Back to Basics

First an update on the Montrose 19. Our little suburban school district has made it into the NY Times once again. The students were arraigned and pleaded Not Guilty to the felony charge of placing a false bomb. They are barred from graduation ceremonies this evening. Son #1 came home and did 5 hours of school service in order to regain the privilege of attending his graduation. The principal did get all of the senior students into the auditorium and had a conversation with them about the situation. He did allow them to express their anger and although he will not budge on the issue of them attending graduation, he did listen to suggestions about how they could acknowledge them. I was glad he was at least willing to listen and didn't just lecture them about "appropriate behavior."

Although the events of this past week haven't made it any easier to get back to basics, I have been struggling the past month or so to get all the pieces working together. I have eaten too many bagels! I have not done any strength training for 2 weeks! I have used lack of time to prepare food as an excuse for eating poorly. I have ridden my bike and run some miles, but I haven't been able to do anything consistently. But there's no use punishing myself with negative thoughts. Every morning presents a new opportunity to get it right, and yesterday was one of those days. I went to the gym and purchased another 12 pack of personal training sessions. I then had MPT (My Personal Trainer) beat the crap out of me in 30 minutes. After not lifting for 2 weeks, I am paying for it today. I am sore everywhere. Very. sore. My kids are both now officially GFTS (gone for the summer) so it will be easier to spend time taking care of myself. Son #1 is actually coming home today just for the day because he is graduating from high school, but that won't put a dent in my lifestyle. It does a bunch of other things, like fill me with pride and cause me to pause and reflect, but I've already written about that.

My mom is visiting (because of son #1's graduation), so in the late afternoon we went to the gourmet supermarket and then I did some cooking. My mom never tasted collards so I cooked up a whole bunch of beautiful bright green collards with onions and craisins and toasted pine nuts. I made this gazpacho for my vegetarian self, adding scallions and fresh cilantro and some red pepper too. I made salmon steaks with a teriyaki glaze for the meateaters and we had a delicious dinner. Mom liked the collards.

Black Bean Gazpacho

• (2) 15 oz. cans black beans
• 4 peeled and finely chopped garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup lime juice (2 limes)
• 1 quart tomato juice
• 2 peeled, seeded, finely chopped cukes
• 1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped, or 28 oz can Italian plum tomatoes
• 2 finely chopped onions
• salt, pepper, and sugar

Drain and rinse the beans. Add garlic, vinegar, lime juice, tomato juice, cukes, tomatoes, and onions. Add whatever other vegetables you like in your gazpacho. Blend and chill.

Season with salt, pepper, and a little sugar.

To speed up prep, put balck beans, tomato juice and canned tomatoes in the frig.