A nap can be the highlight of a good day. Tired from exercise or chores, cool sheets, and the fuzz of a favorite stuffed bear, or two, is just the thing. No more words required. We all love a good nap.

Merrill Rovang, our brother-in-law, has Parkinson’s. Like Larry he won’t give up and is an inspiration to us all. Ride with Larry is worth watching whether you know someone with Parkinson’s or not. These two men show us how to live life, one day at a time.

Bob:

“You don’t fu….. care about me!” It came from a young woman sitting in a car beside Turtle. “You don’t treat me like you did before. You don’t treat me the same fu….. way you did before we got married.” A young man, stood tall beside her window, hands at his sides, outer calm mirrored in his desert camouflage uniform, defending himself in an even tone. “It’s not me. It’s you,” he said.

His tone and demeanor seemed to make her even angrier. The recriminations continued, she shrill and emotional, he controlled, uncommunicative.

Claire and I looked at each other. We both had tears in our eyes. It was our twentieth anniversary, and we were witnessing the beginning of the end of a young marriage. It didn’t take words between us to know what we would do. We held hands and walked around the motorhome to them.

Claire: I was really nervous about this type of encounter; domestic disputes are one of the most dangerous calls for police, but we could tell from the vague, repetitive accusations that they had reached an impasse.

Bob: “It’s our twentieth anniversary,” I said. “And we just had to say something. We couldn’t help but overhear.” I nodded toward Turtle. “I hope you don’t mind.” He acknowledged us, “No.” She quickly put the car in reverse and said “It’s okay, I was just leaving.” But she didn’t.

I looked at him. “You don’t understand her emotions. You will when you are older, but for now, just listen. She’s hurting, and you need to hear her” And to her through the window I said, “You don’t understand why he’s so calm, so unresponsive to your hurt.” She nodded, still looking down. “He’s just doing what men are taught. We’re not supposed to show emotion. Fathers and football coaches,” I acknowledged his uniform, “the military, none of them reward a show of emotion.” I clapped him on the shoulder, there were still tears in my eyes, “When you are 66 you will know that it’s okay to cry, but not yet. I understand.”  “But you have to understand her need to see you show her your love.”

She stole a furtive look at him, her mascara left marks of her tears. “You’re being a man, and she’s being a woman.” He smiled just a tiny bit.

Claire: “It’s what men do, it’s called freezing up, it happens when they are feeling bombarded, so they just clam up. Trust me, this happens to men and women all over the world, but it just causes the women to yell more because they think they’re not being heard.”

Bob: “You gotta work together. That’s the hard part of marriage, but it’s the rewarding part too.” I turned to him. “We travel, just the two of us, on our tandem bicycle all over the world.” His eyebrows went up. “Last year we rode over the Tibetan Plateau, through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, three thousand miles.” He was really listening now; man stuff I guess. “A few years before, we went from Beijing to Istanbul.” I touched his arm. “Across Central Asia; I hope you don’t have to go there.” I didn’t expect him to be as attentive as he had become; he was really hearing what an old man (to him) had to say. “A couple doesn’t do something like that without knowing how to work together.”  I smiled at what I’d just said. “There’s nothing like it.” “But, it takes some time, and a lot of listening.”

Claire: The writer in me spoke to her: “If you aren’t able to communicate what you need, try writing it down, write what’s wrong and write what you think would fix it, but don’t give up.” She cracked the window a bit more and went back to twisting the beautiful wedding and engagement rings.

Bob: She rolled her window down further and looked up at him, he down at her. “Touch each other,” I gently insisted. They slowly reached out to touch hands and lock eyes. “We’ll go away now.”

We hurried to Turtle, threw things where they wouldn’t fall and started the engine. As we drove away, he was leaning through the window and they were kissing.

We could have gifted ourselves a cruise to Alaska, celebrated at the Captain’s table with expensive Champagne, and seen Alaskans at a safe remove. Instead, we had leftovers and box wine in Turtle in a library parking lot, and maybe, just maybe, made a difference in two young lives. No contest.

Ingredients:

Leftover cooked chicken breast, 1 cup broccoli, 2 smallish zucchini, half an onion, 1/2 red pepper, five cloves garlic, 1/2 cup whole wheat penne pasta, tree nuts of choice, crated sheep cheese, one egg, olive oil, seasoning of your choice (be creative).

Pour a glass of wine for the cook.

Preparation:

Dice vegetables in large pieces, cube cooked chicken breasts; fry vegetables in lots of olive oil, adding pressed garlic, spices and cubed chicken near the end. Cook pasta al dente, drain but reserve 1 cup, add 3 tbsp of pasta water to bowl, one egg, 1/4 cup grated cheese and stir until a sauce. Reduce over heat if necessary. (Claire’s sauce) Mix pasta back into sauce. Place vegetable chicken mixture and pasta on 8″ plate, cover with sauce, sprinkle nuts and add pepper or salt if you like. Have with wine and your sweetie.

