December 3, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I used to think Costco was the answer to life. Costco wanted us to think that it was the answer to life. Costco is still a great place, and pays good wages. But I am reminded that Costco is not the answer to life. It’s just a warehouse store that generally runs an ethical business but usually pushes us to overconsume and has too much plastic packaging. I have a lot of self-control these days and I can walk into Costco without leaving with three giant Olaf plushies. Yes, we once did that. The last plushie went to a good highschool friend who also re-homed/bought our extra care. No one needs an extra car. I was trying to find that bloglink, but can’t find it. I’ll try to link it later.

Anyway, last weekend my college sweetheart and only ever boyfriend now husband of almost 20 years Mr. Plastic Picker and I went to Costco. It was very romantic. We bought mostly things in bulk but I was tempted by a crate of mangos. I have family in our southeast Asian homeland that has a mango tree farm, and mangos ripe from the tree are delicious. Here in southern california, we make due with Costco. But do we really need to? The mangoes on the outside looked decent, and I am well aware due to my ethnic heritage how to judge the ripeness of a mango. The ripeness was about right to eat the next week. Our daughter loves mangos. So we bought a crate. Last night I had a semi-tiring day at work. Mostly dealing with some adminstrative things again in my non-adminstrative off time. When everyone has left the office, I was still sitting there. But I also had a conversation with someone I care about and the conversation was very similar to conversations I’ve had prior to becoming Dr. Plastic Picker. Filled with gossip and some catching up, and some pettiness. I felt myself reverting to pettiness. It’s funny that when I join again with old intermittent acquaintances that have not been with me on this journey, I get to starkly look back at who I was before this blog – before I just decided to really care. I did not like that version of myself.

Indeed, dear readers I was very much like the mango I ate last night at 9pm when I should not have been eating. We had an okay dinner that the kids said they loved, but it was supposed to be a curry dish and did not look like curry. It was my first attempt at making curry without a curry cube. Then I used light coconut milk from Sprouts. Reminder to Asian self, NEVER BUY COCONUT MILK AT SPROUTS and certainly not “Light” Coconut milk. Coconut milk should have fat. As the daughter of my mother who makes a phenomenol coconut chicken curry that is my absolute most favorite food in the world, especially with french baguettes. Anyway, the kids really liked the dinner and Mr. Plastic Picker liked my dinner. But I did not like my dinner. I fell asleep on the couch and was irritable. Woke up a few hours later at 9pm, and my near-perfect children were already finished with their homework and living their lives and Mr. Plastic Picker was in his home-office – running his department. Me? I was irritable about how petty I had become after that lunchtime conversation.

So I saw the Costco mango I had mostly bought for our daughter and I love mangos. When they are ripe and sweet, there is not another more perfect food in the world. I thought I deserved a delicious mango. In the dark of the kitchen, I felt like I deserved something and then sliced the mango open. It looked okay and about the right color. I ate it, and it was awful. Not rotten, just not sweet. Much like my day and my pettiness, not rotten but not sweet.

I crept upstairs and the love of myself was already drifting into deep REM sleep, and so I got ready to go to sleep again. No yoga. No meditation. Went to sleep and tried to turn on some deep rhythmic waves to sleep. Just me and my thoughts. I had a good night of sleep. I thought about my pettiness and the meandering conversations I had with my friend. I realized that this person is indeed wonderful but perhaps had her own issues to work through. I now realized that why I felt off is that I want to be kind and non-judgemental and it hurt me to be in a back and forth where I went into the old rhythms of how I used to be. It has more to do with me than with my friend, but also I know that much of how her career has formed was due to circumstances out of her control. That is why I stay where I am, because I have the opportunity to change the system for good and make it better for all of us.

With that last night and the waves of the ocean lulling me to sleep, beautiful images from yesterday slipped in like an old fashion photo-reel. Dr. Dear Friend’s friendly and kind face as she drove by us as I was sitting outside. Waving to us good-bye, in her white car. A gentle reminder to me to be kind. The happy faces of our nursing staff with their soft new jackets that my sister embroidered for the entire clinic. The ingredients that went into the dinner recipe that I thought was a failure, a chunk of cauliflower, bits of cooked fish – and all the beautiful lettuce the children ate yesterday. The clunking sound on the west wall of our garage. As I was plugging in my plug-in hybrid, there was rhythmic clunking. When I came out of the garage into our back outside yard (which is embarassingly spacious and big), my tween daughter was practicing kicking the soccer ball on the outside of the garage.

So this morning I got up and made Beer Banana Bread and subbed in some of the non-ideal mango!!! Oh my god it is so good. Here is my modified recipe or Beernana Bread with Re-imagined Bad Costco Mango. Here is the original recipe I modified. Please click on it to give the original person credit http://www.eatplantsdrinkbeer.com/eatplants/2015/11/2/banana-bread-with-beer

Dr. Plastic Picker Beernana Bread with a Bad Costco Mango!!! Mango Beernana Bread!!!

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

• 1/2 cup beer (use something like a Belgian wit or hefeweizen) -(I used Bud Wiser, and poured the left over into my beer vinegar project)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup light brown sugar (I put in just 1/2 cup of sugar)
• 3 very ripe medium bananas, mashed (I used only 2 very ripe bananas and 1 costco mango)!
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 325F, and spray a loaf pan with with non-stick spray. In a small bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. In a larger mixing bowl, add all the wet ingredients, and mix and mash everything together.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in two batches. Try to minimize your mixing, doing so until the ingredients are just combined before adding the next batch.

Pour the batter into your loaf pan, turn your oven up to 350F, and place in the oven. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool in the pan.

And with that, I feel so much better after a decent amount of sleep. Reimagining the bad Costco mango into a Beernana bread. The mango chunks since it’s surrounded by sweetness is actually perfect especially it’s texture. It doesn’t have to be sweet because the bit of sugar around it and the bananas make the mango better. I did also sneak in the last bits of maple syrup that we needed to finish so I could recycle the container. That felt really good, and added a bit more sweetness. It’s not too sweet. definitely a desert bread.