Oranges...

I have learned a lot about orange growing the last few days. For instance, if your orange tree is producing sour oranges all you need to do is spread Epsom's salts on the ground around the tree base. The minerals in the Epsom's salts are minerals the tree is lacking and thus why your oranges are sour. I guess in principle it is the same reason why you put salt in sweet baked products liked cookies - to enhance flavor and bring out sweetness.

When you pick a honeybell orange from the tree, the small ones are full of juice and thus the best for squeezing. The larger ones that have a shape more like that of an anjou pear are better for eating. The small ones have a very thin skin and are heavy with their juice-filled flesh, while the larger ones have a much thicker skin with larger pores and a sweeter flesh (that is still super juicy - don't be fooled - you might have to eat it with a lobster bib!) Honeybells aren't seedless (at least the ones off the 'rents tree aren't), but the seeds are probably a welcome blessing which keeps you from inhaling the whole orange at once - it is that good!

Gone is my need to travel to the grocery store and pick out the most perfectly round, perfectly orange, orange I can find. I have realized that just like most of the other home grown fruit/food, what comes out of the garden hardly resembles what is purchased from the store. Oranges are a fantastic example. Picked right from the tree, the ripe orange can be any shade of color from a dark lemon yellow to rich orange, or a wash of all those colors in between (picture an apple washed from every tone between lime green and maroon). They may or may not be round and they may or may not have little sand marks from the wind blowing on them. All these things give each orange a character all its own which allows you to realize that each piece of fruit is unique just like each different human who consumes them.

Go ahead - enjoy an orange - preferably one right from someone's tree - picked around 3pm when the flesh and juice will be warm! YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go ahead - mash it up!!

During the holiday season there are lots of root vegetables in the market on special. But what do you do with them? Roast em and mash em of course! You can be creative with your spice cabinet but here are some flavoring ideas.

First off pick up sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, butternut squash, acorn squash, cauliflower from the store - then lets have some fun!!

You can either peel and cut up items and steam or boil them or slice in half, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast face down on a baking sheet at 400 degrees until tender. Then scoop flesh from skin and mix with flavors.

Sweet potatoes: 100% pure maple syrup and cinnamon, nutmeg
Turnips: Romano cheese, thyme
Carrots: curry and sage
Butternut Squash: allspice, coconut milk, cumin
Acorn Squash: ginger and cranberry juice
Cauliflower: rosemary, Asiago cheese, garlic, salt and pepper

That is one cool place

Last night I ventured into Charlestown to go the holiday party at my best friend's company. It was at Tavern on the Water (www.tavernonthewater.com). I had never been to the place before but had heard of it. Charlestown has recently become famous due to the movie 'The Town' and I couldn't help but recite some of the movie lines when I crossed the Charlestown bridge about 7pm on my way there. "Close the goddam bridge!!"

To get to Tavern on the Water you come down Chelsea St and take a right onto 5th street. 5th street, however, does not look like a public road at all - you pass through an archway with set of gates and start down a small incline into what looks like a whole separate ecosystem from the rest of Charlestown. It looks like a charming New England version of those Florida developments that are completely self sufficient with their own gas station, grocer and school system! Anyway, you wind your way back towards the water (duh) and then hit a dead end with only two ways to go - back the way you came or out onto what looks like a deserted concrete slab that could break off into the harbor at any moment. Being the brain surgeon that I am, I chose to drive the mustang right out onto the concrete slab, which, it turns out, happens to the be the dimly lit, piss poor excuse for a parking lot. But hey - they HAVE a parking lot, so this place is already the bomb in my eyes. The tavern itself is a stand alone building - almost looking like a pontoon boat raised two stories above the pier. When you get up in there, the view is fantastic of Boston across the bay and it is very homey inside with lots of dark stained wood and resonance lighting from the city coming in through the glass walls. They have a deck, where summer patrons can sit out and have a drink. Actually, the whole dining room/bar area opens up to create a space open to the sea breezes on a summer evening. I can picture myself coming back over the summer for a glass of wine and sitting on the deck with friends. In the fall it would be an awesome spot for some raw oysters and a bottle of champagne!

It is hard to get an idea for the menu but the quality of the catered food was excellent. The stuffies (well that is Rhode Islanders call them and we were sure to let the waitress know that!) were excellent. Personally, I think it is sacrilege to cook an oyster but these were not chewy at all, and they tasted mainly of cheese and bacon with a kick of Cayenne. The beef satay was banging - though I had been craving beef all day so I might have been biased :) They also did coconut shrimp, lobster rolls, chicken satay, kielbasa, egg rolls and tuna tartare. I definitely think this place is worth the trip back to see it in action on a regular night!

