One Action Dinners

We love Churchill’s Action This Day! campaign. He believed in getting the extreme priorities done daily. (Everything else was relegated to Report In Three Days...)

At the Academy, we take Churchill’s quote in a culinary direction because feeding people is an extreme priority. We like the idea of one step at a time towards delivering dinner tonight. Sometimes it’s too difficult to focus on more than a single action during times of distress.  

Know that some of the tastiest meals are the simplest. Here is a dinner menu made up of one action items, all delicious:

• Had Enough Cocktail - Pour soda water over ice. Sprinkle a few cocktail bitters on top. This is a perfect drink if you decide to reduce alcohol but still want the illusion of a cocktail.

• Roast Chicken - Liberally sprinkle the outside and inside with coarse salt, freshly ground pepper and Herbs de Provence. Stick chicken in 425-degree oven for 1.25 hours. Done!

• Fennel - Cut fennel bulb in quarters and save the fronds. Toss in oil. Place in 425-degree for 1.25 hours. No turning. To serve sprinkle the crispy roast fennel with S&P and lots of reserved fennel fronds. Delightful! 

• Sweet potato - Wash sweet potato. Put in 425-degree oven for 1.25 hours. Cut and let diners load potatoes with butter, creme fraiche, sour cream — any or all. Their choice! 

While looking through the fridge and figuring out what to make with what’s inside, remember that often the simplest things are the best.  Sometime all it takes is ten minutes and even less ingredients to deliver a meal you can proudly serve to anyone in need.

• Eggs + Butter = Omelette

• Jars of cherries + Angostura bitters = Old Fashioned

• Parmesan + Heavy cream + Fettuccine from the pantry = Alfredo

• Olives + Anchovies + Capers + Tomatoes + Spaghetti from the pantry = Spaghetti alla Puttanesca 

• Sour cream + Buttermilk + Herbs + Lemon = Dressing for a wedge of lettuce with crispy bacon

• Sour cream + Yogurt + Lemon zest and juice + Garlic = Creamy sauce for meats of all kinds…

@#$%&! #’s are difficult right now. Looking at a scale (going higher), looking at a bank account (tanking), all information that leads to even more numbers — faster heart rates. Let’s lower that beat by counting breaths, counting numbers in a recipe, counting projects to be done in the house and the times it takes to do them, counting how many times our children and other inhabitants living at home ask, ‘What is there to eat?’ (Actually don’t count that last one but the Academy has solutions for that too.) 

For all of us it comes down to one number, ONE. One step at a time, one day at a time, one problem solved at a time. But make that one into a smart choice. Make that into One Action Now.

Who is the wisest among us all?

“The Dream of Solomon” by Luca Giordano, 17th century oil portraying the king of Israel at the moment God imparts his fabled wisdom.

People who live in wheelchairs know how to live in confinement. Those with limited mobility find ways to connect that most of us never had to consider until now.

Charlie Harry is one of the coolest guys I ever knew. He contracted polio at eighteen. One day he was the star quarterback; the next morning he woke up paralyzed. He told me what went through his mind the morning he discovered he needed help with everything for the rest of his life: “Life just dealt me a terrible blow. Now get on with it.” Charlie was incapable of feeling sorry for himself. He had that rare fabulous quality of making everyone around him feel better. He ran a textile company where five hundred people reported to him. He became a state senator. He married a beauty. He connected to the world (way before the internet) with his Ham Radio. His friends were everywhere. 

By making those around him feel comfortable, Charlie made his handicap irrelevant. Paying close attention to the person he was talking to, he created an atmosphere of calm and fun, lots of it. He was an expert at communication, one on one and throughout the world. The gift Charlie sent Christopher for his eighth birthday? Eight gallons of dehydrated water. Think about it! Imagine the delight an eight year old experiences unpacking that box and discovering what dehydrated water looks like.

Some people have seen it all, even though they have never experienced a plague like today’s. If you are from a culture that values highly the perspective of the elderly, you already know their particular body of wisdom. They know for certain that everything goes up and down, eventually passes. Nothing lasts forever. The elderly are aware we must go through, we cannot go not around. They can step back and observe instead of react. Now is a good time to call your older friends and ask what mattered most to them in their long lives, and other details too. A reciprocal gift of attention, that call.