Karissa and Winston got married the end of May...

FOOD WITH A STORY:  A dear old friend asked me to write more about food, and it seems that her request could lend itself to updating and continuing this blog, with a new twist.  When I last wrote, it was May of 2014.  At that time we had just moved to Arlington, Missouri because in January I had started work for Bob and Bev Bretsch and Empowered kids.  They lived down by the river near Rolla and so I joined their team as Respite Care Provider for 10-12 teenage boys. Training received, I began work which included supervising the boys before and after school and/or work, transporting them as needed, and COOKING!  

This was about one year after John's aortic dissection, his two hospital infections, 40 days in Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, coming home to Rolla, not being able to work, though he tried for three months, and going on disability in August of 2013. 

Right away, we started gardens with the foster boys..  First two raised beds that another worker, Dom Medrano, helped me and the boys assemble.  Then we worked a small plot up near Lori and Randy Adams home.  Getting the boys to help was the main challenge, naturally.  But there were always some who enjoyed the work, learned to love watching things grow, and especially loved to EAT the fresh produce.

Our 'little cabin in the big woods' in Arlington, Missouri.  

When a little cabin in the woods became available, just a few minutes walk up the hill from the old "hotel" where the boys lived, we jumped at the chance to live closer.  Our home in Rolla sold easily and so we moved.  Bob and Bev and Randy and Lori Adams and Leo and Rachel Clark are dear friends and living closer improved our fellowship time.  The cabin was built in the late 1800's, an original building on the old homestead which later became the small town of Arlington.  Recently, Leo and Rachel Clark remodeled and added on to it making it 1300' with three bedrooms and two baths.  All on one floor, it had no stairs and that is very convenient, we learned!  We LOVED the cabin and its location, just minutes from the river.


The train runs right through Arlington and then onto a bridge over the Gasconade River.  The River is the real attraction there!  Years ago, tourists would come from St. Louis, get off the train in the resort town of Arlington, then walk along the main street, stay in the hotel, and hunt and fish and stroll up and down the promenade.  

Everything from the garden, except the cheese!

We lived there three years and have terrific memories.  The gardens continued to expand until we gardened 1/3 of an acre down in the lovely river bottom soil.  John got involved and helped me so much.  Getting the boys to help was usually more trouble than it was worth.  I remember that l last  summer where we had the biggest garden.  I started that growing season with a sore hip and a sore shoulder.  By the time the season was over, I had no more shoulder or hip problems!  Good, productive, hard work does the body wonders!  

During those years, I would post pictures on Face Book of all the produce and people would oooo and aaaahhhh over how good it looked.  Many a meal in those days was ALL from the garden.  

So let me tell you the story of this plate of food to the right.  When I cook for just the two of us, I've come to prefer my corn steamed in the microwave.  I take off a few of the outer husks, cut of the ends, then soak well in water.  Then I give each ear three minutes.  So if I am cooking four ears, I microwave for 12 minutes, or thereabouts.  I let it cool a few minutes and then remove the husks.  The silk comes right off very easily.  It's the freshest tasting corn I've ever had.

We grew lots of oriental eggplant.  On the plate are two pieces.  I decided to try a new way of preparing it.  I cut two of the long skinny kind (called Oriental) in half lengthwise, put a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) in the frying pan, then laid in the four pieces.  I cooked them on the cut side with a cover for 10 minutes or so on medium heat till they seemed a bit soft.  Then I turned them over, laid fresh tomato slices on the cooked eggplant, then sprinkled with some cheese.  I put the cover back on the pan and let the cheese melt.  I didn't really want to cook the tomatoes, just warm them enough to melt the cheese.  We were delighted with how fresh and delicious my new creation tasted.  Could they be called Oriental Eggplant boats?