Forget the Tomato sauce....

Lasagna is a favorite winter dish for many people. It is warm, with gooey melted cheese and it fills you right up after a long day of shoveling out your life post-winter storm in the great state of Taxachussets. This veggie lasagna has been quite a hit recently. Forget the typical spinach and broccoli, this one has a new twist on the vegetable component. Leave the tomato sauce behind too, it does nothing but stain your clothes anyway. Creating a pesto-ricotta mix as a filling layer gives this lasagna a memorable flavor profile.

Give it a shot! Cut up what remains and freeze in Tupperware for an easy nuke-to-table lunch or dinner!

1 - 16 oz box lasagna noodles
1 pint part-skim ricotta
1 pint fat free cottage cheese
1 pound part skim mozzarella cheese, sliced (set aside 6 slices for top)
1 medium butter nut squash
1 cup pesto sauce
4 portabella mushroom caps + stems
2 large cloves garlic
1 cup fine diced red onion
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon dried sage
1/4 cup fat free chicken broth
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Boil water. Add 1 tablespoon kosher salt. Add noodles to water and stir. Cook about 8 minutes until tender. Strain and rinse with cold water. Lay noodles out in a checker board fashion so they don't stick together.
2. Peel and deseed the butternut squash. Cut up squash and place in pan with steamer lift on bottom. Fill bottom of pot with water, cover with lid. Place on stove and turn onto high. When water boils turn heat down to med-low and let steam until squash is soft. When squash is soft, remove steamer lift from pot and dump squash into food processor. Puree - add salt and pepper and mix again. Then set aside in a bowl.
3. Chop up garlic and onions.
4. Heat oil in large sauté pan over medium heat. Drop garlic and onions into oil and let sweat until translucent. Meanwhile chop up mushrooms. When onions are translucent add mushrooms and stir. Sprinkle with ground black pepper and salt and sage - mix. Cook until mushrooms have released most of their moisture and turned deep brown on all sides (volume will be reduced by at least 1/2).
5. In the food processor, mix the ricotta, pesto, and cottage cheese together. Set aside.
6. Get an 11x13 Pyrex baking dish. Spray with Pam. Sprinkle the chicken broth over the bottom. Lay 3 noodles down, side by side, across the bottom. Top with pesto cheese mixture, then some squash puree, then some of the mushroom mixture. Lay down another three noodles like before. Layer pesto-cheese, squash and mushrooms like before. Then add mozzarella slices. Top with noodles - continue until you have filled the pan. The last layer of noodles should only be topped with pesto-cheese mix and then with 6 slices of mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes.
ENJOY!!!!

Be open...

As my second class of nursing students finishes up their 10 weeks in the classroom with me, we start discussing life, careers, and what it takes to really be a health care professional. It takes commitment, emotion, drive, desire, heart, all the things it takes to be good at any profession, but most of all it takes understanding. It takes understanding to know when people are happy, sad, scared, angry, desperate; to know when to push a patient during therapy or back away and let them enjoy their last few days with their families. You have to be less afraid and more positive then the patient even when you might be more concerned about the outcome.

I don't care how many family members or friends have passed away in your life, how many funerals or wakes you have attended, nothing will affect you more then the first patient who dies in front of your eyes. Was there something more you could have done? Probably not, but you understand exactly what happened and why the person died and that makes you feel responsible and to see the family broken down, hysterical with tears because they could not do more and will live without the person for the rest of their lives, will rip you apart. These are not the things teachers typically tell you. They tell you the war stories of people shooting themselves, coding on the table etc - the stories that make it seem like a thrilling job. They tell you the miracle stories that warm your heart and force you to remember you are doing something to help people - but no one tells you what to expect when someone doesn't make it, or when a doctor puts you down in front of the whole floor during rounds or some other demoralizing occurance.

Most people have an idea of exactly what patient population they would like to treat or which specialized trade they would like to be in. My advice to my students is always, "Figure out what you would love to do and figure out what you dislike so much it almost makes you nauseous. Your first job should be doing what makes you nauseous." This is a field where you can't just skim by doing the least amount of work because you don't like it, you still have to do your job and do it well every hour of every day. Being immersed in that situation day in and day out may or may not give you more of an appreciation for it, but it will for sure bring out the emotions and skills in you which were buried so deep you didn't even know they existed. If after 1 year you feel it is time to move on, by all means do it, but you will have far more skills at that point which would have never surfaced had you started your career in a 'safe' place. Be open, to yourself, to your career, to the world and let it open itself to you as well.