Soba Salad and Celestial Speculations
Fifty years ago this past Saturday, astronauts walked on the moon for the first time. Fifty years ago today, they splashed back down to Earth. A friend alerted me to a website that not only offered a "live" feed of every moment as it transpired exactly fifty years ago, but was interactive and allowed you to toggle between, say, the conversations of the mission's surgeon and its flight navigator, in "real time" at the mission control center. I LOVE this website. I felt like I was getting a deep insider view on a world-changing event that happened way before I was even born.
The reliving gave me surprising emotions, like grudging sympathy for conspiracy theorists who don't believe the moon landing actually happened. When I saw it "live," I was staggered by the surreality of it. How did scientists and engineers manage to send three men to the moon in 1969, and bring them back alive, using only their primitive computers and their protractors and the like?! BUT THEY DID, and this gives me hope for all the absurdly difficult challenges that scientists and engineers face today.
Many moons ago, I worked for a defense and aerospace consulting firm, and one of our VPs was a former NASA official who was then seeking funds to be a space tourist on a Russian shuttle. Now the head of an organization called Earthrise Alliance, last week she published an op-ed arguing that NASA could be most useful today not orchestrating trips to Mars or the moon, but instead measuring and helping prepare the world to face climate change. I see this as a great example of courageous people adjusting their priorities to reflect changing realities. That, too, gives me hope.
I promise that I'm working my way toward describing the start of Vegan Vednesdays today, but indulge me while I share a couple other space reflections. As noted by Mike Allen for Axios, the "50th anniversary of 'MEN WALK ON MOON' was a fleeting chance for generations to reconnect and tell stories, and for the country to rally around something that was exciting and important, brought us together, and ultimately produced the biggest single historic moment ever." I talked to my own dad about his memory of it, and he said he was in the Army (in Germany, I believe), having been drafted in the Vietnam War era, and hadn't heard much news from the real world in months. It came as a surprise, then, when his superiors announced that his unit could stay up late and watch the moon landing, and sleep in the next day.
My dad happened to be with me when I saw a space shuttle in person, as it was being ferried up the Hudson River past my apartment building to its new home seven years ago.
At the time I was excited, but I later learned that this particular shuttle had not actually ever been launched into space, and I am still irritated about this. What's cool about a space shuttle that doesn't even go to space? How is that any more impressive than, say, a space shuttle replica made from construction paper and taped to the wall in a seven-year-old's play room?
Final space-related reminiscence: for several years, I have worked for non-profit organizations trying to eliminate cervical cancer (a preventable disease!) from the low- and middle-income countries where it is a particular threat, because of lack of access to prevention services. I have organized a couple of "Capitol Hill Days" where advocates speak to Members of Congress and their staff members about the urgent need for the United States to support scale-up of cervical cancer prevention services. And one of our advocates was former astronaut Ellen Baker, who went to space three times, and now works as a doctor, saving women from cervical cancer and other diseases. Ellen is an inspiration and a lovely person, and I feel lucky to have spent time with her.
Alright. Enough about space.
Vegan Vednesdays are off to a great start. I woke up and prepared muesli with coconut "yogurt" rather than my usual Greek yogurt, and it was delightful. Later I enjoyed iced coffee with oat milk. For lunch, I baked my own small loaf of bread, using Mark Bittman's recipe in "How to Cook Everything":
I topped slices of my bread with olive oil, salt, and farmers market tomato. SO DELICIOUS. (To be clear, I realize that baking a loaf of bread is completely unrealistic for people with a schedule less flexible than mine. I am fortunate to have the opportunity!)
Sorry, but I have to talk about space again. During lunchtime, I was watching the "live" reentry of Apollo 11 into Earth's atmosphere, and I was amused to see footage of a NASA employee enjoying his own sandwich at the same time as me, but 50 years ago. His was probably not vegan.
Anyway, back to Earth again: For dinner, I made "Soba Salad," from NYT Cooking (subscription required). It was not without incident, of course. I realized my bottle of soy sauce had only a few drops, and I kept frantically pawing through bottles in my cupboard, as if rice vinegar or marsala wine would magically turn into soy sauce. They didn't. I did, however, find a jar of hoisin sauce, so I substituted that, and I substituted lemon juice for lime juice because that's what I had. And I added kernels from a couple ears of fresh corn because Hi my name is Jennie and I'm a cornoholic.
