What to Cook For Those with No Teeth

We have been discussing how lucky we are that we have our own teeth.  My dad had full dentures when he was my age and he loved grossing kids out by clacking his teeth out of his mouth.  My mom had bridges.

Due to medications, my kane has been experiencing difficulty with his teeth and one by one, they are being relieved of duty.  The prospect is a set of dentures.  Implants are so expensive and the dental plan will only cover one (which is like $3000).  In the mean time, what does one cook for a beloved toothless friend?

Things that come to mind:  yogurt in many sassy flavors, soups which come in all kinds of varieties besides the classic cream of mushroom, chicken noodle, and beef vegetable.  Then what?  Smoothies can be a way to incorporate fruits and vegetables.

Traditional foods could be okai (rice porridge), soft tofu chigae (kim chee stew with tofu), chagai (rice porridge cooked in tea), jook (rice soup with a rich chicken or turkey stock), and some of the thick soup combinations like chowders, potato soup, cream soups of various sorts.

Gone are the days of gnawing on a steak bone.  Gone are the days of chomping on beef jerky.  Lucky that we had more days of mastification than our kupuna.

Struggle is an excellent teacher

     As parents, we try our best to shelter our children from pain and sorrow and hard times.  Sometimes, we do too good a job and our children are released into the universe ignorant that there are evil things lurking all around and vastly unprepared to meet the challenges of the world.

     Sadly, we have to teach our children to maka 'ala, be alert or cautious.  Never talk to strangers.  Do not get into a stranger's car.  Don't open the door if you do not know the person outside.  But we cannot teach them all the don'ts, nevers, watch outs that might exist in the world.

     Sometimes, we need to let our children learn the hard way, the ways of the world.  Sure, we might contribute our two cents of wisdom but whether it is heeded is another discussion for another day.  Kids have their own minds and their own motivations.  Even if your child is an adult, he or she is still viewed as a kid, no matter how old.  It hurts to see them do something dumb, foolish, naive and then get burned but it is a life lesson that one thousand words from our mouth cannot teach.

      It is important to allow our young to try things out.  Challenge themselves.  Then they will not be afraid to try things when they are on their own.  While it is difficult to stand on the side, bridle our tongues, cross our fingers, and stop ourselves from taking over, the self restraint is worth it if the young 'un can pick himself or herself up and move forward.  It is far better to have this than to have our kids hanging onto our apron strings like the kingyo no unko.


kingyo no unko - A Japanese description of kids who follow their parents like the poop string of a goldfish.

What WOULD happen if women ruled the world?

     Our book club just read the book, Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian.  The novel talks about families affected by the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the genocide of the Armenians after that. In our discussion, we tried to name the periods of genocide in various countries.  Our question was:  Would this kind of horrendous actions take place if women were the countries' leaders?

      What are the motivations to kill innocent people just because they belong to a group, race, or religion?  Power, turfism, supremacy seem to be some of the reasons to eliminate a particular group of people from the face of the earth.  Are these motivations gender specific?  Would women kill for the same reasons?

     Despite the fact that we all share in the horror of genocide, we have seen it occur again and again in our history.  Why?  What was accomplished?  What was lost?  How were the survivors able to persevere?  What have we learned about the resilience of people?  What have we learned about the fiendish minds of men who perpetrated such acts of murder?

     Can we prevent genocide from happening again in the future?  If Bohjalian wanted to provoke our thinking, I would say he was successful in doing that in this novel.

Eat what is 'ono

     With media and technology, we are bombarded with images of food...thick slices of red vine-ripened tomatoes, thick burgers dripping with fat, yellow slivers of potato goodness.  Question is:  Is the reality of tasting the food as good as the visual images?  Often times, the visual of a burger and the burger you spent your hard earned money on do not match!!  One course of action is to never go back to the restaurant again.

     The second course of action is to cook the food yourself and then send the visual to your friends to torment them with the deliciousness that they know you can create!!  Facebook is an excellent vehicle to torment friends and make them jealous over what you had made and will soon enjoy.

     It is my personal opinion that we should eat only what is 'ono or delicious.  We need to spend more time making choices as to what is 'ono.  If it is not 'ono...don't eat it.  Cease and desist immediately...or better yet, give it to an indiscriminant eater who will eat anything.  Then waste can be avoided.  We are afforded only so many calories a day so we should be choosy about what goes into our mouths.  Contrary to normal notions, it is better to have a small portion of something fabulously delicious rather than a plateload of mediocre blahness.

     Life is short!  Eat what is in season.  Eat something different.  Eat those things you do not see often on the menu or in the market.  Cook and eat things made from fresh ingredients. Use a smaller plate to control your portions.  Choose wisely and eat only what is 'ono...for the eyes and the taste buds.

Cool Summer Suppers for Muggy Hilo Nights

     In our family, we gather each Sunday evening for dinner together at our daughter's house in Hilo.  Three families take turns cooking each Sunday...we have a schedule.  I have been looking for cool summer suppers since Hilo is so hot and muggy.  When I looked up recipes on the internet, most of the menu items are fluffy sides that do not really constitute a meal (in my book.)  Guacamole, salsa, beer margaritas, some fruity salads...but not a whole menu of items which are nonfussy and will not cause the cook to sweat and which are cooling items to enjoy as the two fans swish back and forth.
Open the windows for goodness sake!!

     Since it is my turn to cook this Sunday, here is my menu.