Butternut, spinach, onions, pepitas and chicken

Ingredients: One medium butternut squash, one small onion, five cloves garlic, pepitas, honey, one piece fried chicken or fish prepared as you wish, or in this case, leftover. Wine of your choice.

Pour the cook a glass of wine.

Preparation: Cut squash in half, remove seeds, bake covered in oven, or in microwave. Clean spinach, chop onion, caramelize onion in olive oil, add spinach, dice or press garlic on spinach. Add leftover fried chicken breast or fish to pan and cover to warm through. Place squash halves on 8″ plates, drizzle with honey. Place spinach onion mixture on 8″ plate with meat. Sprinkle pepitas over spinach and onions.

Eat with your sweetie.

Simple and quick, good for motorhome or one pot cooking.

Mediterranean Pilaf, Chicken, Vegetable Dinner

Ingredients: vegetables, your choice, one small chicken breast per person, 1/2 cup chopped rehydrated mushrooms, one cup chopped tree nuts, 1/4 cup whole grain rice, one onion, hearty white wine.

Pour the cook a glass of wine.

Cook and drain rice, set aside. Chop nuts (suggestion: walnuts and almonds), chop and caramelize onions and mushrooms in extra virgin olive oil and several cloves of pressed garlic. Remove from pan, add to rice, along with uncooked nuts, and cover in bowl. Brown chicken breasts in olive oil in a hot pan (don’t smoke the oil though) both sides: sprinkle with spices of your choice. Remove from pan and put on top of covered pilaf to finish (microwave off is a good place to allow the continued high moisture cooking). Saute vegetables in olive oil, add a small amount of chicken or vegetable broth and rice wine to finish.

Serve on 8″ plates with wine. Desert of fruit and chocolate before bed.

Two pan preparation for recreational vehicle, motorhome or camp cooking.

Now that’s something to be thankful for!

Leftover Fried Bulgar

Ingredients: leftover onion, collard greens, red pepper dinner, (see last post) one egg, one chicken breast, Madras curry powder, garlic powder, Trader Joe’s 21 Season Salute,1/3 cup Bulgar.

Preparation:

Pour the cook a glass of wine, whatever is open, this is leftovers!

Cook Bulgar in salted boiling water about 30 minutes, drain, stir and set aside covered. Fry chicken breast in extra virgin olive oil seasoned with garlic powder and 21 Season Salute.  Remove from wok and cube. Add Bulgar, leftover vegetables to wok with olive oil and heat on hot, add egg, break and stir to fry then mix with other ingredients, add Madras curry powder to taste.  Add cubed chicken breast to wok to warm.

Serve on 8″ plate with chopsticks and wine. Sprinkle top with favorite, or available, nuts or seeds. Claire adds chutney and I am not offended.

Be also ye thankful for leftovers.

Collards Greens, salmon, yam dinner

Ingredients: one bunch of collard greens, one medium onion, five cloves garlic, 1 cup red peppers, one yam, two pack-of-cards size pieces of fish (we used wild salmon), hearty white or light red wine, LOTS of extra virgin olive oil, garlic powder, Trader Joe’s 21 Salute seasoning, to coat fiish, 2 tb fish sauce, 1 tb red curry paste, 1/4 cup chicken broth.

Preparation: Pour the cook a glass of wine.

Chop onion and stems of greens, saute in LOTS of extra virgin olive oil, add chopped leafy collards, red peppers, curry paste and chicken broth, summer until done to taste.

Microwave yam, turning often until done. Let sit in microwave covered. Remove collard mixture to bowl, cover and add to microwave to stay warm and finish.

Cook and main squeeze have a glass of wine together. This is, after all Valentine’s Day. You should have done two other healthy activities with your main squeeze this day: exercise and sex. Dinner is the fianalle.

Coat fish with seasoning and fry in LOTS of extra virgin olive oil. Put on plate with greens, yam and serve with another glass of wine.

Leave the dishes for tomorrow and go to bed early.

Rainy Day Lunch

Claire’s fresh from the oven multi-grain (no knead recipe) bread, Gorgonzola, avocado, tomato, a salad with raspberry vinaigrette and pecans.

Gorgonzola, pears and walnuts for desert

Nice rainy day lunch and together time. Life is good.

Leftover Salmon Medley w/coconut milk and more

A thanksgiving celebration for two, of a 70degree sunny day of bike riding in the lovely Sonoran desert with good friends, and the apparent rapid healing of my buggered ribs and shoulder.

Ingredients: 1/3 cup dry Whole grain rice and wild rice mixture, leftover wild salmon, 2 medium zucchini, 1 onion, 1/2 red pepper, 1/3 cup mushrooms, LOTS of extra virgin olive oil, 6 cloves garlic, 1tsp tarragon, 1/3 cup coconut milk, white wine of your choice.

Pour the cook a glass of wine.

Cook the rice 35 min. in extra water and a little sea salt, drain, cover and put aside.

Stir fry onions, zucchini, red peppers and mushrooms in LOTS of olive oil. Add garlic, tarragon, leftover salmon and coconut milk  near the end.

Serve with wine and love.