Music, poetry, and art can be medicine for unsettling, violent times. Take a moment to seek beauty today (and every day). It will help to settle your soul in the face of what we are all experiencing right now.
Free access to 60,000 works of art in the National Gallery. They also have a wonderful Chrome extension that randomly chooses a piece of art to display anytime you open a new tab on your computer.
“Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake.”
Dean Koontz
Hard times call for sweet things, particularly if they are easy to make and really, really good. This week I had a small culinary epiphany… Clafouti, (which is one of my favorite desserts ) is a cousin to the delicious dessert known as a Dutch Baby as well as a new favorite dessert of mine (and Christopher Kimball), Pan de Elote.
What they have in common is that they are all “blender cakes”.
Here’s the basic blueprint – a little bit of flour (of your choice), some eggs, some liquid, a sweetener (as much or little as you want) and various flavorings. They all go into a blender before being poured into a pan to be cooked.
So easy.
So fast.
So delicious.
You’re welcome!
Here are the three blender cakes I’ve cooked and can attest to…
This is my favorite clafouti recipe. Clafouti is traditionally made with cherries, but berries, pears and other fruits work well, too. I often add nuts (usually slivered almonds) as well.
A Dutch Baby is almost identical to a clafouti in terms of the ingredients, but you add the fruit afterwards. Here’s the NY Times recipe for a classic sweet Dutch baby. You can also make a savory Dutch Baby if you are looking for a fast dinner.
And then there is the life changing, amazing Pan de Elote or “Mexican Corn Bread”. (which has nothing to do with the cornbread most of us know). My favorite recipe for Pan de Elote calls for fresh corn, but frozen or canned work well, especially for those of us who don’t have a lot of extra time to cook.
Here’s a few more blender cakes that look easy (and fast) that are on my list to try!
Vanilla blender cake is basically a sponge cake, but most recipes say it has the moist crumb of Japanese sponge cake (which is not at all a problem!) Adding fruit like peaches or bananas is an option, too.
Caring for those who are ill or injured is a 24 hours a day job, 365 days a year… including the holidays.
Being on call during the holidays comes with a little sadness, but it’s complicated. If you’ve ever worked in a hospital during the holidays, you know it’s special in a way that’s hard to describe. Somehow everything seems a little gentler. Even though everyone working would like to be home, they also realize it’s even more true for the patients…. especially if they are children. Kids in the hospital at Christmas tug at the heartstrings of everyone except the very few not-yet-transformed Grinches or Scrooges (and even they are not immune).
But it’s not just doctors and nurses, it’s everyone working during the holidays whose work helps to make others whole… because healing isn’t just about procedures, medications, and diagnosis… it’s about making others whole. In fact, the word literally means “to make whole”.
Old English hælan “cure; save; make whole, sound and well,” from Proto-Germanic *hailjan (source also of Old Saxon helian, Old Norse heila, Old Frisian hela, Dutch helen, German heilen, Gothic ga-hailjan “to heal, cure”), literally “to make whole” (from PIE *kailo- “whole;” see health).
Police officers, fire fighters, EMTs, paramedics, 911 dispatchers, social workers, counselors, clergy all work to decrease suffering and heal. So do the people who clean, cooking, answer phones, or do anything to make that healing possible.
So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Joyous Solstice to all who are working over the next few weeks… and all who support them in this work. All of our winter celebrations have one thing in common… celebrating light coming into a world that struggles with darkness, light that heals.
If you are working during the holidays, thank you for being that light.
p.s. My family makes this cranberry bread every year for Christmas. It’s delicious, makes your house smell incredibly wonderful, and (BTW) is a fabulous way to say “Thank you!” to a healer in your life who is working during the holidays.
Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
Combine in a Pyrex measuring cup:
2 Tbsp melted butter
Juice and grated rind of one large orange
Fill with boiling water to make 3/4 cup then add to dry ingredients. Then add the following to the batter
1 egg
1 cup nuts (chopped walnuts)
1 cup raw cranberries (cut in half)
Bake in loaf pan (325° for metal pan, 300° for glass pan) for 1 hour
Test with toothpick
p.p.s. If you are particularly motivated to bake and give some away to neighbors and friends multiplying by 9 is the key to easy measurement:
Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl:
1 5 lb bag flour
1 4 lb bag sugar
1 1/2 tblsp salt
4 1/2 tblsp baking powder
1 1/2 tblsp baking soda
Combine in a Pyrex measuring cup:
1 1/8 cup melted butter (2.25 sticks)
Juice and grated rind of nine large oranges
Fill with boiling water to make 6 3/4 cup then add to dry ingredients
Add 9 eggs
9 cup nuts (chopped walnuts) = 3 lbs
9 cup raw cranberries (cut in half) = 3 12 oz bags
Bake in loaf pans (325° for metal pan, 300° for glass pan) for 1 hour
One of my favorite accounts on Bluesky. There’s no other site I know that posts photos of the daily salad given to a 40 year old tortoise who is constantly looking for true love, goats in Halloween costumes, and political commentary. They sell great cajeta (IYKYK) on their website (and there are super cool photos, too).