Garden abundance

Let me explain my favorite way to prepare eggplant such as is pictured below.  With THREE 5 gallon buckets picked in one day, I had EGGPLANT on my mind!  After washing well, I slice in rounds about 1/2" thick.  Dipping each slice in egg, I next dip it in bread crumbs.  I usually use store bought breadcrumbs, preferring Italian flavored whole grain crumbs.  To two cups of the bread crumbs I add about a teaspoon of salt and 1/4 c. of Nutritional Yeast Flakes.  Then I lay the slice on a cookie sheet on which I have poured about 2 T. of EVOO--remember, that stands for Extra Virgin Olive oil.  By the way, that is the only oil I use, even for my piecrust recipes.  It is the first cold pressing of the olive and so the least refined.  When the cookie sheet is full, I put it in a preheated oven of about 400 degrees, let bake on one side for about 15 minutes, turn them over, and finish baking on the other side.  

Just recently, I made an innovation.  I added another seasoning to my bread crumb mix.  It's called "Everything But the Bagel" and is mostly white and black sesame seeds.  I added a good shaking, about a Tablespoon.  It adds some protein and it tasted so very good!


Now that the eggplant rounds are baked, we love to eat them just like they are.  We also put a big round on a slice of bread with mayonnaise and fresh garden tomato for a good sandwich!  Another delicious variation is to layer tomato sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish, put one layer of baked eggplant rounds, sprinkle a little mozzarella cheese, then add more tomato sauce, another layer of eggplant rounds, more cheese and top with sauce.  Baking this covered for about 30 minutes makes wonderful Eggplant Parmigiana.  I like it best served with spaghetti.

One more delicious way to use garden-grown eggplant is called Ratatouille.  It is essentially a vegetable sauce that cooks way down.  I saute lots of onions and garlic, green peppers (other colors work fine too), and then a cubed eggplant.  This recipe requires quite a lot of EVOO because the eggplant especially absorbs a lot.  This cooks down slowly with frequent stirrings and as it continues to cook, I smash it with the spatula so that it breaks down till it is a nice thick sauce.  It can be served as is with some parmigiana cheese sprinkled on top or on top of any kind of pasta or brown rice. With some cottage cheese, say, and some other fresh vegetables you have a meal!  


As we kept on our work with Bob and Bev, John kept getting better.  He volunteered with the boys and in the gardens.  He was a terrific help especially with tilling.  

  

Working with foster boys was challenging and hard work and sometimes even rewarding!  But I did long for work more in my field.  One day an old friend from Cape Cod called and asked me if I would consider coming to check out a restaurant they wanted to buy.  We arranged to go visit them in early November of 2016.  They didn't buy the restaurant.  But we came home from our visit and started looking for jobs!  John and I had met on Cape Cod in 1977, then lived nearby til 1981, and I had always wanted to move back east, back HOME.  

In July of 2016, a huge storm blew through and felled one of our great big trees, right onto the driver's side of John's station wagon--attempted murder, John likes to say.  John worked hard for a whole month getting that mess cleaned up.  Because our cabin was the original building, our one acre plot contained the SEVEN huge original trees and the only ones left of the nearly 200 acre Arlington town.  Losing that tree took the wind our of our sales.

Our Cape Cod home in Mill Pond Nantucket style village

 John and I enjoyed cleaning up our 1 acre plot, removing vines and briars, clearing old brush, and making a boundary trail.  I also made the river rock walkway up to our cabin front door.  Notice it in the picture below.  That outdoor work along with the garden work gave us good physical exercise.  


By mid-December I had an offer letter to be Health and Nutrition Services Director at Cape Cod Child Development.  We were so excited!  We packed up our U-haul, pulling our car behind us, and arrived on Cape Cod in late February.  We loved our time there, our old friends, the lively church, and our dear little Cape home.  John started working as a shuttle driver for Hyline Ferry Company about a year after we arrived and loved the interaction he had with tourists.

My job started looking shaky in late 2018.  By then we already knew we had two grand babies on the way.  We knew we could not live on Cape Cod without my good job.  So we decided it was time to move to be near Natasha in Tennessee.  She is a nurse practitioner and wanted to go back to work a day or two a week and needed Nana to care for Baby Ezra.  It was August of 2019 when we packed up and left our beloved Cape Cod.  Here we are renting a small home just 3 miles from Natasha and Jeremy and Ezra.  

In my next segment, I will share a few more happy details about our two and a half precious years living back in New England.