I Cook Therefore I Am

 For whatever reason, I am taking the current lock down and COVID surge much better than the first one in the spring. Maybe it is because this one is so much worse. Now I have a number of people I know personally who have become sick. Maybe it is because in some ways it was so obviously going to happen. Maybe it is because I know the drill now whereas before I was in denial and wondering why we had to do things the way we did. 

But a big part of it is that I simply have more time and can be more relaxed. When the first shock of the pandemic lock downs took place, I was just at the launch point of the Theodora Project. For months, I was scrambling to save it, relaunch it as a totally virtual learning environment, forcing it to bootstrap income because donor funding had dried up. 

Fast forward nine months and the project is stable, has WAY more support in terms of both financial and people working on it. While there are significant aspects of the model that need to be tested in 2021, I and the others working with me can see a clear way forward and a great potential. 

As a result as we went into the holiday season, I focused on chilling and for me that means cooking. I missed the whole first lock down wave of cooking mania so maybe I was just catching up. So without further ado here is what I've been cooking up

Paella

Most of our ingredients

Clockwise from top, shrimp and scallops marinating in olive oil, garlic, sherry wine and pimenton (smoked paprika), special Spanish short-grain rice, chorizo sausage and jamon serrano, aromatics (shallots, onions garlic & pimentos)

You will also need some strong chicken broth with saffron and a well used paella pan

Saute the cured meat in olive oil

Add the aromatics

Add the rice

Add the stock

Cook until it becomes thick soup consistency. Then add the seafood.

Put in a 325 oven for 20 minutes. Take out and let rest covered for 10 minutes

Forget to take picture of the final product

Put remember to take a picture as you are actually eating it

Deviled Eggs

Forget to take picture of all the ingredients which have come together as a flavor base of shallots, garlic, chorizo sausage, pimentos, sweet and hot pimenton (notice the similarity? I bought a lot of Spanish food products recently)

Using my trusty Thai mortar and pestle work the flavoring into the egg yolks

Add Mayo and continue to work until smooth. Check the seasoning

Not exactly the best filling job but damn tasty

I am working hard to get out of certain cooking ruts by perusing a series of old but excellent cookbooks I inherited from my Mother called the Good Cook published by Time Life back in the 1970's I believe. Each book is about an individual subject such as beef, lamb, eggs, sauces, desserts, etc. I wanted to make a pot roast and thought my methodology had gotten stale so I checked out options in the Beef book. Here is what I ended up doing.

Brown the meat well after seasoning and putting on flour which you beat into the meat with the dull edge of a knife so the flour sticks and you get a good brown crust. This worked well.

My aromatics of choice are parsley, celery, carrots and leeks...A Lot of Them

Add some canned tomatoes. I used beef broth and white wine as the cooking fluid. I cooked this baby for 6 hours at 325 turning the meat every hour and a half or so

Forget to take pictures of the rest of the process which included doing a major flavor adjustment. I found the sauce was too sweet so I added some Thai Fish Sauce which as a salty umami punch and some apple cider vinegar for acidity.

Also don't take pictures of draining the sauce and squeezing all the flavor out of the aromatics, returning the sauce to the pan and finishing the accompanying vegetables (potato, carrot and daikon)

AND FOR GOD'S SAKE FORGET TO TAKE PICTURES OF THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

Need a break from cooking?

All time best Winter Orchid

All Wife's work

The joke is that we got this as a present from SiL 2B and for the longest time Wife thought it was an artificial plant. Now we honor Wife for bringing the artificial plant to life! Let us know if you need any resurrection services.

This And That

 Well there hasn't been a whole lot momentous going on here. I mean in the world there is. It has been three whole days and our beloved outgoing President hasn't been mentioned in the national newscasts even once! As one of my Ghanaian participants would say, "How Cool Is That!"

But little things of life do strike my inner chords.

We made latkes, raw potato pancakes that are traditional for Hanukah. I had leftovers. My fertile culinary mind said, "Hey these are basically hash brown potatoes." So I served on up with some fried eggs and some homemade New Mexico Green Chile for breakfast!

