Thursday, May 30, 2013

Strawberries & Cream

5 things:

1.  I know you should never try to wear more than one hat, health regimen-wise.

2.  That is, don't try to give up sugar at the same time you're trying to give up drinking.

3.  Ditto giving up white flour (what they make shortcakes out of....)

4.  But I've come up with a good thing for my craving for sweets:

5.  Strawberries (fresh, local, organic, RIPE) and cream (whipped with *gasp* two spoons of sugar added)...well, it's better than a bag of oreos or peanut M&Ms--my usual sweets indulgences.  and I just happened to have half a pint of HEAVY cream just begging to be whipped.  I left out the baking powder biscuits, though.  So now I'm eating a pint of strawberries with a big softball of whipped cream.  ooooh.  'tis verra good!!  and good for me, too, if the cream doesn't clog things up!!

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Good Stuff from the Interwebs....

5 things:

1.   "Quoting geneticists, Guy Murchie says we're all family. You have at least a million relatives as close as tenth cousin, and no one on Earth is any farther removed than your 50th cousin.

Murchie also describes our kinship through an analysis of how deeply we share the air. With each breath, you take into your body 10 sextillion atoms, and--owing to the wind's ceaseless circulation--over a year's time you have intimate relations with oxygen molecules exhaled by every person alive, as well as by everyone who ever lived. Right now you may be carrying atoms that were once inside the lungs of Malcolm X, Christopher Columbus, Joan of Arc, and Cleopatra."-- from PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings by Rob Breszny.

2.  Found on Facebook:  http://www.youngandraw.com/. Go to our website for raw, cooked and plant based recipes! 21 Day Raw Food Reset Cleanse now available! So I had a wonderful salad for breakfast:  fresh organic greens, organic raspberries, organic avocado slices, and homemade lemon-mint dressing (using olio santo!!)

3.  Found on "The Writers Almanac" for May 25, 2013.   Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:
"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."  OK....I'm ready for that, but I'm still on my regular schedule.  No changes there so far.....

4.  From my email: 
"Ann will be on the NPR news show 'On Point' next Tuesday May 28th.  She will be with 2 other guests on the hour-long show discussing the effects of the sequestration on medical research and research training.  If you want to hear it, go to the On Point website and it tells you how.... You can check to see if your local NPR station carries the show and what time.  You can also stream it on the website or listen to it later (I think) on the website."  Ann is a brilliant longtime friend from XE's Iowa City days.  Now she's the Chief Scientific Officer of the American Association of Medical Colleges.  Can't wait to watch this!! 

5.  From my mailbox:  Cranberry Oat cookies can diminish hot flashes!  I don't know if this recipe from  The Little Things is the one the Prevention ad is talking about, but it is vegan and sounds easy and tasty.  And if they don't help with hot flashes, so what?  They're COOKIES, anyway......maybe there's some tea with black cohosh in it....you could enjoy tea & cookies while you swelter. 

Cranberry Oat Cookies
Prep Time: 8 minutes
Cook Time: 22 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
20-24 cookies
Ingredients
  • 2 ½ cup (200 gr.) rolled oats
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 tablespoons (30 ml) coconut oil, melted
  • 5-7 tablespoons honey (depending on your taste)
  • ½ cup (120 ml) warm water
  • 4 big tablespoons dried cranberries
  • optional: handful of chocolate chips or nuts
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375F (190C).
  2. Mix oats, baking powder, salt, melted coconut oil and honey in a bowl. Add the water and combine until the mixture resembles dough. Add more water if necessary.
  3. Mix in the cranberries (and optional chocolate/nuts) and form 20-24 round balls with your hands. Flatten these and place on a baking sheet covered with baking paper.
  4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Leave to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Let's Hear It For Butter!!

5 things:

1.  If you eat half a pound of salted butter, you'll get 113% of your daily Vitamin A requirement.

2.  I can't find a nutritional value chart for butter that measures less than half a pound  (or 227 g).  You have to figure it out for yourself.  227 grams of butter is 16 tablespoons (@14 grams apiece) or two sticks of butter.

3.  But the sodium and saturated fat and cholesterol values for that much butter just SCREAM at you. 

4.  Of course, none of us (except possibly Paula Deen from the Food Network in her previous manifestation before she had to lose all that weight) eats THAT much butter in one go.  And I seriously doubt that she did that.

5.  I do love butter, though.  And what's wrong with cholesterol?  Our own body makes it, and it fixes a lot of our problems without our having to do anything but have enough of it on hand.  And the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, & K) need fat to be digested. I'm still mulling over the benefits of using salt-free butter, though.  People who bake with butter recommend using salt-free butter, and I recall with horror the SALTY taste of the first batch of cookies I ever made using oleomargarine instead of butter.  Now, 60+ years later, I avoid margarine like the plague.  But not butter.  I do love butter (said that).....

