Baked Feta Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes

A few weeks ago, I woke up seeing flashes and floaters in my left eye. Googling the symptoms gave me instant panic: These were signs of my retina possibly detaching! I must see an eye doctor immediately! I could go blind!

I would like to think that if I ever lose my sight, I would accept it as gracefully as Mary in Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. "All that long time, week after week, when she could still see a little, but less every day, she had never cried. Now she could not see even the brightest light any more. She was still patient and brave," Mary was described in By The Shores of Silver Lake. 

The Ingalls sisters, as depicted by Garth Williams

My search for an in-network eye doctor on my insurance company's website produced literally zero results, so I indulged in some seriously un-Mary-like sobbing until I figured out that I was incorrectly spelling "ophthalmologist". It is a very hard word to spell, especially (and ironically) when you are panicked about going blind.

After I had secured an appointment for a few hours later, I told myself that I was just as capable as Mary of mastering Braille, going to a college for the blind in Iowa, and learning to play the organ. Everything was going to be fine! Just fine!

As it turned out, I did not need to find out just how "patient and brave" I really am (not very, I suspect), because the ophthalmologist determined that I am not going blind. The flashes continue and they are unnerving, but they're not a sign of something terribly wrong. You can imagine my intense relief, and not just because I wouldn't need to find a space for an organ in my house.

Following this experience, I have been appreciating my eyesight anew. There are so many interesting and beautiful things to see, like the first blossom ever produced by my water lilies!

And what a pleasure it is to be able to read. Read everything, my friends! Start with this fascinating and, for me, timely piece in the New York Times: "Is There a Right Way to Act Blind?"

While I'm no longer panicked about the threat of blindness, I continue to panic about climate change, and to share the view of a Politico Nightly writer that not enough people are in on this panic. "Even though many of us acknowledge the climate is in crisis, few of us live with a real crisis mentality," he wrote. Won't you please join me in lying awake at night worrying about what is happening to the Earth and everything that lives on it?

If not, please at least consider taking the small step of reducing your meat and dairy intake, because animal-based agriculture is a driver of climate change. You don't need to stop eating animal products entirely. If we make reductions, we're helping the situation. And the situation seriously needs all our help.

Set your sights (groan) on fighting climate change by focusing (groan) your diet on plant-based foods.

Vegan food choices are best from an environmental perspective, but vegetarian choices are a step in the right direction. I actually unveganized "Baked Feta Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes" (Veggikins), because my grocery delivery service did not have vegan feta. I went with real feta and wheat pasta, and I threw in some fresh peas. 

The result was really delicious. Two out of two backup dancers concurred. And it's extremely easy! And a one-pot meal! Where have you been all my life, Baked Feta Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes, you unimaginatively named dish?! You're going back on the calendar for another meal soon, and maybe I'll even track down vegan feta next time.

Equally delish, but much more of a pain, was "Grilled Zucchini Ribbons" (NYT Cooking; subscription required). 

Before going on the grill

I don't have a mandolin of either the culinary or the musical sort. My substitute tool, a cheese slicer, was about as useful for cutting a zucchini as "a musical instrument of the lute family that has a usually pear-shaped body and fretted neck and four to six pairs of strings" (thanks, Merriam-Webster). So I don't recommend that, but if you happen to have the slicing sort of mandolin, then you're in business. My rub was flavored with something called "Best Spice Mix Evah!", rather than a barbecue rub. 

Served with grilled vegetarian pizza

The taste and texture were great, and the leftovers layered nicely into a grilled cheese sandwich the next day.

"See" you next time! (groan)