Cooking With Ideas

National Men Make Dinner Day

November 7 (yes, that's tomorrow) is National Men Make Dinner Day. Who knew? Check out the "rules," the rationale, the web site. Click here. Invented by a Canadian so national is in the eye of the beholder. Filled with a sense of humor. November 7 is also Joni Mitchell's birthday (another great Canadian) and Billy Graham's (see, everything has to do with religion). And, this year, National Men Make Dinner Day occurs on election day in the US. Men -- make dinner. Play a little Joni Mitchell. And, let's not make a hash of election day in the US.

November -- What a Month

November, it turns out, is Peanut Butter Lovers Month. (March is National Peanut Month.) Wow. What do you use peanut butter for? It is a great bait on mouse traps, they say. It goes into PBJ Sandwiches. And there are senegalese soups that use peanut butter. Rumor has it that peanut butter is useful for getting chewing gum out of hair. But. . . .what do you use peanut butter for?

If nothing, it is also National Georgia Pecan Month. Who knew?   For information:  Marcia Crowley, Georgia Agricultural Commodity Commission for Pecans (GACCP), Commodities Promotion Division, Georgia Department of Agriculture, 328 Agriculture Bldg., Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA  30334.  Phone:  (404) 656-3678.  Fax:  (404) 656-9380.

So, if you can't decide what to do with peanut butter, what do you do with pecans?

Blog watch -- November 2006

Somehow time has gotten away from me and there has not been a new blog watch in some time. So, here are a few to check out. And here's hoping you have more free time than I do right now to cruise and blog!

On Zen: World Zen Fellowship and on mindfulness and blogging, click here.

For those of you from the 24th Congressional District, an election-related blog. (Yes, he's problematic. Yes, his opponent is even more problematic. When did the lesser of two evils become the Democratic platform?)

In case you didn't notice, this very blog, Cooking with Ideas, won a Blog of the Day Award on October 24. Click here to check out Blog of the Day Awards. And both Theological Static and The Cranky Professor have been writing about food. Hmmm. What does that mean?

And, for friends of Deborah Tall, check out Planet of the Blind's postings on Deborah's work, including his lovely reflections (with links to others) here.

A Zen Master's Cooking Guide

While in Seattle a while back, I made an impulse purchase. Actually I made several but the one I have in mind is a book entitled Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life that Matters  by Bernard Glassman and Rick Fields. Turns out, Glassman is a roshi who leads Zen organizations in Los Angeles and New York. He is a well known proponent of American zen and author of many books. This particular book is based in part on a 13th century Japanese text of the same title. (To read a translation of the 13th century text, click here.) In describing a life lived fully -- supporting a complete meal for sentient beings, as it were -- Glassman and his co-author focus on the particular Zen activism associated with Greystone Mandala -- a set of social change institutions (including housing for the homeless, a commercial bakery, etcetera) located in Yonkers. Zazen, meditation, as part of life, means mindfully eating, walking, sitting, cooking. What does mindfully mean? That, in many ways, is what this book takes up -- through the metaphor of cooking. And the metaphor of putting together a meal whose five courses are: spirituality, study, livelihood, social action, and relationship and community. Right livelihood -- one of the 8 precepts of the buddha -- means a whole range of practices and ways of living mindfully.

Part of what I like about this book is its tone: It is written in a matter of fact but warm voice, open to its readers. Part of what I like about this book is, however, about more than tone. Among other things, it confirms what I keep getting told: to be interested in zen and cooking means I ought to be more present in both the preparation for cooking, the cooking itself, the cleaning before and after and during cooking. Doing it all mindfully. Not my forte much of the time in cooking or in life.  The book uses cooking in two ways: it reminds readers that cooking itself is and can be part of right livelihood. But, it also uses it as a metaphor to look at other aspects of right livelihood. By drawing on examples from Greystone, social activism and social transformation become more directly related to how one lives and loves. Glassman is a roshi and a businessman. Neither is actually separable from the other. Mindful transformations.

For more on Glassman, see this interview, this encyclopedia article, and this heroic representation.