It's not the degree that shows you are educated

My mother only had a fifth grade education in the American schools.  When she wrote letters, she would pour over a termite eaten elementary school dictionary to spell the word correctly.  If she couldn't find the word, she would write it in hiragana.  Her letters were a mixture of English, Japanese, and Hawaiian pidgin.  But she got her message across.

Mom would keep our letters in a little bag in her purse.  She could dig up our notes from weeks, months past.  Am not quite sure why she did this but guess that the letters were important to her.  She kept her bankbooks in her purse and she would scrimp and save to put away money for her grandchildren...$5 here, $10 there.  Her purse said much about her as an individual.

Despite not being educated by American standards, she was a businesswoman, a seamstress, a clothing designer, a teacher, and a sewing school principal.  She was able to support our family when my father was disabled by a stroke when I was two years old.  Her proudest moment was when she received her 8th grade graduation certificate from the adult school in Lahaina.

Although she might have been judged to be illiterate, her children were all college grads.  Education was paramount and the only way to escape the poverty of our childhood.  Ritsuko Okimoto Ah Sing, you did a great job in giving us, your children, the education of our lives.

Small Minds, Limited Horizons

I am always amazed how people can be so small minded.  They see a piece of litter on the ground and fail to see the amazing sunset filling the horizon.

Life is too short to not adventure out into the infinite possibilities.

Start off with a Tasty Morsel and Embellish It.

     When planning for a Super Bowl gathering, it is so easy to overdo and overthink things.  What happens is that there is much too much food, with an overabundance of protein and salty foods.

     For the next eating frenzy, consider beginning with something really delicious like a moist and tender roast, and set forth to embellish it.  The embellishment can be in the form of a variety of sauces, or a complement of different forms of carbohydrates, or vegetable or fruit to add texture or taste contrast.

     Here is one approach.  Begin with a pork roast, seasoned, and cooked with a layer of onions, garlic, bay leaves, and some broth in a slow cooker.  Cook until the meat is easily shredded.  Serve the pulled pork with some coleslaw of cabbage, carrots, and leafy greens seasoned with Best Foods mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and dill weed.  Make several sauces to kick up the flavors of the pulled pork without drowning it.  Consider a fruit-ketchup barbeque sauce, a mustard and balsamic vinegar sauce with a kick of cayenne pepper, and finally, a sweet chili-mayonnaise mix with garlic galore.  Have some buns ready for guests to "make their own" sliders.

     Here is another fun idea for an interactive supper where people will have to talk to each other.  Begin with a store bought rotisserie chicken.  Shred the chicken and put it on a large platter.  Surround the chicken with thin sticks of crispy cucumber, green onion curls, radish sprouts, and thin slivers of carrots.  Have flour tortillas ready to be filled.  Show the guests how to do the wrap.  Navigate them around various sauces they can use to flavor their wraps:  hoisin sauce, plum sauce, chili garlic sauce, black bean and chili sauce, a kochujan mix with Korean ko chu jan with sugar and vinegar.  Easy meal with tasty results.