Monday, May 20, 2013

Benefits of not drinking (a lot)

5 things:

1.  More money in my pocket.

2.  I sleep much better!

3.  My memory has come roaring back.

4.  Well, part of it anyway.  I can blaze through the NYT crossword in no time.

5.  I am finding other pleasant things to drink besides potato vodka w/orange juice.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Quotes from "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" by Rev. MLK, Jr.

5 things:

1.  Alan Grayson, my favorite congressman from Florida (and no, he's not MY congressman, though who is?) sent an email in which he quoted some highlights from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s letter from the Birmingham Jail.  The letter was first published 50 years ago tomorrow.  Here are some parts I especially like.

2.  "...although I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label.  Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,
and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."  Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."...Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God."...So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.  Will we be extremists for hate or for love?"

3.  "One day the South will recognize its real heroes."  [N.B.:  Please don't hold your breath....]

4.  [Among the heroes] "There will be the old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two year old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up...and responded..."My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest."

5.  "Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty."

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Things I Love to Eat

5 things:

1.  Eggs--any way

2.  Asparagus, baked or grilled.

3.  Potatoes, mashed especially, but really any way.

4.  Arugula

5.  Rye bread, especially toasted.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Thanks, Mom, for.....

5 Things:

1.  Being so connected to trees and flowers and birds and gardening.

2.  For cooking fish so wonderfully, and for your delicious canned pheasant.

3.  For being so generous with what you had.

4.  For being our mother without experiencing what it was like to have one yourself after age 2.

5.  For loving art--the making of it, not just Art Appreciation 1.

Friday, May 10, 2013

New De-clutter Trick...

5 things:

1.  TURN on some MUSIC (I have David Van Tieghem's wonderful "Thrown for a Loop" on my iTunes) for 15 minutes.

2.  Grab a trash bag and start tossing stuff.

3.  Alternate/supplemental activity:  SHRED junk mail.

4.  Put shredded stuff in trash bag.

5.  Get dressed and take a load of wash down to the laundry room.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Waitin for the parcel delivery....

5 Things:

1.  My shipment (a replacement cell phone) has been "on the truck for delivery" for almost 14 hours today, since the wee hours of the morning.

2.  I do like tracking shipments, though I do not always TRUST the shippers to ring my bell and wait for me to answer.  So often they manage to arrive unseen & unheard to slap the nondelivery ticket to the lobby door.

3.  One of those shippers is more reliable than the others, and I do do do prefer the USPS.  Unless somebody is sending me a whale in a tank of water, it is delivered right here to my home.  I don't have to go out to pick it up at their far distant depot.

4.  It's been raining more or less nonstop all day here.

5.  I moved the rubber tree and a small azalea out onto the porch.  I expect they will look vibrant tomorrow a.m.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Thursday is Stuff Yourself Day

5 things:

1.  I participate in Daily Challenge, an online health/fitness thing, and one of my fellow DCers noted that in her house, they celebrate Thursday by eating anything and as much of it as they want.  That sounded like a good idea to me, but by the time I got to the supermarket, I didn't feel like eating anything they had.

2.  A rack of lamb chops looked good, but they were $17.99 a pound.  And I was just too lazy to devise anything wonderful out of vegetables or fruits.

3.  One of my problems with food these days is my refrigerator, which is on the blink.  Even after the repair guy came and vacuumed the coils (which helped a little, though only briefly), I still can't keep any food alive in there.  AND NO ICE CUBES!  gah.

4.  I still have two tea eggs, but they are more or less pickled with Asian spices, so they're holding out.

5.  And a box of organic strawberries has been delicious with my morning cereal (which I never usually eat).  The repair guy comes back tomorrow to give the fridge a good boost of freon.  If that doesn't work, the owners will have to cough up for a brand new fridge!!  shudder.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

"Five Big Fears" from THE CREATIVE HABIT by Twyla Tharp

Five things:

1.  "People will laugh at me? Not the people I respect; they haven't yet, and they're not going to start now.  (Some others have.  London's Evening Standard from 1966:  "Three girls, one of them named Twyla Tharp, appeared at the Albert Hall last evening and threatened to do the same tonight."  So what?  Thirty-seven years later I'm still here.)"

2.  "Someone has done it before?  Honey, it's all been done before.  Nothing's really original.  Not Homer or Shakespeare and certainly not you.  Get over yourself."

3.  "I have nothing to say?  An irrelevant fear.  We all have something to say.  Plus, you're panicking too soon.  If the dancers don't walk out on you, chances are the audience won't, either."

4.  "I will upset someone I love?  A serious worry that is not easily exorcised or stared down because you never know how loved ones will respond to your creation.  The best you can do is remind yourself that you're a good person with good intentions.  You're trying to create unity, not discord.  See the curtain call.  See the people standing up.  Hear the crowd roaring."

5.  "Once executed, the idea will never be as good as it is in my mind?  Toughen up.  Leon Battista Alberti, a fifteenth-century architectural theorist, said, 'Errors accumulate in the sketch and compound in the model.'  But better an imperfect dome in Florence than cathedrals in the clouds."