Category Archives: Family

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Pumpkin Pudding

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Here’s a special and unusual recipe for what has always been my favorite time of year. It makes a spectacular addition to a brunch, but it’s also the perfect shortcut to a uniquely delicious and cozy dinner. When my children were young, they loved this pudding and asked for it often once the leaves began falling from the trees. It’s not that I couldn’t make it at other times of year, it’s just that they associated it with autumn. I think they also loved how it warmed them from the inside. I wish I could tell you where the recipe comes from, but I honestly cannot recall. All I know is that I began making it a very long time ago.

The children would get home from school, run outside, and spend a few hours creating and then jumping in leaf piles. When I started to see that, I knew it was time to make pumpkin pudding. I have always made it in the same large, blue bowl with broad, shallow sides. No particular reason, I just like the way it looks and cooks in that bowl. I wish you the same kind of simple pleasure. 

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 one-pound can of pumpkin pureé
1/2 cup molasses
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 tiny pinch of powdered cloves
1 cup (organic) whole milk

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a casserole dish or large beautiful pottery bowl by greasing with butter or butter substitute. 

Break the eggs into a large bowl, and beat well with a fork. Add the pumpkin first, followed by the milk, molasses, and spices. Stir well.

Bake 1 hour until the pudding is firm in the middle and a cake tester comes out clean.

You can serve it hot, warm, or cold, and with or without whipped cream. Honestly, it doesn’t much matter, because there won’t be any left.

 

 

The Zen of an Orange Leaf in Autumn

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In the final hours of the day, between school and dinner, under yesterday afternoon’s cerulean blue sky, two of my grandchildren set out to build “the biggest pile of leaves in the world.” I sat nearby on the slightly damp grass, my arms resting around my bent knees, and watched the children running back and forth across the crunchy, leaf-strewn lawn, screaming in delight, and carrying large bunches of dry, crackly leaves tight against their chests.  Continue reading →

Grandma Rosie’s Lunchtime Kitchen

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My Grandma Rosie of blessed memory had a saying: “Never cheat your stomach.” Until the day he died, my father still quoted her regularly. He especially enjoyed reminiscing about the meals that had him racing home from school every day at lunchtime. My dad didn’t eat a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and there was no breakfast cereal in my grandmother’s kitchen. Here, instead, are a few inspired examples of my grandmother’s own creative cooking style. Continue reading →

Chocolate Mousse

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What follows is a true story. It really happened, and you can draw your own conclusions.

Many years ago, my daughter and I ventured out on a snowy evening in January and returned home with the sweetest, gentlest, eight-week-old Labrador Retriever puppy. We named our new chocolate lab Mousse. Mousse played ball; Mousse cuddled with the children; Mousse helped me weed the garden; Mousse stole food from the kitchen table when she thought no one was looking; Mousse hung out with the chickens and enjoyed visiting with our friends and neighbors, both human and canine. Mousse became family, and all was well. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Grain Bowls, Your Way

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I figured I would share some strategies for grain bowls.

Start by choosing a grain. It could be something as simple as rolled oats, but it might also be something slightly more adventurous—like steel-cut oats or millet or even the brown rice left over from last night’s dinner. I happen to be a fan of kasha, a nutty tasting grain also known as buckwheat groats, and which my family ate often when I was growing up.  Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Tsimmes

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Preparing for the holidays with my mom was a major highlight of my childhood. Although my father was the main cook in our family, my mother took over the kitchen on the holidays, and dad’s primary responsibility was to make the brisket.

Like many other special dishes that we ate on dedicated holidays throughout the calendar, my mother made tsimmes twice a year, in the fall for Rosh Hashanah (it is traditional to eat sweet foods on Rosh Hashanah), and in the spring, for Passover. She never used recipes, preferring instead to combine ingredients as her grandmother and mother-in-law did. Truthfully, though, tsimmes is one of those dishes that probably doesn’t really need much of a recipe anyway. Continue reading →

Gratitude 2026

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This week I am thinking about gratitude. That’s not hard for me. I was born an optimist; I always see the glass half-full. I always make lemonade from lemons — what else would you do with them? While it is certainly true that I have had my share of bad days, I’ll be the first to tell you that they have made me a better person. And they made me a better doctor, too. See what I mean? Glass half full. It’s a given.  Continue reading →

Real Food is Love

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It’s a new year, and I’d like to talk about why I write this blog. I want to make sure you understand how very great is the difference between real food and manufactured calories. Real food nourishes. At best, manufactured calories entertain. Manufactured calories also cause a great many serious medical problems. Like breast and colon cancer; diabetes, obesity, arthritis, strokes, and heart attacks. For starters.  Continue reading →

We are Family: A Blessing on Their Heads

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Today is a very special day for our family. Today our nephew will marry his beloved, and she happens to be the daughter of old friends of ours. His parents are thrilled, and hers the same. For us, this remarkable and happy coincidence is nothing short of miraculous. So I share this post in honor of the marriage of our nephew, our new niece, and the new home they will create together. Today I want to share — from a medical standpoint — just a few of a great many things I have learned about friends, family, and the magic effects of kindness, love, and support. Continue reading →