Category Archives: Education

First Petition

Posted on October 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the People. Will you sign it? http://wh.gov/2Ur

Today I received disturbing news that there is a petition at the White House that calls for banning certain questions from the Census that deal with race and ethnicity.

I worked for an education organization in a poor part of town that was mostly African American.  These folks had never seen a Census worker, and the 2000 Census wanted to make sure their voice was heard.

Schools were built in the neighborhoods that were too small, because local government depended on Census data to see how many local children would be going to those schools.  The schools were too small and had out-buildings as soon as they were built.

These children were marginalized before they were born and now have to go to school in temporary classrooms.  Now someone wants to eliminate race and ethnicity from the Census data and I say no!  Until there is some kind of equality for people of color, people who live in poorer parts of town that the Census takers don’t want to go to, these questions must remain in the Census and the government should go out of its way to make sure all people are counted.  The last Census went door-to-door here, but probably didn’t go through the poorer neighborhoods.

I’ve introduced a petition, President Obama, to make sure underserved neighborhoods are counted.  Yes, an old, upper middle-class white woman cares about Southeastern San Diego and other poor communities.  After all, I’m a “community organizer” so you know my leadership qualities.

I spent several years as a consultant to CPIE, the Center for Parent Involvement in Education under Walter Kudumu.  He and his wife Maisha taught me a lot and while I never became Sistah Dee, I walked the walk and loved the fried catfish and people I met who’ve gone on to great things.  Here’s to you, Kudumu, in the afterlife. You owe me! Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Education

Tagged , , , ,

Chautauqua County

Posted on September 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

When you visit, as I had a number of visitors today asking about Concord grapes, please visit the farm stands and look at what else is fresh that you can cook today or take home.

Some of my best childhood memories are there, at a creek, a farm market, a local dairy or picking grapes, blueberries and strawberries.

Dinners with family, extended family holidays, and always hanging out with the neighbors were always welcome and exciting.  I think that’s why I wanted to learn how to cook, to please and always have a sense of family around me.

The enchanted forest and the road to the dump, the guy who came and took away our large furniture, only for Dad to find it all at his home.  Our neighbors with countless stray animals and a dog that came to us for a week at a time.

The horse that threw me, brownies and girl scouts, halloween in the populated part of town (couldn’t eat anything until my parents, the next day, went through everything).  Trick or Treat for UNICEF one year.  No-one bought into it with quarters.  I think I stuffed the box with some of my baby-sitting money).

Later on I worked summers in college and also worked on a couple of political campaigns.  I have family there.  My heart is there for the people I grew up with, but I don’t think our lives will go there unless it’s for retirement.

It is a place I have such ties to, and love to visit and encourage others to do so. Cheers, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Education

Tagged , ,

Preparedness

Posted on August 16, 2011 | 3 comments

I don’t know that I excelled at it in Girl Scouts.  First of all, I lost my “wings” in my flying-up ceremony from Brownies.  Then I got this woman who hated kids, weighed 300 lbs and never got off her chair, and had sweat stains all the way down her shirt.  We were all on pins and needles waiting for her to yell at someone.

The first badge I went for was sewing.  Our leader called all the girls around to see what a horrific job I did and they all laughed.  Yes, that was leadership for girls back in the day.  I stayed because I thought selling cookies was glamorous.  All I did was knock on the doors of all the neighbors I knew down the street.  Then I quit Girl Scouts.

Now scouts aren’t allowed to go door-to-door but their moms help them outside supermarkets and dads sell them at work.  But preparedness was the topic, I digress.

The Girl Scouts were supposed to teach me preparedness, as it was somewhere in the pledge.  I learned it on my own, mostly after I went off to college and had to learn things myself.  Junior year we got an apartment and I cooked every night and never had to clean a dish.  My roommates were astonished that I could make pasta with tomato sauce and a little ground beef, and that I could make brownies from scratch!

Then I ended up in a professional world where a large view was essential as were the details.  I thrived.  I withered when bosses didn’t let me do my job or second-guessed everything I did.

Tomorrow my husband’s mother comes to town for a week.  She’s a wonderful lady, led a farmer’s life and is the most prepared woman in the world.  If there was a major storm we’d go there and she could feed a number of people for at least a month out of her chest freezer.  Yes, I go to Whole Foods nearly every day and talk to the butcher and decide on dinner.

This woman puts me to shame yet I have to cook for her for a week.  Luckily she thinks I’m a good cook.  The house is clean, I’ve a tentative menu and will at least have two days of food on board before she lets me know what she’s in the mood for that day.

As to planning other things, several entertainment venues have arisen and she’s the guest so she gets to say what she wants to do each day.  This, my dear readers, is the ultimate in planning: plan not to plan.  Release control.

I’m still nervous, until she gets here then it’ll be a gab-fest.  Clean beds, sheets, towels, house.  Clean and brushed out dog, six times brushed and she’s still shedding.  I may have to vacuum again…

Big picture of all life can offer, and eye for detail.  I’ve got it.  Wish me well, Dee

3 Comments

Posted in Education

Tagged , ,

Ciao, Gatti

Posted on August 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

Goodbye, cats.

