Monday, December 19

Holiday candy making in our kitchen then deliveries to our neighbors from my wife’s family candy recipes.

Sunday, December 18

Nice evening at the ManeGait volunteer appreciation dinner.  Many recognized for their work helping physically, mentally and emotionally challenged children ride therapeutically on horses.

Monday, December 12

Over a hundred years ago, in Abruzzo the Molino (mill) of the Pastificio (pasta factory) of the De Cecco brothers, began producing pasta by producing the “best flour of the surrounding countryside” in his stone mill in Fara San Martino, a small village at the bottom of the Maiella mountain. A low temperature drying device which enabled pasta to dry regardless of weather conditions was developed. Up to then, pasta had always been sun dried, which was the only way known to guarantee a high quality product and its preservation. In 1908, the country girl from Abruzzo, carrying the wheat stacks, becomes the company’s trademark. A new production plant is built to replace one bombed by the Germans in World War II and business takes off, with increasing attention to foreign markets.

Tuesday, December 13

My sister gave us eight boxes of pasta: Capellini; Spaghettini; Spaghetti; Penne Rigate; Fusilli; Cavatappi; Elbows; and Orecchiette (we used to call these “priest ears”).  The pasta is De Cecco imported from the province of Chieti, Abruzzo in Italy where my family is from and made in the town of Fara San Martino.  I think they might make over a hundred different kinds of pasta, all shapes and colors.

Wednesday, December 14

My mother remembers when the Fara San Martino plant was bombed by the Germans.  She remembers washing clothes in the river that flowed to the mill that helped grind the wheat that made it into pasta.

Thursday, December 15

I call Mom on her 86^th birthday.  The content of her communications now is even more about the past than ever before which was a lot even then.

Friday, December 16

At work today there is a ceremony honoring Dr. Bruce Beutler for his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine for discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity, a few weeks ago in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Beutler identified the cell receptors in mice that respond to a substance in the coat of bacteria and that can set off septic shock if overstimulated.  

Saturday, December 17

Dr. Beutler shared the award with two other immunologists Drs. Steinman and Hoffmann. All three scientists were honored for discoveries of essential steps in the immune system’s response to infection.

But it was Dr. Steinman who actually used his discoveries in the laboratory to try to save his own life. His career-long quest had been to develop a vaccine against cancer for humans, having shown 20 years ago that such a treatment could be effective in mice.

Four and a half years ago, after he was found to have pancreatic cancer, he began tailoring an experimental vaccine against his own tumor.  

Pancreatic cancer is among the most aggressive malignancies, in part because it arises in a gland deep in the abdomen that is hard for doctors to feel with their hands and because usually it produces symptoms only after it has become advanced.  About 20 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer survive one year after detection and 4 percent after five years, according to the American Cancer Society.

Dr. Steinman died just days before he was awarded his Nobel Prize.  But it is impossible to determine whether Dr. Steinman would have survived as long without his self-tailored experimental treatment.

I remember being told my father passed from a burst pancreas.  Here I go now thinking about and mentioning the past.

Sunday, December 11

Last night at Mom’s 86^th birthday dinner she reminded us that Dad used to get on his knees with my two older sisters and say bedtime prayers with them.  This is a cherished antidote for me as Dad passed when I was 13.  It inspires me to renew that tradition with my own daughter.

Saturday, December 10

I made for the first time last night the cake that Mom made for me for so many birthdays so that I could surprise her with it on her 86th. 

It brought back a flood of childhood memories like the color that egg yolk makes when mixed with sugar.  It is a yellow like you would see on an Italian fresco.  (Renaissance painters used to mix egg yolk in their paint to add pigment.)

The kitchen was alive with the smells of lemon zest, orange zest and anise extract.

I felt comfortable in what I was doing and seemed to instinctively know when the sponge cake was fully baked and when the cream had thickened enough, as if Mom had passed the knowledge on to me through osmosis from all the years as a kid hanging around her licking spoon fulls of batter and cream.

I forgot no steps, like making sure to soak the cake with coffee.

There were small victories, like getting the egg whites to beat into a fluffy peak.  (Whoever thought of doing this?  When did they say to themselves, "This slimy oozy egg white if beaten to a frenzy would be great for baking.")

Friday, December 9

The Holiday 2011 Monticello catalog from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation is especially beautiful this year as they have photographed Mr. Jefferson’s home in the snow, framed by an expansive Virginia blue sky and tree branches having long since shed their leaves.  The great house sits majestically with its red brick and white columns as if on a fluffy powdered blanket.

My wife and I visited during late October one year when the trees were bursting with yellow, orange and red and the house seemed engulfed by its expansive green lawn.

Thursday, December 8

Reading From Rags to Riches, The Phenomenal Rise of the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, by Dr. Errol C. Friedberg in preparation for my new job there on Monday.  There are over 12,000 medical, research and academic professionals at this medical, patient care and research school, including five Nobel Prize winners.  I will be assisting with workplace conflict management.