Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, December 24, 2016

7

FOOD AND DRINK & MORE

Mountain Views-News Saturday, December 24, 2016 

Julie’s Favorite Family Recipes

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND 
MERRY CHRISTMAS

By Peter “St. Nick” Dills

 Originally dubbed “the devils wine” because 
the bubbles tended to explode in the thin bottles, 
champagne has long been the choice (well, my 
choice) to celebrate special occasions for as long as I 
can remember. January 1st is National Champagne 
Day, and for good reason - more bubbles will be 
served from December 24th to January 1st than 
any other time of the year. Remembering that only 
grapes from the region of Champagne, France can 
be so-titled, our last review for the year celebrates 
bubbles from Champagne: Mumm Cordon Rouge 
Brut. This is a non-vintage winner - just like many 
blends I have written about from California, some of 
the best champagnes I’ve had are non-vintage. The 
wine maker has access to over 500 acres of grapes, 
and the Reims area of Champagne produces great 
juice year after year. The Mumm name is rivaled only 
by the House of Moet for champagne dominance. 
Though you might see me at the local market picking 
up a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, for $10 less I can hardly 
notice the difference.

 Of course, this is not a beverage I 
would recommend drinking on a regular 
basis, but for a very lasting memory of 
a great occasion, this champagne will 
surely create it! Many of you expressed 
the need for me to keep the prices down 
in this article - trust me I hear you loud 
and clear - but for a celebration I do like 
this champagne. The Cordon Rouge 
has a wonderful depth of flavor, though 
some say a little too sweet (I disagree). 
If stored properly and chilled to the 
right temperature you will enjoy this 
immensely. Save the strawberries and 
cherries for the prosecco, this is real champagne. 
Champagne goes also very well with fried food (the 
bubbles cut through the oils of the food) and will also 
compliment a nice bowl of salty popcorn. Yes, I said 
popcorn. One last tip for the holidays, your sparkling 
wine or champagne will not keep overnight, so once 
it’s opened at the restaurant or your home plan on 
sharing with a friend to finish it.

Closure: Corked

Dills Score

 Each week I will give you my Dills Score. Starting 
with a base of 50 points, I have added 8 points for 
color, 7 points for aroma or “nose”, 9 points for 
taste, 8 points for finish, and 9 points for my overall 
impression, which includes my value rating.

 Total Score 91, retail $44 on Sale, around $34 at 
most area supermarkets

 Tune into Dining w/Dills Saturday 6 PM KLAA 
AM 830 Radio

 Find my food blog www.peterdills.com

TABLE FOR TWO by Peter Dills

thechefknows@yahoo.com

RED LENTIL SOUP WITH NORTH AFRICAN SPICES

makes 4-6 servings

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, chopped fine

Salt and pepper

. teaspoon ground coriander

. teaspoon ground cumin

. teaspoon ground ginger

. teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch cayenne

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 garlic clove, minced

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups water

10 . ounces (1 . cups) red lentils, picked over and rinsed

2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus extra for seasoning

1 . teaspoons dried mint, crumbled

1 teaspoon paprika

. cup chopped fresh cilantro

DIRECTIONS

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and 1 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring 
occasionally, until softened but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add coriander, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, and 
1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir 
in broth, water, and lentils and bring to simmer. Simmer vigorously, stirring occasionally, until lentils are soft and about 
half are broken down, about 15 minutes.Whisk soup vigorously until it is coarsely pureed, about 30 seconds. Stir in lemon 
juice and season with salt and extra lemon juice to taste. Cover and keep warm. (Soup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. 
Thin soup with water, if desired, when reheating.)Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in small skillet. Remove from heat 
and stir in mint and paprika. Ladle soup into individual bowls, drizzle each portion with 1 teaspoon spiced butter, sprinkle 
with cilantro, and serve


HEALTHY LIFESTYLES

THE JOY OF YOGA


HOLIDAY YOGA

The holidays can 
be an intense time 
with extra parties, 
errands, and visits 
with people we don’t 
see often and it can 
be overwhelming. 
Conversely, a lack of these extra events/merriment can 
bring its own set of emotions. During this time, it’s best to 
figure out how to dial down the intensity and stay centered. 
So, how about a few essential holiday yoga poses?

