Cooking...

I think cooking is hard. Long ago, when I was recovering in a rehab hospital from a serious accident, one of my occupational therapy exercises consisted of cooking a meal. I had wanted to make spaghetti--that was my favorite food besides cold cereal--and because my therapist said that spaghetti was pretty simple, I had to add chicken. Now, at that point, I had never cooked in my life; I was 18 and lived my high school years with my bachelor dad, so I was pretty nervous about the event. My therapist drove me to the store and gave me $10 with which I was to buy the ingredients: chicken breast, spaghetti noodles and Prego sauce. I negotiated the purchase without incident, and later, miraculously, the meal as well.

Cooking, for my entire adult life, has been a challenge, and of course, when I became a vegan, it got harder. Many of my meals these days rely heavily on the use of canned black beans, but yesterday, I did something a little different. I made..."burgers."

"Burgers"

4 Portobello mushroom caps
4 hamburger buns (check the ingredients)
sliced tomato, onions, avocado
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Margarine to "butter" the buns, then broil on "High" for four minutes

Add the Portobello mushroom caps face down to a skillet with olive oil. Heat on medium high for five minutes on each side. Lower the heat to low. With the mushrooms face-down, slowly add balsamic vinegar, about 1/4 tablespoon for each cap. Make sure you remember to reduce the heat, or else you won’t be able to appreciate whatever music it is that you're listening to (maybe it's La Boheme, Act III, where Rodolfo confesses that Mimi is dying) as you will be distracted by the chaos of a splattering brown mess all over the kitchen cabinets.

Take the buns out of the oven (which you set on "High Broil" and of course you also set the timer for 4 minutes--didn't you?). Dress your burger as you like, avocado, tomato, onion, ketchup, mustard. Hopefully you'll be eating with two of your best girlfriends in all the world and you can chat about poetry as you eat.

The Orange
by Wendy Cope

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange--
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave--
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It's new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time left over.
I love you. I'm glad I exist.