Joy

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

Meister Eckhart

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A Very Kefi Christmas

"It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season—like all the other seasons—is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them." —Lemony Snicket








There are many things that have afforded me great success in this world-- I'm a white person from the US who went to college and is employed.  To 99.99% of the rest of the world, I wasn't just born on third--I came onto Earth an inch from home plate.

Few things have made me feel as privileged as this past weekend, when my family got together to celebrate a pre-Christmas Extravaganza with me before I headed back to DC to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It was an amazing 36-hour love fest that featured all of the people I hold dearest, from the family with which I was born to the mish-mash of folks I have chosen over the years to count among my people.  

The Kefis have always believed in a big, fat, decorative Christmas, but our winter holidays have not always been as movie-esque as this one was-- those years that began when the oldest of my siblings became a teenager and ended when the youngest of us left adolescence behind brought as much angst and posturing around the holidays for us as they did any other family.  We worked hard for our practically-perfect pre-Christmas, and it made me think about how wonderfully lucky we are if, as adults, we can move past the family squabbles about presents and table turf that our complicated world increasingly encourages, and remember how truly magic Christmas can be, if only we bring to the table with us best wishes for each other and a healthy sense of humor about ourselves (making Christmas a champagne-only event doesn't hurt, either).

It is, of course, more than happy circumstance that my family gets to enjoy holidays like these at a time when so many families are splintered by the demands of our world.  In some other post at some other time, I will wax and wane on how closely linked happiness is to privilege.  But, for now, let me say without hope or agenda--just because it's Christmas, and at Christmas you tell the truth--to me, we are perfect.  

 

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Nurse Kefi Makes Salmon Cakes

Five years ago, I graduated from college.  Roughly two weeks after I graduated, I figured out that I wanted to be a nurse.  Which means that for the last four years and 50 weeks, I have been wanting to be a nurse, waiting to become a nurse, and going to be a nurse someday. Well my friends-- someday is here, and I am, in fact, a real, live, Registered Nurse.

This is, for many reasons, no small miracle.  To my friends and family who supported me, cheered me on, bought me coffee, and prayed for me through all those tests and months of studying: there will never be enough thank yous. Please recharge your batteries for the next few years because becoming an Nurse Practitioner will require a very, very large miracle. To BFKef, the great love of my life, who was there through alllllll the breakdowns (and there were many)-- I owe you another big, fat, juicy steak. And to my parents who were kind enough to give me a low-interest loan better than the deal Barack Obama leveraged from that wench Sallie Mae-- I will make sure my nicest nurse friends take care of you in the nursing home when you are old. Haha.

Finally attaining a benchmark I had set years ago got me thinking about goals, and how we make progressively fewer of them as we age.  We used to have milestones every few months--first to tie our shoes, write our names, ride a bike, defeat King Koopa, and then to make the team, beat a PR, graduate from high school, maybe college, get a job, keep the job, and then.... what? Why is it that when we finally make it to this strange place called the Real World, our goals become fewer and farther between?  Why do we trade the clearly-stated (if sometimes trivial) goals of our younger selves to settle for a long list of "maybes", "somedays," and 'if I have time I'll..."?

I don't know the answer to those questions.  I'm not even really sure where this is going, or what it has to do with the truly delicious mango salmon cakes whose recipe is below.  Perhaps I'll make it a goal to finish this thought and figure it out.  But what I do know is that finally reaching this goal has me feeling more proud of myself now than when I graduated from college the first time, and I can't wait to see where my life as a nurse takes me.

Chef Kefi, RN's First Recipe: Mango Salmon Cakes with Corn and Avocado Salad

Ingredients

• 1/2 mango, peeled and diced pretty small
• 1 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 c cilantro, chopped
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 oz of salmon (I used canned- just make sure its skinned and peeled)
• ~1/3c Greek yogurt
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2/3 c unseasoned breadcrumbs (I used gluten-free) 
• Olive oil for frying, about 5 TBS
  -----
• 1 avocado, diced
• 2 cobs of corn, with corn cut from the cob
• juice of the other half of the lime

Assembly

1. Put 2 tsp olive oil and coriander in saute pan over medium heat. After about 90 seconds, add mangoes and stir around. Cook for about 5 minutes, until mangoes are soft and fragrant.
2. Set mangoes aside and cook diced onion in same pan without cleaning it.  Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat, until onions are tender.
3. Combine all ingredients up to breadcrumbs, with breadcrumbs last.  Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes to absorb--this will make the frying easier.
4. Shape the batter into patties, about 1/3c at a time. Use your palms to make them flat. Do not place them on top of one another.
5. Heat 1-2 TBS of olive oil over medium heat in same pan.  After about 90 seconds, put first batch of salmon cakes in-- I was able to make 3 at a time. Cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side, or until patty is firm and easily flippable. Depending on your pan and stove, it may take longer. If you find patties burning but not flipping without breaking, turn down your heat.
6. Combine avocado, corn, and lime juice in bowl and serve on side, or just heap it all on top like I did:

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Lady, Don't You Know We Love You?

