When to say "No"

Working for an acupuncturist, I've been learning quite a bit about how practices are grown and maintained. One of the things I never knew about before was online marketing through services such as Google Adwords, which enables you to place bids on keywords so your company's ad shows up when someone searches for that word or phrase.

Last night, while I was looking over recent activity, Chris commented on one of the keywords. 

"PMS weight gain?" Do people really come in for that? 

We ended up having an interesting conversation/debate about where the lines are drawn in terms of when a minor annoyance or discomfort becomes an issue worth seeking treatment for. What "counts" as a medical condition?

He is more of the "rock and roll, deal with it" camp, whereas I am hesitant to tell someone else to man up—especially a woman at the mercy of her hormones. I feel like everybody has different thresholds for pain and responds to triggers in various ways. How do I know that what feels like one of the less pleasant parts of life to me doesn't equal a debilitating ailment to another person?

(This is why I could never work for an insurance company)

Still, that's not to say Chris doesn't have a point. It's just hard to know when to say when. I always wonder how practitioners make that decision not to treat someone or whether to refer them to someone else. I feel like you really can't teach that, that it's a sense you have to develop through experience, being able to gauge whether a person who comes in for the first time would actually benefit from your services.

It makes me think of something a friend told me in college about palm readers. He said that several different palm readers have refused to read his palm, explaining that it's "too old." This has become how he decides for himself whether someone is for real. 

That sounds like a pretty good measurement to me. We don't always like to hear "No," especially in our "fix me now" culture, but sometimes that is exactly what we need to hear. I don't know about you, but I'd rather hear someone tell me I am equipped to deal with my own issues or at least be pointed in the right direction to someone who can give me the help I need rather than just being given (for a fee), what I think I need or want. 

Experimentation

Chris works a lot of nights, so it's not unusual for me to end up on my own for dinner a couple times a week. Though cooking for one can be a wee bit lonely sometimes, it does give me a chance to experiment and try out new recipe ideas. 

The other night, I added pumpkin ravioli with pumpkin curry sauce to my list of weird-but-good. 

I'd bought a can of pumpkin earlier in the day because I'd had a craving for pumpkin oatmeal (you just mix a half-cup of pumpkin in with the water and oats then cook and add cinnamon—amazing) and figured I should use some of the extra pumpkin. I also happened to be in the mood for curry but didn't feel like having rice or potatoes or tofu or any of the usual curry accoutrements. 

And then I remembered the pumpkin ravioli in the freezer...

It was just crazy enough to work—masaman curry paste with a little light coconut milk, sauteed onion, and pureed pumpkin all cooked together with some steamed broccoli. I poured the sauce over the cooked ravioli and added a little grated parmesan. 

I'd been worried the curry would overpower the vaguely sweet mellowness of the ravioli, but they actually blended pretty nicely. The one thing I'd change would be the broccoli—squash would probably work a little better. Still, I'd make this again if I happened to have all those ingredients just lying around.

Note to self: Must get better at taking food photos. I definitely don't do that dish justice there...

What kinds of things do you like to make when you're just playing around or testing new stuff? 

Beer Butt Chicken

Wednesday's randomness: Check. 

While reading one of my favorite blogs this afternoon, I clicked on a link to an article the author recently posted on DadCentric.com about making Beer Butt Chicken at the home of his wife's Midwife. The pictures he posted say it all. Here are a couple gems. 

If Chris ate meat and if either one of us drank beer (or owned a grill besides our George Forman, for that matter), I'd try this. Maybe. I don't know, though I can be kind of squeamish about handling raw meat. Either way, I don't think I'd slaughter my own chicken. 

I'm trying to think of any vegetarian equivalent to this, but I can't think of any, barring ToFurkey...

French No. 1 in Sleeping and Eating.

Big surprise there. According to a report published Monday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the French spend more time sleeping and eating than the inhabitants of any other "highly developed country."

The average French person gets nine hours of sleep per night, a half-hour more than the average American (I don't know too many Americans who sleep eight-and-a-half hours a night, but whatever).

