Column

At least once a year I get to shout to the world, “I LOVE CHRISTMAS!”

I love the change in the seasons, the chill in the air. I love the smells; the neighbor’s chimney wafting out the scent of burning wood and cinnamon apples baking in the oven. I love the pine trees, sap and all because they smell like Christmas.

And don’t forget the flickering lights and the brightly clothed packages under the tree. Yup, Christmas rolls around and I’m a goner. So, I will share a secret with you…I’m a schmalzy Christmas movie junkie. If I didn’t have such a busy schedule, I’d probably just put a fire in the fireplace and curl up on the sofa with Christmas movie after Christmas movie after Christmas movie.

Hallmark is the King, or maybe the Queen of “feel good” holiday movies. They started out by adding a few new ones every year. This year they have really stepped up their game and many of the other TV channels have followed suit. Hallmark now has two channels and at Christmas they need both of them just to keep up. UP Channel has some newer holiday movies as well as ION, Lifetime and of course the network channels. I’m sure there are more but you get the picture. (Pun intended).

My favorite of the older Hallmark movies is Season for Miracles. I actually purchased it a few years ago (yes you can purchase Hallmark movies on DVD) so I could watch it in the off season. Last year they introduced North Pole, a fun family movie with a sequel this year called North Pole, Open for Christmas. You might want to grab the popcorn and the grand kids for that one.

You might ask, how do I know when they are showing? Well, it has already started in November! There are so many that there are now calendars online that give you the when and where. Just to name a few, countdownuntilchristmas.com, christmastvschedule.com and chiff.com. Go online and print it off or just turn on the TV and check it out.

I personally believe that The Nativity Story is a beautiful celebration of the season and should be on your list.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the ones that will be in the theaters this year. Get bundled up, let someone else make the popcorn and head to your local theater on one of your days off. You’ll find Love the Coopers, The Peanuts Movie, A Christmas Story and It’s a Wonderful Life in select theaters. Hopefully, somewhere on the big screen you’ll be able to catch one of my favorites, The Polar Express.

Anyway you like your Christmas entertainment fare, Tis the Season for fun, family and food—the Milk Duds and Junior Mints variety. Whether it’s at home or in the theater, Christmas movies are a great way to keep your priorities straight, family, friends and of course the Reason for the Season, Faith.

As always, I cherish your comments and the privilege of writing for you another year. Chastings@rockcliff.com

In the true nature of “I’ll have what he’s having”, let’s take a trip away from particular establishments, and take a look at individual ingredients.

I have never shied away from spice and heat; in fact, I have gone out of my way to seek it out. As with most things that one consumes on a regular basis, a tolerance begins to form and the rush get’s sought out at higher levels.

I was first introduced to BhutJolokia, or the Ghost Pepper, while managing the Walnut Creek Yacht Club. Proprietor and Executive Chef Kevin Weinberg had been making his own Habanero Hot Sauce for years, and wanted to make a small batch of atomic sauce to push the envelope (another thrill seeker looking for the next level). He mailed away for the illustrious ghost pepper and the day it came was like Christmas in the kitchen. If we were going to touch it, we were required to wear gloves and quickly the $5 bets were flying around. Put it on your lips, nibble the stem, etc., we all had a great time testing the level of spice for the first time.

What is the BhutJolokia and where does it rank on the spice meter?

Also known as BihJolokia, U-Morok, Ghost Pepper, Red Naga, Naga Jolokia, and ghost chili, it is cultivated in India and certain parts of Hawaii. In 2007, Guinness World Records certified that the ghost pepper was the world’s hottest chili pepper. The ghost chili is rated at more than 1 million Scoville heat units. The Habanero pepper is 100,000-350,000 scovilles and the Jalapeno is only 2,500-10,000. TheJolokia is still not the world’s hottest pepper. In 2011 a pepper called the Naga Viper Pepper was created as a hybrid of the three hottest peppers in the world and tops out at 1.382 million units!

Since that fateful day six years ago when I was introduced, I have seen the Ghost Pepper pop up in unsuspecting places. As fast as the world is moving these days and as numb to almost everything that media has made us, we seem to all be looking for some new thrill. In my head, I am repeating the melancholy quote, “I just want to feel something…”, but perhaps that it is a bit dramatic.

Restaurants are using the Ghost Pepper sparingly as an ingredient so they can oversell it on marketing. It is not uncommon nowadays to find Ghost Pepper Cheese on sandwiches. Norm’s Place in Danville has it on their Garden Burger and currently Eddie Papas in Pleasanton has a Southern Spicy Chicken Sandwich on their special menu that showcases the cheese! Just because the pepper is cased in the anti-agent (dairy) of spice certainly does not negate the effect. In fact, I was unaware that Norm was putting it on my “go-to” sandwich until half way through I found myself inexplicably using napkins for my running nose.

Even Ace Hardware in Alamo has gotten in on the action. They have a BBQ section that hosts a variety of rubs and sauces and a few of their selections have the, once illusive, Ghost Pepper as their marquis ingredient.

Shortly after my introduction to my new spicy friend, I became obsessed with learning as much as I could, and one of my more uncomfortable, yet highly entertaining moments came from watching people self inducing a Ghost Pepper Challenge to themselves on YouTube. In a couple of instances, people were taken to the hospital for eating as little as three of the one-inch firecrackers. Let the record show that generally when ingested orally, the Ghost Pepper will not create a medical condition, but rather induce a panic attack from the thought that your insides will never feel normal again. You will be fine, but uncomfortable, for a little while.

Go try ONE, but stop there!

It was real struggle for me to settle in and write my column this month. I want so badly to always leave you with some feeling of positive expectation for the future, but this month, finding the words was a challenge. Even as I write this, phrases have appeared on this page, only to be discarded a moment later for fear of causing you discomfort. The year should end on a good note, and the New Year, begin on an even better one!

And so, while I have tried in every way I know of to avoid bringing it up, I have to deal with the attacks in Paris. I want to offer anything I can, however meager, to discover something positive or at least meaningful out of such a horrendous event.

At the outset, I would say that that, in itself, might be something—maybe a good place to start—that one of our first reactions could be to adopt the belief that there must be something good to come from something like this. For me, if nothing else, it confirms some of the doctrines of my religious beliefs, reminding me in the harshest of terms that human beings are flawed by “sin” and that some people are so deeply infected by evil, the rest of us can scarcely recognize them as “human” at all.

As this latest tragedy unfolded, I felt the same feelings I had on that other horrendous day, September 11, 2001. As awful as that was, what bothered me most at the time was the realization that life would never be the same, and that my then ten year old son would have to grow up in a time darkened by a new, grotesque incarnation of pure evil.

With the attack in Paris that feeling is back, only this time it is more in relation to the children of some friends who live nearby. Our neighbors have four wonderful young children between the ages of two and eight, and seeing them nearly every day reminds me of how, fourteen years ago, our collective feeling of security was shocked and some level of innocence was stolen from our children. It angers and saddens me at the same time.

So what good might come from this? Perhaps we will appreciate those closest to us more. Perhaps we will see our nation once again as the last, best hope for civilization. Perhaps we’ll develop the wisdom to measure actions more than words. Perhaps it will strengthen our character so we will recognize the evil in this world and call it so, and then have the courage to deal with it as we should, so that our children won’t have to.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Matt 7:15-20 (KJV)