Going for the goods: part 2

Since arriving back in Loma Linda, we have launched a busy period of our lives. For me, the busyness centers on 2nd year Medical school and the Step 1 board exam this spring. In addition I am taking classes for a Masters in Ethics. Christy has also embarked on a stage of increased busyness. She recently accepted a full-time cardiac ICU nursing job at the University hospital. In her "free time", she will continue to be an on-call nurse for Linda Valley Care Center.

An idle mind may be the devil's workshop, but so is a neglected life. When we get so busy that we stop paying attention to life, dysfunction creeps in unnoticed. And the more maniacally focused we are on the 101 things we have to accomplish each a day, the longer we remain oblivious.

For us, living a simple life in Loma Linda requires constant vigilance. We stand against a steady stream of consumeristic society. It gently, insidiously, almost inexorably pushes us downstream one unnoticed inch at a time. The busier we become, the harder it is to notice these small concessions.

I won't confess a detailed list of our recent acquisitions, but we have certainly acquired more "stuff" over the past few months. In every instance, the acquisition seemed fully justified, but I feel a vague uneasiness as I look back at the aggregate. Did we really need any of it? Was it all necessary, or just nice?

After a month of medical school, the confiscation of our cherries seems to have happened years ago, but the memory will continue to serve a purpose in our lives. Whether that official was really "going for the goods" or merely fulfilling his duty, we don't want to be focused on acquisition. The loss of a basket of cherries should not unduly bother us, (it didn't). What matters so much more is the people and relationships in our lives. Living a simple life would have no purpose otherwise. We don't seek simplicity out of some desire for ascetic purity. The point is to lighten our wagon so that we can journey faster and better towards towards God and the people He as placed in our lives.

Black Gold

God has more than made up for our cherry fiasco (see last post) by blessing us with an abundance of blackberries. We scouted out "the spot" last year and noted how incredibly many blackberry bushes there were. Unfortunately, they were past their season at the time. But this year we kept a close eye on them and as soon as we saw them getting ripe, we arrived with baskets and buckets and boxes in hand!

The bushes run up and down the banks of a rushing creek, with heavily laden branches hanging down to the water. The berries are absolutely luscious - big, juicy, and sweet from their constant water source.  We have spent several amazing hot afternoons wading in the creek picking handfuls of pure black gold, as Barry likes to call it :)

So far we have frozen 5 gallons, canned blackberry syrup, baked blackberry scones, and just today, I made a vegan, raw, gluten-free blackberry cheesecake. I can't wait to see how it turns out! (Recipe here.)

I thought I'd give you the recipe for the blackberry scones, which were inspired by my brother, Joel.  He suggested the idea and it sounded too good to pass up.  I based it off of this recipe but made mine vegan and with 100% whole wheat - they were really yummy!

Blackberry Orange Scones

Ingredients

3 cups White Wheat Flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

8 Tbsp oil or margarine (I used both)

Zest and juice of 1 orange

3/4 cup soy milk

1-2 cups fresh blackberries

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 F.
• Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.
• Add in oil or margarine and mix well.
• Add orange zest and juice, and soy milk.  Lightly mix to incorporate.  Add more milk as needed to create a dough that holds together.  
• Roll out dough into a 12x8 rectangle (I rolled mine on a sheet of wax paper)
• Place berries on the long side, leaving half of the area to fold over on top of the berries.
• Seal the edges and then cut into 8 triangles.  
• Place a few berries on top of the scones
• Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
• Enjoy!

Going for the goods

We returned to Loma Linda California from Kelowna British Columbia a few days ago, driving for over 25 hours in a attempt to make it back for one of my ethics classes. We took shifts through the night, and during the night shifts I wondered if my fatigue represented a risk to other drivers as well as ourselves. Was I employing consequentialist ethics to justify our drive?

By late morning, we had entered northern California. Then we saw the road block. This would not have meant much to us under normal circumstances, but we happened to be riding home with a large basket of fresh cherries. These cherries had passed inspection with hardly a glance when we crossed from Canada into the U.S. but we quickly discovered that they were contraband in California.

The officious little man who confiscated my cherries at the roadblock offered little convincing justification for his actions. He said something about keeping pests out of the Central Valley, but were these pests present where we came from? Probably not. And did he really think we were plotting to strew cherries through the Central Valley instead of continuing our logical route on 395, East of the Sierra mountains until we reached Southern (not Central) California? Probably not. In all likelihood, this man, this unfortunate and lonely official, was merely fulfilling his duty to enforce a stringent California law.