When it comes to eating habits, the French devote over two hours per day to meals. That's twice the amount of time spent by Americans.

It seems to be paying off for them, as the report shows life expectancy of the country's men and women lagging behind only Japan.

I think France has the right idea, personally. I know I feel better when I'm well rested and make the time to enjoy my meals.

I get a kick out of books and articles like, "How to Eat like a French Woman" or "Live the French Life for a Month: First things first—only wash your hair once a week." I swear to god, look it up.

One thing I do wish would change though is that instead of putting out books with titles like, French Women Don't Get Fat, how about we think more in terms of "French women maintain a healthy weight?"

I guess that wouldn't sell as many copies, though. Americans are just as obsessed with FAT vs THIN as we are with the French.

Nothing says "Good Morning!" like a Diet Coke?

So I have this tendency towards drinking Diet Coke in the morning the way some people drink coffee or tea. I get it from my dad, who likes to start this day with something carbonated...

For years I did this until one morning this fall I just kind of woke up and decided I was ready to stop. It's been tough adjusting, but I usually do all right just having a cup of green tea instead. 

Some mornings, though, like on rainy Mondays, it's just not the same. This morning as I walked towards the subway to work I wondered, as I often do, if I should stop by that deli next door to the office...No. Yes. No. Maybe? 

Eventually, I just decided that not spending the $1.50 was a good enough excuse for me today. I'd also slipped some green tea in my purse to make during the day if I got sleepy. Having a back-up helps. 

The back-and-forth in my head, though, did get me thinking about the great debate that goes on about diet soda and artificial sweeteners in general.

There's so much conflicting information. Some studies claim it leads to obesity, cancer, and a host of other ailments like diabetes.  However, some claim it doesn't have that much of an effect if you don't consume too much of it. A study performed at the University of California San Francisco suggests that diet soda may actually help reduce the risk of forming kidney stones. 

It's hard to say which sources are worth listening to and which ones aren't. It's dizzying trying to keep up with it. I feel like if there's this much uncertainty, though, maybe that's a sign. 

The reason I cut back and stopped keeping diet soda in the house is that I can't just have a little bit. I could drink an entire two-liter bottle all by myself and then go looking for more. After a while I started thinking about how many chemicals I was taking in, and it creeped me out enough to convince me to try going without it. After the first week, it was pretty easy. 

Still, sometimes it's a nice treat, and if I'm paying (way too much) for an individual can, I actually can just stop at one. 

Sheesh, you'd think I was talking about alcohol or something...

White bean and escarole soup

I can't believe it's already May. The weather hasn't quite decided how it feels about warming up yet, apparently. It was cool and drizzly this morning, so I went to the market and bought a ton of escarole and other soup greens to use for a white bean and escarole soup. 

I threw in some veggie sausage near the end, to add a little extra protein. Vegetarian sausage is one of my favorite fake meat items—it's really great sliced up in soups and things, but it's also good if you mash it up with a fork and use it in sauces too. Very easy to work with. 

I also threw in some dried goji berries because I have some lying around and, well, why not? They added some nice color and hopefully some of those ultra-marketable antioxidants without screwing up the flavor of the soup.

 I just had some for lunch, and I am very pleased with myself. For some reason, making soup is one of the most relaxing things—maybe because it's so hard to mess up.

I've got to get better at taking food pictures though. At least you can kind of tell it's the beginnings of soup in this shot...

Brooklyn Food Conference

For those of you in the New York area, the Brooklyn Food Conference is going on in Park Slope this weekend at PS 321 and John Jay High School. 

All day, there will be workshops, presentations, film screenings and other activities taking place that are free and open to the public. 

Topics range from "Why co-ops matter" to "Eating for a healthy pregnancy" to "Food and the elderly: Food insecurity as a way of life" to "School food activism: Making it better."

Some featured speakers include:

*Dan Barber—Executive chef and co-owner of Blue Hill Restaurant

*Anna Lappé—Author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen

*Raj Patel—Author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System

*LaDonna Redmond—President and CEO of the Institute of Community Resource Development in Chicago.

For more information, visit: http://brooklynfoodconference.org