HOW DO YOU MAKE A HEALTHY, HEARTY LENTIL STEW?

It is cold here, and I love it! Of course, we don't have the lovely look of winter that many of you have. We have no snow blanketing the cars and treetops, but it is pretty darn chilly here and thats about as close to winter as we are going to get! So, after driving back from a whirlwind  (less than 24 hours) trip to Austin yesterday, I did not have the energy to go to the grocery store, but I wanted something healthy and hearty for dinner. After raiding the fridge, the extra freezer and my pantry, I came up with these ingredients:
1 package of ground turkey
1 bag carrots
1 bag of beautiful red lentils
1 large yellow onion
2 large cloves of garlic
3 (1 quart) boxes of organic chicken stock
1 can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste

I don't know about you, but to me, those ingredients practically screamed: CURRIED TURKEY LENTIL STEW

I may not look pretty, but I taste great!

These are the spices I used (but feel free to get creative with whatever you like or have on hand):
garam masala
curry
cumin
red pepper
salt
black pepper

WARNING: This makes a giant pot of stew and is pretty thick. If you'd like yours to be soupier,
add extra broth. The lentils soak up a ton of liquid as they cook, and I ended up adding quart after quart of chicken stock until I found the right balance.

Instructions:
Heat olive oil in saute pan. Add diced carrots (about 1- 11/2 cups), chopped onion, and grated garlic to hot oil.
Stir and saute until onions start to brown and carrots begin to soften. Add a tablespoon of cumin to the pan as well and stir well.
Add ground turkey and cook together until all of the turkey is cooked (no more pink showing).
In a large stockpot, heat up the chicken broth and tomato paste and stewed tomatoes. Add lentils and stir.
Add 3-4 tablespoons garam masala and 3 tablespoons curry. Add 1-2 teaspoons red pepper and black pepper and salt to taste.
The lentils take about 30-40 minutes to fully soften. When they have, add turkey/veggie mixture and more chicken stock and continue to simmer as long as you like.
Along the way, taste the spices and adjust accordingly.
For those of you who like your food spicy, add a hot sauce like Tabasco or Frank's RedHot, when you serve.
Enjoy and stay warm!!!!

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE WILL FIX OUR FRACTURED EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM?

Nine years ago, I began my teaching career. By all standards, I was a late starter, though I believe that teaching had been in my blood since I was a little girl. I remember an early fascination with office supplies, esp. carbon paper (does anyone remember what that was?). I'd use the carbon paper to make up games and stories and tests and then I would play "SCHOOL" with my two younger sisters and, a few years later, with the the kids I babysat. Though I had originally worked in Public Relations, the field had never captured my heart and as my divorce neared, I couldn't imagine resuming that career. Instead, I decided to return to school and get a Masters in Teaching. Luckily, Rice University offered a wonderful program and I was accepted.
My first job, after graduation from Rice, was in the International Baccalaureate program at a local public high school. I felt lucky to get a job and esp. one that was so near my home. However, the experience of working in a large public school was a huge eye opener. I loved the I.B. program and I believed fully in its mission. The administration of the school, however, was not as exemplary. While the students were diverse and interesting, the principal (and his cohorts) were small-minded, illogical and I suspect even corrupt. I was appalled by the lack of respect afforded both students and teachers in the system that made up  this large high school. There was a level of ineptitude on the part of many administrators (and quite a few of the older teachers)that made me feel embarrassed to be among them. Stories of laziness and incompetence were rampant, though I tried to believe they were widely exaggerated. However, the longer I stayed, the more I began to believe that the accusations were fair representations of the life of the school. It is probably fair to say that I would not have lasted as a teacher if I had not been fortunate enough to move across the street to the fine private school that I am still teaching at.
I remember that after a few weeks in my new school, I spoke to my dad and said: "I used to think that there was a river between public and private education; now, I know its an ocean."
We are right smack in the middle of my sixth here at this school and my ninth year as a teacher. My teaching career has been fairly unique since I was already a mother and a (yikes) middle-aged woman when I began this journey. As a career, it is both exhilarating and exhausting. It challenges me in new ways every day. I take this job very seriously and I realize the important role I play in the lives of so many young people. It is a responsibility that I do not take lightly.
Things are much clearer and more respectful on this side of the public/private divide, but they are not perfect. There are always differences of opinion in terms of curriculum goals or pedagogical principles.
On top of that, we are not robots, we are people with unique personalities and that in itself can result in challenges as we struggle to communicate with people who may or may not have a personality style that complements our own.

