor both delicate and robust but without heavy Frenchified sauces. Simply divine. Anyway, while reading about his new restaurant June in the PI and the Times I came across Vuong's favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Green Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant, http://greenleaftaste.com.

I did a quick search and the Green Leaf website popped open and there sat Mario Batali (of Molto Mario fame; also, his dad owns Salumi here in Seattle). I thought to myself, "Okay, if Vuong likes this place and I love Vuong's creative cuisine and Mario Batali is eating there plus the fact that my idol, Anthony Bordain, loves Vietnamese food, then I think I need to give this place a try."

To sum up our Green Leaf experience, I was blown away. I ordered way too much food but I really wanted to sample different parts of the menu. I think every single thing on the menu would taste fantastic. Everything we tried was wonderful. All of our dishes were fresh and the exotic flavors mingled and danced on my palate. Fragrant, floral, slightly acidic, barely sweet, hints of mint and spice, caramelized onions all met and melted together to create unique flavors.

I am a complete convert. I love Vietnamese food. And, this has opened a whole new world for me.

Is salt really my friend?

I slid my arm into the cuff, the blood pressure cuff at the drugstore. My son took his and wanted me to take mine. I pressed start and it squeezed off the blood flow then slowly released. My son was delighted with the numbers. "Look at how high they are mom." I frowned. Yes, they were high, too high. Something has to be done.

It took me a few months to decide how to address this. According to WebMd, I wasn't in the danger zone yet but I was approaching. My dad just had another surgery to place yet another stent. It's genetic, he told me and then advised me to get an MRI just to make sure I didn't need a stent. 'What if it's not genetic," I thought. My dad lived high on the hog for many years. I even learned  how to make him a gin and tonic when I was a kid. He drank a lot, smoked even more, and ate rich food for most of his life. And, that behavior really took a toll on his health. I took stock of my life, my son, my husband and I decided that I needed to drop some pounds and make some major changes before it was too late.

I decided to give 6 Week Body Makeover a try. They offer a money back guarantee and I thought what the hell. I can do this for six weeks. If I'm still overweight with high blood pressure, I can try something else. I still have time.

I knew going into the diet plan that after it's over, I can't just go back to eating salt, sugar, and butter slathered on my bacon. What I'm searching for is a healthy way of eating that I can deal with for the rest of my life. In the process of following this eating plan, my taste buds are supposed to be getting used to eating without added salt, oil, butter, or sugar. Those are my four favorite food groups, along with bacon. I've always been a salt fiend. I stopped using Morton's years ago and only used sea salt. You know, the one with all the minerals and it's supposed to be better for you than table salt. But if you use too much, like anything, then it's not good for you.

So far, I haven't been hungry (a big fear of mine which makes me reach for the Cheez Its) and I've actually lost 12 pounds and shed inches from my body. And, today, for the first time, my unseasoned food (actually, I loaded it with ground pepper, fresh thyme, garlic, and hot peppers which are all ok to eat) actually tasted pretty good. I was surprised because just last night I was whining about how I couldn't eat salt or soy sauce. Do you know how hard it is for a girl with Japanese blood NOT to eat soy sauce. I grew up seasoning everything with soy sauce. I used to drink shots of soy sauce.

I'm hoping that after I've reached a healthy weight for my age and size that I can add back in just a few of my favorites, like soy sauce and salt. Maybe a dash instead of a steady pour. And, perhaps I can drink a glass of wine once a week. I just have to wait and see. But I need to do this for myself and my family. I want to be active and healthy and my bacon on bacon lifestyle just won't do anymore.

What I love About Spring

The thing that I love the most about Spring is the fresh smell in the air. If hope were to have a smell, it would smell like Spring. The sweet air swirls and carries the scent of unfolding flowers. Sometimes, the air is tinged with winter's wicked chill and sometimes the sun comes out to banish it. In Springtime, you need a rain jacket and a t-shirt just in case the sun comes to warm your back.

I love the beautiful blossoms. I love seeing people out in their gardens snipping here and there, planting flowers, reshaping a garden that got pushed around by winter. Speaking of the word winter, it doesn't deserve to be capitalized. Yeah, I know we need winter in order to have Spring but I still don't have to capitalize the damn word.

Maybe it's the vitamin D that I've been taking but right now, I feel alive and happy. I love my garden and my husband is building a new fence. It looks good. Oh Spring!

Don't Do Taxes On Four Hours Sleep

The title says it all. I told my husband that I probably made mistakes but I think I got everything in there. I could not sleep last night and I think it was fours hours tops. Maybe there was something in the air. Finally, Spring is here maybe that's it. Maybe I was kind of nervous about doing the Faith Ringgold presentation for my son's class, or maybe it was the tv that I began watching. Once I started watching Medium, I couldn't stop. I tried. I even turned off the TV but as I lay there in the dark, I couldn't help but wonder if they'd catch the evil person. I really enjoy how those stories come together, sometimes the evil doer gets away but they seem to always catch the morally corrupt person. Speaking of morally corrupt, Jane Lynch was amazing on Glee and in her debut music video. I love Jane Lynch. I wish she'd come over for dinner and make us all laugh.

Oh dang, I am tired.

Those Books That I'm "Reading" Right Now

I have a pile by the bedside and if the mood strikes me to read about luscious cakes, then I read about that. If I feel like I need a sassy narrative about her year of cooking with Julia, then I read that. Today, I saw this HUGE and I do mean HUGE tome in the cookbook section. Well, I just had to check it out. Turns out it's a whole 500 plus pages of the life and times of one of the most famous chefs in the word. In fact, his restaurant is rated the best in the world and it's damn hard to come by a rez. You can't just call up Ferran and ask for Friday at 7. Oh no. You need to plan years, yes, I said years in advance. You see, they only have 8000 reservations a year and they have over 200,000 people vying for those spots. So, yes, I checked it out. Who ever saw a 500 plus page cookbook? Oh yeah, it's hard bound and is 9" by 11", that's right. It looks like a dictionary. I'm happy to say that it has lots of glossy pix and only smaller inserts of text. At least it fits in with my lazy reading style. I'll write more on this book find later.

So, yeah, I've always got some book going on how to make a better kid, I mean how to make him do what I want, I mean how to make him behave better. And of course, I always have a dessert cookbook or two that I read because my husband LOVES sweets and I love my husband and I want to make him sweet things.

What is WRONG with people?

This is hard to write about. I'm really upset about what happened to that little girl, the one who was attacked at a party in NJ by at least 12 men and teen boys. I can't even begin to imagine the horror that she went through and will continue to go through for the rest of her life. And, what is WRONG with people. Maybe the attackers were abused as children, maybe it was the perfect storm of society giving up/poverty/misogyny, maybe they fell into madness as it started and then others thought, 'Oh, what the hell.' That whole thing of accepted group behavior is as strange one. Someone else started the attack and then no one did anything about it and this sent a signal to the crowd that it was ok. I've read studies about this peculiar human behavior and most of these studies show that people do nothing or join in. Look at the Holocaust, how was that allowed to happen. I guess I'm just looking for some kind of explanation about how a 15 year old girl can sell her sister and it's accepted at this party.

I cried as I read this story and then I cried again. I didn't mean to click on it for Christ sakes. I was doing a search on Jerry Seinfeld's TV dad, who just passed away and this, horror popped up. I felt it like a stab to my heart.