Got my yearly check up today. My usual doctor wasn't there, and a nurse practitioner about my age did the exam. I like her better. I hadn't met her before, since I rarely go to doctors. The doctor we have is very typical in his approach, while she is more open to handling problems without drugs.
Middle Tennessee is not very healthy. She told me it is rare for her to write "well physical" on a chart of anyone but a child, which she did on mine. While my cholesterol level was higher than last year's, she said she could tell from the blood work that I knew how to eat right, and didn't eat a bunch of fast food.
We are going to a memorial party on Sunday, for a friend, Tommy Tyson, who died of a heart attack. He died sitting at his desk. His brother found him. He had moved here from Chapel Hill, NC. The family is doing a service there, then coming here for the memorial.
It seems like when our contemporaries die, we have a memorial party, often at the deceased persons house. People bring food, pull out guitars and takes turns playing. Even when we were in Raleigh, one friend died of a heart attack, sudden, fairly young. His friends arranged a party at his house. We all looked at photos from long ago, shot when we were much younger, and admired his artwork, drank and ate canapes.
I wonder if this is generational, or if we do this because these are the first ones to die. Will we still be trading songs and sharing chicken wings to honor the lives of deceased friends twenty years from now?
We were told we can bring a dish to share, and they will be serving Tommy's favorite food: pulled pork, beans and slaw. Which brings home the nurse's comment on adults not being healthy. This is how the south eats, and it shows.
I'm going to bring something made with (drum roll, please) Pears! I'm going to make a crisp. This recipe can be made with most fruits you would normally use for baking, such as peaches, apples, pears and berries. You can mix fruits, but if you use raspberries or cranberries combined with other fruits, don't make them more than 1/4 of the total fruit. They overpower the other flavors.
I think my pan is 8"x8". It's a glass, square dish.
Fruit Crisp
375˚, 40 minutes
8 cups fruit (peeled, chopped, whatever is necessary)
2/3 c sugar
3T cornstarch
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
Toss fruit with dry goods. Spray or butter pan, and pour in fruit mixture. Spread evenly.
1 c oats
1 c flour
2 T brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1/8 t each nutmeg, allspice
6 T butter. melted
Combine in a bowl. Will be crumbly. Press on top of fruit mixture. Bake 40 minutes. Fruit should be bubbly. Serve plain or with vanilla ice cream.
How beautiful to experience a life in your blog, an American life that's valuing friendship, celebration of the deceased, and a scepticism towards fast food ;–). My US experience as an exchange student (almost 30 yrs back, in small town Ohio) with a flat mate who incidentally had ties to Chapel Hill, NC, was pretty much the same. We had that 'All American Cookbook' in our kitchen, our American flat mate started heavy eating when she was depressed, but it was all nice chocolates and fine pastries …
ReplyDeleteI think it's on us to keep up the rituals of friendship, mourning & good-byes, and at times I wonder, if not central european city-dwellers are a lot worse off in that respect than some of you earth-bound Americans. But it's on us, and I myself had to turn 50 to think things over, give up 'splendid isolation' and come back to valuing friendship and so many simple things in life as cooking and little walks by the riverside; if I had a dog now, I would walk it more dearly than I did in my childhood and youth.