Yesterday, purely by accident, I happened to see a portion of a CNN special on the current educational system in the US. The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) report tests and ranks 15 year olds in 70 countries. The US came in 14th in Reading, 17th in Science and 25th in Math. Two of the top ranking countries were S. Korea and Finland.

What is fascinating about that is that S. Korea and Finland have virtually opposite views of education. The CNN program did a wonderful job of quickly summarizing each country's system. I was not surprised to see that the S. Korean teenager they interviewed spent most of the hours of his day studying. His routine was rigorous, bordering on abusive, and he clearly felt the pressure of his highly competitive environment. In fact, the govt. official who was interviewed said that they are trying to find ways to mitigate the overall stress and intensity of their educational system. Does it work? It does, but at what cost? The students are not only sleep-deprived and sometimes even suicidal, but they are also devoid of a true love of learning. Everything is focused on pushing your brain to contain the maximum amount of data.


Finland, on the other hand, has a lack of pressure that is a bit surprising, even to the American eye. There are no uniforms, sometimes not even shoes (because Finnish people are usually barefoot at home and the school environment is supposed to be nurturing). There are not even any tardy bells. When the Finnish school official was asked how they can get such great educational results with such a seemingly lax environment, he responded that they hire great teachers and trust them. It was like a light bulb suddenly went off in my head and everything that I have been thinking in the last nine years suddenly coalesced into one real idea. YES. Teachers should be highly-trained and carefully selected, and then there should be a certain degree of autonomy afforded them to be passionate and creative instructors in their classrooms. The following blurb comes from the GREATSCHOOLS.ORG website and does a good job of summing up the Finnish teacher selection/training process.
The level of respect accorded to Finnish teachers tends to grab attention, especially in America where teaching is viewed as a "fallback" profession occupied primarily by the lower third of college graduates. That equation is flipped in Finland, where teachers boast the highest vocational status (followed by physicians.) A full 25% of Finnish youngsters select teaching as their career goal, but only a fraction succeed. Only 10% to 13% of applicants gain acceptance into the masters' degree in education program.


In other words, all teachers, of all grade levels, must have Masters Degrees, and the selection process to get into those programs is highly competitive. I truly believe that if we are ever going to solve the problem of our failing schools, we need to start by looking at how we value and train our teachers. In my ideal world, the salaries for teachers would be competitive with other professional careers (like Law and Medicine) so that our "best and brightest" could aspire/would aspire to be teachers. I do not believe that the secret to fixing our broken schools is to keep kids in school longer hours and give them more and more material to regurgitate on standardized tests. Instead, I believe that the secret lies in the teachers. We need to completely overhaul what it means to be a teacher. It is a profession that requires great skill, creativity, dedication, passion and ingenuity. It should NOT be a "fallback" career for the "lower third of college graduates!"
Let me know what you think about all of this. As for me....I might just have to move to Finland!

ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS?

HAPPY 2012.  Hopefully, you are all safe and sound and not terribly hungover. Unless you live in a cave without tv or internet access, you have been bombarded in the last few days with reminders about New Year's resolutions. Most of the related news segments have to do with diet and exercise. I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of linking the start of a bright, fresh new year with this emotional badgering. I know I should exercise more often. I know that it would be wonderful for me to eliminate all fats, and sugars and starches from my diet. Is there really anyone who doesn't know these things? So, I would like to propose a change. This year, I am going to substitute EIGHT new R-words for my resolutions. Here's my new list:

REJUVENATE-- NEW YEAR/NEW YOU.... I have written, in an earlier post, about my love of new beginnings: the start of the school year, the High Holydays, and now the beginning of another year on the secular calendar. How lucky we are to have all of these opportunities for renewal. Think of the new year as a blank canvas. What would you like to write, paint, create on this new clean space? The opportunities are endless. Each day is yours to make of it what you will.

REPAIR--Find something broken and fix it. The world is imperfect, and so are we. Start small. Start literal. I have home repairs that need to be addressed: paint that needs to be retouched, carpets that need to be cleaned, a bench that needs to be rebuilt. Then, moving beyond the literal, there are parts of me that could stand improvement. There are things I'd like to be better at. We all have those things that we would like to tweak or change about ourselves. Pick one and repair it. Finally, move beyond yourself and look around. What is broken that you could fix? Maybe this is the year to tackle that social problem that you have always noticed but never addressed. Would you like to make your workplace or neighborhood greener? Do you have a lonely neighbor whom you could befriend? Is 2012 the year you adopt a pet from the local shelter or volunteer hours in a political campaign or find a non-profit that needs your specific talents? The possibilities are endless.