 For energy, try Utkatasana, or chair pose. On the 
inhalation, bring the arms in line with the ears. On the 
exhalation, bend knees and sit in a chair that’s not there. 
Don’t go too deep, and try to keep the chin tucked in but 
eyes lifted up straight ahead. Stay in the pose for just the 
inhale and exhale, release, unbend knees, come to stand. 
Try a few more times dynamically and then hold the pose, 
breathing steadily.

 For grounding and balance, try Prasarita Padottanasana. 
It’s a wide-leg forward fold. Step the feet about 3 1/2 - 4 
feet apart and have the feet point straight ahead. On the 
exhalation, soften knees slightly and fold over between your 
legs. Take several steady breaths here. Try to draw shoulder 
blades together on your back to not over-round the back. 
Release the neck too, then release from the pose entirely 
after 8 breaths or so.

 For centering, try Supta Matsyendrasana, a simple supine 
twist. Come to lie on your back and draw knees to chest. 
With knees to chest, roll over completely to one side (fetal 
position). Then, open up the top arm and look toward the 
arm that is outstretched. Hold steady for several breaths. 
Make sure to do both sides. For added centering, add a 
little abdominal work such as a low boat pose or something 
similar.

 For digestion and to ease tension in the lower back, try 
Apanasana. Lie on your back and draw knees to chest. Stay 
for several breaths and feel free to move a little to massage 
the lower back.

 Enjoy these yoga poses and come see us at Yoga Madre!

Namaste,

Keely Totten

JUST FOR BEST FRIENDS


PEASANTRY AND PETS

A PERSONAL POSITIVE 
PERSPECTIVE

Happy Tails

by Chris Leclerc

When I was 4 . years old I lived in Huntsville, Alabama with 
my 6 older siblings and my parents who’d just experienced 
a spiritual epiphany that prompted them to make a major 
change in their lives. My dad, who’d worked at Pratt & 
Whitney Aircraft as a tool & die maker for several years, 
suddenly decided to quit his job and go full time into a 
Christian children’s outreach ministry. I have a handful of 
memories about what life was like in Florida prior to that 
change, but my clearest memories are of my experiences 
growing up in Alabama.

 I was born the seventh of seven in West Palm Beach, 
Florida. It was 1963, a year remembered by most Americans 
as the year President Kennedy was assassinated. Being a baby 
at the time, of course I was unaware of what was going on 
in our country, or anywhere else for that matter. But later in 
life it somehow became significant to me, to include as part 
of “my story” the fact that I was born the same year President 
Kennedy was assassinated.

 Regardless of the political status that prevailed when I was 
a small child, one thing I can say for sure is that my family 
was poor in dollars, but incredibly rich in blessings. We were 
blessed with an enormous amount of love and spiritual 
nourishment on the home front. Kindness to others took top 
priority in any lecture that I may have had to endure from my 
parents. “What we have is to be shared.”, still comes to mind 
as part of what my folks endeavored to teach me, and for that I 
am grateful to this day.

 My mom and dad also taught me how to get by with very 
little. Not to say that we suffered or went without, because 
amazingly, the miracles of provision that I witnessed through 
the faith of my parents is what has kept me believing in God 
after all these years. They were excellent examples of how one 
should live their life in faith; working hard and knowing that 
God will provide. Without their example, I often wonder what 
kind of person I would be today.

 So, with those early memories all said and done, I am 
finally getting to the main point of this happy tale. In 1968 we 
were living in a duplex located in a rural area of Huntsville, 
Alabama (Toll Gate Road on Monte Sano Mountain, to be 
specific). The center wall had been demolished, turning it into 
a single-family dwelling with space enough to accommodate 
nine, leaving the center kitchen as the largest room in the 
house. I have some pretty amazing memories of sharing 
Christmases with my family in that home.

 Now I regress, to give you a little history about my folks. 
My mom and dad grew up in Worcester, Mass. during the 
depression. My dad left photography school to serve in the 
Navy on the USS Missouri during WWII. As a young girl, 
my mother worked at her parents’ restaurant while honing her 
skills singing and dancing on stage. 

 Soon after my dad returned from the war, he met my 
mom, they married and stayed that way for 60+ years until 
they both passed away. Because of their own life experiences, 
they had lots of valuable lessons to share with us kids about 
working hard, building a home, gardening and practical ways 
to manage money in order to feed a family and pay the bills. 
After all, God helps the man who helps himself, right?

