Random shots

 

Detachment

 

"Detachment is not that 

you should own nothing.

But that nothing 

should own you."  -Ali ibn abi Talib

Rocco Dancing at Diwali Celebration SMU

 

A Thanksgiving Prayer

 Dear God, Please watch over my children,

today and always.

 Wrap them in your constant love and protect them from all harm, seen and  unseen. 

 Guide their steps with wisdom, surround them with kindness, and fill their hearts with peace and strength.

 

Even when I can't be by their side, I ask that You be there.

 Walking with them, speaking to their hearts, and reminding them they are never alone.

 Let their lives be full of purpose, joy and safety. 

 Cover them with Your grace in every season, and help them

  to always feel Your presence leading them forward. 

Recipe Chocolate Sauce Turtle Creek Lady

 2 scant cup sugar

4 T. cocoa

4 T. flour

4 T. Butter

2 tsp. vanilla

2 scant cups evap. milk

Mix the sugar, cocoa and flour in a saucepan.  Heat just a bit. Add butter and then slowly add the milk.  Bring to a boil and boil for exactly 2 minutes. stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla. serve warm.  

Roasted Butternut Squash with Lentils (NYTimes)

 

 

 

 

 

 The secret to making winter squash taste even better is to bump up its sweetness by roasting it, then pair it with sweet and sour ingredients, like this pomegranate molasses and honey dressing. Thinly slicing the squash speeds up roasting time, and, if you have access to precooked lentils, feel free to add them here. You can also substitute other soft, creamy cheeses for the feta, such as goat or sheep’s milk cheeses. Olive oil can leave a bitter aftertaste in emulsions, so, if you prefer to avoid it, use a neutral oil like grapeseed. Serve as a fall side, or alongside warm slices of generously buttered sourdough toast as a light meal.

 

Ingredients

Yield:2 to 4 servings

For the Salad

• ½cup black or green lentils
• 1(3-inch) cinnamon stick
• 4garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• Kosher salt
• 1(1-pound) butternut squash
• 1tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• ½teaspoon black pepper
• ¼cup crumbled feta
• 4scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 2tablespoons roasted, salted pumpkin seeds

For the Dressing

• ¼cup extra-virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil
• 2tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• 1tablespoon honey
• ½teaspoon ground cumin, toasted
• ¼teaspoon ground cayenne
• ½teaspoon black pepper
• Kosher salt

Your first order gets $20 off and free delivery.

 

 

Preparation

1. Step 1

   Heat oven to 400 degrees. Pick any debris from the lentils, then rinse the lentils under running water. Transfer them to a medium saucepan, then add the cinnamon, garlic and 1 teaspoon salt.

2. Step 2

   Add enough water to cover everything by 1 inch. Bring the water to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to low and let simmer until the lentils are tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Drain the lentils, discard the cinnamon and garlic, then transfer the lentils to a large bowl.

3. Step 3

   While the lentils cook, prepare the squash: Trim and discard the top and bottom ends of the squash. Peel the squash, halve it lengthwise, and remove and discard the strings and seeds. Slice the squash crosswise ¼-inch thick and place the pieces on a baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

4. Step 4

   Roast the squash until completely tender, slightly caramelized and golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let cool for 10 minutes. Once cool, add to the lentils.

5. Step 5

   While the squash cooks, prepare the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil, pomegranate molasses, honey, cumin, cayenne and black pepper. Taste and season to taste with salt.

6. Step 6

   Sprinkle the feta, scallions and pumpkin seeds over the lentils and squash. Pour 2 to 3 tablespoons of the dressing over the lentils and squash. Serve warm or at room temperature, with the remaining dressing on the side.

 tips:

 

We gravitate to this awesome meal every 2-3 weeks for the past few months. For 4 (incl. 2 young teenagers) we: - double the salad ingredients but make a single batch of the dressing - slice the squash a bit thinner so it gets more crispy bits - cook up about 12oz of hearty grains (e.g. farro, freekeh, einkorn) To serve: on top of a bed of arugula or baby spinach goes the cooked grains, then the lentils, then the feta and green onions, then the dressing, with the undressed squash on top. Yum!

 

You can make pomegranate molasses by boiling down pomegranate juice, which is much more widely available.

 https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021467-roasted-butternut-squash-with-lentils-and-feta

Taking the Time to hear someone's story

 

This story is such a good lesson for us all. Human kindness and empathy are things that need to be at the forefront of our interactions with others. This story reminds us of that:“I know the exact pressure it takes to crack a rib during  CPR. But last Tuesday, I learned a patient’s silence can break a doctor’s soul.

His name was David Chen, but on my screen, he was "Male, 82, Congestive Heart Failure, Room 402." I spent seven minutes with him that morning. Seven minutes to check his vitals, listen to the fluid in his lungs, adjust his diuretics, and type 24 required data points into his Electronic Health Record. He tried to tell me something, gesturing toward a faded photo on his nightstand. I nodded, said "we'll talk later," and moved on. There was no billing code for "talk later."

