An adventure with kale

May 31, 20252 Comments

***I plucked a salad from a food bar in the airport, my first adventure with kale.***

I don’t know about you, but whenever I get off an airplane, I feel unhealthy. Perhaps it’s because the humidity in the cabin is generally kept between 10-20% so I’m dehydrated. Or I’ve been squished in my seat like a sad little sardine and feel an urgent need to shower. Or maybe it’s because I might have munched on things that really aren’t good for me as I sped along the skyway in that metal can.

In any case, I often feel the need to restart my immune system with something healthy, hence the reason I recently found myself in Miami Airport standing before a shelf filled with plastic-enclosed salads, one of which boasted kale.

I will admit here that I didn’t recall ever tasting kale before. It’s not that I avoid greens. Gosh no! I was a long-time gardener and loved trimming fresh young leaves into yummy salads. And it’s not because I didn’t know kale existed. It’s just that somehow the plant never sang to me, which is strange since people have been chomping on those lumpy leaves for about 4,500 years.

Kale was sort of ignored in recent times, serving mostly as decoration on buffet spreads, but then, in the early 2000s, kale had a resurgence. Rich and famous folks like Dr. Oz and Gwyneth Paltrow began publicly proclaiming the magical benefits of kale. Bon Appétit declared 2010 the year of kale. Time magazine listed kale as one of the top 10 food trends of 2012. Fancy restaurants started showcasing kale recipes. And today you can scarf down kale at fast-food places like McDonalds, Starbucks and Chick-fil-A.

I recall staring at the salad as my sweetie pie waited in line at the airport Subway. I knew what he would order. An Italian sub with spicy pepperoni, cheese, and salami with onions, lettuce, and oil and vinegar.

A short time later, we placed our feast out on a desk in the hotel.

Ryan stared at my salad. “Do you want some of my sandwich?”

“No, I’m good,” I said feeling rather smug as I dug a plastic spoon into my greens.

Kale is said to have a sharp, complex taste, somewhat like arugula or radish but mixed with an earthy, grass-like flavor. I found those fat wrinkled greens quite chewy and similar to spinach that had been picked a bit too late. But I was determined. Kale was good for me! Afterall, it contains big doses of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, and manganese, fiber, copper, tryptophan, calcium, potassium and a whole bunch of other healthy nutrients.

***I tried but could not avoid the pull of an Italian sub.***

Still, as I shoveled that miracle food into my mouth and did my best to chew those thick leaves, I couldn’t help staring at Ry’s sub sandwich.

He caught me looking. “Are you sure you don’t want a piece?”

I glanced at my half-eaten kale salad, then back at his Italian sub, filled mostly with things that are bad for me and were unlikely to revive my airplane-stunted immune system. Still, the sandwich smelled like warm bread and vinegar, cheese and onions.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “Don’t do it, Anne! Stick to your guns!”

Please know that I tried.

“Is that wheat bread?”

Ry nodded and I felt a little bit better.

Okay,” I sighed. “Just one small piece.”

Your Forgotten Sons

Inspired by a true story

Anne Montgomery

Bud Richardville is inducted into the Army as the United States prepares for the invasion of Europe in 1943. A chance comment has Bud assigned to a Graves Registration Company, where his unit is tasked with locating, identifying, and burying the dead. Bud ships out, leaving behind his new wife, Lorraine, a mysterious woman who has stolen his heart but whose secretive nature and shadowy past leave many unanswered questions. When Bud and his men hit the beach at Normandy, they are immediately thrust into the horrors of what working in a graves unit entails. Bud is beaten down by the gruesome demands of his job and losses in his personal life, but then he meets Eva, an optimistic soul who despite the war can see a positive future. Will Eva’s love be enough to save him?

Release Date: June 6, 2024

Bookstores, libraries, and other booksellers can order copies directly from the Ingram Catalog.

Anne Montgomery’s novels can be found wherever books are sold.

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Where’s the bread?

January 25, 20254 Comments

Remember when you’d go out to a restaurant and the first thing a server would put on the table was bread? Of course you do, at least if you’re over 30. In fact, restaurants sometimes went out of their way to prove just how bread-forward they were. I recall, quite fondly, the times when a linen napkin-covered basket filled with several types of bread all artfully arranged around a ramekin of warm butter would appear. Then there’d be the admonishment, “Don’t ruin your dinner.” Which did nothing to deter everyone from lunging for a piece of that delicious goodness.

Today, however, bread is rarely offered in restaurants, unless it’s part of a sandwich. And when I ask for some to go with my dinner, I’ve watched servers, hand over heart, exclaim, “We don’t serve bread!” as if I’d just asked about scoring some cocaine.

So what gives? First, bread costs money and patrons often expect it to be free, especially older folks who remember the good old days when, well, of course the bread was free. Note that I’m not one of them. I’m happy to pay for bread, and am often perplexed when informed that the restaurant does not serve bread just as a burger in a nice fat bun is delivered to the next table.