Everyone agreed it was good but I am curious what it would have tasted like if I had managed to actually follow the darned recipe. And I would make only half the recipe if you're serving three people - I normally adore leftovers but with that fresh spinach, you don't want to be eating these leftovers for days; it will degrade.
All this to say, the first Vegan Wednesday was out of this world. Ha!
The reliving gave me surprising emotions, like grudging sympathy for conspiracy theorists who don't believe the moon landing actually happened. When I saw it "live," I was staggered by the surreality of it. How did scientists and engineers manage to send three men to the moon in 1969, and bring them back alive, using only their primitive computers and their protractors and the like?! BUT THEY DID, and this gives me hope for all the absurdly difficult challenges that scientists and engineers face today.
Many moons ago, I worked for a defense and aerospace consulting firm, and one of our VPs was a former NASA official who was then seeking funds to be a space tourist on a Russian shuttle. Now the head of an organization called Earthrise Alliance, last week she published an op-ed arguing that NASA could be most useful today not orchestrating trips to Mars or the moon, but instead measuring and helping prepare the world to face climate change. I see this as a great example of courageous people adjusting their priorities to reflect changing realities. That, too, gives me hope.
I promise that I'm working my way toward describing the start of Vegan Vednesdays today, but indulge me while I share a couple other space reflections. As noted by Mike Allen for Axios, the "50th anniversary of 'MEN WALK ON MOON' was a fleeting chance for generations to reconnect and tell stories, and for the country to rally around something that was exciting and important, brought us together, and ultimately produced the biggest single historic moment ever." I talked to my own dad about his memory of it, and he said he was in the Army (in Germany, I believe), having been drafted in the Vietnam War era, and hadn't heard much news from the real world in months. It came as a surprise, then, when his superiors announced that his unit could stay up late and watch the moon landing, and sleep in the next day.
My dad happened to be with me when I saw a space shuttle in person, as it was being ferried up the Hudson River past my apartment building to its new home seven years ago.
 |
| My dad and my infant backup dancer, with space shuttle in background |
At the time I was excited, but I later learned that this particular shuttle had not actually ever been launched into space, and I am still irritated about this. What's cool about a space shuttle that doesn't even go to space? How is that any more impressive than, say, a space shuttle replica made from construction paper and taped to the wall in a seven-year-old's play room?
Final space-related reminiscence: for several years, I have worked for non-profit organizations trying to eliminate cervical cancer (a preventable disease!) from the low- and middle-income countries where it is a particular threat, because of lack of access to prevention services. I have organized a couple of "Capitol Hill Days" where advocates speak to Members of Congress and their staff members about the urgent need for the United States to support scale-up of cervical cancer prevention services. And one of our advocates was former astronaut Ellen Baker, who went to space three times, and now works as a doctor, saving women from cervical cancer and other diseases. Ellen is an inspiration and a lovely person, and I feel lucky to have spent time with her.
Alright. Enough about space.
Vegan Vednesdays are off to a great start. I woke up and prepared muesli with coconut "yogurt" rather than my usual Greek yogurt, and it was delightful. Later I enjoyed iced coffee with oat milk. For lunch, I baked my own small loaf of bread, using Mark Bittman's recipe in "How to Cook Everything":
Sorry, but I have to talk about space again. During lunchtime, I was watching the "live" reentry of Apollo 11 into Earth's atmosphere, and I was amused to see footage of a NASA employee enjoying his own sandwich at the same time as me, but 50 years ago. His was probably not vegan.
Anyway, back to Earth again: For dinner, I made "Soba Salad," from NYT Cooking (subscription required). It was not without incident, of course. I realized my bottle of soy sauce had only a few drops, and I kept frantically pawing through bottles in my cupboard, as if rice vinegar or marsala wine would magically turn into soy sauce. They didn't. I did, however, find a jar of hoisin sauce, so I substituted that, and I substituted lemon juice for lime juice because that's what I had. And I added kernels from a couple ears of fresh corn because Hi my name is Jennie and I'm a cornoholic.
Everyone agreed it was good but I am curious what it would have tasted like if I had managed to actually follow the darned recipe. And I would make only half the recipe if you're serving three people - I normally adore leftovers but with that fresh spinach, you don't want to be eating these leftovers for days; it will degrade.
All this to say, the first Vegan Wednesday was out of this world. Ha!
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