Teas and Love as Courage

"To live takes an incredible amount of courage because it requires an ability to admit and to be honest that in all of us is potentially a Hitler and in all of us is potentially a Mother Theresa. And it is only if you learn what love is that you can continue to live, that you have the courage to do things for your fellow man without praise and without expectations." --Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.

Lemongrass Mint Tea

♫

Lavender Earl Grey Tea

The Missing Piece of the Conversation and Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Behind the Rise and Fall of Philadelphia’s Prison Population: A Conversation

Last semester, I attended the original panel discussion hosted at the Penn Law School concerning the Philadelphia Research Initiative report on "Philadelphia's Crowded, Costly Jails: The Search for Safe Solutions" (video of the conversation can be found here, link to a PDF of the full report can be found here). The report itself is a very clear and comprehensive picture of the Philadelphia jail population (though for a reason I still don't understand, the county jails in Philly are referred to as "prisons"). Specifically, the report focuses on the recent decline in jail populations, factors that contributed to the decline, and ways in which this decline can be continued. While much of the decline can be attributed to legislative changes that transferred inmates from county jail to state prison, other factors have contributed to the changing Philadelphia jail population. The panel answered a few questions at the event, but recently also responded to questions that were emailed in that could not be responded to at the event (the extended Q&A can be read here).

My question is why, in this discussion of crime and incarceration, the issue of juvenile incarceration was never mentioned. Seth Williams, in most of his public appearances, is sure to include a statement about how the one factor that most jail and prison inmates have in common is lack of education. However, the conversation falls short of addressing how to keep kids in school and out of juvenile detention before they become involved in the adult system. Most adults who are arrested have juvenile records-- either indicating that they are incorrigible, career criminals, or that they have already been failed by one system which effectively deposited them in another. In Philadelphia, the juvenile justice system is within the jurisdiction of the Department of Human Services (what most people here associate only with child welfare). This may allow criminal justice experts to ignore it as a "human services" issue. However, a comprehensive discussion about causes and consequences of crime and incarceration in Philadelphia must (and usually doesn't) include a conversation about juvenile justice. I hope to explore the unique position of juvenile justice within DHS more in the coming weeks at my internship.

After this first week of work at the Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice & Research, I remembered how balancing an academic understanding of issues and deep appreciation of the humanity of the subjects of research is often difficult and taxing. In my emotional exhaustion, I made cookies.

Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) butter, softened

2/3 c. white sugar

1/4 c. sifted confectioners sugar

2 1/2 tbsp. fresh lavender, chopped

1 tsp. lemon zest

2 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. cornstarch

1/4 tsp. salt

Method

Cream together butter and sugars (another excuse to use the ever-amazing electric beaters, and the recently-acquired sifter).

Mix in lavender and lemon.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, cornstarch and salt, and mix.

Add flour mixture to butter until dough forms. Make two balls of dough, cover in plastic wrap, flatten and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 325.

Remove dough from refrigerator, form small balls and flatten between your palms.

Place on baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on how toasty-brown you want the edges.

Strawberry-Melon Salad with Habanero Lime Lemongrass Syrup and Stigma

With the end of summer, start of school frenzy that has been the past few weeks, I have sadly neglected to document some of the non-frenzied things that have come out of my kitchen. Instead of trying to catch up on the past 3 weeks all at once, I'll start with the past week and hopefully work backwards as time allows.



After a frantic schedule reorganization at the beginning of the semester, I found my way into a class called "Practice with At-Risk Youth". The professor and syllabus seem interesting and engaging, taking a social work perspective to the exploration of the issue of juvenile justice and other "at-risk youth" (I hope to unpack this term later). The first book that we were assigned for this class was the classic "Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity" by Erving Goffman.

The book presents a fascinating investigation of personal and social identity, and the influence of stigma and stigmatization on various forms of identity and relationships. Published in 1963, the book occasionally reveals its age by dated word choice (or the absence of discussion of modern issues such as AIDS), but ultimately presents a completely relevant commentary on various forms of stigma and complicated identity politics.