It was time to put up our Christmas tree. It ended up unusually tasteful and balanced. We usually strive for garish and outlandish. 

I did however create this little tableau

Those Star Trekkers will recognize Captain Janeway on her command deck

She is surrounded by Angels and Birds of Peace and holds the dominate position above the Borg Cube.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that we were getting really good leeks and my intention of making classic Eastern European Jewish Chicken Fricassee using leeks instead of onion. 

It turned out Great!

Finally, we've had some small bits of snow. So the trail I do for my exercise has (as usual) started to get snow covered. I have great winter hiking gear including a pair of boots that are good in the cold and have extra traction. 

It snowed on Tuesday. I was shocked when I got toward the end of the hike that the snow was virgin...no one had hiked this far yet! 

Kind of cool

The Return Of Video

 Since 2014, I have essentially not watched any kind of video entertainment. That was the time when I began the great book writing process. The story I was creating held far more interest to me than anything I could watch. Plus, I found that I was becoming very sensitive to sensory overload. Video entertainment in general (at least for me) is way over the top in terms of sensory stimulation. 

Recently, however, I have been enticed to give video another try. Daughter #1 was the stimulus for this. She asked if I had seen a China produced food series from Netflix called Flavorful Origins. She extolled its production values and creativity. I gave my usual protests that I didn't do video and couldn't get it any case. But Wife pointed out that I could use the Netflix account we have on my computer. 

So I gave it a try. It was very interesting. And with having it on my computer I could actually control easily the amount of time I spent. So I am using it as a break between writing in the evening.

Is Illusion Better Than Reality?

 In my last post, I bemoaned the fact that I had not magically lost 10 years of aging...Despite HAVING TWEETED LOUDLY THAT THAT WAS THE TRUTH. I mean because we know that saying something over and over, louder and louder makes it true. Right?

Well maybe it has had some effect.

Wife was talking to a fellow Rotarian today about a project. For some reason the subject of age came up (maybe because it is my birthday...not to late to send presents btw...cash is always good 😀.

This woman, who is 67, thought that Wife and I are IN OUR 50'S!!!!!!

Shit, that's 10 years better than what I was hoping for. Now if I can just get the Grim Reaper to buy into this narrative, I'm golden! 👍

Has There Been A Time When I Had More To Be Thankful About?

 I am a day late in putting out a post on thankfulness and gratitude but in fact should we have to have a special day to remind us of these two incredibly important life guiding properties?

Throughout this year as so many people have suffered, we have had food, clothing, work because we wanted to work, connection with our family around the world, the opportunity to give back. I even got to travel again during that lull period in the fall. Our children and their families despite challenges related to schools closing and lock downs are all doing well, in some cases even better. 

During a period when many charitable ventures and other not-for-profit organizations have had big problems, we were not only able to successfully launch the Theodora Africa Project, we executed our beta test and now are on to our second round funding and expansion. How crazy is that? In the middle of a pandemic and economic crisis.

Health-wise, Wife and I have mysteriously somehow  remained old. The fully expected rolling back of 10 or more years did not take place DESPITE MY TWEETING IN CAPITAL LETTERS OVER AND OVER AGAIN that it was just around the corner. I was so sure if I said it LOUD ENOUGH and OVER AND OVER, it would be come the truth. But no,we still have all the physical ailments, pains and diminution of physical capabilities. That was a bit disappointing. BUT, on the other hand, we seem to be taking all the deterioration with a modicum of grace and perseverance. And I am thankful that both of us are still determined to do as much as we can with what capability we still have. We have plenty of plans and once we are able to get out again, we will.

I am thankful for dumb luck. In Theodora, we talk about the birth lottery...how so much of what you have in life is determined by where and when you were born rather than your own innate abilities. Wife and I had the good fortune to get 5 solid years of semi-retired travel fun in our lives. I know so many people who are just a few years younger than us whose plans now have all been shot to hell. 

So yes, I have a lot to be thankful and grateful for. I don't take what we have for granted. I know things can change. But I intend to appreciate and take advantage of what we have been given for as long as we have it.

I Am Not Alone In My Appreciation

 Thomas Friedman, author and columnist with the New York Times, echoed my sentiments about who we need to be thankful for from this election in his column yesterday here.

