To her patients, she's Dr. Harpring. To her husband, Utah Jazz forward Matt Harpring, she's "Mandy." To 4-month-old Luke, she's "Mom."
"I feel like I have the best of all worlds right now," said Amanda Harpring, who is completing a family-practice residency at St. Mark's Hospital, adjusting to life as a new mom, and supporting her husband during the ups and downs of the Jazz's season.
The Harprings have developed a routine to keep up with their anything-but-routine jobs.
When Matt is in town, he goes to morning practice with the Jazz while Amanda is home with Luke. The couple lunches together, then Dr. Harpring heads off to St. Mark's Hospital while Matt takes over child-care duties in the afternoon.
"When someone asks how my nanny is working out, I say, 'When I married him, he was great. And now he's even better,' " she said. "Matt is a better father than I ever imagined. He wants to be a part of everything."
In fact, he's the one who sat with Luke during the dreaded immunization shots. "Matt said about 15 mothers were in the waiting room laughing at his 'man bag,' because my diaper bag is this big flowery thing."
On non-game days, she gets home in time to grill burgers or cook teriyaki salmon, served with fresh vegetables, or her hearty corn casserole, for a quiet at-home dinner.
"Everyone thinks the NBA is a very glamorous lifestyle," she said. "And there are things that are very glamorous — maybe once a year. But our favorite thing is just to be together as a family."
If it's a game night, father and son take a pre-game nap together. Amanda finishes up at the hospital at around 5, getting home in time to shower and get herself and Luke to the Delta Center to cheer on the Jazz.
"Win or lose with the team, there's never a time that I'm not proud of him, because he gives his best at all times," she said. "He makes mistakes like everyone else, but it's never that he only gave it half an effort."
She has an afternoon baby sitter when the Jazz are on road trips. "When Matt's not here, I'll eat something simple like leftovers or a big gigantic smoothie and spend that time with my son or do the scrapbooking that I've been meaning to do."
Although you might occasionally catch the Harprings at Biaggi's or Cucina Toscana, "We don't go out to restaurants that much because Matt's favorite meals are home-cooked," Amanda said. "When he comes home from being on the road for a week, the last thing he wants to do is go out to eat again."
One morning last week, Amanda was mixing up tuna-sandwich filling in the couples' condo on the east side of Salt Lake City, with Luke snuggled up to her in a Baby Bjorn carrier. She basted some steak tips with barbecue sauce, so they were ready to go on the grill that night.
She waited until Matt called to say he was on his way home from practice before putting the sandwiches in the George Foreman grill "because what's grosser than cold tuna melts?" she said.
It doesn't take a medical degree to realize that good meals are crucial to fueling an athlete. Her biggest secret to healthful eating is to flood the house with vegetables and fruit.
"Instead of getting a bag of Doritos, I peel 10 oranges and leave them in the fridge. I usually have apples and pears and bananas sitting out, so that's what you reach for."
She uses egg whites in cooking, and she always uses olive oil, she said. In cookies, she substitutes applesauce for half of the fat. "We're both quantity eaters. I would rather have six cookies than two full-fat ones.
"I do use a ton of cheese, but I believe in cheese. For someone like Matt, and for me when I'm pregnant or nursing a new baby, we can't be eating fat-free everything."
The Jazz wives' cookbook published in 2004 features "Matt's Good Luck Pizza." She made it one night and he had a great game, "so I ended up making it nearly every game," she said.
She makes a lot of carbohydrate-rich pasta dishes, saving time by doubling batches of lasagna and freezing the second batch.
"I made 15 dinners and froze them before I had Luke, things like chicken Divan and tuna-noodle casserole," she said. "And I made my pumpkin and apple pies on November 1, because Luke was due around Thanksgiving."
She makes cakes from a box mix, but the frosting is always from scratch, because Matt doesn't like commercially made frosting.
Her cooking tends to be more creative, rather than strictly following a recipe.
"I don't measure, I throw things in and experiment a lot, so a lot of my recipes are just what I came up with," she said.
Feeding a calorie-burning athlete can get expensive. "I never go on our Costco trips without dropping $400," she said. "I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm feeding more than Matt and me. He eats a lot."
Although Matt grew up in Georgia, "he's not one of those barbecue, barbecue, barbecue kind of persons. He just likes old-fashioned American cuisine. One of his favorites is hamburgers on the grill."
Amanda grew up in Albany, N.Y., with a love for science. She graduated from Duke University's medical school with plans to become an eye surgeon. The couple met while she was in Philadelphia doing her residency, and Matt was with the Philadelphia 76ers.
"The same day Matt signed to go to Utah, my mom was diagnosed with what would be terminal cancer," she said. "I was at a crossroads in my life — would I be this up-and-coming, terribly talented physician or be the daughter that I wanted to be, and the soon-to-be wife that I wanted to be?"
So she quit her residency in Philadelphia to spend half her time in New York helping with her mother's care and the other half in Salt Lake City with Matt. But she missed her profession. "I went from this high-powered intellectual life, where I was used to doing, doing, doing — and I was out here not doing anything," she said. So in January 2004, she began a three-year residency at St. Mark's.
"It was a change for Matt, because I wasn't there to make him Good Luck Pizza every afternoon, and he had to do the vacuuming," she said. "There were on-call nights when I had to stay in the hospital, and he would have to come to the hospital to see me after a game. People think NBA players only have to play a few hours, but they don't see all the practicing, particularly with Matt, who is a nut about being in shape. It was hard to balance all that."
She added, "When you are a professional athlete, you have to be selfish and deny so many other aspects of your life in order to concentrate on your sport. It requires a learning process to consider something more than just your career and yourself. Matt has been absolutely exceptional, the best husband and friend that I could ask for."
A new baby added one more facet to their lives. "In the best way my life has been changed," she said. "There were so many aspects of my life that I thought I'd never be able to give up, but now I don't even remember some of them."
Since she's at an age when friends are either getting married or having children, she often helps host baby and bridal showers. Her crab dip is a favorite party dish — "It's so good, I eat it with a spoon, even though you're supposed to serve it with crackers," she jokes.
After she finishes her residency next fall, she plans to be a full-time mom until Matt retires from the NBA. She explained that there's always the threat that he could be suddenly traded, making it difficult for her to sign a long-term contract or build up her own medical practice.
"It wouldn't be fair to my patients," she said. "And I want a big family. I am one of six children, and Matt is one of five. My calling is medicine, but the mother calling is loud and clear."
MATT'S GOOD LUCK PIZZA
1 1/2 pounds chicken, cooked and diced
1/2 cup onions, diced
1 cup barbecue sauce
1 loaf frozen bread dough
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Saute chicken and onions in barbecue sauce until chicken is tender, then cool. Spread defrosted frozen bread dough onto a rectangular cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Spread chicken mix onto the half-baked crust. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese and cheddar over top. Bake an additional 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. — Amanda Harpring
CRAB DIP
16 ounces imitation crab
1 8-ounce block of Neufchatel cheese (lite cream cheese)
1/2 cup white cooking wine or 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar
Mix ingredients together. Warm in the oven or microwave about 2 minutes and stir so the cheese melts. — Amanda Harpring
CORN CASSEROLE
2 cans whole-kernel corn
1 can creamed corn
2 egg whites
1/4 to 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup milk
Cheddar, feta or mozzarella cheese as desired
Mix all ingredients together in a casserole dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until mixture is set. Or give it a head start by microwaving it for a few minutes, then finishing it in the oven. — Amanda Harpring
E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com