Years ago I climbed up to San Miniato al Monte to see a favorite painting.  Along the way I ran into a woman who takes care of the feral cats at the church down the mountain a bit.  I tried to give her money and she thought it was for her and declined.  In my “restaurant Italian” I told her it was for the cats, the gatti.  She accepted it and since then I always left money there for “dei gatti.”

In shelters I’ve taken care of numerous cats, but more so when I started to help spay and neuter feral cats.  One hundred to 200 cats came in to a clinic every month for spay/neuter.  Caretakers trapped them in humane traps and we took care of their diseases, vaccinated for diseases, checked them out for fleas and looked after them in their individual crates until their caretakers could take them back to their colony.

It’s not their fault they’re out there, it’s ours.  Two reproducing cats can produce up to 620,000 cats in seven years, left to their own devices.  Cats are strewn along roadways or dumped at community centers or behind fast food restaurants and become feral.

For over 20 years I’ve campaigned for responsible pet ownership and I don’t talk the talk, I walk the walk.  We have one animal, a dog, who we got from a shelter at six weeks and she’d been spayed two days before that.  That’s abuse in my book.  Two months later she started flopping around and couldn’t do stairs and she had the worst hip dysplasia her surgeon had ever seen.  Two hip excisions at 6 and 8 months allowed her to grow her own hips and be a nearly normal dog.  I only worry when an  exuberant pup twice her size jumps on her. Otherwise she can run short stints and can catch and kill a mouse in an instant, and drop it on command.

I’ve created volunteer projects and supervised team leaders for Cares organizations, and worked with several organizations personally.  I took on this assignment because someone else had dropped the ball, and I wanted to fill in.  The only thing the volunteer organization wanted from me was to sign a liability waiver.

Over many months there has been no contact, and when I resigned and offered to train a new person there was no contact.  I’m done.  Sorry, kitties.  Let’s hope the organization takes more care of the animals that have been surrendered to their care, than it does of their volunteers.

As for me, this was an anomaly, I always used to be at least knee-deep in some animal cause.  Right now I’m happy with Zoe and Fish, who is growing a new fin even though at age two, he’s near fin (the end).

And yes, I’ll always leave now euros for the lady with the ferals who eat spaghetti. A domani, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Education

Johnny Cash

Posted on July 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

I was always either ahead of or behind the times as it came to music but I never “got” Johnny Cash until I took up a guitar until later in life.

Learning chords, trying to keep the rhythm by myself and sing and remember the words… a great hurdle.  When one or two would come together I’d realize what a gift he had, and why frustrated guitar teachers want to teach older beginning students Johnny Cash.  So after I fed the mockingbird, let Puff out of his cave and dealt with CSNY  I went to Folsom Prison.

That may have been too much because I’ve taken a year off guitar and lessons. When I was a kid I knew nothing of that man in black.  It took years to respect his work and now I do so more than ever.

I’ll sing with you anytime, but my vocal and other  instrument talents are neglected but may improve and perhaps return with practice  Cheers, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Education

Tagged , ,

No More Clandestine Dr. Visits?

Posted on June 29, 2011 | 1 comment

Did the healthcare industry scare the White House? At age 50 I joined AARP and was told that even though I’m healthy I may have rheumatoid arthritis and they won’t touch me with a ten-foot pole. But they asked about my younger healthy husband, trying to make profits, and I said no way. He was working as a consultant at the time but the recruiter “missed” filing for health insurance so we had to go on COBRA for a few months.

To those who suspended these “clandestine” studies today, if it’s a matter of paying people to go check things out I bet a whole lot of people will do it without being paid to do so just to try to get to a doctor or get their kids to see one. I’d hate to think the insurance and medical lobbies shut down this study as the people to blame for this right now are the policy wonks who advertised this study or leaked it to the press in advance.

I’ve worked with insurance lobbyists before and their answer is always “no, no, no.” Sounds like the tea party, except insurance has all our money and the Tea Party doesn’t until they find something to lobby for. Dee

1 Comment

Posted in Education

Tagged ,

My Life in France

Posted on June 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Mine was very short, most of it taken up in police stations because my wallet and ID were stolen at the Jeu de Paume over 25 years ago. My 17 year-old brother did enjoy the trip as the food was much better than London and we both loved the Louvre as well as the location where my wallet was stolen with all the Impressionist works.

I’m enjoying reading Julia Child’s “My Life in France” and savor it in snippets. It was difficult to get a French cookbook back then, especially one to suit the American kitchen and thus was the beginning of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

In Italy years ago I wanted a particular Tuscan cookbook and bought the Italian work. Years later my dad found it at the English book store. Ms. Child did not have that option so had to do it herself.