But I couldn't help imagine this guy digging his hands into our beautiful cherries and greedily congratulating himself on one of the premiere perks of his duty to enforce California Agricultural law upon hapless travelers. Yes, I decided, that guy was going for the goods. He was rather like all those TSA officials who confiscate homemade raspberry jam because it is technically a liquid, and as we all know so well, liquids like raspberry jam can be used to make dangerous explosives.

To be continued...

Ways to find Green in Southern California!

We've been eating a lot mexican food these days. It's cheap, it's quick, and it's tasty! There have been lots of new things to try but the basic building blocks are always the same: tortillas or chips topped with beans and whatever fresh items we have on hand. Usually, it's a lot of green!

After spending some vacation time at home this summer, we've been missing the lush woods of the East. SoCal is quite a few shades away from green. But we've been working on finding ways to put green back into our lives; we go hiking next to creeks and spend lots of time down in our little garden. But another way is through the food we place on our table!

Clockwise from top: Cilantro, green peppers, limes, cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, tomatillos, and more green peppers.

I also tried my hand at some homemade salsa verde. It was delicious!

Backyard Marmalade (Take Two!)

This time our marmalade attempts were a success! Unlike last time, this marmalade, made up of Meyer lemons and oranges, set up beautifully. It only had the tiniest hint of bitterness, which, I've learned, is appropriate for a good marmalade. Barry says that it is "the best marmalade I've ever had". It really is delicious. The vanilla bean adds some depth that I wasn't expecting. Since we made this batch, we've made several more batches - even one with strawberries! They've all been yummy. Here's the basic recipe and instructions.

Backyard Marmalade

Overview

This method is a two day process but don't let that scare you away. I found it much easier to divide the work over two days instead of trying to do everything in one day. You can enjoy it more, plus the flavors really develop when you let it sit overnight. I also used a different method for the oranges and the Meyer lemons. Because the Meyer lemons have such thin skin, you don't have to take off the white pith, which makes things much easier!

Ingredients

10 Meyer Lemons

10 sweet oranges (We're not sure what type our backyard oranges are.)

6 cups of sugar

1 vanilla bean

Special Equipment

Small Canning jars (I used 8 oz and 4 oz jars)

Canning equipment

Cheesecloth

Candy thermometer (optional)

Day One

1. Wash and dry all fruit. I used 10 Meyer lemons and 10 oranges. (We're not sure of the exact variety of our backyard oranges. They are sweet and very juicy!)

2. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the zest from the oranges. Avoid as much of the white pith as possible. Cut the zest into thin ribbons using a large chef's knife and place in a nonreactive pot. (You want them thinner than what is pictured to the side. I hadn't finished cutting them.)

3. Oranges
Take the pith-covered oranges and cut the ends off. Set the orange up on end and, working around the whole orange, cut off the bitter pith.

4. Using a paring knife and holding the orange over your pot with the zest, separate the orange segments from the membrane and drop into the bowl. Here's a great how-to video that I found. Also remove any seeds you find and place in another clean bowl. Once you've finished with an orange, squeeze out all the juice from the membrane into your pot and place the remaining membrane with the discarded seeds to save for later.

5. Meyer Lemons
Cut each Meyer lemon in half and, working over your pot, use a paring knife to make a notch and cut around the membranous middle. Here is a great picture of the process. Squeeze juice from this middle section into the pot and then place the membrane aside in your membrane/seed bowl. Use your fingers to remove any seeds from the rest of the lemon, dropping them into your membrane/seed bowl.

6. Using a sharp knife, cut the lemons into thin slices.
You don't have to separate the peel from the flesh. Add slices to the pot.

7. Drain any extra juice from your membrane/seed bowl into the pot.

8. Cover the fruit with water and simmer for 5 minutes. Let mixture cool and then place in the fridge overnight.

9. Place your reserved membranes and seeds in the center of a large cheesecloth square. Tie corners tightly together and place on a plate in the refrigerator.

Day Two

1. Sterilize the jars you plan to use and simmer the lids in a small pot. My marmalade made enough to fill six 8 oz and three 4 oz jars.

2. Slice your vanilla bean lengthwise and use a small knife or your thumb to remove the seeds. Add seeds to the orange/lemon mixture. Also add empty vanilla bean pods to the pot.

