October 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m making beer bread right now. It’s amazing how simple it is. Mr. Plastic Picker is Korean-American. I took a Korean History class my Junior year of college at Crimson University because my then boyfriend (the same Mr. Plastic Picker) was Korean, and I had an elective that I took pass/fail. I think I got a B in the class but that was planned, as I put in the minimum effort and I passed the class. I remember calculating out that my GPA was in the mid 3.7ish range (which back then was good for Crimson University) and even if I got an A- in the class, it would actually hurt my GPA. So I decided to take this one class Pass/Fail strategically the spring of my Junior Year so I could study for my MCAT. The MCAT went fine, and I passed the Korean History class. I don’t actually remember much from the class, I think because I put so little effort into it. I do remember Professor Carter Eckert (I think that was his name?) said Koreans were thought of as the Irish of the East. That made everyone laugh at the analogy because of the stereotypes of the drinking culture in both cultures. It was more in reference to the Japanese colonial era of Korean history where the Empire of Japan exploited the Koreans as hard labourers. Much of how the Irish people have been exploited by the British. If you wonder why there is such a visceral reaction to all things Japanese in Korea, you must know the context of that colonial history.

I guess I did learn something that semester. Anyway, getting back to Koreans as the Irish of the East. Thinking now, I wonder if either the Irish or the Koreans would find that comment offensive? Given my great respect for both cultural groups I hope they do not. I am not Korean, but I found that in my own experience with my husband’s family that this is true. In general, Mr. Plastic Picker’s family socially drinks quite a bit. I’m not sure if this is generally true, but in my southeast Asian family in generally I have rarely seen women drink. I don’t drink, have never had the taste for it. My mother has only ever had a rare glass of wine. Growing up, I vaguely remember my father had male friends over and they would sit in the front and have their drinks and some delicacies prepared – and the women would retreat to the kitchen for better food and food conversations sans alcohol. When I married into Mr. Plastic Picker’s Korean family with his many older sisters and his mother, my impression as a young graduate student is that these women were guzzling alcohol! I now know they were just drinking socially but to me it seemed like they were drunkards. I distinctly remember seeing my future mother-in-law putting away some hard liquor, and there was just a little bit left. She just chugged that few ounces before cleaning up. She looked up at me and gave me an impish grin. I remember thinking, in what denizen of sin have I married into?

I realize now that I am particularly more of a teetotaler than others. This is not uncommon for pediatricians as I remember one Medscape survey revealed that 30% of us don’t drink at all. I am not that special. My last story about the “Korean are the Irish of the East” phrase is that it helped me get out of jury duty. I probably should not have, but I was a young physician back then and I felt an urgency to get back to patient care. I was on the selection for a Domestic Violence jury case, and they asked us if we had any particular biases against alcohol. My hand shot up and I told the truth, “I think alcohol is really evil. You should chose not to drink!” Then the lawyer asked me if I drank. I answered, “I have only ever had a glass of wine. My husband drinks! Just socially. He’s Korean. They call them the Irish of the East.” Both lawyers looked at me oddly and I was dismissed from the jury. It was all true, and I returned to clinic.

This is my story about why there is still a Samuel Adams glass beer bottle in the back of my pantry. Mr. Plastic Picker does drink but only maybe 4oz of beer once a week. He buys more than he ever drinks. I’ve been trying to clean out our pantry. I’ve already made beer vinegar which is progressing along nicely, but I saw something so wonderful that I could not believe it existed. BEER BREAD!!!

This is the Recipe I Used: Buttery Beer Bread from therecipecritic.com. My changes are in italics.

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 12 ounce can beer (Samual Adams Beer!!!)
• 1/2 cup butter melted (I used just about 1.5 pats of buttery and sprinkled dried Rosemary flakes over it)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the brown sugar and white sugar. Add the beer and mix together until it forms a dough.
2. In a 9×5 inch greased loaf pan spread the dough evenly. Pour melted butter on top. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes clean.

Recipe Notes

The alcohol in beer bread evaporated as it bakes.  Here is the original website with great additional information and nutritional information. Click here to give them credit. https://therecipecritic.com/beer-bread-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-103591

How easy was that??? Twelve more minutes until it is done. It takes about 55 minutes to bake beer bread, so this is much more of a weekend morning recipe. I think our tween daughter is going to be very impressed with me! There are at least 10 more beer bottles in the back that I can make into bread. When I see the amount of alcohol in my pantry, I still sometimes things I married into this alocohol guzzling family. But I hardly ever see them drinking? I’ve told our children that they cannot drink until 21. Do you think they drink when I’m out at the beach picking up trash?

Nine more minutes until the beer bread comes out. I have sometimes crazy ideas. I had a big annoyance at work this week. The kind of annoyance that made me fume so much about micro-agressions and injustice and minutiae that distracts us from the bigger picture of improving healthcare. It’s important not to let these annoyances and other people’s pettiness and own insecurities affect you. It was so annoying that Mr. Plastic Picker completely understood because he has similar things that happen to him in his career trajectory, and he just hugged me last night as I was scrolling and looking for recipes. I was kind to myself and got up and made sure to brush my teeth really well, and finally set my iPhone far away so I wouldn’t be tempted my Instagram. I slept well and now those annoyances are gone, replaced by the memories of sifting flower, baking powder and salt for the first time. Replaced by the memories of opening the can of Samuel Adams beer and gleefully pouring it into the flour mixture and making something I can eat.

Everytime I’ve had challenges, I tend to recreate myself. So I channeled my anger and annoyances from this work issue into thinking about a dream I’ve had to start a Pediatric Fellowship Program. Why not? Why can’t I start a Pediatric Fellowship Program for Sustainability in Medicine or Climate Change and Health? I actually had researched for our previous Chief Boss on how to open a pediatric residency. There are such a glut of pediatricians in our area that it really wasn’t worth it, but a Fellowship program. I think it’s relatively easy. So I’m going to do it. Beer Bread takes about 55 minuntes to bake. A Sustainability in Medicine Fellowship program will take me about 3 years to establish. There is actually no need for additional pediatrician residencies are we don’t even have jobs for our local program, but a year fellowship for a pediatrician who wants to work on climate change. A year to delve into our organization doing a research project, write, leadership training, and to have the space to devote to sustainability – that is much needed. And they would likely go on and work outside of our organization which is fine. I have declared it now, I am going to start a Sustainability in Medicine Pediatric Fellowship Program and I am going to be Fellowship Director. I think it would be great fun. I have already three different projects that I’ve involved with that I’m hoping will be at least posters, and hopefully written up as papers. I am aiming for 3 poster presentations at the next AAP meeting. I even updated my resume on Doximity! https://www.doximity.com/profiles/b422decd-fb53-4d33-a9d4-6750d9922724