Goffman utilizes examples such as individuals with physical disabilities, mental patients, deaf and blind individuals, and racial and religious minorities to demonstrate the complicated process of managing stigmatized identities in society. While Goffman only briefly mentions "criminal" as a stigmatized social classification, the observations of the book are easily applied to individuals who have been through both the juvenile and criminal justice systems. After system involvement, people are often physically and emotionally marked by the experience of incarceration. One of the most devastating effects of the stigmatization related to incarceration is the resultant difficulty in obtaining employment. All of the formerly incarcerated youth who I worked with last year identified employment as the key factor in successful reintegration or reentry into their home communities. They also asserted that due to the stigma of incarceration, gaining lawful employment was the major obstacle that they faced. Once labeled criminal, it is extraordinarily difficult to erase this label (and sometimes consequently, it is difficult to act as anything but).

One of the most interesting points that Goffman presents later in the volume concerns the fact that we often navigate between many identities, both personal and social, and that many people play the role of both stigmatized and normal. He elucidates:

"The normal and the stigmatized are not persons but rather perspectives. These are generated in social situations during mixed contacts by virtue of the unrealized norms that are likely to play upon the encounter. The lifelong attributes of a particular individual may cause him to be type-cast; he may have to play the stigmatized role in almost all of his social situations, making it natural to refer to him, as I have done, as a stigmatized person whose life-situation places him in opposition to the normals. However, his particular stigmatizing attributes do not determine the nature of the two roles, normal and stigmatized, merely the frequency of his playing a particular one of them" (Goffman, 1963).

It's interesting to consider the social situations that produce stigma, the repercussions of this stigma, and the various identities that we all navigate throughout different social situations. Overall, I'm excited to learn more from this class and read more authors that will hopefully help inform my perspective.

In celebration of the first week of classes, a few other social workers in my program decided to take some time away from our books and have a potluck. I was a little pressed for time (because I'd been reading this book...) and had leftover lemongrass from the Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken I made a few nights ago (I'll detail my triumph over meat cooking soon), so I decided to make a simple fruit salad with a fancy, spicy-sweet syrup dressing.


Strawberry-Melon Salad with Habanero Lime Lemongrass Syrup


Ingredients

1 quart strawberries, hulled, quartered
1 honeydew melon, chopped into 1" cubes
4 lemongrass stalks, bruised and chopped
2 habanero peppers, quartered, seeded
Zest and juice of 1 lime
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
Handful of fresh mint

Method

For the salad: Cut fruit, slice mint, place in bowl and set aside (I told you it was simple).

For the syrup: I should have believed the man who sold me the habaneros who said they were really spicy. He wasn't exaggerating. I actually ended up doubling the rest of the recipe to make up for the unexpected heat.



Get out some aggression and bruise the lemongrass before chopping it up. It's fun, especially if you've been reading all day. Place chopped lemongrass, peppers, lime zest and juice, extra mint leaves, sugar, and water in a saucepan and boil until sugar is dissolved.


Reduce heat and simmer until syrup thickens, approx 8 minutes (I think I got through 2 songs on my iTunes). Remove from heat and pour into a bowl (if you're feeling extra-fancy: set in a bigger bowl filled with ice to cool). Pour the cooled syrup through a strainer, and when you are ready to serve, drizzle over fruit.

Getting to Yes and Peach-Ginger-Mustard Potatoes with Fresh Basil and Romaine Peach Salad with Goat Cheese

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury



A head start on my reading for the year lead me to spend the last two days downing "Getting to Yes", a book that details a method of negotiation developed by the Harvard Negotiation Project.

The major points of the method:
1. Separate the people from the problem
2. Focus on interests, not positions
3. Invent options for mutual gain
4. Insist on using objective criteria

The book clearly outlines a rational approach to negotiation, and provides a variety of examples of different venues in which negotiation is necessary. Useful and interesting, especially considering how positional negotiation involves the ego in a way that is especially harmful for relationships.