3. Simmer mixture for 5 minutes and then add 6 cups of sugar.

4. Boil mixture until it reaches the jelling point (check the wrinkle test) and/or 220 F (Mine only got to 216 F). The wrinkle test is done by placing a spoonful of marmalade on a chilled surface. I used a clean jar lid that had been in the freezer for 30 minutes. It should still be thin at this point. Return after a few minutes to see if it passes the wrinkle test, which means it will have thickened up and will wrinkle with you push it with your finger. You may have to add some added pectin at this point. Mine worked out fine but on a later batche (probably when I used less sugar), I had to add some pectin. Note: It should not be the consistency of marmalade at this point. It will seem much too thin and runny. It will thicken to the final consistency when cooled. However, it should pass the above tests. If it does not, it won't be thick enough later.

5. Remove the vanilla bean from the mixture and rinse. Cut into smaller lengths to add to your jars before processing.

6. Ladle mixture into jars and add your vanilla bean pieces. Clean jar rims before placing sterilized lids and screwing them down tight. Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.

7. Enjoy!

Three helpful sources that I referenced:

1. Food In Jar's Three-Citrus Marmalade

2. Hitchhiking to Heaven's Double Meyer Marmalade

3. David Lebovitz's Bergamot Marmalade

Loquats, Haiku, and the Good Life

Until last week, we didn't even know that loquats existed, but one of our neighbors gave us some on Friday. They had a decadent, faintly tropical flavor. Sweet and juicy, they were more like an apricot than anything else, but also possessed undeniable notes of mangosteen, kumquat, and--with some imaginative insight--even apple. They were too good to squander on fresh eating alone, so we decided to preserve some of them as loquat jam.

This morning, I looked up loquats on Wikipedia. They originated in Southeastern China, home to a famous poet, Li Bai, who mentioned them frequently in his poems. There's something sublime about oriental art. Take this painting of loquats.

Or this beautiful haiku by the great Bashuo Matsuo himself:

An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond

splash! Silence again.

What is the Good Life? It is living simply, joyfully, and without affectation, watching a frog jump into a pond, for instance, or making loquat jam.

God, Galileo, and Grumpy Teddy Bears: Part 3

God, Galileo

and the Grumpy Teddy Bears

what was I thinking?

Well, it all started over a breakfast conversation with Christy. She was having a hard time getting much from the gospels during morning devotions. I sympathized. Like Christy, I had grown up in a Christian home and heard the gospel stories so many times that my original fascination was long gone. Then it occurred to me that our struggle to appreciate the gospels exemplified one of the great vexations of life: familiarity breeds contempt.

Yes, familiarity may also breed fondness, but not often, not without effort, pain, and frustration. And most of the time, we don't think it's worth it. We prefer something new, or if this is not available, then stronger doses of the old, anything but the same old same old.

This insatiable thirst for novelty is not all bad. Exploring, learning, growing--these are good things and we are made to engage in them. But engage is the key word. Newness alone will not create the joy of a new experience. We must engage the new and often sacrifice our comfort in the doing.

Engagement connotes action, attention, and commitment. If Navy SEALS attack the Taliban in Afghanistan, the ensuing engagement is forceful, focused, and totally committed. When gears engage, they move in sync, irrevocably linked until release. Getting engaged to Christy was a moment of supremely attentive action entailing a lifelong commitment.

Engagement is a total, all encompassing experience, and we are afraid of it. When we fail to engage a new experience, however, the newness soon wears out. Hence our malaise with the old and desperate search for the new.

Ironically, the harder we try to shun the old, the less successful we become. Perhaps this is because the greatest source of discovery lies in the ordinary old everyday things of life. Indeed, as Galileo and the Grumpy Teddy Bears demonstrate, engagement with the ordinary reveals a vast world of untapped newness. And it is this exhaustless world of beauty and variety which brings me God.

There is a broad consensus among many thoughtful and spiritual people that Jesus transmitted Divinity to the world. Exactly how or why he did this is hotly debated with little resolution, principally because all groups with an interest have disparate--and unmovable--a priori commitments. Few, however, turn to the gospel accounts for a look at Jesus sans religious and intellectual baggage. Suppose we tried, what would we see?

Well, what I see is a man who is above all supremely engaged in life. He is engaged with such fierce attention that his every act becomes a moment of creative commitment. For him, the ordinary is anything but mundane. Every leprous beggar, prostitute, and pharisee is precious, full of hidden newness waiting to be recognized. To me, this is the essence of Divinity. This is Love personified. This is God.