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DOROTHY
FLESHMAN
DORY’S DIARY
Living for the
moment in
the new year
I
n December 2021 Dory’s Diary
column returned at the request
of the readers after a year of my
retirement. I’m glad to be back.
First, though, there is some
unfinished business:
I never found out who left the
UPRR calendar last January but
thank you. I’ve certainly enjoyed it
all year.
My 95th birthday was last Sep-
tember and my Nevada “kids” ran
an ad in the newspaper asking folks
to send me a birthday card, which
they did. The folks out there sent
212 greetings that gave me one of
my best ever birthdays along with
the surprise visits of my families
from out of town.
It took me clear into December
to send my hand-written thanks
in an unsteady hand, but it was a
joyful task. Unfortunately there
were a number of cards without
return addresses or names which
necessarily remain unanswered.
My regrets to each of them via this
column. How wonderfully loved I
have felt by each and every one.
When you try to jump from
September over Thanksgiving to
December, then to the New Year it
is a pretty good leap.
A New Year’s basically unblem-
ished calendar hangs before me as
I look into 2022 knowing that its
pages will soon look just like the
ones of the old year. I will have
good intentions but the path will be
strewn with the undone, the regrets,
the plans that will go awry.
We used to be urged to make a
list of resolutions but I learned early
in life that it is almost impossible
to obtain if one sets the goals too
high. I’ve looked at last year when
answering birthday, Thanksgiving,
and Christmas greetings as they all
ran into one and still overhung into
the new year. Now I must tidy up
the undone but it is too late, actu-
ally, or I will miss out on all that
the new moments present.
Picking up the pieces of the old
year, the December column was
difficult to write because it began
with the Day of Infamy and ended
with the joy of Christmas but there
was no room for any in-betweens
of memory. We must skip ahead as
though those days never existed.
I thought how to mention back to
the 1940s when folks in the Bustle
& Bows and then the 1960s Star
Promenaders square dance clubs
nicknamed me Dory by lifting out
“o-t-h” from Dorothy by which
I then named my column Dory’s
Diary. I also thought about the
kindnesses of people in our most
trying times and what I could do
to make life better, but I have to
admit that my biggest success was
in fitting the last piece into my
annual jigsaw puzzle with great
satisfaction.
This jigsaw puzzle is one I work
faithfully every year at Christ-
mas-time being called “The
Morning After the Day Before
Christmas” with an open-faced
house of many rooms and displays
what could be going on in the var-
ious rooms as well as Santa and his
reindeer on the roof. I found the
puzzle in a yard sale many years
ago and have never tired of it. It
touches the core of how we each
must feel at one time or another in
the busyness or should I say diz-
zyness life often presents. The
puzzle was put out in 1984 and por-
trays the lighter side of the holiday
season when the tension is broken
by a good laugh and moves us away
from the hustle and bustle to the
real meaning of the word.
With the New Year now before
us we move on forward to face the
good and the bad that will come
with it as it has always done so even
in memory of long ago.
Things will be left undone, kind
words left unspoken, and good
intentions still just that when the
promising years so quickly join
those of the past.
So, now I have only one New
Year’s Resolution that still stands
year by year. “Take one day at a
time and try to make the most of it.”
Living
B
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
New twist to
an old favorite
Ground chicken
refreshes Spaghetti
Bolognese
By LINDA GASSENHEIMER
Tribune News Service
Spaghetti Bolognese is an
Italian favorite. Here’s a light
version that’s quick, easy and
won’t break the calorie bank.
Using ground chicken gives a
new flavor twist and lightens the
dish. The secret to the rich flavor
is to thinly slice the onions,
celery and carrots cook them
until they are sweet. Another
hint is to add orange zest to the
sauce. This adds a little sweet-
ness and an intriguing flavor.
A simple Italian salad com-
pletes the meal.
Helpful Hints
Linda Gassenheimer/TNS
— If you have a food pro-
cessor, use the slicing blade to
slice the vegetables.
— If pressed for time, serve
a washed, ready-to-eat salad
instead of the Italian Salad dish.
Countdown
— Place water on to boil.
— Start Bolognese Sauce.
— Boil spaghetti.
— Assemble the salad.
Shopping List
To buy: 1 bunch celery,
1 package carrots, ¾ pound
ground chicken breast, 1 bottle
dry white wine, 1 bottle olive
oil spray, 1 bottle reduced-so-
dium marinara sauce, 1 orange,
1 package spinach or vege-
table flavored spaghetti, 1 bottle
reduced-fat Italian dressing, 1
container pitted green or black
olives, 1 bunch parsley (optional
garnish), 1 head romaine lettuce,
1 small head radicchio lettuce
Spaghetti Bolognese.
and 1 container cherry tomatoes.
Staples: onion, garlic, salt and
black peppercorns.
SPAGHETTI
BOLOGNESE
Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer
Olive oil spray
1 cup thinly sliced onion
½ cup thinly sliced celery
½ cup thinly sliced carrot
4 medium cloves garlic, crushed
¾ pound ground chicken breast
¼ cup dry white wine
2 cups reduced-sodium marinara sauce
Orange zest from 1 orange
(about 2 teaspoons)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ pound spinach or vegetable
flavored spaghetti
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
(optional garnish)
Place a large pot with 3 to 4 quarts
water on to boil for pasta. Heat a non-
stick skillet over medium-high heat and
spray with olive oil spray. Add onion,
celery and carrot. Sauté 5 minutes,
without browning. Add garlic and
ground chicken, crumbling the ground
chicken with the edge of a spoon. Keep
turning the chicken and cutting it with
the spoon edge until it is broken into
small pieces. Sauté 2 minutes. Add
white wine and cook until all of the
liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Add
the marinara sauce and orange zest and
gently simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Meanwhile, add spaghetti to boiling
water and cook 9 minutes or according
to package instructions. Drain and
serve sauce over pasta. Sprinkle with
chopped parsley if using.