A Shout Out To All The Election Officials

 I have a new set of heroes. They are embodied by the Republican Secretary of State for Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, but he is just one of many elected officials of both parties at the local and state level who made our election one of the most effective and fair in recent history. 

When you think about all the noise, hype and drama leading up to the election, it is mildly incredible. There were horror stories being told of international interference, of terrible miscounting, of complete collapse of absentee ballot systems. 

Yet in the end, virtually every state performed professionally, conducting the election with aplomb despite all the histrionics and shadow of the pandemic. It has been called one of the fairest and most effective elections in recent history. Sometimes I wonder if all these people around the country banded together and said, "Damn you all! You are not going to use us as your scapegoats! We are going to do the job and we are going to do it right!"

I suspect all these incredible, dedicated, honest people aren't going to get a lot of accolades. I suspect people will forget all about them within a month of Biden being elected. But I wish someone would shout out praise for their heroic effort. I would welcome a statue to the honest, elected official who oversaw the election and did it right. 

Hopefully no one would find some crazy thing wrong with it and tear it down.

Ode To Leeks

 I like leeks. I like them a lot. But I don't cook with them nearly as much as I probably should. Probably because they do take a bit more work to prepare since there can be a lot of sand in between the upper leaves. Also, the leeks I usually see don't have a lot of the desirable white part and have a lot of the tougher, not so usable green part. 

But last weekend as I was stocking up on food to avoid going shopping any more than necessary during the lock down (which will surely go more than two weeks), I saw that the leeks were exceptionally good looking so I bought them. I got around to cooking them yesterday. 99% of the time I buy leeks, I make potato leek soup, the foundation for the classic French potage. (When I was a student in France, the family I lived with served it as a first course for virtually every dinner.). But I was inspired to do something else. So I took my leeks and potatoes, added a lot of melted butter and roasted them in the oven for about an hour (30 minutes covered at 350 degrees and 30 minutes uncovered at 425 degrees). 

The results were excellent. Leeks have such a distinctive aroma. It is like they are their own spice/herb combination. They require little other than salt and pepper. THEN, tonight, I took the leftovers, mixed them with broth, cooked and blended so we still got our potato leek soup. Which I might say was every bit as good as when it is made from the raw ingredients. 

So I have made a little promise to myself to be more expansive in my use of leeks. Number one on my list to try will be doing classic chicken fricassee using leeks instead of onions.

Happy Hearing Aid Day

 Ever since I got my first high tech hearing aids about 7 years ago from Costco, I have been so incredibly happy. Before the pandemic hit, I had bought a new pair (5 years is about the lifespan of a hearing aid). They were even better and cooler than my former pair. They synced with my phone 😀. Drove Wife crazy with me wandering the house looking like I was talking to myself. 

Sadly a few weeks ago I lost one while hiking. Now I've hiked with these suckers on ever since I started with them and never lost one before. But there you were. FORTUNATELY for me, Costco gives you a 2 year loss or damage warranty. It took two weeks before the new ones came in. And during that time we went on lock down again. I was afraid they would close the hearing aid center in the store down.

But no! Not only was it open but they have a special entrance set up so customers of the hearing aid center and pharmacy don't have to wait in the long line. 

So now I am happily hearing aid re-enabled. But I think I will leave them home when I hike and hope the bears make a lot of noise.

Preparation

 My niece commented on my last post about hunkering down that she (who lives on the East Coast) was being better prepared for an anticipated shutdown. Remembering that in the spring, our Governor deemed liquor stores non-essential. That meant doing without my preferred cognac for almost a month! Not to be caught unawares again, I put in a order at our local Total Wine and will be picking it up today.

Preparing To Hunker Down

 It is all reprising itself. The pandemic is exploding here and in Europe. We thought we might do some traveling soon but it is clear that all is going to be locking down so no reason to make reservations that are just going to be cancelled. But this time, at least for me, there is less denial and being upset. It has been clear in my eyes that the Western nations populaces clearly lack the discipline or seriousness to do what is necessary to get this particular contagion under control (unlike so much of East Asia). So all our hospital beds will be filled up shortly and there will be no choice but to either lock down again or accept a higher death rate. And if the latter happens, that means we old folk will need to pull in our horns and stay out harms way. But at least I know what to expect and have already changed my life to suit it. Plus I did get my month in Ghana. So that was a blessing.

Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants - Questions Answered

 We got an inquiry from Ms. B from Ohio. In our comments she asked;

 

“I may have missed it, but are there pictures of where you work? I would be interested in a more detailed description of the work the women do. Also, how do you find the business that use their work?”

 

Pictures from Where We Work

 

We are, in fact, a completely virtual operation. Our participants all work from their domiciles as do I and my other key staff. While I was in Ghana, I rented a large enough apartment so I could have group meetings. We also met once in the office of one of the directors of our Ghanaian partner foundation. But because of their prior occupation and their desire for confidentiality, one of our rules is we do not publish pictures of them on public forums.

 

Work our Women Do

 

Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants (https://theodoraafrica.com/) focuses on solopreneurs & small business owners, probably over 50 years old, very often a professional, consultant or service-provider, who struggle to run themselves effectively as a business. We deliver a consultative approach that allows the client to effectively use the service. Specific services provided are:

• E-marketing & support > setting up email and social media programs, designing content, executing mailings and social media postings.
• Owner Management Assistance > providing accountability programs and task management systems that get owners and professionals more productive and less harried.
• Process documentation > using both graphics and text to document via flow charts and mind maps
• Research
• Our pricing model is a flat fee of $200 a month with a commitment of six months. We provide a customer relationship manager who will put together the team to help with your tasks. We help design the work process and organize the management of that team providing your service.

How Do We Find the Businesses That Use Our Work?

 

Currently we find our clients via networking and public speaking events. We have tapped into the very robust business network I’ve developed over the years to generate our first wave of clients. One of our participants has become a member of this networking organization and actively works to develop relationships and sales. We are rolling out a major initiative of presentations to groups where our target market has a high representation. As I have initiated this whole project through the auspices of Rotary International, this is a primary focus of this effort. But there are number of other organizations we are targeting as well. At each talk we try to generate specific contacts and leads which are then put into a classic sales pipeline for ongoing sales effort.

 

Hope that answers your questions. Please feel free to ask more. AND if you feel you know of any organization that needs cost effective administrative services, give me a call!

Ghana Non-Work

 This trip I was determined to not spend my entire time working. One weekend I ventured west of the capital Accra to an 'eco-resort' that had been highly recommended to me...the Lou Moon Resort.

In order to get to see more of the country, I decided to hire a car and driver to take me there. It was only about 130 miles from Accra. But in a country like Ghana that meant on a Friday an almost 7 hour car drive. On the map it looked like a lot of the road was close to the coast. But in the event, there was little coast seen on the drive. It was in fact a pretty long and dreary drive on very poor roads. But this is the reality of being in a developing country. The resort itself was lovely.   The food was really good which I did not expect. They get their fish fresh from villages right next to the resort. I had a chance to do some photography and really escape/

Les Photos

If you go through a town in Ghana, there will be vendors

Lots of towns like this

And lots of traffic

We stopped for lunch at one of the few places where the road came to the actual coast

Lou Moon Resort

Hike in the area around the resort

And back for a chill evening overlooking the Atlantic

Finishing Up This Ghana Trip

 

A month seemed like such a long time when I left for this trip. During the trip there were times when I felt the pangs of being out of one’s own rhythms. Yet as the last week rolled out, the feeling changed to, ‘Where has the time gone? There is still so much to be done? I am going home already?”

 

Local people seemed to adjust their expectations of when I would be available similarly. My prior two week trips always had people misjudging how long I was to be there and then not having time to schedule meetings with me. This time even with twice the time here, the same thing happened.

 

As I reported in my last post, we have made great progress in the areas we identified as critical. Despite quite a bit of drama in week 3 due to some longstanding issues between individuals within the group of initial participants and their leadership before I ever came on the scene, we ended on a very good note. I have observed that this group clearly understands the depth of the opportunity they have. More than once they have confronted situations that could have severely affected their ability to progress by overcoming those obstacles.