Mr. Chen died that afternoon. As a nurse quietly cleared his belongings, she handed me the photo. It was him as a young man, beaming, his arm around a woman, standing before a small grocery store with "CHEN'S MARKET" painted on the window.

The realization hit me like a physical blow. I knew his ejection fraction and his creatinine levels. I knew his insurance provider and his allergy to penicillin. But I didn't know his wife's name or that he had built a life from nothing with his own two hands. I hadn’t treated David Chen. I had managed the decline of a failing organ system. And in the sterile efficiency of it all, I had lost a piece of myself.

The next day, I bought a small, black Moleskine notebook. It felt like an act of rebellion.

My first patient was Eleanor Gable, a frail woman lost in a sea of white bedsheets, diagnosed with pneumonia. I did my exam, updated her chart, and just as I was about to leave, I paused. I turned back from the door.

"Mrs. Gable," I said, my voice feeling strange. "Tell me one thing about yourself that’s not in this file."

Her tired eyes widened in surprise. A faint smile touched her lips. "I was a second-grade teacher," she whispered. "The best sound in the world... is the silence that comes just after a child finally reads a sentence on their own."

I wrote it down in my notebook. Eleanor Gable: Taught children how to read.

I kept doing it. My little black book began to fill with ghosts of lives lived.

Frank Miller: Drove a yellow cab in New York for 40 years.

Maria Flores: Her mole recipe won the state fair in Texas, three years running.

Sam Jones: Proposed to his wife on the Kiss Cam at a Dodgers game.

Something began to change. The burnout, that heavy, gray cloak I’d been wearing for years, started to feel a little lighter. Before entering a room, I’d glance at my notebook. I wasn’t walking in to see the "acute pancreatitis in 207." I was walking in to see Frank, who probably had a million stories about the city. My patients felt it too. They'd sit up a little straighter. A light would flicker back in their eyes. They felt seen.

The real test came with Leo. He was 22, angry, and refusing dialysis for a condition he’d brought on himself. He was a "difficult patient," a label that in hospital-speak means "we've given up." The team was frustrated.

I walked into his room and sat down, leaving my tablet outside. We sat in silence for a full minute. I didn't look at his monitors. I looked at the intricate drawings covering his arms.

"Who's your artist?" I asked.

He scoffed. "Did 'em myself."

"They're good," I said. "This one... it looks like a blueprint."

For the first time, his gaze lost its hard edge. "Wanted to be an architect," he muttered, "before... all this."

We talked for twenty minutes about buildings, about lines, about creating something permanent. We didn't mention his kidneys once. When I stood up to leave, he said, so quietly I almost missed it, "Okay. We can try the dialysis tomorrow."

Later that night, I opened my Moleskine. I wrote: Leo Vance: Designs cities on paper.

The system I work in is designed to document disease with thousands of data points. It logs every cough, every pill, every lab value. It tells the story of how a body breaks down.

My little black book tells a different story. It tells the story of why a life mattered.

We are taught to practice medicine with data, but we heal with humanity. And in a world drowning in information, a single sentence that says, "I see you," isn't just a kind gesture.

It’s the most powerful medicine we have.”

Ageless

 

"I asked an elderly woman once what it was like to be old and to know that the majority of her life was now behind her.

She told me that she has been the same age her entire life. She said the voice inside of her head had never aged. She has always just been the same girl. Her mother's daughter. She had always wondered when she would grow up and be an old woman.

She said she watched her body age and her faculties dull but the person she is inside never got tired. She never aged. She never changed.

Remember, our spirits are eternal. Our souls are forever. The next time you encounter an elderly person, look at them and know they are still a child, just as you are still a child and children will always need love, attention and purpose."

~ Author Unknown

Pasadena Buddhist Temple Dinner Dance

 

 

Tonight we attended a fund raiser event to support the Pasadena Buddhist Temple restoration project. This is one of the temples that we love to go to for the annual summer Obon/dance festivals. This year it could not be held as they were still making repairs after the devastating Eaton fires that destroyed so much of Altadena in January. The temple was spared but suffered considerable damage. Organizers say the event will celebrate "resilience, gratitude, and community solidarity.

We had so much fun beginning with a special “sake” tasting by a certified sake specialist, followed by dinner and dancing in the temple gymnasium . A wonderful night for a great cause.

 

 

Special VIP Sake tasting:  

 

Sake from different regions of Japan

We saw some old friends, Holly Kawahara Etmund's sister "Barbara"

 

 Marilyn Murata's brother.

 

 

Met a new friend at our Sake tasting. He grew up in Altadena. I believe his name was Dale Okuno. 

 

 Time to dance!  

 

 Thank you Mary and Dave!  We had a wonderful evening.