Yield 2 servings.
Per serving: 636 calories (16.3% from
fat), 11.5 g fat (1.8 g saturated, 3.6 g
monounsaturated), 131 mg cholesterol,
50.9 g protein, 75.6 g carbohydrates, 8.9
g fiber, 205 mg sodium.
ITALIAN SALAD
Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer
2 cups romaine lettuce, cut
into bite-size pieces
2 cups radicchio lettuce, cut
into bite-size pieces
½ cup pitted green or black olives
1 cup cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons reduced-fat
Italian dressing
Add the ingredients to a salad bowl
and toss with the dressing.
Yield 2 servings.
Per serving: 63 calories (46.8% from
fat), 3.3 g fat (0.4 g saturated, 1.8 g
monounsaturated), 1 mg cholesterol,
2.2 g protein, 8.4 g carbohydrates, 3.5 g
fiber, 145 mg sodium.
Looking to keep up a New Year’s resolution?
Experts say it’s safest to start with small goals
By MICHAEL LEE
Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio
— It’s the start of 2022,
which for many means
once again setting New
Year’s resolutions.
According to a 2020
survey from comparison
website Finder, 45.6% of
141.1 million American
adults said they wanted
to make health-related
New Year’s resolutions
for 2021. But another
2020 survey from data
analytics site YouGov
found that 49% of people
who made resolutions
kept some but not all,
while 16% did not keep
any at all.
So for those who want
to keep up their resolu-
tions this year, experts
say to start small.
What’s in a New
Year’s resolution
Sophie Lazarus, a
clinical psychologist at
Ohio State University’s
Wexner Medical Center,
said one of the biggest
reasons why people
make New Year’s reso-
lutions in the first place
is that it’s a “strong, cul-
tural piece” in today’s
society.
She added that New
Year’s resolutions can
be hard to stick with
because in general,
habits are powerful and
that it’s really hard to
change behavior.
“There are just so
many forces and respon-
sibilities and pressures
that make it very unre-
Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch-TNS
Mo Golden, NASM CPT, works with Marcia Ouellette, 80, of
Upper Arlington at Personal Level Fitness on Lane Avenue on
Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021.
alistic that we have the
capacity, the energy, to
make a big change,” she
said.
And an overbearing
pressure the past
couple of years? The
COVID-19 pandemic.
Lazarus said the
pandemic has made
everyday decisions a
lot more difficult and
has disrupted people’s
ability to access things
that often reinforce and
support their moods,
like in-person book
clubs, exercise classes
and even meetings at
work.
“We were hoping if
we just kind of held out
long enough that they
would return,” she said.
“But I think we’re real-
izing we have to be
adaptable, and find new
and different sources of
support and reinforce-
ment for our mood,
because things are
not quite returning to
exactly how they were.”
And so when people
fall off track from a
habit, such as a resolu-
tion, Lazarus said it can
reinforce a problematic
avoidance mindset. But
it’s best not to keep put-
ting it off when you fall
off track, she said.
“It reinforces this
way of thinking of like,
‘I fell off track with this
habit, I’ll just start next
week, or I’ll just start
next month,’” Lazarus
said. “Why not start
fresh or start new in the
next moment, ... ‘So I
fell off track here today,
I’m going to start fresh
this afternoon.’”
Starting small,
setting goals
Lazarus said it’s
best for people to set
smaller goals in the new
year instead of large,
sweeping resolutions.
Personal trainer
Alexandra Craig agrees
that smaller goals are
the way to go. Craig
is the owner of per-
sonal fitness gym Per-
sonal Level Fitness,
just outside of Upper
Arlington.
Her gym helps cli-
ents with setting long-
term goals instead of
resolutions like trying
to lose 10 pounds in a
month.
“I think they set
themselves up to fail
because they don’t
know where to start a
lot of times,” she said.
“When people first do
their New Year’s reso-
lutions, it’s that short-
term tunnel vision
instead of, ‘I’m going to
work on this one thing,
and then add, and add,
and add and do more of
a habit-based program.”
She added that in
order for people to keep
up with these smaller
goals, they can just
make tweaks to their
goals to make them
more realistic.
“I always give people
a 1 to 10 confidence
scale. One is absolutely
not, I am not going to
climb Mount Everest
tomorrow, and 10 is
like, ‘Yeah, I can walk
out to my car and grab
my cellphone for you,”
Craig said. “If you can’t
do it forever, then you
probably shouldn’t be
doing it.”
And that’s the same
for resolutions like
healthy eating — keep
the pressure low. In fact,
local licensed dietitian
Lindsey Mathes said not
to focus on weight loss,
as it can be dangerous.
Mathes, who focuses
on preventing eating
disorders and disordered
eating with her clients,
said things like diets
don’t work, and that
healthy eating is more
about a behavior change.
“The vast majority
of eating disorders get
started very innocently
— there is a drive for
feeling healthier, losing
weight, and it flips a
switch,” she said.
Mathes said those
who want to start
healthy food habits in
the New Year should
contact an intuitive
eating dietitian in order
to overcome barriers —
like emotional eating
as a coping mechanism
— that would prevent
someone from making
the changes they want.
But for those who
cannot or do not want to,
she said to read books
like “Health at Every
Size” by Linda Bacon
so they can have a better
understanding of what
healthy eating means for
their body.
“I want people to
ultimately be edu-
cated, but to develop
a sense of compassion
toward themselves to get
curious rather than be
judgmental,” she said.
“Get started no matter
how small it seems.”