The 12th annual Theology Beer Camp took place last weekend, with the 50th anniversary of Monty Python and the Holy Grail as a theme. I posted my “Top 10” from this amazing conference here.
The Highest Court in the Land? I learned on the PBS Newshour this week that “The Highest Court in the Land”is the name of the basketball court on the top of the Supreme Court building. It somehow seems important that it’s not a regulation size court?
This recipe! I made this for the first time this week and it was AMAZING. In case you are wondering, I use the hashtag #CallFood on both Bluesky and Instagram for recipes that (usually) follow my “Pizza Rule” i.e. healthy and delicious food that takes less time to make than ordering a pizza.
I have a practice of curating cool things that I share with friends…and (#coincidence?) this post from last week made me think about that practice in a different way. Austin Kleon writes an amazing weekly “newsletter” to send curated stuff he loves to people he knows… but more importantly, to people he wants to know.
I’ve been pondering how to use this website to best serve the people I know (and the people I want to know!) … and I think Austin Kleon just gave me the answer.
So here goes!
My first “letter” to you… a short list of cool stuff that a pediatric surgeon/almost pastor who loves cooking and art (especially writing) thinks approaches “astonishing” (or at least really interesting) and is therefore worth sharing.
Is it Church or church? I’m about to be ordained in the United Church of Christ. I know that surprises you… it kind of surprises me, too, to be honest. But I have come to understand that this is an unexpected extension of my life’s work as a healer… and that church (the place) is really about community (which includes the messiness of being human) while Church is about possibilities. There is something about it that also feels like an act of resistance against a tide of not-love. I’m still figuring it out.
Frogs in Portland. Speaking of resistance… What a statement that Amazon is struggling to keep up with orders for inflatable frog costumes! Although inflatable animal costumes aren’t listed specifically, this kind of protest (mockery and humor) is one of the three ways to undermine autocracy that Nicolas Kristoff describes in this column. (The other two are 1) point out corruption and excess (like massive ballrooms and gold toilets?), and 2) tell individual stories more than making appeals for the principles of democracy.)
Air fryer Okra. If you hate okra this might make you reconsider. No slime, great taste, in a super healthy popcorn-like snack (1lb of okra makes a good snack size bowl for two and has 150 calories, 7.5gm protein, and 14 gm fiber). Add some cumin, garlic powder, or any other spice(s) if you want.
Also Accidental by Ellen C. Bush This poem made me remember and wonder… How many times did I lose count of stitches I placed (or more likely never counted in the first place)? It always seemed to be the first question from my patient (or their parents) once the drapes were off and the dressing placed… “How many stitches did I need, doc?”. What a beautiful reminder that these moments disappear for the sewer, but not those we treat … thanks to a scar (and sometimes a tiny piece of glass left under the skin).
About Blessings (which we need more of IMHO). “A blessing is a form of spoken poetry about the divine. It’s an incredibly positive form of speech, but it’s not simply “reframing.” (We don’t need to say, Oh, never mind. Tragedy is great! I love it. This is my new mind-set practice!) We might use blessing as a kind of act that scholar Stephen Chapman calls “emplacement.” Calling something blessed can let us say: This goes here, that goes there. This is beautiful. This is awful. And all of it can be called true.” Kate Bowler in The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad
I love good recipes and cooking in traditional ways … but I’m absolutely convinced that busy students, trainees, practicing docs, other healers (and all busy people for that matter) should own Instant Pots.
p.s. if you have the time and interest, it’s probably 5% tastier to sauté things first i.e. follow the recipe… but I know the pressure you are under (no pun intended). The 5% isn’t worth it compared to having delicious, fast, healthy food.
p.p.s. If you know a really busy person, take note – this is one of the best birthday/holiday/special occasion gifts you could possibly give them!
No medical student, resident, physician (or any other healer) has much time to cook which is why I came up with the “pizza rule” i.e. you should only cook things that take less time than it takes to order a pizza.
I discovered a cookbook today written by one of my favorite cookbook authors that starts with this sentence… “Do you have 20 minutes to make a great meal?”
It’s an entire cookbook that follows the pizza rule!!!
