Comfort Food: A Mostly Mediterranean Summer Menu

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Summer is my favorite season. I don’t complain or whine about the heat, or even the humidity. Many days this summer have been over 90ºF; and the sun and heat make me happy.  All I need to remember is how unpleasantly cold — really freezing — it was this past winter. In summer, I’m happy to spend time outdoors in a way I’m not when the weather’s cold.

Summer produce is my other favorite thing about the season. Savor summer fruits and vegetables now when they’re at the height of flavor. Farmers’ markets in some areas are already introducing late summer/early fall produce. It’s the in-between season and the new fall produce is not as flavorful as it will be later on. For instance, apples won’t be really sweet until there is a chill in the air. Eat summer produce while you still can!

My sister, Cheryl, and I put together a mostly Mediterranean summer lunch menu and tried it out on some friends. I want to start entertaining more since I do it so seldom. Plus, my friends wanted to check out Cheryl’s issues of American Womankind magazine (reviewed here).

Our lunch menu is a departure from usual summer barbecue fare, but it’s still about comfort food. We checked out what produce between our two kitchens we already had on hand.

Tomatoes are such a summer vegetable (though it’s really a fruit), which also means  they’re especially flavorful now. I decided to make a Greek yogurt tomato soup.

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Prepped ingredients for a tomato soup

Greek yogurt tomato soup

Greek yogurt tomato soup

I had a couple of huge zucchinis in the refrigerator and more ripe tomatoes that needed to be consumed. Ratatouille was starting to look like a menu item, so I bought an eggplant. This menu was shaping up to have a Mediterranean flair.

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Eggplants at the grocery store

What else would go with this meal? Mushrooms! Cheryl sautéed wild mushrooms: etoki, shiitake, oyster, portabello, and crimini.  (Wegman’s has the best grocer selection of wild mushrooms I’ve ever seen!) Mushrooms, by the way, are also powerful support for the immune system. I eat them almost daily.

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What to do for protein? A favorite summer comfort food is deviled eggs. I served two types as an appetizer: wasabi and Indian curry. The curry deviled eggs were our favorite! Umm!!! The nicoise olives in the center were another Mediterranean touch.

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2 types of deviled eggs: wasabi and Indian curry

We also had a small platter of Jamon Iberico de Bellota — the finest Spanish ham there is.  This type of ham is sliced paper thin. It is so rich and buttery. Unlike the ordinary ham in the States, you don’t need to cut off the fat on Iberico de Bellota ham because it’s very edible.  A few of these slices suffice for a delightful gustatory experience. (Shout out to Wegman’s again for carrying precious packages of this pork.)

Jamon Iberico de Bellota

Cole slaw is another familiar comfort food. Cheryl’s version was an Asian slaw. It was delicious and added a crunchy element to the meal. (Don’t underestimate the power of cabbage. It’s a cancer-fighting food. Cabbage is in the family of cruciferous vegetables, which include broccoli, brussels sprouts, watercress, bok choy, and cauliflower.)

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Main course - vegetarian

The Menu

Appetizers

Deviled eggs (Recipes – D’Lish Deviled Eggs by Kathy Casey)

Nicoise olives

Iberico de Bellota ham

Main Course

Greek yogurt tomato soup – (Recipe – Moosewood Restaurant:  Cooking for Health)

Ratatouille (Recipe – originally from Alice Waters, found here.)

Sauteed wild mushrooms (Recipe – Spain: Recipes and Traditions from the Verdant Hills of the Basque Country to the Coastal Waters of Andalusia by Jeff Koehler)

Asian slaw (Recipe – Adapted from Yum Universe by Heather Crosby)

Dessert

Peach, nectarine, and blueberry crisp (gluten-free) (See recipe here.)

Peach and wild blueberry crisp

If you follow a Paleo diet, you’d want to replace the topping on the gluten-free dessert because it contains oats. A possible solution could be to replace the oats with a combination of unsweetened coconut chips, chopped almonds, and almond flour. It won’t be quite as crunchy as the oats, but it would be Paleo-compliant. Any suggestions from the Paleo community are welcome!

Also, if you eat the Paleo way, you’d want to substitute the dressing in the slaw and the mayonnaise in the deviled eggs. They contain sesame oil and canola oil, which the Paleo community refers to as “industrial oils.” I haven’t found a mayo in stores yet that is made from 100% olive oil.  The easy switch for the Paleo diet is to make a cole slaw with a homemade mayonnaise containing olive oil. The mayo can be used in both the slaw and the deviled eggs. You can find a mayo recipe here.

