With heaping helpings of downtime this winter, I’ve watched gallons of cooking shows on TV.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day I consumed considerable portions of Julia Child’s earliest segments, lapping up her stovetop spillage with relish.

When Christopher Kimble desserted – I mean deserted – PBS’s Cook’s Country Kitchen to travel the world in search of something much more than a good baked mac-n-cheese using Vermont cheddar exclusively, I followed him over to Milk Street. Alas, I find his new group of chefs a bit too prickly pear for this gal. Simmering prunes into a reduction thinned with whiskey to make a cake glaze, for instance, seems like a waste of good booze. Staying with Kimble a bit longer, I do like his radio collaboration with Sara Moulton – she can put together plain cooking with a flame-broiled flare that families would actually eat.

But backing up a little to give you the flavor and texture of my culinary evolution, it all really began when I married Paul and found in him a taste-tester whose palate was not easily offended, except possibly by hot chilies.

The original stove that came with the home we’ve nested in for the past 28 years was a real treat to use. There were only two burners, flanked by a long large grill, and the oven below. How I ever managed to cook party-sized portions of anything with only two burners is a point of pride for me, and an annual story at the Thanksgiving table. As the years have rolled by, there have been updates and improvements aplenty both in large and small appliance acquisitions.

However, the biggest change came early on when my then-new-husband needed to modify his diet and/or take medication to control cholesterol. Armed with Dr. Ornish’s groundbreaking rules for diet and exercise to aid in controlling cholesterol, we became eager participants.

First forsaking fats, then moving on to carbohydrates, increasing water intake, decreasing salt, adding steamed vegetables, and then beginning an exercise program – we became lean, mean, middle-aged machines.

We had purchased bicycles as wedding gifts to one another and soon found ourselves pedaling throughout the Tri-Town, and it was nothing to jump on our bikes and head to Onset for an afternoon adventure. Granola bars and water sufficed as fuel. The pounds fell off with ease over the months as we jogged and pedaled along North Street.

At home in the kitchen after shopping at Whole Foods in Providence, I’d cook up barley or brown rice over which I’d serve fresh steamed broccoli with baby carrots and a side of shredded cabbage. Beano became our new friend.

I would often ride my bike from North Street to the New Bedford Industrial Park where I worked at the time, taking that monster hill on Perry Hill Road in Acushnet as if I were training for the Olympics. I have to confess that I’d never felt better, never had more energy or more reverently believed in “La Dolce Vita.”

Then one evening as I prepared our meal, my husband said that he’d be taking medication to get his climbing cholesterol under control because the diet changes weren’t enough, given his family’s history. So, “thanks,” he told me, but then asked if I could add in a little meat soon.

It wasn’t till months later that it occurred to me that he had never fully committed to the diet in the first place. At the firehouse where he worked, spending four days out of six, platters of hamburgers, trays of lasagna, baskets of donuts, dishes of fried linguiça and cacoila, layers of cakes, piles of French meat pies, homemade gufong, you name it – the firefighters (including my husband) ate it in portions befitting those whose lives may end when the next bell rings. Of course he’d be taking pills for the rest of his life – temptations were too numerous. Nonetheless, I scolded his return to red meat and refused to cook it at home.

I gave up the calorically deprived lifestyle we had embraced.

I learned to make piecrust for the occasional treat and brought pork, chicken, and fish into the mix, much to his delight. Our meals still heavily featured vegetables and whole grains, but returning to the fold came butter, olive oil, and mayo. Oh, and let us not forget, ice cream.

He stopped jogging and biking after a while, but I kept that up until more recently as I recover from overuse injuries. Amen.

Today as senior citizens, with a half-teaspoon of caution we eat pretty much whatever we want. Our constitutions dictate quantity and spice levels, and dinners are served no later than 5:00 pm.

And while I still look at the Sunday papers’ food sections for inspiration, there is really no way to take the Frenchman away from his béchamel sauce or vice versa.

Yet every now and then I sneak in something like five spice roasted tofu lettuce wraps with pickled vegetables and peanut sauce, just to make sure he’s still paying attention to me.

This Mattapoisett Life

By Marilou Newell

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued an advisory last Friday cautioning municipal health agents about a rise in hepatitis B outbreaks in our region.

The DPH says the increased transmission is associated with injection drug use in Southeastern Massachusetts and is related to the ongoing substance abuse epidemic.

“The MDPH has observed an increase in the number of cases of acute hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection reported in the Bristol County area,” states the advisory. “The MDPH asks healthcare providers to increase vigilance for acute HBV infection in patients who report current or recent injection drug use.”