RESTORE--Reinstate something that you have lost. Did you love to dance as a child but gave it up as you became inundated with more "grown-up" pursuits? You can restore something as simple as a favorite food from your childhood. Did you love peanut butter and banana sandwiches or   Rocket Bars from the ice cream truck? I used to love melting cheddar cheese in the microwave and dipping toast into it. When I make that decadent but simple snack now, I am immediately transported to my parent's kitchen and my adolescent self. Find something you used to love and bring it back to your life this year.

RESEARCH-- Pursue knowledge. We learn--we grow. That is the simplest secret to a good life. What are you curious about? What would you like to become an expert at? There are brand new biographies of Van Gogh and Kennedy waiting for you to pick them up or download them on your Kindle. Is 2012 the year that you will finally learn Italian or how to make beignets or how to ski? Because I am a bibliophile, I turn to books first when I want to learn a new skill. That is why cookbooks and craft books jockey for space with all my novels and memoirs. I am inspired by learning how people do things, and even if I do not follow their directions/recipes to the letter, I am still enhancing my skills as a cook or crafter. If you would like to learn about the world through stories, I have a recommendation. I recently finished Chris Cleave's beautiful and haunting novel, Little Bee. If you have not already read it, make it your first novel of 2012!

RESPOND-- React to the world around you. Be a participant not just an observer. Be reachable. Be touchable. Be involved. When people are kind, show your gratitude. Smile at strangers. Hold the door for the person coming up behind you. Laugh when life is funny and cry when life is sad.

REVEAL--Take off your mask and reveal the real you. We all wear masks. We all present a prettified or self-protective face to the world. But sometimes, we need to get real. Sometimes, we need to take a risk and be vulnerable. Years ago, when my life was fractured and complicated, I said to someone, "I just want my outsides and my insides to match." Now that they do match, I take great joy in sharing the real me with the people I care about. Trust yourself and know that you are enough. Share a portion of the unadorned version of yourself with the world.

RETREAT-- I crave solitude. I love people, but my soul is recharged with serenity. Even if you are an extrovert, there are benefits to retreating from the world and creating a calm, safe space where you can recharge your batteries. Even our cell phones cannot listen or talk all day without being recharged. We too need to find time to retreat from the world in small doses so that we can be fully engaged and present when we are with people.

Finally... REVEL.  Like puppies, we need to roll around in life and revel in the way it feels. We need to celebrate and enjoy and savor every moment. We need to notice and relish each breath, each taste, each second. My father is a wonderful reveler. He can celebrate the juiciness of a  fresh summer peach as if it were one of the crown jewels. On a great day in my classroom, I can revel in the fact that we are all learning together and marveling at the beauty and intricacy of the English language. Each day has a party hidden somewhere inside it. Find the joy!

Bye bye RESOLUTIONS.  In 2012, I will REJUVENATE, REPAIR, RESTORE, RESEARCH, RESPOND, REVEAL, RETREAT and REVEL.  Want to join me????

What is more comforting than a hot bowl of homemade soup?

Hey folks! Happy Chanukah! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! May this be a bountiful, beautiful, healthy and happy, joy and love filled 2012 for all of us!

I have been in nesting mode this holiday season. Not that I've been a recluse by any means, but I have managed to do quite a bit of cooking and sewing. The weather has been cold and grey and rainy, and weather like that always makes me yearn for soup.
 So...several days ago, I searched the pantry shelves and the freezer and fridge and came up with some lovely staples for soup-making. I am sharing the almost-recipe with you all now as it came out wonderfully well and I have been enjoying it for days.
We will call this one KALE SOUP WITH BEEF SAUSAGE AND GARBANZO BEANS

Ingredients:
2 bunches kale
1/2 white or yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
4-5 stalks celery
beef kielbasa or other spicy sausage
1 box of chicken broth
hot sauce
celery seed
curry powder
1 large can garbanzo beans
1 small can blackeyed peas
1 large can tomato puree
1 small can diced fire-roasted tomatoes

Steps:
Chop onion, garlic and celery (you can mince the garlic and dice the rest) Green pepper would be fine with this too if you happened to have one in the fridge!
Heat large soup pot and lightly coat bottom with olive oil. Saute veggies and add salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste.
Add diced sausages next and continue to saute.
Add tomato sauce and diced toms and curry powder ( start with a little curry and add more to taste)
Add a sprinkle of celery seed at this point and a bit more salt and pepper.
Add both cans of beans after you've drained and rinsed.
Add chicken broth and stir well.
Finally, the star of the show: KALE (Yes, I am well aware that this is my second kale post but what can I say, I came late to the kale party and now that I'm here, I refuse to leave!)
Chop kale--make sure to discard the woody stems. Rinse well and then toss into the soup. It will do what kale does best: it will get nice and tender but still retain some bite which will make the soup even better and heartier. YUMMY!!!
If you are like my kiddos, and you believe that every good dish is made great by the addition of cheese, you may sprinkle a bit of shaved parmesan over the top.
ENJOY and stay warm!
The next time you hear from me it will be my first post of 2012!

