Less is more… comfortable that is.
There’s a voice in my head that sounds like Barbara Billingsley from “Leave it to Beaver” – the voice says, “order smaller portions” (yes the voice actually speaks in italics whenever I go out to a restaurant.) At some places, of course, it’s impossible to obey the voice, not necessarily because I won’t listen, but because even so-called ‘healthy menu items’ are often still TOO BIG. But recently, as a family farewell dinner to our oldest daughter Jenny who left for college this past Thursday, my resourceful husband introduced the 5 of us to a Spanish restaurant in nearby trendy Pasadena, CA.
La Luna Negra specializes in SMALL plates of food. (Spanish food, as you probably know, is very different from Mexican food.) We had a delightful evening in this very hip and hand painted restaurant, which included a very entertaining flamenco dance show that Jenny was invited to participate in!
In addition to the postively unbridled entertainment, we enjoyed a number of delicious courses of tapas, which is the Spanish word for a meal that consists of small portions. Literally, tapas comes from the Spanish word tapar, or ‘to top’ because it was traditionally served by the waiter on ‘top’ of a full glass of wine. (That tradition probably spawned the tradition of the ‘siesta.’).
After eating all this:
- An assortment of mushrooms cooked in lemon and pepper corn brine
- Black tiger shrimp glistening with lime juice, jalapenos, fresh cilantro and red onions
- Grilled eggplant with other deliciously seasoned veggies
- Grilled lamb chops served with eggplant, lentil couscous, & goat cheese
- Paella Vegetariana
- A disarming wrap of marinated chicken sautéed with baby carrots in a garlic and lime-juice sauce
I was able to get up from the table with ease and walk – not waddle – out into the night because I really didn’t eat that much. I felt totally full and free of guilt, which is the best dessert I know.
I wondered if I could try tapas cooking at home. I already know how to make a ratatouille-style eggplant dish, and we had fun coming up with three or four other ideas that could be served appetizer-sized that all together would be plenty for a complete meal, while low in total calories. I then realized that I had actually been practicing the philosophy behind tapas for many years. Take Japanese restaurants, for example. For years I’d been enjoying Japanese tapas…you know…sushi. Duh! And now I understood why my girls had long ago always begged for Lunchables every time we went to the market. Yes, there’s actually the fun of tapas right there in the Lunchable plastic tray containing small portions of fat-filled crackers, fat-filled cheese and overly processed cold-cuts that once resembled turkey. As you’ve probably read in previous posts, I rarely bought Lunchables, but instead I’d prepare lunches that had a variety of three or four nutritious items (in small portions, of course.) No, I can’t provide the flamenco dancing and virtuoso guitar-playing of a tapas bar and, in fact, most of what I cook isn’t even remotely Spanish, but serving smaller portions for lunch and dinner actually makes my family happy. More importantly, it allows me to get Barbara Billingsley’s approval and, perhaps, the chance to fit into one of her dresses from the 1950’s – a time when people ‘cleaned their plates’ but somehow managed not to overeat.
This is Loren and me, having followed instruction #6 from this helpful article entitled How to Order Tapas
When my eldest daughter (a recent High School graduate) attended the local elementary school, there was a small rose garden near the front entrance. It was the class project of the graduating Calvert Street Elementary fifth graders to take care of the garden and give each rosebush a name. (Just as an aside – when I was growing up we had junior high school and didn’t graduate from elementary school until SIXTH grade – I still don’t understand the concept of middle school where kids are too young to be hanging out with pre-teens and then, when they’re barely pre-teens themselves, sent off to schools filled with full-fledged teenagers.)
Anyway, my daughter was absolutely delighted with the rose garden, which was the only nod to nature found at her school that otherwise floated on a sea of black asphalt.
It was therefore a delight to stumble upon this article and learn that this same school, over the last three years, has been planting shrubs and flower beds and is underway with “an ambitious effort to add more than an acre of grass, a pond habitat with turtles, tadpoles and other native creatures, and eventually an edible garden.”
Sadly, my three girls are too old to go there (my youngest will be entering middle school in just a couple of weeks (thanks to Los Angeles budget cuts they don’t start til mid-Septemeber…don’t get me started..) , though I wish she were going to junior high a year from now! I know they would be beside themselves participating in this project. I know from experience that it doesn’t take much to get kids excited about nature. One of my girls’ favorite annual field trips was to a local farm where they got to pick their own vegetables right out of the ground. (It took my husband, by the way, to figure out how to cook the huge leeks that my youngest eagerly brought home this year.)
But I’m very happy for the little ones who will be enjoying the fruits of their parents’ labors. It was, in fact, the direct intervention of parents that created this wonderful project and their efforts are making it an on-going success.
So far they’ve torn up 180 tons of asphalt around the school and planted more than 60 trees.
No surprise that the “makeover” has attracted more students from the neighborhood who may otherwise be going to private schools or transferring to more inviting public schools with greener campuses.
Thanks to Michelle Obama, programs such as our local school’s and other community gardening ideas are being supported and promoted more vigorously than ever before. I learned that across our city and nation, many schools are helping the green movement by launching eco-friendly gardening projects.
“We have a whole new generation of parents who really want to get involved with their schools, and it’s great because we want the community to own their schools.” - Ana Lasso who works for the LA School District
Tracy Bartley, one of the moms involved at our neighborhood school agrees and hopes that this will not only be a school revitalization but serve as a community center.
“Public education is so incredibly important, but it is in trouble and for it to survive we need the community,” Bartley said. “I think a garden will bring the community back.”
I did a little googling and found a great site with lots of resource information if you’re thinking of greening your own local school. Are you involved in a project like this in your neighborhood? I’d love for you to comment and share any ideas and information you may have.
There’s probably at least a small patch of land at your local school that’s suitable for a few veggies or a couple of rosebushes that need a little tender loving care – and maybe a name. My daughter, by the way, named her rosebush “Susie”.