•       Appetizer:  Corn chips with tropical salsa with fresh mango, tomatoes, pineapples, onions, and jalapeno peppers

•       Grilled Salmon with lemon -  Place salmon on  a large piece of foil.  Pour some extra virgin olive oil over salmon and sprinkle with Rocking H Ranch Dry Rub seasoning.  Squeeze a lemon over the salmon and seal the foil into a packet.  12 minutes under the broiler and voila!

•       Taegu salad with tofu, watercress, bean sprouts, taegu, tomatoes and sweet onions.  Dressing is made with soy sauce, vegetable oil, lots of garlic and green onions.  Cook sauce, cool and pour over salad items.

•       Green salad with feta cheese, craisins, and walnuts  (no need for dressing)

•       No fuss sushi rice topped off with furikake, takuan (pickled turnips), fried egg strips.  Use   Tamanoi Sushi No Ko...sushi seasoning packet for 4 cups of rice.

•      Dessert:  Melona bars

We need more menus to keep our cool in the summer!  Bon Appetito!!

Something Worth Reading

BOOK REVIEW:  BLIND ASSASSIN by Margaret Atwood

     I read a lot.  I scan the recommended books on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites.  I read the commentary that crosses my computer from GoodReads.  I try out new novels and new authors through my book club.  I try not to waste my time on lousy novels.  I look for character development that makes me live the book through the character's eyes.

     Books can be characterized according to how they unfold.  There is the cactus...surviving in a dry, dry environment...things move slowly...and there are always prickly thorns to irritate you along the journey.  When you finish a cactus book, you need to have a tall drink of water because the experience was so dry and dessicated.

     Then, there is the rope...many minor strands of plot...twisted and sometimes knotted...pay attention as a little tidbit would be a key factor in the denouement...make sure that you keep track of the various characters and what they are doing to whom for what reason.  If you don't, you will be lost in a tangled mess.  When you finish a rope novel, you will need a pair of scissors to cut yourself away from the tangled mess of events you just journeyed through.  Questions will continue to haunt you and make you look back to check out if you may have missed something.

     Margaret Atwood's book, The Blind Assassin, is such a book.  There are three novels woven throughout the book and at the end of the novel, she reveals things that knock your socks off.  "Why didn't I anticipate THIS happening!!"  She does a great job of enabling the reader to follow along with the three plots.  I am not quite sure how she does it but there are slight variations in the voice that place you in the right character.  This book was written in 2000 and won the Booker Prize.  It was an international bestseller and well worth the time to read.

          The picture is of happiness, the story not.  Happiness is a garden walled with glass;
           there's no way in or out.  In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no
           journeys.  It's loss and regret and misery and yearning that drive the story,
           along its twisted road.                                                         Blind Assassin Epilogue

     The final kind of book is the juggernaut...once the plot starts moving, there is no stopping it.  Dinner can wait...the ticking of the clock in the wee hours of the morning is meaningless...you hold your breath...then BAM!  you get smacked on the side of your head with a development you never dreamed could happen.  Wait...the author did mention something along the way.  "Why didn't I pay attention to details!!!"  Unfortunately, authors who write this kind of book can't seem to keep the energy going and tend to end up with formulaic novels which become bland and passe.  But the first one of its kind that you read can be fabulous.  Haven't read one of these books recently.  Searching for one.  Waiting to write one?

Making do with Scraps

When I was teaching high school at Waiakea, my gifted and talented students read The Color Purple in tandem with the novel, The Scarlet Letter.  The class which was wholly female came up with some amazing insights and discussion.  The comment I remember most is when one of the girls said, "In both books, the female protagonists made beautiful things out of scraps."  Indeed, what a revelation.

In our lives, we throw away too much.  I am guilty of throwing away scrap fabric when I could be saving it to make patchwork quilts or such.  "I just don't have time for that kind of stuff," I rationalize to myself.

This past weekend, we made laulaus which are pieces of meat wrapped in taro leaves and then steamed.  When we cut the beef and the pork, we deboned the meat and cut it into chunks for the laulaus.  I kept the bones and the next day, I prepared a soup for the workers.  I added onions, carrots, potatoes, pasta, seasoning, and a large can of spaghetti sauce.  The soup served the workers and the leftovers have been the basis for five meals so far.

The bones were given to the dogs to enjoy which they relished.

One of my hula sisters commented on how she remembered her popo (Chinese grandmother) would make such a soup for the family using bones as the basis for the broth.  Making use of our resources.  Cooks know that using soup bones are the best for a flavorful stock.  If there is bone marrow which is not sucked up by a knowing eater, it adds to the creaminess of the soup.

Poverty Soup

Beef, pork, chicken, or turkey bones with some meat left on the bones
1 round onion
2-3 stalks of celery.  Use the leaves also.
2-3 carrots
2-3 potatoes
1/2 c uncooked pasta like macaroni
1 can spaghetti sauce
1-2 bay leaves
Seasoning - salt, coarse black pepper, Worcestershire sauce.  Red pepper flakes are optional for a little zing.

Braise the bones with the onion and celery.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until the onion is translucent.
Add enough water to cover the bones.  Simmer until the meat falls off the bones - 2-3 hours.
Remove the bones and skim the fat off of the soup.
Add in the spaghetti sauce and bay leaves.  Simmer for half an hour and then add in the carrots, potatoes and macaroni.
Correct the seasoning and add 2-3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

You can enrich the soup by adding leftovers in the refrigerator such as vegetables, etc.

Enjoy the good life and create something wonderful with scraps.