 So, in 1968, while we were living in that reformed duplex 
on the mountain, some friends offered us a couple of rabbits 
- a male and a female - as a gift to our family. Knowing it 
would be an awesome experience for us 
kids to have the responsibility and benefits 
of owning pets, as well as a little extra cash 
we would gain from selling some of the 
rabbits, my dad accepted their kind offer. 
He immediately went about building an 
enormous above-ground hutch for them 
to snuggle and nest in. As you can imagine, 
we kids were very excited when the rabbits 
arrived.

 It didn’t take long before we had our 
first brood of bunnies, and each of us got 
to pick one to be our very own. I remember 
selecting the runt of the litter. He had a silky 
brown coat, so I named him Cocoa. As the 
momma and poppa rabbits continued to 
proliferate, we were able to sell several of the 
bunnies to our friends in the neighborhood at Easter time. I 
also remember my dad helping me tote a few of them to my 
second-grade classroom for show and tell. What a wonderful 
memory that is for me now.

 Then one day when money had apparently gotten pretty 
tight for us, my dad came to us “little kids”, as they used to call 
me and my sister (2 . years my senior), and explained that 
some of the rabbits might have to give up their lives in order 
to provide food for the table. At first I didn’t understand what 
he meant. I knew the chickens we kept in a coop in a separate 
area were there to give us eggs and at times, give us meat…but 
the idea of a rabbit providing food made no sense to me.

 My father was very careful to select rabbits we’d not 
chosen to be our pets. He performed the necessary task of 
slaughtering them early in the morning while we were still 
sleeping, to prevent us from seeing what had to be done. He 
knew we would probably notice there were rabbits missing 
and he’d have to address the issue at some point to clarify why 
he had to do what he did to feed the family, but he didn’t want 
us witnessing the act.

 I remember asking my dad where the rabbits had gone, 
and he carefully explained that we needed to eat some of the 
rabbits as a means of survival. I cried hard for a long time when 
it hit me that the rabbits had to die for my sake. As I grew older, 
it became easier to accept that some of those rabbits would 
have to sacrifice their lives to feed me and the rest of my family.

I am told I get most of my sensitivity from my father, along 
with a few other special traits, so I can only imagine how it 
must have broken his heart to have to kill the rabbits for us to 
eat. It was only when we simply could not afford to buy meat, 
and it was done in the most humane fashion possible. My dad 
did what he had to do to feed us kids. I will always love him for 
taking on such a difficult task to give us what we needed.

 Although I don’t eat rabbits today, I believe that my father 
taught me a very valuable lesson. I learned at an early age how 
our food makes it’s way to the table. Some kids are never told 
what goes on behind the grocery store counters. These days 
it is so easy to forget that nature is indeed what feeds us. We 
go to the store and choose from an enormous selection of 
foods prepared by other hands, and often don’t give it a second 
thought.

 No one wants to think about how a steak comes from a 
cow, or a pork loin is obtained from a pig. But, I believe that 
carnivorous humans should have to witness the process at 
least once in their life, to earn the right to consume the meat 
they eat. The same goes for the vegetables we consume. We 
should all have to experience the hard work that goes into 
planting and harvesting a garden that puts food on the table. 
It’s a basic part of our survival and until we appreciate it, we are 
missing out on a very important precept of life.

 I hope we can all learn to value the foods we eat, particularly 
those who eat meat. Although I would like to see our society 
move away from eating animals, I realize it is a very deeply 
rooted culturally accepted practice in our society. But it is so 
very important for us to remember the sacrifices being made 
on our behalf. Show respect to all animals. Be humane in your 
lifestyle by taking only what you need, and giving back what 
you can. Be grateful for what sustains you, and above all don’t 
forget to love and let live!


PET OF THE WEEK: ZEKE: ANIMAL ID #A5012293


Zeke (A5012293) is an effervescent 6-year-old 
white male Maltese mix who was found as a stray 
in La Puente on November 16th and brought to 
the Baldwin Park Animal Care Center. Weighing 
10 pounds, Zeke is a friendly and trusting dog who 
enthusiastically greets new dogs. He walks politely 
on leash and seems to be housebroken. Zeke has an 
endearing can-do attitude, and will be a fantastic 
indoor companion in any loving home. To watch a 
video of this sweet little gentleman, please visit the 
following link: https://youtu.be/4kSTyctt7fk

 For more information on Zeke, please contact 
volunteer UHA adoption coordinator Catherine at 
562-301-9184 or catherine@hope4animals.org.

www.mountainviewsnews.com

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com