WHAT PUTS YOU IN THE HOLIDAY MOOD?

Chanukah begins tomorrow night at sundown and Christmas is less than a week away. For weeks (months?), the streets have been filled with Christmas lights and holiday decorations. Every morning when my alarm goes off, Christmas songs fill my bedroom and my head with falalalalas. Cable channels, like Lifetime and Hallmark, have been running non-stop merry maudlin holiday movie marathons, and I'd be a liar if I said I hadn't seen more than a few.
I'm a sucker for this time of year. My close friends know that G-d made me Jewish so that I would not spend the 11 other months of the year sewing stockings and Christmas tree skirts! Seriously, if I had been Christian, I would have been all over the crafty part of Christmas. As it is, I invented ways to craft for Chanukah.

When the kids were little, it annoyed me that all the Chanukah decorations I found were plastic and paper. Nothing seemed permanent or special. There was nothing that one would treasure and pass down to his/her own children someday. So, to rectify that, I designed and sewed Dreidel Bags for each of my own children as well as my nieces and nephews and cousins and the children of my friends. Each one-of-a-kind felt bag contained a dreidel (which is a little toy top for those of you who are dreidel virgins), marbles to be used as currency (we use quarters at my parents' house) and a little laminated instruction card with all the rules for the simple little game.

I also made a bright felt table runner for our home so that every year I could pull it out to signal the start of the holiday season. I don't know exactly how old it is, but it has held up remarkably well!

Of course there are all the usual suspects too: latkes (fried potato pancakes), presents, chocolate Chanukah gelt and of course, the star of the show: the menorah. When I was a very new mom, (it may have even been Josh's first Chanukah) my parents gave me an amazing present. Growing up, we had owned a very large menorah which took large tapered candles rather than the usual mini candles that most menorahs require. I loved that menorah, and I loved the fact that it took up so much space (not as much space as a Christmas tree--but you definitely couldn't ignore it!). Somehow, my parents found a handyman who thought he could make a giant menorah. They commissioned him to try and I was the very lucky recipient of his efforts.

It is definitely a conversation starter since most people are not used to seeing a menorah of that stature. I will say that it is much more expensive to fill this menorah with candles for eight nights, but I wouldn't trade it for one of those puny little normal menorahs for anything!

I know that there are plenty of Christmas traditions that I cannot borrow, but there are a few that I will happily admit to enjoying. I LOVE gingerbread  and gingerbread houses. When we were little, some woman who has long since passed away used to send one to our family every year. I thought it was hysterical because my dad is a Rabbi and she was a congregant who must have known that this was a bit outside the norm for our tradition. However, I couldn't wait for that beautifully decorated house to arrive each December.

I am also incredibly fond of Christmas music and movies. Even though they do not represent me, I cherish the sweet, sentimental messages they espouse. Of course I've never owned a Christmas tree, or a Chanukah bush, but when my friends have invited me to their homes to help decorate theirs or just have a drink beside one, I easily shift into the holiday mood and soak up the twinkly lights and the fresh clean scent of pine.

Mostly, the holidays are a time to celebrate the magic that life offers to us every day; it  reminds us to stop for a moment to unwrap it. I wish you a holiday season filled with warmth and mirth, sweet traditions and abundant tables, the joy of giving and receiving, and lots of love!

WHERE DID YOU BEGIN AND WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

Why does this time of year lend itself to self reflection? I look at this sweet photo of me as a baby in my mother's arms, and I cannot help but wonder about the path my life has taken. Do you believe that our lives are like scripts? Has everything been written in some cosmic screenplay, and we are simply the actors cast in the starring roles? If so, would you like another take? A different script? A different leading man/woman? How much of our lives was written in the stars or in our dna? How much of our lives has been determined by the choices we've made? How much is controlled by our thoughts?

It is an idea that is both very new and very old that we can shape our reality through the perception of that reality. Contemporary gurus have cheapened these ideas as they have sought to popularize them for personal gain. Even Oprah gave the "Law of Attraction" writers her stage and access to her audience. But long before the cheesy movie, "The Secret," profound thinkers have expressed a similar belief.
Hidden among Rebbe Nachman of Breslov's wonderful teachings is this little pearl of wisdom:

 "You are wherever your thoughts are. Make sure your thoughts are where you want to be."