Happy Mother's Day to MamaKef!

And now, a few words about the incredibly difficult task of mothering, from the incredible Khalil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Shout out to moms everywhere, who work tirelessly, and often without thanks, compensation, or appreciation, to raise up some babies.

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Greek Easter 2012 Preview

The table, still missing a few dishes

Peep-shaped butter dish, courtesy of Mama Kef.

Sadly, I did not make the cheese. I did make the jam.

I also made a gluten-free version of this- yum and a half.

Spanakopita

The 10 lb pastitsio.

Many, many thanks to everyone who came out and made it a Greek Easter to remember. And the biggest thanks to our host, KefiKathleen, who saved us all from my cramped apartment and provided us with a beautiful outdoor space to enjoy a beautiful spring night.

I'll post specific stories and recipes in the weeks coming, including reports from Beirut, where JetSet Kef held his own Greek Easter feast.

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The Marathon Begins

The first spanakopita of Greek Easter 2012 has just gone into the oven, which gives me a second to pause and think about why I spend an entire weekend every year covered in olive oil and spinach.

There are two main reasons that keep me looking forward to this time each year.  The first is that Orthodox Easter is usually 1-2 weeks behind Roman Easter, which reminds us that Jesus was, in fact, a socialist and that he ascribed to the more relaxed lifestyle of the Southern Mediterranean and took his sweet time rising from the dead (I mean, wouldn't you?). The second (and more legit) reason I so look forward to Greek Easter is that it brings back all the Keftastic memories of the times my family was less scattered across this green earth.

As a kid, we would squeeze into the Camry (JetSet Kef on the driver's side with his GameBoy, BabyKef in the middle annoying the living bejesus out of her siblings, and yours truly trying desperately not to get car sick on the passenger's side) and drive to New Jersey.  There, we would find a diner that had been transformed from a bustling business to an inviting living room--the tables were rearranged to accommodate what seemed like every Greek in New Jersey, and for that one day, traditional Greek music played louder than the Whitney Houston coming from the juke boxes.  It was always nice to see my grandfather's friends and eat something other than the diner's famous "Chicken in a Basket"--but what I REALLY looked forward to was what we called "the red egg game."

You can read more about the game here-- I gotta go get the spanakopita out of the oven.  I leave you with a picture of my grandfather on one of his happiest days, when my brother convened the first KefiFamily Greek Easter in years.  We'll miss my grandfather this year, but I know he is watching with approval and ranting about Barack Obama the Communist from Heaven. Σας αγαπάμε, παππού!

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Resolutions in Action: Applesauce!

I was making this applesauce while writing yesterday's post about doughless pizza.  If I had finished the applesauce before the post, I would NEVER have wasted my Swagu joke on the pizza because this sauce has me swearing never to storebuy applesauce again--but, alas, you could only use a bad joke once.  

In the spirit of some serious multi-tasking, I was also mid-way through the BEST pep talk from my mom, who always seems to know when I need some tough love and when I just need my mom to tell me that I'm great.  So, it's only fitting that today you get a recipe PLUS a kefi story about MamaKef, making today's post a... kefcipe?

Every year, my mom would strap the KefSiblings, our friends, their siblings, and whoever else happened to be around into our cranberry Toyota Camry and schlepped us past the 8 apple farms within 10 miles of our house to THE BEST apple farm in our neck of the woods: Wright's Apple Orchard. We would wander the orchard for a few hours, compete over who found the "most perfect" apple, and inevitably recreate the rotten apple fight scene from The Wizard of Oz.  At this point, my mother would remind us of the sign we passed upon entering the orchard, which promises (and I quote) that those who steal fruit will be "shot on sight."  Not wanting to die at the hands of an overzealous apple farmer, we'd mosey back to the farm stand, eat some homemade apple-cider donuts that were made for us while we watched, get some homemade pumpkin ice cream to bring home, and then hit the road, the Camry all the heavier for the 10 pounds of apples and the 7 really-full kids we were now towing.