With all respect to the Harvard Negotiation Project, I'm pretty sure this recipe might be an equally successful approach to negotiations.

Yes Potatoes (Peach Ginger Mustard Potatoes with Fresh Basil)



Loosely based on the Dijon-roasted potato recipe that was such a hit with my mom (as evident here)

Ingredients
5 red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed, skin on
2 tbsp peach-ginger butter (made for my french toast extravaganza, recipe here)
2 tbsp dijon mustard
a drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper
1 small bunch fresh basil, sliced thin

Method
Preheat oven to 425. Wash and cut potatoes, and place in a small bowl. Add butter, mustard, oil, salt and pepper, and basil-- mix. Lay tin foil on a a baking sheet and coat with cooking spray. Lay potatoes in a thin layer on foil, and bake until golden brown and delicious, about 25-30 minutes.

Romaine Peach Salad

Romaine lettuce, 2 leaves
1/2 peach, chopped
Goat cheese with honey
Fresh basil, sliced
Balsamic vinegar

A delightful mix of creamy goat cheese, sweet and juicy peaches, crunchy lettuce, and fresh basil on top. Lovely compliment to the potatoes. Add Trader Joe's chicken sausage, and you have a complete and nutritious meal! I even stuck the sausage into the oven for the last 10 minutes of baking with the potatoes. Sneaky, I know.

Persuasiveness is an art. I think peaches and goat cheese usually help.

Peaches and Cream French Toast with Blueberries and Ginger-Peach Butter, Breakfast Potatoes, and "A Death in Solitary"

Saturday mornings usually mean two things: Newspaper and brunch.

First, newspaper:

A very interesting City Paper cover story on prisoner abuse can be read here. The article raises important questions about the treatment of prisoners in solitary confinement, and especially about the high rate of mental illness that is found in jails and prisons nationwide. While not specifically addressed, it also raises concerns about the practice of holding juveniles in adult facilities.

And to the more pleasant of the two: Brunch.

Peaches and Cream French Toast with Blueberries and Ginger-Peach Butter and Breakfast Potatoes

Because my old friends/new neighbors were coming over for brunch, I decided to explore the Reading Terminal Market for inspiration. What did I find? Peaches and a dollar bag of potatoes. And since I'd been wanting to try Ian's french toast recipe for myself...



Ginger-Peach Butter

Don't let fancy names fool you.

1/2 c. peach preserves
1 stick butter
3 tbsp. minced crystallized ginger

Soften the butter, and mix in peach and ginger. Whip. Refrigerate. Impress.

Breakfast Potatoes

Ingredients
Red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1 small onion, sliced
Olive oil
Garlic powder
Thyme
Paprika
Red chile flakes
Cherry tomatoes, halved

Method
These potatoes are amazingly forgiving. I make them a little differently each time, but basically: Preheat oven to 400. Lay potatoes, tomatoes and onions in a thin layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle with oil, and coat with spices (read: anything that's in your cabinet). After about 20 minutes, flip and re-spice (but easy on the red chile flakes). Bake until browned. Serve with ketchup.

Peaches and Cream French Toast
Adapted from the Joy of Cooking, via Ian

While Ian's version usually went by the Rum French Toast name, I decided to try to incorporate peaches into the batter itself for extra sweet-and-summery-ness.



Ingredients
2/3 c. half and half or milk
4 eggs
1 tbsp. peach preserves
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. Meyers dark rum
1/4 tsp. salt
Stale bread (I used a baguette-gone-hard from Garces Trading Company that has been sitting in the freezer feeling neglected for the past month)
Peaches, sliced
Blueberries

Method
Combine all ingredients except bread and whisk until uniform. Soak bread in egg mixture, then cook on medium-high heat. Secret to delicious-golden-brownness: don't skimp on the butter. Serve with generous amounts of peach butter, sliced peaches and blueberries, topped with sifted confectioners sugar.