Last, but not least I had another special, very well-behaved guest: Lulu, Cheryl’s Havanese. She was easily thwarted from her one mad dash for the ham.

Lulu - lunch guest

See how you can make the most of the last of summer’s bounty. Enjoy!

Aging: It Doesn’t Have to be Straight Downhill

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Aging — it happens every minute of our lives and starts at birth.  Aging — it  can neither be denied nor held at bay, not even with alluring products and superfoods that claim “anti-aging” magic. In developed countries, we’re living longer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going well.

Let’s aim for living and aging well.

I wonder all the time how well will I age, and what kind of old person will I be?  From observing people around me — and remembering the people I no longer see — I figure that how well anyone gets on down this road is partly in their control, and partly a crapshoot (including the vagaries of the gene pool).

My parents aged differently, although my father had quite a long run. He was house-bound and no longer driving his car the last two years of his life. When Daddy was having a rough time, he’d chuckle and recite this poem:

The Golden Years are here at last

I cannot see, I cannot pee

I cannot chew, I cannot screw

My memory shrinks, my hearing stinks

No sense of smell, I look like hell

The Golden Years are here at last

The Golden Years can kiss my ass

(Original version by Kimers)

My mother, on the other hand —  “Ms. Daisy” —  is still vibrant in her late 80s, having adventures of her own. I also know a certain nonagenarian, who’s closer to 100 years of age than not, who recently went on a Panama Canal cruise with his younger girlfriend. My three siblings and I share this gene pool and it’s not clear yet how things will go for us. It seems that I’m the one with some kind of weakness, having had major surgeries of the back, abdomen, and breast at a fairly young age. But, so far so good for us all.

American culture glorifies youth, who often act like older people are just in the way; that they have an expiration date or a shelf life. I saw as much in trite comments about former President Jimmy Carter on Twitter after his cancer diagnosis was announced. A few comments were along the lines of: “He’s had a long life, no need to be sad” and “It’s gotta happen sometime,” etc.  This former President continues to add value to this world into his nineties. He is a treasure, plain and simple. We should all strive to be fractionally as productive. (And Mr. Carter is a lifelong tennis player, too.)

Don’t underestimate old folk or write them off.  I was in my 20s when I faced an unlikely opponent in a tennis tournament. She walked slowly onto the court wearing surgical stockings and a thin sweater, like she had a chill. She carried only her racquet, not a tournament bag full of gear like the rest of us. To me, she looked old as hell. I thought: ‘I’ve got this.  I’ll overpower that old lady and run every ball down.’ Old Lady had a different notion. She planted herself in the region of the court called “No Man’s Land” to return my serves and ground strokes. (Few people have the skills to play an entire match there.) Old Lady took all my balls on the rise and yanked me from corner to corner. Hardly moving from that area the whole match — and certainly not breaking a sweat — Old Lady ended it with ruthless efficiency. I was running balls down all right, many of which were out of reach.

This is how I looked.

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Old Lady waxed me with wisdom.

The other aspect of aging is accepting and feeling positive about physical changes you cannot help without surgery. I’m not a fan of plastic surgery because I don’t want to have “puppet-face.” Besides, it’s a waste of money; gravity wins over time.  Speaking of which, looking down in a mirror revealed to me gravity’s effects on my face and neck. I was, like, damn….  Anyway, there are a lot of things to come to terms with as time marches on. I’ll embrace the aging process because I’m happy to be here, and I’m still me. There’s always some wise person to remind us that growing old beats the alternative.

This photo of tennis teammates makes my point for living and aging well. (Teammates ranged in age from a few thirty-somethings to one septagenarian, featured below. To say this team was “selective” is an understatement. Everybody kicked butt!)

Teammates from the Maryland State Champions 2015, 3.5 18 & over women's team

Vicious Vollies / Prince George’s County – Maryland State Champions 2015, 3.5 18 & over women’s team – Photo courtesy of Tinya Coles-Cieply

Taking an example from a certain President and a certain tennis teammate, this is how I want to be in my Senior Years:

  • Helpful and an inspiration to others
  • Still an athlete, playing USTA league matches in every age category from 18 & over  to Super Seniors (ages 65-85)
  • Not dependent on meds
  • Still traveling
  • Full of joy
  • Hanging with friends (young and old)

How do you see yourself in your Senior Years?

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