At a party last night, I spoke to a physician colleague whom I had first worked with in the late 1990s. I talked about how different medical training was back then– no work hours restrictions, overnight call in the hospital (during one of which, I actually picked up scabies!), and the patients we have never forgotten. (I’m a lot of fun at a party!) In the late 1990s, it was a time before HIV treatments and prevention were as accessible and simple to take as they are now, and so much of our inpatient work centered around AIDS. I frequently treated patients with infections you really don’t see anymore– Kaposi’s Sarcoma, PCP(pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, now pneumocystic jirovecii pneumonia). It’s a reality to check to realize how long ago that was, and also overwhelmingly moving to think of how advances in medicine have made these infections nearly historical to this generation of medical students. We also could not have imagined the Covid-19 pandemic, the opiate crisis, the current wars and so many other societal and personal tragedies that have unfolded in those decades. We just don’t know what’s on the horizon.
So all we can do is be grateful, and do good when we can. I am grateful that I find joy in the little things several times a day. OK, to be honest, often these moments of gratitude center around a delicious taste of something (like the potato flatbreads at The Charter Oak last weekend), but that seems about right for a cookbook author and cooking teacher. It can also be a passing scent– cedar chips on flower beds in the park, petrichor (love that word!) after a cleansing rain. A perfect turn of phrase in whatever I am reading. Making a new friend. Or simply, for the workaholic I am (and am striving not to be), the satisfaction of a job well done.
This Thanksgiving promises to be a mixed bag of emotions. We’ll be seeing my dying former mother-in-law for possibly the last time, but with this last minute visit will also have a chance to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, who are overjoyed at this welcome change in plans. So instead of planning the big dinner, I am going to cook whatever my brother picks up. And I am grateful for the chance to be spontaneous, instead of my usual obsessive planning.
I am also so very grateful to do the work that I do, which includes teaching people how to transform their health deliciously from their own kitchens. It makes my day when someone I didn’t even know has my cookbook tells me that they make a certain recipe from it over and over, or when someone tells me that they will be giving copies of Spicebox Kitchen as holiday gifts this year. It’s a thrill I will never get over. Seriously, I blush. (Thank you!) My most recent Thrive Kitchen at Home class was for plant-based Thanksgiving, and I am happy thinking about my recipes gracing many Thanksgiving tables this year. If you’re seeking a menu for a simple plant-based Thanksgiving, I hope this makes it easy for you:
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Roasted Acorn Squash with Thanksgiving Quinoa Pilaf
Pan-Roasted Tempeh* with Chipotle Cranberry Sauce
Gateway Brussels Sprouts (p74 Spicebox Kitchen)
Chai-Spiced Persimmon Pudding**
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*Pan-Roasted Tempeh
This was a last-minute add-on to my last class menu, both to add protein to the meal and to go with the chipotle cranberry sauce. Purchase tempeh from your grocery store (it will be next to the tofu in a flat, rectangular plastic-wrapped package). Cut it into bite-sized pieces. Marinate it if you wish (I highly recommend the Jamaican Jerk tempeh kebabs, p294 in Spicebox Kitchen) or keep plain, and toast in a dry drying pan over medium-high heat until slightly golden around the edges on both sides.)
**not fully plant-based but the pumpkin pots de crème (p98 in Spicebox Kitchen) are!
As for doing good and paying it forward, please consider donating to one of these organizations for which I serve on the boards, or the local equivalent in your community. Around this time of year there’s often a matching donation opportunity so it’s a chance for whatever amount you are able to share to go twice as far. Thank you!
Working to end hunger in San Francisco and Marin. More than 60% of the food we distribute is fresh produce.
Providing nutritious chef-prepared meals, safety checks and social contact to homebound seniors.
And finally, if you are taking my hint to purchase Spicebox Kitchen, please support Culinarian Bookshop, a wonderful online BIPOC, woman-owned culinary bookstore to purchase your copies. Emely is a culinary school classmate and wonderful person. Thank you.
Wishing you and your loved ones a healthy and happy Thanksgiving!
spicebox travels 