 

Without going into too much gory detail, we recognized the need to deal with these issues and had started using a conflict resolution facilitator. After the first session, we had a complete blow-up between a number of members, I mean shouting and yelling. But after letting everyone cool off for a day or two, I reminded everyone of what was at stake and the choice they had to get bigger or smaller as people. I am happy to report that the last week was a vast improvement. I think the world of this group. Each challenge is met. They have much longer to go, but I am confident with the right guidance they will achieve all they seek.

 

Sometimes when you are in the middle of things, it is hard to see the magnitude of the changes that have taken place. I was asked by those doing our website and developmental work to get some up-to-date video footage of our participants talking about how they have changed as a result of the program. We did this the last week. The videographer is the same person who did your initial video work a year ago. When it was all over, he made a point of telling how astounded he was over the change that had taken place with the women. He commented they were calmer, more confident and more articulate. He said they conducted themselves as professionals. A far cry from where they were a year ago. I had him do a testimonial video as well!

 

The month finished off with the first ever all-hands meeting (virtual) of all who are volunteering time for the program. This was 22 people including the six participants, covering 10 time zones. It is a far cry from just six months ago when it was mostly my other founder and I. We are entering a period where we have the opportunity to take this venture a significant step forward.

 

And…finally…our website

 

https://theodoraafrica.com/

Ghana Mid Way Point

 

It seemed to take me longer to acclimate than in prior trips. I suspect this had to do with being the long gap since I’ve traveled – having gotten out of practice so to speak. That plus all the stress related to COVID test requirements and whether I would actually get into the country. Be that as it may, I made this trip because of the Theodora Project. We have had more success than we could have anticipated. But that same success brought on other challenges, particularly in Ghana. These challenges were ones that required my personal involvement as the project up to this point has been very dependent upon me individually. Specifically, we needed to 1) establish a sound Ghanaian not-for-profit organization with its own leadership that could oversee things there, 2) determine how we would manage our existing group of participants both in their work and in their personal development, and 3) lay the ground work for expansion and sustainability by documenting training and recruitment.

 

Happily we have had the kind of success I hoped for with the first and third goals. Not only do we have the independent Ghanaian organization required but its Board has members who are committed to our goal. Our initial group of participants found that the training that was developed during our very chaotic start in April fulfilled their requirements and allowed them to make the necessary transition to an American work environment. So we are using that curriculum as the basis for future training.

 

The second goal has been more problematic. I was far more optimistic about our initial group being able to grow into a self-managing team than the reality of capabilities is allowing. It is clear that we will need some kind of local management that can provide the structure and discipline that a group like this needs to function effectively. Fortunately, I have members on the local Board that I can lean on to assist in that effort.

 

Due to the pandemic, I have restricted my going out. Fortunately I have the best apartment I have had yet. It is spacious. I have been able to run all of my group meetings in it. It is well situated with many more places one can walk to. I hope to secure it or another in the facility for future trips. I have one-week to go. I took a trip out of Accra this weekend that was both ‘interesting’ and nice. I will put up a separate post on that. It is the first time I have taken time to myself on one of these trips to Ghana.

 

The last week will be devoted to summarizing and putting in place a project management system that will allow us to start pulling together the volunteer efforts that include a wide variety of individuals in different parts of the world.

Back To Ghana

 

Although a lot of the world is hunkering down, and with good reason, I am in Ghana. I have had a lot of second thoughts…not about being here, none at all about that…but about posting that I am here. There is so much intense feeling on the part of many people in my circle about the dangers of the current pandemic that in all candor I did not want to expose myself to their judgments by making too big a deal about what I was up to. But so much progress has been made that it seems a shame to not be posting about it.

 

As Theodora Project has grown and progressed, a number of issues in Ghana screamed out for attention…in person, live attention. But Ghana’s borders were closed and there was no way to get there. As that country got control of its contagion, it began to consider how to create an opening to the world to revive the kind of interaction needed for economic stability. Finally at the end of August, the country opened up its only international airport with an ingenious system. It invested heavily into the capability to do rapid testing to passengers upon arrival. It initiated a system that required incoming visitors to be tested in there county of origin 72 hours before you flew to Ghana (you have to show a copy of your test report or the airlines will literally not let you on the plane). Then upon arrival, you are immediately given another test (costs you $150). You get the result in about 45 minutes. Get your bags and are on your way. Then before you leave, you have to have another test done 72 hours before your departure.