And then the kefi would REALLY get going.  My mom would get right to cooking up some apple crisp, and soon the house would smell like apples and cinnamon.  I don't think apple crisp was really ever anyone's favorite--the real fun was trying to steal a cinnamon-coated apple while MamaKef's back was turned (the butter and sugar topping didn't hurt, either).  To this day, the smell of baking apples ALWAYS makes me think of those afternoon cooking sessions post-orchard (and, frequently, post-being-sent-to-my-room-for-being-bad-at-the-orchard). 

Now that I've gotten all Little House on the Orchard on you, this one goes out to MamaKef, the original Apple Whisperer.  


Apple Sauce So Good You'll Smack Your Mama*

Ingredients:

• 8 apples ( I used 4 Granny Smith and 4 Fuiji- but would have substituted the latter Macintosh if I could have found them this time of year) 
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 TBS honey (feel free to use more or less. Sweeter your apples, less honey you need)
• 1/4c water 

Assembly

1.  Preheat the oven to 425. Peel and core the apples. This is easier than it sounds-- I used a potato peeler and a knife and it took about 8 minutes. They do not need to be pretty.

2. Mix the lemon juice in with the apples, then mix the spices, then the honey, and then pour the water in. Mix everything around again. 


3. Pour apples into 9 X 13 glass baking pan.  Bake for 40 minutes, stirring apples at halfway point to avoid burnt tops.  Apples will be mushy and more liquid will have formed in pan.


4. Remove from oven, let cool for ten minutes.  Either manually mash apples for a chunkier sauce, or throw everything into the food processor and puree to the consistency you like. (Beware though-- I was LITERALLY licking my food processor because this was so good and those blades are sharp!)


(*unless your mama is like my mama... then maybe you just want to high-five her)

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My Cousin is Better Than Your Cousin

There are some things I don't do often. One is travel north during the winter. The other is eat tofu for dessert.

Today I had the extreme pleasure of doing both, and lived to tell the tale.  I took up a trip up yonder to visit my cousin Joanna at her lovely home with an enviably-stocked kitchen and three BEAUTIFUL dogs and, in exchange, she cooked me the best meal of 2012 thus far.  She's soon to be a Master of Nutrition (how do you like THEM apples?) and has recently taken on a 30-day Vegan Challenge.

The meal she made was seriously inspiring - check out the whole vegan, gluten-free shebang-- mushroom fritatta, home-made roasted tomato soup, and tofu-based chocolate mousse-- and even more drool-worthy food at joannaeats.blogspot.com.

But, um, you can't like her blog better than my blog, ok?  :)

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On the Eve of an Extravaganza: Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Corn Casserole

Upon meeting the Kefi family for the first time, a friend remarked, "Well, you sure don't come from simple stock, do you?"  We're a spirited, complicated, opinionated bunch more or less made for a reality television show (except, sadly, our schticks are real, no scripted). 

This is perhaps most apparent at the Christmas Day meal, when the extended Kefi family gets together and we break bread--except at this table we have at least four loaves: a sugar-free loaf, a gluten-free loaf, an all-sugar, all-gluten loaf, and a loaf of plain, white-ass Wonder Bread. Try the flow-chart below to understand complicated eating patterns of the greater Kefi family at large.

For the past nine years, the Kefi family has celebrated two holidays on December 25th: the birth of Jesus and the annual Extravaganza. My assumption is that you have the skinny on Jesus, His birth, and His life's work.  So, I'll use this space to tell you about the Extravaganza.

On a snowy Christmas in 2002 (JetSet Kef interjection: "a VERY snowy Christmas"), our family friends (known here as the B's) were scheduled to come to Casa Kefi for dinner.  Mama Kef is especially afraid of the snow and called to warn the B's that they ought to stay home--only to find out that the B's had already been out all morning searching for an open diner.  So, despite many strenuous warnings from Mama Kef, they fought the white-out conditions to attend the Inaugural Christmas Extravaganza.

Ten courses, two helpings, 11 people in food comas, and a viewing of Love Actually later, we realized that the snow had accumulated and getting back home would be impossible for our guests. Luckily, the B's came prepared with pajamas, and so the extravaganza raged on into the night (and by "night," I mean until about 830).   By the time we woke up the next morning, Grandma B had scrubbed the kitchen floor, Donna B had made the coffee, Lauren had already drank her first cup of coffee, and Grandpa B had his coat on and was ready to go home.



