Today, I continue my chat with Chris Wave, a natural health guru who I consider a mentor and friend. Often, we have to be in the right frame of mind to hear that the way we eat is pretty messed up, but I hope you'll take time to go back and look over the wisdom and inspiration in her words from yesterday.
I do feel strongly about it because it's really helped me with Sam, my gluten-wheat-yeast and milk intolerant son.
Now...on with the show...
If you could only eat one food for the rest of your doggone life, what would you choose?
I am a dairy freak. I drink raw milk with 4 inches of cream on top.
At what age can we stop striving for perfection?
FIRST! throw out the magazines! I think there is so much emotional imprisonment attached to those sickly, starving images...it is hard to get free while longing to be that androgynous figure every day.
One day it ceases to be striving. I can't say when this happens but somewhere along the way, you begin to love yourself enough to feed yourself right. The thought of eating a Hershey bar becomes repulsive. It stops tasting right. It tastes like wax to me today and this candy bar was something I ate every single day for at least 15 years. There is no trying anymore. I don't really want a cupcake or Pepsi (of this I drank a case every couple of days). I can' say I crave a carrot but I eat it telling myself I can have anything I want after I eat that carrot. After I eat it I don't want the bad thing anymore.
What’s your favorite book? Movie?
My favorites change like me..like the wind. Not surprisingly I love food books and movies. Like Water for Chocolate, (the book, not the movie) was sensational tale showing how emotions are intertwined in our food. It made me hungry and want to cook though so don't read it at midnight. My favorite movie was Babette's Feast. An all-time great movie about how we demonize our food, and live poor, mean lives trapped in false piety. Babette gives all she has to create one magnificent feast for the religious sisters she cooks for. This is a soul movie with so many layers of understanding it has to be watched prayerfully and many times to get it all.
What do you do to relax?
This is a hard issue for me, given that I have 22 more careers to make happen. I read. I love to read. I have stacks and stacks of books around the house. I don't want jewelry, vacations, or new anything. I don't really care much about any accouterment of life except good food and books.
Can you share some artsy things with us? How important is art/creativity to you? What do you do to nurture that side of you?
Creative life is so important to me that I become mean and weird if I am not creating. When my children were young I had the perfect escape in my job as a flight attendant. I had a hotel once a month. I would drag a light weight sewing machine to Europe and sew up something wonderful or at least get it started! I had a tiny watercolor set that I kept in my purse at all times and would paint on the fly. I knitted, I baked, I cooked, I grew flowers; all art. I gave up housekeeping to write or draw or paint. Fortunately I have a husband who thinks our house is clean all the time no matter how very base it gets! I have to be starting a new business or learning something all the time. I hunger for that kind of creative existence. In the style of Winston Churchill, I read a poem every day. I re-read Billy Collins yearly!
Do you have any hidden talents?
No. I could use a little mystery. I am an open book. I try everything. Some things I do well. Some things I do because I love to do them but we would not call it talent; like singing. I probably shouldn't sing but I love to sing.
What’s your favorite job that you’ve ever had?
I loved being a flight attendant. I never once didn't want to go on a trip unless my kids were sick. My co-workers were the most inspiring, fascinating men and women I've ever met to this day; always into something. For twenty years I loved to travel. I'm a bit sick of it today which is hard because my children so long to keep the airways hot with travel.
Least favorite?
I had a real icky job working for Martin Brower a company with the nicest people but all I did was sit and pour over computer printouts ordering "foam" for McDonald's. Foam was the critical item to keep in the restaurants. The pressure over this dumb product left me lifeless and depressed after the first hour I worked there. I worked two days, called in sick the last three and never went back. It was so bad it propelled me back into nursing school.
What’s the hardest thing about parenting? What’s the most rewarding?
Hands down it was trusting myself. I spent 20 years second guessing myself. Mothers know intuitively. We don't have to square that with the world! The most rewarding aspect of parenting is to see them as adults, making excellent decisions, being true to themselves, taking care of themselves.
How do you nourish yourself?
I am really good at this since I get mean and snarky if I don't. I escape. I sometimes just go away overnight by myself. I have always done this. In our family of travelers this is not unusual. My kids have always only had one parent at home. Sometimes they didn't even realize I was gone for a day or so! If I can't go away, I like to go for a long walk, or visit an art museum.
Describe yourself in three words.
Creative, driven, curious.
Ok here it is. The secret is out. This Ratatouille has made me famous- amos. We did a whole dinner for some French people and they came back with more French people. It is a summer menu really but I confess I make it all year round even with winter veggies (which is incorrect). Fussy cooks will want exact amounts. There are none. This is an art dish that requires good faith.
Ratatouille (ala my cooking hero, MFK Fisher)
Cut up some red peppers, an eggplant or two, tomatoes, onion, yellow squash if you'd like.
Layer the veggies in a deep earthen crock or casserole dish. (Red pepper layer, onion layer, eggplant layer...etc.) With each layer you put in a few generous glugs of good olive oil and a small handful of Celtic sea salt.
Next layer; same thing until you are as deep as you want.
Cover the pot and put in the oven and cook all day if you like. The vegetables should not be crispy. They should all meld into one gorgeous dish.
Everything is sliced, cubed, chopped, minced, and, except for the tomatoes, is put into the pot...thrown in, that is, for the rough treatment pushes down the mass. At the end, when there is less than no room, the tomatoes are cubed or sliced generously across the top, and the lid is pressed down ruthlessly. When it is taken off, a generous amount of olive oil must be trickled over the whole to seep down. Then the lid is put on again. It may not quite fit, but it will soon drop into place.
The whole mess goes into a gentle (300 degree) oven for about as long as one wishes to leave it there, like five or six hours. It should be stirred up from the bottom with a long spoon every couple of hours. It will be very soupy for a time, and then is when it makes a delicious nourishing meal served generously over slices of toasted french bread with plenty of grated dry cheese. Gradually it becomes more solid, as the air fills with the rich waftings which make neighbors sniff and smile.