 

There was a lot of gnashing of teeth, frustration and fear before I left trying to figure out how I was going to get the test done within the allotted time and still get the result before I flew with most of the labs in our area promising 2 to 3 day results and my losing 10 hours of time window since my official flight was from Chicago not Albuquerque. Further, I was not able to get my hands on the actual lab report. The report was sent to my doctor and only the results were recorded on a patient portal website. Much calling to doctor and the labs ensued (while I was actually on my way from Albuquerque to Chicago. I got lab reports but they had the wrong time. But in the end I showed them the documentation from the patient portal whose date was not the lab date but the date the lab report was received. It proved to be perfectly acceptable. I feel the airline people who are forced to do these check-ups can’t possibly know all the variations on what lab reports look like. As long as there is a negative test, a legitimate lab name, and a date within their parameters, they are happy.

 

Business class on my flights from Chicago to Paris and then from Paris to Accra, Ghana were virtually empty so no problem social distancing there! When I arrived in Ghana, they didn’t even look at the test papers. They just put me through their on the spot test. It was done with well done effectiveness. Within an hour and half of touching down, I was in my apartment. I was back in Ghana.

End Of Yet Another Era

 When you reach your 7th decade you are naturally going to see A LOT of Eras ending. This one particularly annoys me. The Wall Street Journal, venerable business newspaper with such a range of reporting, will no longer deliver a print edition to where I live. I can get the digital edition for about 70% of the cost of the print one. But digital delivery systems are not particularly convenient to read at the times I would be reading the WSJ. Not going to do that. So after 40 after 40 years, done, over. So sad.

Falls-19th Century-Relics

 Gad how I love it when my adoring public responds to the rapid changes in blogospheric content so quickly. Right from our Nation's Capital, the cry comes...Thank God, Finally, An Insufferable Amount of Pictures! How could I know that people were suffering from almost withdrawal type symptoms due to the lack of photo posting on the blog resulting from our enforced lock down. Who am I to resist the call of duty?

Off we went in serious search of photographic opportunities. I started the day off using an old lens to determine if some of my frustrations from the prior day were the result of the new camera or the new lens. What I discovered is the new camera does process information slightly different than the old version requiring an adjustment in how I set things up. But the new lens has its peculiarities as well. It goes to a very low f-stop but only at its shortest length. As soon as you start zooming out to a longer length, it goes to much higher f-stops like old walk around, zoom lens. Once you accept this it is like having two separate lens in one. 

Today we visited Ithaca Falls, one of 10 major falls in this area. Then we went to the small town of Moravia (birthplace of Millard Filmore - on free de-I Sandia Travel's Post-Covid Tours vacation if you know who Millard is without checking up on line you bastards!). Moravia is noted for its 19th century architecture (as are many towns here) but is unspoiled by the 'quaint' bug that has hit many places. 'Quaint' is code word for 'now has lots of trendy eating places and places to shop.' Finally we just 'ran into' a place on a road with some ruined barns and buildings.  Really a pretty good day for working the camera.

Ithaca Falls

Coming up to the Falls

A Waterfall Study

I really tried to restrain myself...I really did

Two Natural Beauties

Tree Roots and Other to Study

On to Moravia

Famous Church with Alter from Austria that we couldn't get into because Wife is on the lam from her Tram fines in Austria! No because it is closed because of the pandemic.

Oldest House in Moravia (but far, far from the most interesting)

Good luck symbol we saw everywhere

Now! On to a SERIOUS study of 19th Century homes

Found at a lakefront - handy dandy geese repellents. They work. Just down the shoreline from these was a ton of geese shit

And out in the middle of nowhere

Barns and Corn

Finger Lake Daleks

Derelict School

From on our way back on Sunday in Pen Yan a cool looking mill that is still in operation