Though we haven't had a snow-induced sleep-over since, we have maintained many traditions throughout the 8 subsequent Extravaganzas: we don't dare sit at the table until Mama Kef tells us the seating arrangements; we have Brotherhood Winery Holiday Mulling Wine before dinner (to take the edge off, naturaly); we eat, then we sit, then we coffee, then we sit, then we open presents, then we dessert, then we sit, then we go; we open presents one at a time in a circle; we add a "Christmas Miracle" each year (which is a little bit like the Festivus Airing of Grievances, except more fun and less aggressive; we don't educate our asses (you read that right); and often we have a group of funny Frenchies join us, just for kicks (JetSet Kef: "No really-- they're French, so it's funny").



Today, I bring you this year's Christmas Miracle: a dish other than salad that every single person at the Kefi Christmas table could eat.  It's meat-free, gluten-free, AND sugar-free corn casserole! Merry Christmas and enjoy!


Meat-Free, Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Corn Casserole

Ingredients 

• 1 cup milk (soy works just as well-- but adjust honey if it's already sweetened soy!)
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 2 Tbsp. butter (or coconut oil)
• 1 can each whole-kernal and sweet  corn, drained
• 1/4 c honey 
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  

Directions:
 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  On medium heat, whisk milk and cornstarch in a small saucepan and simmer until slightly thick and creamy.  It is important that you whisk constantly.  The mixture will get thick all at once-- butter and whisk until melted. Remove from stove and let cool slightly. 

2. Pour drained corn into a mixing bowl.  Once the milk/cornstarch mixture has cooled off a bit, mix into the corn. Add honey , eggs, and vanilla. Pour into a greased casserole dish.

3. Bake for 30-40 minutes until casserole is set and bubbling. Cool slightly before serving.  

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Gratutitous Gratitude #3: People Who Make The World a Better Place

We live in a world of paradox. Some days, the beauty of the world wins; other days it's the twisted injustice.  Never is this binary so obvious as on Thanksgiving, when even the extreme excess of some does not come close to balancing the needs of many.

So, today I'm grateful for the people who work every day to keep the beauty fighting against the injustice in the hope that, one of these days, we will all have a group of people to call family, a roof over our heads to call home, and a meal to call Thanksgiving dinner.

1- Geoffrey Canada- For making a model that makes huge changes by engaging communities. A true visionary.
2- Jill Scott. For making some of the only listenable music on the radio right now. Also for being hot.
3. The people at FreshFarms. Food injustice is class warfare, and they are teaching babies all over the Md-DC area how to bite the non-nutritious hand that feeds them.
4. The people who keep the bathrooms clean in public bathrooms--not exactly fighting injustice, but it's a tough job and I really, really appreciate it.  Ditto for the people who pick vegetables, harvest coffee, and manufacture the shit we thoughtlessly consume, despite the incredible injustice of it all.
5. Everyone at Racialicious- for breaking it down so righteously every day of the year.
6. The teachers at Thurgood Marshall Academy, Two Rivers Public Charter School, and Benjamin Banneker Senior High School, who help bring out the brilliance of DC youth with support, high expectations, and opportunities for greatness.
7. The occupiers, in their own little way. Largely overprivileged? Seems like it. Kind of misguided? Sure. But keeping questions about greed-driven inequality in the mouths of otherwise-insipid newscasters is a plus in my book.
8. Everyone at the Woodson Wellness Clinic. I cannot WAIT to be employed there!
9. Michael Eric Dyson. Marry me now!
10. The team at Democracy Now! for providing reasonable, thoughtful, progressive news.
11. Glut Food Co-op, for keeping food cheap and funky since 1969

And items unrelated to social justice that I am grateful for:
1. Pro-tec, for creating a patellar band that has got me back up and running after a bout with runner's knee.  I'm dedicating my 15k to you!
2. Whoever created the Triple Squash soup at Whole Foods. That is the best $3.59 I have ever spent.
3. My cat, Oliver Tambo. 
4. The fact that I learned how to make links on this thing (and really showed that skill off during this post!)
5. My kidneys, knees, and continences--a year spent working at a hospital has taught be to grateful for those puppies!
6. The Style Network for playing Sex & the City marathons every Saturday.
7. My mom, for teaching me to say thank you all year round and not just on Thanksgiving.

Tune back in tomorrow for Chef Kefi's Black Friday Gift Giving Guide.  Happy Thanksgiving!

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