Embracing the Journey

This morning, I had breakfast with a very special lady named Karen. Smart, sweet and loving, this woman is my cousin by mariage. Her husband, Paul, is my father's first cousin, and they are parents to Lindzey and Griffin. These people are some of my favorite relatives, and I love them dearly.

It had been a while since we had seen each other, but Karen was the same as she always had been: with a bright face, beaming brown eyes and a warm smile inviting you in. She speaks in a voice where everything makes sense in a world where everything seems topsy-turvy. I also know Karen was very concerned for me. It's been a very difficult time as of late, what with everything that happened in 2009. It also doesn't help that when it comes to me, I don't hide my feelings in Facebook status updates, and she sees them.

We met in Fountain Valley, where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast. We did all the traditional catching up -- how Lindzey graduated from college, Griffin's Eagle Scout award, what's going on with Ari, me, my parents and my sister. At one point, I showed her my Medic Alert bracelet, which tells of the blood disorder that causes my clots and that I take Coumadin.

As the conversation continued, she said. "Well, you showed me your bracelet, I might as well show you mine." I thought she wore a Medic Alert bracelet too, but instead it was a very simple bracelet with a pendant. It said, "Embrace the journey."

"I keep forgetting that life is a journey," she said with that trademark grin of hers. "It took me all these years to realize that." She then spoke of how the journey is filled with its ups and its downs, and how the road may be beautifully smooth, but at some times you have to clunk along. But either way, you are going to get there.

Karen is a woman who loves words -- in fact, I have a little plaque from her that says, "Live well, laugh often, love much," right near the front door of our house, and I love it. But something about what she showed me today -- "Embrace the journey" -- that seemed to stick to me. I thought about it all the way home and even later today, when Ari's key broke in the lock, and we had to push him through our window, essentially breaking into our own apartment. It also struck me again as I received a call from my friend Jenna, telling me that she and her guy, Sean, are engaged. They are starting their own path together, and I am so happy to share in their joy.

I sometimes forget that our lives are one big journey -- from the big events to those little moments. We are travelling along this road known as life, to arrive to a destination we may not know yet, hoping those that we love will be waiting for us there. You take a lot of people with you along the way, whether it's your friends or family, but at the end we all have our separate journeys that we have to take. We win, we lose, we find pleasure and pain, and take whatever comes our way. But all of this time, we learn to marvel at this insane world along the way.

I find a similar thing in my kitchen. I have found cooking to be an adventure, plotting destinations and figuring out ways to get there. Every recipe is a journey, every new idea an exciting road stop. A lot of people view food as a way to a goal, such as losing weight or simply for sustenance, but we do need to enjoy it, the same way we enjoy life. There are flavors to be discovered, taste buds to tickled, and joy to be had. Maybe I'm secretly a French chef, but who knows?

But above all, when it comes to food, we should enjoy it with good company -- not unlike a person such as Karen, Ari, Jenna or Sean. We should have it with love in our hearts. And we should allow it to give us a pause on this journey, which at times can be nuts, but where we have each other. And that's what counts.

In honor of my beautiful Jenna's engagement and the beginning of her journey with Sean, I have decided to put in two of her favorite recipes into my blog -- ironically, they are two dishes that I have brought to her house recently. Enjoy!

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE

2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
7/8 cup oil
1 small can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1 bag chocolate chips

Mix the sugar and eggs until creamy. The color should be yellow and it should mix smoothly. Add the can of pumpkin and continue mixing.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda together. Pour a little in the pumpkin mixture and stir, following it with adding some of the oil. Continue doing this until all the ingredients are combined. Add the chocolate chips last.

Spray a bundt cake pan with a non-stick cooking spray (see quick tip). Pour the mixture into the cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Put a plate over the bundt pan and turn over, making sure that it has come out evenly. Serve.

Quick Tip 1: The recipe is supposed to be for one standard bundt cake and one loaf. However, I’ve found if your bundt cake pan is big enough, it’s enough for just one cake.

Quick Tip 2: The best part of this recipe is it can be made pareve and/or gluten-free. For gluten-free, substitute your favorite rice-based flour. For pareve, make sure your chocolate chips have no dairy in them.

GREEK ORZO

1 pound orzo pasta
1 large onion
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 red pepper
1 can olives, drained
1 small bag fresh spinach
2-3 zucchini
1 cup parmesan eggplant or grilled eggplant (recipe for parmesan eggplan to come soon)
3/4 block of feta cheese, preferably sheep's milk feta, chopped into small cubes
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Boil water for the orzo.

Dice onion and mince garlic. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Once heated, add the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper (see quick tip 1). Dice the red pepper into bigger pieces and add to the pot, along with the olives. Slice the zucchini and add to the pan. Season with salt and pepper.

Season the water for the orzo with salt and add pasta. Follow package directions (see quick tip 2).

Add the spinach from the bag in batches to the other vegetables. Allow the previous batch to wilt before adding more. Once completed, add the eggplant.

Drain the orzo, leaving a little bit of the pasta water behind. Add the sauteed vegetables to the orzo, along with the feta cheese. Stir until the cheese melts. Add nutmeg. Serve hot.

QUICK TIP 1: With a simple recipe such as this, it's important to season all the layers that are going into the dish. It's a proper cooking technique that is the simplest way to do your best.

QUICK TIP 2: Orzo is a pasta that looks like a rice. Make sure that when you drain it, your colander has smaller holes. For me, I use the end of my pasta pot that isn't meant to drain, and drain the pasta slowly.