Code of the Street and Tollhouse Plays Dress Up Cookies

For my last month of summer, I decided to start some light-hearted reading that I've been meaning to get to for a while: Code of the Street: Decency, Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner City by Elijah Anderson.

While I've never read any of Professor Anderson's work before, I had heard his name because a number of his publications use Philadelphia as an example of inner-city violence and social codes. While I'm only a few chapters in, the book takes a creative and unique approach to addressing the issue of inner-city violence, especially by youth, and the influence of poverty, hopelessness, and drugs on the social organization of inner cities. The opening segment of his book traces the changing demographics and social codes along Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia-- a place that I have always felt perfectly exemplified Philadelphia's block-by-block differential in safety and diversity. Anderson's work is informed by years of field work in inner cities, and his research incorporates not only academic perspectives but also the words and lives of the people he studies. I'm excited to learn more from him.

After a few chapters of Code of the Street, I decided I would try to do something actually uplifting. It happens to be my coworker's birthday, and she mentioned that she hated cake... so I thought I would try to make her something a little more creative.

Tollhouse Plays Dress Up (Bittersweet Chocolate Chip Rum) Cookies

This is actually just the classic Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, with a few minute adaptations: more brown sugar (and less granulated), bittersweet chocolate instead of semi-sweet morsels, and dark rum for a sweet little kick.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 c. dark brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. Meyer's dark rum
2 eggs
1 package Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate baking chips (60% cacao)

Method:
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Sift and set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until creamy. This gave me the chance to use the electric mixer I picked up at a yard sale in Woodstock, NY for the first time--

Add eggs one at a time-- and look at it swirl!

Add vanilla and rum to taste. My grandpa always told me his secret to baking was to double the vanilla in everything. And this evening Ian and I were discussing his glorious rum french toast recipe (to follow shortly, hopefully after Saturday brunch). He told me that his recipe actually calls for either vanilla or rum-- so I thought I'd combine the suggestions and try both.
Add chocolate chips, and drop by rounded spoonfuls (what does this mean? I don't know. I did blobs, and they look perfect. Because they're cookies, and they will look perfect no matter what) onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes, cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to cooling rack.
Tollhouse really knows what it's doing. But even cookies deserve to play dress up once in a while.

A House Judiciary Committee Hearing and Peach Mango Tomatillo Salsa

Today the House Judiciary Committee held a meeting at City Hall in Philadelphia to debate Rep Johnson's proposed HB 1999. The bill would amend the law so that young people sentenced to life without parole before their 18th birthdays would become eligible for a parole hearing at age 31, and every 3 years after that (provided that they had served at least 15 years of their sentences).

Full text of the proposed bill can be found here.

More comments on the content of the hearing to follow in the next few days...

In the mean time....

A few old and new friends came over for dinner tonight, and I wanted to try something new to spice up the regular corn-bean-onion quesadillas. I also wanted an excuse to try out the tiny blender that was recently gifted to me from my lovely neighbor. And so when there were tomatillos on sale....



Peach Mango Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients
5 large tomatillos, husked and halved
3 cloves garlic
1 green jalepeño pepper, halved and diced with seeds removed
1 small onion
1 mango, cubed
1 peach, cubed
Sriracha hot sauce
Salt and pepper
Lemon juice

Method
Lay tomatillo halves and unpeeled garlic cloves on a cookie tin lined with foil. Drizzle with a tiiiny bit of oil, and roast at 450 for 20-30 minutes (depending on when the smoke alarm goes off. Thanks teeny tiny oven).

Coarsely chop onion and jalepeño and blend until finely minced (blenders are amazing!!! and so much faster than hand-mincing! the wonders of technology abound. Watch out for the first time I try out my new electric egg beaters). Set aside.

Skin and chop tomatillos (I left some skin on and seem to have survived) and blend with garlic, salt, and pepper until liquefied. Add peach and mango cubes and blend. Empty into a larger bowl, add onion/pepper mixture, sriracha, fresh lemon juice, and more salt/pepper to taste.