Have Something Cook Something

Aileen came in the other day, having lifted in a competition recently in a lower weight class, without even trying, other than working out relentlessly, manifesting Bob's training program.
She got me thinkin when she described to me her very favorite salad that a friend of hers turned her on to.
Avocado, bacon, lemon squeezed over it.
I said,"On a bed of lettuce or baby spinach?"
"Nope. That's it. Perfection. YUM!"


(Couldn't find a pic w/o watercress, till I make one and take my own pic, this will have to do. Looks good this way to me, too.)



I REALLY need to drop some fatty insulation. I'm a carboholic. Gimme a big russet baked potato, butter, chives, bacon pieces and/or avocado, fresh ground pepper. Heaven. Or pasta, any kind of pasta with anything over it, except those heavy tomato sauces, too acid for me. Hand me a piece of LaBrea bakery olive sour dough bread, warm or toasted with butter. More heaven.

As a kid, I used to steal chocolate chip cookies while they were still warm. Why SHOULD I care if there were any left for others? I stole the dough too, scooped right out of the bowl. It was half gone before it became cookies in the oven, unless my mom policed the dough, which she learned she had to do. Don't talk to me about salmonella, what do I know about that, or care? Soooo good.

I've been toying with the idea of trying to eat more like my friend Mike Mahler. Get back to vegetarian lifestyle, not all the way to vegan, like he is, but, at least start by eating alot less chicken, fish...and bacon. Already, I can't eat red meat. Don't trust it.

I've seen those cows at Harris Ranch on Hwy 5, knee deep in their own piss and shit crying out in barren feed lots, screaming in the ammonia fumes that burn my eyes 1/4 mi. away as I go by. They stand without shade, not far from the always crowded Spanish style restaurant with all that very red beautifully presented steak for sale in the retail section. Nope. Can't do it. Didn't those droves of folks eating all that steak, see those cows or smell that wafting piss? Do they really want all those stress hormones in their food? That much adrenalin can't be good for ya.


My chickens (and their eggs) get to walk around and peck the ground. They eat purslane, plantain and other vegetarian non GMO, hormone free stuff that makes their yolks orange yellow, high in Omega 3 fatty acids. I pay big bucks so they can have a good life before it ends.

It says on my bacon package, too, organic, without antibacterials, nitrates, nitrites, handled humanely. Somehow I don't trust that they're telling me the truth, greed being what it is today.

Bluefin tuna are teetering on the brink of extinction as are those giant slow growing Chilean sea bass that taste so good prepared perfectly in one of my favorite Japanese restaurants. Love it, can't order it now that I know it's teetering fate. They, apparently shouldn't be buyin it either. It's hard to be a good steward of the other creatures on this planet these days, while still eating them! Even shoppin at the high end markets who pretend to care about these issues right along with you, for the right price, doesn't necessarily mean that your food animals will be treated as you want them to be.

Yeah, yeah I know, vegan lifestyle's not healthy, those skinny yoginis are catabolizing all the time, with no clue what that is, while doing so many reps of arm circles, it's a miracle the joints don't break like a paper clip bent again and again in the same spot.
Oh, yeah, I forgot, they're barely in their 20s. Give em time. If they keep that up, livin on kale juice, sumpin's gotta give. No wonder they're so limber, it's not just that they were born with ligament laxity and that's why they're good at wrapping their legs behind their heads and walking around on their hands. Those Gwenyth looking lithe fermies, braless and perky in their hemp tees got no real meat on them bones.

You really think most of the orange yogis who show up at the Ganges for the Kumbh Mela on Makar Sankranti every 12 years are healthy and balanced individuals?

Bathing in the Ganges?!! They cremate folks, float dead bodies in that holy river, not to mention the plethora of unknowable polluting factors that also land in there.
That gathering looks like the precursor to the "be ins" I used to attend in the Haight.
All manner of crazies crawl out from their hideaways and show up for the party, stoned outa their minds.

Some things improve when brought to America. These sadhus are the tribe from which the root teachers of the yoga craze that's taken off like wildfire here emerged as spiritual beacons. Most are not too inspiring a role model, yet some of the western yogis are combining their asanas with healthy nutrition, teaching a more balanced approach, and sustaining their strength and flexibility over the years. Personally, I think the principles of yoga and vegetarianism have gained something being applied by the inventive minds of some of our western teachers with a good education in critical thinking as part of what they bring to the plate. Good healthy muscle needs complete protein daily to remain so over the long haul. No way around it. Finding the right kind while eating no meat, requires refined choices good menu planning. Don't think all that soy and meat looking wheat jel you see in Whole Foods is actually healthy stuff either. GMO soy and gluten gluten, here I come! My internal kid is cravin cookies at even the thought of eating that stuff.

Mike's a tough act to follow, he eats like its a biology experiment. He's researched it. Optimizes hormones with meal timing and supplements, spends the big bucks for the best magnesium he can find.

He's DISCIPLINED and he sports some of the healthiest muscles I've ever worked on. I know it can be done well, and over the long haul. I think he's been a vegan for over 15 years, but he's the exception....in a number of ways.

Of all the 6 paramitas a junior bodhisattva is supposed to practice, avoiding bad karma on the road to realization, discipline (Sila(Wylie Tibetan,tshul-khrims)virtue, morality, discipline, proper conduct) is right down there for me with patience (Ksanti(bzod-pa)tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance). I'm not good at those. I don't like em. They don't go with my aging hippie personality. I'm erratic, fueled by creative bursts. I like working that way, and I get alot done.