There is some evidence that serving bread prevents patrons from ordering appetizers, further cutting into a restaurant’s bottom line. I can see that. So, again, just charge me for the bread, don’t deny me those scrumptious carbs alltogether.

I also understand that those nice bread baskets sometimes were wasted, since bread got a bad rap somewhere around the time the gluten-free craze began. It’s amazing, don’t you think, that just 4% of people actually have a medical reason to follow a gluten-free diet, and yet given all the food labels that scream Gluten Free!, you’d think it was a scourge affecting the masses. It’s not. Note that it’s 18-34 year-olds who are most interested in avoiding gluten, so perhaps I should be angry with them when I can’t get a piece a bread.

I guess we can also blame the paleo diet for our inability to munch on a warm buttered baguette or a nice slice of sourdough, since all forms of cereal grains are verboten for people on that regimen, which is rather perplexing since the program is meant to mimic the way our ancient ancestors consumed food. Scientists now believe that our hunter-gatherer forebearers were eating bread 14,000 years ago and that carbohydrates were essential to human evolution, so that it’s stricken from today’s tables seems odd, don’t you think? Note that it’s mostly those in the 25-44 age group who tend to follow the paleo diet. (See where I’m going here?)

Now, I’m not a dope. I understand that copious amounts of bread are not good for us. Everything in moderation and all. Still, I think it’s time we stopped demonizing bread. I, for one, will emulate my ancient ancestors and continue eating bread. With every meal.

And don’t try to stop me!

Your Forgotten Sons

Inspired by a true story

Anne Montgomery

Release Date: June 6, 2024

Bookstores, libraries, and other booksellers can order copies directly from the Ingram Catalog.

Anne Montgomery’s novels can be found wherever books are sold.

Goodreads

Amazon

The news is making me choose

February 17, 2024Leave a comment

***I learned in the news that my hot tea might kill me, but I won’t give it up.***

Since I’m a former reporter, the fact that I read the newspaper daily and watch the news on TV should not come as much of a surprise. However, I’m at a point where I’m not sure how much more I can take.

Not too long ago, I read an article telling me that drinking hot tea could cause esophageal cancer. Since I am as dedicated to my daily pot of tea—brewed the old-fashioned way with tea leaves—as any hardcore coffee drinker is to their beverage of choice, the story freaked me out.

The idea put forth was that really hot beverages could alter the nature of the cells in the throat and leave them susceptible to changes that might be a precursor to cancer. The article pointed out that the World Health Organization recommends not drinking anything hotter than 149 degrees, which had me staring at my pretty, eggshell-thin teacup—No, I don’t drink from a mug. I am not a barbarian!— where luscious steam was rising into the air. I put the cup on the saucer to cool. But, later, the tea just didn’t taste right.

It was suggested that I insert a meat thermometer into my tea, but, geez, that would ruin the whole gentility vibe, don’t you think? And the big thermometer would just fall out of my dainty little cup. I considered giving up my non-alcoholic beverage of choice, but the loss of the ceremony itself would just be too depressing

And now, there’s a new horror we must face. It turns out that picking one’s nose can cause Alzheimer’s. According the National Institutes of Health, “(W)e suggest that nose-picking increases the transfer of pathogenic microorganisms from the hand into the nose changing the nasal microbiome from a symbiotic to a pathogenic type, with possible consequences of a chronic low-level brain infection via the olfactory system…”

And that, they say, can lead to both dementia and Alzheimer’s. Now, I’m not the least bit worried, because I have never, EVER, engaged in that kind of excavation. I’m just sharing the scary news in case you have.

I’m not sure how many more of these stories I can take. I still feel uncomfortable when standing before the deli counter, ordering turkey and ham and bacon. I’m guessing you might already know that the processes used to make our yummy lunch and breakfast meats create cancer-causing substances. And yet there I am pointing out those coldcuts to the guy behind the counter, then hiding the packages beneath all the healthy fruits and vegetables in my cart, lest some know-it-all stare at me with derision.

I’m guessing stories like this will continue to appear, still I must be honest. There are certain things I can’t do without: chocolate, tea, cheese, wine, and bread. So with the idea that something’s going to kill me, I’ll leave it at that.

Bon appétit!

Your Forgotten Sons

Inspired by a true story

Anne Montgomery

Release Date: June 6, 2024

Bud Richardville is inducted into the Army as the United States prepares for the invasion of Europe in 1943. A chance comment has Bud assigned to the Graves Registration Service where his unit is tasked with locating, identifying, and burying the dead. Bud ships out, leaving behind his new wife, Lorraine, a mysterious woman who has stolen his heart but whose secretive nature and shadowy past leave many unanswered questions. When Bud and his men hit the beach at Normandy, they are immediately thrust into the horrors of what working in a graves unit entails. Bud is beaten down by the gruesome demands of his job and losses in his personal life, but then he meets Eva, an optimistic soul who despite the war can see a positive future. Will Eva’s love be enough to save him?

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Anne Montgomery’s novels can be found wherever books are sold.

Goodreads

Amazon