Kathleen Downey, public health nurse for the Town of Marion, said that although the uptick in cases in Bristol County is of a concern to her given the close proximity to Tri-Town, what also concerns her is the similar uptick in cases on the South Coast, which should be a concern to the residents she serves in Marion.

“Whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not, there is a fair number of people in our community who are suffering intravenous drug addiction,” said Downey over the phone on Tuesday, January 16.

It was just last week, Downey said, that she was informing the Board of Health about a rise in hepatitis B infection in the area. Three days later, she received the advisory from the state.

There were 32 confirmed acute HBV cases in 2017, a 78% increase over the annual average. Twenty-two of the cases were individuals known to inject drugs and/or had tested positive for the hepatitis C virus. Most of the individuals are in their 30s and 40s and were likely not to have been vaccinated as children, the advisory states.

“That’s definitely an uptick in the number of cases,” Downey said. “Whenever we see an incident of some particular disease increasing, you want to find a way to resolve it, especially when we’ve worked so hard to eradicate it.”

Babies are now routinely vaccinated against hepatitis B, but those who are roughly age 25 and older may be at risk for the disease because they have not yet been vaccinated. The DPH advised health care providers to provide the vaccination to patients who may be susceptible to transmission of the virus, especially to patients that have reported injection drug abuse.

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver, increasing the chances of developing liver failure, liver cancer, or cirrhosis of the liver. It is spread through contact with blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person. The virus can live up to seven days outside the body and is commonly spread through the sharing of needles.

During the acute infection phase, most people experience no symptoms at all. Some people do experience acute illness for weeks, with symptoms such as jaundice, dark urine, extreme fatigue, vomiting, and pain in the abdomen.

About 5% of adults infected will develop a chronic infection, while 20-30% of those suffering chronic infection will develop cirrhosis or liver cancer.

The World Health Organization says transmission can also occur through sexual contact, dental and surgical procedures, tattooing, or the use of razors that have been exposed to blood of a hepatitis B-infected person.

According to the WHO, hepatitis B is a global health problem, with an estimated 256 million people living with the hepatitis B infection.

The vaccine was first introduced in 1984 and is believed to be 95% effective in preventing infection.

“The bottom line is people just need to be aware,” Downey said.

For any questions of concerns about hepatitis B or intravenous drug abuse, contact your local Board of Health or you may contact Public Health Nurse Kathleen Downey by calling 508-748-3507.

By Jean Perry

This oversized monarch of the owl kingdom is the most dominant by observation and reputation in this country, although it is slightly smaller than the Eurasian eagle owl far across the pond.

Nevertheless, the great horned owl is big enough to challenge our national bald eagle when they clash over territorial domain. According to actual reports, the subsequent outcome can go either way, depending on which one gets the best grip on the other.

If there is the presence of a great horned owl near you, it may be heard in early evening, usually by four subsequent guttural hoots that, if translated into our language, may sound like “Hear me so near, to fear, and beware.”

The owl’s fearsome reputation ranks it as the only one to reportedly do-in a human being who was trying to rob its nest to captivate fledglings, the victim suffering mortal slashes from razor sharp talons. If this did happen, the nest would be guarded as in my illustration by both dedicated parents always on protective watch.

The female is always a constant dedicated matriarch, and the male a frequent arrival with sustenance of his latest kill including mammals, reptiles, bats, or other birds.

When aroused, they lean forward and lay back the tufts as well as the horns on their ears, like the devil himself, from which they get their name.

The dish-like expression and shape of their face that only a mother could love is purposely endowed by the Creator to catch even the slightest sound and funnel it to the extended ear sockets on either side of the head. They act like opposing range finders with an almost radar-like accuracy of a reflected signal blip. This permits an instant and accurate location of both distance and direction.

As their eyesight is poor and mainly fixed forward, the great horned owl can instantly turn its head from one side to the other, amazingly as much as 270 degrees for immediate direction and distant focus.

Unlike other diurnal hunters of the species that operate both day and night, this horned raptor can only function in darkness, to be rarely seen at all. If it should be still around briefly at daybreak, it may be found perched on an observation platform of a fence post at the edge of a clearing. This might be the expanses of cranberry bog clearings or searching Land Trust trails crossing fields, or hedgerows near convenient conifer coverts.

If temporarily exposed to the light of day, their perception is almost completely limited by capacity of audible over visual – the opposite of humans just getting out of bed.

As the dawning footlights of the coming day begin to raise the curtain of the morning’s orchestrated performance, the owl will soon move into the more comfortable shadows of his domain. Just as darkness is but a rotating shadow of the sun upon the face of mother Earth, this ending by the planetary shadow in the heavens will later lead a repeat of his domain, even for the nocturnal vision of a wise old great horned owl.

By George B. Emmons