Things are moving here on the food front. We subscribed to a box of groceries harvested off a local farm and delivered each week. This was the 2nd week of what we expect is a challenge to eat all the vegetables before the next week’s batch arrives.
A year ago, we visited Ithaca, N.Y. and ate several times in the Moosewood Restaurant. Until then, I wasn’t that much of a fan of the Moosewood Cookbook, The Broccoli Forest and other Mollie Katzen books. But after our third trip to the place in as many days, I was strongly converted. It was notably delicious food, no mistake.
As a college freshman, I was required to write a research paper. I fooled and squirmed and handed in a paper saying I hadn’t done the assignment and couldn’t find an idea. My prof, the same one who had brought Lynn to my attention by asking her if her name was Finnish, kindly gave me a second chance. I tried the subject of nutrition, since as a wrestler, I had heard things that didn’t make sense, such as eating a 1 oz. chocolate bar would result in several ounces of weight gain. From then on, I have been a fan of good nutrition information. Over the years, I noticed articles by Prof. Jean Mayer of Tufts University were especially helpful.
Then, I found the name Walter Willett on more and more helpful articles. He has emphasized that the right fats are essential to good weight control and good health. He is the chair of nutrition at Harvard Medical School. When I found a book on good eating and good weight control co-authored by Mollie Katzen and Walter Willett, I immediately began checking the local libraries for a copy. Neither public nor university has it so I ordered it used from Amazon. It is great.
Lynn is the queen of vegetables. Maybe queen of the promotion of vegetables since she is forever advocating them but neither of us eats 5 to 9 servings of vegetables and fruits a day that Katzen, Willett and many others recommend. As I age, I keep getting heavier and I don’t like it. I can probably learn to adjust to it but I would rather lose weight, at least some. I read recently that young or old, rich or homeless, we all approach a buffet with internal circuitry that sends us to the calorie-rich foods. People tend to refer to lettuce, carrots and other vegetables as “rabbit food.” Who wants to be a chicken-hearted little rabbit, nibbling and nibbling, when a good steak or rich brownie is waiting? That circuitry has been directing me to more calories than this aging body can burn. It doesn’t have to be that I am a food robot, gulping down what is not good for me.
Yesterday, we picked up our 2nd delivery of farm vegetables. Included were radishes, the same food that involved Rapunzel in her hairy adventures and the same food served in German beer halls as a snack. Note: very low calories but healthy and with a kick. The trouble is we rarely eat radishes. We profess to like them and the ones in the box are very tasty but still…rabbit food and raw. That doesn’t really spell D-I-N-N-E-R. Lynn was determined. For one thing, we have to think differently if we are going to eat more veggies and if we are going to survive the coming vegetable wave from the farm boxes each week.
With a little help from the internet, she sautéed slice radishes and the green radish tops. They went well with the hopping john. We feel like budding Mollies and Walters. Just watch us shrink.