Opening my heart to the magnitude of suffering that's really going on out there in our world sometimes seems more than this girl can endure. It ain't hard to deal with the pain and suffering in Iraq, Congo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, starving hoards in Africa, animal cruelty, fishing out the seas, polluting them and killing the coral reefs, sea turtles with papilloma virus blinding them and choking off their throats, if you simply choose to ignore that it's happening. "Hey, I'm busy. I got my career to think about." Well, yeah,....and...we're at critical mass on some of these issues, folks. If we don't stop and smell the stinking roses the grandkids aren't gonna have a very pleasant life.

If we don't pay attention and get involved in the solutions, aren't we part of the problem? I think those really compassionate ones who take it on and try to do something about it in a big way, like Jesus did, like HH the Dalai Lama does every day, finding homes for pleading sobbing nuns escaped from his homeland after being raped and beaten, are our most courageous heroes. Far more so than macho men grabbing guns and shooting thru the streets of Baghdad.

I'm not enlightened and functioning from a clear view of the whole magilla, so for me it's hard not get a serious case of the blues sometimes. I forget it's all a big dream we're stuck in by the force of our own ignorance. I still feel compelled to do what I can, where I can in my little corner of this world. I've been listening a lot to John Prine lately.

I practice generosity,(Dana(sbyin-pa)giving of oneself) like it was the way to prosperity. Heck I give away the store, time, all the time, specially to unsponsored athletes on a budget. I'd never do well in sales. "Oh you like that, have it, it makes you happy." My mom used to help me with the end of year accounting and she'd freak out at how much money I gave to Buddhist causes and charities that I thought did important stuff in the world. "How're you gonna have a retirement saved? You don't make enough to give this much away."

I fired her.
In part, because one of my clients, a psychologist, informed me that she was voicing her concerns to everyone who came into my living room. Sharin all my personal stuff with my clients, trying to get them to convince me she was right. That was it for me. She's outa here. I can't tolerate betrayal like that. She used to do that to my dad too, I suddenly remembered, when I finished flushing red upon being informed of this shocking news. No wonder I ate all those cookies and sported a little insulation even as a kid. She was worth hiding from. Some folks shouldn't be licensed to procreate. My folks were two of those.

So Aileen's little salad got me thinking, maybe I could substitute flavor and well prepared recipes for carbs and that way my kid would stay on board with this lifestyle change project. She won't let me stay on a "diet" for more than a 30# loss. She pops out from my unconscious, downs a half pint of Ben and Jerry's, before "I" even know it. She's NOT into Cherry Garcia, either. Hates that flavor, no offense to the Dead. Those tuna shakes Staley jokes about as a low carb staple ain't gonna please her either. I musta lost the same 30#s and a few new ones 3 or 4 times now. She's stubborn, that one. I gotta find a way to work with her, not try and beat her into submission. That'll never work. She's also very creative...and sneaky.

I decided to try out this new plan today, by baking some stuffed Portobello mushrooms. Nothing says daylight savings time is gone like a good stuffed Portobello. Maybe if I find great low carb recipes to make, I'll be able to override the kid's stubborn resistance, by invoking another one of those paramitas: Virya(brtson-’grus): energy, diligence, vigor, effort. I can add a dash of Dhyana(bsam-gtan): one-pointed concentration, contemplation, which I'm pretty good at, and we might make this work finally.


I don't want to remain in this form. By the time I'm retirement age, I'd like to have my sailing, diving, yogi body back, or at least the older version of it. How'm I ever gonna complete my goal of actually standing up on that surfboard and flying off the lip, maybe not like Taj Burrows, but grabbin a little air, before I'm 90, if I'm not a bit more svelte?!

The kid in me (and the hippie) loves those activities, those long summers in San Blas, knee boarding the inside wave that no one else wanted. Matachen breaks just like inside Malibu, a moving gentle wall breaking for a full quarter mile, all the way into the bay. Long walk back out to the point, but what else was I there for?
Maybe this will work. Perhaps I'm now employing a little of that Prajna(shes-rab)wisdom, insight, I've been working on freein up, meditating these long many hours and years. I use it in behalf of others rather well, now it's time to use it in my own behalf in a way that actually works skillfully with the resistant stubborn components of my personality. As Phil, so aptly shoved in my face in a fb exchange recently, Earth bound reality ain't always behaving as though it is empty in nature.

My brother-in-law is a great cook. He's a Chinese tai chi master from Shanghai and loves to express himself creatively in the kitchen. He calls his cooking, "Hong style, have something, cook something." His somethings are always good and he's learned to do them with less oil in the cross pollination of living here. So here's the version of stuffed Portobellos I came up with tonight, replacing the breadcrumbs with egg.


"Have Something Cook Something" Stuffed Portobellos




2 large Portobellos, stems chopped fine
1 yellow onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pkg organic baby spinach
1.5 oz greek feta cheese, cubed 1/4" squares
2 oz sheep Mancheca w/rosemary skin, thinly sliced or grated
2 eggs
1/4C pesto
2T olive oil
2T butter
Saute onion in olive oil till clear, add Portobello stems, saute, add spinach stir briefly, turn off pan.

Beat eggs into pesto, add feta. Mix cooked ingredients into liquid, set aside.

Put 1/2 butter in pan, add mushroom caps rough side up, saute briefly, mostly to coat their backs with butter. Turn. Add rest of butter and let it absorb.

Spray glass baking pan with Olive oil spray. Add Portobello caps rough side up. Fill with pesto spinach filling, top with Mancheca

Bake 375° 30 min. or until done and cheese is lightly browned on top.

YUM! Spinach pesto stuffed Portobellos.
Have something, cook something style.
This could probably handle another egg just fine, for a little more protein, specially if the fridge didn't have pesto in it needing to be eaten.