There is some real cooking here...

This last Saturday, I did something I thought I could never do. I watched our youngest son for 10 hours test for his black belt in Kung Fu. He told me the night before it would be OK if I couldn’t stay for everything. I was worried that at some point I’d do something that would distract from his or somebody else’s concentration. I’m his mother, doesn’t matter that he’s 31, a mother doesn’t want to watch her child get hurt.

I really planned to watch the beginning, walk around Portland streets in the rain, have Gorn call me from time to time to keep me informed and come back for the ending.

I guess it will sound strange, it seemed strange to me at the time and still does. I know it’s about fighting and self-defense. I know everyone there wanted to do their best. I know there was a lot of testosterone flowing there that day. I know there were times when people there got hurt. But, there was no body there who wanted to hurt anybody. All the students there, testing or helping, wanted everyone to do their best and for no one to get hurt. It helped that one of the teachers talked with me about her experience. It also helped when things got intense that I could put the digital camera up and watch on a small screen.

So, I found myself caught up in all the excitement of reaching for this incredible goal. I’ve trained and run two marathons. That took real focus and very hard training. Wally started with Karate in the third or fourth grade. If you didn’t count any of the other years he’d been going to other martial arts schools, he’s worked in this school with this teacher for almost 6 years. Six years is really slow cooking. His endurance was unfailing. He brought his full energy and intellect to bear on all that was required of him. To say I’m proud doesn’t really address the event.

So, for the cooking part.

On Sunday, he told me it was his turn to fix a lunch for his vegan work lunch club and would I help. We fixed the Winter Greens and Sage-Poached Cherries for a salad, simple Le Puy Lentil Soup and Sage-Poached Cherry Oatmeal Scones. We tried to find something with blue-cheese flavor for the salad for the vegans but were unable to find a substitute. Instead of discarding all that great juice/wine from poaching the cherries, I add it to the salad dressing, still tangy but gives it an extra dimension and an touch of sweet. I made double the amount of poached cherries and used half in the scones for the fruit. The scone recipe required some substitutions to make them vegan: we used soy milk for the milk & cream, a vegan margarine and flax seed plus 3 T water mixed (in blender) with the soy milk to replace the egg.

Le Puy Lentil Soup

1 pound le puy lentils

1.5 quarts vegetable stock

2 T olive oil

lg. onion, sliced in crescents

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 carrots, chopped

4-6 celery ribs, chopped

small sprig sage

6 small potatoes, quartered

6 tomatoes, quartered

S & P to taste

Sautéed the onion then garlic, carrots, and celery. Add stock and lentils and simmer till tender. Add potatoes the last 20 minutes and tomatoes the last 10 minutes.

I cooked with my new Black Belt friend!