Today my brother is sitting outside in Paris and awaiting his friend’s end of work so they can go out and see things together. He is prohibited from entering the Louvre but I gave him many options. The most interesting to me is just the opposite of what Julia Child faced. She wanted a French cookbook tailored to American home cooks. She wrote a book in English about her travels. Now, I’m telling my brother to go to these sites and see if he can find her favorite cooking store or audit a class at the Cordon Bleu. And to find an English version of Julia Child’s “My Life in France.”

Several posts have been dedicated to people who bring forth an idea and hard work and may wait years for their projects to come to fruition. Whereas Ms. Child had Larousse Gastronomique she had to write her own book, and I’m proud to have those two volumes plus others for many years. That my brother may have to go to Parisian bookstore and beg for an English version of “My Life in France” is testament to what Julia Child did over fifty years ago, because she learned French and we expect everyone to speak English and should try to learn their language if we’re to live there. Bon appetit, kiddo, eat some good food and find out-of-the-way places. Cheers, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Education

Tagged , ,

Old Grudges

Posted on April 15, 2011 | 1 comment

A couple of months ago I went back on social media (highly reluctantly because I hate it especially because it doesn’t respect privacy and I’ve spent part of my life protecting that for all). I ran into a number of gals from college and we got in touch. Some were friends with others and I asked my old roommate to join in. Now she writes saying that I’m “mad at her” after three decades. No time for drama here but she did make me a bridesmaid, have me buy a bubblegum pink gown with scarce dollars, knowing I’d have to get myself to the wedding, probably 14 hours on trains and subways, taxies and buses. A week before the wedding her maid of honor, another roommate, called me to say that not only was I not a bridesmaid, I was not invited to the wedding and could “crash” it if I wanted. That was the end of our communications until now.

I wanted to tell her I’m glad she and her college boyfriend who were so in love when we shared a cell on our wing, are still together, and I’ve also seen wonderful things about their daughter, who is at an Ivy League school and playing sports.

It’s wonderful that we all leave school and get on with our lives. A dear friend found me from college about ten years ago. The College then found me and I ended up being a mentor (that means taking a student out for a few free meals and chatting) for a student overseas while we lived there, getting in touch with my favorite professor and catching up with a few fellow grads online.

No-one likes to be made a fool of. When a wrong is done, it should be atoned for. I have nothing to atone for, and thought 30 years would be enough water under the bridge for anyone, but it clearly is not for the one who allowed this to happen. I moved on right away and never think of it, except when someone puts in in my face as they’re doing now.

Please know that when you allow yourself to be known on social media there are your friends, then their friends, then friends of friends and any one of them can come back with a vengeance, even after decades. I get friend requests from so many people I’ve never heard of and never met that I’d rather stick to email, phone calls and the old-fashioned letter once in a while. I just bought a few hand-made note cards from a local artist and will put them in the mail with a real stamp.

Know that I’ve tried to lead a good life and there are few people out there with a hatchet looking for me, mostly those when I went for a cause dear to my heart they opposed it and me and made my life miserable in the meantime. No regrets. And apologies to any I’ve ever offended. Cheers, Dee

1 Comment

Posted in Education

Surprise!

Posted on March 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

Being in the hinterlands, I have some items brought to my door weekly, including milk,eggs, bacon, sausage, butter, breads and sometime a surprise box. It used to be all organic. In the harsh winters that is difficult to do here.

Today I used a huge butternut squash, and an apple from last week’s treasures. I roasted the squash with an onion for an hour with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I turned the squash and put them atop the oven to cool. The onions were not done enough so I cut them down further and sauteed them with apple pieces. I also toasted garam masala in a dry pan to add to the soup as needed.

I first used the food processor to mix the onions and apples, that had gotten a dose of chicken broth to hasten their softening. Then I processed the pulp of the butternut squash I’d taken off the skin with a spoon, with more chicken broth.

The pulps were added to a large pot and started to boil and sputter almost immediately. I added more broth and 1/3 of the curry seasoning. More broth, then some fresh apple juice I happened to have on hand and more of the curry seasoning. About 1/4 cup of heavy cream and the rest of the curry seemed to work. I added a bit of salt, pepper and cayenne and we were good to go.

This is why I don’t write recipes for you, or copy others. Sometimes I want to give you a great recipe but will be sued for doing so.

Perhaps my age allows me to create whatever culinary confections that come to mind. And we all know a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Cheers, Dee

Leave a comment

Posted in Editorial, Education

Tagged , , ,

Essential Pantry

Posted on January 23, 2011 | 2 comments

I notice that a lot of cooks are doing this now, telling viewers or readers one thing at a time about how to build a pantry.

Confession: I was so scared to start writing this blog I worked for weeks getting together my essential cookbook collection and then the pantry collection. I believe cookbooks spanned four episodes and the pantry, five, but no-one reads them. No-one refers to them and I wish you would.

Please let me know how I can make these integral pages a meaningful part of your life. Yes, I have to redo my home page and will do so to make it easier for you to access this information. Signing off for now, Dee

2 Comments

Posted in Editorial, Education, Recipe Ideas, Recipes, Recommended Pantry Contents

Tagged