If you are as introspective as I tend to be, this can be a tough one. Sometimes, I have to call the Thought Police on myself. I can get lost in worries or fears that threaten to overwhelm me. My logical side knows that the negative thinking only sends me into further depths; I know that obsessing about the worries never dispels them. However, sometimes, especially in the middle of the night, these worries are traveling on a runaway train and I feel powerless to stop them. At those moments, I need the Thought Police (and some Tylenol PM) to rescue me from myself.

I am trying to work harder at feeling the present without fearing the future. I am learning to acknowledge my past without judging myself (or the universe) for the hills and valleys, the false starts and wrong turns. That tiny Rachel in her mother's arms cared only about having her immediate needs met, and they were met. She had love and warmth and safety and food; she had everything she needed. Mostly, we all still have everything we need. We may not have it all on every given day, but we know that when those bad days strike, the likelihood is that tomorrow will be better and brighter. Best of all, we own our thoughts and we can send them wherever we choose. Personally, I am going to try to do a better job of sending mine to "where I want to be."
SO, as you think about where you began and where you are going, don't forget to enjoy this day, this moment, this second and celebrate exactly where you are right now!

WHAT IS THE BEST GIFT YOU WERE EVER GIVEN?

It is a dreary, rainy Sunday here, folks! I had planned on going out and getting a jump on my holiday shopping, but I guess I'll stay inside and write about gifts and giving instead!

Can you think of the best gift you have ever been given? One of the first that comes to my mind is a lovely midriff-baring outfit my mom purchased for me when I was about 12 or 13. We lived in Chicago then, and we had travelled downtown on the train to do some shopping; while there, I had fallen in love with this very mod (yes, it was the 70's) pantsuit. It was white cotton with tiny little red and blue flowers all over it. The top had elastic around the cap sleeves and more elastic underneath the chest-- about 3-4 inches up from my belly button. The pants were probably bell-bottom-ish, though I can't honestly remember. I had just been asked out on my very first date. Perhaps this is telling, but I can remember what we ate but not the boy's name. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Needless to say, I fell in love with the outfit as soon as I saw it, and I desperately wanted to wear it on my date.
My mother, who was (and still is) a budgeter extraordinaire, informed me that this highly impractical outfit did not fit into my clothing budget. She reminded me that I needed to buy a temple dress and several skirts and a pair of jeans and that there was simply no wiggle room in the budget. The belly-baring hippie outfit was impractical and  unnecessary and that was that.
I suppose I whined a bit, but I was a pretty docile child, and I doubt that I engaged in any severe form of histrionics. But I know I longed for that outfit and the image of myself in it that had become stuck in my head. Maybe I thought that with the revealing outfit on my pre-pubescent body, I would be instantly transformed into a femme fatale--or at least a girl who was brave enough to go on a date with a boy.


Several days after the aborted shopping trip, I came home from school to find a green Marshall Field's box on my bed. To my utter delight and amazement, my sweet mother had gone back downtown and bought the outfit for me. I learned a valuable lesson that afternoon; the gift that I most valued was the way in which my mother had sacrificed time and money to make me happy. At that moment, it was actually less about the outfit than it was about a mother's love for her daughter.

I wore the outfit on the date to the hotdog stand in the park across from the Museum of Science and Industry. I swear to you that I have no idea who the boy was, but I still remember the hotdogs!

I am a gifty gal: I love both giving and receiving presents. I can't imagine being someone who doesn't give a flip about birthdays and holidays. Gift giving is as much a part of my DNA as reading or cooking.

When the kids were little, I would spend hours making things for them. I remember when I finished Emily's quilt (or as she called it "Quilty"),  and I sewed a special patch on the back that said "Made for Emily with love from Mom."  It filled me with such a sense of accomplishment to give my daughter that gift. When Josh was little, I designed numerous t-shirts and blankets and stuffed animals for  him: watching him wear or play with something I had made with my own two hands filled me with pride. I can still see the picture of my sweet tow-headed Josh  with  his two very primitively designed stuffed flannel animals: blue bunny and blue kitty.

Ben,  who came out of the womb an entrepreneur, was always engaged in various business enterprises. I loved to sit at my lime green ibook and create business cards for him which he proudly passed out to friends and relatives to advertise "Ben's Jobco" or "Ben's Petco."

I think that one of the reasons I love cooking so much is that making food allows me to feel like I am giving a little gift to the people I love.

So as the holidays once again draw near...think about the joy of giving (and the joy of receiving). What the heck, let's just think about JOY!