Summer arrived this past week and it was hot. It was almost 100 degrees for two days and in the 90s on the third. I complained a lot! It only lasted 3 1/2 days but I was miserable. The cold front came through yesterday and it is now in the low 80s with blue skies. I decided to use the oven for a bit. Just long enough to roast some sweet potatoes for a salad. Here is what I did:
I peeled and cubed 3 large sweet potatoes and tossed with olive oil and chopped rosemary. I roasted them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, tossing halfway through.
While the roasting was going on I cooked one cup of lentils in two cups of water. They were just about done at the same time as the potatoes.
While those cooled I sauteed a lot of garlic, some scallions (in lieu of onions), and a chopped large organic red bell pepper in the last tablespoon of garlic flavored olive oil that I had bought in New Mexico. I am going to miss that oil. I tore up three large leaves of kale and put those into the sauteed veggies. I tore up the leaves small enough so that they would wilt but still have some crunch. Most recipes call for spinach, but I went with what I had.
I tossed that all in with the potatoes and lentils and put in the fridge to cool while I made the dressing.
Dressing: 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, 1 tsp of dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar *, and 2 tsps of lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste.
I mixed it all together with the veggies and took a taste. Even slightly warm it was very good. I couldn't wait until it was cold to taste it and I wasn't disappointed. It can be served warm or cold.
* If you are ever in Keene, NH, stop in Your Kitchen Store. The store has the best balsamic vinegar I have ever tasted. You can buy a bottle and then return and have it re-filled. If you aren't in Keene very often I would suggest buying a large bottle. It is very good.
I will be cursing at my mother for the next two days. I will be suffering great indignities in
response to my mother’s fears. Yes, in
keeping with my tradition of telling everyone my business, I am letting ya’all
know that tomorrow I will be refraining from all solid food and drinking a
nasty concoction that will require that I stay close to my own bathroom so that
on Monday perfect strangers will be allowed to enter a place just north of that
which cannot be named in Michigan.
Why do I blame my mother? I understand that I am being
irrational. It has less to do with blame
than it has to do with being reminded of why she died. If she had been willing to go through this
same indignity she may still be here.
She may have been able to take that boat to Paris with my sister. My mother feared, yes, feared, colonoscopies.
In 2006 she had a colonoscopy for which
she had not prepared correctly due to her revulsion of the preparatory
cocktail. Combine that with the fact
that her blood pressure skyrocketed during the procedure and they weren’t able
to travel to the far reaches of her intestinal galaxy, they failed to find what
eventually killed her.
When she started experiencing abdominal pain, she refused
another colonoscopy, stating that she had one the previous year (but we know
how that went) and that she refused to drink the Go-Lytely (isn’t that the most
ridiculous name for something that works like industrial strength Drano?). My head still shakes at this. Yes, I have issues.
My mother is also the same woman who let an ulcer on her leg go
untreated for a year because she knew that it meant she had Type II diabetes
and she didn’t want to deal with it. I
miss her, I really do. I just wish she
was here so I didn’t have to miss her.
Because of her refusal to get things looked after I don’t have a
mother. I feel jealous when I hear
someone talking about their feisty 80 year old mother. I miss the Sunday afternoon phone calls. I wish she was here so I could fuss her out!
So, yes, I may sound like a hypochondriac at times, but
having had four important people in my life die of four different forms of
cancer in the past seven years, I get a little cautious about symptoms. Three out of the four were women and they all
died before the age of 70. At 56 years
old, that just seems a little too close to me.
Death doesn’t scare me. I see
that as a great adventure. What I don’t
want is cancer or any other condition that incapacitates, causes great pain, or
reduces my ability to think, get to the bathroom, or take care of myself. I don’t want my body pumped full of chemicals
to kill something that shouldn’t be there and possibility destroy things that
should be.
If drinking a couple of quarts of nastiness and spending a
lot of time reading on the toilet means that I can avoid all that, then I say
pour me another and get me a another issue of People magazine (I think the
bathroom is the perfect place for reading trash). On Monday, I will be okay. I like the drugs they use and I have an excuse
to sleep for a good portion of the day.
In lieu of photos of the event, I offer this video and song
in honor of the occasion.