Cooking real food for yourself, or in a group (i.e. 3-4 friends each cook a large batch of something every week and then split it to share) is not only healthier for you, it has a lot of other advantages, too. It’s hard not to be mindful when you cook which means you can make it a practice that helps calm and center you for the rest of your busy life. Cooking also means you are taking care of yourself, and that feeling of care goes a long way to soothe days where you don’t feel much care.
If you want to hack the process of cooking for yourself to make it easier, check out this post or this one.
p.s. The book is on sale right now on Amazon for $1.99
p.p.s Even if it’s not on sale, you should buy it.
p.p.p.s If you search for #callfood on my social media feeds (@drmlb) you’ll find other recipes that are delicious, healthy, and meet the requirements of the pizza rule.
It is hard to eat well when you are a med student, resident or busy doc (also true for busy people not in medicine!). The key to eating well if you are busy is to have a strategy. You/ve developed strategies for studying to get where you are… so you have this skill set already! (Trust me, if you can learn how to take out a gallbladder or diagnose a complicated infection, you can learn to do this, too.)
As I’ve written before, here are the basic steps that you need to follow to eat well if you are “too busy to cook”:
Find recipes that sound good (but take less than 30 minutes to prepare)
Fill in a calendar with the plan for your meals (at work, on call, at home)
For the last 6 years, I have used an app that make this process incredibly easy. Paprika is not free, but it’s money well spent. I recommend downloading both the phone app (which right now is $4.99) and the app for your computer ($24.99). Try the phone app first if you aren’t sure, but I think you’ll find the laptop version is more than worth the money.
The reason I think this app is perfect for healers, healers in training, and anyone who is super busy is because it takes the four steps listed above and puts them all into one place. It not only makes it easy to choose recipes, plan your week and shop, it almost makes it fun. Here’s how:
Find recipes that sound good (but take less than 30 minutes to prepare)
Click on the browser tab to find new recipes and download the ones that work for you. As you save recipes in the app, it becomes your own personal “cookbook” which is searchable by category, name, or ingredients.
Fill in a calendar with the plan for your meals (at work, on call, at home)
This was the first moment I knew this was a great app. All you do is drag and drop the recipes you want into the appropriate day. Wow.
Make a shopping list and go shopping.
This is when I was completely sold. When you pull up the recipes you’ve chosen, there is a little “hat” icon at the top:
When you click this icon EVERYTHING IN THE RECIPE appears in a shopping list. Click what you need and repeat for the week’s recipes and voilà – your shopping list.
Because this app is on your computer and your phone, just take your phone with you to the grocery store. As you pick up each item, click the box next to it to take it off the list. If you are sharing the app with your significant other or roommates, anyone can add to the grocery list or unclick things they have bought.
Most surgeons perform around 500 operations a year for the 30 to 40 years they are in practice. If you add the procedures we do during training, surgeons walk into an operating room with the intention to heal ~15,000-20,000 times during their professional lives. In addition, for every patient a surgeon treats with surgery, there are at least 10 to 20 they will have seen who don’t require surgery but do require care. So the lives impacted during a typical surgical career number well over 100,000 and, when you include their families and friends, probably approaches half a million people.
Nadia Bolz-Weber is a theologian and writer who shares her journey and her remarkable teaching in “The Corners” on Substack
She shakes my hand and says, “we’ve met – but I do not expect you to remember. I’ve waited 7 years to be able to tell you this: You shared your chicken with me that night and you have no idea what it meant.”
Not what I was expecting her to say.
She went on to tell me how that night, she was at a real low point in the middle of a very painful divorce. We were in the green room and she was supposed to introduce me and she was exhausted and hadn’t eaten all day. Apparently I looked up from my huge chicken dinner and was like, “I’m never gonna eat all of this, please help me out here” and it nearly made her cry.
I have literally no memory of this, but even if I did, I could never have known what it meant to her.
We’ve all had a moment when someone, often a stranger, arrives at a moment of need to share their chicken dinner… or say just the words that heal something we may or may not have known was broken. Whether or not we recognize it, these moments create a subtle but profound shift in the way we view the world and ourselves. And, unbeknownst to us, we deliver the same moments of healing and grace to others. These moments can be deliberate, but more often they are not… and are as simple as picking up a small child covered in bandages to give them a hug, complimenting a stranger’s smile, or bringing a cup of coffee to an exhausted colleague and asking them – really asking them – how they are.
I can’t do it as well as Nadia Bolz-Weber, but here’s my blessing for you….
May you find yourself stumbling into sacred moments (even though you don’t know what you are doing, and probably don’t recognize them). And may you be open enough to recognize, accept, and celebrate the grace of chicken dinners, smiles, and cups of coffee that heal your soul.
